Warcraft: Legend series has a decent start in manga.
This is a collection of several short stories taking place in Blizzard Entertainments (Now Activision Blizzards) warcraft series of games. Here is how I would rate each story, with a brief summary, and why I gave it that score:
Fallen: 4/5- This is actually a continuation of the story in the "Sunwell Trilogy" manga. It follows one of the past characters on his journey of spiritual and physical cleansing. A good story and very well drawn. It only loses points due to the fact that it dosen't really feel like "Warcraft", mostly due to the writer Richard Knaak. This is just my own opinion, he may be a good fantasy writer, but his warcraft story's feel like they take place in another realm to me.
The Journey: 3/5- A farmer joins a band of soldiers who plan to cleanse the town of Adorhal, the source of the plaque that decimated the kingdom of lordaeron years ago (Warcraft III). Again, a well drawn and well written story. My main gripe is the lack of non-human characters and that the males look to effeminate.
How to Win Friends: 1/5- A gnome moves to Kharanos and wishes to open a buisness of his own. This story is my least favorite story of any of the warcraft tales, starcraft included. The animation, characters, and story are far too childish for the target audience, namely warcraft players in the teen-young adult age group.
An Honest Trade: 4/5- A dwarf tells the tail of his past to a captive orc. The art is equal in quality to "The Journey" and the story is good, but predictable. A personal gripe (one that I have with many of the warcraft stories taking place post-Warcraft III) is that creatures of the Horde are shown as nothing more then heartless, cut-throught beasts. Some humans do make the "baddie" list and of coarse the main villian is rightfully on the list too, but throughout my experiences with the warcraft games the beings of the Alliance are just as capable of evil as those of the Horde. I have my own problem with the ending, I do not want to spoil it but I just felt that it ended what could have been a good story chain throughout the Lengeds collections.
Overall score: 3/5- If your a fan, it would be best for you to check it out BEFORE you buy. I am hopeful that future mangas of this new series will improve upon the first product in the line. One thing that is good about a series like Warcraft is that there is infinite room to weave new tales into its mythology.
