The Longbox Short-List - Week of June 1, 2016

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

Last week was a bit crazy with Cap going Nazi, DC going all crazy, and Superman going all dead while no one cared. Yep, it’s the summer comic season people. Grab on to your bankbooks, because it just gets more expensive from here!

THE REVISIONIST #1 – I have always considered it a real good idea that when you are naming something, always start with the letter A. Aftershock ends up at the top of this column often not just because I love their books (which I do), but because my pull list is sorted alphabetically by company. Revisionist is Aftershock’s newest title. I was kind of disappointed that it’s not 2 bucks like many of Aftershock’s first issues, but I am still really excited about this story of a time-traveling assassin. Aftershock continues to put out a lot of cool and unique books by top-shelf creative teams. 

STRANGE ATTRACTORS #1 – Like Dark Horse’s Mae, Strange Attractors is another series that started life as a graphic novel. Charles Soule is one of my favorite comic writers, so I am pretty much picking up this one without knowing all that much about it. I did the same thing for Letter 44, and that became one of my favorite comics. For those discriminating readers who need a little more than that, here’s the solicit: “What It Is: Dr. Brownfield believes that a series of cataclysmic events are coming to New York City, and someone has to keep the city safe after he’s gone. Enter Heller Wilson, a brilliant mathematics student, who discovers that his ailing, perhaps insane, mentor has been saving New York City from societal collapse by a series of “adjustments,” a la the Butterfly Effect. But now, all signs point toward an impending disaster. Can Wilson take what little he’s learned and save the city in time?”

DC REBIRTH– Smart of DC to get two of their big guns right out there with BATMAN REBIRTH and SUPERMAN REBIRTH. We also have GREEN ARROW and GREEN LANTERNS REBIRTH coming this week too. It’s actually a relatively small week of DC comics for me, but it is definitely all books I am really excited to read. 

MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS PINK #1 – I am not sure if the Pink Ranger needed her own spinoff books, but I’ve enjoyed BOOM!’s take on the Power Rangers, and I’m glad to see sales are strong enough to justify some spinoffs. Hopefully we can get a Dino Charge series at some point…

SPIDER-WOMAN #8 – I am so glad Spider-Women is finally over. It felt like a weight on two of my favorite comics Silk and Spider-Woman. Hopefully things can get back to some normalcy. That crossover really did nothing to show people why I love this book so much. 

CIVIL WAR II #1 – The FCBD and issue 0 didn’t really give us all that much. I do think the premise of this story could be cool (even if it sounds like Minority Report or Persons of Interest), but it looks like Marvel is once again going overboard on the scope of their crossovers. They are even including Thanos in this story, which seems like a real odd fit to me. But I will check it out, and you will be able to follow Grey, Matt and my reviews in our weekly Front Lines column.

4001 AD #2 – To be honest, Rai is one of my least favorite Valiant series, but I did enjoy the first part of this crossover. Valiant’s future has always interested me (the original Rai series is one of my favorite comics), so I am looking forward to seeing where this story goes from here.