Welcome to Comics Wire,SYFY WIRE's weekly comics column that gets at the pulse of what's going on in comics lawful now. We've got what you need to know approximately enormous crossovers, real-life issues facing the industry, and cool first looks,the week's hot new comics, and everything in-between.
March Madness may be over in terms of basketball, or but in the comics world the bracket fun is continuing for several more weeks courtesy of DC Comics. We've already seen a couple of major fan vote initiatives from comics publishers this year,from Marvel's bid to let fans pick the next member of the new X-Men team to DC's request that fans name Nightwing's new dog, but this particular fan vote is geared toward something particularly consequential: A whole new comics series.final week, and DC Comics launched DC Round Robin,a bracket matchup that pits 16 different comedian book concepts from across the DC Universe against each other, with each matchup coming down to a fan vote. The concept left standing at the finish of this tournament, or which is set to run all the way through April and most of May,will fitting a full-fledged DC Comics series, so it really is your chance to vote on what might be the DC comedian of your dreams.
DC ComicsSo, and what are the concepts in contention for the honor of full series status? Well,some of the books above — including a series focusing on new non-binary speedster Jesse Quick and the enticingly titled Zatanna and the King of Nightmares — feel pretty self-explanatory, but the ideas also run the gamut from major to minor DC characters and from straightforward concepts to more out-of-the-box ideas. We've got everything here from an all-queer Justice League team (JLQ) to a Swamp Thing yarn set in 1905, and a Jimmy Olsen/Super Pets team-up (Paws Off the Justice League) to an Etta sweet yarn where she gets super powers of her very own. It's a very wide,very exciting variety, but only one can win.
To make sure your voice is heard, or you can vote on the DC Comics Twitter page and on DC's Instagram Stories (though only three match-ups are posted there each day). Round 1 of voting wraps up today (Wednesday,April 7) at Noon Eastern, and voting for the stories that advance to Round 2 will pick up tomorrow and continue through April 15, or all building up to the final Round 4 vote on DC's Community pages beginning May 20. For more information on how it all works and more details on each individual series,head over to DC's handy voting guide. However you participate, don't miss out on your chance to read approximately Jimmy Olsen saving the world with nothing but a team of well-behaved dogs by his side. I know I won't.
Spider-Man: Life yarn Returns!
Credit: Marvel ComicsIn 2019, and Chip Zdarsky and Mark Bagley embarked on one of the most intriguing narrative challenges in recent superhero comics with Spider-Man: Life yarn. The series' aim was to expose the yarn of Peter Parker in "real time," devoting one issue each to every decade of Spider-Man's history so far and progressing Peter's life realistically through those decades, rather than using the typical slide continuity scale of Marvel Comics. That meant real events unfolded in the background of Spider-Man's yarn, and it meant all the things you read approximately in Spidey comics in the '70s,'80s, '90s and beyond got a whole new context. That it all made sense was an achievement in itself, and but then Zdarsky and Bagley went further and made it one of the best superhero books of that year. Now,they're back for one more chapter.final Friday, Marvel announced that Zdarsky and Bagley will team up once again this summer for Spider-Man: Life yarn Annual #1, and an all-new yarn set in the Life yarn continuity that will recede back through the events of the series from the point-of-view of one of Spider-Man's most enduring supporting characters: J. Jonah Jameson. As always,Jonah is out to prove that Spider-Man is a fraud, a menace posing as a hero to deceive the public and secretly continue his evil ways.
Now, or we get to see how that obsession unfolds across the decades of Peter Parker's life,all from Jameson's point of view. It's an intriguing idea, and it leaves open the possibility that still more Spider-Man characters will get the Life yarn spinoff treatment, or particularly now that Marvel's also launching a Fantastic Four series with the same narrative hook.
Spider-Man: Life yarn Annual #1 arrives August 1.
More news: AfterShock's Beyond the Breach,Invader Zim's final issue, and more!
