If you’re a fan of Arthurian lore, you’ll probably love Once & Future. Even if you don’t know anything about Arthurian lore, you’ll probably enjoy it. Once & Future is a new comic miniseries from BOOM! Studios. The comic is written by Kieron Gillen with illustrations by Dan Mora, color by Tamra Bonvillain, and letters by Ed Dukeshire. I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of the first issue at BOOM!’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, and I devoured it.
There are some really cool beats in this issue. We start off with what is clearly an evil organization looking at a scabbard. Who wants a scabbard? Then, we cut to an old folks home and we are introduced to a tough grandmother named Bridgette who steals her grandson Duncan away from his date that isn’t going spectacular. Personally, I really related to the date portion and I hope we see more of Rose in the future.
Now, we start getting to the meat of things. Bridgette starts explaining things to Duncan such as the fact that she used to hunt vampires. A magical beast then shows up to scare Duncan who is new to all of this supernatural stuff and we see that Bridgette has an underground hidden armory. Of course, I was a little surprised to see when Bridgette basically has to take Duncan hostage in order to get help. Granted, I don’t know that I could blame Duncan for his reaction as I probably would’ve done something similar. It is during this final hostage situation that we learn that the true power of Excalibur was in the scabbard (the one we saw earlier) and we learn that it’s possible that the return of King Arthur could be the cause of doom.
I am no expert in Arthurian lore. In fact, my knowledge is pretty routine stuff that anyone who watches movies and TV shows would know. However, this story is amazing. I love this idea that Arthur may not be the savior many think. I am intrigued by this idea of the scabbard, not the sword having the power. I want to see Duncan’s growth in this world that has been kept secret from him for so long. Gillen has done a wonderful job of creating a story hook for all readers. You can grab a copy of the first issue of Once & Future from your favorite comic book location now.