Forgotten Realms: Homeland #1 and Forgotten Realms: Homeland #2 are the first two comics in Devil's Due Publishing's adaptation of R.A. Salvatore's Drizztian origins trilogy. Each issue features a massive 44 pages of story, with the whole adaptation of the first book planned for just three issues.
These were the June and July, 2005 issues of the comic. I expect #3 to be out very soon or already.
This review covers some general plot points, but doesn't spoil any surprises.
The Story
Homeland is the story of Drizzt Do'Urden, a drow born into the great Undercity of Menzoberranzan. It tells of how he fits into that society, and the challenges he faces as he comes of age. It's also the story of the family Do'Urden, their destruction of the Devir family, and the cycle of vengeance which this begins.
Forgotten Realms: Homeland #1 is the story of the beginning of this war, Drizzt's birth, and his early teachings at home. Forgotten Realms: Homeland #2 is the story of Drizzt's time at the great drow academy, his first meetings with his future companion, the panther Guenhwyvar, and the difficulties that Drizzt encounters fitting into drow society.
Together these stories adapt the first two-thirds of R.A. Salvatore's novel Homeland (1990).
The Continuity
In 1988 TSR published The Crystal Shard, R.A. Salvatore's first published novel, the first novel in the Icewind Dale trilogy, and one of the first few Forgotten Realms novels. It featured a band of adventurers, one of whom was Drizzt Do'Urden, a deadly double-scimitar-wielding drow fighter. He was the exact character that my most munchkin friends wanted to play throughout High School (expect, perhaps, for his hatred of drow ways and society), and thus it wasn't much of a surprise that he was a big hit and would live far beyond that initial trilogy.
Drizzt has now starred in 16 different novels, some of them New York Times bestsellers. The second series was the "Dark Elf" trilogy, and it told Drizzt's origin, before the Icewind Dale stories. Homeland was the first of those books.
The city of Menzoberranzan is probably ultimately based upon the Vault of the Drow, the underground city of the drow first revealed in Descent into the Depths of the Earth, a 1978 AD&D adventure, and also the first place where the drow appeared. The actual city of Menzoberranzan was published as an AD&D Forgotten Realms supplement in 1992.
None of this is necessary to understand this comic, however. It's the origin of Drizzt, and thus his story begins here.
This, by the by, isn't the first Forgotten Realms comics. DC did two comics set there in the early 1990s, Forgotten Realms and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. I enjoyed them at the time, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Drizzt might have made a cameo somewhere therein, but I no longer have the issues to actually check (alas).
The Storytelling
Origin stories are tricky things. You have to balance telling a good and interesting story with integrating all of the background details about your character. In addition, you have to somehow maintain tension despite the fact that the readers probably already know the fates of your main characters. Unfortunately, Homeland is weak by many of these criteria.
If you take the heart of the story as the origin of Drizzt, it's fine. We see his birth, his early trials, and his schooling. We come to learn the origin of his unconventional (for the drow) morals. Here the comic succeeds.
Homeland #1 & #2 do succeed in one other way: we get to see some of the real interactions of the drow in Menzoberranzan and how their society works & this is going to be interesting for any fan of the Realms.
However, this is all interwoven with a story of the Do'Urden house seeking ascendency, and the chaos that this causes both for the society and for Drizzt himself. Here I feel that the story fails. There's little tension here, and much of that is because the success or failure of Drizzt's house is unimportant to us as readers. We have little investment in anyone else but our main character. As a result, a lot of the dramatic underpinning of the story feels irrelevent.
On the whole Homeland #1 & #2 succeed more as a narrative sourcebook for the Forgotten Realms & background for Drizzt than as an actual story. As such it earns a wholely average rating for Substance: "3" out of "5".
The Artwork
The artwork of Forgotten Realms: Homeland, by Tim Seeley, is in a fairly cartoony style. Figures are kept simple, and often idealized.
The peoples in the comic remind me of those drawn by some of the more stylized super-hero artists, like Todd McFarlane or Erik Larsen. They're generally drawn well and consistently within this style.
Unfortunately, much of the comic seems to be filled with talking heads. We see drow talking and walking and for the most part this doesn't hold my visual interest. Some action scenes and some spells do help this out. I also feel like the few times when the story presents other characters, including hook horrors, goblins, and other denizens of the Underdark, the artwork immediately rises to a new level, but they're too infrequent.
Beyond that, my overall impression of both issues of the comic is unfortunately "drab". Much of this was probably a stylistic decision by the colorist, who often portrays gray-skinned drow in dull-colored clothing in front of dull-colored walls. The occasional spots of color, usually the result of magic spells, are all the more shocking as a result, but not sufficient to brighten the rest of the comic.
This drabness is also the result of a general decision to keep backgrounds fairly plain and simplistic. We see a lot of stone walls and a fair number of bookcases. This is a bit of a pity, because there was a lot of potential to really depict a weird, alien city that I feel was overlooked here. In a few places where we do see more details, including glowing facades and occasional classical ornaments in houses, the story immediately takes on a much more three-dimensional feel, but that's unfortunately missing from much of the comic.
Finally, combat, often the heart of Salvatore's books, just gets an average depiction here. Inexplicably the artist, particularly in the first issue, often cuts away from physically depicting a fight to instead show a silhouette or swords clashing or worse violence being done. Fortunately, by the second issue he seems to have grown beyond this anti-climatic affectation.
One of the best sequences in the book is the first page from the first comic, which shows a hapless kobold in the Underdark. I've included a thumbnail to the right, to contrast with the drabber work, above. It suggests that the artist & colorist can do some interesting work, and it may just be that the constraints of the adaptation don't allow for that to be highlighted. (And it's always a danger that adaptations of novel might not work well in a more visual medium.)
I think that the artwork might be slowly improving from issue #1 to #2, with the artist gaining a bit more confidenec with action scenes and the panel layouts getting a bit more dynamic. As such I've let the comic eke in an average "3" out of "5" for Style. I'd like to see better.
The Presentation
Each issue of Homeland is presented as a 48-page comic with 44 pages of story and the ads all grouped at the end. The paper is bright and glossy & helps the artwork stand out.
Usage in RPGs
As I've already said, I think Homeland's best use may actually be as an RPG supplement. It gives insight into Menzoberranzan and will be of interest to Forgotten Realms and drow fans.
Conclusion
On the whole, I was a bit disappointed by Homeland #1 & #2. It's a good origin, but not an epic story and except for occasional bursts of color, the artwork is drab. However I do have good hope for the series as I think there's the potential for more interesting stories in the future if Salvatore's novels continue to be adapted.
