League of Legends: Эш. Ратная мать

League of Legends (Marvel Comics)

by Odin Austin Shafer, Nina Vakueva (Illustrator)

Эш – Хладорожденная из суровых северных пустошей, воительница, наделенная мистической связью со своей ледяной родиной, которая пытается соответствовать требованиям фанатичной матери. Когда они отправляются в опасное путешествие, чтобы выяснить, правдивы ли древние легенды, рвутся все узы и раскрываются зловещие тайны, которые навсегда изменят облик Рунтерры. Сможет ли юная Эш стать лидером, который так нужен ее народу? Или все мечты о предназначении пусты и бессмысленны?
Встречайте новый комикс по одной из самых знаменитых игр мира, созданный сценаристом Riot Одином Остином Шафером и отечественной художницей Ниной Вакуевой ("Майор Гром"). Вы станете свидетелями ранних дней жизни знаменитой Хладорождённой и увидите, какую роль в её становлении сыграла мать, как Эш обрела своё племя и с чего началась вражда с Седжуани. В обширных дополнительных материалах вы найдёте комментарии художницы, процесс работы над рисунком, а также рассказ "Молчание для проклятых", который и сделал возможным появление комиксов по вселенной League of Legends.

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Comic Book, Young Adult, Graphic Novels Comics

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 2019

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story: 2.5/5
Art: 4/5
Overall: 3/5

Starting with the story first...

Ashe: Warmother portrays its story in two acts. The first two issues cover the first act of the story, in which Ashe's tribe struggles to find resources to last them through the winter. The cause of their struggle is due to their leader, Grena (Ashe's biological mother), having gone mad and leading the tribe on a wild goose chase in search of a mythological treasure. Grena believes finding this would restore he tribe to its former glory. There are some interesting story elements here, the failing tribe led by a leader gone mad, Ashe's struggle to remain loyal to her mother while trying to do what's best for her tribe, Ashe struggling with the concept of being the next leader of her people and feeling inadequate due to her failure to utilize true ice...there's actually a good story waiting to be told here. The problem is that Shafer sprints through these plot points, sometimes only touching on them for one or two frames, and then seemingly drops them entirely. There's no effort put into developing these plot points, and by the end of issue two it feels like the story is over before it's even really begun.

The second act feels entirely unnecessary and shoehorned in. This act attempts to explain why Ashe and Sejuani are at odds in League of Legends lore. But allow me to break down what happens in these issues very quickly.

After issue 2 Ashe finds that her tribe has been destroyed by her own Ice Priest (whom she killed in issue 2) and sets out on her own into the ice sea. She gets attacked by a wild creature and is saved by Sejuani. Ashe and Sejuani bring the meat from their kill back to Sejuani's tribe, the Winter's Claw. In an attempt to make her tribe accept Ashe, Sejuani declares Ashe as her battlesister. Sejuani and Ashe then set out on a raid to destroy a neighboring tribe who is over hunting the hunting grounds, but apparently the Winter's Claw has an alliance with them. Ashe points out that killing them isn't right which enrages Sejuani and Ashe is outcast from the group, taking the targeted tribe with her.

Here's the big problem with the second act, issue 3 spends its entire time establishing that Ashe and Sejuani are long lost friends and that they mean the world to each other. There's lots of talk of them becoming sisters and spending their lives together. They swear a blood oath...and then in issue 4 Ashe basically tells Sejuani not to kill some innocent people and Sejuani suddenly hates Ashe and outcasts her, telling her that if they ever meet again that she will kill Ashe? The hell? That's a pretty quick and harsh turn. Quite frankly, I really wish that the first act had just been pulled out to cover all 4 issues, this second act is poorly done and completely unnecessary. The story is weak and lacks focus, and the product suffers because of it.

Now to the good news, Vakueva's art is wonderful! It's understated when it needs to be, large and imposing when it needs to be, the character designs are thoughtful and elegantly drawn. It is, by the far, the strong point of this run. I look forward to seeing more art from her. But the art isn't enough to salvage the weak, meandering story. It's got some interesting tidbits of lore for players of League of Legends, but this graphic novel does not stand on its own and offers little for people who don't play the game.

[*· bell ๋࣭ ⭑☽ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I made a mistake by reading "Zed" first, because it raised my expectations WAY too high.

It was OK... I really liked how they portray the lifestyle in Freljord, and the art is simply beautiful. I was about to rate it 4 starts because my heart literally skipped a beat when Sejuani appeared, BUT WHYYYYY DO THEY HAVE TO PORTRAY HER AS THE BAD COP. SHE'S LITERALLY DOING EVERYTHING TO ENSURE THE WINTER'S CLAW'S SURVIVAL.

