Matt Graham
- Dejah Thoris #2 and Green Hornet #1 – Poison Ivy and Red Sonja secured my interest in Amy Chu’s writing, and her portfolio grows every time I look at a new book announcement. Lion Forge Comics launched their Catalyst Prime universe and Chu launched Summit, which follows an astronaut gifted fusion powers, and now she’s in charge of the next Green Hornet volume, which sees Kato’s daughter Mulan step into the role.
Before some corners of the comic shop rage about diversity initiatives, know that Chu asked for Green Hornet so that she could diversify into a male hero, and Dynamite, publisher of pin up queens that it is, wanted this take. A few years ago Chu even said this about writing what you know: ” I don’t know that you write what you know, I definitely try to write what I don’t know. I feel that writing is about discovery and exploration, and maybe that’s why I like to write? I don’t want to write about myself, I have no interest in myself. I want to write about other people and things I don’t know. ”
And back on the book she knew would be in Dynamite’s signature heroine track, Dejah Thoris is a prequel to the John Carter Martian Chronicles, with a young Princess Dejah looking to quell long held hostilities and raid a few Martian tombs in the process.
The cool thing about Chu’s scripts is that while she has the MIT degree and Harvard Business background at her command, her stories feel like anything but relying a comfort zone. She’s covered a variety of characters, genres, and themes, with a talent for depth in dialogue and a crisp comic book pace that offers new details on rereading. It doesn’t hurt that her publishers find some of the best artists for her scripts, always nailing the framing and body language to help her dialogue and text boxes flow.
- Extremity #12 – Daniel Warren Johnson drafted this story for years, but he could never get it to feel right for himself. His wife suggested that since his biggest fear as a creator is losing his dominant hand, to put that fear into the story. It was the missing piece he needed to fuel Thea and her world.
Thea is an artist who loses her dominant hand and her mother when a rival clan raids her village. Extremity is the tale of how she becomes the warrior to end the conflict, one way or another. It is a story of violence, monsters, machines, prophecy, and self-realization. Every disembowelment and creature is rendered in savage fury. Every emotion is conveyed with some of the finest body langauge and facial expressions I’ve ever seen in comics. Every panel read like it was animated when I was lost in every issue, with it’s stellar storyboarding and finalized panel to panel flow.
No line is wasted, on art or script.
This is an extra-sized final issue, written and illustrated to completion by Johnson, with colors by Mike Spicer. It dished out twelve issues in twelve months, even with a minor delay.
- Hawkeye #16 and Rogue and Gambit #3 – Kelly Thompson is another writer that’s hooked me, even after a rocky start to Hawkeye for my money. I stuck with it and am glad I did, because it was one of the few books Marvel put out that wasn’t X-Men related I stayed with thanks to the strength of its writing and art. This is the final issue of Hawkeye, but Kelly Thompson is keeping me sated with the excellent Rogue and Gambit miniseries, which has me wanting her on an X-Men title when all this “fresh start” dust is settled. She has a penchant for concise dialogue that conveys character, bombastic action sequences, and, at least in all the things I’ve read, not just a knowledge of what she’s doing, but a passion for the characters or franchise.
Hawkeye is over, but keep an eye out for her name on other books. I think she’s one of the best things to happen to Marvel in recent years.
- She-Hulk #163 – Final issue of this book, and then we’ll check out if Avengers even considered this run in her new role on that book. This series took too long to gain momentum, and it didn’t help that the second arc mirrored the first in terms of conflict and theme. Once it got going, I enjoyed it for what it was doing, but I understand why it had mixed reception.
- X-Men Gold #23
- X-Men Red #2
James Fulton
There are some exciting first issues coming out this week!
- Ballad of Sang #1 – I haven’t disliked a single independent comic I’ve read by Ed Brisson, so I’m going to give his new child assassin series a shot. It’s been a while since I’ve read any Oni Press comics – I kind of miss them.
- Gideon Falls #1 – I’m a huge Jeff Lemire fan, and I loved his Green Arrow run with Andrea Sorrentino. I’m not too sure what Gideon Falls is about, but it pairs these two up again, so I’m curious.
