Dungeons & Dragons: Fortune Finder #5 - IDW Publishing

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: FORTUNE FINDER No. 5, March 2024

Whilst some within this twenty-page-periodical’s audience might find Jim Zub’s ability to tie his mini-series’ central plot to a comic he penned way back in June 2018 quite clever. The revelation that Finder’s “true nature” actually stems from a momentary chance encounter with the mage Delina may well prove a bit too contrived for those readers anticipating an origin story much more enigmatic or precocious from the “Dungeons & Dragons fan favourite” author. In fact, the notion that all the gruesome deaths, hapless mind-swaps and head-scratching chaos contained within this mini-series are simply as a result of the Moon Elf’s fast-declining magical powers inadvertently leaking into a Modron and altering its basic programming is debatably underwhelming at best.

What does arguably work though, is the Canadian writer’s wonderfully enthralling flashback sequence of unit F1R’s “tour of the great wheel of the planes to refresh [the] information archives and take inventory of reality.” This lengthy quest genuinely appears capable of capturing many a bibliophile’s imagination, as the rotund walking sphere witnesses dragons fighting against one another in the sky, learns some basic spells, and encounters a giant, multi-tentacled plant monster – which disappointingly signifies the increasingly sentient automaton’s sad demise.

Indeed, it’s probably a pity that the Eisner Award-nominee didn’t use this approach to his storytelling straight from the start, rather than trying to confusingly combine the mystery surrounding Finder’s origin with a disconcerting headlong descent into the recently released “Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse” role-playing sourcebook instead. Such a stance may well have made far more sense to those who were bamboozled by this tale's persistent body-exchanging premise, and allowed them to supportively share the wide-eyed construct’s wonder at the much larger world it was journeying into; “I didn’t just record data like the others. I was actually curious. Curious and eager to see and do as many new things as possible."

Impressively managing to give the central Modron a life of its own though, has to be Jose Jaro, whose ability to transform one of many identical machines into so endearing a central character with just a few pencilled lines here and there is positively breath-taking. The frustration, excitement, fear, and pain of F1R’s escapades are so plain to see on the inquisitive adventurer's face, that few purchasing this publication will be able to stop themselves giving a little jump for joy when it concludes with the reassembled ‘immortal’ back in the city of Sigil, and once again teaming-up with Notitia Never-Lost.

The regular cover art to "DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: FORTUNE FINDER" #5 by Max Dunbar