March 1st, 2023
Caroline's Picks:
Spider-Gwen Shadow Clones #1 - It's finally time for Gwen to get her own Spider-clone series, she’s faced off against the biggest and baddest from Spider-man’s world. Now she deserves a night off, right? Wrong. Her friends are pretty much all out of town for a few days and the poor girl can’t even get asked on a date without being sidetracked by some baddies. A Spider-hero’s work is truly never done. Emily Kim has done a great job writing Gwen's underlying emotional struggles white her ‘work’ and how it causes her to miss things she wants to do while still being able to show that she enjoys being a hero. She might be feeling the FOMO but Gwen’s still able to toss a quip around while she works on wrangling Peter's old pal Doctor Octopus for the second time this week. The only problem is that isn’t Doc Ock at all, it's Gwen! One quick chat and special request of the young and talented Reed Richards give a tiny bit of insight. Gwen-Ock is from this universe, and is a genetic clone of Gwen and Doctor Octopus. Looks like Gwen's getting her own Rogues Gallery to face off with in this mini-series. Hopefully she can handle herselves.
Phantom Road #1 - Jeff Lemire is one of those writers whose name I see something and immediately know it's going to be good, Phantom Road is no exception. This first issue does a great job of establishing the stakes and giving us intense character backstory in just a few pages. Phantom Road is mostly a zombie horror story with a little bit of supernatural/sci-fi elements thrown in to help make the situation unique. Dom is a long haul trucker with a family he never sees and mediocre social skills at best, but he seems to not hate his job so at least that's something. But when he gets lost in his own thoughts on one late night drive things take a sharp turn in his life. He touches something he definitely shouldn’t and things change from him in an instant. Now he’s got to do what he can to protect himself and his newfound companion and get them home. If that's even possible. I can’t wait to see what twisted ride Lemire takes us on with this series.
I Hate This Place #6 - The second arc to this wild series is finally here and this issue does not pull any of its punches. To catch everyone up: Trudy and Gabby are, somewhat, settled in their cursed property and they’ve finally got a few farmhands to help out. They’ve got a few rules to follow but it's for their best, as they’ll soon come to learn that things are a little odd out here. If you were to ask Trudy though, she’d tell you there's far worse things and people out there than what they’ve got going on in their home. Trudy and Gabby have been on the run for quite some time and Trudy’s family has finally found them. One quick flashback into how things were before they left and you’ll be ready to fight just as hard as they have. Trudy’s hyper-religious father is not one to be messed with, and his family means everything to him. Trudy just wants to be left alone, to live her life her way. Maybe the ladies will be lucky and their new found nighttime tenants will end up helping them out of this sticky situation.
Snow White Zombie Apocalypse #1 - I know what you're thinking ‘another zombie apocalypse book, seriously’ but trust me this one is different and absolutely worth the time. We all know the old Jack and the Giant Beanstalk story, that very same Jack is our main character for this story and the world itself is filled with other popular fairytale characters. Jack’s felled the Giant, but no one really believes him, and so to prove his prowess he must go and end the other three Giants that ravage the other corners of the land. Do that and the King says everyone will truly believe and know how strong their ‘Jack the Giant Slayer’ really is. If Jack fails well then it's not skin off the King's teeth, just another wannabe hero taken care of. So while Jack's off to handle Giant business the King is off to collect his taxes, times have been hard but a King’s gotta do what a King’s gotta do. One carriage attack by the zombified locals later and the King ends up working with the man who sold Jack his magic beans, and we even get to see them in action! Now if only those beans could handle the rest of the Giants… and the Zombies.
Diarra's Picks:
Riddler: Year One #3 - Paul Dano is going all in as The Riddler with this six issue mini series that leads up to the events of his recent film, The Batman. Before he became Riddler or E Nigma, he was Edward Nashton the forensic accountant. Edward recently found some discrepancies in the cash flow for the Gotham Renewal Fund. He took this information to the higher ups who dismissed his concerns, but that only makes Edward dig deeper. Now this desk jockey by day has turned into an amateur investigator by night, and a recent undercover operation leads to the discovery of how deep this money laundering goes. As bigger fish come to the surface he knows there is only one man that can help, his hero, Batman. Even in the film, Riddler expects Batman to be proud of the “bad guys” he’s killed, but maybe this will add to why Bats not having his back was such a betrayal because they might meet face to face next issue! These are the immediate events that led up to the film and we are three issues away from his transformation to puzzle obsessed psycho!
