Rob's Picks:

Batman: Bad Seeds Gotham Central #1 - The perilous plants of Mayor Poison Ivy are running wild on the streets of Gotham, Vandal Savage is going scorched earth in his war on Batman, and among the chaos, there is still good old-fashioned police work to be done. Like the original Gotham Central, this event tie-in takes a hard look at how regular cops do the job in a city rife with super-criminals. With the apocalyptic scale of Bad Seeds and ex-Commissioner Jim Gordon at the center, writer Christopher Cantwell (Regarding the Matter of Oswald’s Body) gets to up the stakes for an exceptional procedural thriller. As is often the case, it all starts with a body, this one tucked away in the vegetation of the Gotham Arboretum. Creatures of Ivy’s creation have already caused plenty of death and destruction, but Gordon sees that this is the work of a human monster. Gathering his few allies in the GCPD and private detective Harvey Bullock, Jim realizes the perpetrator is one of Arkham's most feared inmates, and his next target is Dr. Zeller, whose mind-altering invention has been the macguffin of Matt Fraction’s Batman. Her only hope is to escape on the last train out of town, giving Gordon and company a ticking clock to race against. This is a fast-paced thriller that wastes no time, nailing plot points with neat economy while finding enough moments of character to avoid feeling rushed. Apart from our main cast of characters, Anarky sets off on an opportunistic crime spree, providing a secondary thread that injects some extra action and humor into the story.

Marvel Gold ‘76 #1 - Four characters who made their debut in 1976 collide in this caper from Grim’s Stephanie Phillips. Bullseye, the man who never misses his shot (most of the time), takes on an unusual contract from the Mad Titan himself, who wants him to kill what seems to be an ordinary man. What appears to be a humble janitor is actually a being whose life is tied to the continued existence of the universe itself. Since the universe is where we keep all our stuff, there are plenty of interested parties looking to intervene, so Bullseye will need to use all his skill and cunning to get his shot past a trio of heroes. Rocking their classic ’70s fits are Starlord, Nova, and Jack of Hearts, who arrive on the scene and immediately begin complicating each other's plans for saving the universe. The action is relentless pandemonium, every move by our heroes answered with an off-the-cuff reversal from Bullseye. This escalating series of actions and counteractions by Phillips gives the book a spectacularly fun Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote dynamic, the kind of madcap energy you get when Marvel lets characters collide without regard for continuity or consequence. If the high drama of the Queen in Black event is getting stale, pick this up for a palate cleanser.

The Karman Blade #1 - The team that gave us Little Bird and Precious Metal have reunited for a stunning, dreamlike fantasy. On a desolate world, men toil to survive a parched waste ruled by an evil god that has taken all the water from the land. One such survivor is Anatta, a young man haunted by visions. When the god’s followers take him from his home, he joins countless others doomed to be sacrificed, only to learn he has been chosen for a different fate. It is his destiny to wield the Karman Blade, a weapon sent from the heavens to set the waters free once again. Darcy Van Poelgeest brings their signature style to this dark fantasy, full of fantastical abstractions and grotesque detail. The divine messengers of Anatta's dreams have an unsettling otherworldliness, with several pages evoking the demonic pandemonium of Hieronymus Bosch, and the narration and dialogue by Ian Bertram give this book the tone of an especially twisted fairytale. There is almost nothing else to compare this to, but if you enjoy the kind of daring, unconventional European comics that were the mainstay of classic Heavy Metal, The Karman Blade will absolutely rock your world.

Jupiter's Picks:

Here are the three cleaned up in the same format as always, keeping your voice and structure intact.

Six of Us #1 - If you liked watching FRIENDS and thought to yourself, “I wonder what would happen if the actors from that show had a comic written about them?”, this is your book! Six of Us briefly explores how the actors themselves react to being in a long-running sitcom and the growing tensions between them as adults. The issue starts off with the funeral of one of the six actors, Timothy, who committed suicide. He narrates us through the first bits of the story, telling us how each of the actors wants their funerals to go while also introducing us to our cast. The names of the actors are told to us alongside the character tropes they play in the show, such as the fun one (Timothy McQueen as Taylor) and the motherly one (Selina Castro as Brook). Our narrator, Timothy, brings us to a quick flashback of the so-called family before they were popular actors. He shows us how the industry has evolved them in the way they carry themselves and how much the group has bonded with one another, for better or worse. The opening song and title is then played out for us through a couple of pages, giving us a very familiar opening that we’ve seen before on F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The happy theme song is then followed up by the crime scene of Timothy McQueen’s suicide, or so we think. Read Six of Us to form your own guesses as to what happened to Timothy, and why!

The Folk of Dooney Hollow #1 - Cryptids, an unsolved mystery, and a very curious main character are what you're in for when reading this comic! There is a small story told in the beginning of a nameless character running from a monster. They stumble upon a mud-like tower and say, “N-no. Not here...”, which makes us wonder if they’ve had a previous experience with this monster. It’s as if this creature is a protector of this statue, immediately launching to catch our young protagonist. As quickly as this story concludes, our next one begins. The main character, Kerri, seems to be the one we will be following for the remainder of the plot. Whatever mystery the first character was attempting to solve is what Kerri is trying to figure out. So far in the story, the mud statue is the center of the puzzle. She seems to have an idea of where to start looking, mentioning being able to find the area through GPS. Unfortunately for her, that plan will fall through without a proper connection. While struggling to find where she's supposed to be going, she stumbles and falls, revealing what she has been hunting for! Will she meet the same fate as the first protagonist, or will she be prepared? We will find out together in the next issue of this incredible comic!

Forever Home #1 - This story starts us off with a normal family: Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, and the dog, of course. We are shown a dinner scene of typical family quarrels, the main one being that the kids don't listen to their parents. The son, Tommy, hurt himself playing indoors, as he’s been told not to do. He asks his father why he can't simply play outside. As readers, we too wonder what could be wrong, and as we read more, we come to see that the world outside of this home is barren and seemingly almost lifeless. There is a singular plant growing outside that is focused on, and we see it grow at an unnatural rate. Tommy questions how this is possible, and we are given a strange answer. The world outside passes much faster than the interior of the house; one year goes by outside while only 20 minutes passes by inside. As far as post-apocalyptic worlds go, this is a very intriguing way of going about it. It makes you wonder if they are the last survivors or not, and how this is even possible. The story, however, continues on with our siblings yet again misbehaving and doing exactly what they shouldn't be doing. In this case, that is going past the garden room and further. The two talk to one another about a couple of things, the important subject, however, being about these robots that their parents use to gather supplies for the home. Pick up a copy of Forever Home to find out how the issue resolves and how it leaves us hanging!