As D&D moved into the 21st century, it started focusing less on trying to tell a broad swath of fantasy stories and more on trying to create a unique identity for itself as a brand. You could see that starting with 3rd edition ending the halfling-as-hobbit motif, and you can see it in the way the 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons presents its opening storyline compared to how 2nd edition’s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons did it.

This is the cover of issue #2 of Dungeons & Dragons, which kicks off the “Shadowplague” story. It could basically be a movie poster about a superhero-esque fantasy story, complete with the “edgy” half-smile of the main character. (In fact, this could basically be concept art for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.)

This is the image from “The Gathering,” which shows the part in a more straight-on fashion. There’s some personality there, with the dour dwarf, the serious paladin, and the smiling archer, but you could basically put it on the cover of any fantasy novel.

For better or worse, the “Fell’s Five” comics followed Wizards of the Coast’s vision of D&D as a brand, rather than as a vehicle for the fantasy genre at large. The 4th edition comics are faster-paced, full of sarcastic dialogue, and generally designed like an action movie. These work together well and make it one of my favorite RPG comics, but I sometimes wonder if the reason the comic didn’t last very long is because the good times it offers can be found in virtually any other action-oriented media of the era.

The end of the license for DC Comics didn’t mean the death of D&D comics, but it did create a long dry spell for D&D comics that I found interesting. The sporadic releases over the next couple decades were largely adaptations of RA Salvatore novels (which never quite hit home with me) or tales that lacked the humorous and chaotic bent found among the heroes of Waterdeep or the Realms Master crew. But then 4th edition D&D came out and it brought something new with it…

Except for the original brown box released in 1974, 4th edition is the one iteration of D&D I’ve never really played. I’ve run some test encounters here and there, but the system never grabbed me enough to want to play an adventure, let alone a campaign, of it. For me, it was too miniatures-focused, too obsessed with defined powers, and spent too much energy chasing the World of Warcraft feel that had come to dominate fantasy of the early 2000s. Wizards of the Coast did little to sell me on the edition; much of the early marketing badmouthed earlier editions as unfair and unfun and the complete overhaul of the Forgotten Realms setting reinforced the idea that this was an edition for people who didn’t like the way D&D used to be.

But the comics…man, the comics turned out great.

Titled Dungeons & Dragons: Fell’s Five in its collected format, this comic was written by John Rogers with art by Andrea Di Vito. The best I can define it as is the energy of Honor Among Thieves, but a decade earlier. It’s funny, it’s action-packed, and it’s probably the best D&D comic I’ve ever read.

Unfortunately, it’s also short. The comic only lasted 16 issues, and I’ll be covering it in four entries here. But better to have something short and sweet than nothing at all. While I’ll never look back at 4th edition fondly, at least it gave us this little gem.