Dark Horse Number Ones by Various
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'd probably give this a half star more, but as with all anthologies you have really good stuff and some that just doesn't do it for you. In this case more hits than misses, but I've been a big fan of Dark Horse for years. They and Image put out some of my favorite books, with DH taking the lead at the moment.

Of course, you can't go wrong with Hellboy or any title in the Mignola-verse. "Hellboy in Hell" is another outstanding entry in that series. I actually read the story by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba featuring their Umbrella Academy before, but it was still fun and I recommend the series about a group of children with powers abandoned by their parents and raised by a wealthy benefactor. The tales often go from when they were children to their current adult adventures.

Dean Ormston's Black Hammer is about a group of super-heroes who disappeared and now cannot return to their own era. They are also trying to keep their secrets from the citizens of the area, but events might not allow that for much longer. An interesting series that I plan on following. Harrow County by Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook is a nice horror tale of witchcraft and curses from the past. Dept. H is a murder mystery in the future that takes place in an undersea research station. This is by Matt Kindt and Sharlene Kindt and I've already been buying this series. If you might be interested in a straight story of militias and survivalists, with family dynamics complicating an already tense situation than Brigg's Land by Brian Wood and Mark Chater might be something you like. No costumes or curses, except the four-letter ones, in sight.

As I said, there are always stories in an anthology that don't click for you, but your opinion might be different from mine.

I didn't care for Lady Killer by Joelle Jones and Jamie S. Rich. A housewife, who is secretly an assassin has a dark comedy feel, but I didn't like it much. I think the fact that there is some more than flirtatious chemistry going on between the main character I find distasteful. Guess I'm old fashion. It does seem to have a following. Kurtis Wiebe and Mindy Lee's Bounty is about a pair of female bounty hunters in outer space. Aliens, robots and folks with strange powers. Fun and nothing original enough in this sample issue to get me to pick it up.

The best thing about this TPB is that it's only six bucks for eight #1 issues from a wide-range of creators in a number of different genres. I just with I could have given it that extra star.


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