World of Warcraft: Ashbringer #1
Written by Micky Neilson
Art by Ludo Lullabi and Tony Washington
Published by WildStorm
Review by Jilly Gee
The first of a four-part miniseries titled Ashbringer, this comic shows readers the life of Alexandros Mograine, starting from the time that he first picks up the object that would become part of the legendary Ashbringer sword. Highlord Mograine worked with other humans and dwarves, trying to find a way to stop the Scourge and their plague from turning everyone into undead. Not just a story about being all heroic and saving humankind, Highlord Mograine also has his faults, as a father who shows favortism, as a human who cannot separate the "not-as-bad" undead from the "really bad" undead and forces the same punishment on them all.
Always interested in learning more about the history of Azeroth, I enjoyed reading a narrative rather than just a description of events via wiki articles. Seeing the heroes mention Prince Arthas killing innocents to stop the plague, seeing Mograine’s treatment of Renault, it all fed the egotistical, know-it-all part of me going, "Hah, I know what this is leading to!" Despite massive time jumps, even those not already fans of the Warcraft series should get a clear picture of Highlord Mograine’s life, with his lengthy (for a comic) explanations of his family life and his beliefs to his companions. Those who are not already fans of the kind of fantasy involving orcs and such in general, however, aren’t going to find anything special or different to change their minds in Ashbringer.