Familiar and Fresh - A Review of Universal Monsters: Dracula

By Brandon T. McClure

Universal Monsters: Dracula is the first in a line of new horror comics from Skybound Entertainment, a subsidiary of Image Comics owned by Robert Kirkman, that aim to reimagine some of cinema’s most famous monsters. Released in 2023, Universal Monsters: Dracula was collected in hardcover format in 2024 and written by James Tynion IV with art by Martin Simmonds. It reimagines the original 1931 Universal Studios film starring Bela Lugosi. Dracula has to be one of the most adapted works of fiction in the world, so finding new and interesting ways to tell this story can be difficult for a creator. But Tynion and Simmonds are more than capable of retelling this story in a way that feels both familiar and fresh. 

Unlike other adaptations of Dracula, this comic does not readapt the 1897 Bram Stoker novel of the same name. It squarely sets itself up as a retelling of the 1931 film which immediately sets it apart from any other comic, film, or television adaptation. The biggest twist, however, is how it chooses to center the events of the film and its titular monster. Count Dracula is not a character, but a monstrous force of nature. Everything the reader learns of Dracula is through other people recounting events that the mysterious count was part of. Tynion frames him in the background, and only ever says one line of dialogue. 

Tynion decides to focus the action around the human characters of the story, most notably Dr. Seward and Renfield. On paper, retelling the story of the film but removing the title character doesn’t seem like it should work. However, rather than causing the reader to question where the monster is, the reader is able to share in the dread that each character is feeling. The characters become more sympathetic as you watch them hopelessly try to fight something they don’t understand. The arcs of both Seward and Renfield are standouts with incredible payoffs, but the likes of Mina, Harker and Van Helsing also get plenty of moments that add depth to the story being thrust upon them.

The ending benefits from this change in perspective more than anything else in the book. The original 1931 film has a rather anticlimactic ending that ends with Van Helsing killing Dracula off screen in his sleep. It’s a fine ending, but it’s not the thing people remember about the film. But here, that same ending is filled with emotions ranging from dread to relief to sadness. It’s incredible how the same narrative beats can elicit a different emotional reaction.

Martin Simmonds is the true hero of Universal Monsters: Dracula, however. While Tynion frames Dracula as a force of nature, Simmonds brings that force of nature to the realm of dreams. His brush strokes create an ethereal effect that evokes the fluidity of a half remembered nightmare. His splash pages deserve to be framed as singular works of art. Some of the characters that are possessed by Dracula have haunting pale white faces, an effect that adds to the evocation of said nightmare.

The “Universal Monsters” are some of the most iconic in all of film history and none are more iconic than Dracula. Creating a story based on the original film that feels fresh is a daunting task, but this book makes it seem easy. It’s exactly the type of story that long time fans of monster movies, and new fans, would absolutely love. It’s a strong start to a new line of exciting comics that might have set the bar a little too high.

Universal Monsters: Dracula is available at your local comic and book story or at any online retailer.

Glorified Fanart - A Review of Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

By Brandon T. McClure

Written by Cullen Bunn with art by Freddie Williams III, Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers sees Rita Repulsa travel to a parallel universe in the hopes of escaping the Power Rangers. The comic was originally released as five issues beginning in March 2022 before being collected later that year in one soft cover collection. On paper, this is a perfect match. Two legends of Japan (albeit one heavily Americanized) that have never shared the screen together before, now unite on the page. It’s a surefire hit. It’s unfortunate to say, then, that Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is a dull experience that completely squanders its potential.

The story begins when Rita Repulsa, Goldar, Scorpina, and Finster invade a temple in search of a gem called the Multiverse Focus. During a battle with the Power Rangers, Rita and her goons use the gem to travel to a new reality without Power Rangers, with the idea that that world will be easier to rule. As the title suggests, they end up in the middle of the Godzilla universe as Godzilla is in the middle of battling various monsters sent by the Xillians. Rita and her goons team up with the Xillians in order to help them defeat Godzilla, but the Power Rangers show up, Zords in tow, to help the King of the Monsters fight back.

