The Longbox Short-List - Week of December 7, 2016

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Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 12/06/2016 - 07:34

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

JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS #3 – Issue 2 might have been the most fun comic I’ve read in forever. It just threw every trope in the book and had a great time making fun of them. COMIC BOOK SCEINCE! It just worked so well. It is always hard to judge a book based on only a few issues, but JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS is definitely a contender for comic of the year for me.

REGGIE AND ME #1 – More Archie relaunch! This time we got Tom DeFalco (Spider-Girl!) and Sandy Jarrell shining the spotlight on Reggie Mantle. Reggie is the ultimate egotist, and I am really curious how you can make a series (even a 5 issue mini series like this one) about Reggie entertaining. But the Archie relaunch has had a lot more hits than misses, so I will definitely check it out.

NOVA #1 – Richard Rider is back!!! I actually do like Sam Alexander, but the original Nova was in the first comic I ever bought for myself (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #351), so he’s always been one of my favorites. Hopefully this isn’t a fake out and we have Rider to stay.

CLONE CONSPIRACY #3 – This one has taken some real odd twists and turns. It started as a “simple” Jackal story, and has someone evolved into “a massive zombie threat threatens the entire multiverse.” Not quite sure that is the right scale for a Spider-Man story, but I have enjoyed Slott’s run, so I am not inclined to be too judgmental. It’s been an excellent read even if it wasn’t quite what I expected going in.

STAR WARS: DOCTOR APHRA #1 – Not sure she really needs her own series, but I really enjoyed the character in DARTH VADER. This book was actually solicited as a secret project for the first few issues, I guess so people wouldn’t know for sure if she survived the end of DARTH VADER’s series. I have been following all of Marvel’s Star Wars books, so I will pick it up. But I would have preferred they continue DARTH VADER instead of this.

BATMAN #12 – Tom King has done something real brilliant here. He parses out foreshadowing in a way that makes you feel a lot of angst. At the end of his first arc, Gotham Girl’s narrations reveals that Batman will killed sometime relatively soon. Last issue, Catwoman seemed to turn traitor selling Batman out to Bane. Now, my initial instinct is to simply say “this was all part of Batman’s plan.” But every time I thought that, the reveal about the “impending death of Batman.” I found myself thinking about BATMAN #11 for literally days afterwards. That is great comic writing. Loved King’s VISION, and his work on BATMAN might be even better,.

Predator Vs Judge Dredd Vs Aliens #3 (Of 4)
Flintstones #6
Green Arrow #12
Green Lanterns #12
Nightwing #10
Shade The Changing Girl #3
Superman #12
Duck Avenger #2
Mickey Mouse #15
Powerpuff Girls #5
Ringside #8
Savage Dragon #218
All-New Wolverine #15
Avengers #2
Champions #3
Moon Knight #9
Scarlet Witch #13
Spider-Man 2099 #18
Unworthy Thor #2 (Of 5)
A&A The Adventures Of Archer And Armstrong #10
Faith #6
Ninjak #22

In Case You Missed Them

Here are some noteworthy books from last week...

COMIC OF THE WEEK - New Avengers #18 by Al Ewing and Carlos Barberi

Summary: This issue starts at Sunspot’s funeral, but it quickly becomes clear this is all a ruse just to bring the last rogue elements of AIM into the light so the New Avengers can take them down once and for all.

Afterwards, Max Brashear decides to team up with the new Power Man as the new Iron Fist. The White Tigers decide to get out of superheroing, though they are prepared for the return of The Old Tiger. Aikku and Toni seem to be starting a relationship. Sunspot sets Wiccan and Hulkling up with a nice apartment, they briefly discuss reforming the Young Avengers. Sunspot also cleared Songbird’s name, but she’s undecided if she wants to return to SHIELD. Sunspot tells Cannonball that the future of AIM is “American Intelligence Mechanics” and the series will be continued as US Avengers.

Review: I am a huge New Mutants fan, so I loved this comic just for the hilarious reunion at the pretend funeral. Doug’s cluelessness was just so funny.

