If you’ve been following my reviews, you’ll know I love “Dungeons & Dragons.” We’ve taken a few looks at “Rick and Morty vs Dungeons & Dragons,” multiple arcs of Jim Zub’s “Dungeons & Dragons” comics starring Minsc & Boo, and even several D&D-adjacent comics like “Pathfinder” and “Munchkin.” But the lore of D&D and the associated comics go back farther than I’ve been reviewing them, so let’s travel back in time and revisit IDW’s comic adaptations of R.A. Salvatore’s “Legend of Drizzt.”
Written by R.A. Salvatore and Andrew Dabb
Illustrated by Tim Seeley
Colored by Blond
Lettered by Steve Seeley and Brian J CrowleyDiscover the origins of renegade dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden, the most popular character to come out of the Dungeons & Dragons universe.
Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms — Legends of Drizzt Omnibus Volume 1 delivers the first three graphic novel adaptations of R.A. Salvatore’s beloved Dark Elf Trilogy—Homeland, Exile, and Sojourn—in one tome! This story takes readers from the moments before the birth of Drizzt in the dark elf capital of Menzobarranzan, the City of Spiders, to the point where he forsakes his Drow heritage and leaves his home in the Underdark to venture up into the unknown.
There was once a time in “Dungeons & Dragons” where one of the most common character types was a “renegade Drow ranger who has abandoned the evil ways of the Underdark with his panther companion.” It reached a point where “Drizzt clone” characters were everywhere, to the point where even “Order of the Stick” made jokes about it. This is due to the immense popularity of R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt Do’Urden, but after reading even a comic adaptation of his first stories, we can suddenly see how that popularity was entirely warranted.
The first “Legend of Drizzt” omnibus covers the “Homeland,” “Exile” and “Sojurn” story arcs, following Drizzt from his time growing up in the Underdark to his time leaving for the surface world and meeting with Bruenor Battlehammer. It’s a solid introduction to the character that takes us through his early growth and lets us see what shaped him into the legendary Drow ranger he becomes.
R.A. Salvatore’s storytelling comes through excellently in comic form as well as prose. Andrew Dabb adapts the original story into comic form well; using text boxes for narration enough to enhance the storytelling while still letting the art and dialogue carry most of it. Turning a moderately lengthy book into three comic chapters each is no easy feat, but he manages to condense the story without losing anything important. Key scenes are still given their due time to play out properly, such as Drizzt’s training and his time in Blingdenstone.
Each character’s voice comes through in the comic as clearly as it does in the book. From Jarlaxle’s smug and composed attitude to the cold cruelty of the Drow matrons, every piece of dialogue is filled with personality and helps propel the characters and story forward. We get little expressions like Belwar’s “Magga Cammara!” and well-defined accents like the Dwarvish inflections from Bruenor and Cattie-Brie, helping make each character stand out.
Does the story itself still stand up now, so many years after Drizzt was first introduced? Absolutely. We’re given a look at Drow society and get to see how it weighs down on Drizzt and takes from him, making his turning renegade all the more understandable. We follow him as he progresses from the Underdark to the surface, meets new people, achieves goals or fails to meet them, makes friends, loses friends, makes enemies and so on. Because we are alongside Drizzt through all this as readers, and we get a good look into his mind and his losses, he grows on us slowly and steadily.
It’s generally great character work and a well-paced story. After reading this, it’s no wonder why renegade Drow rangers with a panther companion suddenly became such a popular character archetype, but it takes a skilled writer to build and develop Drizzt as well as R.A. Salvatore does.
Of course, the story is only half of a comic. It’s up to the art team to bring Salvatore’s story to life. Tim Seeley does the pencil work for this omnibus, providing clean and nicely-detailed designs to the world of “Dungeons & Dragons” and the characters therein.
Continued belowOne of the challenges of illustrating the Underdark is creating a variety of character designs. Tim Seeley comes up with a variety of designs for each of the Drow in the Underdark, making each of them distinct in spite of their very similar fashion senses. The Svirfneblim (Deep Gnomes) are a little less distinct, but still have enough variations between their designs. And of course, the more humans and dwarves have more to make them distinct, but each design captures the personality of the characters well, from the wise and kind Montolio to the scarred and vengeful Roddy McGristle.
If the environment was a challenge as well, Tim Seeley overcame it too. The Underdark is drawn in great detail, blending the dark caverns with the architecture of the Dark Elf city nicely. The vast, imposing throne rooms and ritual chambers filled with spider-like imagery add to the frightful atmosphere, each with nice details like the cracks running along the ancient stone pillars to add to the scene.
The colors throughout the comic are provided by Blond, who manages to bring a good variety color even to the dark depths of the Underdark. While shades of black, brown and grey cover most of the scenery, the differences in their shading, fire and lighting effects, impact effects, colors on characters’ cloaks, eyes and armor, and so on continue to keep the scenes colorful. Between all of those, it keeps each page visually engaging while still making the darkness of the Underdark tangible. In fact, the glowing effects like the magical lights in the Underdark and fires from the ritual chambers stand out even more against the dark scenery.
Perhaps one of the best uses of color in the comic comes when Drizzt finally sees a sunrise after leaving the Underdark. The warm colors, mixed with the content smile on Drizzt’s face, are so satisfying after spending so long seeing him struggle underground.
Once Drizzt is on the surface, we get a wider array of color work, which still comes through nicely. The scenic world is a good use of Tim Seeley’s illustrations and Blond’s color work, making the world feel vibrant and living. In short, the illustrations and color work make the comic bring R.A. Salvatore’s characters and story to the comic pages wonderfully.
This comic was my first introduction to Drizzt Do’Urden outside of general “Dungeons & Dragons” lore and tales of countless “Drizzt clone” player characters. Reading it made a Drizzt fan out of me, and if anyone is looking to get introduced to the world of “Dungeons & Dragons,” its lore, and one of its most well-known and beloved characters, the omnibus for “The Legend of Drizzt” is a great place to start.
Final Verdict: 9.1 – A great collection of classic D&D stories featuring the famed renegade Drow, properly condensing R.A. Salvatore’s writing into comic form and providing great artwork to accompany it.
