Hitomi #1 - The interior art for this series alone is worth the read. It lightly reminds me of the art from Peach Momoko’s Demon Days series. Our main character is a young girl searching for a Samurai with skin ‘the color of beetroot’, turns out he’s responsible for killing her entire family and she wants her revenge. So she’s willing to cross far and wide to find him. What she’s going to do next she has no idea though. This issue does a great job of establishing the world and era we live in, small conversations by characters help to give us an idea of what life is like for the average, no drifter, of the land. People always seem to want something and offer nothing that doesn’t benefit them. It doesn’t seem to matter how many friends our drifter makes along the way, she’s getting the short end of the stick more often than not. But she just might be closer to her goal than she thought. If only the snow doesn’t cut things, or her life, short.

  

Star Wars Visions #1 - The Star Wars Visions anime anthology series Disney did might possibly be the best Star Wars thing they’ve ever done. Every single episode of that series was phenomenal, they were so good that a second season of it was ordered even though they weren’t originally planning on it. Now we’re getting a single issue that expands upon the story of The Ronin episode, instead of being a shot for shot comic version of the same story, set before the events of his episode. A little bonus for the anime nerds: this issue is written and drawn by Takashi Okazaki, the man who created Afro Samurai. Ronin and his droid, Fivesix, are in the mountains once again and they waste no time in showing off just how powerful they are, Fivesix probably has a body count that can match Chopper. Now resting up they’re joined by a mysterious old man, an ex-Shogun of the war, who is more than happy to share Sake and story with The Ronin. I absolutely want more from this series, a one shot is not enough so I'm keeping my fingers crossed we can see another issue or episode in the future.

  

The Least We Can Do #2 - It’s training montage time for Uriel and she is getting her butt kicked repeatedly. She’s been having more difficulty than most connecting with her medium and the word around the street is that if a medium is stolen from someone it is almost impossible to bond with. She’s been putting in the physical work, and she’s managed to manifest the healing properties of her medium if nothing else but how is she supposed to be helpful come the war if all she can be is a punching bag. But we know Uriel is much more than that and the little glimpses we get of her inventions and ideas for the best and most helpful ways to use the mediums is really where she begins to shine. If only she saw that herself. Instead she’s seeking guidance from any and every wielder of a golden medium she can find but none seem like they can offer her any help. Instead Lucy lets her in on a little known secret hoping that if she changes Uriel's way of approaching the situation that she’ll be able to help. They desperately need it.

  

Namor #1 - Look I honestly did not expect to enjoy a Namor book as much as I did this one but I am honestly invested in this plot right now. Marvel is definitely trying to build on the hype for the Wakanda Forever movie with this new series but that doesn’t necessarily mean it's going to be a bad read. The world is in a state of post-apocalypse, the Kree attacked the Earth and the end result is a planet almost completely covered in water. Namor and his people have taken control of this newly submerged world. They are finally free to do what they like where they like, and the rest of humanity has either left the planet, moved to underwater bubbles for ‘oxygen-breathers’, or are staying in essentially refugee camps on the remaining land. The oxygen-breathers are definitely fearing for the worst right now, they’re barely hanging on and what little help they are receiving from Atlantis is sporadic at best. But with Namor no longer the king there is only so much he can do, hopefully his trips to the top help with the peacekeeping between the group before things can really explode.

The Approach #1- When a record breaking snow storm forces a passing flight to divert, it’s all hands on deck at this small airport. Mac is among the crew called in to aid with the emergency landing, and upon arrival he starts delegating tasks. They plow the airstrip, crack open the vending machines, and grab some extra blankets because no one is going anywhere tonight. The plane lands without a hitch and the travelers make themselves at home, but just when they are about to start their Tom Hanks via The Terminal fantasies, the tower spots another plane coming in hot! They don’t have any flight records for this plane, but Mac and his crew rush to the crashed plane to aid survivors. Unfortunately, they are only able to save one member of the flight before the plane goes up in flames. That’s when the tower delivers some odd news, turns out the plane that just crash landed disappeared 27 years ago! Mac tries to make sense of that, but he has a plane full of people under his watch that he needs to keep comfortable and safe. Just when things couldn’t get any stranger, they hear a scream from the room with the plane crash survivor and things get weirder from there...

  

Chicken Devils #1 - I’m beyond pumped for the new arc of this series! Since the OG series, Chicken Devil, dropped last October I’ve been obsessed with Mitchell Moss and his transformation from mild mannered family man to badass Chicken Devil. It all started when Mitch finds out his business partner owes the mob $2 million, this is only after they burn down one of their Memphis Hot Chicken Restaurants. Mitch tries to get his family out of harm's way, but the mob blows up the yacht his family was escaping on! Now with nothing to lose Mitch dons the restaurant’s mascot costume and gets some vigilante justice..mostly it’s accidental. Now the police are involved, but this time they want to use Mitch to take down all the gangs in the area! The art/page layouts just add to the excitement of each issue. Move over Breaking Bad, there is a new badass dad in town!

  

Miracleman #0 - Formally Marvelman, Miracleman hit the scene in 1954 as UK’s answer to Captain Marvel and ran until 1963, but in 1982 Alan Moore brought it across the pond! This is pre Watchman, pre Swamp Thing, and pre comic industry heartbreak Moore, and he took this silly Shazam rip and turned it into the dark postmodern Micky Moran we know today! Moore’s run tackles the duality of a hero who “transforms” into their hero form, and how it affects the relationships in their life (i.e. the controversial Miracleman #9 that graphically depicts Moran's wife’s labor and delivery – more scandalous, it’s Miracleman’s baby NOT Micky’s!). Moore has always been outspoken about his disapproval of reimagining the characters of others, and even passed royalties from this character over to original creator, Mick Anglo. We don’t know all the tea but Moore’s run ended at #16, and Neil Gailman picked up at #17...but the series ended abruptly at #24 with a cliffhanger after the publisher went out of business. That’s when Todd McFarlane bought the rights to those titles, and Gaiman said a bitter goodbye to Miracleman. As Marvel/Disney goes down their checklist of “things to buy that consumers love”, they scooped up Miracleman in 2013, and October 19th we will finally get the Gaiman story we have been waiting for. 0# contains short stories from other creators and a sneak peek at the Silver Age recreation, and I can’t wait to finally see how this story ends! (I wasn’t that familiar with Miracleman, but I found The Comic Lounge Podcast on Spotify and their episode on Miracleman was super informative!!)