Dark Horse Previews Picks: October 2015
Among the news coming out of Comic-Con last week included Greg Rucka bringing “Tevinter’s Boba Fett” to a “Dragon Age” miniseries, Joss Whedon answering the question of “Why isn’t there a female Victorian steampunk Batman?” in his new series “Twist,” Paolo Rivera and Chris Roberson contributing to the Mignolaverse, and Larry Hama doing a “Call of Duty” miniseries to tie into “Black Ops III.” Coming in way under the radar was the announcement that “Blade of the Immortal” will be getting the omnibus treatment starting next year. So if you haven’t checked out this brilliant series before — say it with me — “Now you have no excuse!”
While I hope these omnibus editions bring the series to a new audience, it does seem like the move was prompted not only by the title’s recent conclusion but the fact that a good portion of the early volumes are now out of print. Most of those volumes are now selling for well above cover price on Amazon. So the sooner these omnibi arrive, the better. It’s kind of annoying that they’ve gone out of print in the first place, though it regrettably offers additional evidence in regards to the company’s lower profile compared to other manga publishers.
Blood-C vol. 4: I could not care less about “Saya’s final showdown with Fumito!” as is promised in the solicitation text. What does pique my interest is the fact that the title’s connection to the CLAMP universe is also said to be revealed here as well. CLAMP, creators of “Cardcaptor Sakura,” “Chobits,” and “Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle” among other best-selling titles, worked with Production I.G. on the anime and are writing this series. I suspect this revelation of “Blood-C’s” ties to the larger “Clampverse” will likely be no more than an amusing easter egg for longtime fans rather than a significant plot point. What I’m saying is, don’t expect this to lead into a completely grimdark “Sakura Kinomoto: Vampire Hunter” series at some point in the future. (Not that you were, I just wanted to plant that idea in your head!)
B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth vol. 12 — Metamorphosis: In which an easy mission (naturally) goes very, very bad with some real consequences for spirit medium Johann. This is likely to be a lot better and more interesting than my description is making it sound. I’m bringing it up because after it was revealed that the current arc of the series will be the series finale, it will also be writer John Arcudi’s as well. Yes, that makes a certain amount of sense, but it also tells me that he’s not going to have a hand in steering the direction of the Mignolaverse from here on out. Maybe he’ll come back for one of the assorted “Hellboy” and “B.P.R.D.” miniseries that will no doubt keep coming until the actual apocalypse. If so, that’s great. It’s just that this series didn’t click until he joined Mignola as a co-writer and I’m curious as to how the future of this fictional universe will fare without his involvement. We shall see.
E.V.E.: Valkyrie #1 (of 4): Brian Wood writes about the origin of Ran, founder of the Valkyries — the deadliest fighter pilots in the “E.V.E. Online” universe. It ties into the upcoming game from the creators of “E.V.E.” which will also be a part of that shared universe. I’ll be passing on it as I enjoy reading about the game, but have no real desire to sit down and commit to an MMO treadmill. “Batman: Arkham Knight” is proving to be quite satisfying for my gaming needs right now. Dark Horse is clearly committed to this series, as their solicitation text practically screams to the reader about “E.V.E.’s” enduring popularity. If they can actually get even a tenth of the game’s users to read this, then expect a lot more comics like this from the company in the future.
The Goon in Theatre Bizarre: We’re informed that the title event is an actual thing held every year in Detroit by artist John Dunivant, who provides a variant cover. In the Goon’s case, he finds himself trapped in it by Zombo the Clown and Burlesque Queen Roxi DiLite (the latter of which I believe to have already had a guest role in this series). This would normally be the point where I’d start complaining about how this one-shot will be re-published. Except, given the quality of the last few volumes of this title… I’m not all that concerned right now.
Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1953 — The Phantom Hand & The Kelpie: While we’re on the subject of one-shots, this one is certain to be collected at some point. “Hellboy” has a long-standing history of putting out one-shots, two-or-three issue miniseries, and short stories, that eventually get collected in their own volumes. This time around, we’re getting a double feature involving the title character’s first ghost hunt. It’s a solid enough setup, even though the solicitation text explicitly reminds us about the last classic “Hellboy” double-feature, “The Corpse & The Iron Shoes.” Kinda setting the bar high, aren’t you Mignola?
Planetes Omnibus vol. 1: What I consider to be Tokyopop’s crown jewel is finally license-rescued by Dark Horse. The concept is great: the blue-collar job of trash collecting is applied to the sci-fi setting of near-Earth orbit, where even the smallest bit of metal can have dire consequences for the people and spacecraft nearby. Essentially, it’s the job of the cast of this series to make sure things like what happened in the movie “Gravity” don’t happen to them. It also has a very memorable cast in the form of the ambitious Hachimaki who is determined to own his own spacecraft, Yuri the low-key Russian still nursing the loss of his wife in an accident that shows the need for what he does now, and the no-nonsense Fee who is capable of sticking to her convictions even when all logic dictates that she abandon them.
This is a great series, and well worth adding to your library. Particularly if you’re a fan of mangaka Makoto Yukimura’s other sales-challenged series “Vinland Saga.” Now that I’ve said all this, I want to come back to what I was talking about above-the-board. “Planetes” didn’t set the sales charts on fire back when Tokyopop was releasing it, and the fact that this wasn’t license-rescued by Kodansha (who also publish “Vinland Saga”) should give you an idea of their thoughts on its sales prospects. While it’s great to see “Planetes” coming back into print, I have a feeling this low-selling cult-favorite is due for another round of low-selling cult-favoritism. I will say that it’d be nice to be wrong, but that’s not going to happen unless you and, say, a hundred of your best friends go out and buy a copy when this new edition comes out in December.