There's actually far more going on in this 96-page hardcover book than just that, though given the Pinis' proven talent for storytelling, that single storyline would certainly be enough to entertain even the most diehard ELFQUEST fan. I don't claim to fall into that particular category, but I have pleasant memories of the "Grand Quest" stories, as someone I was once very fond of introduced them to me. Rereading those stories recently in preparation for this review, I was struck by how well the Pinis' work ages that is to say, not at all. When I first read these back in 1986, I had no idea they'd originally been published in 1978, and though I've long since discovered how long ELFQUEST has been around, it's still a shock to realize how fresh and new it all stills feels almost like Recognition.
Reading THE SEARCHER AND THE SWORD directly after re-reading "The Grand Quest" both illustrates just how little the world of the Pinis has changed and how much their own approach to the material has, for good or for ill though mostly for good. The central characters of the piece Cutter, Leeta, Skywise, and Treestump are just as we remember them, yet they're every bit as interesting and complex as they ever were. Telling the story as a first-person narrative through Shuna's eyes, though, puts them at one level of remove further than we normally see them, giving us a better than ever sense of just how alien these beings really are to humans, even to the ones they know and love. Treestump's obsession with discovering the Trolls' secret of swordmaking adds a fascinating and ultimately exciting subplot to the main work, in addition to deepening a character who could often come across as a stereotypical kindly father figure.
I'm not quite sure how to respond to the main theme of the book, though, despite the fact I applaud the Pinis for tackling a serious issue like spousal abuse. It's one of those issues that, when it comes up in a comic book in any serious way, makes you want to say that that book has "grown up" but ELFQUEST always was "grown up," always did deal with themes that belied the childlike raptures of the artwork and the overall sense of adventure. So it doesn't make any sense to me that when the spousal abuse plot rears its ugly head (the abuse is ugly, by the way, not the plot), it feels like an odd fit. Perhaps it's because it's happening between humans and thus strikes far too close to home. Perhaps it's that those earlier adult themes treated in ELFQUEST were kept at that same level of remove that the Wolfriders themselves mostly are kept here, and it was easier to discount them somewhat, if not completely ignore them. Maybe it feels like such an uneasy fit because reading "The Grand Quest" again felt like slipping into a pair of comfortable shoes while these sequences feel like trying to shoehorn into the sort of shoes Steve Martin used to talk about. But if discomfort is the aim here, the effect is achieved. It may have been possible to ignore the more adult themes of previous ELFQUEST books, but not anymore. By far, this is the most mature work Wendy and Richard Pini have ever done and it's all the better for it.
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