The Longbox Short-List - Week of February 22, 2017

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

ROUGH RIDERS ON THE STORM #1 – ROUGH RIDERS was a real fun series from Aftershock, and I am glad that it’s getting a sequel. Three years after Rough Riders, Teddy Roosevelt is vice-president until the assassination of William McKinley puts him in the president’s seat. But is this assassin part of a bigger mystery? Roosevelt rounds up his team for another big adventure. Can’t wait!

KAMANDI CHALLENGE #2 – The first issue of this series was a lot of fun. I don’t have a huge connection to Kamandi, but there are some real strong artists and writers joining in on this challenge, and that makes it worth checking out.

CURSE WORDS #2 – CURSE WORDS issue 1 was great! An evil wizard comes to Earth to prepare to conquer the world…and realizes he really likes it here, so he sets up shop to help customers using magic. Charles Soule continues to write comics I love to read. Definitely one of the best in the business.

HIGHLANDER THE AMERICAN DREAM #1 – Highlander is one of my favorite movies. Despite the fact most Highlander stuff released since then has been pretty crappy, I still hold on hope of getting good Highlander stories, so I will give this first issue a shot. But if It doesn’t grab me immediately, I doubt I will come back for a second issue.

AVENGERS #4.1 – Marvel should consider just having Waid do an AVENGERS series set in the early days of the team. His point one issues have been really good, but I have found his "new" AVENGERS stories to be close to unreadable.

CAPTAIN AMERICA STEVE ROGERS #12 - Last issue's revisions to Cap's back story continued to surprise and annoy me at the same time. I did like the way they sold the idea of why Baron Zemo became a hero for a short period of time, but these Cosmic Cube rewrites are just the epitome of lazy writing. I do want to see where this story is going, but it is definitely dragging on far too long.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1 - In DETECTIVE COMICS #950, we got a back up story where Tim Drake realized that Batman was putting some big plans into place, including this new team of Justice Leaguers. I have always been a fan of the "less top heavy" versions of JLA and Avengers, and I am looking forward to this book. It appeals to me far more that Hitch's JUSTICE LEAGUE.

PROWLER #5 - In a bit of a throw away line at the end of CLONE CONSPIRACY, we find out that Prowler was only mostly dead. The real Prowler was alive the whole time, and will presumingly be replacing the clone in this series. Kind of a strange way to go with all of this, but I have liked Hobie Brown for a long time, so I am still prettty interested in seeing where this series goes now that the crossover is out of the way.

• Jughead #13
• Joyride #10
• Action Comics #974
• Astro City #41
• Batgirl #8
• Batman Beyond #5
• Blue Beetle #6
• Detective Comics #951
• Flash #17
• Future Quest #10
• Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps #15
• Suicide Squad #12
• Supergirl Being Super #2
• Teen Titans #5
• Wonder Woman #17
• Back To The Future #17
• Revolutionaries #2
• Star Trek Green Lantern Volume 2 Stranger Worlds #3
• Fix #8
• Amazing Spider-Man #24
• Champions #1.MU
• Extraordinary X-Men #19
• Great Lakes Avengers #5
• Hulk #3
• Infamous Iron Man #5
• Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur #16
• Occupy Avengers #4
• Scarlet Witch #15
• Spider-Gwen #17
• Spider-Woman #16
• Thunderbolts #10
• Uncanny Avengers #20
• Letter 44 #30
• Divinity III Stalinverse #3 (Of 4)
• Harbinger Renegade #4

In Case You Missed Them

Here are some noteworthy books from last week…

WARNING!  CONTAINS SPOILERS!!

BOOK OF THE WEEK:NIGHTWING #15 by Tim Seeley and Minkyu Jung

Summary: This issue tells us the story of Dick Grayson and Shawn Tsang.  They have managed to find love and happiness in Bludhaven.  Things are getting pretty serious, which scares Shawn at first, but she comes around.  After 2 months of happiness, someone breaks into her apartment and seemingly kills her just as Dick is telling Bruce Wayne and Alfred that he loves her.

