Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 8/24

Atomic Robo & The Temple of Od #1
Story: Brian Clevinger
Art: Scott Wegener & Anthony Clark

Atomic Robo is back! The pattern of Robo mini-series one set in the present and then one set in the past, and so this new series is a flashback to the late 1930s. Robo is tasked by the US military to go to Shanghai, which at this point was under Japanese control, and retrieve a Chinese scientist who has been taken by the Japanese and is developing a weapon using zero point energy, a source of power that is limitless and could destroy the world if used improperly. So, jet-setting adventurer Atomic Robo (that's his cover story, because really, how can you hide him) is off to Shanghai, and before the issue is over we have raids by Japanese soldiers, a motorcycle chase, Robo wising off at a dangerous time, and the return of a character from Robo's past. Now that we're into the eleventh volume of Atomic Robo, and that's not counting all the ancillary stories from Real Science Adventures, creators Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener have built a large and elaborate universe, with so many different characters from different eras in Robo's long life that it makes sense that a character like Helen McAllister, Robo's first love from the early 30s, would show up again during his World War II era adventures. And as with any Atomic Robo series, it's fun to look for the Easter Eggs the creators have placed throughout, as these are two guys who love their pop culture. Robo's arrival in Shanghai holds more than its fair share of nods to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, with a shoeshine boy who resembles Indy's sidekick Short Round, and a nightspot called Anything Goes. The best thing about Atomic Robo for me, though, is that even though the settings are new and the plot is filled with twists and turns you can't expect, if you're a fan of Robo it's like coming home; Robo as a character has a very specific voice, and his stories do as well. And if you're a new reader, even if you've never touched the character before it has such a welcoming, pulp feel to it that you can't help but be drawn in.

Detective Comics #939
Story: James Tynion IV
Art: Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, & Adriano Lucas

Tim Drake is my favorite Robin. I started reading Batman comics regularly right after Tim was introduced, and I grew up with him. And I have felt like the post-Flashpoint DC Universe has done the character a huge disservice, shuffling him off to the sidelines. That is until this current run on Detective Comics, which has brought Tim right back into the fold of the Bat universe. After escaping the Colony last issue, Batman, Batwoman, and their squad are trying to figure out what to do next. The issue starts out with some great character moments between Batman and Batwoman, as they discuss what Bruce may and may not have known about Batwoman's father's involvement with the Colony, and Tim coming to a decision about his future and discussing it with Spoiler. It would be easy, in the middle of an arc so packed with intrigue and action to forget about the characters and focus on the story, but Tynion takes time to give us a look inside the inner lives of the characters. But the action picks up as the team learns the Colony is sending armed drones to wipe out every possible member of the League of Shadows, the urban legend ultra secret offshoot of the League of Assassins, and damned be the collateral damage. And as ever, we see that Batman, and by proxy his allies, honor life above everything else, as they jump into action to try to save the innocent. In these scenes, we actually get one of the smaller, but one of the best, character moments in the issue, where Clayface has to scare a group of people out of their apartment to get them to safety, and he feels sad that his best way to act is still as a monster. Clayface has gotten the least page time of any of the characters in the series so far, but this little beat sets up his character arc, and possible hero's quest, better than any long speech could.And in Orphan's scene, we get a hint of something to come, something that might mean Colonel Kane isn't quite as off center about the League of Shadows as Batman believes. But I started this review talking about Time Drake, Red Robin, and I'm going back there for the end.Tim spends this issue showing first his tech chops, an aspect of the character that has always been present but has been played up a lot in the new continuity. I especially like that fact that Tynion is playing with the idea of what a guy in his late teens would do with an unlimited budget and a penchant for crime fighting. But more than that, the issue ends on an amazing cliffhanger, with Tim using his brain to put himself in a position where he'll have to use all his other skills next issue to survive. I don't want to give anything away, but it's an amazing ending, and one that sums up Tim Drake perfectly; he's a good kid with a big heart, who is willing to put himself in harm's way to protect others. I've said this with each review of this new run on Detective Comics, and I'll say it again: this book gets better with every issue, and if you're a Batman fan, you should absolutely be reading it.

