Jack Kraken (One Shot)

Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: May 14, 2014

A collection of short complete stories featuring the same central character, Jack Kraken. So named, it seems, due to his “calamari” sinewy limbs. He describes himself as an “extranormal” agent of the group Humanoid Interaction Management or H.I.M. He gets to wear a special suit with things like a jetpack built in. He has special nerve endings that basically give him some limited pre-cognitive reaction abilities, too. He also wears a masked helmet that hides his true identity, for some reasons that become obvious by the end of this publication…

[THAT ELLIPSIS MEANS THERE'S SPOILERS AHEAD.]

This reintroduction release features the following three stories:

Race Relations - The introductory story has Jack fighting some “greys,” the politically-correct term for ghosts, in an attempt to locate some demon princess girl. The story allows for showing what Jack's abilities are, what his suit can do and what his relationship to H.I.M. is like. He's in constant radio contact with Charlie, the smart, young woman back at HQ who can update things in his suit on the fly like languages and monster references. He fights non-lethally through the greys, then with a large “titan” but ultimately to the same effect. On the way, he also discovers a couple of runaway girls so, after rescuing the princess, he brings them all back to HQ.

The Ballad of Liadain Orlaith - The longest story of the three, here he's tracking a “banshee” with her name in this title. She's just been released from prison after 1600 years so Kraken relates her story: Once, there'd been a race of nocturnes calling themselves “Night People.” They spoke in screams and moved like a blur. After a plague decimates their males, though, they make a pact with the regular humans to protect them in exchange for some reproductive services. This arrangement benefits everyone until the day a missionary appears and convinces them that all the Night People need to be killed for being abominations. Liadain Orlaith is the only survivor to this horror and, in revenge, takes to killing human babies. She's finally captured by a retiring monster hunter named Macabre and imprisoned. Kraken has tracked her at night to the newborn ward in an Irish hospital and confronts her. She reaches for something in her pocket and he knocks her out, finding that she was just going for an explanatory scroll instead of a weapon. Kraken finds that she and Macabre were actually lovers and he eventually turned her in out of guilt to his profession. But before she was shipped off she had a child and, since then, the bloodline has remained, growing weaker over the years but still unmistakable. So she was just wanting to visit her last living relative, much to Kraken's relief.

Who Is Jack Kraken? - The final story here has Kraken on special duty in Africa. It opens with him and a local officer, Mutata, talking about the African version of an American movie poster about a hitman/babysitter. The star of the film is known, Mutata says, for his arrogant and ignorant comments about what it means to be black and how they should be “more white” if they want to succeed. The men then move out, investigating the zebra-like man found dead on a farm. Turns out, the farmer was poisoning the animal food in order to deal with predators and this creature ate it. Kraken says something about the man being painted like a zebra but the farmer know that's not paint. So Kraken heads out to a nearby field to talk to Charlie and get the local languages installed into his helmet. But he's shortly set upon by another creature like the dead one, who claims Kraken is responsible for her mate's death. During the fight, it turns out that H.I.M. set these people up with a reservation close by but they have no respect for other's rights. But, as the female says before going unconscious, “my people do not know of 'property'...but I do know you have stolen this right from us.” Kraken heads back to town in silence so Mutata tries to cheer him up by giving him that silly movie poster. And it's revealed at the end that Kraken is that very Hollywood star they spoke of earlier, one Eric Townsend…

A fun take on superheroes, fighting in the paranormal realm and having their own secrets to contend with, Tim Seeley's original creation is very entertaining. He also handles some of the artwork duties, with Ross Campbell and Jim Terry pitching in respectively as well. Here's to hoping this gets picked up as a regular Dark Horse title.