Crown of Destruction

by Kieron Gillen

Can disgraced Greatsword Frohlich stop the verminous hordes of the Skaven?

Whenever the Chaos-vermin skaven rise from their endless burrows, they always have a vile purpose in mind, so when a vast skaven horde equipped with unfathomable weaponry sweep into a backwater of the Empire, disgraced Greatsword Frohlich knows there has to be a reason.  But can he find out what it is and foil the skaven before the thin shield of human steel shatters beneath an irresistible hail of warpstone bullets?

Genres: Fantasy, Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2009

About the author

Kieron Gillen is a comic book writer and former media journalist.

Reviews

[Sud666 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this comic could have been very good, but a few issues with the art and story keep it from being better than it is.

Let's start with the strange art. It's an almost surreal painted style art that works in some panels and not so well in others (the Necromancer comes off particularly poorly) and that is a shame. This is a story that could have used some good art.

The story? A Necromancer steals a crown made of warpstone. The crown belongs to the Skaven who want it back. But the Necromancer's "Master" also wants the crown. In the middle is a group of Greatswordsmen (I assume either Imperial or Bretonnian) are thrown into conflict. The story seems to revolve around a grizzled sergeant named Vogel. His actions uphold the valor of the unit during the events that follow.

Sounds like a pretty good story and it isn't terrible...but there are issues. The Imperials fighting the Skaven for the Crown makes some sense, but they should have figured out it was in their best interests to have the other two factions fight it out.

Also the Vampire Count. Who the hell was that? Vlad? Manfred? some random von carstein? A name would have been nice. Also that was one hubristic vampire.

This is a story that had all the right ingredients but the final product was less than the sum of its parts. Not terrible but certainly an issue that falls short of its potential.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 2 out of 5]

Storyline: 3 stars.
Artwork: 1 star.

Add a star if you are a Warhammer Fantasy addict.

Imperial greatswords army get caught between Skaven and Vampire Counts armies fighting for the crown in the title.
Nice story, but the photoshopped art was a bad mess.

[Γιώργος Κωστόπουλος · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a crappy art.

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun graphic novel set in the Warhammer Fantasy "Old World" that features a conflict between the Skaven, the Vampire Counts of Sylvania, and the Empire of Man. The art is really strange. I think some of the drawings were done on top of photographs or other reference material. It's a really distinctive style (not my favorite, to be honest). The story is pretty basic: there is a MacGuffin, a warp stone crown, that everyone wants (except for the humans). Battles ensue. This probably isn't worth it unless you're into WHFB. But if you are into WHFB, you'll enjoy this. There are some great images of Skaven, Chaos Warriors, Necromancers, and Imperial Greatswords.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solidly-written, visceral Warhammer tale. For me, the art style was a little off-putting in places, looking like an uneasy marriage between hand drawn and computer generated, and the Skaven (the reason I read this in the first place) are used as a menacing background plot point rather than as characters, but the whole package is certainly entertaining.

[Tim Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story mostly follows a leader of a Empire Great Sword unit that is haunted by accusations of cowardice and desertion. Into the mix throw some Skaven horde seeking a relic stolen from them by a necromancer hiding with the Empire, who originally made a bargain with Vampire Counts for eternal life, but has tried to renege on his end since finding a new source of eternal life... 

I like Warhammer. I like comics. I should love this. But in the end, it's just okay... The problem is, as with most "graphic novels" that are really just collections of shorter comics, is that when you have to hit certain beats at precisely 24 pages, it doesn't always read well as a collection. Those beats feel forced. The characters hint at being interesting, but could all really do with some more fleshing out, but that's hard to do when you are constrained to precisely 96 pages (4x24-page comics).

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gillen tries his best to carry this book singlehandedly, but the frankly shocking art weighs down the experience too much for my tastes. It's literally just fantasy CG models with some shaders over them. Which, I suppose, is not to discount the work that went into posing them and potentially making them (unless these are from a game? Though my first thought was Total War: Warhammer which wasn't even close to being out yet). An interesting experiment, but it's just not what anyone is looking for in comic art. This one is for Gillen or Warhammer completists only, I'm afraid.

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gillen's story was constrained by the subject matter.

But the art is unforgivable. The copy and paste nonsense that permeates every panel that is terrible to begin with. Every character has one facial expression.

All Warhammer has going for it is the art, and this fucks that up.

[Nicholas Sacco · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent story about Greatsword Frohlich following the events of Forge of War, but the art was an awful disaster, even copy-paste here and there.

[NerdyReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story was alright, artwork wasnt art. It was some weird computer generated shit, very bad, embarrasing on BOOMs part, but then again thats why theyre BOOM and not one of the greats.

[Justin Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty decent Warhammer action story, if you're familiar with the Warhammer universe and factions. The art was decent, but not my preferred style.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun story, but artwork cost this one star.

[Jay Semeniuk · Rating 2 out of 5]

what the everliving fuck was the art style in this😭

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid story, jarringly inconsistent art style.

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third book is called Crown of Destruction. This name comes from a world game that Games Workshop made a couple of years back. All factions join into a setting to retrieve the Crown. Each have their goals. Some are allies but eventually they all can battle against themselves. As I said this was the worst book. We join a minor character from the first book. Also a greatsword (in this book some paintings the great sword is more of a longsword). In this chaos we are join we Chaos adepts, Magicians, Skaven and Vampires and the Undead.. As I said the book is not that good. Read if you like warhammer. 4/10

[Lin K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skilful storytelling. A pretty good dynamic is set up at the beginning between a sergeant and his second-in-command, where the former has to prove he isn't a coward (and save the day in the process.) If you cared to, you could probably find a moral at the end, which puts this tale a cut above most escapist fantasy.

As for the artwork...the line work is sound, but it has a strange "noisy" quality, like it was photocopied, or put through some kind of Photoshop filter. Not exactly pretty, but serviceable.

[Shane · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love the Warhammer Fantasy world, but there wasn't a lot to like in this. The writing was too-serious/corny most of the time, most of the art was garish and just kind of sloppy looking, the covers were decent and some of the skaven were cool, but most of it was just not "my thing" at all.