Broken Frontier

The Warrior Raclaw is nearly ready to be fully inducted into the Chapter of the Black Templars. Before he is, though, he must pass a final trial.

Creating comic books based on licensed properties can be a tricky thing. Writers must walk the line of making the comics interesting to those unfamiliar with the product while at the same time not deviating so much from the source material that fans of the original are alienated. So how well does Warhammer 40,000: Damnation Crusade do?

On the battlefield the mechanoid Tankred meets the enemy while elsewhere the neophyte Raclaw takes the final steps to become one of the Black Templars. The final step, however, could cost him his life! And still elsewhere yet, another group of Templars exult in victory but is one of their number a little too jubilant?

Before reading this issue I was completely unfamiliar with the game this comic is based on. Boom! Studios has done an excellent job providing an overview on the first page and a glossary in the back that fills in quite a bit of basic information for those, like me, coming into this series cold. The writing team of Dan Abnett and Ian Edginton pens the core story here and, while Edginton’s name is not familiar to me, Abnett’s is. Despite the professionalism of both writers there is something emotionally lacking here. Although readers are obviously supposed to be drawn to Raclaw’s story there was not enough to make this reader care one way or another. The society in this comic revolves around war and yet readers have no sense of the stakes for this war, it merely appears to be battle for battle’s sake. These men do not seem to fight to protect others or even to defend land, material, or resources. It is hard to care what happens to these characters when their losses have no farther-reaching effects. While this sort of purposeless battle works well for a game wherein play will eventually result in a win or loss for the player, it makes for difficult plotting in a narrative story.

The art, by Greg Boychuk, however, does capture the essence of this war beautifully. The equipment and mecha are rendered in amazing detail and the warriors themselves bear up under the weight of age, armor and scars. Boychuk even manages to add light touches of medieval religious and crusade iconography to the futuristic elements and make the two blend seamlessly together.

If you are a fan of the Warhammer 40,000 games then this title might prove of some interest to you. If you are like me, however, and unfamiliar with the game and its world, then there is little here to hold your interest.