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Yet another first issue from Image,
Hedge Knight - or, to give it the full title, George R
R Martin's The Hedge Knight - is another fantasy book.
Martin is best known for a series of books called A Song of
Ice and Fire; he's credited as the writer on this, but
reading between the lines, I infer that it's actually an
adaptation of one of his short stories.
In fact, the fantasy elements here are
negligible; the setting is more of a romanticised version of
the middle ages. Dunk has spent his life as a squire to
Ser Arlan (that's how it's spelt, don't ask me why), a
wandering "Hedge Knight." When Arlan finally kicks the
bucket from old age, Dunk decides to appoint himself as a
knight instead and heads off to the tournaments to make a name
for himself.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking.
You're jumping up and down shouting "Hold on, isn't that
exactly the same as that film from a couple of years ago?
A Knight's Tale? The one that had joust audiences
singing We Will Rock You?" And you'd be right. It
is indeed exactly the same idea, with the exception that in
this world Dunk seems to be quite entitled to declare himself
a knight if he so wants - it's more of a job title than a
reward, as near as I can see. My guess would be that the
film liked the basic idea and retooled it for comedy purposes.
Here, it's done straight. Dunk spends
the issue adapting to his new self-proclaimed status, and has
a rather obvious encounter in a bar with one of those
mysterious strangers who likes to talk about his precognitive
dreams. And then discovers that he can't actually afford
any armour in his size. You get the general idea.
To be honest, I think it worked rather
better as an outright comedy; there's nothing wrong with this,
as a pleasant enough read with attractive art, but the very
nature of the premise means that it wants to be more of a
comedy. Inexperienced ingenue posing as qualified
professional - that's a comedy concept, surely?
Still, this is fine if you like that sort
of thing. Reads nicely, looks good, and even though it's
not a comedy, it doesn't take itself too seriously.
Perfectly okay.
Rating: B
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