Mike Mignola

Mignola and Golden's epic tale of vampire-hunting across a grim alternate Europe where the First World War ground to a halt due to an outbreak of mysterious plague and, also, vampires. For a vampire-hunting story it's impressively dour, not a quip in sight, its hero is deeply tragic and somewhat wretched, its monsters are nasty, and an obsessed priest of the new Inquisiton is the most annoying character I've encountered in ages.

When Grant Morrison wrote Arkham Asylum to blow Bat-minds in 1989, he infused Gotham City with actual occultism, but in terms of the Yog-Sothothery suggested by "Arkham," he didn't make any significant impositions. He certainly didn't go half as far as Mike Mignola and Richard Pace's Doom that Came to Gotham. The latter is part of the DC "Elseworlds" imprint, and it reminded me of Neil Gaiman's Marvel 1602 with the full transposition of a multi-superhero character matrix into another setting show more and time. For Doom that is the Lovecraftian 1920s. Originally a three-issue limited series, the breaks between issues have vanished in the trade edition that collects them into a single graphic novel.

Besides Batman, Alfred, and Bruce Wayne's wards (none of whom have Robin or Nightwing identities or powers), key characters include Oliver Queen (not quite Green Arrow), Barbara Gordon (not Batgirl, but certainly some sort of Oracle), Jason Blood (every bit the Demon), Harvey Dent (who doesn't start as Two-Face), Talia al Ghul, and Ras al Ghul (this world's version of Abdul Alhazred). Alternate, Cthulhvized versions of such Bat-villains as Mister Freeze and Poison Ivy are also clever and outre.

Nixey & Janke's internal art is suited to the mood of the story, but it pales against Mignola's covers. To fully enjoy this book requires appreciation of both the Lovecraft source material and the Batman franchise as it has evolved into the 21st century. Once those are granted, it is a fast, broody, macabre, and worthwhile read. show less

I have always been a fan of the crossover, especially when it's done for the sake of storytelling and not a marketing scheme (although, sometimes the storytelling in those situations can still stand above the marketing). The crossovers in this collection don't seem to be for any other reason than the writers wanted to see these characters interact, and that's what I love.

First up we have Hellboy teaming up with Batman and Starman when a group of Neo-Nazis kidnap Ted Knight (the original show more Starman) to summon an Elder God. Dig seeing these characters work together while dealing with their differences, the conversation between Bats and HB is one of my favorite pieces of dialogue. Also, seeing Batman and the Joker drawn by Mignola was absolutely fantastic!

Then we have a story in which Hellboy meets the Ghost, a character from Dark Horse's run at creating a superhero universe. It didn't really stick, but characters like Ghost and Barb Wire should have stuck around. I liked them. Seeing Ghost and Hellboy duke it out due to some events that started back in 1939 and a manipulated misunderstanding was a great premise, and well done. Also, this was apparently the first time someone other than Mignola had drawn Hellboy in a full story, and I have to say, I thought they did a good job.

Good collection. Nice mix of Hellboy's supernatural kookiness with some more standard super heroics, but still retaining the pulp sensibilities that makes Hellboy what he is. show less

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

Before reading it, I had thought Ironwolf: Fires of the Revolution would be a retelling of the events of Howard Chaykin's original IronWolf* story in the new context of his Twilight story. It turns out that Fires of the Revolution is largely a sequel to the 1973-74 IronWolf, albeit one that retcons it a little bit to fit it into the future history established by Twilight. The original IronWolf concerned struggles over the show more "Empire Galaktika"; Fires of the Revolution quickly establishes that this is a high-faluting name for a group of three planets. The capital of the Empire Galaktika was Earth; Fires of the Revolution clarifies that early human colonists named a ton of planets "Earth." This does require us to ignore that in the original series, IronWolf visited the Grand Canyon, but it mostly all fits together (except for the Tales of the House of IronWolf back-ups, but they weren't such a big deal anyway).

Well, I say it all fits together, but Fires of the Revolution actually opens with a retelling of an event from the first issue of IronWolf, Weird Worlds #8: Lord Ironwolf's burning down of his family's ancestral forests of anti-gravity wood, to keep them out of the hands of his brother, who's working with the Empress Erika. I complained that in the original, this moment seemed underplayed; here the writers and artists turn it into the big dramatic moment it deserved to be. From there, though, Fires of the Revolution shifts into following up rather than retelling: Ironwolf and Shebaba's fledgling revolution is cut short when one of their own betrays them. The empress is willing to cut a deal with the rebels and form a parliamentary government, but only on the condition of Ironwolf's death, so one of Ironwolf's allies betrays him.

It's a slightly different world than the original IronWolf stories of two decades prior: less sword-and-planet warlord, and more courtly intrigue. Penciller Mike Mignola follows this new approach with visuals that come right out of the French Revolution: his Empress Erika is a highly refined aristocrat, not the sultry seductress of Chaykin's originals. (Though, of course, she is no less venomous underneath.) In the highly repressed world of this Empire Galakitka, Lord Ironwolf is different from the other aristocrats: something primal and barbaric, full of energy, willing to burn the world down if it means progress might result. This resonates with the larger story of Twilight, too (to which this is a sidequel; Homer Glint puts in an appearance, and everyone in this story can live forever because of what happened over there), in that Ironwolf claims that if the Empire Galakitka is integrated into humanity's galactic civilization, it can reverse some of the stagnation that has set in.

On the whole, Fires of the Revolution is kind of pulpy just like the original IronWolf, but in a different way. Lots of fights and betrayals and fires and shadow and plotting, but the universe feels darker and less swashbuckling. But I would partially attribute that to putting the fabulously gloomy Mignola on art. I enjoyed reading it on the whole, and looking at it even more. I still do have one complaint: I get what motivates Ironwolf's personal goals. He is a simple man at heart, and he wants revenge for the various ways he's been wronged. (There's a lot of them by this point-- basically everyone who ever threw in with him was killed.) But what motivates him politically? As an "aristo" what makes him want to rid the Empire Galaktika of aristocratic control and put a democracy in place? This was a weakness in the original IronWolf and continues to be one here.

(This book was originally published as a graphic novel in hardcover in 1992, and released in paperback in 1993. DC finally collected Chaykin's Twilight in 2015; it would be cool if they also released a collection of both Fires of the Revolution and the original IronWolf stories from Weird Worlds. It would make a nice little 150ish-page space epic.)

DC Comics Space Heroes: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence »

* As always, it's hard to tell how comic book character names ought to be capitalized. While the text pieces in the 1986 reprint special used "IronWolf," Walt Simonson's introduction to this volume goes with "Ironwolf," so I am capitalizing that way in the context of this volume. show less