Throughout the series, there were times New Avengers felt like shocking moment after shocking moment just for the sake of trying to keep the reader unbalance. That said, I still really enjoyed this book. Sunspot showed himself to be pretty good leader. Not quite sure he was ever really a hero here, but that worked well. This issue balanced good storytelling, strong characterization, and a lot of humor. This one is actually my pick for comic of the week!

USAvengers seems to have a very different lineup, so curious how much of the stories here will be continued. I hope we still get a lot of New Mutant cameos.

Score: 5/5

Inhumans Vs X-Men #0 by Charles Soule and Kenneth Rocafort

Summary: This issue covers a period of about 8 months. Beast is in New Attilan working on a way for mutants to survive the Terrigen Mists. When the story starts, he’s pretty optimistic, but as time passes he becomes more and more jaded. In the end, he discovers that the Terrigen has basically permeated the entire planet including the Savage Land. Beast decides to keep this secret from the Inhumans and calls for a meeting of all the mutants.

Meanwhile, Emma spends that same period looking to rally mutants together, including the All-New X-Men, Magneto and some mysterious woman (Sage, Selene or Mystique are my guesses), ready to do “whatever is necessary” to stop the Terrigen Mists. At points Emma seems to be losing her grasp on reality, seeming unsure if Cyclops died of Terrigen Mists or if Black Bolt killed him. Emma arrives to X-Haven and tells Storm she’s here to save the day.

Review: Well, this was better than Death of X at least, but it really would have been hard for it to be worse. I have re-read the last issue of Death of X three times now, and I still can’t figure out what Cyclops did that made him a pariah to everyone. Black Bolt is believed by most people to have killed Cyclops in cold blood, and that is cool. But Cyclops (well, really a construct of Cyclops made by Emma) turns the Terrigen Mists cloud inert and he’s a horrible person. I get Inhumans hating him, but to me, if the choice is your holy mist or the live of an entire group of humanity, the mist has to be destroyed. How can mutants and humans all hate Cyclops for his actions? It’s just bad writing.

This comic really just was all about setting up the big battle between the Inhumans and X-Men. I am sure I am biased because I have never liked the Inhumans, but I have found this whole Terrigen Mists storyline to be tedious and can’t wait for it to be over. Huge fan of Charles Soule, but to me, he is wasted on the Inhumans line. I am still holding out hope for ResurreXion to revitalize the X-Men line, but I can’t help but think Marvel has no interest in really telling X-Men stories I want to read anymore.

Score: 3/5

Savage #1 by B. Clay Moore, Lewis LaRosa, and Clayton Henry

Summary: The comic starts with a wild action sequence showing a young tweenage boy fighting a dinosaur. We flash back to that boy as a baby. His parents are basically real thin David and Victoria Beckham analogues called the Sauvages. Their plane crashes on a desert island. In the end, the father exploring the island. He finds a crashed cruise ship full of dead bodies, and as he tries to head back to his family he finds himself face to face with a dinosaur.

Review: Since Valiant came back a few years ago, they seem to have done pretty well for themselves, even without some of the core characters from earlier incarnations of Valiant. Back in the day, Valiant had been licensing characters from the old Gold Key Comics like Turok, Magnus Robot Hunter, and Solar. When I saw the original solicitation for Savage, I couldn’t help but think that it seemed like they were looking to fill the void of Turok. I am happy to say that after reading the comic, it definitely isn’t Turok...but is it a good comic?

Savage actually borrows a little more from Ka-Zar than Turok.

The start of this comic had me real hyped up. Lots of great action and it felt like we were in for a pretty exciting ride. But unfortunately, the rest of this comic is taken up by a flashback sequence that takes far too long and had some terribly clunky dialogue. It almost felt like I was reading a first draft of a script where the characters had to overexplain everything. Too many drawn out explanations like, “I’m afraid these tins you scavenged from the plan won’t last much longer. Especially if I’m to keep the baby fed.” It feels like they don’t trust the reader to be able to figure out anything on their own.

There is also a dramatic shift in the art style from the beginning of the book to the flashback sequence. I actually like Clayton Henry’s work quite a bit, but the early pages featuring the battle against the dinosaur felt a lot more powerful.

This wasn’t a bad comic at all, just not quite as strong as many of Valiant’s other first issues.

Score: 3.5/5