World of Warcraft by Walter Simonson, Ludo Lullabi and Sandra Hope

The orcs have come to dominate the continent known as Calimdor, and one orc named Rehgar rose to become a master of the fighting arena. But when his champion, Bloodeye Redfist, is slain after becoming champion in the arena, Rehgar will have to rebuild his team from the ground up.

He already has two elves in his team, a Nightelf Druid Shapeshifter named Broll Bearmantle and a Blood Elf Enchantress/Thief named Valeera Sanguinar. But it isn't until his caravan comes across a human washed up on the shore and they witness the human killing a Crocolisk with merely a broken wooden spar that he finds the third and last warrior he needs for his team of arena fighters.

The human can't remember his name or his past, though he does come to remember a few bits of his past as he travels and trains with the other two. From these visions, he remembers a wife and a child, though his wife is dead. But he's something special, the others begin to realize. Broll doesn't trust Valeera and has a problem controlling his rage. The only shape he can assume is one: the bear, But because of his uncontrollable anger, when he does get angry, he becomes a berserker. Valeera, on the other hand, is used to not being trusted, and isn't above using magic to play tricks on Broll when she's angry with him. Broll, though, warns her not to use her dark magic. She may not be evil yet, but the more she uses it, the more it will want to be used, and the more evil she will grow.

The human remains more or less nameless until they finally reach the arena at Dire Maul. There, working with the others, they capture the win and become champions. The crowd calls the human warrior Lo'Gosh- Ghost Wolf. But soon after the competition, Rehgar sells Valeera to another arena master and takes Broll and Lo'Gosh away with him. In a stop near a pool of visions, Broll and Lo'Gosh drive away the elemental guarding the pool and afterwards manage to escape. After meeting more NightElves, Lo'Gosh learns that Broll is tied to a statuette that became infected with Dark Energy, inciting his rages, which only became worse when his daughter died after one of them.

Lo'Gosh must help Broll free himself of the rage which endangers all around him, and then must free Valeera and find out why he was washed up on this strange shore. But Valeera has already escaped on her own, and found out that someone wishes to kill Lo'Gosh before he can find out anything more about himself. She decides to find out more and protect her old comrade, which leads to a battle with an assassin out after Lo'Gosh. But even when they finally find each other again, can they uncover what sent Lo'Gosh to this land and help him even as he helped them in their own battles?

I must confess. I have never played any Warcraft or World of Warcraft titles, but even with my complete novice lack of knowledge of the world and most of its creatures and races, but even so, I didn't find the storyline hard to follow or understand. Even with a minimum of exposition, the story carries itself along.

Again, as someone who hasn't learned all the backgrounds of the various races, I can't say if they are well-portrayed or not. I got that the Blood Elves are taken to be evil and malicious, and that this evil has something to do with the magic they can wield. That the magic itself is evil, and somehow corrupts them. But I can't be sure I'm right. Each of the races seem to have their quirks, though the only races covered here are humans, Night Elves, Blood Elves and Orcs. We get to see other races, like Goblins and Minotaurs, but not in any kind of depth, since they are only adversaries or in the background.

This isn't a bad comic at all, but I felt that, even though I could understand the story, it would have been deeper and more satisfying if I knew even the slightest thing about the other races or had more familiarity with the world. Even if you know nothing about the World of Warcraft series and haven't played a single game, you'll be able to follow what's going on. Especially if you have ever played D&D or read fantasy. But those who are familliar with the world will especially enjoy it, I feel. It's not like you are left on the outside looking in if you haven't played in that world, but it's like a party where most everyone is having fun and you hardly know anyone. You can still join in and have fun, but you won't understand many of the jokes.