Product Description: Five stories of Rayek--the comic book villain and haughty magic-user of Sorrow's End--cover the spectrum from this character's most distant ancestor up to the present. Includes new pages of story and art not published in the comic book series. Full color.
The re-education of Rayek This book is in a sense the successor to the "Hidden Years" collection. That book collected the first five issues of the series of that name; this one includes the next five - but rearranged to form a complete narrative.
Only the last story, the highly-regarded "issue 9.5", was actually drawn by Wendy Pini herself. The other segments were among the first EQ issues drawn by the Pinis' apprentices and, while competent, are not really in Wendy's league. Fortunately, the full-color presentation is very lavish and more than compensates. Indeed, though three of the five issues in "Challenge" are duplicated in "Shards" (volume 10), it remains worthwhile to check out this volume, since the reproductions of the three pieces (8, 9 and 9.5) look glorious in color, very poor in black and white (to the point that, for example, important detail in no.9 "The Enemy's Face" is lost).
That said, the real glory of "Challenge" is the storytelling, much of it among the best in the series. Though Rayek is the main character of this book, there is a fascinating digression in the form of the two-part story "How Shall I Keep from Singing?", about the arrival of the High Ones, ancestors of all the elves. All the stories herein display the penetrating views of character that have made the EQ stories loved - and this study of Rayek, the most controversial character of all, is fertile ground for storytelling.
great book it was sorta confusing though. it goes off the story when it talks about the crash, then in book 10-shards it has book 9's ending as its own beginning.
why do we bother? Nothing has been the same since Wendi stopped drawing and this book proves it. It lacks the depth Elfquest used to be known for. If you want to remain true to yourself, leave this book behind and stick to Wendi's work.
Inferior Graphics but Good Story You'd be disappointed by the art work which is not comparable to Wendy's superior own work. The characters lack physical uniqueness as compared to the previous 7 books. However, the stories are worth reading and enjoyable.
Anything Goes Trivia
Last Kiss
Megaton Man
Trevor
