Back in Business! Comic Book Pulls+ SPOTLIGHTS on POC, LGBTQ+, and Women in Comics-- July 12th, 20207/12/2020
It has been a minute, hasn't it?
It feels diminutive to try and list all the goings-on of the world and my life in the past 6-months or so, so I'm not going to try and do that here. I might make a long-winded general blog post later, but don't wait for that one. World news is constantly updating, so it may be some time before I figure out how to address these situations. This is my first post since February, and I've just finished redesigning the layout of the site, as well! I'm changing up the format of my posts a little, which I hope will make sense, and also changing the format of the weekly Pull lists. I want to be sure to include and point out the weekly books of great representation. Be it the creative team or subject matter, representation of all people belongs in comics. To further drive this point, I will be including in my pull lists Spotlights on the books that have quality real-world representation in some way. On that note, this also happens to be an EXCELLENT week to start reading new comics--I've got FIVE series premiers picked out and a few more "jumping on points" for ongoing books, all of which make great starting points for new readers! Continue Reading for the down-low on some of the best comics in the biz!
Spotlight on Creators of Color: This week's comic releases have some excellent representation, starting with African-American writer Christopher Priest on Sacred Six and Vampirella. Priest is known for taking what might be called "slept on" characters and giving them an era that becomes quintissential to their canon. For example, at one point in comics history, Marvel's Black Panther was living homeless in New York. It's crazy to believe now, after all the hype from his 2018 movie, but it's true. Priest came in and changed that; made T'challa the character we know and love today, and what Stan Lee and Jack Kirby originally intended. Why it took a man of color breaking through his glass ceiling at Marvel to return Black Panther to his glory, is another conversation altogether. Today, you can continue to support Priest by reading Vampirella and Sacred Six from Dynamite; both of which have strong feminist and LGBTQ+ themes.
Speaking of-- Spotlight on LGBTQ+ Comics: I'm proud to say the comics industry (minus a certain major player) has gotten more unclenched about the representation of various sexual orientations in their books. This week is a great example of that! Empyre is about a gay young adult becoming King of the Universe and uniting two warring worlds. Hulkling, or Teddy, as his friends call him, has been at Marvel since 2005 and has been a key player on their Young Avengers teams. I remember a time where his mere existence was considered to be "extreme" in the comics world, so him starring in an event is a big change. Additionally, characters of a variety of sexual orientations can be found in MANY of this week's releases: Victory (at least) from Sacred Six, Moondragon and Phyla-Vell from Guardians of the Galaxy, Wiccan (who happens to be Hulkling's boyfriend) and Angela from Strikeforce, and our very own Vampirella. Spotlight on Women in Comics: my last weekly spotlight section is for the girls. Women who create, and women who inspire the stories. There are a number of female-led books theses days (hallelujah!), and this week is another great example of that. We have the women of Sacred Six, Ms Bettie Page, Wonder-Woman led Death Metal, the illustrious Spider-Woman, Vampirella, Captain Marvel, Catwoman, and your standard female members of various super-teams. But today I want to focus on the ones that not only star women, but are written by women as well. Karla Pacheo deserves a giant gold star (or equivalent prize of choice) for herself this week. She writes not one but two female led books, both still in their opening stages. Between Spider-Woman #2 and Bettie Page #1, it should be easy to get your fill of Karla this week. I would also be remiss for not including Tini Howard (Strikeforce) and Kelly Thompson (Captain Marvel) from this list. Thompson's severely impressive resume at Marvel includes Hawkeye, West Coast Avengers, Rogue and Gambit, and Jessica Jones: Blind Spot. Her current work alongside Captain Marvel is Deadpool and the soon-to-be-released Black Widow. Howard is known for previous work on Death's Head and Thanos, currently writes Excalibur, and is featured on the upcoming X of Swords Marvel X-Men event. Plus, Tini represents my own queer sexuality, so maybe I'm a ta biased. There is so much representation available, but I'm hardly perfect myself. I know I've missed key points and amazing creators/stories to list here, so I apologize. I am limited by my own knowledge, and strive to learn and grow more through comics.
