In the third installment of the official Diablo III comic book, our mopey hero returns home seeking the punishment he has been craving since the first issue.

The issue begins on a cool note, as a band of Khazra goat demons argue with the thugs who are pursuing Jacob. In a truly creepy moment, the thugs’ leader, Ivan, starts bleeding from his facial orifices as he strikes a bargain with the demons.

It soon becomes apparent that Ivan is possessed by a sinister force—a force that offers to make the Khazra great again if only they will reveal Jacob’s location. The Khazra spend about five seconds contemplating the offer before declaring that Jacob and his wizard friend, Shanar, are hiding beneath them.

Thankfully for Jacob, Shanar has some more nifty wizard tricks up her sleeve, and she deploys several new in-game spells, including Mirror Image and Electrocute. Meanwhile, Jacob engages in some expository combat with Ivan that reveals that the madness affecting Jacob’s people is apparently spread by blood.

A well-placed lightning bolt from Shanar knocks Ivan to the ground, which gives Jacob an excellent opportunity to rid himself of the madman who has been pursuing him for the past three issues. Common sense suggests that it might be a good idea for him to use his flashy magic sword to lop off Ivan’s head. Sadly, common sense is not Jacob’s strong suit.

Instead of killing Ivan, he uses his sword to carve glyphs into his chest. Shanar is naturally confused, and Jacob explains that he will return to his home city of Staalbreak with Ivan and the other thugs so that he can face justice for killing his father.

The problem is, Jacob’s plan is epically stupid. I understand that he feels guilty about killing his father (he has, after all, been moaning about that since the first issue), but the idea that he will find justice back home is just laughable.

He knows his people are suffering from an insanity-inducing plague of unknown, but undoubtedly sinister, origin, yet he is willing to let them sit in judgment of him. That is not nobility. That is not ‘doing the right thing.’ It is a logic fail of titanic proportions, and Jacob richly deserves the slap that Shanar administers to try to jolt some sense into him.

Naturally, things go to Hell as soon as Jacob returns home. The townspeople start to stone him as soon as he enters the city. He is dragged before the constable (who has the face of a demonic Kewpie doll) and is cheerfully informed that there will be no trial. Jacob was found guilty as soon as he fled the city. Jacob begs for a chance to address the people, and the constable agrees, provided Jacob surrenders his super powerful magic sword.

Because Jacob has all the common sense of a head of cabbage, he agrees to this proposal and is promptly hung from a gibbet by his wrists. The townspeople start stoning him again, and they refuse to listen to his attempts to warn them about the plague. He spends an entire night hanging from the gibbet before Shanar saves his sorry butt once again.

Throughout the issue, readers have cause to question Jacob’s intelligence. If he did not know about the blood plague, then his decision to return home to face justice would seem noble, but he knows something is rotten in Staalbreak. He watched his father go crazy. He saw Ivan and his minions eat a boar while it was still alive.

Heck, he even heard Ivan speaking in the voice of a demon! All these things suggest that Jacob’s countrymen are under the influence of something nasty, but he seems oblivious to the danger he faces. He apparently believed that all he had to do was address the people, and they would realize that something evil was afoot. Calling him naïve would be the understatement of the year.

This is the second time Jacob’s masochistic guilt has gotten him into a dicey situation from which Shanar has had to rescue him. We can only hope he has finally learned his lesson.

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DC Comics recently released the second installment of Sword of Justice, their new five-part series set in the world of Diablo, Blizzard Entertainment’s hit ARPG.

Issue #2 picks up right where its predecessor left off. Jacob ends up killing his father in self-defense, but it seems as if the old man’s mind had been poisoned by some mysterious ailment. With his last breath, he warns Jacob not to touch his blood. Back in the present, Jacob is still in the mysterious cave he discovered in the previous issue, staring at a glimmering sword that protrudes from the ground.

Jacob pulls it free, much to the relief of the hooded woman who had been guarding it. She introduces herself as a wizard named Shanar, and unlike most comic book females, she is actually somewhat modestly clothed. No chainmail bikini for her! She delivers some exposition about the sword, but her spiel is cut short when thugs from Jacob’s homeland pay him a visit. Jacob is reluctant to see them killed, so he forces Shanar to pull her magical punches.

