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On The Right Path

The Path: Crisis of Faith   Ron Marz, Bart Sears CrossGen, 2002 Rating: 4.3

Posted: October 31, 2002

By The Gentleman (exclusive to Shaking Through)

Given the (at best) workmanlike pedigree of its creators, Crisis of Faith proves a surprisingly engrossing and enjoyable samurai epic. Writer Ron Marz (Sojourn) has toiled for years as a sturdy, if unremarkable, comics scribe on such titles as Marvel's Silver Surfer. And Bart Sears, currently Art Director for CrossGen, has heretofore been known for grotesquely over-muscled superhero work (Justice League: Europe) that would embarrass even Image Comics founder Rob Liefeld and his talent-free army of draw-alike clones. So it's forgivable, surely, to have expected, at most, inoffensive mediocrity. But no: This first collection of CrossGen's ongoing series The Path moves with a sure flow all the more remarkable given that large parts of it are given to soul-searching dialogue and dark, murky artwork.

Marz's story is easy enough to follow: Obo-San, a peaceful monk and the brother of respected warlord Todosi (servant of the Ohira dynasty on some far-flung CrossGen world with a feudal Japanese motif), has his faith shattered when he witnesses his gods mercilessly slaughter Todosi's men on the field of battle. Obo-San swears vengeance on his former gods, but his emperor has other plans and demands that Obo-San hand over a short and powerful rod, a weapon of the gods, he acquired during said battle. Obo-San refuses, even after his emperor commits ritual seppuku and returns to life, supposed proof that he is touched by the divine.

Thus, the formerly peaceful monk is forced to seek sanctuary at his monastery, accompanied by the decidedly Occidental Wulf and the slim, mysterious Aiko, Todosi's former aides and bodyguards. Mitsumune, the emperor of Obo-San's homeland of Nayado, soon dispatches his nation's entire army to track down the errant monk and retrieve the "weapon of heaven," even though such a rash act will leave his borders open to attack from the far larger and more malevolent nation of Shinacea. Marz unspools this story with a veteran's sure hand, despite a lack of immediate and visceral action of the kind that usually sells comic books. He manages to make Obo-San an interesting character rather than a cipher with a hand-delivered motivation, and explores his protagonist's evolving "path" without teetering into heavy-handed melodrama. And he ties The Path into CrossGen's larger mythology (Obo-San also carries CrossGen's sigil branded on his back, giving him commanding powers) without distracting from his own story.

As sturdy as Marz's work is, however, it's Sears who emerges as the breakout star of Crisis of Faith. The book is such a drastic change from his signature style that one has to take it on faith that he's actually the artist here. Where before he drew bizarrely misshapen brutes barely recognizable as human beings, with The Path he's reinvented himself as a journeyman storyteller with an obvious debt to Frank Miller. Throughout the book, Sears employs dark shapes and shaded, loose figure work to create and sustain an atmosphere of tension and portent. Likewise, he regularly eschews the traditional one-page format, opting for panoramic two-page spreads that bestow the sweeping feel of widescreen cinema. He further breaks up these spreads with small tiers of panels that convey different perspectives, like quick-cut close-ups, and boxes of smaller panels that transmit action sequences in sped-up bursts, smartly cloaked in shadows and perspective shifts to further create a sense of confusion and tension, building mood rather than painstakingly detailing every slash of a blade -- all reaction shots and cloudy scenes of implied violence.

Inker Mark Pennington and colorist Michael Atiyeh also contribute immeasurably to the atmosphere and effectiveness of the artwork. (Honorable mention must also be made of guest penciler Walt Simonson, who cleverly employs the pictograph style of a Norse scroll or tapestry to depict Wulf's recount of the travels that led him to Nayado in Chapter Five.)

Crisis of Faith, then, is that rare mainstream comic beast, a non-superhero serial adventure story whose deliberately unspooling narrative suggests a novel or a movie. Furthermore, it displays the careful and creative attention to atmosphere and storytelling technique in every aspect of its artwork, from the clothing of the different characters to the architecture, and the dim, grim palette of colors. In these regards, it echoes Ruse, CrossGen's other standout title, and further establishes CrossGen as a publisher intent on expanding the world of mainstream comics, an imprint worth following in the years ahead.

Enlightened Path to More Reading Readers hooked by The Path should also consider Way of the Rat, which takes place on the same world of Han-Jin.

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