Mystic Monday-Advanced Dungeons and Dragons #21

Over the years I've accumulated a decent sized collection of random comic books, both from people giving me chunks of their hordes and from comic shop grab bags. (I might be addicted to grab bags, please send help to gamesasliterature@gmail.com) I thought for my Monday reviews relating to comics I could dig out something at random and have fun with it.

This is partially for the fun of it, but also because a very important aspect of comics is the ability to jump in at any time and still be able to grasp the story and characters enough to want more. For my first jump into the longbox, I've pulled out Advanced Dungeons and Dragons #21, published by DC in 1990.

The story is the third part in a story arch, one in which the adventuring party of four has split into two groups to tackle to disappearance of their friend Luna, who is evidently a goddess in disguise. They suspect the church that worships her of the crime, and come to blows with those that claim devotion to their friend, the clerics believing the party are assassins from a rival god.

It's also set in Waterdeep, hub city for the Dungeons and Dragons setting Forgotten Realms. Now, I've never played in the setting, and I've never read any of the books, but I did room with a guy who was an obsessive R.A. Salvatore fan, so I've picked up the basics. Like, there's a dwarf which sharp armor who grapples people to death or something. Yeah. Sorry to fans of the setting, but Eberron and Spelljacker have always been more appealing to me.

Now, I've been playing D&D off and on for over a decade now, and the thing that impressed me the most in this comic is how it really resembled an in-universe version of an amazing session. The characters had great party banter that felt natural and full of camaraderie while never breaking the fourth wall as hard as some real-life games do, and the DM spent a lot of time setting up a dumb pun, which as we all know is Dungeon Master 101.

Not only that, but as a fantasy comic in general I was very impressed. The story moved at a good pace while still feeling like I'd read a full issue, something I can't always say with comics made these days. The action was a little choppy, but still legible enough. Truth be told, I'll always prefer that to overly detailed fights in comics anyway. For a first-time reader, the characters and their personalities are given to the reader in a perfectly organic fashion, and I never found myself scratching my head too much. I was given enough information to enjoy this issue, and honestly that's enough.

When it comes down to it, this was a really good issue, enough so that I'm actually interested in reading the entire run sometime. If you've played D&D and like reading comics I'd heavily recommend giving this series a try, and if you're only one of those things I'd still advice picking it up. I'm glad I gave this thing a read, and next time I dig into my longbox I think we'll find a crossover no one thought of and no one wanted.

#comics #dd #monday