It is a good origin story for Ashe... But please don't do my girl dirty like that.

I now have my eyes set on "Lux" or maybe the Garen novel. So far, "Zed" remains top-tier, but I really hope "Lux" becomes a close second. "Warmother" couldn't do that, but it's a nice story to learn a bit more about the Freljord.

[Mathew Vondersaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

God is this visually beautiful. And that beauty is well placed to; there's a couple sections where it's used perfectly to capture the feeling of a moment. I also love the general feeling of the characters; the small bits we do see of them is interesting, and I want to know more about them.

However, therein lies my critique. In that the majority of the text is based on raw exposition put onto the reader, rather than allowing us to sit with the characters and come to really enjoy them and their stories. It feels like this has the potential to be great, it's just too bogged down atm. It means the real meat of the story doesn't have quite the same punch i would have hoped for.

A solid short read, can't really go one way or the other with it.
(I'll update this when more than the first two are available online)

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as I had hoped for....

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

yes, i play league now. yes, i am consuming all of the content surrounding this game. yes, i am having a great time.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The choice to wipe the League of Legends universe and restart roughly from scratch in 2014 was the work of madmen, but it was desperately needed and I think, as of 2019 or so, finally worth it. After residing in a barren wasteland of lore for many years, I was really happy to read (for free, online!) and then buy these comics.

Ashe is beautifully drawn, and this story does good work in fleshing out her backstory and giving some depth to Ashe and Sejuani in particular. It works well as an origin story, but I think I find it frustratingly hard to place in the context of the Freljord in general and in the wider world of Runeterra.

We learn little about Freljord and their traditions besides that they are tribal and they raid - we know that Sejuani is for this and Ashe is against this - but I had a hard time understanding what the life of an average person in Freljord would be like if they were not a warrior. Are they entirely nomadic? Fleshing out details like this would make the stakes clear between Sejuani's position and Ashe's position.

We also have Lissandra's priests in the story, although they are barely explained besides seeming generically evil, and True Ice plays a part but is never explained well either. Because I'm already familiar with the lore behind Freljord's magic, it makes a little more sense to me, but I think that lacking the context makes a lot of the magic just seem contrived and convenient.

I'm definitely a little biased, but I think unfortunately Ashe's lore has always been shackled by her position as one of the more iconic champions of the game. She has to be heroic and relatable as a young idealist who is (or at least was) the tutorial character, but she's by far the least interesting part of her region which has a roster of old elemental gods, spirit walker shamans, and the Watchers from the Void.

[˙⋆✮ Anny ✮⋆˙ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never played League of Legends. My only connection to the world of Runeterra comes from recently watching Arcane on Netflix (which I highly recommend). Afterwards, I became obsessed and now I'm eating up all the lore I can find. Ashe was a character I liked from the beginning, so when I found out about this comic it was a nice surprise.

I enjoyed reading this and especially looking at the art, it's really pretty! I like the character designs, landscapes and the way colors are used to create an atmosphere (for example the bright orange bonfires made me feel warmth and like coming home).

Parts of the story were sometimes a bit hard to follow for me. Not because it was particularly complicated, but because I felt like some panels and therefore some insight were missing, and I sometimes got confused with the different character and tribe names. As a bigger story arc it still made sense and I liked Ashe's character development a lot.

This was a nice story, set in a harsh yet interesting world, that adds to Ashe's backstory and allows us to get to know her better.

[Agostina Sol · Rating 3 out of 5]

No juego Ashe, nunca fue una campeona atractiva para mi. Y si subimos la apuesta, Freljord tampoco (prefiero mil veces leer sobre Noxus o Demacia, ejem.)

Es por esto y porque la historia me pareció super inconsistente (y porque me encanta el estilo de la ilustradora y el arte del comic en sí) que le doy 3 estrellas.

[Jirka Navrátil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tohle byl asi nejslabší komiks z těch tří LoL komiksů ale pořád dobrý.

[Magdalena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning

[gpears · Rating 4 out of 5]

if my professional opinion all the freljord’s political problems could be solved if ashe and sejuani just kissed and **** *** **** *** ** ********* 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Emad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this comic not because I'm a LoL fan but because I really loved Arcane and I didn't find it that great. The first 2 parts were fine and the 2nd part has a fitting end for Ashe's story. I wouldn't recommend parts #3 and #4 at all.

[Nathaniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about League of Legends. As such, this book might work better for LoL fans than it did for me. I just saw this at Ollie's and thought it might be a cool read.

