World of Warcraft: Death Knight: Blizzard Legends

by Dan Jolley, Rocío Zucchi (Illustrator)

Blizzard presents an original manga set in the World of Warcraft Universe, studying one of the newest classes in the game--the Death Knight.

Genres: Warcraft, Fantasy, Manga, Comics, World Of Warcraft, Fiction, Graphic Novels

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 2009

Reviews

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Death knight gives a deeper history to the class that you don't see in game along with background and 'what are they doing?' For the Horde and Alliance representatives of this group.

When you first make a Death Knight you become first familiar with these two (Koltira and Thassarion) in passing, the first actual encounter being Thass sending you on a suicide mission to save his good friend.

The manga follows these to after the battle at Lights Hope, along with telling you how they got where they are. It follows Thass' story mostly as Koltira's is basic and told within the horde only quest line in Dragonblight.

What I loved most about this was that it shows just how deep their friendship is beyond from what we see. Surpassing their initial hatred and rivalry.

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite not being a fan of graphic novels, I really enjoyed this book. It gave a nice look into the Death Knight world, rich with lore and background on characters you've come to know throughout the Warcraft series.

It was a fairly quick read, and one I'd say to be enjoyable enough to read again.

[yewdiva · Rating 4 out of 5]

To preface this, I have relatively limited knowledge of the Warcraft franchise. My review is from the perspective of this book as a standalone story, as I cannot speak to how it ties in with other books or games.

Overall, I quite enjoyed reading this. There wasn't anything overly remarkable, but there's nothing outstandingly bad either. The story is solid and the art is great. For anyone interested, it's definitely worth the read.

My only criticism is that the pacing is a little fast. Nothing is missing from the core story, but it has the same feeling as some abridged novels I've read where it feels like parts have been cut to make the story shorter.

[ℓуηη_σƒ_νєℓαяιѕ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is for anyone who loves the game World of Warcraft and wants to read some backstory on the NPC Thassarian. I love how much history and lore that is woven into this game. And the class of Death Knight is one of my all time favs! Their tale as a whole is intriguing, full of drama, horror, and readjusting to life outside of the Lich King's control. Love this stuff! Wish they had a book devoted to Koltira as well. He's always been one of my favs and loved that he shows up in this book.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

La historia está muy chula, aunque quizás un poco precipitada al final.
El peor punto en mi opinión es que al principio los personajes son muy parecidos y a veces cuesta saber quién es quien. Hay un momento en que Arthas y Tharassian están juntos y son casi iguales.

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Chris Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the Lore of the Death Knight. This one is of a particualr Alliance Death Knight. I met him while questing in Borean Tundra and was excited to see this graphic novel the explained the back story to the quest.

[Kellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I play a Death Knight in World of Warcraft so of course I was drawn to it like a fly to honey.

The story went right along with the lore we know. I don't usually read manga but I did enjoy this.

[jackson et · Rating 5 out of 5]

I main a death knight in the game

[Vlad Gheorghiu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book follows the story of Thassarian with deeper insight than in the game. I really enjoyed this quick read (1 hour cumulative to finish it), especially the graphics of the novel. The pacing is a little fast and I would’ve preferred a deeper dive into the chapters with more details offered.

As a short summary, the story starts on how Thassarian joined the Lordaeron military and how he was not considered a leader, therefore he couldn’t climb the ranks of the army. He is called to the mission to Northrend along Arthas, where he expectedly dies at the prince’s betrayal and raised as a death knight for his bidding. He witnesses the purge of his own kingdom. During a raid of the blood elves, he kills Koltira who is raised as a death knight as well, eventually becoming close friends with him, despite their consciousness being dominated (here there is a fast forward for a few days leading to the Icecrown Citadel. Personally, I would’ve liked if they included a chapter where the citadel is being constructed in Thassarian’s eyes). Then the Lich King sends both to raise the people buried beneath Light’s Hope Chapel into powerful death knights (leading to the death knight questline). The two friends split up after escaping the Lich King’s domination and seek their respective allies with the goal to have their revenge on Arthas for what he did to them. Then the story follows Thassarian into Northrend where he kills a San’layn (the questline), saving his sister and continuing his campaign in Northrend.

