Xena Warrior Princess: Road Warriors - review

 

Xena Warrior Princess: Road Warrior 

from Dynamite Entertainment and available on DrivethruComics.

I have to admit right off the bat that I haven't seen a Xena episode since shortly after it went off the air many years ago. To be honest I've never really given it much thought after that either except the occasional “Oh look it's Lucy Lawless, she used to play Xena” while watching movies or reading entertainment news. So going into this comic was a bit different for me than it probably is for those who are still hardcore fans of the show.

First I want to cover the writing. It goes fast and quick. It's almost all dialogue with very little of anything else except telling us where the characters are. Normally I'm not a big fan of this, however in this case it actually works quite well. Everybody knows who the main people are in the story, their motivations aren't really all that hard to figure out and it just flows. It actually feels like this could have been an episode of Xena back in the day.

Starting off with a fight between Xena and Gabrielle against the Goddess of Chaos, Discord. Her manipulation of a group of villagers and posing a threat to their children has gotten the attention of our two protagonists and they step in to make things right. As with all things dealing with the Gods in this setting there is much more going on than we know. Discord gets depowered by big daddy Zeus and is exiled. One snag and you can probably guess it, Gabby and Xena accidently get sent along with her.

We end up following the unlikely trio as they try to find their way back to Greece. Meeting up with various versions of mythological characters along the way and running into trouble at every turn. Discord develops a bit more as a character and they flesh her out a bit. She learns a little and becomes a better mortal along the way. It's actually a pretty fun little romp that takes the characters out of the traditional Greek inspired setting.

Now onto the art. It gets a bit rough in places, especially in the first couple of issues. It's by no means Rob Liefeld doing Captain America bad, but there are times when I'm wondering how some panels even made it past their editors. Then it begins to pick up and becomes a lot more smooth and fitting as the series progressed. The last few issues were much improved and I have to give that a thumbs up.

Closing out with a collection of all the alternate covers and various artwork for the series this little collection is pretty good. I have to give it a four out of five stars. If they artwork had been as good as the later issues throughout the entire series than it would have gotten a full five. Any fans of the show will most likely enjoy this a great deal.

You can pick it up on DrivethruComicsfor just $15.99.