Dark Horse Previews Picks: October 2019
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Grendel: Devil’s Odyssey #1 (of 8)
I didn’t expect this: Matt Wagner is returning to his other signature creation to push it forward. After the prose/illustrated novel “Past Prime” took “Grendel” to its farthest point in the future, Wagner left it there for a decade. He spent that decade looking into the past with its most famous/infamous protagonist Hunter Rose. We got to see his early exploits in a couple of Eisner-winning anthologies, an eight-issue miniseries, and a “Shadow” crossover both by Wagner himself. Now he’s back to… end it all?
“Devil’s Odyssey” finds the unstoppable cyborg Grendel Prime facing his biggest challenge yet. He’s been tasked by the current Grendel Khan to find a new home for humanity as the Earth is slowly dying. Easier said than done for someone like Grendel Prime, but is that what he really wants? The moral compass of “Grendel” the series is so skewed that the solicitation text can pose a hackneyed question like, “But will the deadly and relentless paladin ultimately save humanity . . . or destroy it?” and it’s actually hard for me to answer one way or the other with any certainty. Which is part of the series’ appeal too.
Count Crowley: Midnight Monster Hunter #1 (of 4): What happens when an aspiring TV reporter is demoted to introducing B-movies at midnight only to find out that the monsters these movies feature… are real?! That’s what this new miniseries from writer David Dastmalchian and artist Lukas Ketner is looking to answer. Or it could just be a chance to follow a hallucinating blackout drunk as her life spirals down the drain. The solicitation text leaves open that option as well. While Dastmalchian isn’t known to me, Ketner illustrated two volumes of the great “‘House’ but with monsters” series “Witch Doctor” before disappearing for a while. He did excellent work on that series, so it’s good to see him back here.
Drifters vol. 6: Look, I’m glad that the anime has boosted this title’s profile to the point where it looks like we won’t have to worry about Dark Horse putting it on “hiatus.” I just wish that it didn’t take them a friggin’ year to localize this latest volume. Then again, it seems to take them roughly as long to localize volumes of “Berserk” when they come out. It’s also not like the wait is going to get any shorter between volumes of either series, so I guess I should shut up and be glad that they’re coming out here at all.
Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: Long Night at Goloski Station: Huh. I was going to make a joke about how I’ve regarded Matt Smith as the poor man’s Mike Mignola, only for the writer/artist to put paid to that notion with their first team-up. Except they have worked together before on a “B.P.R.D.” one-shot, and Smith’s work was fine in its “Not Mignola” style. What this particular one-shot represents is their first go at Big Red together. Which should be fine what with Mignola writing it and all. I just hope he doesn’t see teaming up with Smith as a shortcut to putting out “Hellboy” stories that look like he drew them when he really didn’t.
The Mask: I Pledge Allegiance to the Mask #1 (of 4): Now here’s a property I wasn’t expecting to see revived anytime soon. The series got its start as a gruesomely cartoonish comedy/action/horror title about the hidden desires that the title item unlocked in whoever decided to put it on. Then the surprisingly good Jim Carrey movie came along and made its anarchy family friendly, and the series petered out after a few more minis. Now it’s back under the auspices of “She Could Fly” writer Christopher Cantwell and Mignolaverse veteran Patric Reynolds. They’re not the kind of people you hire to relive a title’s glory days and it sure doesn’t sound like that’s what they’ve got in mind here. When “Mask”-style killings start happening again after decades of peace, people are frightened. Good thing there’s a politician out there running a crazy campaign to “Make America Green Again” to take everyone’s minds off them.
Mob Psycho 100 vol. 4: Mob’s brother Ritsu has the one thing he’s always wanted: Social skills! Thing is, Ritsu has always resented his brother for having psychic superpowers. Now that Ritsu’s powers have finally awakened, will he help his brother get those social skills he’s always wanted? Or are we about to see sibling rivalry taken to “Akira” levels of violence? My money’s on the latter, but creator ONE is the kind of crafty creator where I can’t fully rule out him finding a third way here. Or maybe Ritsu really will help his older brother finally learn how to read a room. That would make for an interesting challenge given what we’ve seen of Mob’s social skills so far.
She Could Fly vol. 2: The Lost Pilot: The first volume of this series impressed me with its realization of its protagonist’s mental problems. Luna’s struggle to avoid being her own worst enemy rang true and provided a compelling reason to follow her quest to find out more about the mysterious flying woman. This is in spite of the fact that writer Christopher Cantwell also packed the first miniseries with far more quirky side characters than it actually needed. Now Cantwell and artist Martin Morazzo are back with more of Luna’s struggle as what she learns about the flying woman’s family threatens to unravel her fragile sanity. Which sounds like a good starting point, so let’s hope the quirk is dialed down a bit this time around.
Spell on Wheels: Just to Get to You #1 (of 5): The miniseries about witches traveling cross-country returns with a new volume. Expect to see them grapple with phantoms, family drama, cryptids, and crushes — maybe even in that order! The first series from writer Kate Leth and Megan Levens was one of those fun-sounding series that I never got around to checking out. Seeing as how it managed to do well enough to spawn this sequel, I should probably get around to actually reading it now.