First Look at World of Warcraft Comic

The MTV Multiplayer blog has a first look at the World of Warcraft comic book slated to start its run next month. Set to be published by the Wildstorm imprint, and written by "Thor" and "Orion" veteran Walter Simonson, the comic will focus on the exploits of an amnesiac human washed up on the shores of the continent of Kalimdor. "Simonson said the comic will be 'very much tied to the lore and to the Warcraft history.' 'If you're a longtime player, I think the comic is a revelation about some of the mysteries,' he explained. 'There are mysteries from the past that have never been totally addressed within the game, or at least we're able to address them in the comic in a way that the game hasn't been able to.' He also said that he tried to write the comic so that it appeases Warcraft fans as well as newcomers." For a taste of the art from the first issue (done by Ludo Lullabi and inker Sandra Hope), the site has the first five pages available for viewing.

Comments

First

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you have to read the same pages over and over again to get to the end page?

Re:First

[icyslush]

No, but expect to have troubles trying to read it on patch day Tuesdays.

LFG

[PJ1216]

If you want a comic based in the World of Warcraft world (well, ok, loosely based in the WoW world), I suggest http://www.lfgcomic.com/. Its a humorous comic called Looking For Group. Its pretty damn good. It gets its characters from WoW more than it does the world or plotline. I suggest reading it from the beginning, the story arcs are pretty damn good.

Re:LFG

[Xight]

The video Slaughter your World is pretty funny as well, and made by the same person. My favorite quote is from Richard, "For Pony!"

Re:LFG

[Jack9]

Its a humorous comic called Looking For Group. Its pretty damn good. It gets its characters from WoW more than it does the world or plotline. I suggest reading it from the beginning, the story arcs are pretty damn good.

Plug? This is the type of "only funny to wow addicts of a certain bent" that the comic is hoping to avoid AFAIK.

Re:LFG

[Blakey Rat]

1) I hate comics where the comic isn't on the damned homepage. No I don't want to click through to view your comic.

2) "Today's comic" is not funny. It's more like catching the last third of a movie and having no clue what's going on or who anybody is.

Re:LFG

[GaryPatterson]

Thanks for that. I just spent a little while reading the whole set, and will now bookmark that site in my 'check often' list.

Best line ever - "It was self defense. The orphanage attacked me!" (although "Worst. Portal. Ever." was a good one too)

Re:LFG

[PJ1216]

they aren't one-shot comics. reading today's comic is like opening a comic book to a random page and saying, "i don't know whats going on." obviously you wouldn't. why should an online comic have every single comic be a standalone comic? plus, the comic not being on the front page makes sense. if you just arrived and don't know whats going on, its best that you don't see a random shot. its like turning on a movie in the middle of the movie. this lets you start from the beginning without having anything given away. Plus, its literally one click to see Today's Comic. I'd rather a more organized homepage as opposed to every single bit of detail on the homepage. That's why its a website and not a webpage. It'd be quite messy if everybody put everything all on the homepage.

Let me be the first to say...

[Fozzyuw]

Simonson said the comic will be 'very much tied to the lore and to the Warcraft history.

lolore

Re:Let me be the first to say...

[fractoid]

Lore is died.

Now we just kill central Warcraft characters in order to steal their shit. :(

True to the game? Hardly

[SmallFurryCreature]

If it was true, then a newbie washed up in that area would indeed be chow. Furthermore there are no specfic areas to target, you cannot take out an eye, just pummel away. Fancy combat skills? Again no, just the same basic attack over and over and hope their health bar goes down faster then your own. A horde helping out an allience? Fighting effectivly with items way below your level? No no.

Will he get ganked in later chapters? Have to que to kill a boss, wait hours for a spawn? Will there be a love interest? A plot? Interaction with other characters? Will half the people he meet be bunnyhopping around the place? Will there be gold spammers?

Frankly it reminds me a bit off various other US comics, who in general are far too busy being comics to really bother with the original subject. Maybe it will get better, but frankly I see "shameless cash-in" so far.

Re:True to the game? Hardly

[d0rp]

Will he get ganked in later chapters? Have to que to kill a boss, wait hours for a spawn? Since when have you ever had to queue to kill a boss, or wait hours for a spawn in WoW? You have to queue to go to battlegrounds and join arenas, but that's all PvP. Bosses are typically instanced and you can just go in and kill him/her/it.

As for waiting for spawns, the only time I've ever had to wait for a spawn is when a server is just opened, or new content is added, and everyone is trying to kill the same boars (or what-have-you). That can get frustrating, but you hardly have to wait hours, and after a few days there won't be any problems anyways.

