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Review: Dungeons & Dragons #1

By | November 14th, 2010
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Written by: John Rogers
Illustrated by: Andrea Di Vito

Beginning a new era in Dungeons & Dragons history! The genre-defining roleplaying game gets its first ongoing series in more than 20 years! Join writer John Rogers (Blue Beetle) and artist Andrea Di Vito (Annihilation) as they bring us a tale of high adventure and deep secrets. Adric Fell leads a band of heroes in a world where civilization has been reduced to a few scattered points of light amid a rising tide of shadows.

I’ll freely admit it: comics aren’t the only realm of nerd-dom that I dabble in. I got into pen and paper RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons in my early teens, and — while I don’t play them as much as I used to — I have been known to still pick up a D20 every now and then. Does issue #1 of IDW’s new Dungeons & Dragons series satisfy my craving for dungeon-delving nostalgia, or does it roll a natural one? Follow the cut to find out.

This was a fun comic, but it was hardly ground-breaking. Even though the cast avoids the standard four-person party that dominates fantasy and role=playing games, there are still a few cliches that any fantasy reader has seen over and over again (Halfling rogue, Elven ranger, etc). The characters (as of now) appear a bit one-dimensional, but that could certainly change over time. The plot was enough to keep me reading, but it didn’t have me at the edge of my seat.

And you know what? That’s alright. The market is currently over-saturated with mediocre superhero titles, yet they sell better than fun fantasy comics like this. Despite the flaws I pointed out earlier, there is one trait this comic has that places it above all the mid-tier cape comics that continue to get published: it is damn funny. I laughed aloud multiple times while reading this comic, something that many “funny” comics currently being published have failed to accomplish. In a sense, this comic reminds me of the earlier arcs of Cable and Deadpool, while it was primarily plot-driven but still filled with laughs.

As usual, the only thing that makes me hesitant to give this the buy mark is the price. $3.99 for approximately twenty-five story pages is still a gyp, even if it is becoming the industry standard. I understand that the issue had a bunch of extras in the back for fans of the role-playing game, but that is just one more thing that could end up being a deal-breaker for a prospective buyer. In order to usurp market control from the big two, third-party companies need to start offering more competitive prices.

Final Verdict: 6.5 – Browse, and buy it if you like it.


Walt Richardson

Walt is a former editor for Multiversity Comics and current podcaster/ne'er-do-well. Follow him on Twitter @goodbyetoashoe... if you dare!

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