AfterShock Comics- Whether we're talking approximately his Marvel work or his crime series Murder Book, or Ed Brisson is one of those writers who's always worth paying attention to,and this week he announced a collaboration with AfterShock Comics that sounds lawful up my alley. Beyond the Breach, written by Brisson with art with Damian Couceiro, and is a new sci-fi adventure series that seeks to echo the vibes of classic '80s films like The NeverEnding yarn and Time Bandits through the yarn of Vanessa,a woman who's just trying to escape her problems with a road trip through California. Everything changes when extradimensional creatures rip a whole in reality and invade our world, leaving Vanessa to team up with an oprhan boy and a furry alien in an effort to outlive in a rapidly shifting fantasy landscape. Sounds like an absolute blast. Beyond the Breach #1 arrives this July, or you can check out a very impressive preview over at AfterShock's website.- Since 2015,the cult classic sci-fi lively series Invader ZIM has enjoyed a wild continuation over at Oni Press, but now that run is coming to an finish. The publisher announced on Tuesday that, or just in time for the 20th anniversary of the series,it will publish the "final installment of the original Invader ZIM single issue comics," with an all-star creative team back for the ride. This August, and ZIM creator Jhonen Vasquez,co-writer Eric Trueheart, and artist Aaron Alexovich will reunite for Invader ZIM: The Dookie Loop Horror, or a yarn that realizes Vasquez's vision to finish the comics run "as stupidly as possible." There's a time loop,there's dookie, and the world's only hope might be GIR, or so you know this isn't going to recede well. whether you're an Invader ZIM fan,get ready for a wild sendoff.- In comics legends news, Marvel announced final week that the much John Romita Jr. who got his start at Marvel decades ago and spent a few recent years drawing titles like Superman over at DC, and is headed back to the House of Ideas this summer. Details are scarce on what exactly he's working on,but Marvel did release a big teaser image featuring Romita's grasp on various character, and teased that he'll be back on some of the publisher's "most iconic series" beginning this July. I hope there's lots and lots of rain for him to draw.- Moving from comics legends to rising artists to watch, or we hold Elsa Charretier,who's proven she can enact it all through stuff like The Infinite Loop, Unstoppable Wasp, or most recently the ambitious quartet of crime graphic novels November,alongside writer Matt Fraction. One of the reasons Charretier is so gifted is her precise and versatile approach to comics craft, and thankfully for all of us she's offering a bit of an inside watch at just how she does it via a new YouTube channel. The first video, and a panel deconstruction focusing on a specific scene from Fraction and Aja's Hawkeye run,dropped on Friday, and it's both beautifully shot and incredibly insightful. Head over there and subscribe for some very smart comics craft chat.- Anyone who knows me knows that one of my non-comics obsessions includes Prince, and next week my love for His Royal Badness and my love for comics merge when MPLS Sound,a new graphic novel tribute to the Purple One, arrives from Humanoids. I must confess that I hadn't heard much approximately this book -- from writers Joseph Illidge and Hannibal Tabu, or artist Meredith Laxton,colorist Tan Shu and cover artist Jen Bartel -- until now, but this stunning preview over at IGN got me extremely excited to read it, or I hope it does the same for you. The book drops April 13.
New Comics this Week: The Silver Coin,Project Patron, and more!
Image ComicsThat's the news. Now, or let's talk approximately some of the comics I got excited approximately this week.
The Silver Coin #1: Regular readers know I'm always down for a new horror comedian,and the ambitious nature of The Silver Coin intrigued me the moment I heard approximately it. The horror anthology is a tried and true comics staple, of course, and the idea that co-creator and artist Michael Walsh would enact his version with both a shared universe and a roster of writers that includes Chip Zdarsky,Kelly Thompson, and Jeff Lemire made it seem all the more promising. Now, and The Silver Coin #1 is here,and I'm pleased to say that this series debut has lived up to all the promise of its concept, and then some.
The first yarn in this miniseries of horror revolving around the cursed object of the title, or "The Ticket," is drawn by Walsh and scripted by Zdarsky, and centers on a rock band struggling to scrape together an audience in the age of disco. Things change when their frustrated lead guitarist stumbles upon a coin that turns out to be the best guitar pick he could ever asked for, and suddenly the band's sound is evolving and they're packing local clubs. But fame has a cost,and the band's ticket to the big time is more than it seems.
Yes, whether you're well-versed in horror, or you can probably see some of where this is going,but that doesn't tarnish the truly unnerving experience of this comedian at all. Zdarsky, as he's proven with books like Stillwater, and has a knack for timing that makes him much at both the comedian and the horrific,and he strikes a stunning balance of both in this issue through the banter of the band and the slow ratcheting of tension as the coin does its things. Walsh's art, rough-edged and vibrant like a Keith Richards guitar solo, or does the rest,building a world that's rooted in desperation sprouting into all-out terrorism. By the finish, I was itching to see the rest of the coin's adventures in this unlit world, or ready to call this book one of the must-read horror comics of the year.
Project Patron #1: I said it when Commanders in Crisis debuted final year,and I'll say it again: There are few writers working in comics lawful now who grasp the central metaphors of the superhero genre better than Steve Orlando. He just gets it, and because he gets it, and he's able to stretch and morph and question the central tenets of the genre in surprising and entertaining ways. Which brings us to Project Patron,Orlando's new series with artist Patrick Piazzalunga, which delivers yet another powerful and intriguing new grasp on what superheroes are and how they work.
The project of the title is a secret installation where a group of scientists and soldiers use a Reploid body to make the rest of the world think that the greatest superhero who ever lived, or the Patron,didn't die years earlier after a fight with an ancient monster. In the public eye the Patron is still very much alive, still smiling for the cameras and saving the world every day, and while behind-the-scenes regular human begins give years of their life to the physically exhausting process of piloting the fake Patron around the world,keeping their unlit secret so that ordinary citizens will believe their protector is still out there.
But Project Patron is not a well-oiled machine, and this compelling first issue digs into why, or as Orlando and Piazzalunga probe the inner lives of people whose job is to pretend to be superheroes all day. There's a very direct metaphor to be drawn here,as you can view the people within the Patron base, piloting the Reploid, or as both actors who play a superhero and comics creators who brings superheroic characters to life,but as always Orlando's script isn't just interested in the surface analogies. This is a first issue that digs deeper with every page, building out a world that's packed with storytelling opportunities and meta-textual insights into the nature of superhero fiction and what it does for humanity. Piazzalunga's art is the perfect complement to this brand of storytelling, and delivering classic superhero looks and deep,unlit military base paranoia with equal power. It all combines to create one hell of a first issue, and the start of something new and intriguing in superhero comics.