Re:True to the game? Hardly

[Syrae]

The difference between a subject matter's presentation between genres is always different. Games are designed to give you some sort of goal element and a known but somewhat difficult way to accomplish that goal. Certainly, even the difference between game genres make it obvious that the same material can be presented in many different ways. I remember thinking, "a Warcraft MMO? God that's going to suck. You'll just be some random human footman in large battles or being zerged by orcs."

In any case, go read some of the novels, play the various games and read some of lore and you'll get a better idea of their little game world.

Plus, there's some speculation about that particular amnesiac human, that he isn't some random "level 1 noob" at all. If the rumors are true, it's nice to see that he managed to escape Alcaz Island.

Re:True to the game? Hardly

[Rayonic]

Sounds like he's thinking of Everquest. That and the whole no-variety-to-attacks thing too, probably.

Re:True to the game? Hardly

[Chris Mattern]

I remember thinking, "a Warcraft MMO? God that's going to suck. You'll just be some random human footman in large battles or being zerged by orcs."

And as it turned out, ironically it's the Orcs that get zerged...

Chris Mattern

Re:True to the game? Hardly

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe his account got hacked, and all his gear stolen...

Re:True to the game? Hardly

[fractoid]

To be fair, maybe he has a low level warrior. I'm levelling my second, and I had forgotten how horrible the early levels are. You basically have a few debuffs and that's it - you autoattack. Hell, paladins are more interactive at low levels.

*sigh* only 4 more levels until whirlwind axe...

Re:True to the game? Hardly

[MWoody]

Hrm, while I generally don't mind some WoW bashing, I don't like seeing anyone take bashing they don't deserve. Much of what you mention doesn't apply to World of Warcraft at all.

  - No special attacks? Of course there are special attacks. Anyone who just autoswings their way through life will fail to kill mobs as early as level 5.
  - Horde helping out alliance? Yeah, it happens pretty frequently. Less so on pvp servers, but it still occurs. Not sure why this is a minus, anyway; war is in the name, after all.
  - Fight effectively with items way below your level - of course you can, I do it all the time while I level; not sure what this is referring to at all.
  - Ganked in later chapters? Well duh, if you're on a pvp server, pvp happens. Don't like it? Try pve.
  - Queue to kill a boss? Since when? Maybe if he's a quest spawn, I guess, but even the nastiest respawn timers for quest mobs are in the range of 1-2 minutes.
  - Wait hours for a spawn? What spawn? Certainly no quest mobs, and boss mobs are instanced.
  - Interaction with other characters? All the time. It's required for endgame content, after all. Although if you meant non-player characters... no, interact with those a lot, too.
  - If people are bunnyhopping, your connection blows.
  - Gold spammers? Nope, they've pretty much fixed that entirely. Haven't gotten a spam in months.

What's also funny is that you seem bothered by the perceived lack of plot, yet you're unhappy with a comic that adds story to the universe.

If you're going to bash WoW, there's plenty to bash; it's far from a perfect experience. But if you've never played it, as I suspect you haven't, I'd suggest you at least research your derision.

On a side note, this isn't the first comic they've released for WoW; there was an AWFUL, AWFUL, MY GOD IT HURTS manga-style comic released a while back.

Re:True to the game? Hardly

[scrantaj]

Sounds like the OP has been playing FFXI Online rather than WoW, especially with regard to the boss spawns and queing to kill a particular mob. 72hr Spawn timer, oh joy. I agree with you on most of the points you made with the exception of the gold spam. Spend any length of time in one of the home cities and you will get gold spam. The latest trick is to log on a trash toon, spam one or twice and log striaght off again. This means you can't then add that toon to your ignore list, although you can still report them for spamming. Whether that actually achieves anything is a nother quuestion.

Paper FTW!

[Manxome]

World of Warcraft has a remarkably rich universe and there's a lot of room for good storytelling. While there are several webcomics based on WoW already (LFG is a relatively professional example), there's something to be said for honest to goodness paper media. It's good to see that even an inherently tech subject matter can still make its way into physical print, and it's even better to see it done by an experienced writer like Walter Simonson.

wow

[coolhandlucas]

You mean they didn't do this yet? Books ... TCG ... board games ... a movie forthcoming ... seems like a logical step.
Anyway, I'm always happy to add another item to my list of things I wouldn't even consider spending money on.

Re:wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Rate parent troll.

MTV?

