The Novel Post: World of Warcraft: Death Knight
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[caption id="attachment_9252" align="alignright" width="298" caption="Snow flurries count as action, right?"]
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Tokyopop returned to the forefront of Warcraft's extended universe by releasing its ninth Warcraft related manga, World of Warcraft: Death Knight, two weeks ago. The book marks the first in the line of class-based stories, and artist Rocio Zucchi's first major undertaking. Writer Dan Jolley has had numerous cracks in the business, even penning a Warcraft short for each of the first three Warcraft: Legends collections.
Death Knight tells, and retells, the story of Thassarian, the first of his kind to break from Arthas' grasp and rejoin the Alliance. Thass is by no means a stranger to WoW players, acting as one of the main quest givers during a death knight's fight for freedom. The upside to that is that Thassarian's known lore allows Jolley and Zucchi to recant an incredibly brutal story. Jolley's tale is one full of action. Not long battles of wit and spell casting mind you, but confrontations of well executed strikes that result in a quick, and grisly deaths and dismemberment. Even chickens were beheaded.
Much of these battles follow previously known atrocities committed by Arthas and his minions. The sacking of Lordaeron, the battle at Light's Hope Chapel, and Frostmourne Cavern are all retold from Thassarian's perspective, with each being a key moment in death knight's life. Key moments that anyone familiar with today's lore can easily detail. By and large the only new chapters of the story are Thassarian's beginnings. His love of the farm, duty to his family and ambitious military career are the few poignant aspects of his life not previously known to lore nerds. For a lorejunky like myself, the only redeeming quality of the later chapters is Jolley's interpretation of the Lich King, how he speaks with and controls his minions.
It's quite apparent after reading WoW: Death Knight that Jolley's creativity was handcuffed by Thassarian's standing lore. Rather than being able to craft any character he wanted, he was constrained to using specific events, interjecting small bits of lore and details as he went. For those that have focused on the current lore, and death knights especially, the story is largely known. But Jolley's dialog, and the few aspects of new lore shine through and continue to show us that he's a capable writer in our favorite universe. Capable enough that he should be crafting his own stories, in short or long format. Zuchhi's freshman outing wasn't constrained like Jolley's, enabling her skills to highlight Jolley's action-packed tale clearly and efficiently. I never once had to rescan a pane to understand the art, a common issue I have in action manga.
World of Warcraft manga will continue with Richard Knaak's June 2010 installment, WoW: Mage. Little is known about the plot, but it has been disclosed that Mage features Kirin Tor's Dalaran, and (sadly) Knaak's pet character Rhonin will be in the title, but (thankfully) not the main character. Mage will be followed by WoW: Shaman, that has no known author currently. Tokyopop has stated that Shaman, another 2010 release, will tie-in with Cataclysm.
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Tokyopop returned to the forefront of Warcraft's extended universe by releasing its ninth Warcraft related manga, World of Warcraft: Death Knight, two weeks ago. The book marks the first in the line of class-based stories, and artist Rocio Zucchi's first major undertaking. Writer Dan Jolley has had numerous cracks in the business, even penning a Warcraft short for each of the first three Warcraft: Legends collections.
Death Knight tells, and retells, the story of Thassarian, the first of his kind to break from Arthas' grasp and rejoin the Alliance. Thass is by no means a stranger to WoW players, acting as one of the main quest givers during a death knight's fight for freedom. The upside to that is that Thassarian's known lore allows Jolley and Zucchi to recant an incredibly brutal story. Jolley's tale is one full of action. Not long battles of wit and spell casting mind you, but confrontations of well executed strikes that result in a quick, and grisly deaths and dismemberment. Even chickens were beheaded.
Much of these battles follow previously known atrocities committed by Arthas and his minions. The sacking of Lordaeron, the battle at Light's Hope Chapel, and Frostmourne Cavern are all retold from Thassarian's perspective, with each being a key moment in death knight's life. Key moments that anyone familiar with today's lore can easily detail. By and large the only new chapters of the story are Thassarian's beginnings. His love of the farm, duty to his family and ambitious military career are the few poignant aspects of his life not previously known to lore nerds. For a lorejunky like myself, the only redeeming quality of the later chapters is Jolley's interpretation of the Lich King, how he speaks with and controls his minions.
It's quite apparent after reading WoW: Death Knight that Jolley's creativity was handcuffed by Thassarian's standing lore. Rather than being able to craft any character he wanted, he was constrained to using specific events, interjecting small bits of lore and details as he went. For those that have focused on the current lore, and death knights especially, the story is largely known. But Jolley's dialog, and the few aspects of new lore shine through and continue to show us that he's a capable writer in our favorite universe. Capable enough that he should be crafting his own stories, in short or long format. Zuchhi's freshman outing wasn't constrained like Jolley's, enabling her skills to highlight Jolley's action-packed tale clearly and efficiently. I never once had to rescan a pane to understand the art, a common issue I have in action manga.
World of Warcraft manga will continue with Richard Knaak's June 2010 installment, WoW: Mage. Little is known about the plot, but it has been disclosed that Mage features Kirin Tor's Dalaran, and (sadly) Knaak's pet character Rhonin will be in the title, but (thankfully) not the main character. Mage will be followed by WoW: Shaman, that has no known author currently. Tokyopop has stated that Shaman, another 2010 release, will tie-in with Cataclysm.
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