The Dark Tower: Treachery - Hardcover Graphic Novel Review

Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series has always conjured up vital images in the mind. However it is very different in that process then actually capturing dreamlike images on paper (or, for that consideration, film). With the new hardbook release of "The Dark Tower: Legacy", Marvel has found a way to merge King's unique prose style with a visceral and magnificent telling of one small bit of the Dark Tower universe.The storyline that permeates this edition involves the hero of the story, Roland, wrestling with his own demons. Under the influence of an evil orb, he becomes absorbed in his own mind (much like the final essence of "Hamlet") where his mind loses focus. His gunslingers still continue on with a new breed commissioned and deadly. The true great essence of the story which translates beautifully in terms of visual acuity is the introduction of Eileen who is desperate to encapsulate the gunslinger code while the aspect of her femininity duels for placement and power.The art in these comics are requisitely stunning and of a level of dark gothic style that is almost never seen. There is truly time taken here and the full palette is addressed in the deep hues. Images can be dissected and ritualized. For this writer, two specific instances stand out. One based in a series of images as a collage which indicate motion with an almost cinematic superlative. It is in Chapter One when a band of gunslingers encounter a dark force in a partial netherworld and open fire. The discharge is simple but done in a way that makes you look twice and leaves you breathless. Later in the story, while the vistas and siloettes are stunningly done, it is a simple mask image with Aileen walking down a spiral staircase in shadow with Roland below her bathed in dark with sea blue behind that truly solidifies this piece's brilliance. The  actuality is that this is when the story of "Treachery" converges.The secondary subplot about the betrayal of the mother in an affair in a dark underworld once again brings about instrumentations of "Hamlet" but the fact that Roland, with help from the youth, is able to awaken from a lurid world of red and unfocused rage combined with guilt seems to point to the themes that have always inhabited "The Dark Tower". This HC is able to personify those internal monologues of Roland especially well."The Dark Tower: Treachery" is a splendid book because it does what few titles can do: it takes an established voice and creates a sheer and wondrous world for it to live in that is both cinematic, thematic and operatic. Out of 5, I give it a 4.