Borderlands, Volume 2: The Fall of Fyrestone

Borderlands #2

by Mikey Neumann

The hit comic based on the hit video game continues! Outgunned and outmanned, Roland, Lilith, Mordecai, and Brick will use everything at their disposal to save the city of Fyrestone. But like all battles, what will the cost of victory be? Sit tight for a shocker of a finale in the last issue of this arc.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Video Games, Science Fiction, Comic Book

100 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 4, 2015

Reviews

[CS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

A very serviceable graphic representation of some of the earliest missions from the first Borderlands video game. Not a fan of Brick's design (he seemed way more "white male" than I got and I just came off playing Borderlands 2), but whatevs. It's just nice the comic did a good job with the characters and art style.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Borderlands: The Fall of Fyrestone follows on from Volume 1: Origins. I recommend reading that first. If you've played the games, then you will love these graphic novels.

I thoroughly enjoyed returning to the Borderlands universe, especially because this story is essentially the very early part of the first video game - although it's not exact, it's still pretty good. There are many changes to the story to flesh it out a bit. It's what I expect the start of a Borderlands movie would be like. Some of the characters weren't quite right (I'm looking at you Scooter and Marcus), but were close enough to the real thing to be excused.

The story starts with the four main characters getting off the bus, and ends with the Nine-Toes encounter (another character that didn't act true to the game). So, as you can see the story is VERY early on in the first game.

I look forward to the next volume as Borderlands is one of my favourite universes of all time.

"Jumpin' skagrabbits!"

[Hali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this comic. This is the sort of quality I had been hoping for from Borderlands: Origins. Unlike Origins, The Fall of Fyrestone doesn't let me down at all.

It takes the main quests from the start of the first game and gives backstory to some of the characters you meet in them. It fleshes them out in an interesting way, and changes up the quests enough that they're recognizable, but they still feel new.

The chemistry between Roland, Lilith, Mordecai, and Brick was perfect. Lilith was nice to Claptrap which made me happy, and Scooter actually had his hat. I have no real complaints for this one. Definitely worth a read.

[harlequin {Stephanie} · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining three stars.

[JJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not really sure why The Fall of Fyrestone exists or who it's for -- but this four-issue Borderlands series is a generally entertaining adaptation of the first few missions from the game.

Following from the boring and entirely skippable Borderlands: Origins comic, I was worried that this one would be even worse. After all, I wouldn't exactly call Borderlands (the game) story-focused -- so adapting it into a comic is no sure thing. But it turns out that even the little story structure the game provides -- locations, memorable side characters, and situations -- is enough to boost this series over its predecessor.

The best part of this series is when it focuses on characters other than our four heroes (who are easily the WORST part of the series, and continue to be totally uninteresting). Claptrap, Nine-Toes, and TK Baha are the stars of the show, bringing the weird and somewhat humorous tone of the game to life. The TK Baha and Nine-Toes stories are adapted well here in ways that make sense for the medium.

Unfortunately, the art continues to pale in comparison to the look of the games. It's disappointing that the cel-shaded look of Borderlands couldn't be replicated in comic book form, but some of the characters look odd (especially Marcus and Brick), viewing angles seem forced (especially of Lilith), and everything just looks much more generic than it should.

Overall, I'm not really sure who decided we need an adaptation of the first few missions of Borderlands -- but it works surprisingly well by focusing on some of the more memorable characters and stories from the early game.

[Marina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved loved loved loved this so much!!!! My hopes were low after reading Volume 1 but this one made my day. Brick and Claptrap are hilarious 😭😭 Lilith and Roland are as badass as ever, Tannis is quite a character in herself, and the story really grabbed my attention. Just great overall.

[João Lourenço · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knowing the old vault hunters. Much better than the previous book Origins.

[Simon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sadly entirely forgettable.

[Danny · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Better than some other tie-in media but this is someone's version of the early game mission if all 4 characters are there at the same time (and...Marcus). Also 20th century cars. Eh.

[R.C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weakest of the three volumes, but still amusing and fun enough to watch the banter back and forth.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked the different view of the first few missions in bl1. Didn't particularly like bricks design but other than that the art was great!

[Satyam Singh Niranjan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story behind, how the first vault hunters, even though from different planets, ended up on Pandora and became the first vault hunters. Short comic with 4 issues. Just like the last book, the art is great, and so were the dialogues, but I was a little disappointed with the progression of this one.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume picks up with the Vault Hunters getting off Roland's bus and meeting Claptrap. And 'rescuing' Fyrestone from Nine Toes. It introduces several secondary characters from the game, but the scenario isn't exactly in line with the game itself. Which works to its benefit - we get a lot more personality from the Hunters, and it's good to see them interact with each other, which leads to a couple of laughs. The conflict and action isn't particularly impressive, but the art is effective at conveying the feel of the game without causing confusion. It's a nice reminder of the original game without doing a whole lot of addition to the world. It's a trade-off I'll take, in contrast to Origins' filler back stories.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Borderlands: The Fall of Fyrestone Volume 1' reminds me if the characters are this great in the game, I need to play it. I laughed out loud on multiple occasions while reading this, and that's a good thing.

The book opens with a friendly robot welcoming our heroes to the city of Fyrestone, home of the vault. Roland, Mordecai (and his bird), Lilith and Brick arrive on the bus to explore the vault and claim their treasure.