- Oblivion Song #1 – After loving The Walking Dead, Invincible, and now Outcast for as long as I’ve been reading them, I’m more than up for a new Robert Kirkman title to replace Invincible. I’m looking forward to this.
- Prism Stalker #1 – This title doesn’t have the profile of the two above, but Sloane Leong is an exciting writer/artist, and the preview to this new science fiction ongoing looked interesting, so I’m down for it.
I’m also excited to see new issues of the sporadic East of West and The Fix. I’m also looking forward to reading Deathstroke and Justice League (two Priest books in a week is a good week), Walking Dead, Wicked + The Divine, Iceman (sorry to see this going), Rise of the Black Panther, Spider-Man, and X-Men Red.
Mike Maillaro
- GIDEON FALLS #1 – I will admit, I don’t know much about this book beyond it’s by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino. I loved their work on OLD MAN LOGAN, so I am picking up this one pretty much without knowing anything else about it…actually there is a lot of that going on this week….
- OBLIVION SONG #1 – Just a few weeks ago, Robert Kirkman wrapped up INVINCIBLE, and OBLIVION SONG is his newest title from Image, so I immediately added it to my pull list. The solicit for this one told us “A decade ago, 300,000 citizens of Philadelphia were suddenly lost in Oblivion. The government made every attempt to recover them, but after many years, they gave up. Nathan Cole…won’t. He makes daily trips, risking his life to try and rescue those still living in the apocalyptic hellscape of Oblivion. But maybe…Nathan is looking for something else? Why can’t he resist the siren call of the Oblivion Song?” Hmm….300K missing Philadelphians…you know what I call that? A good start!!
- X-MEN RED #2 – I loved the first issue of X-MEN RED. The setup of trying to build a truly progressive superhero team, and then watching it all get torn to shreds was just an inspired piece of comic writing. I have been reading X-Men books pretty much as long as I’ve been reading comics, and right now I am enjoying these books more than I have in a long time. X-MEN RED is a great addition to the line.
- INFINITY COUNTDOWN #1 – While this is a huge shift away from the INFINITY GAUNTLET stories I loved back in the day, I do think Marvel has managed to put a real fresh spin on the Infinity stones coming out of SECRET WARS “new Marvel universe.” If nothing else, we are getting a story that manages to tap into several different unexpected characters. I was a bit skeptical about another INFINITY event, but so far, I am really enjoying this one.
- BATMAN #42 – Last issue, we saw Poison Ivy kick things up to a whole new level with her basically taking over the world. It was kind of cool to see Poison Ivy really taking things to the extreme, though I will admit I kind of like Ivy more when she’s more of an anti-hero than outright villain. But it’s still nice to see one of Batman’s villains actually be in a position to be taken more seriously.
- Monstro Mechanica #4
- Jughead The Hunger #4
- Bane Conquest #10 (Of 12),
- Batman White Knight #6 (Of 8)
- Exit Stage Left The Snagglepuss Chronicles #3 (Of 6)
- Green Arrow #38
- Green Lanterns #42
- Harley And Ivy Meet Betty And Veronica #6 (Of 6)
- Jetsons #5 (Of 6)
- Justice League #40
- Nightwing #40
- Superman #42
- Librarians #4 (Of 4)
- Star Trek Boldly Go #17
- Fix #11
- I Hate Fairyland #17
- Amazing Spider-Man #797
- Avengers #683
- Captain America #699
- Doctor Strange Damnation #2 (Of 4)
- Rogue And Gambit #3 (Of 5)
- She-Hulk #163
- Spider-Man #238
- Star Wars #44
- Venom #163
- X-Men Gold #23
- Bloodshot Salvation #7
John Babos
9 books this week.
- Amazing Spider-Man #797
- Black Lightning Cold Dead Hands #5
- Bloodshot Salvation #7
- Deathstroke #29
- Green Arrow #38
- Justice League #40
- Monstro Mechanica #4
- Nightwing #40
- X-Men Red #2
