Comic Picks By The Glick

Liked the movie?  Then you'll like the graphic novels that spawned it.  The first volume, at least.

The main story of Col. Kurtz’s efforts to gain control of Buer and Nene and Clarion’s very roundabout way of foiling him came to an end in vol. 8.  It was a nice wrap-up for this series that has been an enjoyable bit of harmless fluff since the beginning. Yet, it wasn’t the end of the series itself as Poseidon -- the multinational corporation that was backing Kurtz -- emerged as the new antagonist.  I’ll admit that I was a little skeptical of this new direction. “Pandora” isn’t a series that has ever had much depth to it and I felt that its attempts to “go bigger” would likely strain against its carefree charm.

Against all of my expectations (which, admittedly, were in the neighborhood of “zero”), this volume actually makes a good case for the series’ new direction.  While Nene and Clarion are engaging in some goofiness regarding the former’s luggage, “Bunny-san” and her friends are brought before Labrys, the head of Poseidon, for dinner and to potentially be recruited into the company.  While Labrys has “Evil Villain” written all over her face and actions, she’s actually quite welcoming and accommodating of the group of oddly-dressed female scientists. It’s also not hard to see how Bunny-san and co. would agree to work with Labrys once we find out about their histories with Sahar.  Though I can see Sahar’s point regarding the “uniforms,” I really do hope that she eventually recognizes that was a bad call on her part.

Following that is a surprisingly heartfelt encounter between Nene and a cyborg who’s also a professional athlete that also manages to impart a little more insight into their life in this world.  Nene and Clarion then go on to save a pirate-themed airship cruise as the former is forced to expand her cyber-awareness in the process. We’re also introduced to… I’m going to call her “Chaotic Evil Clarion” for now because there appears to be no good purpose to the chaos she leaves in her wake.  All of this manages to add more depth to this previously insubstantial series and impress upon the reader that the threat of Poseidon is quite real. The series does keep trafficking in annoying bits of fanservice here and there, but that’s something I’m willing to put up with in light of its newfound ambition.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca’s “Darth Vader” series stands tall as the best “Star Wars” comic released by Marvel.  Seriously, if you have any love for “Star Wars” and you haven’t read this series yet then you need to fix that!  So when it was announced a few months after “Darth Vader” ended that there would be a new ongoing series featuring everyone’s favorite Sith Lord, there was good reason for skepticism.  “Darth Vader” was a complete story that was well-liked by just about everyone.  Why would you even want to compete with something like that?  It would seem that this project was destined for failure… except that one can never count out Charles Soule.

Well, that didn’t take long.  It turns out that Image will be the publisher of Mark Millar’s “Netflix Comics” imprint instead of Dark Horse.  I read that the main concern with having Image act as a publisher for the imprint was that the work-for-hire nature of some of Millar’s projects would clash with the company’s reputation as a creator-first place.  Of course, this argument ignores the fact that Image continues to publish plenty of work-for-hire titles from their Top Cow and Extreme imprints, along with “Spawn” whenever Todd McFarlane takes one of his periodic breaks from writing it.  This is still seen as a temporary measure until Netflix can get its own publishing operation set up.  We’ll see how that goes since the streaming giant’s focus has always been on, well, streaming so one has to wonder just how much they’re going to invest in an actual comics publishing operation.  They may see it as better to just let Image keep handling things.

Who’s going to be the Next Big Thing over at Marvel?  Right now, all signs point to it being Donny Cates.  After generating a lot of heat with his creator-owned projects “God Country” and “Redneck” (at Image) and “Babyteeth” (at Aftershock) Marvel succeeded in getting him to work for them before DC could.  Their investment has been rewarded so far with acclaimed and good-selling runs on “Thanos” and “Doctor Strange.”  Now he’s the writer of the new “Venom” title from these solicitations along with a project based on the Cosmic Ghost Rider he introduced in “Thanos” (and whose identity was recently spoiled for me, grrrrrrrrrrr…).  Cates also has a secret team book lined up at Marvel that some are speculating to be a relaunched “Fantastic Four” now that the Disney/Fox merger is set to bring the media rights to that series back under the company’s umbrella.  I’m not so sure about that because I’m sure EVERYONE at Marvel is jumping at the chance to write “Fantastic Four” again once the green light is given.

