The anthology collection I bought doesn't mark when one issue ends and another begins, so I'm guessing on the issue number by counting pages.
Battle Chasers! Joe Madureira's creator-owned project, after he became a hot name with his manga-influenced art on X-Men titles. I was pretty much entirely unaware of it when it came out. The late-90s were a low point in my interest in comics, and forget about anything outside Marvel. The most I knew about it was Wizard did one of their "who would win?" between Red Monika and Lara Croft, with the punchline being Monika never shows up. The joke went right over my head.
Set in a medieval fantasy world, it revolves around Gully, daughter of the legendary warrior Aramus. As with most legends, Aramus is dead, and the magic gauntlets he used make their way to her. Which makes her a target. She ends up with a ragtag group of defenders: Calibretto, a war golem (basically a robot.) An old wizard named Knolan, and eventually Garrison, an old family friend who has to drag himself out of his drunken grief to pick up his sword again.
There's also Red Monika, a thief and old acquaintance of Garrison's, but her plot thread - involving a job breaking a pirate out of prison she was better off not taking - only just started to connect with everyone else's before the book went on a two decade hiatus. As I understand it, when it started again (briefly) in 2023, it was a whole new storyline. Which seems nuts to me, but they're Madureira's characters, he can play it how he wants.
Madureira and Sharrieff (I'm not sure who gets credit for what when it comes to writing) throw a lot of different threats and tease various future developments. Monika's employer was some sorcerer Knolan is acquainted with, who tends to speak in grand pronouncements and refers to himself in the 3rd person. Wears a metal mask and a cloak. Not-Dr. Doom is out for revenge on those that imprisoned him, and Knolan's the last one standing, though August (that's his name) doesn't seem in any hurry to tie off the loose end. A guy claiming to be Gully's half-brother shows up after the gloves. That doesn't go well for him (the gloves have a "hands off" policy for unapproved users) or for her, since it shatters her idyllic view of their father.
There's something about magic, or maybe the mana to power it, running dry, or getting wonky. Some of Knolan's spells don't work the way he intends. Garrison's sword has some weird power. The kingdom where most of the issues take place is ruled by a king who seems incredibly untrustworthy. Always with the ominous smiles, the manipulations, the shadows across his face making him look sketchy. Really feels like he ought to be stroking his goatee while making a scheming face.
That said, when Monika's heist results in a prison break and the city comes under attack from a bunch of weirdos with a grudge, the king does tell his army to avoid engaging and focus on rescuing wounded, rather than sacrifice them in a futile struggle. But maybe because he wanted a ragtag band of heroes to emerge? Or maybe he's just pretending he manipulated everything, I dunno.
Madureira's artwork is all exaggeration. Broad shoulders, big hands, big chests (especially Monika's.) When Gully's half-brother gets ahold of the gauntlets, he seems to swell in size (or Joe Mad just draws him taking up more of the panel), and his emotional control slips. He starts screaming and doing rictus grins so you can see at least 17 of his teeth (I counted.) The flashback to his last encounter with Aramus, his father and his knights are wearing these ridiculous suits of armor that look two sizes too big for them. Aramus' shoulder pads would be a sled for at least two kids, and the helmet has horns that surely meant he couldn't turn his head more than about two inches to either side. Completely impractical, but as a depiction of him as the terrifying force those he crushed no doubt saw him as, effective.
It's kind of interesting the gauntlets don't change size to fit the person wearing them. So you have this slip of a girl with gloves that make each of her hands look as big as her torso. I suppose it's an effect in contrast, similar to how Calibretto is a hulking mass of metal plates and glowing yellow eyes, with no particular face, but also a gentle sort who likes feeding birds and wants Gully to teach him how to make stones dance across water (i.e., skip stones, which was a cute scene.) Or Garrison, once he takes up the blade again, is neatly trimmed, authoritative, and decisive, but internally, the guy is still a mess. Prone to wrecking his room and overreacting to any sudden threat.
Other-dimensional spaces, cursed bracelets with imprisoned demons inside, prisons set on narrow rocky spires and patrolled by guards on flying manta rays. If Madureira could draw anything he could think of or wanted to, it had some potential. I got to the end of the anthology and was curious how things would resolve, but it's ultimately unrealized.
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