Monday, May 4, 2009

World of Warcraft #2 and #3



Behold the world of Borecraft, where characters are needlessly melodramatic, pointless exposition rules, and no one even gets to level up once.


40 comments:

Anonymous said...

the problem with these mainly seem to be that they explain all the stuff if you play the game you buy the book and know where these places are, you dont need to tell us about thunder bluff

Anonymous said...

ps 90s kid rocked theres at least 10 years of comics he can be used with

Rhomega said...

Yes, orcs are aliens. They came to Azeroth through the Dark Portal. You can visit Draenor, or what's left of it, but it's commonly referred to as "Outlands".

Anyway, these comics are lame because there's so much to be explained for those new to the comic, and those familiar with the franchise looking for familiar settings.

Oh, and I'm Halberdier, a Human Pally on Sen'jin, if anyone wants to know.

Alex Stritar said...

You know what's sad about all this, when they were giving exposition, I knew exactly what they were talking about. I do enjoy the game a lot, even though I haven't played it in a while.

Still, that comic did look teadiously dull, even more so than lvl grinding.

Razorgeist said...

You cannot possibly go wrong with a Star Trek: Enterprise andorian reference.

Premier Blah said...

The Druid changes into a Bear...because he can. That's probably the only reason he does it.
Also I have no clue when Taurens call others by the color of their skin. Mostly they talk about honorable crap about the Earthmother and wanting the wind at your back and so on.

Lotus Prince said...

Easily my favorite part was just the way you delivered "Since when has CAVE been an element?"

Well done!

Premier Blah said...

Also, the second gladiator who Conan kills is probably a troll, who always speak in Jamaican accents. They're Jamaican me crazy.

Anonymous said...

WOW. Andorians, and a Conan movie reference! Nice job Linkara. But yeah, these comics seem like a total drag. The art is pretty lame as well, the anime-esque look is pretty uninspired, and the look of the panels is really one dimensional. It does nothing to hook the reading into felling like they're in the comic. Plus with the boring and tedious plot expositions, it seems more like a chore to read than enjoy.

Ductos said...

I think these comics are intended for the people who are really deep into the WarCraft lore. In today's WoW they even expect you to know the story of the comic. Only with the knowledge of the comic in the back you might unterstand why Stormwind has suddenly got his old king back.

John said...

What confuses me the most is that the Orcs have slaves. The orcs, a people who escaped slavery not that long ago, whom's leader's only name is 'Thrall', and who constantly and open express disgust and contempt for slavery, have such an open gladiatorial slave system. If this is supposed to be a criminal underbelly, it's a very poorly disguised one.

MetFanMac said...

"It's beautifully... SHOOTY."

Keep 'em coming Linkara... oops, I mean Mr. Powerfist.

Marsten said...

I play WoW, quite a lot. And even I can't stand any of the comic books.

Charna said...

I knew I wasn't the only one who has that poke'ball! 8D
I challenge, you, Linkara-*coughMr.Powerfist*-, to a Poke'mon battle!

JiBĂ© said...

That was awesome, Mr. Awesome...uh...anwyay, great video ! Your impression of Arnold cracks me up like you wouldn't believe.

Anonymous said...

Ummm the series does pick up in the later issues so making a judgement based only on the first couple of issues is kinda pointless.

Tho I did love the Conan references.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the review of these comics! In the interest of full disclosure, I do play WoW regularly, and I do know the Lore and enjoy it very much. However, I agree that WoW is not the game for everyone. Unless you are willing to spend a lot of time to learn the ins and outs of the game, understand its Lore, and devote time and effort to achieve your goals - you will not like this game at all.

Despite my love of WoW, I have to admit that these comics are as terrible as I have read about on WoW fan sites. The art is iffy at best, the writing is awful purple prose and pointless explainations of everything (most WoW players would know Thunder Buff on sight, Lore-savvy or not), and the story is merely to explain what happened to the King of Stormwind and what is going on in the current patch (sorry for the spoilers!) which would have been better done in game. These comics exist to milk more money from the WoW cash cow, and for nothing more.

Philosophista said...

I prefer playing WArcraft 2: Tides o f Darkness... The funny thing is that the game actually became VERY FAST playing in this new PCs Corel Duo +... It's like the whole game accessed the Speed Force or something...

But yeah, this is more one these games they made comics just to sell for fanatics... What is, actually terrible, because it seems that you could make a good comic with WoW backgroud...

Anonymous said...

Great review! "Since when has CAVE been an element?" made me actually laugh out loud.

rizzo said...

Wow...lore exposition that I'd imagine any seasoned WoW veteran would know, yet almost completely inaccessible to non WoW players. A brilliant combination!

Good review, though I was waiting for a comment on how the guy that owns them looks like a fantasy version of Dr. Venture.

Anonymous said...

Good Grief.

I think the story writers tried to cash in on the wanton violence that isn't fully realized in WoW.

Like you, I played WoW, it was 'alright' but it didn't suck me in, paying every month made it hard to escape reality.

I never thought that PC tie-in comics would be so bad, I mean, they have a lot of of opportunity to make a decent story instead of name dropping every place. I am sorry this is one of the times I actually got bored listening to them, these comics suck.

The Shilohan Ninja said...

