HIGHLANDER 3030 #1
Highlander is quite a remarkable property when you think about it. On the face of it, it’s just a series of loosely connected (and often contradictory) media about immortals who go around chopping each other’s’ heads off in the name of winning a powerful ‘Prize’. There’s a lot of good stuff in there, but sometimes you have to be a fan to give it the time and attention it deserves.
Which brings us to Highlander: 3030. Taking the character of Duncan MacLeod more than a thousand years into the future, it quickly becomes evident that he’s lost a lot of people over the years. Some, like Watcher Joe Dawson, would have been taken care of by father time, while we imagine there are a few of his friends who met violent ends. It’s good that this first issue doesn’t focus on his old friends, as it gives the reader a chance to absorb the new world and meet some of the new characters. As an opening gambit, it does a good job of laying the groundwork for a nest of new stories. Although, given that Duncan has now lived for 1,400 years and remembering the calibre of immortal that he’s killed in that time, it’s going to be hard to imbue fights with any kind of dramatic tension. It’ll be interesting to see how the writer deals with that.
The art style isn’t the greatest we’ve ever seen (we’ve taken a few points off for that and that there’s no reason for the ageless Duncan MacLeod to have grey hair; we can only guess that they’re trying to go for a Dark Knight Returns aesthetic), but frankly if you’re a Highlander fan, you’ve already taken the rough with the smooth on at least one occasion during the franchise’s 30 year lifespan. As it stands, the series has some potential and hopefully (if it becomes really good), it will have a lot of time to grow and develop. We can’t promise 400 years, but it might have a few years in it yet.
INFO: HIGHLANDER 3030 #1 / AUTHOR: LENNIT, MATT KELLY / ARTIST: DAN GOODFELLOW, JAYMES REED / PUBLISHER: EMERALD STAR COMICS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
