This week, we continue looking at comic series surrounding the popular game League of Legends. This time I’ll be discussing the five-issue series, Lux. This series is written by John O’Bryan, features artwork by Billy Tan, and was originally published by Marvel Comics. Like all the previous stories, this one is also available for free to read online.

This story takes place within the city of light known as Demacia. We follow the young noble known as Lux. Gifted with magical powers, Lux must hide her magic from others given the practice is outlawed within the city-state. Desperate for a way to learn how to control her magic, she eventually comes into contact with a high-security prisoner named Sylas who teaches her what he knows.

If you just recently purchased the Mageseeker game which was released this month, this is a great accompaniment. You get some more insights and background of the central characters and boss encounters of the game. However, as a stand-alone story, I wasn’t too impressed here. The entire plotline feels rather contrived and never goes anywhere that hasn’t been explored in other media. It’s your typical allegory for racism, police brutality, and government corruption but this time with dull characters. Both Lux and her brother Garen are some of the blandest heroes with a relationship that feels sorely underdeveloped.

Sylas is slightly more interesting, but only because of his fun powers and character design rather than his personality and motivations. There are also some big plot holes that become apparent after the circumstances surrounding Sylas’ imprisonment come to light. These holes quickly brought into question Lux’s core motivations for me and the story continues to rush along hoping to gloss over the cracks.

As with the Ashe comic before it, the pacing here needs work. Just one or two more issues would have gone a long way in helping to build tensions and provide more unique characterization. The dialogue here is fine but I’m beginning to notice a trend amongst these comic series. For some reason, the writers feel a need to jam in unfunny comedic moments that are meant to be witty. It all feels very forced and doesn’t fit the tones of these narratives. Though this attempt came off much less jarring than in Zed’s story, it continues to bother me. I feel the game certainly has a few characters that would better lend themselves to that kind of story if it absolutely must be explored.

In terms of artwork, it’s passable but nothing very exciting. I was always able to easily follow the action. Some characters have the tendency to look very homogenous but I feel that’s more of an issue with the visual aesthetic that guides the culture of Demacia.

Overall, I’d say this is easily the weakest of the League of Legends stories that I’ve read thus far. It’s certainly not the most poorly-executed story I’ve ever read, but it fails to bring anything new to the table. If you are interested in this kind of narrative you’ll be much happier reading an X-Men comic.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Lux

5

Score

5.0/10

Pros

• Decent artwork
• Solid execution of familiar tropes

Cons

• Bland characters
• Pacing
• Heavily contrived plot