Maker bless you, warriors, rogues, and mages, and welcome to our summation of the Dragon Age comics (so far). What worked? What didn’t? Which one was the best? (Spoiler alert: it was “Knight Errant.” That was the best one). The success or lack thereof of all the books hinges largely on the agency of the protagonist(s); do they drive the story, or does the story drive them? As readers, we more easily invest ourselves in characters who are active rather than reactive. When active characters make choices that have story-defining consequences, we care more about their choices. When passive characters react to a world they have no control over, it truly doesn’t matter what choices they make, and so we care less about their choices. There will be heavy plot spoilers for all seven Dragon Age books, so assemble your ragtag team of eclectic misfits, and learn the value of fellowship, here’s my take on all seven Dragon Age comic books.
Silent + Deadly
First chronologically and in order from worst to best is “Dragon Age: The Silent Grove.” The fun part about it, for fans of the Dragon Age games, is the opportunity to follow your old friends, Alistair, Isabela, and Varric, on a new adventure. For first time forays into the Dragon Age canon, there is little else to be excited about. There is a promise of a big dramatic question: are olde magicks too dangerous to be preserved? It’s a good question, it begs a nuanced answer, but the book doesn’t engage with that question too deeply before Alistair murders the only person with an interested perspective. In his rush to judgment (and execution) Alistair denies the readers the opportunity to invest in the story, intellectually or emotionally.
Friends Without Benefits
“Dragon Age: Magekiller” follows a new pair of friendos: Tessa and Marius. To be forthright about my biases, I am particularly predisposed to dislike Marius, who fits the brooding-hero archetype that I find tiresome. However, what really keeps this book from meeting its greatest potential is the reluctance of both Tessa and Marius to participate in their own story. Too many pages are spent cajoling them to take a job they don’t want, or go on an adventure they don’t want. It’s difficult for readers to be interested in a story that the protagonists aren’t also interested in. A mitigating factor of delight comes in the form of Tessa’s relationship with Charter. Their meet-cute is genuinely funny and charming, aided by expertly paced panels. However, in the end, Charter’s main impact is to question Tessa’s friendship with Marius, who is so quiet and brooding, she finds his care for Tessa suspect. This conflict is resolved when Marius risks his life to save Tessa, but it again feels like a reaction to circumstances, not an active choice by Tessa or Marius, making it an uninteresting conclusion to what could have been an interesting conflict.
Perchance to Fade
Varric Tethras is an amiable storyteller, which makes him a fun meta-narrator for “Dragon Age: Until We Sleep.” He knows he’s in a story, because to him, it’s easier to see everything through the lens of a story. It’s fitting that this is the book that brings us into the Fade, the world of dreams, a place where demons tell you the story you want to hear to trick you into giving them something they want. In the Fade, we get a glimpse into what we think might be Varric’s real backstory, but because it’s the Fade, we don’t know for sure if it’s real, and the dramatic reveal of it falls flat. Our heroes have their final dramatic show-down against Aurelian Titus, but he’s a real mustache-twirly-type villain, and that falls flat too. For a story about stories told by a storyteller, this story is fun, well rendered, but not terribly compelling.
High Seas Regret
“Dragon Age: Those Who Speak” ranks a little higher than “Until We Sleep” only because our glimpse into Isabela’s backstory is more consequential, more complicated, and more interesting than Varric’s. The overarching plot of the search for Alistair’s father remains vague and dull, but Isabela’s struggle with her own sense of morality and the guilt and shame she feels for the truly terrible things she has done is fascinating. Isabela is problematic; she’s a fetishized archetype. Still, it would be reductive to say she is only a fetishized archetype. She has a profound internal life, underneath what little clothing will cling to her gravity-defying boobs.
Continued belowFellowship of the Wraith
The final installment so far, “Dragon Age: Blue Wraith” is the first true ensemble piece, bringing home what all stories in the Dragon Age canon are really about: fellowship. We have finally assembled an exquisite ragtag team of eclectic misfits who will prevail only when they work together and care for one another. Classic! This book can be a little confusing at times; there are a lot of fantastical words to remember that could be people, places, or things, and Francesca acts as the omniscient narrator for the whole team despite her lack of omniscience. However, the heart of this book shines through, epitomized in my favorite panel of the series, when Vaea comforts Francesca. The characters care about each other, and that makes the reader care about them too. Aww! Yay!
Addicted to Drama
“Dragon Age: Deception” follows a flawed, but maybe somewhat good-hearted protagonist named Olivia. She’s a fun character, an ac-tor archetype. One gets the sense she’d object to being described as a “failed actress” on the back cover. She makes baffling but interesting choices. She isn’t nice to people. In this era where the selfish anti-hero is becoming harder to tolerate, Olivia somehow rises above, keeping readers absorbed in her machinations and untroubled by questions of redemption, shrugging when she gets redemption anyway. Olivia does have a tendency, as a lot of Dragon Age protagonists seem to, to get roped into drama, but once she’s roped in, she’s in, and she drives her own story forward, making consequential decisions.
A Cut Above
In “Dragon Age: Knight Errant” Vaea makes a very different kind of protagonist. She’s sincere, earnest, lovable, and she is in complete control of her own story. She’s an anti-anti-hero. In “Blue Wraith” she stays out of the limelight, but she remains the emotional anchor of the group, so it’s gratifying that she gets her own book before that. Another thing that makes Vaea a cut above every other Dragon Age protagonist is that she finally does away with ludo-narrative dissonance. Unlike everyone else, she alone fights bravely for justice without killing anyone, let alone killing a thousand nameless minions on the path to the one big important justice-murder. Olivia’s the snooty one, but Vaea is too classy for that nonsense.
Andraste Says
The comics find their greatest success in the thing that makes the Dragon Age games so successful… its heart. Aww! Yes, Dragon Age can be described as gritty dark fantasy, but what makes the world of Thedas an attractive place to spend an afternoon in is… you know… the oft mentioned ragtag team of eclectic misfits who learn the value of fellowship. It does seem like the comics are heading more and more in that focused direction, so it’ll be really exciting to see what our favorite ragtag team of eclectic misfits do next. Until that time, Maker bless you.