For me, I would’ve liked if they also included the questline in the Western Plaguelands in Andorhal and a detailed version of the interaction between Koltira and Thassarian.
Nevertheless, this was a nice insight of the life of Thassarian, I never expected him to be so kind after being raised in a death knight (see the interaction with his sister) and also I did not expect him to be such a rule-guided dude.

[Pablo S. Martín · Rating 4 out of 5]

No soy muy asiduo al universo Warcraft; solo conozco un poco de su mitología, es decir, la creación de su universo y los devenires que llevan al primer juego. Todo eso está muy bien resumido en la síntesis introductoria de la Trilogía del Pozo del Sol, que también he leído y disfrutado.
Más allá de eso, no he tenido mucho contacto con este interesante universo fantástico.
Aún así, he disfrutado esta obra en gran medida.
Los personajes están bien armados, haciéndolos lo suficientemente creíbles.
La historia cierra y es entretenida, aunque como conecta con el juego, tiene un final abierto.
Única crítica que se le podría hacer es que han tenido que condensar la historia con saltos temporales, por lo tanto no se puede ver la transformación de Arthas, y si uno no conoce de esta, se pierde gran parte de la trama principal.

Un buen entretenimiento sin mucho más profundidad, aún así, es agradable y mantiene en vilo al lector.
Me gustó el arte, aunque no perfecto y proporcionado, cumple estéticamente y es una extraña mezcla entre el arte del cómic norteamericano y el manga japones.

Atrapante historia que se puede disfrutar sin necesidad de saber en profundidad la historia general del juego.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this was interesting to read, if I didn't already know the lore and story somewhat, I would have been totally lost. This moves really quickly, doesn't explain things in great detail, and gives just the straight facts of a situation. If you're looking to learn the origins of Death Knights, this is more of a supplement than a thorough study, as it focuses primarily on Thassarian's journey alone. It reads like a collection of memories, each one just touching on the situation enough to see what's happening, then moving on to the next.

That said, it was still an enjoyable story to read! I was hoping to get a little more meat in the story, as there wasn't much new to me that I haven't learned from the games and other WoW lit (mainly, Arthas: Rise of the Lich King).

The art was pretty consistent with the style of other comics in the WoW series, but had I had some difficulties with it. Some of the more complicated scenes were hard to track through and figure out exactly what was happening. I read this on a tablet screen, so it's likely easier with a print version. The font for headings and place names and such was sometimes difficult to read. I was able to figure it out, but it definitely slowed the read and took me out of the moment a bit. I also mixed up the characters embarassingly often, as they tended to look pretty similar in their hair, face, armor.... Between these issues and the breakneck pace of stripped facts, it was okay, but not a critical addition to WoW reading.

[Ikayuro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, Warcraft manga. You either love it, or you hate it; and this definitely wasn't something I'm terribly in love with. It's a shame, too; the story of Thassarian and Koltira is one of the better ones, and this retelling just seems to fall short. The art gradually improves throughout the volume, but is very distracting in the fact that there's very little difference in the characters. All males look similar, as do females; in fact, there's a few panels where it's nearly impossible to tell Arthas and Thassarian apart.

All in all, while not awful, I won't be keeping this book around for a second read.

[Brody Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not familiar with World of Warcraft. This was my first adventure in that story line.

I liked the story. It was easy to get into. A soldier who wants to make his parents proud and be as great as his father. Turned into a Death Knight, he struggles with issues between his new life and former.

Eventually, during battle, a vision of his father comes to him and he makes a decision to become the soldier he was once. He begins to track down the Scourge and get his revenge while in search of the Lich King.

[Timothy Pitkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was really cool to finally read about the background of two of my favorites knights of the ebon blade. Thassarian and Koltira as there backstories are really interesting and in the case of Tharssarian really heartbreaking. Also it reveals how Arthas recruited his original men while showing there were other death knights along with him before becoming the Lich King. Also it does something I wish WoW would do more often which is showing established lore characters finishing questlines in the game.

