Posted in: Games, Review, Video Games | Tagged: Digital Extremes, matt hawkins, Ryan Cady, Studio Hive, Top Cow Comics

A Whole Lot Of Flashy Action But No Substance – Warframe #1 Review

The first issue of the Warframe comic was handed out this past weekend at Tennocon, and will be making its way to comic shops soon. Every TennoCon attendee will received, for free, the first physical issue of the comic, which was created in by Top Cow Comics' COO, Matt Hawkins and writer Ryan Cady. The interior art was done by Studio Hive, with a cover by Stjepan Sejic. I'll run this review without spoiling too much of the story, as the Warframe comic doesn't really have much of one. Outside of setting up the Tenno as a ridiculously powerful warrior race, the comic is pretty much just fluff.

The best thing about the comic is the art by Studio Hive. Studio Hive's interior pages do a fantastic job of illustrating Excalibur, our blind survivor, and the inhuman and inhumane Grineer. Truly, the art is the hidden gem of this comic, and it isn't quite hidden, is it?

The dialogue is about as canned as you could expect, with the sort of pithy oneliners that some think make a bunch of gratuitous action scenes seem less gratuitous. Yes, the Tenno and Grineer are as black-and-white as you might expect of a Warframe comic, insomuch as all Grineer are inherently evil, and all Tenno are not. That's set up pretty quickly in the comic, within just a few pages. And it handles here about as well as it does in game. Its a lazy shorthand, but it would be fine if we settled that debate quickly and moved on. However, the entire issue comprises of more and more reasons to heat the Grineer for being lazy, evil stereotypes who refer to their enemies as "skoom," and whose captains are just as cruel to their underlings as they are to their enemies.

Excalibur is never named, nor is the blind woman he saves. We get only one name out of the Grineer. And every character feels as nameless as they are in the dialogue.

Adapting games into comics, especially games where the protagonists speak very little, can be hard. But Warframe #1 doesn't even try to incorporate anything of the gameworld outside of the basic players. There are no references to moments in Warframe, no random spots of lore gleaming in the distance.

There isn't even much driving this issue other than a sheer need for violence – on all sides.

It's an action sequence with no context, and no stakes. Sure, people died, but by the time the issue starts – they're all dead except one. And we're somehow supposed to care about that. Without actually having any meaningful details about our sole survivor or her Tenno savior.

We've got a whole lot of flashy action. And absolutely nothing else.

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