As a “versus” comic, the book is very by the numbers and frankly incredibly dull. Bunn takes no opportunities in the book to deliver anything that hasn’t been seen before. Instead he tells a story that every comic reader has read before. The Power Rangers mistake Godzilla for one of Rita’s monsters, realize that he’s not, then they team up with Godzilla to defeat the villains once and for all. Normally this type of story wouldn’t be such a dull experience, but since one of the title characters is a monster, then the story needs to rely solely on the Power Rangers for any kind of character connection. Shouldn’t be too much of an issue, except Cullen Bunn can’t write the Power Rangers.

Many writers at Boom Studios have taken a shot at the original Power Rangers and delivered brilliant character writing, but Bunn is not one of them. The characters are such an afterthought in this story that you’ll likely not realize that more than one character is talking in a scene. There’s no attempt to differentiate the Rangers from each other, except to color code the word balloons. Each line of generic dialogue reads like it could come from any of them. The villains fare a little better in this sense but you’ll likely still find yourself forgetting whether or not Goldar or Scorpina were the ones talking. But, truthfully, you’ll learn quickly that the dialogue doesn’t matter at all.

If you're a casual fan of both properties, the novelty wears off around the end of issue two. If you're a hardcore fan of both then you'll quickly recognize this as little more than an excuse to draw some fun fan art you might see at a conventions artist alley. Someone had the idea of Godzilla standing next to the DragonZord and thought they could write five issues around that. Sadly, they could not. While the imagery and art are undoubtedly fun and interesting, this wasn’t something that could sustain five issues. Something shorter might have fared better.

Fans will find little more here than cool pin up art. But with a wafer thin plot, and the most uninteresting version of the Power Rangers, there’s just nothing here to make Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers memorable. Godzilla stories need human characters for audiences to latch on to, because it’s their journey that makes the story worthwhile. The Power Rangers and Godzilla feel like they belong together which makes a crossover between the two a no brainer. Perhaps with a better writer, this could have been something, but sadly it just comes off as an overly long piece of fanart.

Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers II are available now on Amazon or your local book and comic book store.

The Massive-Verse Coming To The Big Screen?

By Brandon T. McClure

In 2021, Kyle Higgins and Marcelo Costa began publishing Radiant Black for Image Comics, which launched what became known as The Massive-Verse. Consisting of books like Rogue Sun, Inferno Girl Red, and Dead Lucky, the Massive-Verse has carved out a successful corner of the world of comic books with no sign of slowing down. At this year's San Diego Comic Con, Kyle Higgins revealed a very exciting new project in the works, the Massive-Verse is taking a leap to the big screen. 

One of the most recent entries in the Massive-Verse comes in the form of No/One by Kyle Higgins, Brian Buccellato, and artist Geraldo Borges. This ten issue limited series has been a unique entry in the Massive-Verse due to its multi-media approach to storytelling. The series follows the aftermath of an event in Pittsburgh known as the Accountability Murders where a man going by the name Richard Roe began killing corrupt people in power. These people had been doxed by a keyboard vigilante known as No/One, whose goal was to bring their corruption to light. He signed off his initial message with “No one is above the law, and I am No/One.” The mystery surrounding No/One is at the center of the series, as well as the identity of a new killer, claiming to be the original Richard Roe. No/One’s centers on the theme of accountability and how every act, big or small, has ripple effects. Plus a little bit of The Purge mixed in.

No/One Preview Issue #1 - Artist: Geraldo Borges / Colorist: Mark Englert

No/One was paired with a in universe true-crime podcast called Who Is No/One, which was hosted by characters in the book played by Rachael Leigh Cook and Patton Oswalt as well as guest stars from the likes of Todd Stashwick, Yuri Lowenthaall, and Loren Lester as No/One. Each episode of the podcast picked up after the end of each issue, and discussed the aftermath of the comic books events. It created a very engaging and unique reading experience but the ending of the book still left many lingering questions. Most notably the question at the heart of the comic, “Who is No/One and why did he do this?”

During the “Enter The Massive-Verse” panel at San Diego Comic Con 2024, No/One interrupted Kyle Higgins with a video proclaiming that “I am No/One and this is my story.” This video was followed by the reveal that an in-universe feature length documentary is in the works. The documentary, titled I Am No/One, will recap the events of the comic and podcast and shed new light on those same events as well as act as a sequel to the series, and seemingly answer the question at the heart of No/One once and for all. I Am No/One will be directed by Kyle Higgins and is looking to start filming sometime next year. Seemingly, the cast is already set as Higgins stated he cast the podcast with an eye towards this documentary, but it’s unclear at this time how many are due to return.

