Connect with us

Comics

Legion: Prophets #1 Out November 25th

Published

on

IDW Publishing is coming out with a prequel for the upcoming Legion movie. The 4 issue mini-series is called Legion: Prophets, will be a primer for the movie giving the story of four of the main characters and how they all meet up. Issue one is coming out November 25th, and it definately has my interest with a fight between man and angel…I’m cool like that. More info after the break.
LegionProp1 Following on the thrilling Comic-Con exclusive footage of the upcoming Screen Gems film Legion, IDW announces the movie prequel, co-written by the film’s director Scott Stewart and Tom Waltz (Silent Hill: Sinner’s Reward). Legion: Prophets, IDW’s four-issue weekly miniseries, leads directly into the movie, setting the scene for an all-out war between Heaven and Earth.

“The premise of the film is great, and a little scary,” said IDW Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Chris Ryall. “Who hasn’t looked around at what’s going on in the world and thought that the Apocalypse really might be coming soon? Legion: Prophets gives a glimpse of what that might be like.”

Legion: Prophets tells the story of four very different people from very different parts of the world, who become humanity’s only hope to survive the Apocalypse. Stewart and Waltzchronicle the struggles of these ordinary people in the face of newfound powers and responsibilities.

“There were a lot of cool and scary characters and situations that I wasn’t able to include in the main narrative of the movie, so I’m very excited to be able to expand the Legion universe beyond the film and explore those other stories through the comic book series,” said Stewart. “I’m a big fan of IDW’s books and it’s a real thrill to be able to collaborate with them on Legion: Prophets.”

Legion: Prophets features a richly diverse cast of characters: The Theologians, an unlikely pairing of Jacob Heifitz, a 26-year-old Jewish research student, and Sami Saama, a 16-year-old Palestinian would-be terrorist, who must work together to fight off possessed hordes and find a way to the new Cradle of Civilization. The Guardian, Miko Hogosha, a modern day geisha-turned-warrior, who must escape a New York City gone mad and journey to meet the rest of the Prophets. The Codebreaker, Midwestern housewife Maggie Winters, a local puzzle prodigy whose seemingly innocuous skill is about to take a dark turn as her “visions” manifest. And, the Voice, Alan McCormick, a radio icon who broadcasts his late night syndicated radio show alone from his “secret bunker” in the high desert, making a career of exploring bizarre conspiracy theories he doesn’t actually believe in, until now.

Each issue showcases unique illustrations by a group of artists as diverse as the story’s characters, including Alberto Muriel, Jose Holder, Francisco Paronzini, and Michael Gaydos, as well as can’t-look-away covers from French sensation, J.F. Bruckner.

Legion: Prophets #1-4 will be available in stores weekly in November 2009.

Comics

[Review] Graphic Novel ‘Tender’ Is Brilliant Feminist Body Horror That Will Make You Squirm & Scream

Published

on

Tender Beth Hetland Graphic Novel

Beth Hetland’s debut graphic novel, ‘Tender,’ is a modern tale of love, validation, and self-destruction by way of brutal body horror with a feminist edge.

“I’ve wanted this more than anything.”

Men so often dominate the body horror subgenre, which makes it so rare and insightful whenever women tackle this space. This makes Beth Hetland’s Tender such a refreshing change of pace. It’s earnest, honest, and impossibly exposed. Tender takes the body horror subgenre and brilliantly and subversively mixes it together with a narrative that’s steeped in the societal expectations that women face on a daily basis, whether it comes to empowerment, family, or sexuality. It single-handedly beats other 2023 and ‘24 feminine horror texts like American Horror Story: Delicate, Sick, Lisa Frankenstein, and Immaculate at their own game.

Hetland’s Tender is American Psycho meets Rosemary’s Baby meets Swallow. It’s also absolutely not for the faint of heart.

Right from the jump, Tender grabs hold of its audience and doesn’t let go. Carolanne’s quest for romantic fulfillment, validation, and a grander purpose is easy to empathize with and an effective framework for this woeful saga. Carolanne’s wounds cut so deep simply because they’re so incredibly commonplace. Everybody wants to feel wanted.

Tender is full of beautiful, gross, expressive artwork that makes the reader squirm in their seat and itch. Hetland’s drawings are simultaneously minimalist and comprehensively layered. They’re  reminiscent of Charles Burns’ Black Hole, in the best way possible. There’s consistently inspired and striking use of spot coloring that elevates Hetland’s story whenever it’s incorporated, invading Tender’s muted world.

Hetland employs effective, economical storytelling that makes clever use of panels and scene construction so that Tender can breeze through exposition and get to the story’s gooey, aching heart. There’s an excellent page that depicts Carolanne’s menial domestic tasks where the repetitive panels grow increasingly smaller to illustrate the formulaic rut that her life has become. It’s magical. Tender is full of creative devices like this that further let the reader into Carolanne’s mind without ever getting clunky or explicit on the matter. The graphic novel is bookended with a simple moment that shifts from sweet to suffocating.

Tender gives the audience a proper sense of who Carolanne is right away. Hetland adeptly defines her protagonist so that readers are immediately on her side, praying that she gets her “happily ever after,” and makes it out of this sick story alive…And then they’re rapidly wishing for the opposite and utterly aghast over this chameleon. There’s also some creative experimentation with non-linear storytelling that gets to the root of Carolanne and continually recontextualizes who she is and what she wants out of life so that the audience is kept on guard.

Tender casually transforms from a picture-perfect rom-com, right down to the visual style, into a haunting horror story. There’s such a natural quality to how Tender presents the melancholy manner in which a relationship — and life — can decay. Once the horror elements hit, they hit hard, like a jackhammer, and don’t relent. It’s hard not to wince and grimace through Tender’s terrifying images. They’re reminiscent of the nightmarish dadaist visuals from The Ring’s cursed videotape, distilled to blunt comic panels that the reader is forced to confront and digest, rather than something that simply flickers through their mind and is gone a moment later. Tender makes its audience marinate in its mania and incubates its horror as if it’s a gestating fetus in their womb.

Tender tells a powerful, emotional, disturbing story, but its secret weapon may be its sublime pacing. Hetland paces Tender in such an exceptional manner, so that it takes its time, sneaks up on the reader, and gets under their skin until they’re dreading where the story will go next. Tender pushes the audience right up to the edge so that they’re practically begging that Carolanne won’t do the things that she does, yet the other shoe always drops in the most devastating manner. Audiences will read Tender with clenched fists that make it a struggle to turn each page, although they won’t be able to stop. Tender isn’t a short story, at more than 160 pages, but readers will want to take their time and relish each page so that this macabre story lasts for as long as possible before it cascades to its tragic conclusion. 

Tender is an accomplished and uncomfortable debut graphic novel from Hetland that reveals a strong, unflinching voice that’s the perfect fit for horror. Tender indulges in heightened flights of fancy and toes the line with the supernatural. However, Tender is so successful at what it does because it’s so grounded in reality and presents a horror story that’s all too common in society. It’s a heartbreaking meditation on loneliness and codependency that’s one of 2024’s must-read horror graphic novels.

‘Tender,’ by Beth Hetland and published by Fantagraphics, is now available.

4 out of 5 skulls

Tender graphic novel review

Continue Reading