Netherworld
Written by Bryan Edward Hill and Rob Levin
Line Art by Tony Shasteen with Dennis Calero
Colors by Dave McCaig with Lee Loughridge
Letters by Troy Peteri
Image Comics | Top Cow
Release Date: May 23, 2012
Cover Price: $19.99

Crime noir comics are not usually my cup of Joe. It takes a unique twist on the hardboiled genre to capture my ridiculously short attention span. Image Comics/Top Cow’s Netherworld accomplishes just that, adding a supernatural flair to the typical dirty cop storyline. You’ll ponder this deceptively deep storyline well after its exciting conclusion.

Ray Parker is a former cop scratching out an existence as a bounty hunter. Two separate clients hit him up with jobs concerning the same person: a young woman named Madeline. Alexis wants Ray to find Madeline at a specified location and bring her to a second location. On the other hand, Cyrus Kane has less information and wants Ray to simply find Madeline’s whereabouts. Ray must use all of his instincts to decide on which path to take. Finding Madeline begins a violent, action-packed tale of discovery as Ray peels away the layers of his city and his role within it.

Did you know they were making a movie based on the video game Just Cause? If not, surprise!

Producers Adrian Askarieh and Eric Eisner have reached out to Bryan Edward Hill to rewrite the script for the movie, which is currently titled Just Cause: Scorpion Rising. Michael Ross (Touristas) wrote the first draft of the script, which is being developed Askarieh and Eisner’s Prime Universe Productions and Double E Pictures before being shopped out to potential studios.

Top Cow is adding a new miniseries to its roster of offbeat stories starting April 13, 2011 with Netherworld, from writers Bryan Edward Hill and Rob Levin, as well as illustrator Tony Shasteen and colorist JD Mettler.

Netherworld tells the story of one long night in a city following private detective Ray Parker as he searches for an 18-year-old girl named Madeline. The story promises to be dark and feature deep, layered characters. The city itself is seedy and full of criminals, and other unsavory types. If there’s good in this city we aren’t likely to see much of it along Parker’s path.

The writers take great inspiration from Frank Miller’s Sin City. While that world was the inspiration for the writers, Shasteen believes only Miller could create that particular city. He instead goes for something much more realistic and akin to films such as Se7en and Blade Runner. Shasteen’s references to Blade Runner meld well with his ideas for creating a city that is both familiar and foreign. He used images of densely populated Asian cities to help him craft the unique look of Netherworld. Shasteen also looked to Hollywood when designing the characters. Parker for example is based on a mix of Russell Crowe and Clive Owen while Avril Lavigne and Blake Lively inspire Madeline.

Broken Trinity: Pandora’s Box #1
Issue 1 of 6
Written by Rob Levin and Bryan Edward Hill
Art by Alessandro Vitti
Cover Art by Tommy Lee Edwards
Top Cow
Price: $3.99; Release date: February 24, 2010

Marvel and DC have been getting most of the mainstream buzz over big event storylines like Blackest Night and Siege, but they aren’t the only game in town when it comes to crossover events. Top Cow has debuted several crossovers in recent years that have introduced major changes for their characters, and that trend looks like it will continue in 2010.

For those who haven’t been following Top Cow closely as of late, the trend began with a mini-series called First Born. That series saw the birth of a daughter to Sara Pezzini and Jackie Estacado, better known as Witchblade and The Darkness, respectively.

In 2008, First Born was followed up with a mini-series called Broken Trinity. This event established Witchblade, Darkness, and an angelic warrior known as Angelus as the three primary forces in Top Cow’s supernatural universe. Their individual weapons became known as artifacts and by the end of Broken Trinity we found out the three were not alone, and that a total of 13 artifacts existed in the world.