‘Dark Souls: Mother of Mourning’ #1 Brings a New Journey for Souls Fans

The Dark Souls franchise is one of the most popular gaming franchises in the modern gaming space. Kicking off the appropriately named “Souls-Like” genre with the original Demon’s Souls released in 2009, and the breakthrough Dark Souls being released in 2011. FromSoftware has since consistently released some of the highest quality and beloved games of all time, from the masterful Dark Souls III to the Lovecraftian horror Bloodborne to Game of the Year Elden Ring. On December 3^rd, Titan Comics is coming out with an all new Dark Souls comic: Dark Souls: Mother of Mourning. Kaiju United had the wonderful opportunity to receive a review copy, so let’s get into it!

Right off the bat, all the right tones are set. The lettering from the narration boxes goes perfectly with the gritty, middle-ages aesthetic. As a huge Dark Souls fan, I felt the atmosphere of the games throughout the way. The story follows the Knights of Mourning, a group of knights that honorably defended the holy-relic corpse of the Mother of Lillies (as her soul was stolen in the past), their saintly and motherly (like Mary in Catholicism) figure. As any Souls fan knows, the flame goes out, and dark times ensue. A remaining knight named Lucadeus, along with his companions Stenn and Grathin, are tasked with recovering the Mother of Lillies’ stolen soul so that she might awaken once again to link the flame and bring light to the forsaken land.

From there on, the journey ensues. The potatoes of the story are sifted through by the narrator to get to the meat: the characters’ arrival at the Mausoleum of Gaith, where the issue leaves off.

This story looks very promising so far. I think it is clear that writer George Mann and artist Maan House are well-versed in the atmosphere and mood of Souls games, from the narration, to aesthetics, and to dialogue. Considering it’s only a 4 issue miniseries; it is certainly intriguing as to what is to come. The story takes time to build itself up but essentially skips the journey to get to the destination, which is an interesting quirk (perhaps created by the fact it’s a 4 issue series). Not a whole lot actually happens in this issue, because it is mainly exposition and set-up. This makes perfect sense and falls in line with how playing Souls games feels! You start up the game, some ominous narrator talks about a bunch of things and references names and kingdoms you don’t know about, the flame goes out, and you start to walk around in untrodden territory. Plenty of intrigue and lore is being built here which makes it an engaging read!

There’s also a ton of really fascinating and creative panelization in this comic that makes things stand out. One page in particular has a background taking place of the whole page, with numerous panels layered on top of it with dialogue, zoom ins, and changes in position. Lots of good shading and flow to each page also.

Dark Souls: Mother of Mourning #1 shows plenty of promise to being a great love letter to souls fans everywhere that will also stand on its own as a strong and gritty comic. Grab issue 1 of this new miniseries on December 3^rd!

Check out all the variant covers from Warrick Wong, The Knott, and more!

Overall Score: 8/10

Dark Souls: Mother of Mourning #1 shows plenty of promise of being a great love letter to Dark Souls fans everywhere that will also stand on its own as a strong and gritty comic.