Advanced Review: Scales & Scoundrels #7

Writer: Sebastian Girner / Artist: Galaad / Image Comics Scales and Scoundrels #7 closes its first arc and sticks the landing like a gymnast. Previously on S&S: More falling! We pick up with the rapid descent of Luvander and Prince Aki even further into the fiery depths of Dened Lewin. After rumbling with a creature from Lu’s past and hearing a long thought, extinct language, we catch up with these two in mid-fall.

Reveals (spoiler alert) Issue 7 opens with a light reveal to Aki of Luvander’s identity. Knocked unconscious by the fall, we enter Lu’s dreams again, offering us a bird’s eye view and a distant memory. After the adrenaline of the fall kicks in, Luvander awakens and Aki realizes Lu is not wearing contacts from 2003 but is, in fact, one of the Urden of legend.

After the fall, the dynamic duo keeps it trucking through the very bottom of Dened Lewin, lava and everything! Things get really real when Luvander tells her story and is then triggered by a jewel Aki finds. By triggered I mean turns into a big ass dragon (I called that shit in Issue #1)! Then that Boba Fett/Terminator-type dude shows up and turns into another dragon! Suffice to say, a very gratifying reveal wrapped inside of several other reveals. Scales #7 reads like a layer cake of blood, fire, and magic.

Mythology Again, Scales & Scoundrels serves up hella well-constructed narrative. The world building here is grade A. Girner is building the world of S&S with a modality stemming from a sprawl…