New 'Dungeons & Dragons' Comic Gathers the Party for One Last Adventure

IDW and Wizards of the Coast has announced a new Dungeons & Dragons series titled A Darkened Wish.

The series, written by B. Dave Walters (a regular on various D&D and other tabletop RPG streaming shows) and illustrated by Tess Fowler (Kid Lobotomy), stars a group of retired legendary adventurers returning to save the world one last time from a powerful enemy.

"The story spans decades, from the heroes teen years through midlife," Walters told ComicBook.com. "Over the course of the series we'll get a very clear look into their history, and how they came to be who they are."

The series came about when Fowler, a veteran comics artist and avid fan of D&D, approached Walters to potentially write a new D&D comic series. The basic concept of the book quickly came together after the creative team's first conversation.

The characters include Helene, a young female Wizard, and a pair of non-binary twins. The first cover also reveals what appears to be a human fighter and a dragonborn.

Walters is an experienced D&D dungeon master, which came in handy when planning out a storyline that spans decades. "Because of my background, I already had an idea of the kind of story I wanted to see: Something grand, epic, and intense," Walters said. "I think my main advantage is I believe I have an insight into why people play D&D in the first place: To have a chance to feel at-cause in their world, and play characters that have a meaningful impact on the events around them."

"Yes, a mechanical knowledge of what a given class can do at level 6 vs 14 vs 20 was useful," Walters continued. "But what I think has been more important was showing that as a character growing from being inexperienced and overwhelmed to someone capable of altering reality itself at will."

The new series is set within the popular Forgotten Realms campaign setting familiar to most fans who have played through one of the game's more recent adventures, and contains some Easter eggs and nods towards fans of that realm. The new series also touches upon some iconic moments in Faerûn history, but isn't specifically tied to any other D&D comic or plotline.

Walters also mentioned that he's working on a possible streaming tie-in for A Darkened Wish, which would give fans of the series a chance to dive into the events of the comic in more detail. "I think D&D is uniquely positioned to do something like this as a multimedia company," Walters said of a potential streaming tie-in. "The books and shows should feed each other, and each feed back to the brand. My hope is we'll inspire people to take up these characters and situations in their own games."

Dungeons & Dragons: A Darkened Wish's first issue will be released in February 2019. The mini-series will run for five issues.