Where fiction collides.
If you’ve been waiting for publisher 2K Games to release a sequel to its video game adaptation of The Darkness … well, you’re going to have to wait a little bit longer. Thankfully, a deadline is in sight for fall.
Check out the news over at Spawn Kill.
Top Cow represents a good go-to source for quality comics content, and Broken Trinity: Pandora’s Box seems to tread upon those same lines. Broken Trinity—a crossover event that first kicked off declaring the Witchblade, Darkness, and Angelus the top three super forces in the universe—ended with the reveal that other artifacts were scattered across the globe for a total of thirteen altogether. The current mini-series Pandora’s Box has introduced two other contenders besides long familiar Darkness- and Witchblade-bearers Jackie Estacado and Sara Pezzini (who birthed Estacado’s daughter in the precursor series First Born).
Fire and ice begin the elemental race, with billionaire Glorianna Silver clutching the ember stone and gunrunner Michael Finnegan holding the opposing glacier stone. Both artifacts were created to destroy the other, but Glorianna and Michael are more interested in putting their new-found powers to better use. Of course, they’re unsure on how to agree: Glorianna desires the glacier stone for herself, wanting to use the combined energies to annihilate all evil, while Michael is tentative as to what his “destiny” entails. They do know that a man named Elias Legion and his doomsday cult, the disciples of Adam, need to be stopped before the legendary Pandora’s Box falls into wrong hands, but tracking the magical device is proving more difficult than they first imagined—and the pursuit is bringing death to those unlucky enough to fall in Legion’s path.
Pandora’s Box #4 reads a bit silly at times—the characters are excessively dramatic and practically lunging at each other’s throats throughout the issue. But the comic does hit on a few interesting points, namely not the nonexistence, but the irrelevance of religion to those wielding such grand supernatural powers as the ember and glacier stones. Glorianna and Michael interact in the vein of mutants like the X-Men in that writers Bryan Edward Hill and Rob Levin incorporate the two elements into their characters’ personalities. The scene in which Michael chills over Glorianna’s water glass, boiling from her anger, gives the comic an extra touch. Facundo Percio pencils and inks gloriously, bestowing the issue with a depth as extreme as the stakes of its characters.
Legion’s number one disciple, Alina, also benefits the comic. She’s a little crazy by the looks of it, but she’s also a darker spin on gun-toting, brunette adventurers like Lara Croft (and maybe it’s no coincidence that Top Cow once printed Tomb Raider comic books).
For those unfamiliar with Pilot Season, the annual competition gives readers the chance to pick their favorite new Top Cow comic premiering over several months. The winning title then enters ongoing production. Voting for this year’s PS begins November 1 at topcow.com. Check out my review of the latest contender, 7 Days from Hell, at Impulse Creations.
Available next Wednesday, 7 Days from Hell closes the 2010 Pilot Season run. But don’t worry: The polls open soon on Top Cow’s website. Remember, remember, the first of November!
Bryan Edward Hill and Robin Levin, the writing team attached to Broken Trinity: Pandora’s Box, submit a gutsy entry with 7 Days from Hell. After losing his wife to a sharpshooter’s misjudged aim, John Bishop seized his revenge and poured himself into mercenary work, killing men and women for euros to fill his bank account. He takes jobs without question, but when he murders a husband and wife in their car, spilling the blood of their child isn’t on the agenda. His hesitation and a gun in the orphan’s small hands end his streak of vengeance, lodging a bullet in his forehead.
Ancient Roman vampires, apocalyptic horsemen-gangsters from Mexico (or possibly hell), and soul-hungry demons—monsters are coming out the wazoo this week at Impulse Creations.
Below are a few teasers, but you can read the full reviews here.
“David Hine dumps in all the right ingredients for a classic Darkness tale, lets it simmer, and before readers can catch their breath, they’re peering over a heaving pot of perfectly seasoned hellfire-side cuisine.” - The Darkness: Four Horsemen #1
“Fans of vampire fiction like True Blood might relish another half-naked glimpse into the undead world, but for those of us without a fang fetish, Ides of Blood does introduce a somewhat different means of examining the same old corpses.” - Ides of Blood #1
“Demons are creepy. Demons illustrated by Alina Urusov are even creepier. Unfortunately, the goosebumps-inducing demon in Witchblade: Due Process only adds a margin of the oomph the one-shot sorely needs.” - Witchblade: Due Process
Jason Rubin struts his creative stuff with the trade release of The Iron Saint (formerly Iron and the Maiden). These spunky characters should be video games bosses!
After reading that Jason Rubin, co-founder of Naughty Dog and the creator of Crash Bandicoot and other successful platforming series, had dipped his creative pen in Top Cow’s ink, my heart was won. Rubin originally produced Iron and the Maiden for Aspen Comics before turning the characters over to the capable publisher Top Cow. Renamed The Iron Saint (an apparently acceptable substitute for the sue-happy Iron Maiden band), the comic’s first volume hit stands today. So does Rubin work his magic for creating iconic, cartoon mascots onto a hundred-plus colored pages illustrated by Joel Gomez and Francis Manapul? You can bet your furry whiskers on it.
Read the full review at OneMetal.
