February 24th, 2021
J.R's Picks:
Two Moons #1 – Arcudi weaves a mysterious historical fiction tale with his newest outing. Virgil Morris is a soldier in the Union Army and a part of a regiment preparing to be ambushed by Confederate forces. His sergeant sends him into town to gather bandages and morphine for what’s to come. While in the field hospital, Virgil sees a vision of his grandfather who calls him by Virgil’s first name: Two Moons. The vision fades though and Virgil is only left staring at a dead man under the questioning stare of a nurse. When Virgil returns to camp, the Confederates launch their attack but Virgil’s visions don’t stop- they just get stranger and more vicious. A thrilling tale set in the Civil War with some supernatural backdrop!
Stray Dogs #1 – Did you ever wish Don Bluth movies had more implied violence and murder? That’s what you get with this new horror thriller! Sophie is a small, frightened dog who is ushered into a new home full of a ragtag lot of other pooches. After being shown around by a dog named Rusty, all the dogs lay down for the night in their master’s room. It’s there that Sophie remembers how she got to this house: her new master is a murderer who killed her old one! The other dogs don’t believe her and start an old-fashioned shunning. All the dogs except for Rusty that is who at least gives her the benefit of the doubt to investigate this. A really cool book that’s definitely going to some cool places.
Crimson Flower #2 – Lesniewski’s art continues to wow me with this latest issue. Our protagonist continues her road trip of revenge but at the start, it’s revealed that she’s dosing herself pretty hard on these pills she’s shilling. Nevertheless, she arrives at a bar home to her next targets: the Morozko brothers. When she confronts them, she’s forced to flee into the forest as they think she’s apart of the mysterious “center” that seems to hire out assassins. It’s in the woods that another Slavic folklore tale begins in her head centered on her ensuing fight. This one gets a high recommendation from me, check it out when you can!
Department of Truth #6 – Some of the secrets of the mysterious director of the Department of Truth are revealed in this month’s latest issue. Lee is shown into a back room of a government office after being taken out of the public eye. His savior tells him that he must learn Latin and read a book written at the end of the first millennium in order to understand the power that the Department must combat against. This story from so long ago once again features the red-dressed woman with no eyes as she points a Benedictine monk in the direction he needs to go. It’s there that he finds an incredibly old woman who tells the monk what kind of game his Church is playing and the consequence of all their lies…another jaw-droppingly well-done issue. This is a series no one should miss and luckily the first five issue are now collected in the first volume. Catch up now!
Diarra's Picks:
Ice Cream Man #23 - Another awesomely eerie story from W. Maxwell Prince! Here we are, at issue 23, and they’re still coming up with creative ways to tell this story. By using splash pages next to pages with no images and full paragraphs, the reader can really get lost in the story being told...and it’s a pretty unfortunate story. Late night host, Mack Benson, gets attacked by a python during the exotic animal segment of his show. They address the grinding comedians must endure from getting booed off open mics to the highly competitive industry of stand up. But that was all just paving the way for this dream job as a late night host...unfortunately this will be his last night hosting (the python gets ‘em good). We also take a deep look into the people around Mack, like his wife who fears this might impede their divorce proceedings tomorrow. We’ve all watched talk shows that randomly brought on wild animal trainers (heck, Maury did it sometimes), and wondered “who thought this was a good idea?”.
Stray Dogs #1 - New dog, Sophie, gets a warm welcome when she enters her new home. Her new owner has several other dogs already, but Sophie finds this all a bit intimating. The other dogs try to get to know her by asking questions, sadly, Sophie can’t seem to remember her past. When her new owner sees Sophie quivering in the corner, he brings her a scarf to keep warm. Something about the smell of that scarf triggered a memory for Sophie, and she learns something horrific about her new owner. She tries to warn the others, but no one believes their human could do such a thing. After sleeping on it another dog decides to help Sophie get answers. Unfortunately, she has a bit of a memory issue.
Harley Quinn: White Knight #5 - We are almost to the end of Harley’s White Knight arc! She escapes the Starlet, but only because they want a bigger audience for their next “big show”. The pressure is starting to get to Harley, and she fondly thinks back to her early days with not just Jack, but Joker. She is beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed from becoming a new mom to being brought into Gotham PD as an employee! Those close to Harley show up for her in a big way this issue, but after Starlet attacks her home she is left standing in the ashes.
Stone's Picks:
Maestro War & Pax #2 - Outside The Pantheon's secret base Doctor Doom awaits entry. The Pantheon is weary of Doom, but chat him up over some tea. They discuss how Doom has survived for so long and why he wishes to help in The Pantheon's battle against Maestro. Back At Dystopia, Maestro has been hard at work rebuilding his dogs of war. It isn’t long before The Pantheon are in Maestro's palace pretending to be his allies and falsely accepting his current tyrannical rule as just. Using A.I.M as bait, The Pantheon set off with Maestro to destroy them, but how long can they keep up their ruse?
Superman vs. Imperious Lex #2 - Lexor has joined the United Planets. Lois Lane and Superman head to the planet with a survey team to determine what Lexor’s strengths are. Due to the red Sun, Superman is forced to stay in orbit. He spends his time trying to reconstruct the Reticulants he had destroyed so that they can be reprogrammed to help rebuild Lexor. On the surface, Lois and the survey team are greeted with open arms as Lex takes them on a tour and explains how grateful he is for the help. After a short while the survey team report back that they have found a crystal that could help solve the energy crises that the United Planets is facing. Realizing that his planet is essentially a gold mine, Lex tries to revoke his planets membership so that he won’t be forced to share with other planets, but to no avail. If they won’t let him leave peacefully then he will remove himself through force!
Harley Quinn Curse of White Knight #5 - Hector helps Harley escape from her confinement and looks to arrest Ethel for her crimes. Ethel plays to Hector's emotions causing him to lose his focus. Harley rushes in to subdue her but is instead crippled by a noxious gas. In her unconscious state, she reminisces more about her early life with Jack/Joker. She awakens in the hospital and is greeted by Poison Ivy. Harley returns home to take care of the kids but things take a dire turn. Meanwhile, in prison, Bruce has been unaware of what has been going on with Harley. In order to protect her he needs to free himself from prison, so he decides to be taken to have a chat with Jason.