The Longbox Short-List - Week of October 26, 2016

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Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Wed, 10/26/2016 - 07:39

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

PROWLER #1 – Marvel seems like it will be launching a lot of more obscure characters in their own series over the next few months, including Prowler, Solo, Slapstick, and Foolkiller. I have always liked Prowler, but I am just not sure there is an audience for any of these books. At least the other ones I mentioned have all been regular characters in Deadpool. Prowler is launching as part of Clone Conspiracy, so that might help some. Also, as of right now, this book isn’t actually about the original Hobie Brown, it’s about a clone with the memories of the original.

BLOODSHOT USA #1 – The last arc of Bloodshot was awesome. We got to see Bloodshots from all different generations. At the end of the series, the “Bloodshot virus” was released into the general population. This seems like it could be a pretty massive event for the Valiant universe. Really looking forward to this one.

VISION #12 – Tom King’s crazy Vision series comes to an end. No idea what happens in this one (though Champions does tell us that Vision and his daughter survive), but this series is a must read. Superhero action with a bit of a horror twist. This is not at all what I expected from a Vision series, and I absolutely loved it.

BATMAN BEYOND #1 – Happy to see Terry back in action! Batman Beyond has been a great book that slips under the radar the last several years, including a pretty long run as a digital-first book. Hopefully it will have a much bigger platform as part of DC Rebirth. A real well conceived vision of DC’s future!

DETECTIVE COMICS #943 – The first arc of the Rebirth’d Detective Comics told a real strong story about a team of heroes led by Batwoman. I wasn’t expecting much from this series (all the press seems to focus on the Batman series), but all in all, Tec has been the stronger book most months. This new arc seems to focus on the “victims” of Gotham’s high-crime rate looking for revenge against criminal and heroes alike. Lots of potential for a great story here.

CIVIL WAR II #6 – HEY! Nice of you to join us, Civil War II! We’ve only been reading the aftermath of Civil War II for weeks now. I keep wondering what drugs the Marvel editorial team is on. The same thing happened during Secret Wars. If Marvel can’t seem to stay interested in their own events before moving on to the next thing, how can they expect the readers to do so? I would go on a limb and say this is one of the many reasons DC has been curbstomping Marvel in sales the last few month…

CAPTAIN AMERICA STEVE ROGERS #6 – Steve Rogers has been one of the best part of Civil War II, but you only know that if you have been reading his ongoing series. Marvel is supposedly doing an event next year focusing on Rogers…which goes back to my complaint that Marvel is always working on the next big thing without focusing on what’s going on now. We already know Death of X begets X-Men Vs Inhumans begets Resurrexion. Meanwhile, Avengers Standoff was mostly just lead in to Civil War II which is lead in to the next event. And Secret Wars was pretty much all about whatever they called the relaunch after Secret Wars…which amounted to very little. Marvel is putting out many books I enjoy reading, but on a whole, they seem to be a real mess in terms of direction.

JUGHEAD #10 – I had dropped this series around issue 4. It wasn’t awful, but it just felt dull and the constant fantasy scenes felt out of place. I did come back for the new creative team last issue, and it was a huge improvement. Real glad I gave it another shot. If you dropped this book, I would highly suggest giving it another look.

DOCTOR STRANGE AND THE SORCERERS SUPREME #1 – I know this book only exists because of Doctor Strange’s movie coming out next week. And it is a bit of a let down that it’s not by Jason Aaron who has been killing it on the main Doctor Strange series. But I like Robbie Thompson, and I am excited about the movie, so I will likely pick this up anyway.