I got to admit, The Wolf Among Us: Season 1 from Telltale Games is one of my favorite games of the year. I loved the story, the characters, the writing, the graphics, and choices you can make. It probably helped that The Wolf Among Us was the prequel to Fables, my second favorite comic series of all time. So, when I heard about a digital comic based on the game coming out, I was excited. Is it good?
The Wolf Among Us: Chapter One (Vertigo Comics)
This is going to be a simple, short, and straight to the point review since there is not a lot to cover here with this. The first chapter of this series covers most of the opening to the first episode of the game. Basically it shows Bigby Wolf showing up at Toad’s apartments, confronting the Woodsman, and then ending with the two of them tumbling out of a window. That’s the story in a nutshell and honestly, there’s not much to comment about. It does a fairly decent job at introducing Bigby to the audience, with some extra inner narration that wasn’t within the game, and that’s really it. The main story hasn’t really gotten underway yet.
On the writing side of things, it’s perfectly much fine. Most of the dialogue is lifted directly from the video game, with some exceptions and changes. The dialogue is fine, with plenty of good lines that really help characterize everyone who shows up. Speaking of which, the characterization is good and everyone gets their moment to establish what kind of person they are. The story structure and pacing on the book is good as well, though some panels don’t flow as well as others.
The artwork is where I have mixed feelings. The line work is perfectly fine and does a decent job of depicting everyone, the action, and locations with some minor issues. Some facial expressions aren’t that great and some of the action is stiff, but that’s not that big of a deal. The real issue is with the coloring on the book and just how boring it is. In the video game, the colors were bright and vibrant with lots of purples, greens, blues, and other lovely mixes. It really made the game visually memorable, even if it had a cel-shaded style similar to The Walking Dead game. Here though? It’s rather drab and bland, nothing really all that colorful to it. It’s just kind of standard work and that’s it. I really wish the comic had a better colorist on it.
The final thing to note is the adaptation angle and whether this is worth your time checking out. As an adaptation, it makes some minor changes to the source material that don’t really affect the main story all that much. Such minor changes include Toad meeting Bigby outside of the apartment complex instead inside of it. So nothing really major on that front. There’s the addition of narration to the comic when it wasn’t there in the game and, again, the coloring is not as vibrant as the game. Plus, the comic’s story is much more narrow and is following one path & direction instead of the whole “player’s choice” thing the game features. So the story does have a set path in comparison, which is understandable (though fans upset that this might canonize one specific storyline/direction with the story could be a tad disappointed, especially if the story ends up not being like what they choose). Overall, if you want more of The Wolf Among Us, this might be for you since it’s not quite an exact point-by-point retelling of the comic, but it’s hard to recommend since it’s not particularly adding anything new either.
Is It Good?
Fables: The Wolf Among Us #1 is an perfectly alright adaption of the video game, but not much else. The writing and characterization are all on point, though the artwork and drab coloring leave a lot to be desired. Maybe wait a bit until a few more chapters are out, but otherwise, I don’t see getting this right unless you are a diehard fan of the video game.
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