#comics previews

[annermations]

I’m working on the next comic, about… space?

[gambitgazette]

https://comicstore.marvel.com/Dawn-Of-X-Vol-3/digital-comic/54369?r=1

[novangla]

Tbh I’m mostly salty that in the preview for Batman #44 they put Selina in her ridic old school outfit (a dress! a green cape??) and yet they are still pushing this retconned Tim-Drake-style Robin outfit. Like they are too embarrassed to let Dick wear his flashy yellow cape or leotard or pixie boots. STOP BEING COWARDS AND EMBRACE THE PANTSLESSNESS, DC.

[aaron-golden]

Ninjak #25 (Valiant Entertainment)

Okay, take the best parts of Batman and James Bond and combine them, through in some nihilistic Buddhism, throw them in a blender, and the end result is Ninjak.

Ninjak is Colin King, a wealthy Brit who works as a spy after his parents died and he was left in the care of his abusive butler, a person so loving the Colin spent most of his childhood haunting the grounds of his estate rather than deal with the man.

He lends himself out to British Intelligence, combining all sorts of skills, gadgets, and wealth to take on the most dangerous assignments anyone can think to give him: in the past he's been tasked with stopping alien invasions, assassinating X-O Manowar, and regularly hangs out with the Eternal Warrior. He's a Badass Normal in the Valiant-verse, and so writer Matt Kindt gets to play with the full weight of this sort of character.

The end result is a comic that started slow and got progressively better, to where it's now one of Valiant's best but weirdest. There's a lot of strange philosophy here, centered around a character who is effectively an adrenaline junkie with a death wish and enough skill to keep from dying. It's blockbuster material.

At the start, Colin was investigating the Shadow Seven, a group of high-tech weapons dealers who dealt with cutting edge technology and weapons of mass destruction. Since then, he's started working with them to fight off a larger threat: Master Darque, the Shadowman villain who beat his hero by recruiting him and is the background bad guy of the whole Valiant Universe, a literal god-made-flesh.

Shadowman was the weakest of the opening salvo of Valiant comics, a meandering tale that couldn't come to terms with its hero or concept but who did have an immediately engaging villain. The protagonist faded and Darque has since plagued the Valiant Universe, causing massive destruction on a handful of occasions, and he's one of those villains that wins even when he loses.

Back in the strongest issue of the old Shadowman series, we were given an origin story for Darque and that story has entered and currently haunts Ninjak in the form of Sandria Darque, a relative and another mysterious god-made-flesh who is clearly up to something, helping Ninjak for reasons of her own, reasons that have never been revealed, reasons that we just might learn this issue.

Artist Stephen Segovia is doing some interesting things in this book with panel layout that give an interesting illusion of movement while also making infodumps interesting. Writer Matt Kindt is Matt Kindt, so you know the story is going to be good and head in directions you might not expect – which is perfect for this title. If you like Batman and want to try something different you really should give this a look.

[aaron-golden]

Supergirl #7 (DC Comics)

... speaking of weird, Supergirl has had the weirdest of evolution paths. Originally she was Kara Danvers and the cousin of Superman, but then she died in Crisis on Infinite Earths and was erased from existence, but fans wanted her back and so DC Comics gave us a shape-shifting alien that was sleeping with Lex Luthor's son who was actually his clone with the original Lex's mind inside because comics and then there was another reboot and the original Kara was re-introduced and then kidnapped by Darkseid and then rescued by Superman and then fridged by Darkseid and then became a Red Lantern.

And then the Supergirl television show happened and someone decided the comics should be more like that, so when Rebirth happened (and Rebirth is the best thing to happen to DC Comics for years) we got a Kara who fans of the television show would recognize but was still very much her own person. It's the best of all worlds, really, unless you're a fan of the shape-shifting alien.

I'm sure someone will revisit that concept eventually.

The second season of the show has been kinda hit or miss, with some interesting overall developments but disappointing turns. Cat Grant has been replaced with some grumpy old dude, love interest Jimmy Olsen was replaced with someone not nearly as interesting (Mon-El) instead of someone who is far more interesting (Lena Luthor), and Kara's sister has been marginalized to the sidelines after coming out of the closet.

Gods, just have Kara be bisexual and poly. It would save a lot of fan irritation, give more representation to those that need it, and give her and Alex more to talk about. This isn't hard, CW writers. Also, Lena and Kara would be one of the best original tales you could tell with a Luthor.  

Anyway, the comics. There's a killer Kryptonian that needs help and Kara is up with her DEO peers. They've set up technology similar to that from the Cell, and so Kara is going to delve into the mind of a monster in an effort to restore said monster to a sanity he may not have ever possessed. We'll find out, I guess.

