The problem is that pro wrestling, outside of Japan, has never done particularly well, in comics. It's pretty hard to convey the in-ring action and the writers involved usually aren't fans and miss the point of dramatic elements of the feud. As it is, they usually have lower eschelon creative talent on them, since they are licensed books, either rookies or the guys without a regular series, who will take on the work. AEW scattershot booking makes adapting an existing storyline trouble (not to mention the lead time of publishing a comic); so, they could, potentially, devise their own storylines.

The two best wrestling comics I ever saw were Jaime Hernandez's Whoa, Nellie!, which he spun off from his Locas stories, in Love & Rockets, from his final storyline with Maggie, which involved cousin Xochitl, a lady wrestler, and her partner, Gina Bravo. There was another character, a single mother, who ends up as a valet for a masked luchador, El Diablo Blanco. The other is the original Japanese manga, Tiger Mask, from Ikki Kajiwari, about orphan Naoto Date, who runs away from the orphanage and joins the Tiger Cave dojo to become a pro wrestler and becomes the vile heel Tiger Mask. He returns to Japan to wrestle and encounters a young orphan, after a brutal match, who says he wants to be a villain, like Tiger Mask. He is is uneasy about the declaration and learns the child is from the same orphanage, which is being run by two old friends. He goes to visit and sees them struggling to provide for the kids and turns over some of his winner's purse. he then turns on the Tiger Cave organization, who are supposed to get a portion of his winnings. He then faces a succession of heels and assassins sent by the Tiger Cave to destroy him or bring him back into the fold. it builds and builds, with more vicious opponents, until a climactic final match. Several real wrestlers were portrayed in the manga and the later anime series adaptation, including Giany Baba, Freddie Blassie, The Destroyer and a few others. The cartoon series adapted the story, including the violent matches. It would then spawn the live action version, first portrayed by wrestler Satoru Sayama, then a succession of wrestlers, as new Tiger Mask versions, as well as his enemy, Black Tiger (usually portrayed by non-Japanese wrestlers, starting with Marc "Rollerball" Rocco and including Eddie Guerrero).

Marvel produced a licensed WCW comic and Valiant did the short-lived WWF Battle Mania and neither was anything to write home about. There have been a few indie comics with lucha themes, including the recent (and unnecessarily violent) Do a Power Bomb, as well as comic books devoted to Ric Flair and the Rock N Roll Express. They both were pretty ridiculous, especially the Flair one, as it featured him as a secret agent, after the plane crash that, in real life, severely injured his back and nearly killed him.

Mexico had comics devoted to El Santo and other luchadors, but I have only seen a couple of samples of them. There was an indie comic, of about 3 issues, called Somnambulo, about an ex-luchador-turned private eye, with the mask. Kind of riffing on lucha movies. It was actually pretty good, though it featured little ring action and more mystery stories with the masked detective.

I would say codystarbuck really needs to revisit the Battlemania comic and see what he’s missing.









As for AEW, I do feel any comic stories should be non-canonical and not get too much concerned with what is happening in “real life”. I mean, just let Adam Copeland and Christian Cage go at in the woodlands of Ontario, or have Jon Moxley and Orange Cassidy fight it out in a restaurant - and we’ll all be happy, right?

The art had better be as good as this:

AI? Oh no!!!

I use the block button a lot for all the AI ads that “pollute” my Twitter timeline. I’m fed up with it. I’m fed up with seeing AI ‘art’. I’m fed up with reading articles where someone suggests AI could ‘write’ TV shows.

If AI could work out the right combination of drugs to treat a cancer patient, or develop the most economical route for a car to drive, I’m all for it, but, and it’s a hill I’ll die on, AI in entertainment doesn’t interest me in any way, shape or form. Someone on Twitter got excited about an AI image of Batman, but when I saw it, it just looked like someone had poorly copied Brian Bolland.

I don't think its AI, but its a manga-ish, cartoony style.

This page is better than the covers for sure.. (probably the best one I've seen)