Ashe: Warmother is an okay fantasy origin story driven by some interesting ideas and occasionally standout artwork. I found Ashe and her mother to be genuinely compelling, with a give-and-take dynamic that elevated the material at times. I thought the frigid setting worked well with the emotions being tackled and the hard-edged mentalities of the people that lived there. From the brief glimpses of the creatures and cultures of this world, this looks like a really interesting universe that I wouldn't mind exploring further. Sejuani makes for an interesting ally and foil to Ashe, and I enjoyed their dynamic for the most part.

On the more negative side, as a miniseries, the pacing comes across a little disjointed. It feels more like two arcs of an ongoing title that got squished together without much connective tissue. I wish Sejuani had appeared and/or had some form of impact on the first two issues so her appearance in issue three wasn't as out of the blue. I understand this mini is to set up where Ashe is in the game, but there's better ways to connect the story's halves that will make for more consistency and a better pace. As it stands, certain plot beats don't get time to fully develop before we're on to the next big problem. In addition, there's a lot of high fantasy vocabulary that will go over a casual reader's head. I'm sure people who know this world will understand what the characters are talking about, but as for me, the volume of terms I had no context for took me out of the story a bit. While I'm sure it's great for world immersion, I feel situations like this are what turn some people off from high fantasy.

While I still enjoyed the experience of reading Warmother, I would only recommend it to people who already enjoy this universe and/or enjoy high fantasy with large encyclopedias of new terms. For everyone else, this is probably a skip.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es solo una introducción y se me ha hecho muy corto, pero tiene buena pinta. Ashe tampoco era el personaje sobre el que tuviese más curiosidad, pero ver que su historia tiene tanto fondo me ha llamado la atención. Esa madre que pierde la cabeza por buscar un mito, y el peso de dirigir a su pueblo aunque no es lo que ella quiere... También se deja entrever que quizá tenga sentimientos por alguien, y sabemos por el lore que ella termina casándose con otro hombre. De momento le pongo 4 estrellas a pesar de que fue bastante light, pero del siguiente espero mucho más.

[Eliovi Diaz Pena · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I wish I believed that truth.”

I read this short comic series forever ago for my class, “Adaptaions,” where we had to adapt a written work. I’m sure you see where this is going. I chose to adapt this, and I had a blast. Ashe is an incredibly complex character, and the world of League of Legends is unbelievably rich. It felt Game of Thrones-esque. The North remembers. Winter is coming. All that good stuff about the cold. It’s a quick read full of intrigue and politics, which are right up my alley.

[Cris Lightwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

4'5/5
Ha sido una delicia poder sumergirme en el lore de League of Legends con este comic que encima va sobre una de mis campeonas favoritas.
El dibujo me ha parecido maravilloso, la historia ha estado genial y si cabe me he quedado con ganas de más. No sé si habrá más entregas después de esta, pero si las hay, yo compro.
Ahora tocará esperar hasta poder conseguir los de Lux y Zedd :) Si os gusta el LoL, es una lectura super recomendada

[Kong Fuzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope every future League of Legends series will have at least this level of quality.

[Reetu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun quick read to learn more about Ashe from league of legends! The plot felt a bit rushed and the characters could have used a little more development, but that was more a consequence of this being such a short book.

*SPOILERS* I was a little disappointed that Ashe and Sejuani broke off from each other so quickly, and also that the Maalcrom subplot came seemingly out of nowhere and was never really elaborated. Also, what’s the deal with Sejuani’s mom? I wanted to know more of that story. This graphic novella could have been so much more if these points were fleshed out! Of course, they could have also been intentionally omitted if the original plan was to create a whole series of comic books based on league characters, since afaik there are only 3 currently. *END SPOILERS*

Other than my quibbles with the plot, the art was lovely and this was a wonderful way to learn more about my main on LoL. 10/10 would recommend! It’s a short, easy read and very fun if you play Ashe in League.

[Kevin van Brecht · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't touched comics in well over a decade, so I might not be the best person to review this, but I feel like a lot more is to be expected from these two companies, Riot Games and Marvel, combining forces. This comic does not live up to the epicness it claims on backcover.

The story doesn't manage to grab the reader like so much of the lore of Runeterra does. There is no depth and the end is straightup disappointing. While I love the 'Behind the Pages' section after the comic, I fear it shows the lack of thought that went into this comic.

To make matters worse, the short story this book ends with is at least ten times better than the story the comic tells.
Taking into consideration that this is Riot's first ever attempt at comics I feel like I shouldn't judge them too hard. Ashe is an okay try, but definitely not enough. I still have Zed and Lux to read and I hope, and frankly expect, to see significant imporvent.

