The Longbox Short-List - Week of January 27, 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

I had no intention to go into this week sounding negative, but there were quite a few books I wanted to talk about just to say they are not living up to their potential (which is exactly what my teachers often said about me). But let’s talk about some books I am actually excited about first, shall we…

FAITH #1 – Hard to believe that it took this long for Faith to get her own mini-series (she did get a one-shot in 2014). She’s always been one of the most popular members of Harbinger. I have been looking forward to this for a while. Faith is just a fun, very different character. Actually, I am hoping that someday we can get an Ms Marvel/Faith crossover. I think they would get along really well. 

OLD MAN LOGAN #1 – We still have no idea how Old Man Logan ended up in the new Marvel universe, but so far he’s been a real compelling character, seeing how the world reacts to him and how he reacts to the Marvel universe. I think they can do something really cool here. I kind of hope they keep this version of Logan. It’s a way to bring Wolvie back to life, without actually bringing Wolvie back to life. 

CYBORG #7 – Last issue had a huge shift in the status quo with Cyborg now being able to turn himself back to a human form. But at the end of the last issue, Cyborg seemed like he was more inclined for the world to keep thinking of him as Cyborg. I thought that was a pretty cool twist and I’m curious where David F. Walker plans on taking this story from here. Easily one of DC’s strongest books.

GRAYSON #16 – ROBIN WAR SPOILERS AHEAD! So at the end of Robin War, the Court of Owls had managed to convince Dick Grayson to embrace his legacy and become a member of the Court. I have no idea where this series will be going from here, but Grayson always surprises me with great twists and turns. Though with DC’s loosey goosey take on continuity they may just ignore it entirely. I actually don’t think that will happen since Robin War said TO BE CONTINUED IN GRAYSON…but with DC these days, you never know.

RINGSIDE #3 – When you read a book like Ringside, you wonder how authentic it is to the source material. Ringside takes an insider’s look at the world of professional wrestling, adding a bit of a crime drama to the story. I’ve really enjoyed this book a lot, but I can’t help but wonder “is any of this accurate to what it’s like to be a wrestler or is this just the writer’s imagination?” I had the same question about the movie The Wrestler. 

SPIDER-WOMAN #3 – The first few issues of this series were a bit of a departure from her previous series, but I still love this comic. Like Cyborg, Spider-Woman is a series that doesn’t get anywhere near the attention that it should. Consistently awesome and a lot of fun to read. 

TEEN TITANS #16 –Teen Titans has been kind of spinning it’s wheels again. This is one of DC’s most inconsistent series. When it’s good, it’s real good. But too often, it just gets into these periods of BLAH. It might have made more sense if they just told Titans Hunt as an arc in the main Teen Titans series. Because right now, this book is being far overshadowed by Titans Hunt. I barely even remember what happened in the last issue of Teen Titans.

ALL-NEW ALL-DIFFERENT AVENGERS #4 – Well, it took three issues for us to really get started, but I am still pretty hyped up for this series. I love the roster, and Waid has been one of my favorite writers for as long as I can remember (KINGDOM COME is one of my all-time favorite comics). This book hasn’t quite lived up to its potential yet, but I definitely think it can be one of Marvel’s best books. 

EXTRAORDINARY X-MEN #6 – This is another Marvel series that has been off to a real slow start. I actually was surprised that we were already at issue 6 since so little seems to have happened in the first five issues. Like All-New All-Different Avengers, I do think this book could be really good, but I’m not quite seeing it yet. Hopefully as we move into the second arc, business will pick up.