When I realized that this issue was doing something with Tolkien's Middle Earth and his experiences in World War I, I cringed a little. After all, given how this book is effectively a grimdark, cynical take on "what happened to the kids from the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon," I imagined that writer Kieron Gillen had the same derisive attitude towards Tolkien that writers like Michael Moorcock and China Mieville have written about. Admittedly, it's no rose-coloured view of Tolkien's quest fantasies; it's more a matter of seeing "through a glass darkly," with the hobbits in the trenches and Tolkien lamenting what his grand vision has come to in this made world made out of a d20. But it's still a respectful reflection, one that admits the legacy of Middle-Earth in the creation of games like Dungeons and Dragons and comics like DIE. While it's nothing like what I had hoped for, DIE continues to be one of the best comics about fantasy roleplaying ever created: fingers crossed that this gets picked up for television. I look forward to this book each month, as much for the story and Stephanie Hans'art as for Kieron Gillen's essays about gaming.