Dark Horse Previews Picks: July 2022
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Air vol. 1
Usually the way it works is that when a creator hits the big time, such as how G. Willow Wilson did with “Ms. Marvel,” there’s a rush to reprint their earlier work to capitalize on their status as the new hotness. That didn’t happen in Wilson’s case as the four-volume Vertigo series she wrote for two years prior to breakout continued to languish in obscurity. Until now, that is. “Air” is the story of Blythe, an acrophobic flight attendant who falls in love with a passenger who may or may not be a terrorist. So far, so simple. Then the solicitation text goes on to talk about technological conspiracies, dark politics, and how Blythe is somehow able to control reality with technology so advanced that it might be magic. It sounds crazy, but given Wilson’s track record, I’m nevertheless curious to see where she’s going to go with this.
This new edition of “Air” comes to us via Dark Horse’s Berger Books imprint. In case you’ve forgotten, the imprint’s namesake, Karen Berger, was the editor who formed and oversaw Vertigo throughout most of its existence. If I recall, she also edited this series as well.
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla – Forgotten Myths: War is about to break out between Muspelheim and Svartalfheim and the only two Aesir who can stop it are two sons of Odin. Baldur and Loki. Which is a pairing that I’m sure is going to ensure success for their mission. Especially when the solicitation text asks, “Will Loki betray Baldur and the rest of the Aesir?” Yes. Yes he will. Because he’s Loki. Unless he doesn’t just to troll the Aesir and their expectations. Because that’d be a very Loki thing to do as well. This collects the three-issue miniseries in a 72-page, $20 hardcover, and since I still haven’t made it around to playing “Valhalla” (it’s still on my “to do” list), it’s an easy decision to pass on this thin and pricey collection.
Grendel Omnibus vol. 2: Legacy: Collects the first batch of post-Hunter Rose stories which tell the tragic stories of his adopted daughter Stacy Polumbo, her daughter Christine Spar, her boyfriend Brian Li Sung, and more. Yes, there’s a lot of tragedy in the story of “Grendel” until Orion Assante shows up, and even then that’s debatable. The stories are all good reading and the more I think about it, the more I’m considering replacing my existing copies of these stories with these new omnibus editions to fill in the gaps present in my collection.
Invisible Kingdom Library Edition HC: G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward’s Eisner-winning creator-owned series about a grizzled bunch of interstellar deliverypeople teaming up with a refugee from a religious order. Their mission: Expose the hidden connection between said order and the galaxy-spanning conglomerate that delivers everyone’s stuff. Spoiler Warning: They succeed at the end of the first volume and nobody cares. “Invisible Kingdom” wound up being the rare series where I wish the creators had gone darker at its end as the optimism its finale displayed felt unearned. Still, Wilson does write engaging characters and Ward’s psychedelic art has only improved over the years, so this series isn’t completely without merit. It’s just better enjoyed by existing fans of the creators than anyone else.
Last Flight Out: Earth is done for and the last ark carrying people out is about to leave. While Dr. Ben Caewood has a spot for him and his family on it, the problem is that his daughter has gone missing. Now, he has 24 hours to track her down before they’re stuck on a dying planet. This comes to us from writer Marc Guggenheim and artist Eduardo Ferigato, and for a minute when the first issue hit it looked like it was going to be a breakout hit. Not a breakout hit by Dark Horse standards, but a legitimate hit. That buzz has all but dissipated now, so I’m kind of curious as to what happened. Did it just not deliver? Was it a quality series that was failed by Dark Horse’s marketing? Or did it go off the rails so hard that everyone made a conscious decision to forget about it? I’d be fine if the second option was the case, but I’m secretly hoping that the latter situation is what happened.
Mind MGMT: Bootleg #1 (of 4): The original series was more memorable for its execution that the story it was telling. Take away creator Matt Kindt’s formalist tricks and you’re left with a fairly standard story about people with special abilities trying to deal with life after the organization they worked for shut down. This series promises the rebuilding of the Mind MGMT organization from a former leader as they track down former agents to go up against a new, competing group. Much of Kindt’s recent work hasn’t impressed me and that has made his breakout work look more impressive in retrospect. It’s also the first offering from his Flux House imprint at Dark Horse, so I’m guessing those recent works have managed to impress someone. Kindt isn’t illustrating this mini as the art comes from the supremely talented Farel Dalyrmple, whose presence ensures that the miniseries will look impressive even if the twists that Kind brought to the original series aren’t present here.
Overwatch: New Blood #1 (of 5): This is either the perfect time to release a new “Overwatch” miniseries, what with the hype towards its sequel ramping up, or the absolute worst, as its player count continues to decline in the wake of the ongoing scandals at Activision/Blizzard. That said, there’s a decent creative team attached to this mini in the form of writer Ray Fawkes, and artist Irene Koh. So if you like them you may be interested in this story about Cole Cassidy being asked to rejoin Overwatch, but needing to get over the issues regarding his “fall” before that can happen.
Powers vol. 1: When Bendis and Oeming’s superhero crime fiction series hit, it felt like something genuinely new. It was a police procedural about two detectives, Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim who work to solve crimes in a superhero universe with all of the craziness that setup entails. For a while, the series looked like it could do no wrong as each new arc brought new twists to the story and its main characters. Then Bendis’ commitments to his Marvel titles and film and TV projects (including the “Powers” TV series) began to take precedence and new issues of this series slowed to a crawl without any hint of a resolution in sight. “The Best Ever,” the collection of the most recent (last?) issues in the series is still on my “to get” list, but I still feel confident in recommending this collection of the first eleven issues of the series as it represents some of the creators’ best work.
Young Hellboy: Assault on Castle Death #1 (of 4): Speaking of things on my “to get” list, this latest “Hellboy” spinoff miniseries has been stuck there ever since it was revealed that four-issue miniseries was getting a hardcover collection. These kinds of collections appear to be the future of Mignolaverse miniseries, but I can’t say that the quality of the stories they’re collecting have been on the level to warrant such treatment. I imagine that this latest series, which reunites co-writers Mike Mignola and Tom Sniegoski with artist Craig Rousseau, is likely to be as good as the first one. So if you liked that, then this should be worth your time as well. As for me, I’ll either wait for this to be collected in softcover, or some kind of omnibus edition.