GEORGE R.R. MARTIN’S A CLASH OF KINGS (VOL. 2) #13 – An Honest Review

In GEORGE R.R. MARTIN’S A CLASH OF KINGS (VOL. 2) #13, available from Dynamite Comics on May 26th, 2021, the battle for King’s Landing reaches a fever pitch as Tyrion leads the charge to break the invasion or die trying.

The Details

• Written By: Landry Q. Walker
• Art By: Mel Rubi
• Colors By: Ivan Nunes
• Letters By: Tom Napolitano
• Cover Art By: Mike Miller (cover A)
• Cover Price: $3.99
• Release Date: May 26, 2021

Was It Good?

The second half is better than the first half, primarily due to pacing.

One of the challenges of this adaptation is its faithfulness to the source material. It’s a very thorough adaptation that requires a LOT of reading to get through. The strongest adaptations are the ones that distill the books (especially big ones) down to the main points and focus on the through-line without disrupting the essence of the story. Walker adds so much of the nuance, feelings, and subtext into every scene, it diverges away from being a comic adaptation and into a retelling of the book with illustrations.

When adaptations remain faithful to the source material, it’s a good thing, but this comic could benefit from more distillation.

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The art is very good. This comic is more engaging and enjoyable through the second half during Tyrion’s charge, and that’s largely due to Rubi’s art in capturing the chaos of battle.

See for yourself in our GEORGE R.R. MARTIN’S A CLASH OF KINGS (VOL. 2) #13 preview.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

The story is broken down into three main acts — Sansa and the Queen entertaining guests inside the castle, Tyrion leading the battle charge on the water’s edge, and a closing scene.

Sansa and the Queen are housing a collective of nobles to keep them safe from the battle outside. The idea is to keep the most important nobility safe through as many walls as possible if the invaders should breach the city gates.

During their time of music and making merry, the Queen instructs Sansa on the real purpose of keeping all nobility in one place. If their army repels the enemy, the nobles sing the Queen’s praises for her protection. If the walls are breached, her guards will kill everyone to prevent the nobles, and even the Queen herself, from being violated or taken hostage.

Sansa gets a taste of the Queen’s callous calculations, to rule with ruthless forethought and fear rather than love.

This opening act gives you a strong sense of the Queen’s willingness to do whatever is necessary to spite her enemy, and Sansa is faced with considering how she would act if she becomes Queen.

As noted above, it’s a lot of reading to get through from narration, inner monologues, and dialog. It’s never a good thing when you’re checking page counts on page 7, so this act could have benefited from more selective editing.

The second act is all-out battle as Tyrion leads his soldiers in a spear-tip formation to smash the invaders who managed to make it to shore after the wildfire attack. There’s very little dialog but still quite a bit of narration. In that sense, act two is stronger than act one by picking a voice and sticking with it as the main focus.

Tyrion becomes one with the battle as all thought leaves him except for the next kill and the next and the next. It’s a well-done example of showing how a soldier gets “in the zone” during battle. Before we leave the act, Tyrion faces an enemy he did not expect.

The final act is a private moment between Sansa and the Hound after the Queen receives distressing news. It’s a short act but it conveys a lot of emotion between two people caught in a desperately dangerous situation.

We conclude the issue with the ending of the battle.

How Does It End?

Sansa sings a song. The Hound’s cloak if bloody. “It was Renly!”

Final Thoughts

GEORGE R.R. MARTIN’S A CLASH OF KINGS (VOL. 2) #13 takes the concept of faithful adaptation almost to an extreme. The art is grounded and strong, but the story could use more focus in telling.

Score: 7.5/10