GIANT-SIZE X-MEN: MAGNETO #1
Head of X writer Johnathon Hickman continues his one-shots of the X-Verse! His Jean Grey and Emma Frost one-shot was one of my favorite comics I have ever read, no lie, so it's not surprising I'm looking forward to this. Hickman is teaming up with Ramon K Perez on art for Magneto's turn at the helm. In the current canon, Magneto is playing the part of diplomat, rather than his traditional role as villain. It's been a total trip to watch him, Xavier, and Apocalypse put their most domestic feet forward in their missions for Krakoa. I expect Magneto to be at his absolute best, meaning, I expect some incredible moments of awe brought on by the Master of Magnetism!
EMPYRE #1
It feels like the EMPYRE event has been coming for SO LONG. And really, it kind of has. The great comics gap brought on by COVID-19 struck just as Marvel started advertising for EMPYRE. Now that the delayed books are coming out, we are still seeing ads for EMPYRE months after it was supposed to originally come out. It is what it is, and the book is finally happening this week. This event is a lot of firsts for Marvel. It marks the end of the Kree/Skrull war, a variety of new alliances that follow, and the crowning of a gay young adult as the King of the Universe. While that last bit might sound a little out there, it's actually an incredible thing to see happen. There was a time in comics, not many years ago, where LGBTQ+ characters were just not represented. In the past few years, many creators (mostly at Marvel, TBH) have seen this as a challenge, and have created some incredible characters of vast representation. The fact that one of the earliest openly gay characters at Marvel is being crowned King of the Universe and uniting two opposing armies under his rule is, actually, pretty fucking awesome. Of course, that all goes without mentioning the fact that this new Kree/Skrull alliance has a new enemy: Earth. Clearly, problems will be had. I can't wait to read this and find out where it goes!
SACRED SIX #1
This new series from Dynamite is a spin-off from writer Christopher Priest's own VAMPIRELLA comic, which also comes out this week. It stars a number of somewhat theologically based fantasy/sci-fi women from the Dynamite universe, who come to a small Southern town to save it from a dark looming war. Honestly, I can't find a better way to describe SACRED SIX than it's solicitation, so I'll leave you with that, and my UTMOST excitement! Spinning out of the current hit series, VAMPIRELLA! Four women are lured to rural Georgia as part of a mysterious scheme to defend an impoverished farming town which finds itself under siege by zealots. But this isn't just any impoverished farming town, and these aren't just any four women. The all-new Draculina, Pantha, Nyx, and Chastity have been brought together in Ashthorne in an effort to avert all-out war against nearby Sacred, Georgia. But Ashthorne has a deadly secret, Sacred has a deadly purpose, and lurking in the shadows is Lilith, the immortal sorceress and mother to Vampirella.
ENGINEWARD #1
As this is another series with a high-concept design, I think I'll leave the solicitation for this one, too. I'm a massive fan a large-scale world building in comics, which this looks set up to display. It feels like a call-back to the old German Sci-Fi film, Metropolis, which took place in a distant, robotic future. Earth is an ancient myth, long forgotten. Now, the word of the god-like Celestials is absolute, and they rule with brutal efficiency. When Joss, an Engineward, discovers and reactivates the head of an ancient ghoulem, she finds all is not as intended. Her destiny-and that of her world-lies somewhere far beyond the borders of her shantytown.
BETTIE PAGE #1
I wasn't planning on buying this book a few days ago, but I happened to read the solicitation and see the creative team, and now I CAN'T possibly leave it! Written by Karla Pacheo and drawn by Vincenzo Federici, this series finds classic Bettie Page signing onto a new fantasy film. The surreal tropical backdrop stops being so perfect when members of the cast start turning up dead, and of course Bettie will be the one to find out why! I've been delving a little more recently into classic comic and horror scene ladies like Lady Death, and Bettie Page falls into that category for me perfectly. I'm already a fan of writer Pacheo after her premier of Spider-Woman (also coming out this week!), so this another no-brainer.