Kingsway West #1
Story: Greg Pak
Art: Mirko Colak & Wil Quintana

I love alternate history mixed with science fiction or fantasy. And I love the comics of Greg Pak. So when you combine them, you get a comic I'm pretty much guaranteed to like. Kingsway West takes place in an alternate old west, one where the discovery of Red Gold, an ore that channels mystical energy, led to war between two factions in California: the Chinese Queen of the Golden City and the Mexican Republica de los Californios. But this isn't a story of that war. Taking place in its aftermath, we meet Kingsway Law, a renegade gunslinger and soldier from the Chinese side of the war. The story starts with him meeting Sonia, a Mexican woman who is also fleeing her life from the war. And it's not unexpected that when the comic flashes forward five years, they're married. It's a classic Western set-up, the gunslinger trying to escape his past with the love of a good woman. And Kingsway seems genuinely like he wants to be a better man. But when a woman from the Golden Empire arrives looking for Kingsway, with word of whole new vein of Red Gold, he hopes he can just avoid her, but things don't work out like that, and soon Kingsway has had to take up his guns again to save the woman from the Golden City Guard and to find Sonia, who has disappeared. This first issue does a solid job of establishing the world that Pak is creating, the personalities of his leads, and the driving force of the plot. But I will say alternate history comics are only as good as the artist who is crafting the vision of this different world, and fortunately Pak is working with one who has some serious chops. I was unfamiliar with Mirko Colak before this issue, so I came in with no preconceptions, but the art is absolutely stellar. The characters are all solid and distinct, and the animals that populate the world, these hybrids of real animals, as well as fantastic creatures like dragons, have great designs. And the fight scenes are very well choreographed, not just easy to follow, and exciting;  but brutal in a way that does not glorify the violence in the least, which works perfectly in the tale of a man who was trying to escape his violent past and is now being pulled back into it. If you enjoy classic Westerns like Unforgiven, or the strange sci-fi Western world of Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta's East of West, you should really try out Kingsway West.

Wonder Woman #5
Story: Greg Rucka 
Art: Liam Sharp & Laura Martin

Greg Rucka has a lot going on in Wonder Woman. Not only are there two A plots, stuff set in the present in the odd numbered issues and a Year One story in the even numbered ones, but the plot in the stories set in the present, like this week's issue, are packed with all sorts of threads and characters, making it a dense and rewarding read. There are three interconnected plots running through this issue, one featuring Wonder Woman, one featuring Steve Trevor, and one featuring Etta Candy and a surprise guest star who I'll talk about at the end. Wonder Woman and Cheetah continue their quest to free Cheetah from Urzkartaga, the god that granted her the powers of the cheetah, and who now seeks her death for betraying him. Cheetah's origins have always tied her to Wonder Woman as a former friend who went to the dark side, but as a reader, I've always known the two as nemeses only. Here, seeing the two of them having to work together, it deepens the relationship, gives us insight into their shared history, and makes the aspect of that history as former friends matter more. The deepening mystery of Wonder Woman's own history and the changes that have occurred in it, and what has happened to Olympus and Themyscira, remains front and center for Diana, and the slow trickle of clues and revelations keeps the reader guessing. Meanwhile, Steve Trevor has been captured by a warlord named Cadulo who happens to be a worshipper of Urzkartaga, and who is preparing sacrifices to the god to grant him power. Steve and Cadulo are cast as polar opposites, not just because one is the heroic type and the other villainous, but because they have very different definitions of masculinity. Rucka has never shied away from discussing his own views on society in his work, and with so many recent examples in fandom of toxic masculinity, it's not surprising for Rucka to call it out, going so far as to have Trevor actually use those words. Cadulo is the kind of guy who expects women to worship him, and Trevor is, to say the least, not. Trevor banters, even when captured, and I like how Rucka is giving this character more of a personality than he's been given in the last two decades. Finally, the third plotline sees Etta Candy, Wonder Woman and Trevor's friend and Trevor's current boss, going to seek advice in what to do with the captured Trevor, and the person she goes to? Sasha Bordeaux! If you don't know her, Sasha was a character created by Rucka during his run on Detective Comics, where she served first as Bruce Wayne's Wayne Enterprises assigned bodyguard and later one of Batman's partners, and became Black Queen of Checkmate when Rucka wrote the DC Universe spy title. And while Sasha seems helpful, there's far more to what's going on than meets the Eye (and yes, that capitalization is intentional if you know Sasha's history). I'm really excited to see Sasha back, and no one writes her like her creator. I also want to call out Liam Sharp's astounding art on this issue; he's an artist I always picture drawing monsters and horror comics, and that skill plays out well in Cadulo's den, but he also draws a beautiful Wonder Woman and a sleek Cheetah. This is Greg Rucka at his superhero best, and I haven't been this excited by Wonder Woman in a long time.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 1/27 Part 2

And we're back with more reviews from last week's comics. Today we have books from Image and IDW...

