D’ORC (2026-) #1 Review

D’Orc #1 is written by Brett Bean and published by Image Comics. Artwork is by Brett Bean, colours by Jean-François Beaulieu and letters by Nate Piekos. Main cover art (left) is by Brett Bean.

D’Orc #1 is available from today, in comic book stores and on digital platforms where all good comic books are sold. Grab your physical copy from Forbidden Planet or digitally from Amazon Comixology UK.

Synopsis

Armed with nothing but a magical yet ambitiously violent shield, a lonely orphan stumbles headfirst into Sunderaine’s never-ending war between the Light and Dark. With a wholly inconvenient doomsday prophecy, the half dwarf, half orc—all D’ORC—is fated to end the world.

Soon, every human, elf, goblin, dwarf, Snargletooth, Necroid, Ice Giant, Trauma Llama, and at least three other unpronounceable magical creatures, will know his name and want him dead.

There will also be a chicken.

Review

Like every great high-fantasy series, D’Orc #1 starts with a map. In this case, it’s a map of The Lands of Sunderaine, a continent split down the middle by a giant red scar known as… well… The Scar.

However, unlike other works of fantasy literature like Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire, the map we’re given here sets the tone for a different kind of tale. Featured locales such as ‘The Goblin’s Teet’ and ‘The Hills of Comeuppance’ let you know, with a wink and a grin, that we’re not here to take things too seriously.

Sunderaine is a land divided politically as well as geographically, with a perpetual war between the guardians of Light (on one side of The Scar) and the creatures of the Dark (on the other side) keeping the inhabitants of the island at each other’s throats.

It’s between these two factions that we find our hero, equal parts light-dwarf and dark-orc, and somewhat racistly referred to by the residents of Sunderaine as “D’Orc” – despite his insistence that this is, in fact, not his name.

He is accompanied by a sentient, magic shield who’s lust for violence is entirely at odds with D’Orc’s desire to keep himself to himself after 20 years in hiding.

This shield, sporting a large eyeball at its centre, sells itself as a concept almost immediately, going out of its way to talk smack to both sides of a skirmish, gleefully sabotaging D’Orc’s hope for a peaceful life if it means getting into a scrap.

D’Orc and his as-of-yet unnamed shield instantly struck me as a duo reminiscent of those found in classic PlayStation games like Ratchet and Clank or Jak and Daxter. There’s a sort of a begrudging camaraderie between them that immediately makes them compelling as unlikely heroes.

The art and script combine to create something similar in energy to The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, one of my favourite cartoons of all time. And that’s really what Bean and Beaulieu’s art is evoking here – a cartoon.

The art style appeals to the part of the brain that remembers weekends spent watching Cartoon Network, with an overly expressive face in almost every panel, and its frenetic, angular characters rarely ever stood still.

Yet it’s in the marriage between the art and the surprisingly relevant story where the magic happens. Behind the funny script is a tale about the pointlessness of conflict and a protagonist at odds with both sides of it – something that, in this day and age, I think we can all relate to.

Much of this theme is clearly spelled out to us in writing, with D’Orc venting his frustrations at a world caught in constant war, forever asking him to pick between the lesser of two – often very similar – evils.

The link between this loveably corny fantasy and our much-too-serious reality is made obvious in both the writing and art, literally showing the forces of Light and Dark in parallel panels, each side shown as one half of the same image.

But subtlety was never really on the cards the moment I opened this issue and fell in love with its ridiculous, spritely aesthetic. After all, a cartoon doesn’t need to be subtle, it needs to be entertaining. And – if we’re lucky – it’ll have something interesting to say while it goes about being just that.

D’Orc #1 does this without wasting a single page, masterfully setting up the coming conflict our bizarrely likeable duo will have to contend with.

Verdict

With it’s difficult to find fault in a single part of D’Orc #1. As a goofy, OTT opening chapter to, presumably, a goofy and OTT series, it clearly won’t be for everyone – but it wouldn’t be anywhere near as charming if it were trying to be.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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