Random Thoughts On... Dynamite's Highlander Series

Outside of the movies and TV series, there isn’t much Highlander tie-in material out there. There are a couple of novels, some comic books, and a couple of video games (mostly cancelled ones), but that’s it. The creators have a tight leash on that property, don’t they? I can’t blame them, though. After all, it hasn’t been all good for the Highlander franchise. There's Highlander 2: the Quickening and other things to consider.

Around 2006, Dynamite Entertainment got the license to produce some Highlander comics. It was the 20^th anniversary of the first movie and there was another movie (Highlander: The Source) in production. Dynamite had a main series and a couple of mini-series but I’m just looking at the main series. I did hear about this comic series some time ago. I even saw the covers for some issues, but I wasn’t that interested in checking them out. It was Highlander Re-Watched that “reignited the Quickening “within me. There was also the fact that the trades were pretty cheap. You can barely turn away something that’s potentially interesting and cheap.

The series lasted 13 issues (#0-#12) and lasted from 2006 to 2007. Since we have another MacLeod showing up with Connor, this takes place in the universe of the TV series. Continuity can get a little confusing with this franchise. Writer Brandon Jerwa wrote it all and Michael Avon Oeming was along for the first arc. They worked closely with David Abramowitz, the creative consultant from the series and the movies. The artwork varied with each storyline.  “The Coldest War” was done by Lee Moder. “New Year’s Eve,” a single issue, was done by Kevin Sharpe. Fabio Laguna handled the third storyline,”Dark Quickening.” The final arc, “Armageddon,” had artwork done by Carlos Rafael.

Random Thoughts On... The Highlander Franchise

“From the dawn of time we came…moving silently down through the centuries. Living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of the Gathering, when the few who remain will battle to the last. No one has ever known we were among you…..until now.”

This monologue from Sean Connery started off a franchise that was popular in its time: Highlander. Whether it was a good franchise is a matter of debate, though. A few months ago, I started to wonder if there was a podcast about the Highlander series out there. By the way, thank From Crisis To Crisis: A Superman Podcast for that. Every April Fool’s Day, they do a parody review of something else instead of a Superman comic book. This year, it was an episode from the Highlander TV show. It took some searching, but I found one by the name of Highlander Re-Watched. Since then, I’ve been catching up on all of their episodes about the series and movies.

For those who probably don’t know, Highlander was a 1986 movie about Connor MacLeod, a 16^th century Scotsman born in the Highlands. He belongs to a race of Immortals who battle each other throughout time. When the battle is over, the loser gets beheaded and the winner gains their strength and essence through the Quickening. When the last Immortal on Earth is left, he or she will earn “The Prize,” something that is kind of vague.

The movie was pretty much a standalone, done-in-one thing since Connor wins the prize. Then, four movie sequels, two live-action TV shows, an animated TV show, an anime,  a few comic series, and a few (some cancelled) video games came. Since I’ve been a sword-faring mood (Renaissance Festival and Witcher 3 play), I thought I’d finally share my thoughts on the franchise as a whole.