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Comic Review: Ironwolf - Fires of the Revolution

Someone in my circle of comic-reading friends got this because this has old-school (which, I guess, means pre-Hellboy) Mignola art. But I thought it was interesting because it was a Chaykin co-written 70s sci-fi sequel. And it turned out to be both - Mignola art, displaying indications of what would later become his very distinctive style, and a 70s sci-fi setting, complete with wooden flying ships and vampires and cat-people and a hint of socialism.

Well, ok, maybe that doesn't really mean anything.

I'm obviously not a great critic of artwork, but this seemed to have hints of Mignola's later fascination with shadow and odd-but-realistic anatomy of different kinds of monsters. The coloring wasn't fantastic (blue vampires?), but the story did seem to lend itself to some nice dramatic scenes that wouldn't have been too out of place in Hellboy except for the extra detail that gives it a late 80s - early 90s comic feel.

The story, though, seemed to be a reasonable but ultimately silly piece of 70s-style nostalgia. I like old-school sci-fi, but I have yet to find much from the 70s that really is interesting to me. Here we have a hero that we are supposed to be sympathetic for not because of his actions but because he renounced his place in an aristocratic society to help lead a democratic socialist revolution that ultimately got co-opted by his brother. The sci-fi elements of vampires, cat-people (both genetic experiments), and a crystal that can give immortality are not explored in much depth. The idea of the more advanced world purposefully witholding technology from another society is explored in a nicely anti-Star Trek way. But it leads to a silly final battle and a conclusion without any real surprise or sense of purpose.

I definitely felt like there was some backstory (from the earlier stories?) about the creation of the immortality, which went largely ignored in this story except for the narration. Perhaps that would have added a little more meaning for me?