People tend to believe that there is a specific kind of readers usually buying and reading comic books, the same kind of readers that have to go through a pretty hard time of acne in high school, listen to music genres that would make their parents’ ears bleed and play video games all night long. Well, there are of course exceptions but let’s face it, people tend to be right. That is precisely why most widely known comics’ publishers choose stories and series with subjects that would be familiar to their potential reader, like mini series about famous serial killers from horror movies (God only knows how many Jason, Freddie and Chucky comics we had), cliché stories about your usual misunderstood teenager whose skills are revealed in 10-75 issues (depending on the sales) and, why not, adaptations of video games. How long did you think it would take them to make an ongoing series about the most played game in the world?
There have been a few tries to adapt the versatile and unique universe of World of Warcraft in many different ways but most of them lead to disappointing, at least, results. There was the Sunwell Trilogy, a manga about a dragon and those trying to kill or help him, I read it about a year ago but wasn’t impressed at all, black and white, not much of a story and female characters with big boobs (I really have no idea if they published the other two parts of the trilogy). There are also some soft cover books with stories based on the WoW mythology but still, none of the really big names in the comic industry had shown actual interest in the potential of a huge world with an immense storyline that keeps about 8 million people occupied in the biggest massive multiplayer role playing game ever made. That’s not the case anymore.
Starting this November Wildstorm will try to fit WoW in a monthly ongoing series and although available information are extremely limited it seems like pretty serious work. The first story arc will be about a human (warrior by the looks of the cover) found on the shores of Kalimdor with no memory of his past whatsoever. He is soon captured and enslaved by an Orc Shaman and finds himself fighting both Horde and Alliance characters with the aid of his new companion, most of who are not even of the same race.
For those of you that are familiar with WoW it seems like a pretty standard rpg story, a man starting from nothing, creating a party with different characters and fighting everything in his way. Will the main character change after the first 6-issue story? Will it cover the known WoW mythology or expand and create new stories and heroes (that might also appear in the new upcoming expansion for the game)? Will it be good for Warcraft fans and other comic book readers or just another rip-off of a successful series of video games? We’ll know pretty soon!
(I have to admit I was desperately trying not to quote Illidan “You are not prepared”, darn I knew I wouldn’t make it to the end…)
The latest Marvel Knights title is here and it’s about out favorite silver bald guy, his own “end” mini series, Silver Surfer: Requiem! With his debut on the big screen coming in a few months with the new Fantastic 4 film and his latest appearances in the Ultimate Universe it was inevitable that there would be an event of his own, and this is it, the fall of the Silver Surfer in a 4-issue mini series.
For centuries he was the herald of Galaktus, the world devourer, he surfed through space to find worlds capable of sustaining his master a little more while they would be extinguished by his hunger. But everything changes when he discovers Earth and its heroes, a planet that actually has a hope, there he makes his stand with new friends and allies and faces his master, earning his freedom and salvation. Now, years later, the Silver Surfer feels that his death is imminent and decides to return to the place he sacrificed to save, the one part of the universe he kept himself away from for all those centuries, his home world, Zenn-La. But to do that he must travel great lengths, meet old allies and villains and even if he succeeds there’s no way he could know what he’ll meet there.
Coming from May till August from Marvel this is a potential ending to the Silver Surfer saga. It’s a pretty popular subject, like a What If mini series with a more realistic subject, but will it be really good or just another mini series to fill up the monthly catalog? Only time will tell.
This column mentioned one of the previous days the forthcoming comic book “God Save the Queen” by Mike Carey and was actually thrilled to present a new work by him. This is the second time in a short period that we enjoy that privilege, Carey’s new mini series will be released this July by Vertigo and is titled Faker, it also seems capable of rocking your world (I know, I can’t control my enthusiasm).
Jessie is reaching the end of his freshman year in University in a tough Minnesota winter and to celebrate it he and his friends plan a great, wild party. After the party though everything seems to go terribly wrong for everyone, Jessie is hunted by memories she avoided for years, her best friend seems to have lost his identity and nobody outside their circle remembers or recognizes him with every official record of his existence deleted. What begins as a joke soon becomes a horror story where someone is something else than what he showed to his friends.
