Last issue we got to hear Angela’s backstory. (And saw her make some hard choices. Ow.) This issue we switch gears and hear Chuck’s backstory, which is not nearly as much fun because, let’s face it, Chuck is a jerk. Keep reading for a review of Die #7.
Some minor spoilers below. (Though honestly, the little tap dance I do around the plot points is vague enough to be annoying if you haven’t read the issue, so either way you might want to go read the issue first and then come back here.)
Early on (issue two?) the party agreed to treat everyone around them as “real.” Yes, the whole world was (somehow) created by Sol, but if they start thinking of everyone outside the party as “characters in a game” that’s a good way to start using people as cannon fodder and end up as monsters.
Chuck, of course, never really went along with this, and it’s not surprising: no he doesn’t think any of the people around him are “real,” because he never thought of anyone back in their home world as “real” either. He’s on his third wife; he dumped the first one on a whim and now tells the story with added details to make it more “fun.”
Sure, fame changes a lot of people for the worst, but I get the idea Chuck was like this before he sold his first book. I’m also not buying the idea that it was their first trip to Die that traumatized him and made him treat his own family as a game that he can quit when he gets bored. Something tells me this is his default mode, Die just lets him wallow in it.
The Godbinder, of course, wants to teach him a lesson, and right from the start I thought that was a horrible idea. Sure, if your friend ticks you off and you’ve got the ear of a half dozen gods, okay, you might want to sic a deity on him. But when you’re stuck in an endless desert with hundreds of people depending on you for their lives is now really the time?
It seemed irresponsible, is what I’m saying, but maybe that’s the point. Isabelle isn’t perfect by any means, and despite literal god-like power she screws up just as much as anybody. And yet…when she apologized later that made me even more mad. Don’t apologize, Chuck is a jerk.
But the stakes keep changing, and as much as Isabelle wanted something to get through his thick skull, I think we were seeing the God’s power go toe to toe with Chuck’s Luck. And as the story beats happened I thought, in this order: “Oh, it didn’t work. No wait it did! No, it didn’t. YES IT DID.”
That final beat, the one thing that happened that made me cringe a little, (when he took a little walk outside the tent) (…god, I hope it was outside the tent, ew…) I thought “Yep. That would be the one thing that’d make Chuck take notice.” I wonder what it means. Does he have something that came over with him from the regular world? Or is this the price of offending an elf? (My money’s on the elf.)
So this story was pretty dark (even before Chuck’s little trip outside the tent) (I hope) (ew) but there were some funny bits. His dwarf friends are hilarious, and if he didn’t have the Fool’s Luck thing going on he’d never keep up with them, shot for shot.
And then that overdramatic eye-roll he did when the elf woman started talking, how he walked out and found his drinking buddies instead of listening to a character drop some historic exposition? How many of us did the exact same thing when we read The Return of the King? “Man this bit about battles and history is taking foreeeeever, maybe I can jump forward a few pages and see what’s happening with Sam and Frodo…”
(Okay, maybe you didn’t do that, but I sure did.)
We also got a teeny look at some of Isabelle’s backstory this issue, with an introduction right at the end that promises to make things even more interesting. (And a character that’s much easier on the eyes than Chuck.)
Stephanie Hans’ art has taken a lighter turn lately, but not light as in “funny,” I mean brighter lighting and colors. She mentioned on her twitter feed recently that she’d done that on purpose; it sounds like she got some feedback along those lines and made a stylistic change. I didn’t have a problem with the colors before but I enjoyed all the warm lighting this issue. (EDIT – Stephanie said on twitter the brighter colors weren’t a response to feedback, it was something she was trying after seeing the levels in the trade, that was my bad for inferring from something she wasn’t implying.)
For anyone who’s only seen her work in books like Angela: Asgard’s Assassin, her style here has a different tone; it feels more angry and harsh, to fit with the tone of the book. And Chuck is no looker (he even mentions having a Charisma of 10, and between you and me I’d drop that to an 8 at most, 6 on a bad day) so we get his ugly mug this issue instead of Ash’s dangerous beauty, or the gorgeously weird Fair from last issue (oh my goodness, the Fair, they were my favorite.)
But even when things are supposed to be harsh and ugly, we’ll still get at least a few gorgeous panels in every issue, and this time it was the arrival of the Elves (in a cart pulled by hippogryphs!) and the panel of Chuck facing down the Titan. Are the Titans supposed to be “Attack on Titan” Titans? This one looked similar, but that manga would’ve come long after Sol’s creation of Die, wouldn’t it? Maybe a Primordial Overlord instead?
Which brings me to my last point: I’m enjoying the story, but I’m not playing in a D&D group right now. I don’t think you have to be actively playing to enjoy the comic, but for people who’re currently playing a campaign, I’m sure there’s even more nuances they can pull out of the story.
