Dark Horse Previews Picks: April 2020
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Against Hope
Her family was killed by a crazy family of Neo Nazis. She spent her teenage years grieving before she turned herself into a ruthless bounty hunter as an adult. Now Hope has found out that the family who ruined her life is running for public office while they run a secret cabal of white nationalists from the shadows. The time for revenge has come and a whole lot of Nazis are going to die.
I didn’t originally have this picked for the Above-the-Board recommendation. Mainly because I don’t have a lot of familiarity with creator Victor Santos. That said, a graphic novel about making Nazis suffer sounds like a great place to start. I do hope that family gets what’s coming to them…
Alien: The Original Screenplay #1 (of 5): The adaptation of William Gibson’s original screenplay for “Alien 3” must’ve gone down really well, because Dark Horse is back with another screenplay adaptation. This time for the original movie. There’s not a lot to go on here, save for the fact that the Nostromo is now called the Snark, the “truckers in space” vibe appears to be missing, and the covers (from Walt Simonson and series artist Guilherme Balbi both have real Lovecraftian vibes about them). I haven’t checked out the “Alien 3” collection yet, but if it was good enough to spawn this follow-up I may have to now.
Berserk: Deluxe Edition HC vol. 5: If you’ve ever thought, “You know, the ‘Eclipse’ sequence from the manga was pretty great, but it’d look even better in an oversized hardcover format on better paper,” please, keep it to yourself.
Colonel Weird: Cosmagog #1 (of 4): The “Black Hammer” spinoff machine keeps chugging along. This time we’re getting a spotlight on an actual character from the main series with the inscrutable Col. Weird. Expect lots of nonsensical talk from writer Jeff Lemire as he tries to tell an engaging story on a character who exists apart from time. “B.P.R.D.” and “Harrow County” veteran Tyler Crook is on hand to provide this miniseries with better art than it likely deserves.
Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins vol. 2: I still haven’t gotten around to checking out the podcast that this series-of-miniseries is based off of. However, I did pick up the first volume. The short version is: It’s alright. Even though it’s co-written by creator Matthew Mercer, it reads like the work of someone who isn’t all that familiar with writing for comics. In that there’s a lot of dialogue here — to the point that it almost overwhelms the visual aspect of the story. A good chunk of it is funny, but it would’ve read a lot better with some judicious editing.
There’s reason to be optimistic about vol. 2. That’s because Jody Houser is onboard as the new writer. While she’s done a lot of stuff for Valiant, Marvel, DC, and “Stranger Things” at Dark Horse, I know her best from her “Star Wars” titles “Thawn” and “Tie Fighter.” The latter of which was a surprisingly good adaptation of Timothy Zahn’s novel. So I’ve got a feeling she’ll be able to keep the quality comedy of the first volume while making this look more like a proper comic. Mainly by giving returning artist Olivia Samson more to draw than just talking heads.
Everything II #1 (of 4): Christopher Cantwell and I.N.J. Culbard’s story about the megastore that has everything for everyone gets a second volume. It’s the second miniseries from Cantwell at Dark Horse after “She Could Fly” to get a follow-up. That said, “She Could Fly” has yet to receive a third series. Which means that it reached its logical conclusion in vol. 2 or it just ran out of gas. Can “Everything” do better than that? Should “Everything” do better than that? I’ll have an answer to that second question once I get my hands on a copy of its first volume.
Hellboy: The Beast of Vargu and Others: Some of the very best “Hellboy” stories have been shorts, or one-shots, or graphic novellas. It has also been quite some time since we’ve a volume full of them and that’s reason to get excited about this release. Another reason is the fact that we’ve got some A-list artist contributing to these stories here, including Mignolaverse All-Stars Ben Stenbeck and Duncan Fegredo. Need more? Adam Hughes also illustrates the “Krampusnacht” story collected here and it won an Eisner award for best single issue/one-shot in 2018.
Do you need another reason to pick this up? Well, this could be the volume where perpetually disappointing Mignolaverse co-writer Scott Allie finally clicks. You know, after he’s co-written two ongoing titles that didn’t quite work. With one of them being the culmination of the ongoing saga of the Mignolaverse. Yeah, hope’s springing eternally with me on this one.
Kabuki Omnibus vol. 3: I just thought it was amusing that the solicitation text for this volume contained the phrase “easy to read.” The fact that they had to use this phrase in relation to “Kabuki” should tell you a lot about it.
The Last Knight of St. Hagan #1 (of 4): Polish spy, WWII, Nazis, stray ghost, legendary Crusader Knight — what do all these things have in common? They’re all part of the latest miniseries to be spun off from the Mignolaverse. I wasn’t sure if this was a spinoff at first, but then I noticed the “From the World of Hellboy” band at the top of this issue’s cover. A quick internet search tells me about Crusader Hagan Douglas who fought in the Siege of Acre, was beheaded, and then raised to fight in the city’s defense, inspiring an order of knights in the process. Odds are pretty good that he’ll be resurrected again for this storyline, coming to us from Mignola and (*sigh*) co-writer Scott Allie, and prolific artist Andrea Mutti who was destined to find work in the Mignolaverse at some point.
Spy Island #1 (of 4): You have to admire writer Chelsea Cain’s tenacity when it comes to trying to stick around in the comics industry. After her “Mockingbird” series lasted eight issues and attracted lots of undeserved scorn from jerks, the follow-up to Tom King’s “Vision” series she was working on was cancelled, her Image series “Man-Eaters” attracted even more controversy (both deserved and not), she’s back with a new miniseries from Dark Horse with artist Elsie McCall. This time it’s about a spy who’s on an island to keep an eye on things. This may sound easy enough, but the island is on the tip of the Bermuda Triangle so she’s got a front-row seat to the supernatural craziness it invites.
There, that’s a premise that shouldn’t invite any controversy should it make it to print. Right? Please let me be right about this…