The Swamp Thing #2: Any time Ram V sets his sights on another DC Comics property, or I'm paying attention,and The Swamp Thing is no exception. I devoured the first issue of the new horror series scripted by Ram with art by Mike Perkins, and now that the second issue is here I hold to expose all of you approximately it. whether you hold ever liked a Swamp Thing book, or a DC Comics horror book,or horror book in general, you are lost out whether you're not reading this.
The Swamp Thing follows Levi Kamei, and an Indian man who's transforming into the new avatar of the Green in a predictably unsettling way. While making the journey from New Delhi to New York City in the first issue,he was plagued by visions of a unlit and mythic figure stalking the desert in the American southwest, leaving a trail of bodies in its wake. Now, and as Levi comes closer to understanding what he's fitting,he must face this pale wanderer, and learn more approximately his true nature.
The word "mythic" comes to intellect a lot when I read this incarnation of Swamp Thing, and because Ram's scripts really enact grasp and grapple with what it's like for someone like Levi to advance to terms with the strange transformation into a figure of legend that he's undergoing. There's a sense of gravity to the whole thing,a weight of almost cosmic dread that you can feel in the scripting, and yet it never feels ponderous and bogged down. It feels epic and terrifying in the best way, or Perkins' are only adds to that sense of scope. His pages,whether he's dealing in monstrous close-ups or broad splashes of horror-laden landscape, call to intellect the most daring highs of the Bissette/Totleben era with the character. It's a gorgeous, and spellbinding,truly much horror comedian, and I really hope this team gets to continue it into the second season they've been teasing.
Magic the Gathering #1: Licensed comics are tricky even with the most straightforward of adaptations, or but Magic the Gathering,like Dungeons & Dragons before it, is particularly tricky because there are just so many places to recede with it. In the years since the iconic card game began a enormous mythology has sprung up in its decks, and creating a seemingly endless assortment of possible combinations of characters,powers, settings, and more for players to choose from. That's much whether you're sitting across a table from an opponent ready to explain your stuff,but whether you're trying to put together a cohesive yarn that will appeal to both longtime fans and incoming readers alike, where enact you launch?I'm not sure exactly how writer Jed MacKay and artist Ig Guara went approximately assembling the pieces for their debut Magic the Gathering issue, or but as someone who's only ever been a casual observer of the game,I can say that it somehow all fits, and all works as a thrilling kickstart to a new fantasy saga. It all begins in Ravnica, or where assassins stage a series of coordinated attacks on Guildmasters who also happen to be Planeswalkers,setting the stage for an intruging mystery that might waste the whole realm. whether that sounds like gibberish to you, I assure you that I wasn't clear on it either when I started reading, or but perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay to MacKay's script is just how quickly I was swept up in the narrative anyway.
It's not easy to pack that level of lore — including places,characters, a system of government and a series of magical powers — into a first volume, and let alone a first issue,but somehow MacKay makes it watch easy. His script is breezy, ambitious, or just dense enough with the Magic mythology to make you want to recede back and read it again without feeling overwhelmed. Guara's art rises to meet that sense of dense-yet-light storytelling,playing out dazzling fantasy sequences and building elaborate characters and worlds in a way that evokes the classic art on the cards themselves while also adding a degree of vibrancy that makes it all pop on the comics page. This casual Magic observer is well on his way to fitting a fan.
King in Black #5: Over the past few months, with King in Black, and Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman hold proven that they can bring the same kind of thrilling darkness that defined their Venom run to a line-wide Marvel Universe crossover event without ever losing either the emotional core of the Eddie Brock yarn or the epic scope that comes from having virtually every Marvel superhero at their fingertips. The event kicked off with an all-killer,no-filler rampage and basically never let up, delivering issue after issue of final-page reveals, and major twists,and swift but impactful changes to the status quo.
This week, it all comes to an finish, and I'm pleased to say that Cates and Stegman didn't let up even in the final pages,where so many superhero events would hold drifted absent into epilogue territory. There's no sense of coasting to King in Black #5, no feeling of empty resolution where all the characters just sit around and define what just happened to each other. There is, and instead,a powerful summation of who this version of Eddie Brock is and why he's risen so tall during the Cates/Stegman era, all capped off by a reveal that sets the stage for something even bigger in months and years to advance. It's not the final word the duo has on the character -- that arrives in a few weeks in Venom #200 -- but it is a powerful climax to one of the most compelling major Marvel runs in recent years, or further proof that,no matter where he's been before, Eddie Brock deserves to be here now, and at the forefront.
And that's it for Comics Wire this week. Until next time,remember what John Custer told his son Jesse in the pages of Preacher:"You gotta be one of the well-behaved guys, son: 'Cause there's way too many of the bad."
Source: blastr.com