The Dark Tower 7: The Gunslinger—The Little Sisters of Eluria

Comic Info

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger—The Little Sisters of Eluria #1

Reprints The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger—The Little Sisters of Eluria #1-5 (February 2011-June 2011). Roland continues to tell how he arrived in the desert in pursuit of the Man in Black and tells of his encounter with slow mutants in the city of Eluria. After being beaten to near death, Roland woke up in a convent run by women who appeared as nuns. Roland learned that the nuns were something else and that the only thing protecting him might be a cross and a young nun named Jenna.

Plotted by Robin Furth and written by Peter David, The Dark Tower Volume 7: The Gunslinger—The Little Sisters of Eluria adapts the Stephen King short story of the same name which originally appeared in Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy in 1998 (and later in his own collection Everything’s Eventual), and the comic book series follows The Dark Tower Volume 6: The Gunslinger—The Journey Begins. The story is referenced a few times throughout the Dark Tower series.

The Dark Tower is a long and epic series.  Reading the books, I often find myself burning out about halfway through Dark Tower III:  The Waste Lands and I have never been able to finish the series.  With comic book adaptations, I hoped it would inspire my re-reading of the series…but the Dark Tower seems just as distant in the comic as it does in the books.

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger—The Little Sisters of Eluria #2

Following the events of The Dark Tower 6: The Gunslinger—The Journey Begins, I really hoped that the “journey would begin”, but it is another flashback. Fortunately, this story is pretty good (as opposed to The Journey Begins which was all over the place). The Little Sisters are creepy and the “doctor-bugs” are kind of disturbing. I really didn’t need the scene where they pleasure Roland and share the results with each other (pretty gross and once again…disturbing). Jenna was an interesting character and it is too bad that she wasn’t around long enough to develop into her own. It does show that Roland has no luck with women since everyone he loves seems to end up dead.

Like many of The Dark Tower series, suspense is built, but it also feels like a bit of a waste as individual issues. Each individual issue is topped out with interviews, sketches, etc. and could just be more story. This could be a three issue limited series really, but it feels a bit stretched out. The ending encounter with the Little Sisters and the dog seems a little less than satisfying for such a group of evil creatures and it would have been better to have seen more of a “throw down” with them.

With the end of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger—The Little Sisters of Eluria, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger really kicks off with the Battle of Tull and it is a long time coming. When it was announced that the Gunslinger was going to be adapted I was pumped to start reading the Stephen King stories I had read, and now it is actually happening…I just hope the series can hang on in the tight market and I’d love to see other stuff adapted (like with The Stand).  The Dark Tower 7: The Gunslinger–The Little Sisters of Eluria is followed by The Dark Tower 8: The Gunslinger—The Battle of Tull.

Preceded By:

The Dark Tower Volume 6: The Gunslinger—The Journey Begins

Followed By:

The Dark Tower Volume 8: The Gunslinger—The Battle of Tull

Related Links:

The Dark Tower I:  The Gunslinger