Books like Diablo: Sword of Justice

Diablo: Sword of JusticeLast time on Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, the heroes had destroyed the three Ancient Ones to get to the Worldstone Keep. Tyreal, the Archangel of Justice, found The Worldstone corrupted. Thus, he destroyed it rather than letting it be used for evil. The result was the destruction of Mount Arreat, which housed the Worldstone. And now the continuation.When one chapter of a story is over, another begins with even bigger events to follow. So, when the Worldstone was destroyed at the end of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction there were consequences. Some of those consequences are explored in the book The Order which talks about Deckard Cain's life after Diablo II. Of Course Diablo III, the game, goes into this as well. But one of the things I've always found surprising, is how much freedom Blizzard gives to the Diablo expanded universe vs. the Starcraft or Warcraft universes, in which almost all recent releases have been either highly delayed or direct ties into new content.So, when I saw that the Sword of Justice had no direct ties to and upcoming or past Diablo games, I was hopeful, but sadly this book just isn't up to par.PlotThe basic plot is that our hero, Jacob, is on the run after killing his father the ruler who had gone mad after getting infected with a the Rage Plague. To make matters worse, he is being chased by the lead executioner of his village and best friend Ivan. While on the run our hero is told by a fortune teller that when he gets to a mountain there will be something waiting for him under it. When Jacob gets to the mountain, he finds carvings depicting key moments in his life and what has brought him to this point in the story. Then he sees the Sword of Justice: El'druin. The Sword is guarded by a wizard named Shanar. Shanar had discovered it many years ago and was trapped by the sword until which point it was claimed by our hero Jacob who the Sword of Justice has chosen as its new owner. Shanar have come to know Jacob through the sword, and know the importance of the sword decides to stay with the boy.With the sword in hand, a series of events are set in motion that will bring our hero back home to face consequences of killing his father the king and try to find a cure for the Rage Plague, but there maybe darker evils at work here than a simple diseases.ThoughtsThe first and most noticeable feature of this book is the art by Joseph Lacroix, which personally I found highly off putting. On an intellectual level, I can see what they were doing. They wanted a rough almost scribble art style to show the harshness of life in the Diablo Universe. Which is fine, but this is a book about a magic sword with heavenly powers. It seems to me that there should have been more of a counter point, where most of the book was in the scribble art for lack of a better description. The art should have become more focused when the sword was used and less of the scribble art style. It would have had a better effect to show some kind of visual difference on how this angelic artifact was affecting the world.There are a few moments when the art does become clear, however, it seems little to do with the sword and more to do with what the author and artist thought were important moments that you might want to see in more detail, rather than 3 lines and some color.In an effort to be fair I took an unusual step for me, and looked at some of the other reviews of this book, both from when it was monthly comic and as a graphic novel. There aren't many, but some of the other reviewers did enjoy the art. So either chalk this up to me not being a huge comic book guy, or maybe I'm seeing something other people aren't. But for the sake of this review, I felt that I should at least look to see if it worked for others, which it does. So with any kind of media, your mileage may vary based on if you like this style or not. However, I would look at the preview images before buying the Sword of Justice and if you don't like the art I would pass on it.As far and the story goes, it's similar to other Diablo stories with a powerful artifact, and a village taken over. In addition, the hero is defined largely by their class that has to help, which is also seen in the necromancer from Moon of the Spider or the Monk from the Order. This is all fine with me and very Diablo.What I didn't care for was the Sword of Justice itself and its poorly defined powers. Here is the problem with the sword: It always just powerful enough take care of whatever problem is put before it. There is little drama in that. You can make a flowchart if is a problem is bad or not based on if the character has the sword. If he has the sword the problem with be dealt with. If not then it will mean trouble.Think of it in these terms: if you have ever watched Doctor Who you most likely know about his Sonic Screwdriver. Its basically a magic wand, that does almost anything the Doctor needs it to do. During the 5th Doctors era, the writers destroyed the Sonic Screwdriver because they felt it destroyed so much of the drama and tension that would otherwise be present. The problem with the Sword of Justice is, that by its very nature (ie a whole book about it) It can't really fail, and we don't ever really see a moment when our hero was not willing to use it. Even those times when Jacob won't use it to kill, the sword still finds a way to resolve the problem without killing.Consider the use in the book of Shanar, our wizard versus the Sword of Justice. While Shanar has many powers, they are normally short term and can be just as troublesome as they are helpful. The Sword, on the other hand, has really no limits on what it can do (towards the end of the story Jacob is using it to fly). Thus, whenever the Sword of Justice is being used, the outcome is known: Jacob/the sword wins. Unfortunately, to offset this our lead character, Jacob continues to keep making bad decisions, so much so that Shanar is then forced to call him out on his bad decisions. When a writer needs one of their other characters to hang a lantern on the fact our hero is being a numbskull, that is normally not the mark of great writing.Grade and recommendationI think the story of the fallout from the destruction of Mount Arreat is interesting in how that creates a situation where the only way for a son to make things right is by killing his own father then facing punishment for that act. That is a good drama. The mystery of the Rage Plague also helps to keep the reader's interest, but it's overshadowed by artwork and by the plot revolving around the Sword. I think either of these things would be more forgivable on their own, but together I believe that it undermines the overall story.Overall Score 2 of 5If you deeply love Diablo, I think you will be able to get around most of my hang ups but if you are just looking for a graphic novel to read, I think you can find better. Its a bit below average for me.73'sOriginally posted to with imageshttp://www.rivalcastmedia.com/article...