DARK NIGHTS: DEATH METAL #2
If you missed DEATH METAL #1, I'm telling you, get on that! DEATH METAL is the culmination of years of story between creators Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, but don't fret. Snyder and the whole DC team were smart enough to simplify all that story into about a single page, so you don't need to real stacks of volumes for DEATH METAL to make sense. Along the same lines of their previous series, DARK KNIGHTS: METAL, this is another balls-to-the-wall crazy event covering the entire DC continuity. This time, the focus is on Wonder Woman! And what a Wonder she is! In the first issue, we saw the smart, empathetic, furious, determined Diana I adore in all her glory and a new outfit! The world we follow her through is twisted and mutated in the wildest ways, you'll honestly just have to pick it up for yourself to understand. A multiverse of Batmen, the fates of the heroes, and a plan to save to world, all in issue 2 this week! And in case you're wondering, yes, the "K" in Knights (or rather, not is Nights) matters.
SPIDER-WOMAN #2
I'm completely nuts about this series, and we're only two issues in! Karla Pacheo makes her second appearance in my pull list just this week with Jessica Drew's second issue! Pacheo is clearly a life-long Spider-Woman fan, having been born on the day she premiered for the first time. What a bragging right! I can already tell in this series she'll be giving us lot's of throw-backs to Jess's old history and former life as (gasp!) an agent of Hydra! And with this being a new series, of course there is a new outfit! I wasn't such a big fan of her last redesign (the motorcycle look is good as a jacket, but the whole outfit was missing something Spidery IMO), but this one got it spot on. The new suit is a darker version of her traditional look, with black, red, and yellow. Artist Pere Perez draws Jess splendidly, and I can't wait to get my hands on more. BONUS: one of my absolute favorite cover artists, Jenny Frison, is doing the variant cover this week. Check it out--she does brilliant realistic female forms!
THE LUDOCRATS #3
You may think, "billions of lives in the world across thousands of years of written language...surely every sentence to be made has been uttered?" Kieron Gillen and the whole creative team at Ludocrats have some news for you! But really. I have never had so much fun reading a comic. The story is, the world runs around the idea of being ludicrous. "What is ludicrous?" You may ask. For that answer, you're going to have to buy the book. It's not an easy thing to describe, and they don't offer much in terms of solicitation, which I will go ahead and include. Just know, this is the wildest, most insane, trippy journey. Absolutely ludicrous. LUDOCRATS, the comic that makes its whole creative team shout, "Oh God. What have we done? Why didn't anyone stop us?" on a monthly basis.
STRANGE ADVENTURES #3
I don't try and hide my love for Tom King's writing. It's true, I adore it. Even better, though: Tom King teamed up with artist Mitch Gerads. That's what you get in Strange Adventrues--the team that brought you Mister Miracle is back with another shining star artist, Doc Shaner. It may sound off that there are two artists on the book, but I assure you it plays out beautifully. The setting of the story is past and present--the current and the retold--earth, and space. The art plays into those opposing factors like nothing else: one clearer, with firmer lines and thick, opaque coloring; the other with an almost sketched look, a completely different color palette, and multi-media art. Stunning and exquisite. The plot of the book, generally, surrounds Mr Terrific trying to find the truth of Adam Strange's time in space. Strange is doing a book tour, promoting his account of the space war he played the hero for. But there are always two sides to a story, as mentioned before, and we will surely see the truth of those sides bit by bit as we go on. King isn't a perfect writer, I'm not an obsessive fan. But I can recognize he fits perfectly in the role of bringing forward older, "retro" characters and giving them a modern update. Strange Adventures has hit that formula on the nose, and the reviews show it.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #4
This issue of GOTG sounds like it's getting the Guardians back to the place they shine the brightest: smack dab in the middle of crazy-ville. Lest you forgot, the Guardians are recently minus one Starlord, as Peter Quill has once again been killed. I say "once again", because these things tend not to stick in comics. I think this is Quill's 3rd time being killed in about 5 years. To make matters worse, Moondragon's otherworldy counterpart is back, and if I recall, so is the original Drax. To be brutally honest, I have a hard time keeping track of who's who when publishers start throwing parents an children from multiple timelines into the same story. Looking at you, Phoenix saga mess. And don't forget Rocket is freshly back from the almost-dead, and Nova is actually back from the dead, so things are looking pretty crazy as it is. This is also an excellent issue to jump onto the series if you don't alreaddy read it! Written by Marvel's beloved Al Ewing, known for The Immortal Hulk, Ultimates, and No Surrender.
