South Africa's Fortress of Solitude Review of The Arcane #1

1. Articles from - Fortress of Solitude
The Arcane Review
2013-12-03 11:12:50 Byron Hendricks
Ghost Towns are a bit more literal as the wild west meets the
supernatural in Titanium comic’s latest digital release, “The Arcane
#1”.
As the story opens it does not take long before the supernatural enters the town of
Canaan’s Sorrow. Four demonic horsemen arrive announcing that they are wanting
the Keepers of the books to present themselves, after receiving no response these
entities display their powers. The owner of the town’s saloon, one of the
protagonists in this tale, suggests that the town folk recruit the help of a person that
they had exiled. A man with mystical powers, the father of her love child, the
infamous Jeremiah Arcane. Quinn travels to visit Jeremiah’s mother, only to

2. discover that Jeremiah has not gone to venture the world in accordance to popular
belief. He is conveniently still living with his mother. Quinn tells him that Phenal, her
son is his child. His mother proceeds to tell Jeremiah the truth about his father with
the assistance of a letter that his father had left him. It seems like today is tell the
truth day in Arcane #1.
Jeremiah finds out that he is one of 5 brothers. Yhe reason he does not know of his
siblings is because they are all born from different mothers. The reason for daddy
Arcane’s promiscuity is because of a deal that he had made with the Devil himself,
due to the complications that arose during the delivery of his firstborn. The Devil
places a curse upon the Arcane family, ensuring that each son shall always remain
connected to an aspect of the supernatural. Jeremiah takes it upon himself to
reunite his long lost siblings and this leads to a very quick reunion between brothers,
too quick. They could have made it more of an adventure to find some of them.
Each brother has his own unique ability and together they travel back to Canaan’s
Sorrow to fight some demon cowboys.

3. The second half of this issue is action packed and it makes use of some great
imagery and colours. It is here that you get to see some clashes as the newly
recruited brothers display their abilities in combat. Both the readers and the Arcane
siblings are given the opportunity to see just what their brothers are capable of.
Great imagery is used as they combat different creatures. Each creature is drawn
well and detailed, showing effort was put into their development even though the
action scenes are fleeting in nature. One aspect that can become tedious is the
narration. This story is filled with narration, to the point that you feel that the
characters are not telling their own story. It starts to feel like you are being read a
camp fire horror story, but in all fairness this is a minor gripe. Arcane has some
great potential. It seems as though the incorporation of the supernatural into a tale of
the west has given successful results and promise. Make no mistake about it,
Arcane #1 is a good book but it will take more character development in order to
make it a great read. After all this is a debut issue so hopefully future issues will lead
to displays of personality and clashes between brothers. Right now the reunion
seems a little too convenient.