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Released by: Dynamite Entertainment
Released on: April 23rd, 2014.
Taking place during the events covered in the first book of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, this issue deals with the difficult choices of young characters coming into their own.
First up is Dany Targaryen witnessing the aftermath of a Dothraki victory. She's moved enough to claim as her own each of the sheep-herder tribe's women that are about to be raped, much to the chagrin of the Dothraki warriors. Ser Jorah assists her with this request though cautions her against it. Soon, she's leading quite a line of women as she makes her way into the town, to where her wounded Khal Drogo awaits.
His wounds are more severe than anyone's let on, though, so when one of Dany's captives claims to have healing capabilities Dany readily accepts her help. No one else seems thrilled by this but her magic, dark as it might be, seems to work. Dany is impressed enough to ask for her midwife skills as she's ready to soon deliver the Khal's son. The witch is all agreeable smiles as they all depart her ruined city then…
The second story deals with the bastard Jon Snow who is recovering from his fight with a reanimated corpse attacking Lord Mormont at Castle Black. He's more concerned with getting news from the rest of the land, though, regarding the fate of his family. A raven has brought news but Mormont only divulges some of the information. Sam, though, having read the letter aloud to Mormont, reveals its details to Jon in private.
Mormont is thankful for Jon's quick action and bravery and gives him Ironclaw, the iconic sword of Valerian steel, fitted with a carving of a wolf's head befitting Jon's heritage. The other members of the Night Watch are suitably impressed but Jon still has the burning image of the nightmarish battle he just barely survived dominating his thoughts. When he's then summoned by the blind seer Amon he figures he's still getting in trouble for Sam spilling that letter's contents to him. But Amon has another lesson to teach him as he tells Jon his own story of having to hear of his family's demise from afar, revealing his own true heritage in the process…
The story by Daniel Abraham adapts the source material fairly well, as easily as such a sprawling epic can be serialized. Tommy Patterson's artwork is consistently up to the task and gets some seriously fantastic larger panels to play with and really show off his attention to detail as well. This series appears to be a pretty good middle ground between Martin's original books and the series on HBO, brief but staying more in line with the source texts themselves.
