Check the current Diablo: Sword of Justice deal on Amazon
As always with Amazon discounts, prices can change without warning, so the 38% saving reflects the deal available when we spotted it.
A Diablo Story From Before Diablo III
Sword of Justice originally appeared as a five-part comic series beginning in 2011, before Diablo III had even launched. Written by Aaron Williams and illustrated by Joseph Lacroix, it follows a young man named Jacob who has fled his northern homeland after being accused of murder. Unfortunately for Jacob, Sanctuary has never been particularly good at allowing people to simply move somewhere quiet and reconsider their life choices.
Jacob begins receiving visions connected to an ancient prophecy and eventually finds himself drawn toward a weapon considerably more important than the average rusty sword lying outside Tristram: the sword of the Archangel Tyrael.
The result is one of those Diablo stories that works particularly well away from the games. Instead of beginning with a hero capable of destroying several hundred demons before lunch, it focuses on somebody being dragged into the larger mythology of Sanctuary one unpleasant revelation at a time.
Tyrael Makes This Particularly Interesting for Lore Fans
The Tyrael connection is the obvious attraction. Few Diablo characters have been involved in more of Sanctuary's history, from the destruction of the Worldstone through Diablo III and the rebuilding of the Horadrim. We have recently spent plenty of time talking about how Diablo V wants its ruined world to tell the history of what happened before, but Sword of Justice comes from an era when Blizzard and its partners were filling some of those gaps through novels and comics instead.
That also makes it a nice companion piece to Diablo's current 30th anniversary. Season 15 has spent weeks digging through the franchise's past, bringing back old bosses, Runewords and pieces of Diablo history. Sword of Justice represents another layer of that history, created long before anyone knew what Diablo IV, Lilith or the current version of Sanctuary would eventually look like.
This Is the Hardcover Collection
The Amazon listing is for Blizzard Entertainment's later hardcover edition, published in 2021. It collects the complete story in one 128-page volume rather than asking you to hunt down five individual comic issues from more than a decade ago.
That is probably the best way to approach it today. Original Diablo comics can become collector hunting projects of their own, and there are already enough Diablo systems asking us to search for obscure objects.
The hardcover gives you the entire Jacob story, Lacroix's dark Sanctuary artwork and one of the more unusual pieces of Diablo's expanded universe in a single book.
A Nice Pickup While Diablo Lore Is Everywhere Again
The timing is also unusually good. Blizzard has just announced an animated Diablo series for Netflix, Diablo V is building an entirely new era of Sanctuary, and Season 15 is essentially one enormous history lesson disguised as an ARPG season.
If that has sent you back toward the books, comics and lore that exist between the games, Sword of Justice is an easy place to start. It is self-contained, short enough to read without committing to an entire novel series and connected to one of Diablo's most important characters.
And at 38% off, it is currently cheaper than discovering you suddenly need another cosmetic from a Phantom Market.
Diablo: Sword of Justice – see the current Amazon price and discount
Sanctuary has never been especially kind to Jacob.
Amazon, for the moment, is being slightly more generous to us.
