This is the conclusion of my look at the Ice Age comic. You can find the summary and review of the story here. In this installment I'll cover the continuity and timeline issues associated with it.
THE BIG QUESTION
Let's start with the really big question: Is this comic even still in continuity? Two weeks ago we looked at the comics telling the story of Antiquities and I said they were no longer canon because the novel The Brothers' War replaced them. This isn't a controversial statement. The novel says as much in its introduction, it covers exactly the same things as the comics, and later stories are build upon the novel, not the comic. The replacement is thus complete and neatly done.
The situation surrounding Ice Age is a bit more complex. Wizards released the novel The Eternal Ice, but it only tells the story of Kjeldor's battle against Lim-Dûl. It does so in a way that completely contradicts issue two of the comic. The Summit of the Null Moon is not shown, but Freyalise does pop in every now and again and in the end she casts the World Spell and there are allusions to the events of the comic. For example, at the casting of the World Spell Kolbjörn and a girl the main characters think must be his adopted daughter show up, a clear reference to Kaysa. Tevesh Szat's plan to freeze Dominaria isn't shown either, but at one point Arcum Dagson turns up with his magical weathervane, which foretells the winter lasting forever, a hint that Szat's plan still happened behind the scenes. Later, in Invasion, Szat confirms this.
My preference is to say that The Eternal Ice just replaced issue two of Ice Age, and that the other three issues are still in continuity. Mostly this works out fine. Unfortunately Lim-Dûl has a few cameo appearances in issues three and four, and becomes a main character again in the Shandalar comic. Those appearances can't be squared with The Eternal Ice in any way, so we're caught between a rock and a hard place here. Either we say the last two issues of Ice Age are still in continuity, but riddled with continuity errors, or we strike them from continuity, but then we're left with the bizarre situation where some of the most important events in the canon are not told in any in-continuity stories.
For my project I have decided the first is the lesser of two evils. Thus I've still put the Ice Age comics on my timeline, except for issue two, and in this entry I'll list which parts of them are contradicted by The Eternal Ice.
THE BIG QUESTION
Let's start with the really big question: Is this comic even still in continuity? Two weeks ago we looked at the comics telling the story of Antiquities and I said they were no longer canon because the novel The Brothers' War replaced them. This isn't a controversial statement. The novel says as much in its introduction, it covers exactly the same things as the comics, and later stories are build upon the novel, not the comic. The replacement is thus complete and neatly done.
The situation surrounding Ice Age is a bit more complex. Wizards released the novel The Eternal Ice, but it only tells the story of Kjeldor's battle against Lim-Dûl. It does so in a way that completely contradicts issue two of the comic. The Summit of the Null Moon is not shown, but Freyalise does pop in every now and again and in the end she casts the World Spell and there are allusions to the events of the comic. For example, at the casting of the World Spell Kolbjörn and a girl the main characters think must be his adopted daughter show up, a clear reference to Kaysa. Tevesh Szat's plan to freeze Dominaria isn't shown either, but at one point Arcum Dagson turns up with his magical weathervane, which foretells the winter lasting forever, a hint that Szat's plan still happened behind the scenes. Later, in Invasion, Szat confirms this.
My preference is to say that The Eternal Ice just replaced issue two of Ice Age, and that the other three issues are still in continuity. Mostly this works out fine. Unfortunately Lim-Dûl has a few cameo appearances in issues three and four, and becomes a main character again in the Shandalar comic. Those appearances can't be squared with The Eternal Ice in any way, so we're caught between a rock and a hard place here. Either we say the last two issues of Ice Age are still in continuity, but riddled with continuity errors, or we strike them from continuity, but then we're left with the bizarre situation where some of the most important events in the canon are not told in any in-continuity stories.
For my project I have decided the first is the lesser of two evils. Thus I've still put the Ice Age comics on my timeline, except for issue two, and in this entry I'll list which parts of them are contradicted by The Eternal Ice.