STRIKEFORCE #8
Tini Howard STRIKES again! Let's have a refresher on who's on this team, shall we? BLADE--half-vampire vampire hunter. ANGELA-- once-lost sister of Thor, once Queen of Hel, furious hunter. WICCAN--other-realm son of Scarlet Witch, lover of Emperor Hulking, user of magic. DAIMON HELLSTROM--son of Satan, Ex of Hellcat, also user of magic. WINTER SOLDIER--once-lost BFF of Captain America, kind of assassin, robot arm. SPECTRUM--former Captain Marvel, wielder of light energy, total boss. I want to make a joke about burying the lead with that list but honestly, this team is so good it wouldn't be fair to any of them. It may also be worth mentioning Howard writes WAY better intros for her characters at the beginning of each issue, and those alone are worth the price of the book. In this issue, we have Angela fighting with a queen of the bodysnatchers, really, so it's going to be a great issue!
ONCE & FUTURE #9
Now this is a comic for fantasy lovers. Another creation of Kieron Gillen, Once & Future's King Arthur isn't the one we're used to hearing about in children's tales. This Arthur ruled with an iron fist, was highly nationalist, and has a violent streak as wide as an ocean. He's also just recently returned from the dead and is surprisingly strong for walking skeleton. Jokes aside, Arthur really is becoming more of a threat to our hero, Duncan. We've seen how brutal Arthur can be when tested, like with Duncan's own brother Galahad. Now that the legendary wizard Merlin is at his side as well, it's likely going to take more than Gran's basic knowledge of the supernatural to stop this threat for good. This series is also an incredible example of good coloring and lettering. Many (okay, most) comics fans don't tend to think of people on creative teams like inkers, colorists, and letterers. Once & Future displays why those people are just as important. The contrasting tones of color between the world we know and Arthur's "otherworld" make the change clear without any text needed. Similarly, the use of highly specialized text in the lettering give the reader an accurate impression of a character's voice and tone without the need for excessive text description. Just a thought.
VAMPIRELLA #11
If you haven't kept up with VAMPIRELLA series' in the past due to the lack of direction and questionable continuities, Christopher Priest has the Vampi series for you. At the end of issue 10, we finally made it full circle in Vampirella's story. We started the series by following her talks with her therapist, and here we are finally going to see her initial meeting with him. Apparently he's a trauma specialist working with the airline, who's plane accident's sole survivor was Vampirella. Vampi had also just learned of the murder of her lover and fellow fighter against evil at the hands of their fellow sisters. I'm beginning to realize how convoluted I'm making this sound, so maybe this will be one for the solicitation to help out with. I'm really in love with this series, and it sounds like there will be a few more issues before the plot changes in issue 14, so take this time to catch up! Seduction of The Innocent Continues: In the aftermath of the tragic plane crash that changed Vampirella's life, Vampi's enemies revel in their triumph while she hits emotional rock bottom, having lost the life she'd built as "Ella Normandy." This leads to Vampi seeking help from two unexpected sources: a trauma specialist working with the airline, and, ultimately, the real enemy who's been out to destroy her.
