The Longbox Short-List - Week of June 27, 2018

FTC Statement: Reviewers are frequently provided by the publisher/production company with a copy of the material being reviewed.The opinions published are solely those of the respective reviewers and may not reflect the opinions of CriticalBlast.com or its management.

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. (This is a legal requirement, as apparently some sites advertise for Amazon for free. Yes, that's sarcasm.)

Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 06/26/2018 - 12:03

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

BATMAN PRELUDE TO THE WEDDING: HARLEY VS THE JOKER #1 – It was a little strange that we seem to have parallel Joker stories running in BATMAN and the in PRELUDE TO THE WEDDING one-shots. For the most part, I have enjoyed these specials. Not sure they have really built a lot of hype for the wedding, but they put a great spotlight on the characters. I do think DC overcomplicated things when they suggest a few years ago that there were three Jokers running around, but they seem to have just decided to ignore all that.

MULTIPLE MAN #1 – Multiple Man was in the first X-Men comic I ever read, so I’ve always had a great fondness for the character. I am glad they have once again realized he’s too good a character to keep dead. I hope that this leads to more Madrox stories.

MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1 – I can’t believe Power Rangers has been around for 25 years! So far they have been pretty tight lipped about if they will be doing anything special in the current Power Rangers TV series to celebrate. But the comics have been terrific. The preview I read supposedly draws a connection between NINJA STEEL’s Mick to Alpha 5, so I am real curious about that.

MAN OF STEEL #5 – I am typically a Bendis fan, and I have enjoyed the way he’s written Superman, but dear god is this slow paced. It really feels like this story has been moving at a glacial rate. GET ON WITH IT!!

BLOODSTRIKE #23 – I thought BLOODSTRIKE #0 was a great way to refresh the reader on who these characters are. I loved BLOODSTRIKE and BRIGADE when I started reading comics. Glad to see Image giving these books another shot. I miss 90’s era fun comics.

MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #7 – The Annual that came out in the last few weeks did an awesome job recontextualizing the relationship between Reed Richards and Doctor Doom. With a new FANTASTIC FOUR series coming out soon, MARVEL TWO IN ONE seems to be a pretty important Marvel series and definitely worth checking out.

QUANTUM AND WOODY #7 – Oh my god!! Did our heroes die last issue?? Well, probably not, but it was still a great issue and a even better cliffhanger. I expect a lot of weirdness in this one, but that is par for the course when it comes to QUANTUM AND WOODY.

MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR #32 – That last issue which was one bad anti-smoking PSA was a total disaster. But for the most part, I like this series. I am amazed that it has lasted as long as it has. It is great that Marvel has supported this book for this long.