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The Longbox Short-List - Week of December 9, 2015
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Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 12/08/2015 - 07:12
Welcome back to Critical Blast’s weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week. Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that. Let's get to it!
BATMAN/TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #1 – How did it take so long for this to happen??? Back in the 90’s, it seemed like everyone was crossing over, and this was always one of my dream crossovers. I am glad that it’s finally happening. And that is has such a huge creative team.
James Tynion IV and Freddie Williams II should really crush this one.
ROBIN WAR – Man…can’t they have spread this crossover out a little better? We get four issues this week. Detective Comics, Gotham Academy, Grayson, and Red Hood. When I am sitting down to type up these picks, I haven’t read last week’s Robin War 1 yet, but I have been looking forward to this crossover. I read just about all these books normally anyway (only one I don’t read is Gotham Academy).
NEW ROMANCER #1 – I honestly don’t know why I am picking this one up. I do like Peter Milligan’s work most of the time, but he’s not someone I rush out to buy usually. And the concept of the book (Lord Byron seems to be reincarnated and attempting to take over dating sites) isn’t something that would usually appeal to me. But just something about this combo convinced me to give it a shot. If nothing else, it’s different and that always gets extra points from me.
PRECINCT #1 – Dynamite’s newest steampunk experiment. I will admit, I was kind of hoping for more LEGENDERRY, but this title still looks great. I am actually working on getting a preview copy of it right now. Dynamite is usually pretty good with that kind of thing.
SYMMETRY #1 – Another new book from Image. I complain a lot that every future in comics seems to be a dystopia. Symmetry goes a slightly different route. We see a future utopia…but there is something problematic going on behind the scenes. The preview pages for this book really caught my eye. And Image puts out a lot of great new books, so I really am curious about this one.
TROOP #1 – As you can see, there are a lot of new books coming out this week that I am interested in. TROOP is from Titan and is supposed to present us with a new take on superpowers. But, to be honest, I am pretty much 90% buying it just because it’s written by Noel Clarke. I always liked him as an actor, and I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews about his work as a writer and director. So I have to check this one out.
SECRET WARS #8 – At least! The last issue of Secret Wars is here. It’s taken forever, but….wait. What do you mean they extended this to 9 issues? Are you serious? The long national nightmare will never end. My grandkids will still be waiting for this dull series to wrap up. Which is ironic, because Marvel will have relaunched their books at least 25 more times by then…
UNITY #25 – I can’t believe they are ending Unity. I give Valiant some credit for not spreading themselves thin by publishing too many titles at once. But it still bugs me when they end series I really enjoy. Unity was the center of the Valiant universe for me with so many books and characters intersecting here. And the story arcs were some of my favorite in comics. Definitely will miss this one.
ALL-NEW HAWKEYE #2 – I know a lot of people loved Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye series, but I got tired of it real quick. I really enjoyed Lemire’s brief run on Hawkeye last year, and the relaunch/continuation of it has been real brilliant. It takes place a few years in the future so shows both Hawkeyes dealing with the long term ramifications of the terrible things that happened in the end of the last series. Lemire can be a little hit or miss for me, but Hawkeye is a great fit for him.
