Dark Horse Penguin Picks: June 2024
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Count Crowley vol. 3: Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter
After saying that I was interested in checking this series out, I finally got around to reading the previous two volumes. They turned out to actually be pretty good, with the second volume even improving on the first a bit. It also left off on a cliffhanger as Jeri Bartman, news reporter turned late night monster show host turned monster hunter, came upon her predecessor in a basement. This being right after he apparently murdered the werewolf she was bent on saving. Oh, and there’s still the matter of the secret vampire cabal that’s had eyes on Jeri for the past couple of volumes. Writer David Dastmalchian and artist Lukas Ketner have been doing quality work on this series and the hope is that they’ll continue that trend through this third (and concluding?) volume.
Paranoid Gardens #1: Loo is a nurse at a care center that caters to all kinds of individuals… in the universe. Ghosts, aliens, superheroes, and whatever – this place will treat them all. Loo is doing her best, given the circumstances and a recent on-the-job incident, but she still believes that she’s meant for greater things here. It’s a nice setup that will likely allow artist Chris Weston to give us some really crazy visuals in his appreciably detailed style. I’m less sold on the writing team of Gerard Way and Shaun Simon. While Way has done great with the three volumes of “The Umbrella Academy” he’s done solo, he’s since let it wither on the vine. As for “The Fabulous Killjoys,” the last series I read that he co-wrote with Shaun Simon, who’s also co-writing this series, it didn’t live up to my expectations. So even if I want to like this, I’m not entirely sure if I actually will.
Seance in the Asylum #1: Alicia Wilkinson is a spiritual medium whose career has flagged in recent years. Which is why she’s receptive to the idea of working at an asylum at the behest of one of its doctors to use her powers to draw out the mental illnesses plaguing its patients. There’s just one catch that the doctors aren’t aware of: Alicia is a complete and total fraud. This comes to us from writer Clay McLeod Chapman and prolific artist Andrea Mutti. While Mutti can always be counted on to produce solid work, Chapman is a writer whose name sounds familiar, yet I can’t seem to place with any specific project. That said, this sounds like a promising setup for a horror-themed miniseries, so I might consider picking this up eventually to see if the writer is worth following.
Assassin’s Creed: Mirage – A Soar of Eagles #1: This is a prequel to the most recent game in the series as it focuses on a young Fuladh as he returns to his homeland to investigate political unrest. That means nothing to me as I haven’t got around to playing the latest game in the series. I’ve still yet to play “Valhalla” as well, and that’s not even considering the other games I have in my backlog. Still, fans of “Mirage” may want to give this a look as it has a very solid creative team behind it: Writer Michael Avon Oeming and artist Mirko Colak.
Grendel: Devil’s Crucible – Defiance #1 (of 4): The most recent “Grendel” series ended on something of a cliffhanger. Grendel Prime had returned to Earth only to find that it was now hostile to all things Grendel. The last page in the volume also advertised that the next arc, “Devil’s Crucible,” would be split into three parts: “Defiance,” “Sedition,” and “Necrotic.” This first arc has Prime investigating the last remaining pockets of humanity and the Necro Lords who rule over them. The odds are against him here, but history has shown that this is when he can thrive. It’s good to see creator Matt Wagner following up on the events of the previous series. For a longtime fan like me, that is. Anyone else looking to get into the “Grendel” saga would be better served picking up the Omnibus collections of previous series rather than starting from here.
From the World of Minor Threats: Barfly #1: I’ll admit that I was skeptical when Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum, and Scott Hepburn’s miniseries about lowlife criminals started spawning spinoffs before the first volume was collected. Then I read that first volume and now I’m onboard with checking out said spinoff, the Tim Seely-written, Christopher Mitten-illustrated “The Alternates.” I’m even more interested in this miniseries as its coming from a creative team that I like even more: Writer Kyle Starks and artist Ryan Browne. They’ve teamed up to tell the story of $#!%eater, a humanoid mutant fly who only lives to hench for his supervillain master. But what happens when a henchman doesn’t have anyone left to hench for? My guess is that Starks and Browne have an answer that’s as sad as it is funny.
Drifters Omnibus vol. 2: Collecting vols. 4-6 of Kohta Hirano’s very entertaining fantasy action manga. Now that all of the previously released volumes have been collected, we can expect vol. 7 to be out any day now. Right, Dark Horse?
Powers vol. 7: Collecting the series relaunch as “Powers: Bureau” as detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim were recruited by the FBI to work on superhuman-related crimes. “Powers’” schedule had spiraled wildly off the rails by this point and “Bureau’s” launch was seen at the time as an attempt to get things back on track after the title’s latest relaunch lasted only eleven issues. This one lasted… twelve. It was relaunched again after that in a release that will have spanned three publishers when vol. 8 comes out. I’ll be picking that up to complete my collection, even though I’m not exactly looking forward to it…