I have been a fan of Battle Chasers since the late 90s when we all patiently awaited Joe Mad's genius despite his inability to hit monthly deadlines! (JK, but not really. 😅)
Lately I've been slowly playing through Battle Chasers: Nightwar which I backed on kickstarter, then also bought on multiple platforms. It has been out a while at this point, just have not had a ton of time to put into it thanks to work, school and trying to build our game with Chibi Titan.
For those that know the game but not the comic, there was a 9 issue series published over a few years starting in 1998. Nightwar is the revival of this beloved world.
It has been a long time since I actually read the series. So I thought this would be a good time to re-read it to refresh my memory. Perhaps also do some write ups as I read. And so here is my review of the first issue. Lots of spoilers, so be warned.
"The Most Dangerous Game" is the title. Though honestly not sure why...
Look at that beautiful wrap around cover! The art in this series is pretty amazing. Obviously the #1 draw for the series. Joe Mad was constantly battling for most popular artist of the time. The only other artist that comes to mind that really gave him competition in this was the legendary Michael Turner. That's saying a lot considering how many phenomenal artists were doing comics at the time.
The world, story, characters, etc... in Battle Chasers were also great though. Which helped its chart topping sales. Comic books always draw you in with the art but it is these other things that really mark those with staying power. And Battle Chasers had staying power. Sadly he must have gotten bored or something because he left the IP behind for years, and seems to be abandoning it yet again now that Nightwar seems to have played out. (Fingers crossed I'm wrong on that though!)
Without further ado, lets get into the issue!
The first page introduces to Knolan. He is having a nightmare of sorts and wakes up wondering where is Calibretto, who we will meet soon after.
We then immediately switch to the next character introduction. Gully.
One of the cool things about Battle Chasers is the group dynamic of the main characters. Very much an adventure story like the Fellowship of the Ring. In this case Gully is central, almost like Frodo. But I don't want to get too far ahead. Her introduction is action packed. As you can see by the two page spread. She is running from some humanoid wolf creatures that just attacked her home in search of her father's treasured box. (Note: These wolf creatures are called Lycelots.)
The wolf creatures killed Gully's nanny, who was like a mother to her. They also claim to have killed her Father, Aramus. Whom everyone seems to know in this issue somehow. Gully does not believe this however and just continues to flee while protecting the box.
Gully, literally, runs into our next character introduction. Calibretto. Bretto is a war golem. He starts by taking some of the wolf creatures out. Rather easily. But then he gets struck by lightning.
He channels this power and basically wipes out the rest of the wolf creatures. We find out later that he was planting seeds. Bretto is a war golem but is mostly peaceful and pals with Knolan. He is very protective of Gully and takes her to Knolan because her box is sealed by magic and Knolan is a powerful mage that can open it.
Meanwhile in Vandalheim, "A Haven for Rogues, Murders and Worse." We find our next two main characters. Garrison and Red Monika.
Monika is a... well endowed woman. She is also an extremely deadly and proficient mercenary/pirate. She has some henchmen with her. She has come to offer Garrison a role as muscle in her next job. She's been hired to spring a prisoner named Ryon Del Soya from Skyhold. Garrison refuses and she basically tells him to just kill himself because he's a drunk, washed up old swordsman. We do not get much information about Garrison in this issue.
Meanwhile Knolan opens up the box and reveals that it held Aramus' Gauntlets. Knolan thinks to himself, "Aramus, what have you done." Indicating some importance to these gauntlets.
As with most first issues this one really just introduced the characters. We got to see some action and some top notch story telling through the panels but not a lot has been revealed yet.
I'm looking forward to finishing up the story. Gully is one of my favorite characters ever, not real sure why but I like designs when the character is relatively small but has giant fists! (as can probably be seen with my own character Eddy!) But I also really like the rest of the Battle Chasers cast. No guarantees but I want to start reading more comics regularly, so I may try to do this every day, give or take. Posting gives me an excuse to read. Reading gives me an excuse to post. Win win. 😁
To Be Continued!