Click here for a full list of this week’s new releases
Alexander Lucard
- Eternal Warriors: Days of Steel #3
- Swamp Thing #38
Mike “Skitch” Maillaro
- Sonic Boom #3 – Sonic Boom might seem like a strange one for me to talk about (especially as my headliner), but it is my daughter’s favorite comic. She has been bugging me each week since it came out, so it’s definitely the first book I will be reading this week. Though it’s more likely she’ll read it to me. That is what happened with issue 2. I actually sent Archie comics a letter last month thanking them for this comic. Anything that inspires kids to want to read more is a special comic to me.
- Ant-Man #1 – Cassie Lang is back! Even since THUNDER Agents I’ve been a fan of Nick Spencer, and I think he’s going to have a lot of cool ideas to bring to this series. He’s proven himself to be able to hang drama and comedy perfectly, so he should be a great fit here. I will probably be doing a review of this book later in the week.
- X-Men #23 – I have no idea how G. Willow Wilson will do on the X-Men title. But to be fair, X-Men (this series, not the line) has basically been rudderless since day one. And she has done terrific work on Ms Marvel. So I am definitely curious what this book will look like. I actually have no idea why I keep buying this book hoping it will get better…it still hasn’t. But GWW definitely gives me a lot of hope.
- Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 – Does Squirrel Girl need her own book? Probably not, but I do enjoy Marvel’s attempts to create a diverse and quirky line of comics. I think this will be very much in the vein of books like She-Hulk, Hawkeye, and Ms Marvel. I will pick up the first issue and give it a try.
- Amazing Spider-Man #12 & Spider-Man 2099 #7 – Spiderverse has been a great story. I have no idea how all these Spider-Men can win this battle, and that definitely keeps me coming back for more. It’s rare I feel a true sense of “anything can happen” but I really get that from each issue of Spiderverse.
- Green Arrow #38 – I know it is blasphemous, but I actually am enjoying the current run of Green Arrow more than Jeff Lemire’s run. Lemire made Arrow a little too complicated for me. Tribes devoted to weapons, a deep hidden meaning behind Ollie being stranded on the island. It was a good idea for a comic, but I don’t know if it ever really felt like Green Arrow to me. This current run gets a little back to basics. It’s more grounded in Ollie protecting Star City, and I like how they added Diggle and Felicity to the cast.
- Batman Eternal #40 – Batman Eternal continues to be the best weekly book DC puts out. That isn’t a knock on Future’s End or World’s End. I enjoy both books, but Batman Eternal is pretty much the first comic I read each and every week. It’s just a truly epic Batman story and all the characters are handled so well. The Batman line has needed a huge shakeup, and Batman Eternal is the centerpiece of that shakeup. Really highly recommended every week.
John Babos
My New Year’s resolution is to cut down on my weekly reads. That means I need to focus on books I love or am intrigued by. DC canceling a whole slew of books around Convergence helps with this goal as does Valiant reader-friendly rotation of ongoing titles, e.g. Ivar Time Walker replaces Archer and Armstrong for a few months, etc. So, less than 10 books this week. Hooray!
- Aquaman and the Others #9 – My only ongoing title set for cancellation in the 2015 DC implosion. I remain a huge fan of Dan Jurgens and have enjoyed this series.
- Detective Comics #38 – I’m getting TEC for this new Anarky arc. Interested in how the new creative team, who came over from the Flash, will handle Anarky. Will he be more like the pre-Flashpoint original or more like the demented version from the Beware the Batman animated series?
- Earth 2 #30 – Not sure how I feel about this book, post writer Tom Taylor, but I am loving Val Zod and the older Batman.
- Earth 2 World’s End #14 and New 52 Futures End #36 – Am curious how these two series converge into Convergence.
- Eternal Warrior: Days of Steel #3 – I love the new Valiant’s takes on the Brothers Anni-Padda. We’ve had a successful Archer and Armstrong ongoing series, two Eternal Warrior mini-series and an upcoming Ivar Time Walker ongoing series coming up from the A&A creative team; a good time to be a fan of Valiant’s immortal siblings.
