The Longbox Short-List - Week of May 30, 2018

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Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 05/29/2018 - 08:56

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

We got a fifth week, and a lot of specials and first issues this week.

MAN OF STEEL #1 – Bendis comes to Superman! We already got some quick teases in DC NATION and ACTION COMICS #1000, but we still don’t quite know what we’re getting here. I like Bendis’s work a lot usually, and I am not sure how good a fit he will be on SUPERMAN…but I can’t wait to find out.

VALIANT HIGH #1 – A reimagining of the Valiant Universe as a bunch of high school students. This probably should be a 1 shot, not a mini-series, but it still looks like a lot of fun.

DC/ Hanna-Barbera Round 2 – This week we get four more DC/HB specials in AQUAMAN/JABBERJAW, BLACK LIGHTNING/HONG KONG PHOOEY, FLASH/SPEED BUGGY, and SUPER SONS/DYNOMUTT. This first bunch of these books was so much fun. Glad we are getting more of them!

BATMAN: PRELUDE TO THE WEDDING: ROBIN VS RA’S AL GHUL #1 – We got a bunch of one-shots to get through until the Batman/Catwoman wedding. I don’t care too much about most of them, but this story putting Robin vs his grandpa definitely holds a lot of appeal.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: NO JUSTICE #4 – As hyped as I am for the relaunch of DC’s JUSTICE LEAGUE line, NO JUSTICE has been a little underwhelming. The characters just feel thrown together, and the big exciting moments just haven’t felt like there was any payoff (like the return of Vril Dox).

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #800 – The first superhero comic I ever read was AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #351, so it’s kind of cool to see this series hitting issue 800…you know, until Marvel reboots it again next month. I really enjoyed Dan Slott’s work on Spider-Man the past ten years or so, but I think I am ready for him to move on. Bring on Nick Spencer!