If only it were that easy. Of course they need a vehicle and weapons. Which means they need to help out with a couple chores in town. First up is a nasty beast that killed a man's wife and maimed him. Help him out and they get a car. After that, they need to take out Nine Toes who guards the vault with his vicious minions.

Some of the characters are loopy. They humor is off the wall, and I loved it. This is a team of people who don't want to be a team, but don't mind helping out. It's a good follow up to 'Borderlands: Origins' which gave each of these characters their own story. Story by Mikey Neumann is crisp and fast. Art by Agustin Padilla is pitch perfect. Time to install this game from my Steam library and give it a whirl.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, IDW Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this great graphic novel.

[Cameron Lyons · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this trade paperback at Half Price Books and felt like I had to buy it right then and there because the cheapest one on eBay right now is going for like $50 for some reason. It wasn't hard to convince me to buy this book however because the cover alone features Lilith, the main playable protagonist from the first Borderlands video game who has since been reduced to a NPC in the subsequent sequels. I always love when franchises become multimedia franchises by expanding the lore through merchandise and by not limiting itself to what it started out as.
This book's biggest strengths are how well written and distinct the characters' voices were, and a particularly cute scene where Lilith agrees to dance with a lonely robot that is grieving over the violent loss of their human female friend. Although it was hard to care for anyone other than Lilith, the OG MVP who'll make you nostalgic for 2009. If you find this book in the wild I recommend buying it because game collecting, and video game memorabilia as a whole, is on the rise, and it's a nice collector's item for fans of the video game.
Cost: -$9
Tier list: C

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

This if nothing else is an example of how it can be done – I *can* be introduced to a fantasy comic at a midway point and still get a lot out of it, with the barest minimum of exposition. All you need is a dappy comedy robot, people to blatantly tell everyone what the relevant episodes of the quest are, and away you go – four heroic characters try and kill this to get this and those and go after the other. Simple. Plus, of course, in this instance you have a great sense of humour, so even if I didn't know the origins of these characters from Adam – I didn’t even know there was a game involved somewhere down the line – I had a good time. It's not high literature, and some of the artwork looks jarringly different at times as if people cannot even get 20 pages a month out, but it's violent, nasty and joyful. If you're wondering why no fourth star it's because of that erratic artwork, and the fact the plot so expertly equates to the mission list of a game, without breaking away into anything particularly new.

[Elle Markov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bounty hunters Roland, Lilith, Mordecai and Brick are about to find out just how dangerous Pandora is and that a ganglord operated by a man named Nine Toes (we never see his feet, so we don't know if the name is because he has only nine toes) that is out to kill any Vault hunters. No we don't know what is in the Vault as it's an unknown that is to be feared (crazy Nine Toes' rant).

The book was good, it's interesting, as a series, I'm definitely hooked and I will be returning to learn more about this Vault, my guess is an intergalactic treasure or a super powerful weapon, that would be so cool.

This book feels a little short, especially with the cliff hanger ending, but we get a lot of action and fighting, so we can overlook the short part.

Rating 3 out of 5
Read@Book

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume reminded me most of a beginning D & D adventure set in a Mad Max world. You have a motley crew who have come together to find a vault in a town being oppressed by bandits. The town comes with surly NPCs who will help if the party does something for them in return. Each party member has his/her own strengths and weaknesses, but the fun comes in the interaction of everyone. Of course there is plenty of action/fighting/dancing and a wacky robot for comic relief. I was chortling and almost laughing-out-loud over several scenes. I will recommend this book to anyone who enjoys seeing a "bad" plan win!

P.S. I am going looking for the origin volume and looking forward to the next volume.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I just have to say the graphic novel adaptations for Borderlands have impressed me so much. I'm so used to seeing sub par work when it comes to adaptations so I went in with low expectations, but surprise surprise, it's actually good! It suffers none of the usual problems (poor pacing, dull dialogue, bad characterisation) that you tend to get, I really can't think of many changes I would make. I cannot recommend it enough to fans, and although it's hard for me to say objectively if people who aren't familiar with the Borderlands games would enjoy this or not I'd still say it's worth a look.

[Harry Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great follow up to Borderlands: Origins.

This volume pretty much goes through what happens at the beginning of the first Borderlands game whilst changing a few aspects of the story, adding depth to people like TK Baha and Marcus. I always felt the Borderlands series had a fantastic universe and many great ideas but was let down by subpar gameplay and average mechanics, so it's nice to see the fantastic world being put to good use.

[Joel · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's good to finally have this story continued, though it's still not really doing much that's interesting with it. The unfortunate truth, for me at least, is that this just doesn't tell the story as well as the game does and the original elements that it brings to the story don't feel quite right.

[Geonessary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read, though I was hoping that the first Volume was pre Borderlands and the second and third were post Borderlands 1. Even still, this was a fun read. The artwork was just as good as the first. Again, I'd recommend this to any Borderlands fans.

[Russell LeCroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read but is mostly just a retread of the story from Borderlands 1. (the video game)
The art's real cool and we get some pretty good /fresh jokes. Diehard Borderlands fans will enjoy I'm sure.

[Ithlilian]

Going to pass on this one, it reads like a quest in the game, which I don't care about much in the games so I'm going to have a hard time caring about them outside the game. You get a little more information about the characters but I was never enamored with them much. The Telltale series and characters from that were the best in my opinion, I had a hard time caring much about any of the others from games 1 and 2.