Pathfinder Comics: "Worldscape, Volume 2"

NO SPOILERS

The second volume of Worldscape collects four one-shots featuring (in order) Tarzan, John Carter, Red Sonya, and Seltyiel (a Pathfinder Iconic character).  Following the issues, there are sixteen pages of back matter--variant covers, entries and stat blocks for new races or NPCs, and half-page encounter suggestions.  This is a much slighter package than previous collected editions, weighing in at just under 100 pages.  As a general matter, the interior artwork is really good.  The stories are also solid, with a couple of fantastic ones.  They serve as prequels to the main Worldscape storyline in Volume 1, and readers will likely get more out of reading Volume 2 first.  I definitely wouldn't consider this an essential buy, even for fans of the Pathfinder comics, but if you have some spare money it's not bad.

SPOILERS

The first issue is "Lord of the Jungle", obviously featuring Tarzan.  Tarzan, teleported to the Worldscape, immediately fights and kills several serpentfolk.  He then realises that La, Queen of Opar (respectively, a character and "lost city" from his own adventures in central Africa on earth) is in the Worldscape as well.  He has to rescue her from, of all people, the legendary founders of Rome: Remus and Romulus!  It's definitely strange, and moreso when it turns out that the brothers actually aren't evil but were acting under the influences of magical crowns (from Golarion) they had donned to give them better control of animals.  The action and artwork in the issue is strong, but the story is fairly slight.  Perhaps fans of Tarzan's own strip (or people who read the back matter first to understand who La and Opar are) would get more out of it.  As we'll see with all the issues here, the story serves as a loose prequel to the stories collected in Volume 1 of the Worldscape comics.

The second issue is "Warlord of Mars," featuring John Carter and his boon friend, the green martian Tars Tarkas.  The two are flying on a sort of air-sled through the skies of Barsoom when they suddenly realise they're somewhere else--the Worldscape, of course.  There's an awesome two page spread of them coming across a massive dragon.  The artwork is really gorgeous.  They manage to escape the dragon but their air vehicle is damaged in the process, and they crash-land.  Soon they come across enemies that (I assume) are from Carter's own adventures: an evil Confederate soldier named Zebulon "Cutthroat" Cassidy.  The bad guy has found allies in the Worldscape, and become an undead creature to boot!  Carter and Tars Tarkas prevail, of course.  I really liked the writing here--the banter between the two was a lot of fun.  I would read more comics with them.

The third issue is "Red Sonya"--but she's not alone, as Cave Girl and King Rex accompany her.  In this story, the three have been in the Worldscape for some time.  They're racing to an ancient temple to stop therns (degenerate white martians) from getting an unholy, undead-creating gem called the Eye of Issus.  The storyline ties in Empress Camilla's attempts to cement an alliance with the therns and conquer the Worldscape.  There's a pretty cool fight in the temple, and a strong tie-in to the position of Red Sonya in the main Worldscape stories.  King Rex is written in a really interesting way, with an emphasis on the fact that he's a legitimate king of his nation as opposed to all the self-styled royalty running around in pulp stories.

"King of the Goblins", the fourth and final issue, is perhaps my favourite.  It's an outlier in that it doesn't feature a classic pulp hero.  Instead, it centres around the Iconic Magus, Seltyiel, my favourite fairly evil and definitely foul-mouthed Pathfinder character.  Seltyiel is fighting off a goblin tribe called the Leechlegs when they all end up in the Worldscape.  The story takes a darker turn when Seltyiel (and his new servant goblins) seek refuge at a castle that just so happens to be the domain of two figures from earth legend: Prince Vlad Dracul and Countess Bathory!  It's bloody but fantastic, and I would love to see more stories in a similar (ahem) vein.  The writer, James Sutter, always delivers.

Now, onto the back matter.  There's a very short selection of alternative covers--just four.  I really wish the "King of the Goblins" alternative cover had been chosen for the cover of this collection--it's much better and more interesting than the actual cover art.  Each issue then receives four pages of back matter.  This section usually consisting of an extensive description of a prominent place, NPC, or race featured in the corresponding story along with a half-page map for an encounter inspired by it.  I don't like this new way of detailing encounters--there's only a sentence or two of suggested foes or set-up, and it's far less useful than in previous comics where you got a fully-fleshed scene.  Anyway, here's what's included:

* An entry detailing Tarzan's history with La and the Lost City of Opar.  It also includes stats for La and for a typical Oparian priest.  I don't see a lot of value in this for Pathfinder fans generally, but I guess if you were heavy into Tarzan you might get something out of it.

*  An extensive description and traits for a new playable race: Sea-Spawn.  As the name implies, these are monstrous humanoids that have various features or mutations drawn from sea creatures.  I don't see a lot of additional value compared to the existing options for aquatic races in Pathfinder, but they look okay and some of their special abilities are pretty cool.

* Another new playable race: the degenerate white martians known as therns.  These are obviously meant to be an option for evil characters (perhaps primarily NPCs), as one of their major special ability includes cannibalism!  I could see using them as a sort of cannon fodder enemy led by an evil ruler.

* A stat block and description for Vlad Dracul--aka, "Vlad the Impaler."  He's represented as a cavalier member of the Order of the Dragon here, and there's a write-up of the real-world Order of the Dragon--a fascinating bit of history I never knew about.

* Last up is a two-page pull-out poster.  One side has oddly-coloured artwork featuring the protagonists of the four stories within.  The other side is a gridded encounter scene for a "Forgotten Temple" altar room.  Admittedly, it looks pretty cool--though I'm not sure if it's taken from an existing Paizo flip-mat or not.

And that's it!  The package is much slighter than previous volumes collecting Pathfinder comics.  I've never been a particular fan of the pulp heroes featured in the Worldscape concept, but for the most part I really enjoyed the stories here.  The back matter is fine for what it is, but nothing particularly memorable.  Overall, I wouldn't put this high up on my list of Pathfinder comics, but I don't mind having it as part of my collection.