CAPTAIN MARVEL #17
I normally am super against "filler issues", but I'm going to make a big exception for this one. Filler issues are what we call the comics between story lines. In this case, our girl Carol just finished fighting Vox Supreme in issue #16, and #18 begins her venture into the EMPYRE event as Kree Supreme Accuser! So, it's fair she get's an issue off. PLUS- it just so happens this filler issue is also one of my favorite things: a party! I believe it was writer Kelly Thompson herself who started the tradition of what I've come to call Marvel's Furies. A group friendship that includes Carol's Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau's Spectrum, Jessica Drew's Spider-Woman, Jessica Jones, Kamala Khan's Ms Marvel, and Jennifer Takeda's Hazmat. Usually it includes Jennifer Walter's Hulk, but I guess she's got work in the morning this time. To replace her is good old Wolverine! The Logan version, not Laura (though I'm going to take this moment to express my adoration for one Laura Kinney, thank you). Of course, there's always someone who has the ruin the fun, so it's a good thing Carol is surrounded by her favorite people. As I mentioned before, issue #18 of Captain Marvel kicks off her EMPYRE tie-ins, so either this iissue or that would make great jumping on points! I still recommend starting here and getting the vibe of Carol and her support system.
FANTASTIC FOUR #21
This is my own jumping-on issue for Fantastic Four, actually. It's a tie-in to the new EMPYRE event, so I imagine it won't be too hard to follow along. I read the recent FF one-shot for the event, and can say Dan Slott is handling Marvel's first family superbly. Since I don't really have much to say aside from that yet, here's the solicitation: EMPYRE TIE–IN! With the Fantastic Four neck–deep in the menace in space, who can Powerhouse and Brainstorm call upon to deal with the crisis down on Earth? Only Spider–Man and Wolverine, of course!
CATWOMAN #23
This Catwoman issue will be an interesting study for me, I think. Joelle Jones ended her run on Catwoman around the time Tom King left Batman, Rumor has it, she left because she didn't like the direction of the story. Jump ahead a few issues in Batman with a new writer, and the character of Catwoman has been diminished to something totally different. In Batman 94, Bruce and Selina speak over the phone after she's been shot. It was a definitely supposed to come off like a touching, empathy drawing moment, but I found myself loudly questioning what the hell is going on as Bruce told Selina he "knows she never signed up for this life", insinuating a life of crime must be shocking to her. In reality, Selina has been a criminal since her teenage years, has been shot before, and certainly has been on the verge of death before. Why was Batman acting like the world of Gotham is new and foreign to one of it's longest citizens? In any case, this new issue of Catwoman has her heading to somewhere new for a new heist! Sean Gordon Murphy features on art as well as co-writing with Blake Northcott, so expect a lot of stylized action and adventure!
VENOM #26
I may have only been reading Venom since just before last year's Absolute Carnage event, the series has already gotten it's hooks stuck. Donny Cates has been doing such a fantastic job of ultimately world-building the history of the Symbiotes. Absolute Carnage showed us the God of the Symbiotes, Knull, and we've been getting trickled bits of information here and there as teases for what's coming next. And if you read Absolute Carnage, you know what's coming is KNULL! The darkest, evilest, vilest, baddest of the baddies! At least, that's what Cates has led us to believe so far. My question right now is, how does all of this tie into Scream? The daughter of Carnage recently had her own series that I seriously loved, which referenced the Absolute Carnage event and even brought in another godlike symbiote character. I'm hoping they'll tie her into Venom a little more before it's all over.
AVENGERS #34
If you've been looking for a good jumping on point for this Avengers series, you're looking for issue #33. In this week's #34, we see the aftermath of Moon Knight's return to comics. Moon Knight is granted his powers from the Egyptian god Khonshu. What Khonshu wills, he sees through. The thing is, what is Khonshu wants to be a megalomaniac overlord on Earth? Well, that might be problematic. To be honest, this team book isn't my favorite. That should be fairly clear. I tend to enjoy the writing of Jason Aaron, and all the members of this team are pretty good, but it does suffer from 2/7th syndrome (the trend of cape teams being 7 members with only 2 women), and the lack of female drive shows. I'm kind of over the days of Captain America and Iron Man being the Big Two of the Avengers. Marvel has proved they have so many other characters who can fill those slots beautifully; going back to those two straight white men feels like backpedaling. But I digress. I'm very into Moon Knight, so this should be a lot of fun! Check back Thursday for my TOP PICKS of the week from these reads!
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