Boy, Image sure is upping it’s game for 2014. Here’s another new ongoing just announced for a debut next year: “The Mercenary Sea” from Kel Symons and Matthew Reynolds. At first glance I was expecting another pirate story, but “The Mercenary Sea” seems to be a very different, much more interesting beast. The story is instead set in 1938 and follows a group of mercenaries and treasure hunters that sail in the South Seas.
This seems like a chance to take a pulp-y Indiana Jones (or even Uncharted) type story and go really interesting places with it. Symons and Reynolds do cite Howard Hawks’ films as a big inspiration for the series which should give an idea of the tone they’re shooting for with the story. This looks to take the idea of a band-of-brothers outlaw story that would usually been set on a spaceship thanks to Cowboy Bebop or Firefly and brings it back down to Earth.
This is definitely a series to look out for and is set to launch February 12, 2014 so be sure to mark your calenders. Do people still have calendars? Either way, you might also want to check out the Image press release down below for even more information on the series.
Image Press Release
Action and adventure await aboard The Venture! Set in 1938, Kel Symons (I LOVE TROUBLE) and Mathew Reynolds’ (Marlow) new series THE MERCENARY SEA stars ex-bootlegger Captain Jack Harper and his crew of expats, mercenaries, and treasure hunters. They sail the South Seas at an uneasy time for the world, right when Japan has invaded China and War in Europe looks unavoidable.
The Venture’s crew is a unique group of characters all with checkered pasts. “There’s definitely some conflict—perhaps mostly between Jack and Wulf, the venerable German sub captain who serves as his first officer,” said Symons. “But they’re more or less a tight extended family. They’re not pirates or ruffians—they’re mercenaries, obviously out for a paycheck, but they have a strong moral compass guiding them.”
Inspiration for THE MERCENARY SEA came from various pop culture influences that Symons and Reynolds felt passionately about. “One of our guideposts for THE MERCENARY SEA was that we wanted to do a comic that was essentially like a lost Howard Hawks movie. A lot of Hawks’ films deal with desperate men in far-flung places, away from any support or help, where they’re forced to rely on themselves or fail: Only Angels Have Wings, The Thing from Another World, Rio Bravo, To Have and Have Not,” said Symons. “Howard Hawks was our spirit animal on this one.”
Battling pirates, headhunters, spies, and soldiers, the crew is always one step away from the greatest score of their lives. But it might not be that way for long…
THE MERCENARY SEA #1 is the first in a new ongoing action/adventure series which will be available in stores on February 12, 2014 for $2.99. Pre-orders can be placed using Diamond Code DEC130492.
