MAJOR PUBLISHERS
MARVEL COMICS
Week 3 in "Blood Hunt"
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: BLOOD HUNT #1 (OF 3) by Justina Ireland and Marcelo Ferreira:
"Blood Hunt" will leave Amazing Spider-Man proper alone now, with Spidey's participation moving to this three-issue miniseries. The premise is that Morbius is somehow important to battling the vampire uprising, and the webspinner has to find and recruit him. Spidey's allies in his mission are The Lizard (How does that work?) and Misty Knight.
“Getting to write Morbius, The Living Vampire, has been a lot of fun,” Ireland shared. “He’s always been a delightful foil to Spider-Man and other heroes of the Marvel Universe, and I hope I can capture the determination to change one’s fate that I’ve always loved about the character. Well, that and the brooding.”
“I was really excited when my editor invited me to be a part of the Blood Hunt crossover by means of penciling the AMAZING SPIDER-MAN tie-in limited series!” Ferreira added. “It is double special for me, because it is a return to two characters that I've drawn before and that have a special place in my heart: Spidey and MORBIUS! Or maybe I can say triple special, because it also involves vampires. I think my art perfectly matches these darker themes.”
This week in "Fall of X"
X-MEN: FOREVER #4 (OF 4) by Kieron Gillen and Luca Maresca: That's Jean Grey on cover B below, but cover A features Hope Summers, who is the star of this issue. You can't tell your X-redheads without a scorecard!
This week in X-Men (non-Fall of X edition):
- MS. MARVEL: MUTANT MENACE #3
- WEAPON X-MEN #4
- WOLVERINE: MADRIPOOR KNIGHTS #4
This week in 20th Century Studios:
- ALIEN: BLACK AND WHITE AND BLOOD #4
- ALIENS: WHAT IF #3
- PLANET OF THE APES ADVENTURES EPIC COLLECTION VOL 1: THE ORIGINAL MARVEL YEARS TP
This week in Star Wars:
- STAR WARS: MACE WINDU #4
This week in Ultimates:
- ULTIMATE X-MEN #3
Elsewhere at Marvel:
DOOM #1 (ONE-SHOT) by Jonathan Hickman and Sanford Greene:
Taking place in the "near future," Doom teams up with Valeria Richards to stop Galactus from destroying the universe. Five will get you ten that Doom becomes Galactus, but this is Hickman, so maybe he'll surprise me.
“Growing up reading Marvel comics, I became fascinated by Doctor Doom and how he potentially is the center of the entire Marvel Universe!” Greene shared. “He is one of my bucket list characters and this story is somewhat a love letter to Doom and Marvel.”
"Sanford and I have been waiting to work together for quite a while, so when he told me that he’d come up with an amazing Doom story and he wanted me to help out, I jumped at the chance,” Hickman added. “It’s a giant-sized story about a giant-sized character and I can’t tell you how excited I am to get to write Doom again."
“Jonathan is a longtime friend and he always amazes me with his vast knowledge of all types of things, especially the Marvel universe,” Greene continued. “I couldn't think of anyone better to collaborate with.”
VENOM: SEPARATION ANXIETY #1 (OF 5) by David Michelinie and Gerardo Sandoval: Set in Venom's early days, Marvel calls this a "retro" series, possibly because of the presence of veteran Marvel scribe Michelinie, or maybe because Venom is still eating brains. Anyway, Venom battles the Purple Man, of all people.
Cover A is a Web of Spider-Man #1 (by Charles Vess) homage, and cover B a Spider-Man #1 (by Todd McFarlane) homage.
"I'm always delighted to write a new Venom story in a retro background,” Michelinie shared. “With ‘Separation Anxiety’ as the required theme, the problem became how to do something that's already been done—have Eddie Brock separated from his symbiote ‘other.’ So I thought, what if there was a deeply creepy villain with a decidedly bloodthirsty agenda who was able to take bits of Eddie's symbiote away every time the two touched, with that enemy slowly growing stronger as Venom slowly grew weaker? And that was the nugget that became 'The King In Purple.’"
Elsewhere in Spider-Man:
- AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #256 FACSIMILE EDITION
- AMAZING SPIDER-MAN EPIC COLLECTION: ASSASSIN NATION TP
- CARNAGE #7
- MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN #20: Adventures in babysitting.
- WHAT IF: VENOM #4: What if Venom was Loki?
DC COMICS
This week in “House of Brainiac”:
ACTION COMICS #1065 by Joshua Williamson and Rafa Sandoval: "House of Brainiac" Part Three features Superman and Lobo fighting Brainiac's Lobo army, and Supergirl and Conner Kent fighting Brainiac himself. I still get my Superboys mixed up. Wasn't there a super boy living with the Kents for a while who ended up in the Phantom Zone?