Comic - 2/5
Short story - 4.5/5

[Tilápia frita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arte belissima, o design da Ashe é muito superior ao do jogo nesse compilado, não tem nem comparação. A arte e cores seguraram bem a barra da edição.
A história eu não achei grandes coisas não, pessoalmente acho que se contassem a história da Sejuani ou da jornada da Ashe se encontrando com outros personagens do jogo nessa região gelada, acho que assim seria mais interessante, pq a história da coitada foi muito sem sal, EU não achei muita graça.
No final teve umas 4 páginas só de escrita falando do Udyr e da Sejuani numa jornada pela destruição de tudo, só que eu não sei se eu sou muito burra ou se a história é muito ambigua, pq não deu pra entender metade do que tava escrito, parece que o texto tava todo comido, todo cortado, não deu pra fazer muito sentido disso ai não, eu pensei que era pra ler e não pra decifrar, parece livro de filosofia e não história de lol, podre. Poderia ter pelo menos uma ilustração dessa história no fim da edição, faltou isso ai.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Ashe but I was having trouble getting into this book. I like how it ends but getting there was rough. The glossary really needs to be at the beginning of the book as well, because it was so hard to keep the language straight without prior knowledge of any of it. I found it by accident when I flipped through to try and find out how many individual comics were in the book.

It's fine if you're super into the League of Legends lore, but it definitely didn't keep my attention well. We'll have to see how the Lux book pans out next.

[Philmore Olazo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can’t tell you much about the references that this comic has, I’ve just gotten into the world of Runtera.

What I can tell you is that this is a far better offering than what Riot offers on the official website.

This is a story of one of the champions, the Frost Archer, Ashe.

We begin her story with her tribe in the icy lands of Freljord. Her tribe has a problem, her mother Grena has been leading them in a wild goose hunt for the throne of Avarosa. Her people are betrayed and she ends up the only survivor.

I can’t help but shake the feeling that I was dropped in the middle of something else. Ashe doesn’t have a personality, she’s just moved from one place to another by other characters and doesn’t really show initiative until the very end defending innocents.

It has the same problems as many other licensed comics, it assumes that the reader knows or cares enough to forgive the sloppy writing.

I guess the art is nice.

[Scotty · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up because I'm a big softie.

This story, four issues collected, is an introduction story with a lot of exposition. Necessarily so. It's not boring, so to speak, just weighed down. It moves pretty quickly, though, so that's a plus. I look forward to reading more of Ashe's story moving forward, whether that comes in the form of comics or novels or what have you. Maybe something in the vein of Arcane?

The art is solid, and the character designs do the worldbuilding a good service. Let's say I rounded up because of the art.

[Sofia Asarpay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creo que he quedado completamente enamorada del estilo de dibujo y los colores.

En el juego suelo ir más por los campeones de Jonia (mi eterna debilidad por los Darkin) así que mi conocimiento de Fréljord era mínima al solo conocer a Ashe y Sejuani, por lo que esta historia cayó como caído del cielo para poder adentrarnos en las frías tierras de hielo.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, succinct story that builds on not only Ashe's character, but Sejuani's character, and the identity of the region as a whole. Exactly the kind of stuff I wanna see from these comics, as someone's who's been dealing with Riot's sporadic lore updates and retcons for like eight or nine years lol.

Also, the art in this is FABULOUS. Like it's straight up eye-candy.

[Sonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mi segundo comic leído de League of Legends en colaboración con Marvel, en esta ocasión la historia de uno de los primeros campeones de dicho juego: Ashe.
Muy interesante, se narran los inicios de Ashe y como llega a convertirse en "Warmother" apareciendo Sejuani y mostrando de forma magnífica la relación entre ambos personajes.

[Andrei Şuteu · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5. The plot was ok'ish, but it felt kinda rushed and maybe too edited. It felt like there were missing some bits from the storyline and it was somehow briefly summarized in some places.

However, I liked the art, I enjoy this type of sketchy drawings done a bit messy.

And as a support main, I will appreciate every Ashe I lane with haha

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

GENIAL!!!!
No sabía que iba a gustarme tantísimo!
El lore del LOL siempre me ha encantado y poder saber más de los personajes me fascina!!!
Es muy corto, se lee en una sentada, si eres como yo y amas el arte de Marvel, tardarás 2 horas en acabarlo pero te deja con ganas de más.

[Leon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a big comic reader, but this one was pretty good, especially in terms of developing Ashe.
(I still don't get what's Sejuanis problem. As far as I can tell, she and her people are making life harder for everyone than it needs to be.)
I also love the gorgeous illustrations.

[Kole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great lore and background to Ashe, and I learned things that I didn’t know! It was paced very well and the style was beautifully drawn. I saw certain events happening before they did and was still so bummed about it, but watching her transform was really cool.