Another hillariously scaththing review of a horribly expensive game turned comic that should have stayed a game. If that's what the comics look like, imagine what the novels are like *shudder*.
Incidentally, what happened to WOW #1?

Lewis Lovhaug said...

The reason I went with #2 and #3 is because, quite frankly, I was drawing a blank on jokes to make in the first issue. It was just as bland, but the material wasn't exactly screaming "KOMEDY!" However, as soon as I ahd the Pokeball joke for the second one and the mint-flavored caves I knew I wanted to do #2 and #3.

Philosophista said...

The Thing of "Cave Elemental" it's a kind of extrapolation of the basic Elementals... It's not that "CAVE" is an Element like Wind, or Water, but he's a kind of quintessence of some Place or Natural Environment that became together in one piece. It's more right to say that he's an Elemental Spirit of the Cave, that's almost made of stones = Earth...

Just to remember the Swamp thing was an Elemental (I don't know if that changed recently), a Nature Elemental, Or a "Swamp Elemental"...

I'm not definding it, because it still a very bad comic, because they don't get it, and leave as "cave Elemental" (I don't play, some of my friends actually play this but, I dunno, maybe it make some sense for them), simple and play and spend time explaining other dull stuff and Random generated name (I think maybe there's this kind of name generator... you press "roll" and than you Get Zarak Slimdaggers or Jallor Stronghand... and etc)

Anonymous said...

No,orc aren't aliens.They come from a diff world called Draenor aka Outland.The elf is a druid so he can shapeshift.I suppouse Blizzard made this series of WoW comics to explain how:
1.The king vanished from his trip to Theramore.
2.Who the fuck is the real king of Stormwind
3.Also a very nice way to explain how the hell did he just appeared out of nowhere.
The art was good, and I also learned I should never go afk in the Pools of Vision who knows what dammned elemental might sneak up on us/

SuperSlappy said...

Awesome review, pinkskin. Anyways, to be honest, this comic/game/review pretty much sums up why I can't get into fantasy settings... too over the top.

http://superslappy.blogspot.com/

lilmaibe said...

It's a good thing you picked those two issues....it only got worse from there... long story short, after seven issues we get from -Conan meets Overboard- to the generic -if the villain would use her braincells for a single moment she'd out-do the heroes in no time- to...I don't know, i stopped reading after Varian(Conan) took the credit for killing Onyxia and is now out to...i don't know...kill some more big bads with only his two sidekicks...and then declare war on the horde so there'll be an excuse for some more ingame battlegrounds...

Btw: Didn't you say somewhere here is a list of upcoming reviews? Or did my hearing get that bad?

Lewis Lovhaug said...

I did indeed, and it can be found here.Otherwise there's a post in my TGWTG.com forum that lists upcoming episodes.

StacyHD said...

Wait, wait, wait. Who wrote this again? Walt Simonson? The guy responsible for my favorite run on The Mighty Thor? 0.0

. . .oh Walt, if you needed the money that bad you could've called me. . .

lilmaibe said...

@Stacy: Well, even the best writer can't help it when the company he's writing for demands that he rips-off this and that and those storyline just so they can put some more pvp into their online game. (Sadly)

StacyHD said...

True enough. Still, it's a bit off-putting to see someone whose work you've admired for a long time writing something like this. Kinda like Kurt Busiek's work on Trinity. How can the mind that produced the awesome that is Astro City produce that debacle?

[Okay, so maybe it's not that bad as I haven't really read much of it, but by all accounts it's not that great.]

Stac

Truce Weston said...

this is one of the oddest things i ever seen! It's beyond description! I am at a loss for words but at least it was hilarious to watch as always there, Mr. Badass Powerfist! So until someone figures out what would those non-human WOW characters yell out instead of "I AM A MAN!!", MAKE MINE LINKARA

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Kinda like Kurt Busiek's work on Trinity. How can the mind that produced the awesome that is Astro City produce that debacle?

[Okay, so maybe it's not that bad as I haven't really read much of it, but by all accounts it's not that great.]"

I don't know who you've been talking to, Stacy, but I personally find Trinity to be AWESOME.

Anonymous said...

You know what's funny, Tokyopop also published a manga version of Wow, and no suprise, it's a heck of a lot better then Wildstorms work. I wonder if they're even trying when it comes to this.

lilmaibe said...

@anonymus (in case ye read this >_> ) : You can't say -wildstorms work- in general. The WoW-Ashbringer series is quite good, even though it drills some plotholes into the timeline...But I blame, again, Blizzard for this, not the author.

Unknown said...

The first couple issues of this comic are a bit slow and dull, but i found later on that it was actually an enjoyable comic.

It does help having played WoW. Makes it easier to get the references to people/races/places etc.

Polaris said...

I think perhaps Walt Simonson has had some trouble leaving the mindset required for writing The Mighty Thor. I liked that run, but this is just... meh.

Ein said...

It sort of makes me sad, because usually you let stuff stand on it's own. But this seems more like a bunch of jokes that only work when there's no context behind them. Sort of like ZeroPunctuation. Sure there's grains of truth, but it's jokes built on "screw it, they won't know the context anyways."

Anonymous said...

Video seems to be down. :(

damned0wl said...

I don't know anything about WoW, but I'm absolutely sure that flying lion thingies with (kind of) scorpion tails are called manticores. Always.

And yes, I know I'm three years late.