The Longbox Short-List - Week of March 4, 2015

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

Descender #1 – Jeff Lemire is pretty much as close as you get to a guaranteed good comic.  Descender is a sci-fi series coming out from Image about a young android trying to survive in a world where android have been banned.  And Dustin Nguyen is doing the art.  I loved his work on Lil Gotham.  Lemire is also doing All-New Hawkeye this week, and I am looking forward to both titles.

Guardians Team-Up #1 – I was just talking to my friend Mike about this yesterday…how many series does Guardians need?  And we’re getting a Starlord/Kitty Pryde series as part of Secret Wars.  I think they are definitely reaching critical mass here.  That said, I love Team-Up books, so I will give the first issue a shot.

Princess Leia #1 – Marvel’s Star Wars books have been really good so far.  I actually think it would have been cooler to see a Leia series set before A New Hope (like Star Wars and Darth Vader, this series is set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back), but with Waid and Dodson doing this book, it is going to be great anyway.

X-O Manowar #34 – X-O is starting a new arc this month.  X-O has consistently been one of Valiant’s best books since it launched. If you haven’t tried it before, this is a great month to check it out!

G.I. JOE #6 – I’ve been a big GI Joe comics fan since Image brought it back in 2001.  Since then, I have gone back and read everything that came out before and since.  IDW’s been telling some great GI Joe stories, though they keep ending series and relaunching with status quos that don’t quite match up with the earlier IDW series. But the comics have still been great, and I’m willing to ignore some continuity questions as long as I get a great comic.

Grayson #8 – Grayson is a terrific comic that goes a long way towards showing how far you can bend the superhero genre.  And Mikel Janin’s art always impresses me!

Batman Eternal #48 – Counting down to the end of this series.  I’m not sure if DC can possibly tie it all up in less than a month, but I’ve really enjoyed it and can’t wait to see how DC builds on everything that’s been going on in Batman Eternal.

Woods #11 – I don’t remember who recommended this series to me, but OH MY GOD it is awesome.  A group of students have been “kidnapped” and sent to an alien world.  The amount of detail that has gone into this series is just incredible.  I can’t believe it’s only been 11 issues…they have done so much, I keep thinking it’s been around for far longer than that.

Spider-Woman #5 – This book really has surprised me by how good it’s been.  It will be nice to see what they can do with it outside of Spider-Verse.  I didn’t have a lot of interest in the series when it launched, as I’ve never really had that strong a connection to Jessica Drew, but it’s been great so far.

Saga #26 –BKV’s constantly need to tell us what’s going to happen next reminds me a lot of Stephen King.  The crazy part is that this works as a brilliant way to torture the reader and keep us interested in seeing how it all plays out. 

Batman And Robin #38 – I am actually bummed out that Tomasi won’t be writing Batman and Robin after Convergence.  This continues to be one of my favorite books every month.  I can’t say this enough…that someone can bring Robin back from the dead and give him superpowers and still make me really enjoy the series, that is a rare gift indeed.