GREEN LANTERN #11 by Jeremy Adams and Xermanico: DC doesn't call this "House of Brainiac" Part Four, but just a "tie-in." The description has to do with Hal Jordan, Carol Ferris and Guy Gardner pursuing their various agendas.
Also, when I retire I'm going to change my name to Xermanico, because it's cool.
Elsewhere in Superman:
- ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN BY GEORGE PEREZ HC
- SUPERMAN VOL 2: THE CHAINED TP
This week in Batman:
- BATMAN AND ROBIN #9
- BATMAN AND ROBIN AND HOWARD #3 (OF 4)
- BATMAN/DYLAN DOG #3 (OF 3)
- POISON IVY VOL 1: THE VIRTUOUS CYCLE TP
- RED HOOD: THE HILL #4 (OF 6)
Elsewhere at DC:
OUTSIDERS #7
I think this is an homage to Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, which may itself be an homage to the Pieta.
IMAGE COMICS
DARK RIDE #12 by Joshua Williamson and Andrei Bressan: Series finale!
"Thank you to everyone who bought the Dark Ride series,” said Joshua Williamson. “It has been great to find so many readers who were looking for a series that mixed two things that I'm obsessed with...horror and amusement parks. From the start the series was about horror and sacrifice, but it was really about family and letting go.
"Andrei, Adriano and Pat have done fabulous work on this series, and this is our second go around with doing a book from start to finish together. They are a team that I would ride a rollercoaster into hell with, and I look forward to our next projects together.
"Keep your arms and legs inside the ride vehicle, because this last issue is a dangerous one."
"I can’t wait for readers to take one final ride and finish our saga at Devil Land!” said series editor, Amanda LaFranco. “From the very beginning, Josh has been weaving a tale of family horror and laying down the pieces for this big finale, from Arthur’s very first deal with the Devil, to the sacrifice now placed in the hands of each member of the Dante family. The entire creative team has been on fire for this final arc, and Josh, Andrei, Adriano, and Pat have been hellishly delighting on every page. I’m excited for readers to see what we’ve been building to.”
G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO #306 with guest artist Paul Pelletier:
REDCOAT #2
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS: DRACULA HC: I've been tradewaiting this, and I can't wait!
DARK HORSE
HEARTPIERCER #1 (OF 4) by writer Rich Douek (Drive Like Hell, Gutter Magic), artists Gavin Smith (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dead Legends) and Nicholas Burgdorf (Of Bitter Souls), letterer Justin Birch (Dead Mall, Sea of Sorrows): A monster hunter is tricked into killing the last unicorn, which plunges the world into darkness. Needless to say, she's guilt-ridden enough to try to put things right.
“Fantasy is the first genre I fell in love with as a reader,” admits writer Rich Douek. “And my earliest work in comics is deeply rooted in it. In a lot of ways, Heartpiercer is a return to my roots as a writer; an epic, dark fantasy about love, vengeance, and coming to terms with the sins of your past. I can’t wait for readers to see the world we’ve built.”
“Heartpiercer is the type of comic I’ve wanted to make for a long time,” adds artist Gavin Smith. “Being able to dive into the world of horror and fantasy and really let loose with these characters has been wild… and we’re just scratching the surface of what Rich and I are capable of doing with this world.”
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: REVOLUTION #1
by Tim Sheridan, Rob David, Ted Biaselli and illustrations by Daniel HDR: The story of how Hordak and Skeletor first team up (and somehow didn't kill each other). The PR indicates a cartoon of the same name is running on Netflix, showrun by Kevin Smith.
IDW PUBLISHING
GODZILLA 70TH ANNIVERSARY #1: This looks a lot less all-ages than previous Godzilla books by IDW.
DYNAMITE
GARGOYLES #2
HERCULES #2
VALIANT COMICS
This week in Valiant "Resurgence"
PUNK MAMBO PUNK WITCH PROJECT (ONE-SHOT) by Peter Milligan and Andres Ponce.
This was scheduled to come out last week when I did last week's Comics Guide. Between then and now, it got bumped a week.
X-O MANOWAR: INVICTUS #1 (OF 4) by Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad: X-O battles the mysterious Soothsayer in Nova Romanus, complicated by the arrival of Ivar (time-traveling brother of Armstrong and the Immortal Warrior). This is one Valiant character that has never done much for me. If I'm going to read Iron Man, I'd rather read about genius engineer and snarky ladies' man Tony Stark than a time-displaced 4th century Germanic warrior. What does a guy who has to be taught how to drive a car, make a margarita or otherwise function in a modern society add to the story?
