Dungeons & Dragons: Mindbreaker #2

Dungeons & Dragons: Mindbreaker #2

IDW Publishing 2021

Written by Jim Zub

Illustrated by Eduardo Mello

Coloured by Luis Antonio Delgado

Lettered by Neil Uyetake

Minsc, Boo, Delina, Krydle, Shandie, and Nerys have returned from their adventure in Avernus, only to discover a sinister force has pervaded Baldur’s Gate, from the head librarian of the Knowledge-Hold to Nerys’ beloved Father Alby in the Church of Kelemvor. After surviving a battle with a pair of displacer beasts, our heroes find Alby conducting a dark summoning ritual in the Knowledge-Hold—with the head librarian as a sacrifice! As Krydle, Delina, Shandie, Nerys, Minsc, and Boo disrupt the portal ritual and narrowly escape the cultists, they find themselves with more questions than answers. To find those answers, the party decides to split up! What could possibly go wrong?

Any time we get to see Minsc and Boo makes me a happy camper even if he uses phrases like Space Hamster or Hygiene which sound odd when you think about what kind of time frame these are set in. Though whomever was paying his character might have said something like that and it sounded funny enough to keep. Regardless, they are my favourite characters. So how we see the opening here is great and it picks up nicely from where we left off and it leads to our heroes thinking logically albeit misguidedly.

I'm a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information are presented is exceptionally well done. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job with the personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more we want to see.

I appreciate the way that we see this being structured and how the layer within the story continues to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I also very much like how we see the layers here open up new avenues to be explored. While all the avenues except one seem to lead to the bigger picture I’m loving these side adventures. What all this does is add some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story's ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably handled.

The linework is nicely rendered and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create the detail within the work that we see throughout is extremely well executed. Though I have to admit the interiors seem different, less threatening or scary and more comic book style cute. That eye-beast thing should look terrifying but it looks almost harmless. It's like Disney got a hold of the book. We do see some absolutely stellar use of backgrounds throughout and how they enhance and expand the moments and work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is exceptionally well achieved. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a very talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show an exceptional eye for how colour works.

​

The group thinks it’s one big conspiracy and they need to find out what their contacts know to inform them more fully. I get that it’s a good strategy actually only their contacts are targets in their own rights and there’s this whole right place at the right time, depending on your point of view, thing happening. It’s actually very exciting to see and how each grouping fares against the Absolute Acolytes. With some strong writing, stellar characterisation and solid interiors it’s nice to see our group of heroes on another adventure.