For this ambitious project, director Kyle Higgins will utilize “sit down interviews, phone and drone footage, news coverage, and first-person GoPro and helmet videography from the “NO/ONE” operation itself” according to The Wrap. This may be Higgins first time directing a feature length film, but this isn’t the first time he’s done something like this. Higgins has directed many short films that have tied into his comics, most notably The League (tie-in to C.O.W.L.), Versus (animated short film from Radiant Black), and Power Rangers: Shattered Grid (promo for the comic event of the same name). He loves to experiment with multi-media stories, such as Bear McCreary’s comic/album The Singularity, so I Am No/One is the logical next step.

Massive-Verse / Radiant Black

At this time, there is no official word yet on how this documentary will be distributed but it is being produced by Black Market Narrative, ZQ Entertainment, producers Ara Keshishian, Petr Jakl, Stuart Manashil and Steven Schneider (Insidious, Late Night with the Devil, and Paranormal Activity), and, of course, Kyle Higgins and Brian Buccellato. As far as distribution goes, it’s likely this will be a streaming release, possibly on the Black Market Narrative YouTube channel, since there may not be a large enough audience for No/One to warrant a theater release. The Massive-Verse may be popular but an in-universe true crime documentary may be a tough sell to general audiences. But it’s hard to rule anything out at this moment since it’s still a ways away from release. Even if it’s incredibly niche to a general public, it’s still incredibly exciting for Massive-Verse fans. Especially for the fans who were hungry for more after the end of No/One

The collected edition of No/One is due out in November, and will no doubt find new readers looking for this kind of biting political commentary. But No/One has a very particular structure when paired with the podcast, so It’ll be interesting to see how the creators include the podcast without the benefit of a monthly publishing schedule. Likewise, the documentary may also struggle. While it’s exciting now, I Am No/One will likely be out two years after the book wrapped up. It’s not unreasonable to wonder if the hype surrounding this multimedia story will sustain that long. But Massive-Verse fans are in it for the long haul and will no doubt show up when the documentary drops.

The Massive-Verse started as one comic but has grown into one of the most exciting comic book universes on the market. It’s a truly exciting time in the Massive-Verse, as Radiant Black’s “The Catalyst War” event wraps up, a card game on the horizon, the return of C.O.W.L., an audio drama based on the first volume of Radiant Black due out this Fall, and the I Am No/One in-universe documentary. It’s an embarrassment of riches coming from one of the most exciting comic book universes the industry has ever seen.

Star Trek: Celebrations - So Close, Yet So Far

By Brandon T. McClure

With June in the USA being pride month many comic book publishers take the opportunity to celebrate their queer characters. Predominantly, DC Comics has published an oversized one-shot consisting of stories centered around their queer characters for many years. This year IDW is joining the fun by releasing an oversized one-shot called Star Trek: Celebrations. This new issue will feature stories written by queer creators, such as Vita Ayala (Children of the Atom), Steve Orlando (Commanders In Crisis), and Mags Visaggio (Cold Bodies), who will tell stories centered around the prominent queer characters in The Star Trek universe. But, just by looking at the cover, there is one show being represented more than the others: Star Trek: Discovery. Sadly this is shining a light on a worrying trend within the Star Trek franchise.

The solicitation for Star Trek: Celebrations reads “IDW proudly presents a one-shot anthology centering and celebrating LGBTQIA+ characters from across the Star Trek universe! Join legendary heroes from each era of the beloved franchise in stories that showcase the strengths of infinite diversity in infinite combinations.” The cover features Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz), Adira (Blu del Barrio), Gray (Ian Alexander), Jett Reno (Tig Notaro), Seven of Nine (Jerry Ryan), Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), Hikaru Sulu (John Cho), Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), and Jennifer Sh'reyan (Lauren Lapkus). That makes five characters from Star Trek: Discovery, two from Star Trek: Lower Decks, two from Star Trek: Picard, one from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and one from Star Trek Beyond. 

