I recently stumbled across a comic that was published back in the 90s, published by the then early Image Comics when famous comic artist Jim Lee was still working under it. This series surprised me quite a lot, and it has been incredibly different to anything else I've read throughout my recent dive into the realm of comics. It had that blatant 90s appeal to it, the emphasis on figure in the female characters, the fun side of fantasy worlds that had barely been explored through the growth of entertainment media. Though I was surprised to discover about halfway through the comic that its creator had effectively abandoned the series despite Image Comics continuing to support its creation. The reason being that its creator decided to simply leave the world of comics and take up a career in video game development. Despite its popularity, Battle Chasers became a comic that never saw a conclusion. A comic that constantly ran into development problems as even in its infancy its creator struggled to get volumes out at a reasonable pace. Months between volumes releasing soon became years, so many years that nothing came out for twenty years. Until, I guess, its creator decided they had their own IP they could yet again milk by Kickstarting a videogame of the franchise and slapping together two new volumes that released in 2023. Image yet again supporting the release.
I'm not sure how I feel about this history regarding the comic. Its creator claiming that there will be more volumes to yet again continue the story, but that they'll be releasing when he believes they're ready. Taking a glance over the history of this comic, it seems as if that next release is just highly unlikely, destined to be placed into a drawer somewhere and collect dust until I guess the creator wants to make some quick cash again. That is to say that the 2023 volumes only exist because the creator wanted to make a game. Without it, this would've died twenty years ago. I can't say I support the practices here, it seems a bit poor to create a series that gains paying supporters and then leave them hanging for literal decades, only to dig it up when convenient. I didn't know any of this prior to jumping into the comic, and had I known, I likely would not have bothered. Because this is a comic that has no end. It has no conclusion and seemingly no clear direction despite twelve total volumes being in existence. So, despite this being a review, I'd say it's best to simply not bother reading this, put your time and efforts into some indie comics that have creators genuinely interested in telling their stories from start to finish. I wanted to get this little segment out of the way though, just to inform anyone that may stumble across this that it does have a troubled past, and with how the comic book industry is these days, there are creations worthy of more attention.
This comic has a clear eastern influence to it in its art, but it's also heavily evident that it's of its time. It reminded me a lot of that late 90s, early 2000s era of video game character creation where anatomy was more shape oriented, more block-y. It was a lot of fun to see such a unique style within the world of comics, especially after reading through so many modern books that have take to more digital styles and have a set, almost industry standard approach to the world of comics. Indie comics do tend to be where some of that creativity remains in style. Though I've never read anything that looked quite like this. In a way it didn't really feel like a comic, I couldn't help but think of those PlayStation One days and the art that I'd find within video game magazines. All the promotional material for them. I can see why the creator had that interest in the industry and wanted to pursue it. Very much in-line with that direction. So the character designs are really cool in Battle Chasers. Huge, exaggerated armour types mixed with the fun of fantasy monsters as people transform into warewolves. Short old men that are actually great wizards with arched spines. Again a very clear 90s anime look to it. This is also met with really dark tones. Much of the comic taking place at night or in dimly-lit environments. Really setting that dark fantasy tone. In that sense it really works, there's some great world building through the art that I really loved in the older volumes. The two modern ones taking the digital approach, still very cool to see, and it worked with the world very well.
The story is a bit all over the place despite being twelve volumes in. A young girl suddenly attacked in the night by people claiming to be someone else, looking for her missing father. Her father supposedly the strongest warrior of the realm. The invaders killing the housekeeper and leading to the child fleeing into the night with a box that was given to her, sealed in magic. Stumbling across others in the night, a gigantic robot and an old wizard. The seal on the box removed revealing magic gloves that make the wearer incredibly powerful. Everyone seems to want these gloves, and this leads to a series of political events that have different factions aware of their importance and wanting to get them under their control. The only people she can trust being the robot and the old man. Not even the King can be trusted, with clear agendas coming into play that aim to separate the child from the gloves. A thief called Red Monika making situations worse by accidentally releasing a series of criminals into freedom that makes the realm even more dangerous. Evil now roaming and invading various towns and cities. It's a bit all over the place in this sense. With little character development given to most of its cast. Red Monika barely given any context; a thief and that's about it. Garrison, a Knight, that is troubled by the loss of his former love. The child potentially having a brother that despises their father and claims he's evil, seemingly manipulating her into believing everyone wants the gloves.
This pushes the story into a territory that sees our protagonist doubting those around her, incapable of knowing who to trust, though it also looks as if she's being fooled into acting this way as to cause disruption. There's a few volumes that go into the action a bit more, we see how powerful the gloves really are. But within twelve volumes that's about it. It's immersive and interesting, but ends just as things seem to be picking up in the story, the rest of the volumes being an introduction to the world and setting the characters up. Given it took a video game Kickstarter for us to get 2 new volumes over 20 years, I don't think it's going to have an ending anytime soon. Or even another volume. It's really well drawn, with really cool art and character designs. A real sign of its era. But the passion from its creator clearly isn't there anymore. A story that starts off great, really unique in its story, but stops just as it gets really good.
