The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born
Hardcover: Issues 1-7
Plotted by Robin Furth
Dialogued by Peter David
Illustrated by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove
Marvel Comics
Cover price: $24.99; Available now

The man in black fled across the desert… and the Gunslinger followed.

A now legendary phrase from the beginning of Stephen King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower series, which captivated millions of readers for three decades, appeared again in the long-awaited Marvel series Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, seven issues now available in a hardcover collection.

King threw his full support behind the series, though the original writing was done by Robin Furth and Peter David. The seven issues cover a story arc that will be very familiar to faithful readers of King, but can be equally entertaining for those who have never heard of the Dark Tower.

The seven books in King’s original series chronicle the journey of Roland Deschain, the last Gunslinger, in his quest for the ominous Dark Tower. Deschain’s world has moved on from the ways of the old world (which bares a striking resemblance to our own world) and what remains is a classic archetype of technological remnants, magic, and a medieval social structure amalgamating in a post-apocalyptic setting.

The Gunslinger Born covers events from Roland’s youth, partially referenced in the first book, but largely taken from book four Wizard and Glass. The Affiliation, an army of good lead by Steven Deschain, Roland’s father, is struggling to hold back the rising forces of John Farson. In book one, a young Roland is infuriated to find his mother is unfaithful with Marten Broadcloak, aka Randall Flagg, the personification of all that is evil in King’s Universe. In his rage, he agrees to take the test of manhood earlier than any person before him. Success would make him the youngest Gunslinger ever, failure would mean excommunication.

The remaining six books follow Roland and his friends journey to the small outpost village of Hambry. They were sent to be sheltered from the coming war, but quickly realize Hambry may play a bigger role than anyone realizes.

As a multi-issue series, The Gunslinger Born’s only major drawback was the brevity of each issue and the way the story was divided into short segments. This was frustrating and I’d imagine it to be even more so for new readers of the story. In typical King fashion, there is a lot of build-up without much action, which can be annoying as the story progresses slowly through the middle issues. This collected edition solves all these problems. but Unfortunately, what’s missing are all the end-of-issue narratives about the long-forgotten past of mid-world, answering long-debated questions, and exploring new aspects of the Dark Tower Mythos. Instead, it contains every variant cover from the single issues, as well as an in-depth look at Lee and Isanove’s artistic process.

Fans of the original novels, however, will be very pleased with this series. Jae Lee and Richard Isanove bring the characters to life with artwork that is heavily inked, typically with a single dominant color (usually orange or blue), giving the finished work a very gothic style. Strikingly appropriate for the nature of the story, the artwork reflects the jagged, harsh illustrations published in “Wizard and Glass.” In addition to seeing Roland, Martin, The Crimson King and Susan Delgado, the comics also feature new, untold events from the original story.

But you don’t have to be fan of King to enjoy this story. In fact, critics of King will probably welcome his creative story without the wordy narratives and lengthy expositions. Even so, The Gunslinger Born may win him some new fans, and is certainly a great introduction to a phenomenal character and story.

If you find yourself wanting more after reading this collection, three additional six-issue story arcs will be released started in February 2008. If you can’t wait that long, there are several thousands of pages waiting to be read in the original books.

Note: The cover price for this collected edition is $24.99, but Amazon.com currently has it on-sale for $14.99.