Atomic Robo & The Ring of Fire #5
Story: Brian Clevinger
Art: Scott Wegener, Anthony Clark, & Jeff Powell

So, after spending much of his most recent mini-series as not much more than a head, Atomic Robo has a body again and is on a mission, so of course that means only one thing: Fight with a cybernetic Nazi astronaut while trying to save the world. The conclusion of Atomic Robo & The Ring of Fire is the most action oriented issue of this series, as Robo tries to power up a Nazi space weapon to destroy the Biomega Island, a mass of biomatter that if it reaches land will grow to devour and cover all life on Earth, and Majestic-12s Titan mechs fight to destroy the island themselves. The clock is ticking, not just because the Biomega is nearing landfall, but if Robo can't stop the Island himself, Majestic's only answer is nukes, and, well, we all know that's probably not good for Earth. The Titan battle with the Biomega, which began last issue, continues to be impressive work from artist Scott Wegener, not just because he does a great job of keeping what is a massive fight coherent for readers to follow, but because his monster designs are excellent. Robo's plot is equally as exciting and considerably more amusing, as Robo makes his way through the Nazi Longinus satellite while in contact with his team of Action Scientists. The interaction between Robo and his team is one of my favorite aspects of the series, with great banter; Robo's particularly dry sense of humor and delivery as he's fighting a cyber-Nazi and crashing to Earth in a satellite makes the situation, which is still dire, seem like it will all work out in the end (and it does, of course. The comic is named after him, after all). The end of the issue begins to establish a new status quo, for both Robo and the world at large. The last three Robo mini-series ("Savage Sword of Doctor Dinosaur," "Knights of the Golden Circle," and "Ring of Fire") have left Robo is a strange new world, and it seems like he's interested in changing his own life, but there are new threats hinted at and old ones that might not be as gone as he thinks; the last page of the series is a classic last minute horror movie moment. We'll have to wait a while to find out what's next for Robo, as the next series, Atomic Robo & the Temple of Od, moves us back to an earlier adventure in Robo's life, but be it the past or the present, there are few comics as exciting as Atomic Robo.

Cry Havoc #1
Story: Simon Spurrier
Art: Ryan Kelly, Nick Filardi, Lee Loughridge, & Matt Wilson

When I choose a new series from Image to readm it's usually based on the writer. But the ads for Cry Havoc declared, "It's not about a lesbian werewolf going to war. Except it kind of is." And if you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know how I feel about werewolves, so I thought Id give it a shot, despite having little to no experience with Simon Spurrier. And it's a very solid debut issue. The issue takes place in three distinct time periods: The first is "The End," the farthest down the timeline, with our lead, Louise Canton, in a cage and partially transformed; "The Beginning" is the farthest back, showing Lou shortly before she was attacked by a werewolf and moves through shortly after the attack;  and "The Middle" shows her arrival in Afghanistan with the military. All are drawn by Ryan Kelly but colored by three different artists that give each section a different feel. That style is one of the things that makes this comic such an engaging read. Not only is the alternating timeline keeping you off kilter and as lost as Lou clearly feels, but those different colorists really bring out different aspects of Kelly's art. It's also easy to keep track of the time periods as the panel borders are a different color for each time zones: red for the end, blue for the beginning, and yellow for the middle. There's a lot going on in this issue, with three plots that are all really one plot all running at once, and Lou is a likable lead, even though I don't feel like we get a whole feel for her as a character yet. Each Lou is different, and part of the series journey to me will be seeing how she moves from one phase to the next. There's not a lot of monster action, but the glimpses we get of Kelly's werewolf design is phenomenal, a large monstrous beast. I also like the way he represents Lou's senses kicking into the heightened werewolf ones, these blue lines that radiate out from her, be they representing sound or scent. There are a lot of questions posed in this first issue, questions about the werewolf that turned Lou, about whether the military will really cure her, what the motive of Lynn Odell, the woman Lou was  brought into a war zone to hunt, are, and I'll definitely be back to see where all these questions lead.

