“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Legend Of Zelda #1

Preparing to march on the CD-i company.

The Legend Of Zelda #1

Valiant/Nintendo Comics System (1990)

The Legend Of Zelda was based on the video game franchise. At the time only the first two NES Games (The Legend Of Zelda and Zelda 2: The Adventure Of Link), had been published, and the comic reflected this. Around the same time DIC had produced The Super Mario Brothers Super Show, with a Zelda cartoon on Fridays. This comic took some cues from the show but with a less comedic tone. While Link and Zelda still wouldn’t commit (Link still couldn’t get a kiss) their relationship was less “Dave and Maddie” and more one of mutual respect. Link was still a bit of a hothead but less abrasive and Zelda was less shrewish than their cartoon counterparts. Ganon kept his pig-face hidden under a hood, which I never understood. Even the king was more competent and less scatter-brained than his cartoon counterpart.The Triforce of Wisdom is yellow, like it is in the game. The Triforce of courage is explained as having been kept hidden until a hero could be found who would carry it in his heart, thus keeping the battle between the Triforces of Wisdom and Power as the ones fought over.

As for the stories in this issue:

The first tale has Zelda deciding the only way to protect the Triforce of Wisdom is to find a magic whistle that will take her far away from Hyrule and Ganon’s clutches. Link learns of this after returning from a quest and races after her, just as Ganon’s forces find her. She convinces him (reluctantly on his part) that he should help her. But as he defeats the guardian, Ironknuckle, and protects her during the dangerous trip, she decides that she can’t leave and it’s safe enough with Link as it’s protector, while Link has his own test of loyalty to her. It’s a great story and while I usually complain about forcing a comic to have two half-length stories, this shows how it can be done right.

The same goes for the second tale. Link and Zelda track Ganon to the town of Saria, but the evil wizard has tricked the people into believing that he’s the real good guy and Link has spread lies about him to destroy him. He’s also secretly cursed the land so the crops won’t grow, defeating Link and Zelda’s attempt to irrigate the land with a dam. However, Ganon shows his true colors after tricking the people into seizing the heroes when a young boy questions Ganon’s plans. When the people see Ganon for who he really is Link is released to take him down with the dam and the people of Saria plan to rebuild and makes peace with the heroes. Again, another good story.

Included is the introduction that the Nintendo comics had (except for Game Boy #1 since that was an origin story) and a short gag page about heroes needing to learn to swing on ropes. Overall, this is my favorite series of the Nintendo Comics System and worth checking out. If you had problems with the cartoon, give the concept a second chance with this comic.