I honestly have to say that Lexian Chronicles is on Game of the Thrones status. Maybe Game of Thrones Lite. I haven’t been this engrossed in a comic for a long time. The story was perfectly paced and had enough twists that it threw you for a loop. That is so satisfying about comics. The mystery between all the excellent characters just built up into one big crescendo and then a finale of fireworks erupted towards the end. I was satisfied at the end of the comic, despite a small cliffhanger. The story leaves you completely clueless about the big picture until the very end, I was shocked.
This story is about a girl named Reena who is the daughter of the Phoenix Tribe. It starts out with her as a young girl and the first 6 issues build up the plot to the meat of the story. The Phoenix Tribe has had a long-time enemy, the Leopards, for generations. Everything seems fine and dandy up to this point until the leader shows up at their front door. He asks for help and support to help rebuild his tribe in a passively threatening way that leaves Reena’s father no choice but to follow. She is to marry the son of this barbarian or he will raze the entire village to the ground. Her father is able to stall by saying she isn’t of age yet. The dialog going on here is fantastic. I was sucked in and never set the book down. It is so cleverly written and teases constant uneasiness that you get through the whole comic. This Phoenix leader seems like he’s legit — he really does want to mend the broken ties between them. But he says things that just hint at betrayal but you aren’t quite sure.
That is beautiful writing and I loved every bit of it. The characters are really likable and very memorable as well. The tension between the tribes picks up in the back half of the series and everything is really shaky. You can feel it through each panel as things just start going wrong. I can’t reveal too much without spoiling, but let’s say things go terribly for poor Reena. Because of this you grow extremely attached to her towards the end of the series. This cave that she has found with ancient runes also leads to this tension. Throughout the whole series, she keeps going back to reveal more, and then the ending just brings all the loose strings together and ties them up for you. It’s very satisfying and I couldn’t have been happier with it.
The art takes some getting used to. The opaque and saturated art style is a bit weird and the characters are drawn oddly, but the quality is there. The art may not be for everyone, but the story is just amazing and I hope everyone goes out to buy this masterpiece of a comic.
