The Longbox Short-List - Week of May 24, 2017

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Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 05/23/2017 - 09:12

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

SAMARITAN VERITAS #1 – Image needs to do a better job making people aware of this book. It’s a follow-up to THE TITHE. During the EDEN’S FALL crossover, Sam suffered a huge loss and now she is out for revenge with everyone out to stop here. This one almost flew under my radar, which is sad since I was a huge TITHE fan.

RAPTURE #1 – Ninjak and Shadowman team up! Two of my favorite Valiant characters (and that is going back to old school Valiant). I have been clamoring for Shadowman to come back for a long time now. Rumor is a new Shadowman series will be coming out of this, so wins all around!

BEN REILLY THE SCARLET SPIDER #2 – The first issue of this series was a solid start. Though Peter David and Mark Bagley were my first favorite comic writer and artist respectively, so my enjoyment of this book comes as no surprise. Real curious where this book goes in the long term. Books about true villains (which is really what Ben has become) don’t typically last all that long.

BLUE BEETLE #9 – Last issue, Jaime decided to start using Ted Kord’s old costume in his efforts to reclaim the scarab. As an old school Blue Beetle fan, this was awesome to me. This series hasn’t always grabbed me as much as I would like, but it’s still usually a solid read.

DEATHSTROKE #19 – What deal did Dick Grayson cut with Deathstroke back in the day? The Lazarus Contract crossover has been pretty good so far, though I would love to see Deathstroke kicking a little more ass. It seems like he basically just beats up on Flashes. And this has been a long trend with DC going back to Identity Crisis…