The Longbox Short-List - Week of July 20, 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

BETTY AND VERONICA #1 – 25 alternate covers?? Is that really necessary? I am looking forward to Adam Hughes take on Betty and Veronica, but I get annoyed when you see these kinds of over the top publicity stunts. It takes away from the quality of the book, to a certain extent, suggesting that Archie might not have a lot of faith in this book standing on it’s own merits.

GROO FRAY OF THE GODS #1 – Happy to see Groo back so soon. I have been a fan of Groo for a long time, and last year’s Groo: Friends and Foes was great. Hopefully we will continue to see a lot of new Groo in months and years to come.

DC REBIRTH – I have picked up all of DC’s Rebirth specials so far, and pretty much enjoyed them all. This week we got BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY and HELLBLAZER. I don’t typically read Batgirl, Birds of Prey, or Constantine/Hellblazer. But I am willing to give them a fair shot. If I enjoy the Rebirth specials, I will definitely give the series a try.

FAITH #1 – I was pleasantly surprised to see Valiant giving Faith her own ongoing series. The mini-series was a lot of fun, and the more diversity in comics, the better. 

PATSY WALKER AKA HELLCAT #8 – I am not sure that Hellcat’s tone fits with Civil War II, but it has been one of my favorite Marvel series, so I curious to see what Kate Leth can do with this one. Marvel does have a history of tie-in’s being far better than their events, so this should still be a really good comic.

VELVET #15 – Brubaker’s spy thriller from Image is a terrific book, though it tends to come out late. Doesn’t take away from my joy of seeing issues pop up on the new release list. Though I have to admit, I tend to forget what happens by the time the newest issue comes out. 

BATMAN #3 – Tom King’s Batman run has been off to a great start. Gotham and Gotham Girl are interesting characters, though I really expect they are up to no good. I like that King hasn’t felt the need to try and shove all of Batman’s rogues gallery into the story, which seems like what too many writers do the first chance they get to write Batman. King seems to have a long term vision here, and I can’t wait to see how it all plays out. 

THUNDERBOLTS #3 – CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS #2 gave us some insight into Kobik, and I am really curious if that will play out in Thunderbolts. It definitely puts the character and this team into a very new light. That said, Marvel tends to play fast and loose with continuity, so it is fairly likely they won’t deal with it in Thunderbolts, which would be a huge missed opportunity.

JOYRIDE #4 – Joyride has been a real nice surprise. I love a good space story, and Joyride (like Marvel’s Empress) is scratching a need I didn’t even know I had. This is the end of the mini-series, but I would really like to see more of these characters soon.

NIGHTHAWK #3 – I think that it’s real important to have a wide variety of creative voices on comics. Nighthawk and Captain America: Sam Wilson both seem to be dealing with similar ideas, but I really think David Walker’s work on Nighthawk has a little more truth to it. I am not saying that only black writers should deal with racial issues, but it certainly gives it more credibility to me as a reader.

ASTRO CITY #37 – I love that we continue to get Astro City on a regular basis. It’s a slight exaggeration, but we’ve gotten almost as much Astro City in the last three years as we did in the series first 17 years. That said, the Broken Man stuff has been my least favorite part of the current series, so another issue featuring him does tamper my excitement a bit. Hopefully we will start to get the point of this character in this one.