The most promising thing about Netflix’s live-action Cowboy Bebop was the potential to translate the frantic, harried, yet undeniably cool energy of Shinichiro Watanabe’s original anime series into live action, depicting Spike, Faye, and Jet as real and vital people. Though Netflix’s show was ultimately a disappointment on that front, Titan is banking on its upcoming comics series from writer Dan Watters and artist Lamar Mathurin to deliver more energy to fans. From the looks of the new book, Titan might just may have done it.
Titan’s new four issue comic was inspired by the Netflix series, and offers a series of Spike-centric stories meant to give you a sense of what made him one of the most legendary bounty hunters in the galaxy. Though Titan’s tight-lipped about details of the plot, a series of new interior images from the first issue showcases Mathurin’s vibrant, kinetic approach to illustrating Cowboy Bebop’s characters and the rustry, retrofuturistic world they live in. Even just a handful of interior shots and variant covers by Stanley ‘Artgerm’ Lau, Claudia Ianniciello, Afu Chan, Yishan Li, and Yoshi Yoshitani convey that Titan’s Cowboy Bebop might actually pop in a way that Netflix’s series never managed to achieve.
