Pathfinder Spiral of Bones #2 Review

Written by: Crystal Frasier

Art by: Tom Garcia

Colors by: Morgan Hickman

Letters by: Thomas Napolitano

Published by: Dynamite

After a first issue that re-established where all our Pathfinder heroes were in their lives, the second issue puts the spotlight on the warrior of the group, Valeros, and what exactly happened to him at the end of the first issue? That question gets answered pretty quickly, but it’s not without some twists.

You see, Valeros is now in the underworld, specifically in the region called The Boneyard, ruled by an entity called Pharasma (this may be part of Pathfinder lore, I’ll have to check). Prior to this realization, however, Frasier establishes a little bit of the back story for Valeros with a flashback to his childhood wherein we see that his family, namely grandmother and uncles, were wizards/sorcerers or some renown it seems. However, Valeros didn’t really have a knack for magic, nor for reading it seems. He was more enthralled with knights and fighters.

This flashback establishes one thing in my mind: Valeros isn’t the most intelligent of beings, but he is there for the fight and is more than likely very dependable.

In present day, Valeros now has to deal with the fact that he is dead, about to be judged and fought over by what appears to be an angel and a devil, all while getting advice from a psychopomp (what appears to be a crow wearing a plague mask) that he is barely able to understand - Wini the psychopomp tends to use words that Valeros doesn’t know the meaning to. The catch to this whole situation though is one that I won’t spoil here, but makes for interesting exchanges throughout the latter half of the issue.

The art continues to be impressive and a lot of fun. During the flashback, Garcia and Hickman use muted colours and a slightly more simplistic art style to demark it from the present day. For the present day, everything is pretty crisp, the colours are vivid, and Garcia’s staging of each panel is really fun to look at. Excellent job all around!