April 21st, 2021

J.R.'s Picks:

Way of X #1 – Holy existential crisis, Nightcrawler! Everyone’s favorite blue elf starts off his new series in a BIG way with the help of Simon Spurrier and Bob Quinn. Nightcrawler and a team of teen mutants infiltrate Orchis’s inner workings to find a mutant hatred museum and brainwashing facility. Pixie, a young mutant who hasn’t died and been resurrected yet, gets peer pressured into doing so but her fellow teen heroes and jumps in front of a shotgun blast. This sends Nightcrawler reeling in his own thoughts contemplating Krakoan treatment of death. Even worse, once Kurt comes back to Krakoa, Magneto celebrates the gladiatorial death bouts of the Crucible which have become central to getting depowered mutants their powers. An extremely smart script jumping beyond even mutant circumstances make this one a MUST read for X-fans.
  
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr #1 – Ram V wows once more with his newest series that shares a lot of similarities with Good Omens in the best of ways. Death is on the up and up in the corporate pantheon set up for the gods. That is until one day when she walks into the office of the Purveyor of All Goodness (whose secretary is Agni) to learn that they’re going to have to let her go. It seems a newborn child is about to instill everlasting life unto humanity so her services will no longer be needed. As severance, the gods have arranged for her to inhabit the body of a mortal and enjoy what life has to offer. Unfortunately for them, Death just wants her job so that kid’s gotta go. Such a cool concept and adding on to the Indian pantheon of gods as drawn by Filipe Andrade make an already incredible book golden.
  
Women of Marvel #1 – If you’re a fan of superheroes at all then quite frankly you just have to pick up this anthology featuring all female creators. Some of these stories are only a page but have more creative plotlines and jokes than I’ve seen in entire books. A quick rundown of some of them: Lady Deathstrike gets a manicure thanks to Peach Momoko, Captain America Peggy Carter kicks major ass, Mystique rides a SKELETAL T-REX, She-Hulk goes toe-to-toe with Rhino in a museum and Misty Knight out-cops some cops to solve a crime. This is how you do a collection of shorts so pick this one up and take note.
  
Orphan and the Five Beats #2 – James Stokoe is one sick motherfucker and that is what makes this martial arts book shine like a diamond. Orphan has finally met the first beast, Thunderthighs, who started as a hero but let the power of Bandit King go to his head. Though his is formidably strong, Orphan is nimble and she has the moves to dispatch him. After a gloriously sequenced fight, she manages to dispatch. His bandits declare her their new leader as they had been made to follow him against their will. It seems bisection isn’t death for some though and the battle for Orphan has only just begun. A damn good book with bloody as hell action- pick it up while it’s still hot off the presses!

Diarra's Picks:

Alice in Leatherland #1 - Alice is an author living a fairy tale life and writing books about them too. Even when the opportunity to move to a big city and join a major publisher arises, she doesn’t want to lose what she has here. Alice is having trouble finishing her current book, and her love life doesn’t have a happy ending either. With nothing left for her here, Alice heads to the big city. Struggles to find an apartment are starting to weigh on Alice’s optimism, but eventually she finds a room for rent. On move in day, we meet some of the unique character’s Alice will be living with. Alice is glad she found a place, but she still had writer’s block. Maybe her new roomies will be able to whip her into shape.
  
The Girls of Dimension 13 #1 - Abby, Cece, Savannah, and Nadira are four strangers that just scored the house sitting gig of a lifetime. The girls think it’s odd, but free rent in a New York City mansion is hard to pass up. As the girls move in and get to know one another, they realize they might’ve been brought together for another reason. Each girl possess a unique power from E.S.P. to element bending, and as they snoop around the girls realize they’re not the most interesting things in this house. After they almost lose a fight with a magic mirror, their host finally shows herself, and she’s not at all what the girls expected!
  
Ultramega #2 - This issue takes place further down the timeline. We went from epic Kaiju fights in the middle of the city, daily, to no sightings at all. Now society must try to rebuild, but it’s easier for some to move on. Some still mourn loved ones lost in Kaiju attacks and others created cults to worship the monsters. These Kaiju fanatics are pretty extreme, and these cults are more like organized crime families. One young man wants to put a stop to their reign of terror. Noah knows he can’t take on a gang of adults (even if they didn’t have guns), but luckily his sister is robotics wiz. After a recent take down goes south and his ‘bot is destroyed, the gang hunts down Noah. His tight knit community turns on him pretty quickly once their food rations are threatened. These gangs kill for fun, but it they might have something else planned for Noah.

Stone's Picks:

Alien #2 - Thirty-two hours after the Epsilon space station was breached by anti-corporate extremists, Gabriel is approached to return to the station to retrieve the alpha embryo. Teamed with some hot shot youngsters, they make their way inside the station and discover the horrors that were unleashed. This issue still keeps the suspense high and tension tight. As soon as they enter the station you know what the next couple pages have in store for you. The horror element is still strong and this second issue continues to show that the franchise is moving in a promising direction.
  
Nightwing #79 - The first three pages of this book shows just how amazing the artwork done by Bruno Redondo and Adriano Lucas is. It perfectly reflects the tone that Tom Taylor is delivering, from the upbeat moments of Billionaire pizza parties to the serious moments of a man having his life forfeited to Blüdhaven’s newest psychopath. There are some moments where Dick Grayson comes off as a little too childish for me, but hopefully with the dark ending this issue delivered he will become more serious. If you're a Nightwing fan you should be reading this comic!
  
Cojacaru The Skinner #1 -  A different take on the events of World War II that sees Nazis team with Witches to form a unit know as the Hexencorps. When a list of Nazi collaborators is stolen, the Hexencorps are sent to retrieve the list no matter the cost. This leads them to doing battle with Polish army and a dead witch-hunter. Along with plenty of supernatural elements, the art by Peter Bergting is a fantastic addition that feels right at home in this story by Mike Mignola. The story may be a little confusing but here’s hoping that issue 2 will provide more details on Cajacuras past and this interesting alternate history.