Comics

With assistance by Mike Maillaro

Check out Newsarama for a complete list of DC books shipping in January.

GREEN LANTERN CORPS: EDGE OF OBLIVION #1 by TOM TAYLOR & ETHAN VAN SCIVER

Picking up where GREEN LANTERN: LOST ARMY left off! As the universe around them reaches entropy, the Green Lantern Corps must find a way home! Along the way, they’ll face dying gods, worlds torn asunder and a desperate group of survivors whose only hope is these cosmic heroes.

Here’s a bit of a strange story… I have mentioned in the past that I am pretty anal-retentive when it comes to my comic buying. On Google Docs, I have three separate lists dedicated to my month comic buying.

HOUSE OF M #4 by Dennis Hopeless, Cullen Bunn, and Ario Anindito

Summary: Magneto, Polaris, and the Human Resistance are breaking in to the Human Reeducation Center to free the other human rebels.  Alarms so off, so this quickly becomes a fight.  Even without his powers, Magneto is determined to fight as much as he can.  Sentinels arrive to stop the escape.  But Magneto's grandsons, Speed and Wiccan, arrive to lead the Young Avengers to defeat the Sentinels.  Wiccan tries to use his magic to restore Magneto's powers, but he's just not strong enough.  They need Scarlet Witch's power.  Lorna suggests they go rescue her from Quicksilver and Namor.

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

The later part of 2015 is a bountiful time to be a fan of James Bond. Anthony Horowitz's tense, spectacle-filled novel TRIGGER MORTIS was released last month, and the new film SPECTRE reaches American cinemas November 6th. To think, that would be enough to make most years a memorable one for Bondophiles, but for the first time in twenty-years the world's favorite secret agent is available in sequential artistic art! Let's all thank Dynamite Entertainment for rescuing 007 from comic oblivion!

When most people think of Shaft, they probably think of the Richard Roundtree movies. But, John Shaft was originally a character in a series of books by Ernest Tidyman. When I was researching this review, I also discovered they had done a series of TV Movies in 1973-1974 (also starring Richard Roundtree), though they were rotated with other TV movies which doomed the series to failure. There was also an attempt to revive the character back in 2000 with Samuel Jackson playing the title role.

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

The charge is "STAR WARS has dumbed down the perception of science fiction in the popular imagination." Jeff Ritter of CriticalBlast.com represents the Prosecution. 

The very notion of STAR WARS being somehow responsible for “dumbing down” modern science fiction seems preposterous. Of course, the notion is not entirely objective—how does one quantify merit or mediocrity in art, which by its very nature is subjective? How does one quantify the tangible effect of a film from 1977, that wasn’t expected to do much business itself, has had on movies, television, video games, novels, graphic  arts, American and even global pop culture more than 30 years later? I’m sure somebody with a better mind for statistical analysis could find numbers to crunch in this regard, but I find it to be less of a matter of arithmetic and more of a matter of personal taste. Since I can only speak for myself, allow me to take you on a little flashback to the halcyon days of my youth.

JOURNEY TO STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS - SHATTERED EMPIRE #4

Written by: Greg Rucka
Art by: Marco Checchetto
Cover by: Marco Checchetto
Colored by: Andres Mossa
Lettered by: VC's Joe Caramagna

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: $3.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

JOURNEY TO STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS - SHATTERED EMPIRE #3

Written by: Greg Rucka
Art by: Marco Checchetto & Angel Unzueta
Cover by: Marco Checchetto,
Colored by: Andres Mossa
Lettered by: VC's Joe Caramagna

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: $3.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

by Mike Maillaro & Mike Weaver

New Avengers (2015) #1

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

A-FORCE #5 by Marguerite Bennett, G.Willow Wilson, and Jorge Molina

Summary: Loki broke a hole in the shield wall allowing zombies to pour into Arcadia. She-Hulk rallies A-Force to stand against them.  Nico finds herself at the end of the water, and she gets attacked by the mutated shark from the first issue.  Nico seems ready to die, but Starchild saves her.  Nico realizes her name is Singularity (I still prefer called her Starchild).  Singularity charges into the zombies, sucking them up into her pocket dimension. Nico is worried she is going to lose Singularity just like she lost her adopted sister and mother.  Singularity says goodbye and explodes, taking all the zombies with her.

This month’s theme is FIGHT THE FIGHT, a box spotlighting some of the Comic Bento team’s favorites fighters.  This was a fairly random collection, but you get five books and they are a great value, so it’s real hard to complain.  You get over $80 of comics here for $25.  And I enjoyed all but one book in the box. 

I have to admit, I am much more excited about next month’s collection. It’s called “Masks” and it’s curated by Gail Simone! 

X-O MANOWAR – Vol. 2: Enter Ninjak

While on its 15th issue, ROBYN HOOD by Zenescope Entertainment offers a stand-alone to help draw in new readers without alienating them to the story. This is how comic books did it before other companies began rebooting titles every year.

In this, Pat Shand's latest offering of the alluring archer, Robyn and her partner Marian continue their exploits as 'Nottingham Investigations'. It gives off a SUPERNATURAL vibe, only with female protagonists, who also happen to be a witch and an archer.

Front Lines Reviews by Mike Maillaro, Mike Weaver, Grey Scherl, and Gina Maillaro

1602 WITCH HUNTER ANGELA #4 by Marguerite Bennett, Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, and Kody Chamberlain

Summary: Angela and Serah’s skull head to Faerie to finish off Enchantress.  Serah seems to have been manipulating events to distill magic to be ready to stay alive after Enchantress killed her.  All the free floating faerie magic Enchantress has been sending out should allow that to happen.  Serah returns as a ghost.  Angela promises to restore her to full life.  Enchantress arrives.

By Mike Maillaro and Mike Weaver

Amazing Spider-Man (2015) #1

JOURNEY TO STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS - SHATTERED EMPIRE #2

Written by: Greg Rucka
Art by: Marco Checchetto, Angel Unzueta, and Emilio Laiso
Cover by: Marco Checchetto,
Colored by: Andres Mossa
Lettered by: VC's Joe Caramagna

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: $3.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

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

SUPERMAN: LOIS AND CLARK #1 – I was a huge fan of Jurgens’ Superman work in the 90’s, and CONVERGENCE: SUPERMAN was kind of bittersweet for me. I enjoyed the comic, but it just bummed me out that it was memories of a reality that we just can’t see any more. Kind of like AMAZING SPIDER-MAN RENEW YOUR VOWS. So I was thrilled when they announced we would get a comic series telling us what happens to this version of Superman, Lois, and their newborn son. I am really looking forward to this.

If you the reader have ever enjoyed anything I have written, you owe some thanks to Chris Delloiacono and Daron Kappauff.   Chris has been a close friend and writing partner since we met over 15 years ago working at K-B Toys.  Chris ended up doing some writing at 411mania, so I followed the site regularly, though I was annoyed at the time by their lack of coverage for Crossgen.  So I sent an email to the editor, Daron Kappauff, and he basically told me, “If you like Crossgen so much, write up a sample review and I’ll put you in charge of writing for Crossgen.”  I basically had never done a review before, but I gave it a shot, and Daron clearly saw something in me as he hired me.  And I’ve been writing about comics ever since.  Chris ended up at Critical Blast, and as usual, I eventually tagged along and that is how I got here.