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The holidays are a whirlwind of family, friends, and food, but usually a slow period in the world of comics. The past two weeks were no exception, with only a few notable #1’s hitting the shelves.

In the final week of 2012, Image Comics stepped up again with a new series written by Brian Wood, Mara #1.  The title character is Mara Prince, the super athlete of her time, living in a future world obsessed with physical prowess, sports, and war. After her world was nearly consumed by conflict, corporate-backed sporting leagues of every variety grew into an unprecedented global obsession, fueling a society driven by physical greatness and celebrity. Mara is the greatest of all the athlete celebs, a combination of girl-next-door beauty and warrior-like physical acumen, and she’s completely famous and utterly wealthy to boot. In fact, we’re told this so many times during the course of the first half of the comic that it’s tough to be on her side. If she’s the hero here, we assume she’ll face some sort of adversity, but she’s put on such a pedestal, it’s hard not to want to see her fall from it. The entire buildup has an air of unreality to it, and when Mara suddenly develops super human abilities while on television in the midst of a game, it’s hard to know if this is the beginning of her struggles, or a well deserved comeuppance. Still, as a woman and a person of color, Mara is a character that’s rarely seen in comics. Instead of the system of the future exploiting her for her good looks, she seems to be using the system to her own advantage. She’s also possibly in a lesbian relationship with one of her teammates, so there’s a lot going on here that’s interesting. Still, there’s a subplot of a dangerous fan in the background of this story, and the plot structure is a little all over the place, in particular Mara’s development of supernatural gifts, seemingly at random. This story might bear following for its positive representations of a minority character, but it needs to get it’s narrative act together. Continue reading →

Most often, the world of comics is known for fantastically original ideas. Vivid art of worlds that couldn’t possibly be imagined. Heroic people with terrific abilities battling villains of unknown evil and power. Stories of horror and violence, of love and passion, of absurdity, vitality, or pure childlike wonder. Other times, you get product tie-ins. Gross.

This week there are two cross-media promotional #1’s in the shelves. Dark Horse Comics brings us Django Unchained #1, based on the original screenplay of the upcoming Quentin Tarantino film. With a forward written by the director, the comic purports to be the adaptation of the full screenplay, before editing limited the film to its 2 and a half hour running time. Tarantino promises loads of additional scenes and backstory over the course of the 5 issue run, things that will not appear in the film. Sadly, this means everything that does appear in the film is here in the comic, making it the spoiler of all spoilers. Beyond that, this is a story that doesn’t lend itself particularly well to the comic medium. Any fan of Tarantino knows that man is a master of dialogue first and foremost, and while comics contain dialogue to push the story forward, they also need free-flowing action, at least in the case of Western adventure tales. Here, there’s a lot of talking without much happening, and you begin to see why the director cut some of this stuff out of the movie. More than anything, this felt like a tedious movie preview, being only the first part of five, and I wouldn’t recommend it. Continue reading →

This week’s new offerings are without a doubt the strangest group of comics in a long while. Sure, every now and then the indie companies throw out a Zaucer of Zilk, or a Multiple Warheads, and surrealist comics are nothing new, but this week we have no fewer than five stories that are mysterious, unreal, or downright hallucinatory. Plus, there’s a new Sherlock Holmes offering that’ll have Doyle fans captivated, more new super hero fare from MarvelNOW!, and a YA homage that’s downright distasteful. Continue reading →

Welcome back to a week with a great many new #1 offerings on the comic shelves. There’s a ton to get through this week with no less than eight new titles, so let’s get to it.

First up is another solid delivery from Image Comics, Kel Symons and Mark Robinson’s I Love Trouble #1. Felicia is a tough as nails grifter fleeing New Orleans, having gotten on the wrong side of some shady characters back home in the Big Easy.  While on a flight out of town, her plane crashes in a Kansas field, but Felicia miraculously survives. She discovers, mid-crash, that she has the ability to teleport herself simply by thinking she’d rather be somewhere else. Not one to waste a gift on something simple, Felicia is back home before you know it, and starts using her new found gift to relieve unsuspecting citizens of their cash, in hopes of paying off her debt to the mob. The mobsters, ouf course, have other ideas for using Felicia’s talents. This is a fun little tale of super ability told from a real world perspective: no spandex or monsters, just an unusual turn of supernatural events. Felicia is an interesting character, a tattooed bad-girl with plenty attitude, and the book is appropriately named for certain. The artistic style is fresh and frenetic, lending energy to a compelling story. Continue reading →

This week, there are some solid new #1’s on the shelves, with work by a pair of legendary artists with new visions. Just for fun, there are also two titles from last week that got passed over, so I’ll throw them in to this week’s mix. Who’s giving us solid characters and admirable ideas, and who’s just blowing stuff up? Let’s take a look.

First up is the most impressive comic in scope this week, to be certain. It’s Masks #1, from Dynamite! Entertainment, written by Chris Roberson (Fables, iZombie) and painted by the inimitable Alex Ross (Kingdom Come). Ross is one of the most sought after cover artists in the business, and his painted work here is fantastic as usual. Masks is something of a comic super-group, but it’s unlike anything you might see in the Avengers or Justice League. Dynamite is the comic house that has embraced the heroes of the past, with some of the oldest street vigilante characters, like The Shadow, and The Green Hornet and Kato. Now, they are bringing all of them together in one classic tale of trench coats, fists, and.45’s.  The book features the aforementioned classic characters, who each star in their own Dynamite series as well, as well as Dynamite’s newly created 30’s era vigilante, the Spider, and fan favorite Zorro. These are heroes who’ve given up relying on the law to solve society’s problems, and they are ready to dispense their own brand of justice. Gathering together in New York City, they’re ready to fight a corrupted political regime determined to bring that old ‘30’s era villain, Fascism, right into America’s greatest city. The book does feature some solid characters of color, including the ever popular Kato, and a pre-mask appearance by Raphael Vega. It did seem excessive to have the corrupt police officers, who serve as the story’s villains, refer to him with a racist epithet. Granted, the writers are trying to establish both the time period and the vile nature of the bad guys, but it still was jarring and could have been handled another way. Still, we’re sure to see these racist thug cops get their comeuppance, and it’ll be nice to see it come at the hands of two characters of very different origins. One hopes Roberson treats them with respect, but I’ll be back to see what happens. Continue reading →

There were relatively few new #1’s on the shelves this week compared to the glut we had leading up to Halloween, but the second of the fall holidays didn’t prove to inspire much in the comics world.  There was one solid golden egg in the bunch, thankfully, but most of the new stories in comics this week amount to not much more than fodder.

The best of this week’s new offerings is from Image, who continually serve up great creator owned books. Their latest is Clone #1, from first time comic writer David Schulner, gives us an exciting story of one man’s realization that he’s not exactly who he thinks he is. Dr. Luke Taylor is plagued by nightmares of people trying to murder him, sabotaging what little sleep he can get, as he faces the stress of becoming a father. A man identical to him appears in his kitchen with a bullet in his belly, and Taylor’s 8-months pregnant wife is kidnapped by yet another photocopy of himself, thus launching our protagonist into an adventure that has the feel of a real world Matrix. There is very little sci-fi here, beyond the cloning itself, but the thrills don’t need electronic lights and flying spaceships. Dr. Taylor’s wife Amelia is one tough lady, resilient and not willing to be a victim even when she’s so near to being a new mom, managing to almost escape her captor and showing very little fear in the face of a frightening situation. It’s nice to see a book about a couple both trying to salvage a life that has suddenly unraveled. Continue reading →