Writer Justin Jordan (Reaver, The Strange Talent of Luthor Strode) has been hard at work on a new project these last few years, which will finally see fruition in comics form this September. Coming from Robert Kirkman's Skybound Entertainment, Summoners War: Legacy, written by Jordan and drawn by Luca Claretti, is a spin-off of the famous mobile video game Summoners War. Jordan will be responsible for weaving a new story and background for the fantasy world, where monsters fight other monsters against of backdrop of never-ending war.
Known for his pathos-laden approach in his comic work today, Jordan will write the tale of Rai, a country girl who finds herself in over her head when she joins the titular war as an apprentice to the veteran summoner Abuus Dein. The series takes place 35 years before the events of the mobile game, and documents the pair and their monsters' fight against evil. Screen Rant managed to catch up with Justin Jordan, who answered a few questions regarding his new project. Check out our exclusive interview below.
Screen Rant: Can you talk a little bit about how this story came about?
Justin Jordan: Summoners War: Legacy came from trying to expand on the story in the game. The mobile game setting takes place about thirty odd years after this story, but most of that history hadn't been filled in. The game has a vast canvas that is a lot bigger than can be reasonably shown in a mobile game, so the comics are an attempt to give people a chance to dig into the larger world and history.
And you know, tell a fun story.
SR: How do you approach writing within a world that is not only adapted from a video game, but also strictly dichotomous in terms of ethics?
JJ: Honestly, I was actually trying to avoid that dichotomous perception. While our heroes aren't antiheroes, it was important to me that the heroes AND the villains had real and comprehensible motive and weren't simply paragons of virtue OR diabolic monsters. Or not JUST those things.
SR: Can you talk about your protagonist Rai and her relationship with the mentor figure Abuus Dein?
JJ: Rai is a small-town girl who really, really wants to get out of her town. She's also a big fish in a small pond there. She's very smart, very confident and being the best in her little town has given her a possibly unwise view of her own abilities.
Abuus, though, has been everywhere and seen everything, and he's exactly aware of how Rai feels, because he's felt it himself. So, he's a good mentor to her, even though he has to fight the urge to facepalm about her and Tomas' shenanigans on a near daily basis.
SR: How do you approach your writing in terms of the personality and character for the monsters in this tale?
JJ: The monsters were actually a hard part since the ones I worked on didn’t speak. So, I am leaning hard into the body language, which thank god Luca Claretti, the artist, is genuinely great at. But I also took the tact, on a broader level, that they reflect the person who summoned them. If you're this kind of person, you'd summon these kinds of monsters. And that seems to have worked.
SR: How would you contrast this with your more mature work in Image and Heavy Metal right now?
JJ: Heh, there's a lot less blood, gore and obscenities. That's true, since this book is meant to be something anyone could read, but I actually think they're not hugely different except that I think Summoners War: Legacy is inherently more...optimistic. This is my hopeful side doing the writing.
Summoners War: Legacy goes on sale in mid-September wherever comic books are sold. Check out some preview pages and character models below.