[Anonymous Coward]

The best part of the article is when Xzibit comes and pimps this guys toon. It's sick!

I'm sure it will be rivetting

[Floritard]

Myself, I'm hoping to gain insight on the ecological implications of all that ostrich killing. I mean, I hear there's more to do in that game, but whenever I watch my friend play it he's usually just killing more ostriches. That's got to have a large impact on the surrounding ecosystem, not to mention the cultural and economic factors in dealing with all that scattered ostrich carrion.

Re:I'm sure it will be rivetting

[fractoid]

Level up a bit and you get to kill raptors. They're like ostriches with tails and less feathers. And more teeth. Basically the same though.

(Been playing since Feb '04. Nope, there's not much more to the game, unless you count grouping up to kill bigger, more versatile ostriches of various shapes and sizes, or (my personal favorite) killing other players in battlegrounds or arenas. It's fun, though, in a mindless way. :)

Comic Farming

[User 956]

Do you have to read the same pages over and over again to get to the end page?

Actually, you can pay some guy in china to have his team of players read it for you.

Re:Comic Farming

[WillAffleckUW]

Actually, you can pay some guy in china to have his team of players read it for you.

But first you have to ignore all the group invites from all the other people trying to sell you something, and hope that the level 40 elf hunters don't grief your starting level characters ....

more "horde cool" badass wannabeeness ?

[unity100]

the one thing i fed up in wow was that. tons of people who are badass wannabees that nullify 5000 year old celtic mythology, by attributing 'good' stuff to the badass races they wanted to play. just like darth maul/vader wannabees who got their butt blasted with obi wan cutting their badass icon to half in Episode III.

i first taken up a joy in setting up a good pvp char and beating the crap outta these wannabees in arenas and bgs (they HATE it when their arse is handed over to them and cant take it, screenful of /spit s start to fly by), but then it became mundane and i quit.

now same badass wannabeeness will be coming to a comic probably, considering how much blizzard favors the badass faction over the other.

Re:more "horde cool" badass wannabeeness ?

[shinma]

That would be valid if, indeed, World of Warcraft was 5000 year old celtic mythology.

It's not. It's barely decades old Warhammer mythology repackaged to avoid licensing issues. ;P

It is perfectly valid to use somewhat recognizable archetypes in new ways without "nullifying" a different take. Look at vampires, for instance. What you would likely consider the "archetypal" vampire is only a construct of the 19th century that "nullifies" myths that have existed in every known human culture. The seductive undead nobility of Carmilla and Dracula have nothing to do with the mindless revenants that existed before Le Fanu got his hand on the creatures, and yet they have every bit as much of a place in the world's fiction and literature as the Vrykolakas, the Strigoi or the Penangallan.

If you can't look at the Warcraft universe in its own context, rather than intertextualizing your own preconceptions, that's not really Blizzard's problem, it's yours.

Re:more "horde cool" badass wannabeeness ?

[unity100]

That would be valid if, indeed, World of Warcraft was 5000 year old celtic mythology. one other thing i hate in second place is people using this crappy argument.

90% or more of what is in world of warcraft IS celtic mythology. just orcs, elven, dwarven, goblins, trolls are the races from that mythology, and im not even going into millions of items or settings pictured in the game can be traced back to celtic roots and then to medieval storytelling and then to early ad&d literature (lotr and similar) and then to today's ad&d. actually whatever is remotely based on today's ad&d is based on celtic mythology.

it is not perfectly valid in basing something heavily on some mythology and then shattering it with stupidalia that totally shakes that mythology in its roots. there has been nothing "honorable" or good or even acceptable in celtic mythology or medieval times or even early ad&d literature as to orcs, trolls, goblins or whatever.

all the shit that was invented was invented in between warcraft 2 and wow, which coincides with warcraft 3, you know, the game they decided to push in after deciding that they were not ready for wow yet. and no surprise, in that game they pushed all the needed shit for making the evil faction less evil, because else noone would play with it - during that time swg was suffering from very little playing imperial side, hampering gameplay, and they took their lesson from it. but, not surprisingly they just told some script writers to incorporate totally top down shit about humans being 'corrupt' and orcs 'honorable', and just like that 5000 year old mythology have gone to shambles, with just a lead developer's decision. soe tried to pull the same shit in swg, by purporting that "empire is not evil in fact", but lucas have showed them the stick, and they repented.

no sir. blizzard not only f*cked up whatever excitement warcraft 2 and its lore had up to that time, but also shattered 5000 year old mythology. it is a total joke.