In a nice nod to Diablo III, Shanar fights with wizard spells that will appear in-game, such as Electrocute and Wave of Force. Of course no good deed goes unpunished, and Jacob is rewarded for his mercy by being knocked unconscious and taken prisoner. Thankfully, Shanar returns to Jacob’s side and helps him to escape his captors. But the bad guys prove to be persistent, and Shanar uses a teleportation spell to whisk herself and Jacob from their grasp.

They end up in the Black Marsh near the Forgotten Tower (two areas that will be familiar to players of Diablo II), but the issue’s last panel suggests that they might have exchanged the frying pan for the fire.

The first issue was understandably a bit heavy on the exposition, but scriptwriter Aaron Williams has toned it down in Issue #2. He has also done a nice job of incorporating some of the newer lore that has been developed for the Diablo universe. The bit about the Crystal Arch in the High Heavens fits in nicely with the Book of Cain.

And speaking of lore, it is interesting to note that Williams told IGN that he had originally planned to have a scene in the Forgotten Tower. He ended up dropping it because the Tower apparently shows up in Diablo III and he did not want to create continuity problems. If the Tower does indeed make a comeback in Diablo III, it would be nice if we actually got to see it; in Diablo II, we only saw the (rather expansive) basement!

Despite Williams’ obvious talent, there are some plot issues that left me scratching my head in confusion. Take the battle in the cave, for example. Jacob tells Shanar not to kill the thugs, which seems spectacularly unwise given the circumstances. His decision to show them mercy might have been more believable if he were trying to reason with them, but he makes no such attempt.

Instead, he fights in moody silence and refuses to deliver killing blows. But what does he hope to gain by holding back? Does he hope his enemies will just get frustrated and leave him alone? Perhaps Williams was trying to show Jacob as naive and good-hearted, but instead he comes dangerously close to being ‘Too Stupid To Live’.

Similarly, when Shanar helps Jacob escape after he is captured, it seems hard to believe that she would not attack the thugs while they were busy dismembering their dinner. They were totally distracted; it would be the perfect opportunity for Shanar to take them all out. At the very least, she and Jacob should have discussed some sort of counterattack. Instead, she and Jacob just run off into the woods. That sort of behavior seems to be dictated by plot necessity rather than logic.

Those matters aside, Issue #2 was an enjoyable read. Overall, the story remains compelling, and it will be interesting to see what else Williams has in store for Jacob and Shanar.

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Although Diablo III has been postponed until 2012, fans of the series can tide themselves over by picking up the first issue of Sword of Justice, which hits the shelves this week. Set in the same dark-fantasy world as the game, SoJ is a five-issue comic series published by DC Comics which takes place during the twenty years that elapsed between the ending of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction and the beginning of Diablo III.

The issue starts with a nice little summary of the overarching story of the Diablo universe.  Sanctuary (the world of mortals) was created by angels and demons as a place of refuge. Despite the best intentions, Sanctuary was almost destroyed twice, and each time it owed its salvation to Tyrael, the Archangel of Justice.

We then segue out of the past and into the present, where a young wanderer is confronted by an old beggar who claims to be able to see the future. He knows that the young man’s name is Jacob and that he is being pursued by hostile men. He tells Jacob to seek out a mysterious mountain.

At first, Jacob doesn’t believe the old man’s ramblings, but after almost dying of thirst in the desert, he stumbles upon the mountain that the old seer described. Inside, there’s a great cave whose walls are carved with scenes from his past, and a shining sword protrudes from the stone.

Seeing the scenes on the wall bring back painful memories for Jacob, and the reader finally starts to understand what the young man is running from. Video game tie-ins often leave a lot to be desired, but SoJ manages to be a compelling read. Scriptwriter Aaron Williams has a done a nice job with Jacob’s characterization, and he has a knack for incorporating subtle humor into the dialogue.

The story he’s crafted appears promising, and it will be interesting to see how SoJ fits in with the storyline of Diablo III when it’s finally released. The art, however, may not be to everyone’s liking. If you’re one of the fans who thinks that Diablo III isn’t dark and gritty enough, then you might want to steer clear of SoJ.

Joseph Lacroix’s work is visually appealing, but his highly-stylized drawings may not appeal to those looking for gritty realism. All in all, SoJ is a promising addition to the world of Diablo. It could have easily become a cliched ‘young warrior finds a magic weapon’ story, but it looks like they’ve managed to create something fresh and new.

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