- Green Arrow #38 – Green Lantern teams up with team Green Arrow from a creator of the CW’s TV series Arrow. What’s not to like?
- Justice League 3000 #13 – I did not expect to stick by this book after the first arc, but the appearance of Booster Gold and Blue Beetle of JLI 1980’s goodness has me intrigued and wondering (1) how this book dovetails into Convergence and (2) which Earth this series is set on.
Just DC and Valiant this week; sadly no Marvels or Image, but IDW has a book I’m picking up next week!
James Fulton
- Bucky Barnes: Winter Soldier #3 – Marco Rudy is one of the most exciting artists to draw mainstreamish super hero comics in years, and so far I’ve been blown away by his work in the first two issues of this series. I like Ales Kot’s story, and Bucky himself, just fine, but this is one of the few books I buy primarily for the art. It’s stunning.
- Trees #8 – Warren Ellis’s series looks like it’s going on a hiatus after this issue, and I really hope the book comes back soon (I’m still waiting for more Doktor Sleepless). This series is one of the best science fiction comics I’ve ever read, mainly because it focuses on how society would be changed by an alien visitation, with that visitation being very non-invasive, aside from a bunch of structures being left everywhere. The book is pretty fascinating.
- Deadly Class #10 – This is Rick Remender’s best series. It can be easily explained as Harry Potter for assassins, set under 1980s San Francisco, but that really doesn’t do it justice. His characters are pretty complex, and Wes Craig’s art is pretty amazing.
- The Woods #9 – It’s pretty easy to compare James Tynion IV and Michael Dialynas’s series to the TV show Lost, at least over the course of the first season. A school has been transported to a strange world, where one of the students has been given odd abilities, and where one teacher has become a little extreme in his way of handling things. Great character work and great art, and hopefully, the kind of plotting that won’t allow this to turn into later seasons of Lost.
- X-Men #23 – Like Mike, I’m hopeful that G. Willow Wilson can do something to make this title work. I’ve been following her work since her amazing Vertigo book Air, and am confident that she can make this more than another superfluous X-book.
Joe Smith
- Magnus: Robot Fighter #10 – One of my favorite titles edges towards its conclusion.
- Action Comics #38 – It’s in my file so I’m obligated to pick it up. I’m enjoying it overall. It’s not knocking my socks off, but it doesn’t have to either. There have been some bad Superman stories in recent years and it’s nice to sit back and read Superman without getting pissed off at the quality or direction.
- The Woods #9 – Without a doubt the book that I’m most looking forward to this week. This book is firing on every cylinder for me right now. This with a couple other titles has started to replenish the lack of Boom! titles on my reading list.
Grey Scherl
- Batman Eternal #40
- Earth 2 #30
- Earth 2: World’s End #14
- Justice League 3000 #13
- New 52 Future’s End #36
- Amazing Spider-Man #12
- Ant-Man #1
- Spider-Man 2099 #7
- Wolverines #1
- Nailbiter #9
- Maxx Maxximized #15
- Crossed: Badlands #69
- Escape from New York #2
- Magnus: Robot Fighter #10
Man, my first issue of Nailbiter as a monthly read! For this who don’t know, which is probably all of you, I didn’t discover the book until last week when I became fully addicted after scoping the first eight issues out in a Comixology sale.
Ant-Man by Nick Spencer for FIVE DOLLARS. Why in the blue hell is such a tiny character getting super event pricing?
I feel like I’m just buying Earth 2 and World’s End at this point for the sake of completion. World’s End has been a mess of Countdown proportions with no direction to be found anywhere, and Earth 2 just hasn’t been the same since Tom Taylor left…in that it’s as directionless as the weekly.
Future’s End doesn’t have that problem. While yes, some times the book gets jumpy, it’s consistently one of my favorite reads every week. It’s almost as good as Batman Eternal.
Amazing Spidey and Spidey 2099? SPIDERVERSE! Best event in years!
Magnus: Robot Fighter remains my favorite book on the market, it’s over at twelve, do NOT use that as a reason to not read it! IT’s FANTASTIC!
Marvel finally joins DC with a weekly book, but in the Mighty Marvel Manner, they made it four bucks an issue. Any takers on how many issues I last?