Re:more "horde cool" badass wannabeeness ?

[shinma]

Stories evolve, regardless of whether you agree with that evolution or not. To be fair, though, both LotR and WoW are actually based more heavily on Norse myths than they are any sort of Celtic myth. Trolls, elves, orcs, etc. are all Norse constructs.

Of course, your precious Star Wars is in large part a retelling of those same myths from the "badass" side... Loki's full name is.... Loki Skywalker.

Re:more "horde cool" badass wannabeeness ?

[unity100]

evolution is very different from spoiling. some scripter instructed to put in totally incompliant stuff to a game just for the sake of game development and financial concerns does not count as evolution.

Re:more "horde cool" badass wannabeeness ?

[shinma]

First of all, you really have no proof that it was put in the game "just for the sake of game development and financial concerns," but even if it was, it's a game. Game development concerns are quite valid.

More importantly, just because you don't like where they went doesn't mean that it's "spoiled." Opinions are like assholes, after all. I personally find the echoes of imperialistic "civilized" society versus the "savage" natives using traditional fantasy tropes far more interesting than yet another stale retelling of Lord of the Rings, which is what "traditional" fantasy has become. The wider array of moral dilemmas introduced by having the Horde races not be blatantly evil, nor the Alliance be purely good is more entertaining for the nuances therein. The fact that parts of the Human race are corrupt simply makes them more, well, human.

As for changing Celtic myths (which they largely aren't, as I said and you ignored, they are mostly Norse), most of those myths were passed on orally, and is therefore quite suspect... There is no "canon" that is irrevocably "true," while all others are false. The world would be a far less colorful place if we could only tell a story one way.

Re:more "horde cool" badass wannabeeness ?

[unity100]

First of all, you really have no proof that it was put in the game "just for the sake of game development and financial concerns," but even if it was, it's a game. Game development concerns are quite valid. i am sure of it. they intentionally delayed wow and instead put out war 3, to check up on how other important mmogs that had big lore and were being put out at that time went. they learned from every mistake soe did. additionally, game development concerns are always inferior to lore concerns. because nomatter how replayability, user interface, mechanics are, when you shatter a lore you eventually remove the game's pull on the gamer. similar to swg.

More importantly, just because you don't like where they went doesn't mean that it's "spoiled." Opinions are like assholes, after all. I personally find the echoes of imperialistic "civilized" society versus the "savage" natives using traditional fantasy tropes far more interesting than yet another stale retelling of Lord of the Rings, which is what "traditional" fantasy has become. The wider array of moral dilemmas introduced by having the Horde races not be blatantly evil, nor the Alliance be purely good is more entertaining for the nuances therein. The fact that parts of the Human race are corrupt simply makes them more, well, human. no 2 faction happens to be equal in terms of good/evil in even real world. however in wow there is, and this perfect equality purported by scripters is showing up. its not about "opinion", its about a measure of realism. you depict a faction as pure evil in 2 major games, then instantly twist it in your 3rd game to make ground for a 4th game on the lore. TOTAL stunt.

As for changing Celtic myths (which they largely aren't, as I said and you ignored, they are mostly Norse), most of those myths were passed on orally, and is therefore quite suspect... There is no "canon" that is irrevocably "true," while all others are false. The world would be a far less colorful place if we could only tell a story one way. they mostly are not norse, actually a great deal of them comes from the place where celts were last present independently before roman invasion - the british isles.

even if it has been as you said theres still a CONTINUITY concept. you can make 'changes' to a lore and twist it, but you cant overturn FUNDAMENTAL stuff amongst it. its not about color and such, its about coming up and saying "humans are actually not humans at all, humans are in fact holo-images projected by some alien civilization to fool just one actual human" in REAL world, in order to prepare some ground for some financial enterprise. its totally awkward.

Re:more "horde cool" badass wannabeeness ?

[shinma]

even if it has been as you said theres still a CONTINUITY concept. you can make 'changes' to a lore and twist it, but you cant overturn FUNDAMENTAL stuff amongst it. its not about color and such, its about coming up and saying "humans are actually not humans at all, humans are in fact holo-images projected by some alien civilization to fool just one actual human" in REAL world, in order to prepare some ground for some financial enterprise. its totally awkward. Perhaps you shouldn't watch The Matrix... Or read Slaughterhouse 5, or I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, or American Gods...

