History Franchise / TheDarkTower

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[[folder: The Dark Tower Main Series]]

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A series of prequel comics, initially adaptations of flashbacks in the novels and now original stories, are ongoing from Creator/MarvelComics.

[[folder: The Dark Tower Comic Series]]
!!''The Dark Tower'' comic series provides examples of the following tropes:

* AdaptationExpansion: Pretty much the entire purpose of the series. It expands on Roland's past, particularly the fall of Gilead.
%%* ArtifactOfDoom: Maerlyn's Grapefruit.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness
** Susan Delgado is, by far, the nicest and most attractive character in the series.
** Subverted with Aileen when she decides to adopt a more butch look.
%%* TheBadGuyWins
* BigBad: The Crimson King, natch. "The Good Man" John Farson plays a much bigger role in this.
* ComicBookAdaptation: The comics are expanded adaptations of Roland's flashbacks in the main series.
* CanonDiscontinuity: King's interquel ''Literature/TheWindThroughTheKeyhole'' effectively negates much of the background material introduced in the comics; for example, [[spoiler:in the comics, Maerlyn is effectively the BigBad responsible for the origin of nearly every source of evil is, in ''Keyhole'', a he's a kindly old wizard who is vulnerable enough to be imprisoned for years in the form of a 'tyger']]. In response, Robin Furth wrote in the appendices that the comics take place on a ''different'' level of the Tower than the novels and are thus not a ''direct'' prequel.
** Although, when one connects the dots, the above changes don't appear to contradict very much, if ''any'', of the original novels' material. [[spoiler:It's already made known in both the novels and the background lore of the comics that Maerlyn eventually retired from his role as Mid-World's premier EvilSorcerer, so him being old and kind by the time the events of ''Keyhole'' take place could be seen as the result of offscreen CharacterDevelopment. His imprisonment in his "tyger" form is notably the work of a minion who was granted powerful magic by the Crimson King, and his eventual escape was engineered by none other than The Covenant Man, A.K.A. Randall Flagg, who's supposedly his biological son.[[note]]And who was apparently operating against the wishes of the aforementioned Crimson King, no less.[[/note]]]]
%%* CurbStompBattle
%%* DownerEnding
%%* FailureIsTheOnlyOption
* ForegoneConclusion: The destruction of Gilead is treated this way.
* TheDragon: Flagg, as always. Amusingly, John Farson appears to think Flagg's guises are HIS Dragon.
* KillEmAll: Pretty much what any prequel to the Dark Tower series has to do.
* {{Matricide}}: [[spoiler:Roland Deschain accidentally shot his mother dead.]]
* OmnicidalManiac: During the Crimson King's MotiveRant, he says this is his plan.
* PosthumousCharacter: Most of the cast, as the series takes place before the complete destruction of Gilead.
* ShoutOut: The Crimson King refers to himself as "the eater of worlds", something that the eponymous creature in ''Literature/{{It}}'' once described itself as.
** During the riddling scene in ''Treachery'', the answer to one riddle is [[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland "a raven and a writing desk"]].
* StuffedInTheFridge: A foregone conclusion but [[spoiler: Susan Delgado's death]] struck many this way.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Aileen and Susan Delgado in a nutshell.
* WhamEpisode: The endings of ''Treachery, Fall of Gilead'' and ''Battle of Jericho Hill''. [[spoiler:While all {{Foregone Conclusion}}s to fans, the sequential deaths of Roland's friends and parents are shocking because what was given a HandWave in the books is rendered in full tragic detail here.]]
%%* YankTheDogsChain
%%* YouAreTooLate
* WhateverHappenedToTheMouse: Where exactly the doors that bring Eddie and Susannah come from are never fully explained. They are vaguely hinted at coming from some higher power (the Tower itself possibly). Also, exactly why Flagg can't outright kill Roland and his band with all his power and instead has to attempt indirect methods is also never fully explored.

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The series is inspired by Robert Browning's poem "Literature/ChildeRolandToTheDarkTowerCame".

The series is inspired by Robert Browning's poem ''Literature/ChildeRolandToTheDarkTowerCame''.

* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: The Man in Black is really Marten Broadcloak, the Wizard from Gilead who had an affair with Roland's mother. And Roland's quest isn't to kill Marten... it's to interrogate him so he can find the Dark Tower.

* PettingZooPeople: The Can-toi and Taheen. Officially they are free moral agents and have as much capacity to be good or evil as humans, but practically all of the ones we see are in the service of [[BigBad the Crimson King.]]
** Can-toi are always rat like and bestial; they find upside down pictures to be the height of wit.

* BadEnd: [[spoiler:The finale reveals that Roland has been going through his quest on a GroundhogDayLoop an unknowable number of times, and that he keeps on having to do it because he fails to meet a set of requirements that are unknown to both him and the reader. Most notably, it's revealed that Roland needs to use the Horn of Eld once he reaches the Dark Tower, a possession he ends up receiving upon his next time through the loop. It's unknown if there are more items that he needs, or if saving each member of his ''ka-tet'' is also a requirement (as Jake had been killed twice, Eddie and Oy once, and Susannah, depending on how one reads it, is happy and alive in an alternate universe New York or stuck in a LotusEaterMachine.]])]]

