Warframe Volume 1

Warframe #1-5

by Matt Hawkins

The critically-acclaimed Free-to-Play Cooperative Shooter comes to comics!
In the far future, humanity's descendants scramble to survive in a galaxy rife with conflict, scavenging for ancient technology and long-forgotten secrets. Only the Tenno, powerful warriors, battle to preserve peace and keep the technological masterpieces of the long-dead Orokin out of the wrong hands. Now, a faction of enhanced Grineer soldiers, under the tactician Captain Vor, scour the Earth for a hidden artifact, and only a lone Tenno and a blinded girl can stop them...
Collects Warframe 1- 5

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 2018

Reviews

[Merry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the comic and some of the humour weaved into it (amongst the chaos). However, I don't think it was particularly good at laying down the foundations of what Warframe is. I'm lucky in that I've played a lot of the game, so I know what is what and who is who. Because of this, I'm not sure it's great for veterans like myself either, as it offers nothing new in terms of story or lore.

However, I really loved the art style of the comic book, and the way it was presented. If the next volume's story could match this, you'd have something great!

[SparrowBlue · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like Warframe (the game) and its backstory, but this left me a little cold unfortunately.

The problem, in a nutshell, is that the fractured nature of Warframe's story makes it a poor fit for the comic format. The drip-feed, cryptic style of lore works well in the context of the game, where it is interspersed with gameplay and environmental worldbuilding. In a comic with a conventional story structure it's just obtuse and alienating.

The Tenno themselves, the protagonists of the game, have zero personality here, reduced to being mute combat golems who occasionally act as a conduit for the Lotus to speak through. This is Little Duck and Mitsuki's story... but they aren't interesting characters. Vor is also here, but he's a bog-standard scenery-chewing megalomaniac. He's not interesting either.

At the end of five issues I am left wondering who this comic is for - it doesn't really provide any new lore for veteran players of the game (the most fascinating of which are gated behind a paradigm-shifting plot development at least 50 hours in); but neither does it do a good job of introducing the complex, multilayered lore of Warframe to someone unfamiliar with that universe - it's filled with oblique allusions to terms and concepts that only a player of the game will have any context to understand.

The art is fantastic, however, that's something.

[Theediscerning · Rating 1 out of 5]

This looks a million dollars – proving you can make a silk purse out of a sow's turd. It's a completely typical sci-fi drama, of someone caught as an innocent (but with powers and abilities or a destiny they might never expect) while one side of weird creatures tries to get a MacGuffin and another side of weird creatures tries to stop them. Yawn. Like I say, the artwork here would seem to have it all, but you soon see all the flaws of every action scene, all the flaws of every scene being in dark light, and all the flaws of having so many masked (or indeed completely faceless) characters. Add in sub-Alien (heck, sub-Prometheus) infestations, this is hokum that's very easy on the eye but very, very easy to forget. One and a half stars.

[47Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

I needed more background before going through this comic. Without it, the complexities of the Warframe universe were a lot less accessible, so I must conclude that this comic was meant for people who played the game. Still, the artwork is beautifully detailed and the scifi theme was pretty cool. The good guys have a powerful armor while the bad guys have numbers on their side and a zealot at the helm, so there's little originality there. The story has twists are thrown in out of the blue and an almost happy end with the possibility of a sequel.

The Grineer fight for the glory of the Queens. Led by the bloodthirsty and verbally bombastic captain Vor, they leave destruction in their wake with no one strong enough to stop them. That is, until Skoom of the Tenno comes into play. He wields a Warframe, an ancient armor that allows him to face the whole Grineer army. The story focuses on an ancient portal to a ship that holds a device of great power desired by the bad guys. The good guys must risk their lives to save the planet.

The Grineer capture the Tenno and interrogate him. Mag is another Warframe wielder who comes to his rescue sent by Lotus. A native named Mitsuki becomes an important target for her knowledge of an ancient Orokin void gate she calls the Golden Door. They discover evidence of a device called Arogya Medica. They must retreive it before Vor, who is right behind them, does. Vor unknowingly triggers something that interfaces with Mitsuki. She gains the ability to push back the Grineer, enabling her and her allies to rush back through the gate and remove the key to trap their enemies. The planet is safe for now, but the Grineer are planning a return.

[Costan Sequeiros · Rating 2 out of 5]

Art is great. That must be said, it really captures the sthetics and feel of Warframe. But the comic itself fails to deliver any interesting story to tell with that art. Doesn't add to the lore of the game, doesn't develop characters or situations in any meaningful way, and just goes on to look quite like any random mission you get to play. And sure, playing those things is fun, reading them is not enough.

[Paul Allard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unimpressive comic collection based on a computer game

Definitely not my cup of tea, this science fiction comic series involves conflict between alien races on a future Earth. Based on a shooter game, it just revolves around fighting and what little plot there is does not really make a lot of sense. The artwork is very colourful and quite detailed but not my cup of tea. Disappointing.

[Erik Dudek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh, not really sure what I was expecting. Felt like someone made a comic out of a video game level. The artwork was well done, the coloration in the first chapter especially stood out. Besides the artwork, everything else was pretty bland.

[Yuiko · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was awesome can't wait for more

[Athena · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're already a fan of Warframe, you might enjoy this. It's fairly light on story, but provides a glimpse into aspects of the Grineer and of Ostron.

If this is your introduction to Warframe, you are going to leave confused and likely disappointed.