Review: Hard part about being a Batman fan is that any time there is even a hint of happiness, you know the writers will rip your heart out.  I thought this was such a fun issue, with Dick and Shawn feeling each other out, and telling their friends what was happening.  But the whole time I was reading with some dread waiting for something bad to happen.  Shawn to go back to her criminal ways, she or decides to break up with Nightwing deciding it was just too much a temptation.  But nope, instead she seems to get killed in the end.  Cue the “Women in Fridge” alarm.  But even with that cruel ending, I really enjoyed this comic.

Score (out of 5): 5

BATMAN #17 by Tom King and David Finch

Summary: Batman brings an unconscious Damian, Jason, and Dick to the Fortress of Solitude for safekeeping.  Batman is expecting a war from Bane. Batman needs Psycho Pirate to use the Medusa Mask to fix Gotham Girl. The process with take five days, and after that Batman can destroy the mask for good.  This gives Bane a short time line to recapture it.

Bane’s henchmen Bird, Zombie, and Trogg arrive in down and quickly take out Batwing and Catwoman.  They go after Commissioner Gordon.  Duke Thomas shows up, but both are taken out.  In the end, we see Bane holding all four prisoners.  

Review: I have to admit, the only reason I included this in my reviews was because Bird, Zombie, and Trogg are back!  KNIGHTFALL was one of my first comic arcs, and I’ve always hoped to see these characters come back to fashion.  

I have mostly enjoyed King’s run, though it seems to be very slow.  It often takes 2 or 3 issues to tell something that could have happened in one.  

And it’s a little annoying that once again we have a “Batman NEEDS to do this alone” story.  Why build up such a great supporting cast for Batman not to use them.  Are we once again going to be treated to a panel of the Robins being annoyed at Batman?   And why take the Robins off the board, but leave much more vulnerable characters on the board like Batwing, Duke, and Gordon?  Honestly, this wasn’t even a bad comic, just lots of

Score (out of 5): 3.5

INVINCIBLE #133 by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley

Summary:The issue starts with a funeral for Invincible’s brother who was killed while undercover in Throgg’s forces. Mark is pretty pissed off, even attacking his longtime friend, Allen, who he sees as responsible for Oliver’s death.  

Eve manages to settle things down.  Mark and Eve come to a decision to join in the fight against Throgg. They also decide to get officially married.  

In the end, we find out that Allen was manipulating events, including putting Oliver in a position to get killed, just to get Mark to join in the fight.

Review: One thing that is amazing about Invincible is how the characters have all grown and evolved over the course of the series.  Allen started off as a relatively childlike, naive character when he first appeared way back in issue 2.  Over time, he’s grown to be a capable leader.  And now we find out that leadership is forcing him to do acts that he considers pretty horrific.  

I did think throwing in the wedding as an afterthought was a little odd, but I still thought it was a pretty sweet moment for long time Invincible fans.  Still kind of bummed out that this series is starting to wind down, but I am definitely going to enjoy these last 12 issues. 

OH!  And this issue was only a quarter!  Win!

Score (out of 5): 4

SUPER SONS #1 by Peter Tomasi and Jorge Jimenez

Summary: We start with a prologue with a kid named Reggie who seems to have mind control powers and lives with his family in a TV studio…

Next we jump to the present where Damian and Jon Kent are running away from a robot army of Robins and Superboys.

Finally, the story proper starts, two days before.  A bored Damian has been stalking Jon in various disguises like bus driver and substitute teacher.  Late one night, Damian sneaks into Jon’s bedroom and gets him to sneak out to help investigate assorted break-ins and hacking attempts at Lexcorp.  They head to Metropolis and find themselves face-to-face with Lex Luthor in his Superman armor.

Review:  I have been anxiously awaiting SUPER SONS since DC REBIRTH was announced.  It seems like it took forever for them to get around to finally doing this book.  I did enjoy the lead-ins.  Damian and Jon have a pretty unique relationship, and I am often reminded of my favorite teen book, YOUNG JUSTICE.

The first few pages of this comic jump around way too much.  They would have been better off just starting with the current story.  The stuff with Reggie and the robots was interesting, but didn’t really engage me much as a reader.  I was actually tuning out, though thankfully the rest of the comic was very good. Comic writers need to rely much more on their own writing instead of “tricks” to grab the reader.  In the end, this turned out to be a strong first issue, but with just a few tweaks, it could have been great.

Score (out of 5): 4