* {{Determinator}}: Roland has a tendency to simply ''will'' his way through situations that would kill another man several times over. Among other things, he even manages to fight and kill a large group of mafia enforcers while nearly dead from a fatal illness.

%%* EvilChancellor: Marten Broadcloak.

%%* OmnicidalManiac: The Crimson King.

** ''The Drawing of Three'': Roland spends the book racing to draw his three before the infection from lobstrocity wounds can work it's way into his heart.

* {{AKA47}}: Roland's revolvers are presumably analogous to some Earth-originating firearm, but the text never specifies anything beyond their having sandalwood grips and firing .45-cal cartridges. (That presumption may not be accurate anyhow, given that they are literally made from the steel of Arthur Eld's sword Excalibur, implying they were handcrafted and may be unique not just in our world but in Mid-world too.) In the film, they are "played" by Remington 1858 New Army revolvers.

* {{Retcon}}: In ''Literature/TheWasteLands,'' Oy is distinguished from his fellow billy-bumblers by missing his tail. In later books, he is described wrapping his long cork-screw tail around himself occasionally. This is never explained. Later editions remove the mentions of him being tailless. He merely has severe scarring on his haunches, and the ka-tet theorizes he was forcibly kicked out of his pack for being a chatterbox.

->''"The Man In Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed."''

A series of prequel comics, initially adaptions of flashbacks in the novels and now original stories, are ongoing from Creator/MarvelComics.

* ABoyAndHisX: Jake Chambers of New York and Oy the Billy-Bumbler of Mid-World.

A series of prequel comics, initially adaptions of flashbacks in the novels and now original stories, are ongoing from Marvel.

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* "The Little Sisters of Eluria" (1998, a novella taking place before ''The Gunslinger'')

The character page needs work. Please feel free to add to it.

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

%%* BadassNormal: Roland and his Ka-Tet.

** Played with in ''Literature/TheDrawingOfTheThree'', when it causes the gun to explode in the holder's face; later, played straight with both a guard's .38 and a man's switchblade.

** Although it doesn't in any way detract from the fiction, the guns in the books are all mixed up. Roland's guns are implied to be huge, long, Old West-style revolvers in .45 Long Colt, but feature swing-out cylinders (a mark of much later and smaller generation of revolvers), and he has no problems purchasing "Remington .45" ammunition for them in 1960s New York, probably mixed up with much more modern and different .45 ACP. Ruger company also never produced semi-automatic handguns in any variant of the .44 caliber (such as the ostentatious, "Desert Eagle like" one Jake steals from his father). It is also an important point in the novels that cartridges will go bad if so much as submerged once in water, which is untrue (but would be disastrous if Roland used the older cap-and-ball ammunition the author probably was inspired by, with its separate poured powder, caps, and lead balls — which unfortunately can't be reloaded with uncanny speed of the gunslinger).

So begins ''The Dark Tower'', Creator/StephenKing's epic long-runner, a series of seven books published over nearly thirty years. The series is frequently regarded as King's defining work. It is a long and complex MixAndMatch of SpeculativeFiction, HighFantasy, horror, PostModernism and [[TheWestern Westerns]].

%%* ContinuityNod

** Shardik, an enormous and ancient cyborg bear, is defeated by Suzanne with a shot to its weak spot.
** The Tick Tock Man is an enourmous badass who displays quickness on par with or quicker than Roland to Jake's eye. He's defeated twice without putting up much of a fight.
** The three hired guns in Mejis don't even get a shot off against the heroes before being unceremoniously gunned down.

** Mordred, in spite of his demonic parentage and with seemingly unbeatable mind control powers, does nothing but charge Roland when he's asleep and gets gunned down the same as any other villain. [[spoiler:This may not qualify under the trope, since Oy [[HeroicSacrifice has to die]] to buy the Gunslinger time to wake up and kill Mordred.]]

%%* {{Determinator}}: Roland.

%%* TheDragon: Randall Flagg.

%%* TheStarscream: Flagg, to the Crimson King.

* BigBad: The Crimson King, natch. Goodman John Farson plays a much bigger role in this.

* RecycledInSpace: Much of the series is strongly influenced by ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' and other works; Volume V, in particular, [[LampshadeHanging openly admits]] to lifting its main storyline from ''Film/TheMagnificentSeven'', [[spoiler:which causes Eddie to realize he may be a character in a work of fiction.]]

** Although it doesn't in any way detract from the fiction, the guns in the books are all mixed up. Roland's guns are implied to be huge, long, Old West-style revolvers in .45 Long Colt, but feature swing-out cylinders (a mark of much later and smaller generation of revolvers), and he has no problems purchasing "Remington .45" ammunition for them in 1960s New York, probably mixed up with much more modern and different .45 ACP. Ruger company also never produced semi-automatic handguns in any variant of the .44 caliber (such as the ostentatious, "Desert Eagle like" one Jake steals from his father). It is also an important point in the novels that cartridges will go bad if so much as submerged once in water, which is untrue (but would be disastrous if Roland used the older cap-and-ball ammunition the author probably was inspired by).