Faker is written by the great Mike Carey (Lucifer, Crossing Midnight, God Save the Queen) and illustrated by also well known Jock (he made The Losers, a great action story about a missing black-ops military team betrayed by their own bosses which is also planned to become a movie). It’s a story taking place the first year of its heroes’ independent lives when they choose what they want to be and what they want to pretend they are. All that through the prism of Carey’s story telling charisma and Jock’s beautiful drawing, this is something you can’t miss!
Most of the heroes in Marvel series have undergone several changes after the significant events of Civil War but none as important as the Hulk! Now, after all those months that the green hot blooded menace spent away from us he’s coming back, and he’s really mad.
In the beginning of Civil War Nick Fury asked Bruce Banner’s help to deactivate a weapon satellite made by Hydra years ago, Banner accepted and Hulk was sent in outer space to destroy a potential threat to human kind. A threat that proved to have been created not by terrorists but by SHIELD and Fury himself, so after his mission was accomplished the situation changed dramatically. SHIELD found it convenient that Hulk would not return on Earth and the other heroes discovered a chance to get rid of him at last in order to protect civilian lives, so instead of bringing him back they threw him in a black hole to be left alone in a world empty of intelligent life forms!
Of course nothing worked out as planned and Hulk found himself on a planet scourged by war and death, a battlefield between imperial and rebel forces in a war he didn’t understand and didn’t want to be involved, but things change when he proves to be the savior a whole world waited for, the Green Scar, and a whole new chapter in Hulk’s history opened which you can follow in the storyline. But enough with that, Planet Hulk is over and the Hulk is coming back frustrated, betrayed, confused and very, very mad. They have sent him away when he tried to save them but he will never do that mistake again, the puny humans will pay for what they’ve done to him, Hulk smash!
There are places dark and moist, invisible to the unsuspected eye, places quiet and away from the city lights, in those places terrible things are living. And then there are really dark places, like that village in Alaska where once every year the night lasts for 30 whole days, you know which, the one those vampires invaded for a field trip, Barrow, that’s the one! After the first limited series by Steve Niles (Criminal Macabre, Hellspawn, The Nail, The Creeper) and Ben Templesmith (Singularity 7, Silent Hill, Wormwood, Fell) and its great success there were many more spin offs, even the worst of them at least a decent reading. This is the latest one, coming up on May, 30 Days of Night – Eben and Stella!
In the finale of 30 Days of Night – Dark Days Stella brought her husband back from the dead but not quite as she expected, he returned a little more hungry than she thought he would. This series will fill in the gaps between Dark Days and Return to Barrow, a twisted tale of love, depravity, and hunger (from the official site) by Steve Niles and Kelly Sue DeConnick in the story and Justin Randall in the art.
It might not be the original masterpiece my Templesmith and Niles but personally I find it rather difficult to stay away from such a title, it’s horror comics at their best and you don’t meet that every day. The vampires remind me of the way Brian Lumley described them in his Necroscope, the art follows the general outlines of Templesmith’s work and the story is really carefully written, not only the main scenario but also the secondary tales and characters. So run to your closest comics store, NO NOT YET, IN MAY, damn he’s gone…
Two years after The Island, the last chapter of the Hellboy saga, this April Mike Mignola returns with a new six-issue miniseries promising to push H.B. toward the next major point in his life. This time the art is made by Duncan Fegredo (Enigma, Ultimate Adventures) and Mignola’ s greatest character’s return thrills fans all over the world, no more half measures and BPRD issues, this is the real thing!
The creators are still pretty laconic about the scenario of the series; witches all over the world are seeking Hellboy but this time not just for revenge. Every new Hellboy release is a significant artistic event, concerning not only comics but also literature lovers. It’s a rare mixture of horror pulled out of Lovecraft’ s pages, folk myths and legends, action and the search of an outcast for meaning and purpose. Every issue released in the past was sold out in no time and this will be no different, it’s not a coincidence that the writer waited almost two years for an acclaimed series that would sell even if he lowered the quality standards, but he didn’t and that’s the main reason he deserves all the respect from his readers.
After 3 Eisner awards, countless others, spin offs, mini-series about the secondary characters, a movie and a second one being made, toys, animations and who knows how many more paraphernalia, don’t loose the unique opportunity to witness the return of a great character the way we first met him, through comics. And may the great Cthulu help us!
