Conflict of Conscience

by Ron Marz

Ethan, the youngest prince of an ancient empire, is locked in an uneasy trucewith its rivals. In an age in which ritual combat has taken the place of realwar, Ethan prepares to participate in his... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1931484023
• ISBN13: 9781931484022
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Cross Generation Comics
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.7" x 10.2"

Customer Reviews

I can't pronounce the dang title, but I like it

My opinion, SCION is very nice even if I'm not into it as much as some of the other stuff CrossGen Comics had once produced (MERIDIAN, SOJOURN, WAY OF THE RAT, RUSE, etc.). SCION is, in essence, a coming-of-age story that starts out with a King Arthur-type fantasy bent but then rapidly turns your head by introducing a technological twist. To sum up this conceit, we get to eyeball sword-wielding medieval warriors astride dragons equipped with combat/navigational computers. So it's not really Sword & Sorcery as much as it is Sword & Science. It's quite cool. In response to the gratuitously violent comic books being churned out by companies like Image Comics in the early '90s, CrossGeneration Universe co-creator Mark Alessi wanted to go back to a more relevant form of storytelling. As such, the mandate for CrossGen was to veer away from superhero tropes. SCION falls very much in CrossGen's wheelhouse. Like its sister titles, SCION features a protagonist newly come to power and that protagonist's hard road to responsibility. SCION Vol. 1: CONFLICT OF CONSCIENCE collects the series's first seven issues and the five-paged story from CrossGen Chronicles #1. SCION is one of the first four series originally launched by CrossGen Comics (along with MYSTIC, SIGIL, and MERIDIAN). It ran for 43 issues before CrossGen's insolvency canceled all its comic book titles. Ron Marz writes, and writes well. Jim Cheung's style has a whiff of manga but he turns in some fairly dynamic artwork. In fact, issue #6 - the all-out battle issue - delivers Cheung's visuals in epic two-paged spreads, and it is awesome stuff. But, hold up, that's getting ahead of the thing... In the world of Avalon, the Raven Dynasty, the dark Empire in the East, had been raring to make war on the Heron Dynasty, the rival kingdom in the West. Except that an uneasy peace has held sway for centuries between Raven and Heron, with both nations able to unleash hostilities only thru annually staged ritualized combat. Prince Ethan of the Heron Dynasty, the book's central character, will set the world of Avalon on the brink of global conflict. It's Ethan's 21st birthday and, in his first scheduled skirmish in the tournament, he's matched against the fearsome Prince Bron of the Raven Dynasty. Ethan is pretty nervous. On his way to the contest, his right bicep is grasped by a well-wishing stranger (which is how Ethan's bicep ends up with an odd mark). In the arena, the mark activates and Ethan's sword ravages Bron's face, but this results in Ethan's being accused of utilizing an illegal weapon. Ethan is forced to forfeit the contest. To make reparations Ethan agrees to serve as royal hostage in the Eastern empire for the sum of one year. But no sooner does Ethan set foot in Raven Keep than he's thrown in the dungeon and forced to suffer indignities at Bron's hands. Shortly after, when Ethan is unwittingly transported away from Raven Keep, his disappearance gives the Raven Dynasty's ruling family the

not given the attention it deserves

This has been one of Crossgen Comics' best series from the beginning. The writing and the artistry are both well done. This is a great read for lovers of the science ficiton/fantasy genre. Highly recommended.