Spoilers ahead for Stephen King‘s The Dark Tower series.

The Sorceror

The Sorceror, a one-shot in Marvel’s Dark Tower series, was Robin Furth’s vision of Walter the magician’s point of view throughout the Treachery arc. It was interesting to see Walter’s point of view, but I had the same problem with this one shot as I have with the rest of the series: Furth needs to quit embellishing. I know it’s all under the blessing of Stephen King, but it still annoys me. For one thing, she created this nephew of Maerlyn who goes into Gilead to help culminate the destruction of the gunglingers’ home as well as to get Maerlyn’s Grapefruit back. This nephew was NOT in the Wizard and Glass novel.

Nor was the female gunslinger in training, Aileen, also known as Cort’s niece. Cort did NOT have a niece in the books. It seems to me as though Furth is setting her up to be Roland’s pseudo love interest, which is even more annoying because anyone who read the books knows that Susan was Roland’s one and only, and though he comes to love his tet as best he can, he never has another woman of romantic interest.

Did you hear that, Robin Furth? Let me repeat it for you: ROLAND IS ONLY INTERESTED IN SUSAN IN THE BOOKS. QUIT FORCING AILEEN ON HIM.

Part of me has been wondering if, throughout this whole comic book version of the books, Furth is setting it all up to be different for Roland this time as he hurtles helplessly toward his repetitive destiny so that, maybe, when he gets to the Tower this time, things will be slightly different. Right now the series is on The Battle at Jericho, which I haven’t got to yet, so I’m wondering if Roland will pick up the horn this time or if it will be lost once again.

I’ve slowly been losing interest in the series, as I am more and more annoyed with Furth’s embellishments as each issue comes out. But back to The Sorceror.

This one-shot should NOT be read as a standalone. You need to read the preceding story arcs in order to understand what is being explained in the magician’s point of view. I almost want to say that it shouldn’t even be called a one-shot, as I thought that one shots were supposed to be standalone additions to the story that don’t require any other knowledge. However, Wiki has spoken, and says that one-shots

a pilot comic or a stand-alone story created to last as one issue. These single issues are usually labeled with a “#1″ despite there being no following issues, and are sometimes subtitled as “specials”. On occasion, a character or concept will appear in a series of one-shots, in cases where the subject matter is not financially lucrative enough to merit an ongoing or limited series, but still popular enough to be published on a regular basis, often annually or quarterly.

Still, you should read the rest of the series before reading The Sorceror. And, while you’re at it, read the books before you even think about picking up the comics. I promise you, you will be annoyed with Robin Furth, too.

*evil Family Guy monkey points finger at Furth*