[Nerd_Pilgrim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story took a minor character who I honestly never thought too much about and turned him into one of the most interesting Death Knight characters in the Warcraft universe. A dark story that involves some of my favourite moments in the Warcraft lore with excellent art? I'll take it!

Easy to read and beautifully illustrated - with a few deeper cuts for anyone who has played "World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Fans will love it and young readers will love the fast pace and action scenes, perhaps becoming fans themselves.

[NEVEN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another amazing comic set in the Warcraft universe.

I read this after reading the Ashbringer comic which dived deep into paladin lore. This one dived deep into lore of death knights.

Death knights who broke free from the Lich King's influence is really cool and I loved getting some background on them.

[Sierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is awesome! This was one of the things I feel the novels missed out on. The novels jump from Lich King to Cataclysm, and stories like these got ignored sadly; The Death Knight stories, Sylvannas and Undercity's rise. A lot of theses are smaller in scale but they add up into the bigger picture. Build the world, the horrors and triumphs. So happy to have gotten this one.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this after a guy on Bumble told me about it. I’ve never played World of Warcraft, but the idea of a Death Knight intrigued me so I wanted to find out more. And all I can say is, is that I love Lurid 🩵

[Diego · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frostmourne hungers!

[Sabina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Na to, že je to první komiks/manga co jsem četla, se mi to dost líbilo. Asi začnu víc číst komiksy!

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, but not as moving of a story as Ashbringer.

[Dylan Reay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, although it didn't have the ending I thought it would, it's enjoyable if you know some of the lore but not all of it. Still would have made a better film than Warcraft Begging

[اینتاریوش · Rating 3 out of 5]

یه داستان کوتاه راجب شوالیه های ابون بلید و گذشته شون به عنوان شوالیه های مرگ لیچ کینگ.

[Bill Rand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent graphic novel that explains a part of the lore I had never understood before

[Will Marr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty generic but love Death Knight and Lich King stuff

[Aimeekay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was eager to read this one when I picked it up. The cover looked good and the first couple pages looked promising. However the further I read into the book the more issues I had.
My first main issue is with the story itself. It just seemed really jumpy. It felt as if certain parts of the story were missing. I still liked the background that it gave on Thassarian, but it felt incomplete.
The other issue I had was with the artwork. Don't get me wrong I think the artwork itself was great! The issue I had was that some of the characters looked the same, and by the same I mean virtually identical. I don't know if it was done purposely or not. Maybe there was some sort of statement being made by it? I don't know. I do know that it was just annoying. Maybe if the book had be done in color the characters would have had more obvious differences, but it isn't and I think this is something that should have been noticed.
Would I recommend it? Sure. I think it gives an interesting insight into a character that people have seen in the game. But I think going into it they should know the issues ahead of time so they won't be as disappointed.

[Ariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Considering the fact I'm still quite new to the whole World of Warcraft, I thought this was pretty good. I assume this is the only book of the "Death Knight" but I couldn't tell you if it is, I was not really able to find any information. I honestly couldn't even tell you if it is in a series, what book it is. I managed to randomly find this book and decided to give it a read. Aside from what little I know of WoW, I really enjoyed this book, I thought it had a pretty good structure, and I thought it made an excellent read. If I had any complaints at all, it would be that I didn't know enough about the WoW history in order to determine if this was correct on the game's history.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I created a Death Knight character in the WoW online game, and wanted a bit of backstory to flesh out my character. This small graphic novel proved useful. However, it's very short, so the characters and storyline don't feel as developed as they could be. What is given, however, was insightful, contemplative, and a great start to a story that I wish went longer. The artwork, while all black and white, was nicely done.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy this graphic novel. Illustrations are gorgeous and tons of time is spent on creating each page, it’s worth checking around in the background. However, if you’ve ever gone through the Death Knight intro quest lines, you know most of what happens in here. Worth the read anyway for a reinforced understanding of the plot lines.