The end of the license for DC Comics didn’t mean the death of D&D comics, but it did create a long dry spell for D&D comics that I found interesting. The sporadic releases over the next couple decades were largely adaptations of RA Salvatore novels (which never quite hit home with me) or tales that lacked the humorous and chaotic bent found among the heroes of Waterdeep or the Realms Master crew. But then 4th edition D&D came out and it brought something new with it…

Except for the original brown box released in 1974, 4th edition is the one iteration of D&D I’ve never really played. I’ve run some test encounters here and there, but the system never grabbed me enough to want to play an adventure, let alone a campaign, of it. For me, it was too miniatures-focused, too obsessed with defined powers, and spent too much energy chasing the World of Warcraft feel that had come to dominate fantasy of the early 2000s. Wizards of the Coast did little to sell me on the edition; much of the early marketing badmouthed earlier editions as unfair and unfun and the complete overhaul of the Forgotten Realms setting reinforced the idea that this was an edition for people who didn’t like the way D&D used to be.

But the comics…man, the comics turned out great.

Titled Dungeons & Dragons: Fell’s Five in its collected format, this comic was written by John Rogers with art by Andrea Di Vito. The best I can define it as is the energy of Honor Among Thieves, but a decade earlier. It’s funny, it’s action-packed, and it’s probably the best D&D comic I’ve ever read.

Unfortunately, it’s also short. The comic only lasted 16 issues, and I’ll be covering it in four entries here. But better to have something short and sweet than nothing at all. While I’ll never look back at 4th edition fondly, at least it gave us this little gem.

Gathering the Party

The first volume of Fell’s Five, “Shadowfell,” includes a quick story that introduces us to our heroes. I’ll handle this prologue here, moving onto the main story of “Shadowfell” in the future.

We begin in media res with our heroes fighting gnolls. Meet Adric Fell, leader of what is currently the mercenary company Fell’s Four, and Khal Khalundurrin, the dwarven paladin.

I can’t always tell how much of this comic is just storytelling and how much is a nod toward D&D mechanics. Khal has a habit of singing in battle, which seems to highlight that the bard was absent from the core class list in the 4th edition Player’s Handbook. While an older edition might have given Khal some bard levels, here he’s a paladin with a penchant for song and poetry.

Next up is Bree Three-Hands, the halfling rogue.

Bree is chipper and a little crazy. She’s also the party’s main healer, as this group lacks a cleric. That highlights one of the things I do like about 4th edition, which has happily carried over to my game of choice in Pathfinder 2nd edition: anyone is capable of healing, so you don’t need to have one person whose role is more or less playing the walking first aid kit.

The path of the gnoll slavers the group was fighting brings them to the Underdark, which is actually quite bright considering the amount of phosphorescent plants everywhere. (Insert an “In my day, we had to keep track of how long our torches burned before we were left in the dark” rant here.)

In the Underdark, we meet the fourth member of this little troupe: Varis, the elven ranger.

You’ll notice that everyone in this group has a quick wit and sarcastic jabs. It’s the type of dialogue that you either love or hate; personally, I love it.

So why are there only four here when the comic is called Fell’s Five? Well, the fifth member hasn’t officially joined yet…

To the Rescue

The soon-to-be fifth member of the group is currently a prisoner of the gnolls.

The horned woman is Tisha, a tiefling warlock. While the rest of the group represents characters found in most other editions of D&D, Tisha is sort of a 4th edition highlight. While tieflings and warlocks existed prior to this edition, they were highlighted in the Player’s Handbook as core race and class options this time around.

Well, tieflings got a major overhaul to the point where you could argue that they’re not even the same race they used to be, but that’s a topic for another time.

Fell’s group attacks (despite Bree’s protests), which irritates Tisha because she had a plan of her own to bring down the slavers. Luckily, she recovers from the surprise enough to impress Adric very quickly during the fight.

The fight closes to melee, which means that Varis has to switch from his longbow to his twin hatchets. Meanwhile, Bree gets distracted.

The idol with a missing eye is a direct call to the statue of Moloch on the cover of the 1st edition Player’s Handbook, and it seems that the thieves there managed to get away with the ruby they stole. Will Bree have the same luck?

Dungeons and…

The gnolls just gather the slaves, but what buys them?

A dragon is above Adric’s capabilities, but he’s committed to doing the right thing even if it costs him his life. He orders Khal and Varis to clear a path so the slaves can escape while he distracts the dragon with a futile battle.

If only he had help from on high…

In game terms, this is basically the DM realizing that the fight is over-leveled and some handwaving needs to happen. That handwaving comes in the form of Bree accidentally impaling the dragon with a stalactite.

And that leaves us with the most important part: Adric claiming that all of this went according to his plan.

Thus concludes our first adventure with Fell’s Five. It only gets better from here, as longer stories allow for most humor and no small amount of drama. The only thing I don’t like about this comic is that it isn’t still coming out monthly.

_{Images: IDW Comics}