THE BALLAD OF RONAN #1, from Action Lab Comics on May 11th, 2022, begins a magical adventure as an orphan aging out of the foster system strikes out on her own, only to find her family history is anything but average.
The Details
- Written By: David Walsh, Chris Walsh
- Art By: Remy Jackson
- Colors By: Valentina Pucci
- Letters By: Becca Carey
- Cover Art By: Remy Jackson
- Cover Price: $3.99
- Release Date: May 11, 2022
Was It Good?
THE BALLAD OF RONAN #1 is a light-but-dramatic YA adventure with interesting teases and a heartfelt plot, but it’s just light enough on the wow moments to push it into the “wait and see” category. To be clear, there’s nothing bad or wrong about comics. The issue simply plays too coy to fully grab you.
“What the heck does that mean?”, you insist. That means, except for a magical prologue and a darkly magical development on the last page, the creators opted for a slow-paced and grounded character setup for almost the entire issue. It’s a good character setup, but there’s not much about the main character (Aisling) that you couldn’t sus out after the first few panels, so you’re left feeling that too much of this first issue is filler.
For example, there’s an entire sequence where Aisling steals her house mother’s purse and uses the money to get a tattoo. The sequence informs readers about her moral compass and nihilistic attitude, but the sequence doesn’t move the plot along or tell you anything new about the character that you don’t get from her interaction with the church priest and father figure, Father Jack. In other words, you get multiple scenes that reinforce Aisling’s character, and some are redundant. When the job of a first issue is to grab the reader, this one feels more like a mild tug.
The writing tone has a YA aesthetic, and the art matches that YA tone perfectly. The characters are more fully rendered than in a children’s book, and there’s a slight hint of Manga influence. The art looks good and suits the material well.
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What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
We begin with a flashback to centuries ago in Ireland. A woman gives birth to a sickly son. The woman dies shortly after childbirth, and the son is unlikely to survive the night. The father promises to do all he can and commends his new son, Ronan, to the spirit world. That night, two Fae visit the father while he sleeps and swaps out the dying baby for a fae child in answer to the father’s prayer.
Now, Aisling looks over her history as an orphan who never managed to get matched to a forever foster family. Her history includes outbursts, delinquency, and disrespect that made her difficult to place. On her sixteenth birthday, Aisling is no longer part of the placement program, and she decides to run away for the last time. Before she leaves, she meets with Father Jack for one last talk where he turns over all the information he haves on Ainsling’s deceased mother.
After some hasty goodbyes, theft of pocket money, and a hasty tattoo appointment, Aisling leaves town on a bus to visit her mother’s grave. She decides to stay in town where we conclude the issue with a little friend, a strange visitor, and a dark attack.
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Final Thoughts
THE BALLAD OF RONAN #1 is a fine first issue in a YA-ish series about a teenager striking out on her own to search for a family connection. The writing is good, but a few moments were redundant to developing the main character, leaving less room for plot development. The writing tone falls into the YA camp, and the art style matches that tone perfectly.
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