As with my original example of the vampire, it is quite possible (and acceptable in every other form of literature) to take elements or themes from older works and twist them into something completely new. Look at Neon Genesis Evangelion's take on Christianity. Or Masques and Martyrs, by Christopher Golden, where the first vampire is Jesus Christ. One must only maintain continuity within the story one is telling. Blizzard has no obligation to remain faithful to ancient mythologies in a world where Goblins talk like Budweiser commercials.

As for the origins of the Horde races in our own myths... The Tauren come from Greco-Roman myths, orcs, trolls and elves have their roots in Norse myth. There are "elfs" in Celtic myth, but the tall, noble sort comes from Norse legend. Orcs come from Beowulf, and Trolls are one of the under races of Norse myth.

Re:more "horde cool" badass wannabeeness ?

[unity100]

Or read Slaughterhouse 5, or I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, or American Gods... didnt read or watch any of these. matrix, irrelevant.

As with my original example of the vampire, it is quite possible (and acceptable in every other form of literature) to take elements or themes from older works and twist them into something completely new. Look at Neon Genesis Evangelion's take on Christianity. Or Masques and Martyrs, by Christopher Golden, where the first vampire is Jesus Christ. One must only maintain continuity within the story one is telling. Blizzard has no obligation to remain faithful to ancient mythologies in a world where Goblins talk like Budweiser commercials. apologies, but i dont like or get in on any of the lores you mentioned. as to blizzard, it had an obligation, it didnt follow it, people stomached it, but the "evil paladin" shit has been the last straw. there are many people canceling the game and moving on as of now, half due to this new bullshit that came with the tbc, and half due to their new cash-cow take on mmo game concept.

Dark Legacy - WoW Comic

[apachetoolbox]

http://www.darklegacycomics.com/first.html

Lots and lots of funny WoW moments.

the truth about the two Jenkinses

[Anonymous Coward]

Will the comic feature the evil slaver Jenkins and the good thief hero Jenkins?

If so its bound to be better than the Atari Force comics.

Quick summary...

[SynapseLapse]

ORGRIMMAR blah blah blah.... DIRE MAUL blah blah blah.... ELVES blah blah blah.... DIRE MAUL blah blah blah.... BLADEFIST BAY blah blah blah.... CROCOLISK blah blah blah.... ORGRIMMAR blah blah blah.... [Not so subtle reference to the arean] blah blah blah....

*yawns* Riveting stuff indeed.

Another video game comic?

[corky842]

I hope it matches the sheer genius of the Doom comic.

Is there really a market for this crap?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Is there really a market for this crap? A comic book about Warcraft? C'mon - the weakest part of Blizzard has ALWAYS been the story - remember those awful cut scenes in StarCraft?

Re:Is there really a market for this crap?

[fractoid]

Each to their own, I thought the Starcraft cutscenes were great. :) And regardless of whether you're into it or not, the thing that really does set WoW apart from other MMO games is the depth of lore behind it, and the familiarity of that lore to the fanbase. Which, of course, results in sad unhappy players when the devs take a dump on the lore for the sake of finding new bosses to fight. In particular they've way overused the "...and then he went crazy and they had to kill him, oh and he drops epix" line to set players against a bunch of bosses that it really makes no sense for them to fight. For instance, Kael'thas and Illidan ended Frozen Throne on good terms, and by rights should be allied with the Horde.

Also, in the first few panels the orcs talk funny. Dumb orc talk like this. More educated orcs can be quite erudite. I've never heard o' an orc talkin' this way before, 'though.

Re:Is there really a market for this crap?

[Tukz]

I strongly disagree with you there.
Have you ever taken the time to study the Warcraft lore?
It's very extensive.

Blizzard have managed to make just fine stories. Diablo had a good background story, though a bit short in the game play of the story. But a lot better than most games of that genre. (Nox, Darkstone, etc)

Starcraft does have a lore, just not a very extensive one.
Warcraft, however, have enough to fill a trilogy.

Re:Is there really a market for this crap?

[Udderdude]

http://www.wowwiki.com/Lore

Have fun.

Not the first one...

[MaWeiTao]

Some may already be aware of this but there has been a Warcraft comic book out for some time now published by TokyoPop: Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy

I haven't read the story but the artwork is quite cool, at least if you're into that anime style, I suppose.

First look?

[Anonymous Coward]

First look at a WoW comic? And I thought Sunwell trilogy has been out for many years now - or perhaps nobody's bothered to take a look at it before now? :P

Re:Not the first one... (comic ... or manga)

[WillAffleckUW]

Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy is more of a manga than a comic book, IMHO.

Based on having read it.

It's pretty lame, mind you.