I Am Iron Man #1 - This is the perfect series for Tony Stark fanatics and those who don’t know where to start because this will be a journey through the history of Iron Man. In honor of his 60th anniversary, we are time traveling through some of Iron Man’s most iconic runs, but featuring untold stories. Here Tony goes up against a hot hard-rocker who controls golems with her tasty riffs and if that wasn’t enough, she is a time traveler who shows up to arch Tony in the most inopportune moments. Future Tony has had enough time to figure out how to stop her, but turns out it’s a past mistake he made that caused her wrath! Next issue we are visiting Archie Goodwin’s Iron Man era and we will follow Tony into the depth of the sea!
Human Target #12 - King and Smallwood have done it again, delivering a beautiful and gripping 12-issue story that showcases heroes that we don’t see everyday. Christopher Chance aka The Human Target is known for being a master of disguise, but he played his most recent role a little too well. Chance was hired by Lex Luthor who believed an assassination attempt would be made at an upcoming event, but enemies isn’t something Lex is lacking. Someone poisoned Chance thinking he was Lex and with 12 days to live, Chance has to solve his own murder. Things get tricky when all signs point to someone in the Justice League International, but in the end Chance knows exactly who did him in. Who doesn’t want a hard-boiled detective tale featuring Booster Gold and G’nort, where a man hunts for a murderer and finds love instead?! King knows how to leave you fulfilled after 12 issues and Smallwood’s art just adds to the classic noir energy. If there is one thing they want us to know about Christopher Chance, “He was many people, but no one else was him”.
K's Picks:
Cosmic Ghost Rider #1 - The most badass comic this week! The right-hand man of Galactus is back with a really sick look. I love the space western vibe I'm getting, with the whole bar and this mysterious Sakaaran space bounty hunter. Everything seems a lot more tame compared to the large scale Thanos blood bath that was the original Cosmic ghost rider story. With this only being the first issue I didn't expect a whole lot to be crammed into a few pages, which is a nice change compared to a lot of current Marvel comics. A nicely paced issue that doesn't try to speed through its premise. The main takeaway is what happened to Frank after his talk with Death, and what exactly is up with the new Spirit of Vengeance look? I appreciate the acknowledgement of the vast destruction that was caused by Frank's actions. Pretty good read all around tho, the art is a lot more refined for the darker tone and the side story gave me a bit more of what I want - all the negative aspects of being the Ghost Rider! Check this one out if you felt the first CGR needed a bit more edge.
DC Vs RWBY #1 - After all this time we get another shot at the heroes of DC and the Hunters and Huntresses crossing paths. RWBY has been a series I followed closely ever since the first four trailers made their debut; it brings me back, seeing the team again. Even with the release of the new chapter, there's still this nostalgic feeling seeing RWBY in comic book format. This was a really cool read, seeing as Batman is our first hero to encounter the gang and there seems to be some kinda strange connections going on between both worlds. We follow a bizarre string of violent creature attacks in Gotham. Nothing unheard of but still a job for the Batman. With a bit of examination, Bruce learns that the origins of these creatures could be otherworldly, and with that we finally meet the gang! This is where we learn that Bruce is a lot stronger than we remember, possibly hinting at Bruce obtaining a Semblance, which already sounds ridiculously cool. I'm really vibing with the art and direction. It doesn't feel all clustered and it seems like we are getting a cohesive story this time. I definitely have a lot of questions and interest about this story so far. One, where is team JNPR and more importantly, where does this take place? Given the outfits maybe between 4 and 6? It's a lot to consider but I think there's two things we can agree on - a pretty damn good start and... Yang's new outfit sucks.
Hallows Eve #1 - We finally get to see what this character has been up to because she got off the hook a bit too easy. Janine Godbe is a interesting character. She's down on her luck with no family, money, or friends to back her up. This only became the case once she became a wanted criminal. There's a lot about Janine that we don't know. We DO know is that she's not only a shapeshifting villain, but the girlfriend to Ben Reiley, the former king and right hand to Hellscape Limbo. We follow her endeavors as she attempts to rob a bank with her new powers which bring an entire range of side effects we aren't aware of with each mask she uses. She even turns herself into a Werewolf only to soon learn that she still retains the Mythical abilities and lore with the bloodthirsty creature. Speaking of bloodthirsty, the same effect applies to when she wears a vampire mask, making us unsure as to what limits and conditions apply to this seemingly game-changing revelation. As I stated before, I really hope this run allows us to tie things together with Chasm's story. Ss far as I'm concerned, there has to be more to his and Hallow's journey. Check this one out if you really wanted more from Hallow and the Dark Web story.