Dungeons & Dragons #0 – Review

Fell’s Five By: John Rogers (writer), Andrea Di Vito (art), Andrew Dalhouse (colors), Chris Mowry (letters)

Freedom by: Alex Irvine (writer), Peter Bergting (art), Ronda Pattison (colors), Chris Mowry (letters)

The Story: IDW establishes some characters to play with in their newest licensed property: Dungeons & Dragons

What’s Good: This two-part story is a pretty effective appetite wetter for anyone who wants more Dungeons & Dragons in their life.  Like a lot of (mostly) guys between the ages of 30-45 I spent a LOT of time leafing through Monster Manuals and rolling up character sheets.  In fact, I always thought that the weakness of D&D is that they had created such a cool world that was such a pain in the butt to access because you needed 5-6 guys and a lot of time to really do the story telling.

I probably enjoyed the first of these two stories a little better.  It is a quick ~10 page story of getting-the-party-together.  And it is a pretty cliché party if you’ve ever played D&D: human fighter, dwarf fighter, halfling thief, tiefling sorcerer & half-elven ranger.  I guess no one wanted to play the cleric and be restricted to using non-edged weapons and spending all their spells healing the rest of the party??  Still, there is a reason this is a pretty classic party configuration: it works.  The art in this portion is good (not great, but good).  One of the cool things that the creators did in this story (beyond having the party fight gnolls and a black dragon) was that the thief mutters to herself constantly and it serves as a reminder of various gameplay mechanics of the D&D universe.  For example, as the party is descending a staircase, she is muttering (quietly) “trap, trap, trap…” to show the constant “thief is searching for traps” mechanic of D&D and later, during a fight, she mutters (again in an under the breath sort of way) “Sneak around to the flank…Stab them in the back” to highlight some other mechanics of the game.  It is something that could get old, but it does ground this story firmly in the D&D world.  I think that’s important because that appeal to D&D players is the only reason for this comic’s existence and it shows that IDW isn’t just slapping D&D on the cover a generic fantasy comic.

Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

DS’ Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Brightest Day #7 – Brightest Day #7 was a lot of fun with a whole lot of reveal. If you’re into classic superhero stories, done right and modern, check out Brightest Day.

Most Anticipated: The Thanos Imperative #3 – Anything featuring the former champion of death makes it onto my short list pretty quickly. I’m looking forward to seeing him take apart these alternate Avengers…or be taken apart by them!

Other Top Picks: Batgirl #13, X-Men #2, Adventure Comics #517, Birds of Prey #4, Titans #26

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: SHIELD #3 – “Blah, blah, blah…..I don’t understand what is going on.  Blah. Blah. Blah.”  Sigh… This comic just showed us Galileo harvesting the life essence of his fellow SHIELD members to fight Galactus and the subsequent strickening of 10 days from history.  Very cool!

Most Anticipated: The Walking Dead #76 – It seems like this comic is coming out every few weeks recently and that is a very good thing.  Very eager to see how the survivors deal with Rick’s inevitable cracking up.

Other Top Picks: Daytripper #9, Dungeons & Dragons #0, Morning Glories #1, Invincible Iron Man #29, X-Men #2

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: SHIELD #3 – In a week of comics that actually ended up being somewhat underwhelming overall, SHIELD #3 was the best of the underachieving pack.  While there were solid reads, it was the only book to come close to “wowing” me.

Most Anticipated: Morning Glories #1 -I think I’ve just bough into Nick Spencer’s hype on this one.  The concept sounds cool, the creative team is solid, and I hope I’m not disappointed.  This looks like it could very well be the next big Image series to stand alongside the Walking Dead and Chew.

Other Picks: Birds of Prey #4, Daredevil #509, DMZ #56, Invincible Iron Man #29, Superman #702, The Unwritten #16, Zatanna #4

Joe’s Top Picks

Best of the Past Week: Spider-Man/Fantastic Four #2 – Talk about a dark horse!  I fully expected to not even have a best of the week, but this one snuck in at the end and gave me loads of entertainment.  Gage and Alberti knocked this out of the 1980’s lovin’ park!  Mr. Fantastic joined with the Venom symbiote?  80’s era FF blue and white costumes?  She-Hulk squeezed into clothes 2 sizes too small for her?  Franklin Richards zapping stuff? Spidey, well, being Spidey?  It’s like I found a forgotten back issue from my childhood!  Awesome.

Most Anticipated: X-Force: Sex and Violence #2 – That’s right, I am soaking up all the Kyle and Yost X-Force goodness that I can before it disappears for good.  The first issue was a wild ride filled with fun and, yes, sex (well, kissing) and violence.  Here’s hoping they up the ante for this issue and things get even crazier!

Other Picks: Birds of Prey #4, Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #1, The Walking Dead #76, Daredevil #509, Incredible Hulk #611, Steve Rogers Super Soldier #2, Thanos Imperative #3, Ultimate Comics Avengers 3 #1, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #13, X-Men #2, The Calling Cthulhu Chronicles #2