It makes sense that Star Trek: Celebrations wouldn’t use any characters from before 2016's Star Trek Beyond because Star Trek didn’t have any queer main characters, at least none that were “out of the closet”. Looking back on the franchise, fans have speculated that many characters were queer, with some actors, including Andrew Jordt Robinson (Garak on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) agreeing, which he made known to TrekMovie.com in 2020. While Star Trek didn’t have any queer main characters, it is littered with queer-coded characters and has always had a passionate queer fanbase with their own queer headcanons (Any Spirk shippers out there?). Due to the era in which the shows were made, queerness was relegated to background and subtext. But that began to change in the latter half of the 2010s.

While Star Trek Beyond features Star Trek’s first queer character, it was Star Trek: Discovery’s premiere in 2017 that is most notable in the history of the franchise. Star Trek: Discovery launched a new golden age of Star Trek for the streaming era and immediately made an impact with its historic representation. Star Trek: Discovery has broken down barriers when it comes to positive queer representation since many of the main characters and principal actors belong to the LGBTQIA+ community. For a franchise that has been so progressive in the past, it was severely lacking in queer representation, and Star Trek: Discovery was in a position to change that. With Star Trek: Discovery acting as the “flagship show”, it boldly led the likes of Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Picard into a new progressive future. But seven years and five shows later, Paramounts priorities seem to have shifted.

The first season of Star Trek: Picard saw the return of Jerry Ryan as Seven of Nine, a role she originated on Star Trek: Voyager. She became a key player in the series, as did her on-again/off-again girlfriend Raffi Musiker. The final episode of the first season of Star Trek: Picard implied a relationship between Seven and Raffi was beginning to develop. But they broke up between seasons one and two only to spend the entire second season getting back together again. Now the stage was set for the relationship to blossom. Except they broke up again between season two and three. The two of them never spent time together as a real couple and while the end of Star Trek: Picard put them in command of the new USS Enterprise - G, it wasn’t as a couple. Sure, the show could get “brownie points” for putting queer characters in charge of the Federation's flagship, but if it’s not shown on screen, does it count? If Star Trek: Legacy happens, will the two of them get back together, or will the writers spend another season teasing their relationship, only to not take it anywhere?

It’s important to note that while Seven and Raffi weren’t together on screen, there is a story that explores their relationship between seasons one and two of Star Trek: Picard. Written by Kirsten Beyer, Star Trek: Picard - No Man’s Land is a full-cast audiobook that tells the story of the Fenris Rangers asking Seven and Raffi for help with a “beleaguered planet.” For her part, Beyer has written many Star Trek comics and was a co-creator of Star Trek: Picard in season one before Terry Matalis came on board in season two. The inclusion of this audiobook implies that Seven and Raffi are allowed to be complex queer characters, just as long as it’s not on screen. Matalis did try to explain himself by saying that he thinks “Starfleet regulations have a lot to say about them being officially together which is why we had them apart to begin with. We knew we were ending here and that would be a big conflict of interest on the bridge.” So it’s not homophobic, it’s just that the fictional organization of Starfleet told Terry Matalas that they couldn’t be together. To his credit, he did end the statement by saying “will this ABSOLUTELY be a story you want to tell in the future? A story about a Captain who loves her First Officer and vice versa? Absolutely.”

Sometime between seasons two and three of Star Trek: Lower Decks, Becket Mariner and the Andorian Jennifer Sh’reyan formed a romantic relationship. The show didn’t dedicate much time to this relationship but it clearly made Mariner happy and it certainly made the fans happy to see. In the second to last episode of the show, Becket is blamed for a bad interview with a Federation journalist named Victoria Nuzé and Jennifer breaks off the relationship. More than anything, this feels like a story that the creators of Star Trek: Lower Decks wanted to tell, but the finale gives the audience the sense that Mariner is not going to try and get back together with Jennifer. Perhaps it’s got more to do with Mariner’s self-destructive nature and less to do with a decree from Paramount, but the loss of this queer relationship is one more symptom of an ever-growing problem. It’s also very noticeable that Jennifer only appears in the background of season four a handful of times.

