The Longbox Short-List - Week of October 7, 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

After two relatively small weeks, this week is just about the biggest week of comic buying I’ve had in a very long time!

SURVIVORS CLUB #1 – As soon as I saw Lauren Beukes’s name on this one, I knew I had to buy it. Beukes wrote two of my favorite books in the last two years Shining Girls and Broken Monsters. One of my favorite things about her is that when I sent her a message about how much I loved that she name dropped Maxx in Shining Girls, she admitted that it didn’t make any sense timeline wise to the story, but she was such a fan she slipped it in anyway. That makes her awesome in my book. Besides, Survivors Club has an awesome concept. What happens to characters who survive at the end of a horror movie? What would happen if they all formed a support group? And what if these horrors were all preparing them for a bigger crisis. CAN’T WAIT TO READ THIS!!

PAPER GIRLS #1 – While I didn’t really love We Stand On Guard, I still consider myself a pretty big fan of Brain K. Vaughan. Paper Girls has been described as “War of the Worlds” meets “Stand by Me” with four paper girls encountering some kind of major horror in the wee hours of Halloween. It’s looking like there is going to be a theme in October’s comics…

SECRET WARS – Kind of sad that Secret Wars is still going on…with no real end in sight…even though Marvel started their “All-New, All-Different” relaunch. Most of my favorite SECRET WARS tie-ins have already finished up. Of the ones coming out this week, I am pretty much just looking forward to SPIDER-ISLAND and OLD MAN LOGAN. I don’t even care about the core series all that much. Jonathan Hickman does just about nothing for me.

JUGHEAD #1 – As much as I’ve enjoyed the Archie relaunch, I am probably more looking forward to this title. Jughead has been given a lot of depth in the Archie series, and now he’s getting his own series by Chip Zdarsky, who I’ve loved on Howard the Duck. He should be a great fit for this title!

BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL #1 – While it may have gone on a little long, I really enjoyed BATMAN ETERNAL. I was a bit dismayed that all the changes set up in the book have already been retconned out. Gordon on the outs with the GCPD. Catwoman head of Gotham’s crime family. Arkham Asylum temporarily being housed in Wayne Manor. The introduction of Penny-Two and Bluebird (not really retconned, but they haven’t appeared much). So that does kind of temper my expectations for BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL…

WHAT IF…INFINITY – I didn’t care much for INFINITY (Hickman again), but I love WHAT IF comics. I actually really want Marvel to do another WHAT IF series. The one off specials they do every now and then don’t quite scratch my itch for alternate reality stories. WHAT IF was one of my first favorite comic series back in the 90’s, and I think it’s long past time they gave it another shot.

TELOS #1 – I can’t help but wonder why it’s taken DC so long to do their CONVERGENCE follow up series. At this point, the events of CONVERGENCE have faded a little. I am really looking forward to TITANS HUNT and Jurgen’s LOIS AND CLARK series. TELOS reminds me a little too much of Silver Surfer, but I am still going to check this series out anyway.

ALL-NEW ALL-DIFFERENT POINT ONE #1 – That is just one awkward title. Marvel has been a little hush hush about which titles will be featured here. Their website says Carnage, Agents of SHIELD, Daredevil, Contest of Champions, and then CLASSIFIED a few times. But any book that has Al Ewing, Scottie Young, and Charles Soule writing stories will have my attention. Though I am not a fan of the $6 price point. They should do this as a cheaper giveaway to hype their new series, not forcing fans to pay $6 to get the privilege of reading previews. Especially since Marvel has quite a few books debuting today, many of them with 5 or 6 dollar cover prices (Contest of Champions, Avengers 0, and Amazing Spider-Man).

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 – I can’t believe Slott is still on Spider-Man. That is not negativity, I like Slott’s Spider-Man a lot. I just assumed that Spider-Verse was basically his grand finale. Real curious what he’s going to do with Spider-Man next.

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #1 – The only book launching from Marvel this week that is only $4 (which is still damn high). I know Bendis gets a lot of flak from people, but I enjoy his work, especially when he’s doing one character and not a team book. His Alias and Daredevil are among my favorite comic runs ever. I think Bendis can bring something cool to Iron Man, so I will be a customer here.

STAR WARS – Another huge week for Star Wars comics with four of them coming out at once. SHATTERED EMPIRE, DARTH VADER, LANDO, and STAR WARS. They definitely could be spread out better since I am sure most fans (like myself) are buying most if not all of them. But, Marvel has done a great job with STAR WARS, so I can’t complain all that much. My wallet sure is though…

PLUTONA #2 – I wasn’t sure what to expect from Plutona, but I really enjoyed the first issue. The characters were really well done, and I immediately wanted to know the rest of the story. Jeff Lemire can be a little hit or miss at times for me (loved Animal Man, hated Descender, Justice League United is very up and down), but Plutona seems like it will be a good one.

POWERS #5 – I can get a little weird about keeping lists. Every month I go through Previews, and keep a log of each comic I will plan on buying on Google Docs. And when the New Release List comes out, I cross each book off the list to remind myself to buy it. Powers 5 was supposed to come out in April of this year. I typically enjoy Powers, but it’s real hard to stick with a book with this bad a release schedule.

BTW, I want to point out some other books that were on that list that still have not come out:

April - Velvet 12, Afterlife with Archie 9
May - Uncanny X-Men 600, Powers 6, Velvet 13
June - Shield 1 (From Archie’s Black Line)