I’m going to put my conspiracy hat on for a moment and speculate on why the penultimate issue of DC’s Forgotten Realms comic series is a spoofy fourth-wall breaking story…

By 1991, DC knew that their licensing agreement for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was nearing its end. TSR, the company that owned AD&D, decided to produce their own comics. This ended the ongoing comics quite abruptly, giving the creative teams a short window to wrap up their ongoing stories. I think both Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms had their stories ready to print when they received the notice that the arcs they were working on would be their last. That likely necessitated the insertion of a quick one-shot to make sure the current story arcs ended with the license’s expiration.

Why do I think this? Because both titles had a single-issue fill-in ahead of their final stories. AD&D has “Summer in the City,” which could at least use the familiar setting of Selûne’s Smile for its one-off. But the Forgotten Realms comic was in no place to run a silly one-off when their heroes were still struggling with the aftermath of Labelas Enoreth destroying their ship. Thus, my theory goes, “Everybody Wants to Run the Realms” happened. We’ve had some fourth wall breaks in the past, such as with “Players,” but nothing that ever as explicitly meta-fiction as this.

The heroes of the now-destroyed Realms Master have been through the wringer. Sure, they picked up the pieces, but they are still broken. Omen’s mind is shredded, Agrivar and Foxy are in the throws of addiction, and Vartan has lost faith in his god.

But at least it can’t get any worse…right?

Our last story with the Realms Master crew put them through their paces. Vartan became possessed by a mad god, Agrivar’s successful fight against alcoholism was undone, Minder’s body got shattered, and the ship was smashed to pieces by an angry god.

But at least it can’t get much worse…right…?