Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter #1
Written by Dan Abnett
Art by Tom Mandrake
Colors by Sian Mandrake
Letters by Simon Bowland
Cover by Mike Perkins and Andy Troy, Tom Mandrake and Sian Mandrake
Titan Comics
Release Date: September 27, 2017
Cover Price: $3.99

These days it is zombie this and zombie that. But once upon a time, vampires were a far bigger deal and horror fans would pack movie theaters and buy the books like crazy. And I do not mean those sparkly little pansy vampires, either. They should never have existed! Anyway, in Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter #1 we get a glimpse of those fiends of yesteryear.

Dark Ages #1
Written by Dan Abnett
Art by I.N.J. Culbard
Edited by Daniel Chabon
Covers by I.N.J. Culbard
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: August 13, 2014
Cover Price: $3.99

Dark Ages #1 is part medieval historical fiction, part Lovecraftian terror, and part sci-fi monsters from space. The story introduces us to a band of knights eager for the 100 Years War to start in Medieval Europe. While they wait, they travel the countryside looking for a good fight. The group is diverse; some pray for battles, others assume that prayer will do no good, as a godless world will provide many opportunities to fight. They each have their special talents, and some are more battle hardened than others.

One night, while sitting around the fire, they notice strange stars appear in the sky. The stars turn out to be meteorites that contain strange, and deadly, alien creatures. The aliens decimate the group, severely injuring the leader, and the group flees to a monastery. The monks bring in the group, but something doesn’t sit right with the captain’s right-hand-man and now de facto leader. We learn that one of the monks is not only aware of the alien’s visitation, but is eagerly expecting it.

Hawken: Melee #1
Written by Dan Abnett
Illustrated by Federico Dallocchio
Colored by Chris Northrop
Lettered by Julia Fung
Cover by Tim Bradstreet
Boom! Studios
Release Date: December 4, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

Back in April, I reviewed Hawken: Genesis, Archaia’s prequel tie-in to the hit, free online multi-player game, Hawken. Having never played an online multi-player game, I enjoyed the graphic novel so much that I even considered pursuing the world it’s set in some more within its main form of media. Well, Boom has just released issue one of the their sequel series, Hawken: Melee, and I obviously jumped at the chance to check out the newest venture into the gritty, war-torn world of Hawken. Does it live up to its predecessor? Find out below.

In Hawken: Melee #1, I was submerged into battle with a Mech (giant robot controlled by a human) pilot who was caught in the middle of a fast-paced attack from multiple opponents. “20 Seconds,” the first title in the five stand-alone issues series, literally takes place within the span of twenty seconds, though it feels much longer.

Battlestar Galactica #3
Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Illustrated by Cezar Razek
Colored by Vinicius Townsend
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Covers by Alex Ross and Chris Eliopoulos
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: August 14, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

There’s a good chance I might get some flak for this, but here goes nothing: I’ve never seen the original Battlestar Galactica television series. Ronald D. Moore’s 2004 series happens to be among my favorite shows of all time, but I’ve never really been interested its predecessor. With that being said, I decided to give the new Battlestar Galactica comic book series from Dynamite a chance as an introduction of sorts to the show that started it all. Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and illustrated by Cezar Razek, Battlestar Galactica is now on its third issue and there are some frakkin’ crazy inter-dimensional happenings going on.

Starbuck and Apollo are still stuck in an alternate timeline where those who should be dead are alive and vice versa. Captured by none other than Boomer, Apollo struggles to convince the downtrodden resistance of this dimension “” including his dead wife, Serina and his father, Adama “” that he is, in fact, Apollo from another history.

Battlestar Galactica #1
Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art by Cezar Razek
Colored by Vinicius Townsend
Letters by Simon Bowland
Covers by Alex Ross & Chris Eliopoulos
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: May 15, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

Battlestar Galactica #1 proves the theory that if you want the best, you get the best. In this case, if you have a tremendously popular science fiction franchise with a huge cast, you call DnA to write your book.

Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning have proved time and time again that they know to write an entertaining science fiction story. Add to that the fact that they’re great at working on team books or books with pretty big casts and you have the perfect match here on this book. Abnett and Lanning take everything that was right, fun, awesome, and slick about the original Battlestar Galactica series and kick it up a notch in this debut issue. Sure, we get some introductions that we don’t really need, but it’s a first issue, so, statistics would dictate that it’s someone’s first exposure to these characters and in that sense, it’s great first issue. It’s also a great first issue for fans of the property, we get a great start to what looks to be a fantastic story starring the characters that we all know and love.