The Dark Tower: Fall of Gilead

The fourth omnibus book in the Dark Tower “prequel” graphic novels picks up where the last book ended, using the same textual mix of poetry and suspense. However, this book suffers from the loss of half the illustration team – namely, Jae Lee. Illustrator Richard Isanove valiantly strides on, but his illustrations fall under the “close but no cigar” clause. His artwork does not reach anywhere near the beauty of Lee’s (even when grisly, Lee’s art in the series was always mind-blowing beautiful in execution), and the characters no longer look like themselves. It’s as if a faithful follower of a television series turned it on one day to find the entire cast had been replaced with new actors. It’s one thing for show more long-running comics, such as Batman and X-Men and so on, to change illustrators (and even authors), but it was very disappointing to see it happen in this series. So while the story was as engaging as ever, I couldn’t be quite as thrilled by this book as I had been with the rest of the series that contained the illustrations I love. Fortunately, it looks like Lee is back for the next book in the series, and I look forward to that. show less

Wow. Just wow. The title says it all if you are familiar with The Gunslinger. With the Dark Tower, entire.

We never did get the actual tale, just some horrific tidbits, personal tragedies, and the basic idea that the last beautiful city of Mid-World had finally fallen. The last bastion of order and justice.

Well, THIS is the graphic illustration of that glorious fall.

We all see the face of Roland's father in his last moment. We do not forget the faces of the fallen.

Gorgeous art, as always, and the last stand is almost too painful to bear. I'm SO GLAD I got to see it. These comics are doing serious justice to the full story.

The best of the four so far. Because of the books, you know what's coming, but it's still tough to watch. Beautiful artwork, fantastic writing.

This is the fourth graphic novel in the eleven book graphic novel series based off of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. This was a well done continuation of the series; I continue to enjoy the excellent artwork and complex plot. Just FYI there are spoilers ahead for those who haven’t read the previous graphic novels in this series.

Steven Deschan has discovered that Maerlyn’s Grapefruit has been stolen and is on his way to visit his wife when he finds his son Roland standing over her dead body. What follows is one betrayal after another as the elder members of Gilead struggle to save the city from both Martin’s and Farland’s (the Good Man’s) machinations.

This was a well done graphic novel. This whole series has a very show more spaghetti western feel to it but is set in a sort of post-apocalyptic fantasy world. The whole thing is very gritty and dark in tone.

I continue to really enjoy the illustration in this series. The illustration is very detailed and full of wonderful rich colors and is just a joy to look at.

The plot was not all that surprising and was pretty predictable, but it advanced at a good clip. This book focuses more on the elders of Gilead and on their struggle to stop the treachery there. Needless to say there is a high death count.

I have to comment on Aileen; in this book she decides that she will join the boys as Gunslingers. In order to facilitate that decision she cuts her hair short; which okay whatever. However in addition to losing her hair she also loses all personality. She is mostly huddling in the background of the story which seems very uncharacteristic when compared to her earlier boldness. Even the way she is drawn is just...less. Her facial features have lost a lot of their sharpness and definition throughout.

You don’t see nearly as much of Roland and his ka’tet until later in the book.

Things end on a pretty down note, so I am curious to see how the story continues in book 5, Battle of Jericho Hill.

Overall this was a good continuation of this series. The plot makes a lot of progress, although it is fairly predictable. I am eager for the story to focus more on Roland, his ka-tet, and Aileen. I would recommend this graphic novel series to those who enjoy dark and gritty fantasy. show less

Once again, this series produces a very well-done graphic novel. Roland and his ka-tet are captured and developed well, and Roland edges towards the Gunslinger that is chasing the man in black across the desert.

I especially like the depiction of the slow mutants. Mid-world never lets us forget that there was something more advanced and more terrifying in the past. To quote a well-done television series, "This has all happened before, and will happen again."

One charm from this collection is the inclusion of the single-issue comic The Sorcerer, which stands alone from The Fall of Gilead. This prologue gives a proper introduction to Marten Broadcloak, aka the principal orchestrator of Gilead's takedown and Roland's lifelong nemesis.

The larger story is the climax of a once-great empire succumbing to its inevitable downfall. Each chess piece placed since the start of the comic book series is now in position to strike. Behold the end of era.

Okay, so this volume is called The Fall of Gilead, so that should be a slight hint as to what happens in its pages. Also, by the time Stephen King's first The Dark Tower novel begins, Roland is evidently the last of his people, so one should not be surprised when the bodies start falling here. The question is, though, do I need to read about all the death? I'm still trying to figure out if I'm enjoying this bleak series or not; on the one hand, I do find the world interesting and it provides some nice back-story to the books, especially the parts about Sheemie. On the other hand, man, depressing. In the first two volumes, Jae Lee's crisp, cool artwork more than made up for it. In the third volume, Treachery, I felt that Lee's art lost a show more bit of its luster. In this volume, Richard Isanove takes full art duty and while his art is good enough, the characters felt more doughy/pudgy to me than Lee's original sleek style for this series. Oh well, I will probably still pick up Battle of Jericho Hill when it comes out--wonder how that turns out?--but most of all I think I will need to re-read the original seven novels soon to really appreciate the world that King wove together over decades. show less