The Longbox Short-List - Week of September 23, 2015

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Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 09/22/2015 - 08:43

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

SECRET WARS – Last week, I realized we had passed over 200 individual issues to come out for SECRET WARS. It seems like we’re finally starting to wind down…THANKFULLY! There are only six SECRET WARS comics coming out this week. Of those, my favorites are WEIRDWORLD, 1872, and INHUMANS: ATTILAN RISING. And yes, I am surprised to have an Inhumans book anywhere on this list. Never liked the characters, but ATTILAN RISING has been very good.

TITHE #5 – The first four issues of this series were excellent. TITHE started out about the FBI investigating a group of Robin Hood like thieves who were robbing Megachurches. Now, the leader of the gang is going to be working with the FBI. Seems like the series is going to take a dramatic shift in direction moving forward, but I think that opens up the door for some huge payoffs, storywise.

BOOK OF DEATH #3 – I can’t believe this series is already almost over. Kind of depressing that we got 200 issues of SECRET WARS, but BOOK OF DEATH, which is a huge story in its own right (in terms of impact on the Valiant universe) is going to be less than 15 comics total. Master Darque has always been one of my favorite characters, and I hope this leads to him having a much bigger role in months to come.

KANAN #6 – I have liked STAR WARS: REBELS quite a bit, and this series has been a great way to fill in Kanan’s backstory. Kanan went through some dark times, and the fact he came out with any semblance of humor or sanity says a lot for who he is.

SINESTRO #15 – I don’t like the new Lobo at all, but I like that Cullen Bunn seems to be including more DC characters in the upcoming issues of SINESTRO. If anyone can make me care about this Lobo, it is probably Bunn. But I am really looking forward to seeing what he can do with Black Adam over the next few issues.

ASTRO CITY #27 – AMERICAN CHIBI FEATURE STORY! I love that ASTRO CITY tells stories about all kinds of comic book characters, not just thinly veiled homages to Marvel and DC superheroes. When American Chibi first showed up in the current run of Astro City, I immediately wanted to know more about here, and we finally get there. Just a quick aside, I had no idea what the word chibi meant until several years ago. I had did a review of SPYBOY, and Peter David had used the word. I commented I had no idea what that meant, and artist Pop Mahn reached out to me to explain it. I will admit, part of the reason I mention this is that I really, really missy SPYBOY…

GRAYSON #12 – Stealing from DC’s solicitation for this issue “For the first time since he faked his own death, Dick Grayson returns home to Gotham City.” About damn time. I like GRAYSON a lot, but the whole “faked his death” thing just hasn’t made a lot of sense. It will be interesting to see Dick dealing with the major changes in Gotham (Robo-Batman, Bruce Wayne having no memories of being Batman).

GI JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO #218 – This book has kind of been spinning it’s wheels a bit since Snake Eyes died a few months back. Cobra Rising will hopefully shoot some fresh energy into this title. It really needs it. I love Larry Hama and GI JOE, but even I have felt my patience being tested the last few months on this one.

FLASH #44 – The solicit for this issues suggests that Zoom and his gang will be targeting Wally West in this issue. I am hoping that leads to Wally getting powers in New 52. Wally West was “my Flash” for so long. I have enjoyed this FLASH run, but I can’t help but want to see Wally West back as the Flash at some point. And yes, yes, I know this version of Wally is dramatically different from the one I like so much, but at least it would be a start.

DOUBLE TAKE COMICS

I don’t usually do this, but I wanted to talk a little about a series (technically a bunch of series) that came out last week. Last week, Double Take Comics, under the leadership of former Marvel editor Bill Jemas, launched ten new series set in the Night of the Living Dead universe. These books are unlicensed and don’t have any involvement with George Romero. Apparently, Night of the Living Dead has gone into public domain, which is what allowed this.

At this point, I have read six of them and they are actually really good. Some compelling stories here, with a lot of crossover potential. My biggest gripe is that the titles are so generic I genuinely can’t remember which ones I really liked, which is going to make it a real pain to continue buying them next month. But, if the quality continues to be this good, Double Take might have something cool here. Definitely worth keeping an eye on.