Steve Orlando is great, Matias Bergara is great, and this comic is just more proof of how far DC Comics has come since the dark days of the nu52. If you like the show – especially the first season – give this a read.

[aaron-golden]

The Old Guard #1

Earlier, when I was talking about Clean Room, I mentioned that there were some writers who I look for. Greg Rucka is one of those writers. Some people phone it in and half-ass some projects, but Rucka never gives us anything less than his best and never gives us anything that doesn't comment on some part of our world. Everything from Lazarus to Black Magick to Veil to Stumptown to Wonder Woman reveals glimpses of brilliance, stories that are both topical and touching.

The Old Guard is interesting in that this is being released the same week as Highlander, but Rucka looks to make good on the promise of the Highlander concept: immortals meandering through the shadows of history, unable to die and trapped in the changing tides of the world as moves from one thing to another.

Andromache of Scythia was a fighter for ancient kings and works as a soldier with a group of people like her, warriors that have survived ages. Called Andy by her comrades, they work for whoever can find and afford them while trying to keep their immortality a secret – something that is becoming increasingly more difficult in the 21st century. Making matters a little more interesting, immortality has given Andy and friends a chance to learn about how very many more fates there are that are worse than death...

Leandro Fernandez is handling the art on this one, and you might recognize him from the pages of Deadpool and Punisher: MAX, both books that featured haunting detailed artwork that brought life to the stories they captured. He's incredible, an artist worthy of Rucka, and the two of them are about to create something magical.

Get on board now.

[aaron-golden]

Wonder Woman #15

Once upon a time, there was a writer named Greg Rucka who was pretty much the architect of what was best in DC Comics. He knew their characters, their lore, their themes, and their mythos. DC Comics acknowledged this even within the story of their own comics, and then something went wrong and terrible things happened: Greg Rucka left DC Comics, and then DC Comics unleashed the nu52.

Greg Rucka started telling amazing stories elsewhere – Lazarus and Stumptown and Veil and Black Magick. He did some writing for video games – Syphon Filter and AR-K – and then combined both mediums with Dragon Age: Magekiller. DC Comics, meanwhile, lost one if five of their readers over the first year of the nu52, and those numbers never really got better. They learned as they were dying, though. An olive branch was extended.

Rucka returned to do a one-shot for DC Comics, and sometime during that process he somehow ended up writing Wonder Woman following the latest reboot, which has seen DC Comics flirting with their former glory and stories much better suited to them. There's been some exciting happenings, some good comics, and among the best of them is Rucka's take on this comic.

Diana has had some conflicting theories and stories over her long history, as some people have gotten her and what she is about more than others. The core of the character, though, is a recognition of absolute truth tinged with an incredible sense of mercy; she is the purest sort of warrior-philosopher, a literal demi-goddess.

Rucka has had Diana turn that truth inward in recognition of all the people she has been, all the lives and continuities that she has wandered through, and it's making for a complex story that is adding some serious layers to an already complex character. Out of all the characters at DC Comics, Wonder Woman is the one I'd want to write the most, and Greg Rucka is just making me want to write her more.

You really should be reading this, because there's a good chance we'll be looking back on this run the same way we look back on the Dark Knight Returns when it comes to Batman.

[aaron-golden]

Tomboy #10 (Action Lab)

I've spoken about this comic before. At length. It's one of the comics that Jenna and Nate and I used to talk about quite a bit when we were doing Nerdcouver, and there's a damn good reason: this comic is excellent.

Tomboy is a giant mash-up of magical girl tropes with detective and crime stories, a tale of corporate corruption of politicians having the unexpected consequence of producing a magical girl who is utterly lethal in her application of justice. She's caused bloody havoc as she cuts through one conspiracy after another, not really understanding more than the surface of what's going on but being drawn to the misery the people she loves suffer and finding those immediately responsible while the people who call the shots escape her, time and again.

Mia Goodwin has been weaving an incredibly complex story about life and death and fate, about corruption and madness and magic. It's about the loss of innocence and the peculiar pain that only family can inflict, about how sometimes there is no way out when the people you love are dying all around you.

And, yes, there's an interesting and detailed mythology about where the power came from and what the cost of it is, but this is really a story about the horrors an older generation is inflicting upon the younger, about the hopelessness and agony that the younger is inheriting. We have some answers already, and we know this is going to end in tragedy – there's no other way for this story to end. 

The trick is going to be whether or not our heroes can live with the tragedy after the fact, or if there are even any heroes left in the mire of this world. It's stunning work, both in terms of story and art, and something that you really should be reading. Hunt this down. You won't be disappointed.