Writer – Gordon Derry
Artist – Guang Yap, Barry Blair
Inker – Donald Lanquette, Robert Babin, Dave Cooper
Letters – Eiwin Mark

After issue five which was a high point in the series, the quality and overall storytelling takes a dip in this last book in the first volume of Aircel’s Dragonring. After escaping through a portal, Kohl and his companions land in unfamiliar territory where soon enough they run into trouble with some strange looking animal-men who follow the orders of a man named Marduk. In-between all of that though, new characters are introduced, Kohl looks for answers and the entire lot of them are almost killed by story’s end. The first half is definitely much poorer than the second as all sorts of new story ideas are introduced and lead to nowhere, quite possibly writer Gordon Derry setting the book up for the second volume to come, but as an end-cap for readers who may or may not follow it there, it does not satisfy in the slightest. Once again, no answers are given as to the secret, the purpose or the history of Kohl’s dragon ring – which originally seemed to be the focus of the series. The supporting characters take up more time in the book than its star which is slightly annoying as it is the lead character that sports the dragon ring which again, the entire series seemed to be based upon. Another new villain is introduced with no history given, though that mystery does slightly intrigue and it all ends with Kohl being left all on his own, supposedly to seek out what the dragon ring is all about. The artwork ranges from fair to good, Guang Yap for whatever reason, not being able to go it alone and calling Barry Blair in yet again. It is not that Blair is a bad artist, his style and that of Yap’s simply do not mix as well as they should though thankfully, it was not all that jarring when it came down to it. Overall, there was a seed for greatness peppered throughout this series and one could easily see that the makers of this book were looking to do something epic with it. Sadly, that would not happen and if it did in the second volume, kudos to them, but with six issues under their belt and little happening as a whole, it all just felt like a waste of time.

2 out of 5