However, this doesn’t necessarily work because the book doesn’t feel like a tragedy. It lends Roland’s tale the faintest taste of tragedy, as we recognise the inevitability of any futile attempt to resist the terrors that fate might hold in store. It’s unrelenting.Īnd, I suppose, that’s the point. It’s hard not to end the collection feeling like your faith in humanity has been worn down to a nub, as Roland suffers painful emotional setback after painful emotional setback. Not only do we know, ahead of time, that failure is the only option – we know that it will be tragic, brutal and soul-destroying failure. More than that, in order for Roland to start at a low point in the first book, The Dark Tower spirals downwards in an increasingly depressing fashion. We know, for example, that Roland will end up wandering the wastes alone, so we know what fate must lie in story for the supporting cast developed here. It covers the teenage years of his protagonist, Roland Deschain (the eponymous Gunslinger), following the character to the point where he began in the novels.Īs a result, there’s something inherently less than satisfying about the adventure.

With the exception of The Gunslinger Born, a story crafted from flashbacks featured in the books (The Gunslinger and Wizard and Glass), most of the stories here exist to delve into the early history of King’s emersive fictional universe. It seems to exist not to adapt the story into another medium, but to develop and expand certain plot points. It’s very clearly a secondary part of King’s impressively epic Dark Tower mythos. Reading the volumes collected here – from The Gunslinger Born to The Battle of Jericho Hill – it’s easy to gauge the most fundamental problem with the Marvel comic book series.

The dark tower graphic novel