Dark Horse Previews Picks: May 2019
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
The Umbrella Academy vol. 3: Hotel Oblivion
No, I haven’t got around to watching the Netflix series yet. I have a million other things to catch up on watching, not the least of which is the second season of “Castlevania.” If there’s anything that I have to give the “Umbrella Academy” TV show credit for, it’s that its existence finally prompted creators Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba to put out a third volume of the series. Not that this series about a group of teen superheroes who grew up into adults with their own unresolved issues ended on a cliffhanger that needed resolving. It’s just that the first two volumes were quite good and there was every indication that Way had more story to tell. However, as he and Ba were very much in demand with their own projects, there was no indication as to when they’d ever get around to putting out a third volume. While there’s always the worry that Way’s time away from writing comics on a regular basis will affect the final product, my main hope is that this volume offers some kind of closure for the series. Either that or a much shorter wait between volumes from here on out.
Aliens: Rescue #1: Brian Wood’s previous “Aliens” miniseries hasn’t been collected yet and we’re already onto his next one. This is very much going to be a follow-up to “Resistance” as it involves one of the younger characters featured in that series who grows up to be a Colonial Marine. Naturally his latest mission has him sent back to the Alien-infested planet where he was rescued from to confront his past. Among other things, I would imagine. We’re also promised the return of Wood’s “Aliens” regular, ex-marine Zula Hendricks, and the fate of Amanda Ripley from the “Alien: Isolation” game and “Resistance.” Short of “Resistance” turning out to be unexpectedly terrible, I can’t see any reason not to pick this up when it arrives.
B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know vol. 3: Still having trouble believing that this third volume represents the intended end for this series. If nothing else, I’d like to see the newly returned Hellboy smack Varvarra with his iconic right hand. If co-writers Mike Mignola and Scott Allie can deliver that then I think I’ll be able to come away from this volume satisfied. While we’re on the subject of the big red guy…
Hellboy vs. Lobster Johnson: The Ring of Death: We don’t get a lot of (read: any) Mignolaverse-branded crossovers, so this one bears spotlighting. “The Ring of Death” has us returning to Hellboy’s time in Mexico where he was working through some issues (and lots of tequila) as a lucha libre wrestler. Mike Norton draws the title bout which has Hellboy winding up as the Lobster’s opponent on a movie set. Interestingly enough, this one-shot also features a Paul Grist-illustrated story about the Visitor. I can only imagine that co-writers Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson came up with the perfect Hellboy/Lobster fight only to find themselves a few pages short. So Roberson pitched the idea of bringing in the Visitor to have him deal with his angst about letting Hellboy live. Which is likely going to be compounded when he sees Hellboy in his lucha libre getup.
Minecraft vol. 1: The first Minecraft graphic novel. “Fortnite” might get all the headlines these days, but millions of people (kids mostly, I imagine) still play Minecraft. Dark Horse seems to be coming to the party a little late by putting out a Minecraft graphic novel, and I don’t just mean in terms of the property’s cultural relevance. We’re long past the time when a licensed tie-in like this was a way for the publisher to print money. Maybe this will still do really well for Dark Horse, but the only way we’ll be able to tell is if they keep putting out more graphic novels after this one.
Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2199 vol. 1: While we’re on the subject of licensed tie-ins, this new manga from Dark Horse is an adaptation of the “Yamato” movies that have come out in Japan over the past decade. In case you’re wondering, Japan’s track record with these kind of things isn’t any better than America’s. Unless someone like Naoki Urasawa decides to take a crack at “Astro Boy,” and even then the results can wind up being decidedly mixed. In addition to the fact that I’ve never really had any affinity for “Star Blazers” or “Yamato,” and the fact that creators Michio Murakawa and Junichiro Tamamori are unknown to me, this is an easy pass for me. Good on Dark Horse for putting this out as a two-volumes-in-one release, though.
Tom Clancy’s The Division: Extremis Malis HC: How do you make your videogame tie-in comic sound even more classy than by giving it a fancy latin subtitle? By putting the three-issue miniseries into a (slim) 72-page hardcover, that’s how!
William Gibson’s Alien 3: You know, before Dark Horse announced that they were doing an adaptation of Gibson’s unused movie script, I had no idea the writer was involved with the movie at all. I don’t think “Alien 3” was as disappointing as its reputation made it out to be, but I have no idea what to expect from Gibson’s adaptation. Which is probably why I’ll pick up the Johnnie Christmas-helmed adaptation when it comes out.