Sera & the Royal Stars is published by Vault Comics. It is written by Jon Tsuei with art by Audrey Mock and colors by Raúl Angulo.
I’d describe Sera & the Royal Stars as a comic version of a Persian epic (obviously not a poem though). It immediately reminds me of ancient stories like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey or Dante’s Divine Comedy. It’s a heroic tale loosely based on actual history where mortal human chosen by the gods to save them because they cannot do it themselves.
The Empire of Parsa is not only plagued by famine, but stuck in the midst of civil war. The King’s brother seeks to dethrone him and take the empire for himself and Princess Sera and her siblings are fighting valiantly with their troops to defeat their uncle. Sera is not only their princess, but their commander, so it’s a bit of a dilemma when the deity Mitra comes to her and demands she sets out on a quest to find the Royal Stars and return them to the heavens before their light fades entirely, sending the entire world into despair. And so, with some pretty intense negotiating (mainly Mitra threatening her with curses) Sera embarks on her journey to find the fallen stars that are now trapped on Earth.
I know I’ve said it before, but I’m a big history buff – Fun fact, it’s what my bachelor’s is in – so stuff that is based on historical fact always piques my interest. Quick history lesson for those who don’t know, the modern Fars Province in Iran was once known as Persia and the Persian word “Fârs” is the Arabized form of the earlier form “Pârs”, which is in turn derived from “Pârsâ”. So we have the Empire of Parsa a.k.a. Persia and there was a real ruling division at one point between south-east and north-west between two king brothers though from there Sera’s story becomes a work of fiction, so far, at least. I’m so excited to see what bits of true history come in to play as this series goes on.
I love that Jon Tsuei is basing this story in Persia and that Audrey Mock and colors by Raúl Angulo are bringing this ancient culture to life in a new way. I feel like when most people think of Persia, they think of King Xerxes and the story of the 300 led by King Leonidas into this valiant battle of death, which is an awesome story, but it makes the Persian Empire out to be full of bad guys and the Greek stories tend take precedence over Persian ones. Now we have a whole new story with new characters and it’s going to be amazing, it’s already off to a strong start. Though Sera is the main character, it seems her brother, Jahar, and sister, Roya, will play important roles as well and who doesn’t love a good sibling bond story?
OVERALL SCORE: 9/10
Make sure you pick up Sera & the Royal Stars #1 from your local comic shop!
Happy reading!
