First off, great job on the colors and values! I can easily tell where my focus must go right away!
I have to say, I do prefer the second pose, but I feel like the angle may be a bit confusing.
The character's body, while looking at us/the sword, is faced toward the outside of the image. I think that moving that character a little bit more toward the left may help with that. That way, you get to give more space to the character at the far right with the lightning. That can also "close" this side of the image better!
There is also the sword that gets cut out of the image, which could a bad thing. I see two main "lines" in this composition. One goes from the main character's hand touching the sword to the one holding the hammer. The other line would simply be the sword. You could either angle the sword more in the picture to bring back the eye inside of the image, or your could accentuate the "fiery" effects that you already added in the colored version, which are pointing back to the character.
I hope this helps a bit! 