MORE COMICS
ARMORED #1 by Michael Schwartz and Ismael Hernandez (Clover Press): An orphaned boy is adopted by a couple living in the countryside, where apparently there are monsters.
BETTY & VERONICA JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #324
DEVOUR HC by Jazmine Joyner and Anthony Pugh (Abrams ComicArts): A family moves to Alabama and discovers a connection to Anansi the Spider-God. Which, it turns out, is a really bad thing. Popverse has a PREVIEW.
GOOD: FROM THE AMAZON JUNGLE TO SUBURBIA AND BACK HC by FluX and David Good (NBM): An autobiographical graphic novel about David Good, the son of an American anthropologist father and a Yanomami mother from the Amazon, who has trouble with identity and relationships. As you can see from the preview below, the novel is interspersed with scenes from David's childhood in the Amazon.
THE GREAT YOKAI WAR VOL 3: GUARDIANS GN
GUN HONEY: COLLISON COURSE #1 by Charles Ardai and Ang Hor Kheng (Titan) is the second miniseries (third, if you count the spinoff Heat Seeker, which I do) about a chick (hot, naturally) who is internationally famous for supplying guns whenever and wherever you want, for a steep price. The major draw, I think, is that it is very, very naughty. The first miniseries had a splash-page cunnilingus scene between lesbians which left nothing to the imagination. There's generally casual boobage throughout. And yes, you can buy nekkid variant covers as well.
GUNHAND #1 (American Mythology) is about the Frankenstein monster, somehow transported to New York in 1888, who gets his arm chopped off, then gets a new arm that is cursed and drags him across the Wild West. Boy, I really wish there was a preview!
ISSUNBOSHI GN (Oni Press) is about an inches-high samurai in a feudal Japan still populated by creatures of myth, who has to stop a demon from forging a weapon to take over the world. The preview (below) has a very Disney-esque quality to it.
MY BAD: ESCAPE FROM PECULIAR ISLAND #1 (OF 5) by Mark Russell, Bryce Ingman and Peter Krause: Ahoy Comics alert! Check out the homage to Zap Comix #1.
MY BODY UNSPOOLING by Leo Fox (Silver Sprocket) is about Lucille (who I guess is gay or trans or something?) who wants to break up with his body because it behaves opposite of his mind.
NEXUS NEWSPAPER STRIPS VOL 2 #2 (OF 5) BATTLE FOR THUNEWORLD (Rude Dude Productions): Comic-strip collectors' alert!
PROJECT CRYPTID TP: Ahoy Comics alert!
SANCTION #1 (Mad Cave) is a crime thriller about a police detective with a drinking problem and his partner, who get dragged into an unsolved case that puts their lives and careers at risk. The kicker is that it's set in 1987 Leningrad. Which sounds cool.
SPIRAL & OTHER STORIES GN by Aidan Koch (New York Review of Books): Koch uses watercolors, pencils, crayons, charcoals and collage to tell stories about the ways humans and the natural world converge. Doesn't look like my thing, but it might be yours.
STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI 40TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION HC
WITCHES OF SILVERLAKE VOL 1 GN by Simon Curtis and Stephanie Son (Legendary Comics) is about a boy who moves to a new prep school, where he joins the outsider clique of scholarship kids, queer kids, etc. Turns out they're witches, and he joins their coven. Then they let a demon loose and things take a dark turn. Who doesn't love a story about a bloodthirsty demon eating snotty prep kids?
Cannonball Reads has some INTERIOR PAGES.
Replies
MY BAD: ESCAPE FROM PECULIAR ISLAND #1 (OF 5):
A few weeks ago, my retailer gave me his copy of a letter written by written by Mark Russell and sent to comics shops nation wide notifying them of My Bad (v3) and thanking them for their support. It reads (in part): "I am not contacting you because My Bad is a new series. We are about to embark on our third season. I am instead contacting you because it is a series I believe in, one which I think you will enjoy (if you do not already), and I hope you will recommend it to your customers.
"I truly believe that there is nothing on the stands quite like My Bad. It's an irreverent love letter to comics and so a title I think is ideally suited for the local comic shop, more so than the Barnes and Noble or online digital comic market. This is precisely how I hope people will experience My Bad for the first time, holding it in theor hands, standing in a shop where they've discovered every comic they've ever loved."
I completely missed the "We Can Do It" homage!
Slight correction for you, Cap. This is the third Gun Honey series. First two by the oriiginal creators (looks like this one is too) and then the spinoff. The spinoff was created by Charles Ardai because the artist isn't able to prodice more work.
I will say that spread you were talking about caught me completely off-guard. Yes, I have read every series, but if it I didn't like the stories I wouldn't stick around. I'm on the internet, I can get porn anytime I want.