The Longbox Short-List - Week of December 23, 2015

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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!

Comics shipping this week


Kind of just winding down the year here. Lots of books I’m reading this week, but very few new series or anything that really jumps out at me. Let’s see what we can find to talk about…

PATSY WALKER AKA HELLCAT #1 – Initially, I didn’t have any plans to pick this one up, but I’ve enjoyed so much of All-New, All-Different Marvel I’ve been pretty much trying all the number 1’s. I don’t really know Hellcat all that well, but I really did enjoy her in Charles Soule’s She-Hulk series. 

DAREDEVIL #2 – While the new Daredevil series didn’t hook me as quickly as Waid’s run, I still enjoyed the first issue quite a bit. I was a little bummed out by the huge ret-cons of a lot of the last run (EVERYONE HAD FORGOTTEN MATT MURDOCK IS DAREDEVIL), but I still think this has the potential to be a real good series anyway.

BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL #12 – We’re almost halfway through this series now. It’s definitely been a lot stronger than Batman Eternal. Part of it is that the story is much tighter and there aren’t as many loose threads running through the book. This series deals with a woman named Mother who seems to have a lot of ties to the Robins and Batman. 

ROBIN: SON OF BATMAN #7 – Robin War has been a real great story. I have been enjoying the Batman books, so I was expecting it to be good, but it’s really gone above and beyond. I’ve loved seeing the Robins interact with the Robin movement. We’ve also gotten to see how serious Grayson takes his legacy, something we haven’t seen in a long time now.

CYBORG #6 – Cyborg is probably my pick for sleeper hit of 2015. One of the things I’ve really loved about New-52 is that they have really made Cyborg an important character, and David Walker has done a great job with this series.

GOTHAM BY MIDNIGHT #12 – WHY IS THIS SERIES ENDING?? While I did think it got off to a slow start, Gotham By Midnight has become one of the best series over the last few months. I think it shines a light on some forgotten corners of Gotham City. I hope that we get more of these characters and stories someplace.