Bone Orchard Mythos Ten Thousand Black Feathers #1 - Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino are perfectly at home with this new horror universe they’ve created. If you haven’t already I highly recommend you pick up the first trade in this anthology series: Bone Orchard Mythos Passageway. You don’t need it to understand this new series but it definitely helps set the tone and expectations for what’s to come with this series, and who doesn’t want more Jeff Lemire spookiness in their life. Trish and Jackie have been friends since they were kids, they bonded over books in the schoolyard and the rest is history. Like most of us their lives have led them apart over the years, and life events have gotten in the way. But now Trish is coming back home for a mental break and it’s time to pay her best friend’s mom a visit. Lemire does a good job switching between the past and present to hit major points. Showing us why certain things are so important to Trish and how bright her world used to be with Jackie in it before switching back to the dark and gritty adult life she’s come to know. And all through there’s someone asking the question: Can you hear them falling?

  

The Least We Can Do #1 - I’ve got big ‘Robin Hood with magical stones’ vibes from this story. The Great War has destroyed the world and now 40 years later society is… not necessarily thriving but it exists in a relatively normal state once again. The key to rebuilding the world was ‘the Medium’, stones that were found to have special powers and if used for good could help revive the world and bring peace once again. But of course the people in power decided that the stones could be used for danger and took them from the common people and made it illegal. They feared another great war would destroy the land. Uriel is here to change that, she has a dream to return the stones to the people. To bring peace back to the world and share the prosperity the stones can bring to everyone. If she’s lucky she’ll be able to find ‘The Eclipse’, join their ranks, and learn everything she can about the stones to bring her dream to life. Now she just needs to convince someone to listen to her.

  

Ms Marvel & Venom #1 - The next issue in the Ms. Marvel team up mini series is here. If you haven’t read the Wolverine or Moon Knight issues you won’t be completely lost as each issues does a good job of catching the reader up on what’s been going on with Kamala but its definitely been a fun story to follow and see how the established heroes handle teaming up with someone of the next generation. But this time it's two of the next generation heroes teaming up! After they quickly save the day Venom is rapidly off to tail after those pesky robots and get back the piece of him that they stole. Ms. Marvel is more interested in just why these bots seem to be attacking heroes, specifically ones who seem to have beaten death several times over. But she won't have to think too hard for too long, once Venom finds his missing piece things quickly melt into place. Time for a quick phone call and one last group effort to save the day.

  

Samurai Doggy #2 - Issue 2 and we’re introduced to the next member of our cast. A skinny, futuristic looking Blue Dude. We break away from the story of our Samurai Doggy to follow him for the day. This issue is a fast paced read and I desperately wish I could listen to the album our Blue Dude is slowly getting obsessed with while reading it. He’s got an easy day ahead of him; grab some snacks, grab some ‘blue sky’ (it's definitely their world's weed), and then just vibe for the rest of the day before meeting up with his friends at the bar. But things just can’t seem to go as planned. He drops his whatever-on-a-stick after several close calls, the dealer ups his price at the last minute, and then they forget his free sample. This issue does a great job of building out the world and what the average people in this society look and live like. We see families waiting in the same lines as him for the same things and it really has me wondering what other unknown parameters these people are living inside of. Of course this wouldn’t be Samurai Doggy without a little cameo at the end, and boy does it set up the wait for the next so nicely.

  

The Bone Orchard Mythos: Ten Thousand Black Feathers #1- The team behind the hit horror series Gideon Falls and the sci-fi thriller Primormal, now bring us The Bone Orchard Mythos universe! Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino created The BOM universe in order to deliver horror in unique/unlimited formats. Their introduction to the world was a one shot from free comic book day The Prelude, followed by the hardcover graphic novel The Passageway, and now a new monthly series Ten Thousand Black Feathers. It’s the same universe, but the stories haven’t connected...yet! Here we meet Trish as she returns to her hometown for the first time as an adult, and after a trip to her childhood best friend's house, we know why. We don’t know how but Trish’s friend, Jack, died when they were kids, and the case was never solved. Jack’s mom insists Trish spend the night, and it appears all the emotions of being back home are causing Trish to talk to herself...or maybe someone/something is guiding her. I don’t know how, but Trish might have the ability to commune with her dead friend and get the answers to the mystery of what happened to Jack.

  

Maskerade #1 - I’m not embarrassed to say, Kevin Smith’s influence has shaped me into the person I am today (she typed, next to a Bluntman and Chronic poster), so when I heard he was teaming up with Andy Mcelfresh, I knew I had to pick up this series! We all know Smith has an appreciation for the comic industry and even owns The Secret Stash comic shop, which gained fame from the reality show shot inside. Now The Stash is not only selling comics, they are making them and this breakout issue does not disappoint! The issue opens with a woman jumping to her death, but I’m sure they’ll explain that next issue. This issue focuses more on the people who bring us those stories, the reporters! Dwayne is a reporter who just lost his cushy job at a major news outlet because he got a bit too comfortable with his boss’s wife, but his agent has a back up plan. Felicia Dance is a social media star whose gossip posting online gained her enough fame to get her a TV show, and wants Dwayne to work for her. He has a major in broadcast journalism and thinks working for a “Wendy Williams-esc” show would be a downgrade, but he changes his tune when he hears the pay is 3x what he was making before. This job maybe even stranger than Dwayne expects, because Felicia isn’t just some shit poster... she is a vigilante equip with a high-tech Masker-suit that allows her to shapeshift into different people, and she is on a mission to get revenge on the jerks who experimented on the kids in the orphanage where she was raised...so yeah, things are about to get nuts.

  

Love Everlasting #2 - This fun twist on a romance comic is getting even stranger. Last issue we realized Joan was the same girl in every short story...but then so does she! Every time she finds the man of her dreams, she wakes up in a new universe with a new beau, but this time she doesn’t plan on starting over. Here she is the daughter of a maid who cares for a rich family with a son the same age, and he and Joan become the best of friends. As the two get older, it is clear they are from different worlds, and have to keep their love a secret, which buys Joan enough time to devise a plan. Turns out there is a mysterious cowboy who rides into town and kills Joan after every tryst, transporting her somewhere else. So when the Lord of the manor burst into Joan’s quarters to tell her he wants to run away with her, the cowboy follows guns blazing. When he lets his guard down, Joan delivers a fatal shot, and dies in her lover's arms once again. With them both dead I have no idea what the next issue will bring but I’m definitely excited to find out!