While progressive for the time, the original Star Trek struggled when it came to its portrayal of women. Probably none more so than Nurse Christine Chapel. Originally played by Majel Barret, she was often used to support Dr. McCoy in the sick bay and when she wasn’t doing that, she was lovesick for Spock. Flash forward to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Christine Chapel once again occupies the Enterprise sick bay, this time played by Jess Bush. It appeared that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was interested in adding some much-needed depth to this maligned character and one way they decided to do that was to make her bisexual. Jess Bush also identifies as bisexual and was likely interested in exploring that new aspect of the character and delivering positive bi representation to the world of Star Trek. There was plenty of room left to explore the character, her relationships, and history which would add depth and context to her relationship with Spock. Sadly, the second season did away with all of this. All implications of her bisexuality were scrubbed from the scripts and her complicated, and frankly uninteresting relationship with Spock became the primary focus. Much like her original series counterpart.

It's not controversial to say that the online reception to Star Trek: Discovery has, itself, been controversial. However, many Trek fans were delighted to see this kind of representation in their favorite franchise. The world of Star Trek was beginning to look more and more like the beautifully diverse world we live in. A home to many and the next step in realizing Gene Roddenberry’s vision of utopia. But if you look at these shows today you would likely never know that any of these characters listed above are queer. For years a segment of the Trek fandom, spurned on by bad faith actors within the right-wing community, has been bullying the show's creators, actors, and fans due to a perceived agenda to push “identity politics,” a term implying that someone's identity is inherently political, but only serves as a smokescreen to try and hide a more sinister term. Paramount seems to want to desperately please these “fans'' by going back on much of the progress that was made in the initial years. Star Trek: Discovery has been the only show that was able to retain its overt queerness, but much of its last three seasons have been filled with TOS or TNG nostalgia in the hopes of bringing these “fans” back to the franchise. 

No matter what happens, characters like Mariner, Chapel, Seven, and Raffi are still queer but because the shows have decided to largely ignore this aspect of their identity, they might as well be straight-coded. It’s not enough to say these characters are gay, bi, or trans. That’s not representation, that’s throwing the fans who want to see themselves represented scraps. These characters mean a lot to fans and it feels like Paramount is trying to force the franchise back into the closet. The frustrating thing about Paramount doing all this is that it’s not going to work. The bigoted fandom will never come back to Star Trek, if they ever watched it all. They’ve all grown up with a weird fictional “apolitical” version of Star Trek and have become the villains in the show they claim to love. Paramount+ is not a streaming giant so they probably feel like they can’t afford to alienate what they believe to be a large section of Trek fans, but all it’s going to do is alienate the ones who do love the franchise and want to see it evolve. Paramount is sending a message to those fans: “You don’t belong in the future, because it makes people mad.” 

Last year saw the end of Star Trek: Picard and this year will see the end of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Lower Decks. After this year, every explicitly queer character will be gone from the Star Trek universe, except for Nurse Chapel. Sure, new shows could pick up the slack and surprise fans with positive representation, but it’s depressing to think that the sole remaining queer character is going to be Nurse Chapel. Since the writers of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds have decided that Chappel’s queer identity (or identity in general if we're being honest with ourselves), is less important than setting up her ill-fated love affair with Spock, all eyes are on future Trek shows and movies. With a Starfleet Academy show and Section 31 film on the horizon, fans are eagerly awaiting to see if they will continue what Star Trek: Discovery started, or will Nurse Chapel be the death knell of queer Trek characters. If the Star Trek: Celebrations comic returns in 2025, will there be new queer characters to add, or will we be seeing the same characters over and over again until the franchise lies dormant again?

A comic book like Star Trek: Celebrations should be a celebration of how far we’ve come in the Star Trek franchise and not a reminder of what we’ve lost. It may be conspiratorial to say that Paramount is targeting queer stories and demanding they not be told, but something is going on, or else these stories wouldn’t be consistently downplayed. Star Trek: Celebrations is a wonderful idea and should be celebrated as the milestone it is, and it’s a shame that it’s made so many realize how little has changed since 2017. The difference between comic book readers and television watchers is in the millions. These milestones should be celebrated on the television shows that inspired generations to look up at the stars and work towards a better tomorrow. It’s important to tell queer stories in every medium, but it’s such a shame that all of the work to showcase queer love and queer stories on the television screen has been relegated to one issue of a comic book in June.