The Longbox Short-List - Week of May 2, 2018

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Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Wed, 05/02/2018 - 03:00

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s long-running 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

DC NATION #0 – I know it’s only 25 cents, but I don’t think DC should be charging for this book at all. It’s purely promotional for their upcoming books. I am looking forward to MAN OF STEEL and NO JUSTICE, but I still think it should be a freebie.

BETTY AND VERONICA FRIENDS FOREVER #1 – Kind of Archie’s attempt to “have our cake and eat it too.” I did enjoy the MY PAL ARCHIE mini series which was new Archie stories using more of an old school feel than we’ve gotten since the ARCHIE relaunch, so I will pretty much definitely be giving this one a try since it’s in the same mold.

STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION THROUGH THE MIRROR #1 – A weekly series picking up where MIRROR BROKEN left off. I am really looking forward to this one a lot!

VENOMIZED #5 – I am really feeling Venom event fatigue by now. It’s hard to imagine that all these Venom events lately are going to have any kind of lasting impact. They have been fun reads, but at this point, I am just kind of bored with Venom and the Poison and symbiotes.

AVENGERS #1 – Nice timing with AVENGERS INFINITY WAR coming out this week. This is supposed to be a great jumping on point for AVENGERS. Great creative team with Jason Aaron and Ed McGuiness, and the cast seems like your All Star Avengers roster.

ROGUE AND GAMBIT #5 – This has been one of the best X-Men related stories I’ve read in a while. I definitely want to see Kelly Thompson doing more X-Men in the near future!

HARBINGER WARS 2 PRELUDE #1 – I know a lot of people have had a lot of praise for it, but HARBINGER RENEGADES really didn’t do much for me. I am not even sure what HARBINGER WARS 2 is about, but I think Valiant needs to stop doing all these big events and just focus in on the terrific month to month storytelling we get in most Valiant books.