The only catch here is that, in spite of the success he’s had on the two titles, Cates will be leaving “Thanos” and “Doctor Strange” soon.  “Thanos” is missing from this month’s solicitations and Mark Waid will be re-launching “Doctor Strange”  (IN SPACE!) a few months from now.  I get that Marvel wants to put the writer on high-profile stuff that’s sure to sell, but it seems like a mistake to interrupt runs on titles that were going really well by all accounts.

So it looks like I might have to change the name of this column when it comes to talking about the monthly solicitations from Previews for DC, and Marvel.  Both companies have announced that they’re leaving the Previews catalogue and will be publishing their own monthly preview magazines.  They’re both large enough that they can get away with it, particularly since comic shops are so dependent on their product that they’re going to have to order these two new magazines so they can stay in business.

While they may be losing their biggest suppliers for the magazine, there is a silver lining for Previews here (at least as far as I’m concerned).  The magazine will now be featuring a new section for manga that, in addition to spotlighting new releases, will feature essential backlist selections/suggestions and interviews with notable creators.  I’m in favor of anything that will broaden the appeal (and sales) of manga so I hope this section becomes a permanent fixture in this new version of Previews.

This rambling and energetically chaotic volume finally catches us up to the Japanese release after a couple years of waiting.  Now we get to wait some more as mangaka Kohta Hirano has never been known for having the strictest work ethic.  He’s not in the same league as “Berserk’s” Kentaro Miura, but this volume shipped in Japan back in June 2016 so maybe that county will see a new one later this year and we’ll get it in 2019?

Enough with the speculation.  Vol. 4 benefitted from the fact that it was basically a volume-length story about the Drifters capturing the capital city of Orte and allowed Hirano to focus the narrative accordingly.  With vol. 5, things split off in multiple directions.  We start off with a visit to the lands of the Black King and get some insight into how he’s running things and what his endgame is.  Then we jump over to Nobunaga and his plan to turn two enemy generals against one another while Saint Germain negotiates with a rich merchant for the necessary funds and supplies for their war against the Black King.  We’ve also got a Japanese fighter pilot teaming up with a Rear Admiral, the Black King’s Ends going out to war, and Toyohisa demonstrating cluelessness that transcends into brilliance as he tries to rally refugees for war.

With all that’s going on in this volume it should read like an impenetrable mess.  Fortunately Hirano structures all of these plot threads so that the development we get from them is relatively self-contained and easy to digest.  He’s still jumping all over the place throughout the course of the volume, but by the end it all starts to come into focus.  I’d still kill for some kind of dramatis personae to kick off the volume because I’m not familiar with all of the Drifters/Ends in this series.  It’s still a satisfying volume overall and one that allows me to keep faith in the series as we wait for vol. 6.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

While there’s still no word on how the Disney/Fox merger is going to affect the comics based on Fox properties that Dark Horse publishes, it’s good to see the company taking steps to shore things up before that issue is resolved.  Interestingly, one of these new licenses is coming from Disney itself:  “Frozen.”  Dark Horse will be publishing the first issue of a new “Frozen” ongoing series this summer, which should be enough of a head start to generate a decent amount of material to sell when the sequel hits theaters in November 2019.  What’s also interesting is that the company has been rumored to be the publisher for Mark Millar’s “Netflix Comics” after the streaming giant bought out Millarworld last year.  While Netflix is expected to get into the publishing game at some point, that’s still a ways off.  It leaves them looking for an established publisher to distribute Millar’s comics in print and word is that Dark Horse is the front-runner for that job.  This may not be a long-term position for them, but it looks like a good way to shore up marketshare in the short-term if nothing else.