Like so many things that AEW does right now, the AEW Origins comic doesn’t make much sense.
What seems to be a one-shot comic is written by veteran Steve Orlando who has had short runs for everyone from DC to Marvel to Dynamite, the imprint not the show. His most notable runs being Justice League of America Vol. 5, Supergirl Vol. 7 and Midnighter.
AEW Origins is another short project for him this time with artists Edwin Galmon, Laura Braga, Leonardo Rodrigues, Serg Acuña and Pop Mhan.
The comic was distributed for free in comic book stores the week of October 14th, and stores could order additional copies in bundles of 25 for $7.50. The comic was only available in limited quantities at signings with the AEW superstars at the DC booth at San Diego Comic-Con 2024.
AEW Origins is exactly what it sounds like. It is the short origin stories of AEW talent Swerve Strickland, Toni Storm, Will Ospreay, Britt Baker, Orange Cassidy and Darby Allin. All told, it is 21 pages long.
The origins themselves range from total kayfabe to weaving real life with squared circle fiction and are only a few pages each.
In Strickland’s story, he does join the military as he did in real life but then there is a plot-point about “his sergeant wanted off-the-book mercenaries not soldiers” like he was in the A-Team or something.
Ospreay was apparently “mentored by the world’s greatest thieves, brawlers, philosophers and assassins” like his Assassin’s Creed video game brethren.
I kid you not, Orange Cassidy trips over a backpack laying near some railroad tracks with the “perfect pair of shades inside.”
Darby Allin, Toni Storm and Britt Baker’s stories reflect reality more than the others and the art varies with five artists on the book. It is not clear why the book needed that many artists when one could have handled such a project easily.
What also boggles the mind is what purpose does this book serve? Who was it made for? If it was an introduction to a regular series featuring these stars that would make sense but it appears to be a throwaway one-shot. Regular comic book collectors, whose numbers have shrunk along with the number of comic book stores in the last 20 years, probably wouldn’t be interested in grabbing a copy as there isn’t enough story to satisfy them and the comic doesn’t have much collectible value.
The only thing I can think of is its just a way of Warner Bros. Discovery promoting AEW using its DC Comics division. If so, why not publish a full mini-series with cool art and continuing stories like Boom Studios did with the WWE from 2017 to 2019? Also, why hasn’t AEW itself promoted the comic to better its chances of finding and establishing an audience? The comic could also be included with its action figures which used to be a big thing back in the day with Marvel and DC.
Once again, it is like the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing in AEW. There are bits and pieces all over the place but nobody is bringing them all together in a cohesive way.
The only audience AEW Origins has are those wrestling fans interested in odd collectibles like the Daniel Bryan Beard Hat, the Punjabi Prison Playset or an unopened box of Booty-O’s.
An AEW comic book series or a graphic novel could have been an opportunity to capitalize on another medium and the AEW brand. Instead, we have another half-baked idea that doesn’t get off the ground properly in the first place never mind sticking the landing.
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AEW Origins Summary
It could have been something so much more. Instead we get just a bunch of short stories that don’t build to anything of any significance at all.