It’s been another week of ups and downs for new stories in comics, and We’re No. 1! is here to let you know which issues are worth picking up, and which are just good for fish wrap.
As far as new stories go, there was really only one true #1 this week. Once again Image brings cutting edge stuff with East of West #1, from Jonathon Hickman and Nick Dragotta (FF). This is an odd dystopian, sci-fi adventure, set on an Earth where time has taken an abrupt left-turn. Here, the Civil War never ended, and neither did the American-Indian Wars. This leaves a nation of indigenous American peoples on the U.S. western border and an angry, rebellious state to its south, along with a still independent Texas and a French kingdom in Louisiana, among other continental factions. Fast forward to a modern era of jet-powered electronic horses and an Old-West meets the Matrix level of futuristic marvels. We see one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Death, ride into town from out of the scorched prairie, bringing the President of (what’s left of) the United States a rather final reckoning. Where are his three companions you might ask? Well, they seem to have been reborn as childre, and are hunting their wayward brother across this savage landscape, with little regard for the innocents caught in their wake. This book is hyper-violent, though mostly off the page, and reminiscent of a lot of imagery we’ve seen before. Death himself is haunted by the demons and memories of his own past, a gathering of men who once tried to kill him, which is a convention common in westerns like High Plains Drifter. In fact, this modernized western leaves no trope unturned, and even has some of the surreal feel of the Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood film. The artwork lends itself well to this unique shoot-’em-up, most notably the jarring and dramatic coloring of Death and his companions in black and white, while the rest of the comic is in stark color. East of West is a solid read, and a good-looking one for certain, but not original enough to follow for long. The addition of the sci-fi element isn’t enough to make its premise fresh for very long, and the book leans too heavily on its influences before the first issue is finished.
A unique look and feel has become Mike Mignola’s stock in trade, and he’s at it again with B.P.R.D. : Vampire #1. This book, set in the Hellboy universe Mignola created, is intended to be a one off series, falling outside the story line of the ongoing Hellboy and B.P.R.D. series, and yet also serves as a sequel of sorts to the B.P.R.D. 1948 story line. It tells the tale of Simon Anders, an agent from the B.P.R.D.’s past, as he leaves the employ of Dr. Bruttneholm and his agency to find those responsible for destroying his past: two vampire sisters and their goddess Hecate. Anders seems to hold vampiric mysteries of his own, with bitter memories of Hellboy as a child, and is set on killing the undead. While this book might make a nice starting point in the B.P.R.D. universe, or even a simple action mini-series on its own, the first issue is either told in voice over while not much happens, or in flashback, as the vampiric ladies in question slaughter to their hearts’ content. There isn’t much narrative arc here, merely a protracted set-up, but what Mignola and artist partners Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon are steering us towards looks entertaining enough to follow.
Marvel Comics is still doing everything it can to put its next major franchise firmly into the hearts and minds of comics fans everywhere, and this month it introduces the first full issue of Guardians of the Galaxy. This group of space adventurers from Marvel’s forgotten past is set to storm movie theaters next summer, and in their new book they’ve teamed up with Iron Man to try and protect the Earth from a host of Alien invaders. The unwelcome horde are set on destroying the planet largely because someone told them they weren’t allowed to. Turns out that someone was the father of the Guardians’ leader Star Lord, as Daddy dearest is king of one of the largest intergalactic empires around. This issue is right on the heels of Marvel’s cleverly numbered #0.1 issue from a about a month ago, but does little to tell us about the origin of any of the Guardians, why they travel together or are bound to each other, or in fact who they are. Iron Man seems all too familiar with Rocket Raccoon, a talking rodent with a great big gun who isn’t even the weirdest of this group’s members. It’s going to be a long hard sell if Marvel want the audience to care about these characters, and they’ll need to do a better job of telling readers who they are, rather than just showing them shooting and punching things, which is about all they do in this first issue. Dragging Iron Man into the mix is almost certainly not going to be enough for most.
Dynamite Entertainment launches another reboot of its retro masked vigilantes with Mark Waid’s Green Hornet #1. Waid gets the Hornet back to his roots, as a 30’s era vigilante who’s actually posing as the world’s first supervillain, and takes a deeper look at his alter ego, newspaper magnate Britt Reid. A far cry from the foolish film adaptation featuring Seth Rogan, this Reid is a powerful man who understands the mighty influence his paper wields. From the outset, there are very obvious overtones on the powers of information. The book promises to be an examination of how The Hornet’s alter ego nearly becomes his undoing, and it introduces a mysterious new villain while doing little to lessen the unfortunate subjugation of the Hornet’s side-kick Kaito. He is hardly explored at all here, as the creators seem content to let him languish in the background until they need a good karate kick, a failing all too common in many of the previous series as well. However, this time it does seem to be because they have something to say about the nature of media, and not simply because they relegate an Asian character to obscurity, and we’ll see if Kaito is given more to do as the story progresses. Without that, sadly, this Hornet series will be forever judged against the sins of its predecessors.
Other franchises, some big and some less so, made notable appearances in this week’s #1 issues. Legendary creator Dean Motter’s Mister X: Hard Candy one-shot revived his iconic dystopian architect and adventurer. This seminal character, who helped bring in the rise of alternative comics with the likes of Love and Rockets and influenced filmmakers Terry Gilliam and David Goyer, is as mysterious as ever. Here he’s helping save Radiant City, which he claims to have both built and helped destroy, from the machinations of a pharmaceutical heiress and the drugs she’d wash the city streets with. Highlights include his partner, the undead bartender Anubis Mahoney, a zombie Betty Page-style pin-up on a permanent IV, with a talent for being in the right place at the right time.
Dark Horse comics, EA and Bioware launched the next chapter in the spin off series from their dark fantasy role-playing video game. Dragon Age: Until We Sleep #1 is simply the next chapter in the comic story we reviewed earlier, and nearly indecipherable if you don’t play the game or haven’t been reading along. Vertigo Comics released a compelling anthology Time Warp #1 this week, with a series of short stories by several writers and artists, including Damen Lindelof of Lost fame and Gail Simone of Batgirl. There are some unusual twists here, from adorable to prophetic, and it just wouldn’t be a time travel anthology without not one but two vignettes about time travelers trying to kill Hitler. Go figure.