Ghostbusters International #1
Story: Erik Burnham
Art: Dan Schoening & Luis Antonio Delgado

The team of Burnham and Schoening return with the continued adventures of the original Ghostbusters. After the past couple of adventures the team has had, meeting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other dimensional versions of themselves, the team is back to fighting ghosts and not gods (so far anyway). A big shaggy werewolf looking ghost is attacking the UN, and what seems like a run of the mill capture job turns into something more as an unrelated haunting pops up at the same time and Egon is injured. The boys are still able to pull it out and stop the ghost, and the additional fees to the UN are paid be mystery industrialist Erland Vinter, who asks to meet with the Ghostbusters to discuss a business proposition. The tile of the series sort of gives away what Vinter's plan is, but we won't learn more about that until next issue. Aside from the initial capture, the issue is filled with little character moments.The Burnham/Scoening Ghostbusters comics have done a really solid job of developing the characters around the Ghostbusters, so a scene with Janine and Jenny Moran, a comics original character who is currently the team's liaison with the city, is as interesting as when Ray, Winston, and Peter go out for a drink to share information about Vinter. And Egon, recuperating from an acid spitting ghost attack, is clearly into something, but it's something he doesn't share with Kylie Griffin, a character from the late-90s Extreme Ghostbusters cartoon who has been a regular in the series for some time now, and who I really like. I'm hoping for more interaction between her and Egon in the future. There's also a two page "Haunted America" short at the back of the issue in the form of a report from FBI agent, ally, and sometime Ghostbuster Melanie Ortiz, about a haunting in Florida; these shorts that have been a regular part of IDW's Ghostbusters comics are a nice bonus, and always mean a little more bang for your buck. There are a lot of seeds for upcoming plots in this issue, lots of little moments. Since Burnham started writing Ghostbusters he's played an almost Claremontian long game, dropping little hints and moments that don't pay off for some time. I'm curious as ever to see where these new threads take us.

Southern Bastards #13
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Jason Latour

OK, this might not be much of a shocking confession, but I'm going to say it up front: I don't care about football. Sports in general don't do much for me, and fiction about sports can be interesting if it's dealing with the personalities, but actually reading/watching the game? Meh. So when I saw this week's Southern Bastards was going to take place during the homecoming game, I got a bit worried. This is one of my favorite comics out there right now, and football is an integral part of it, but I wasn't sure if I could take twenty-four pages of football. I shouldn't have been surprised that Jason Aaron and Jason Latour kept the issue engaging, mixing the football game, which I admit did keep me interested as I didn't know which way it was going to turn out, with Coach Boss before and after the game. This avoided a problem I often find in sports fiction. You know the team of scrappy underdogs you're rooting for is going to pull off a miracle and win in the end. In Jason Aaron's usually dark universe, victory is never quite as assured. The game does not go Craw County's way, as nothing seems to be for Coach Boss, the antagonist of the series who we've frankly spent more time with than the protagonists at this point. It feels like Boss is surrounded by troubles on all sides. The mayor and his wife are coming down on him hard, his longtime friend Coach Big has killed himself, and his team is doing a piss poor job. It's fascinating that you can empathize with a character who was introduced as such a stock, southern-fried villain, but I actually feel for Boss. I don't like him, and he's deserving of this crapstorm he's in, but I can't help feel a pang of sadness for him. But Boss is a guy who goes down swinging, and his post-game confrontation with the gigantic running back from arch rival team Wetumpka County Warriors shows that Boss still has plenty of fight in him. It's a very solid showing from Southern Bastards, and while I might not care about football, I care about what happens to these characters, and the series works like a good game of football, where every hard fought inch gets you closer to a touchdown and the end of the game. And this endgame is going to be bloodier than any ever in a football stadium, I have no doubt.

Legends and Infinities: A Wish List of Star Wars Stories

It's the last Friday before The Force Awakens opens, and I wanted to make this Force Friday post something different. I had a couple ideas, and they're things I'll do someday but none were different enough. And then it dawned on me: everyone has a story they wish they had seen from A Galaxy Far, Far Away. So I reached out to some of my friends who are Star Wars fans, and asked what stories that had never been told they'd like to see. Continuity be damned, these are wild ideas, some that might work in the current canon, some Legends, some that would be considered Infinities (those stories that could never be in continuity, usually What If? or comedy).

We'll start out with my list, because it's my blog and I get to go first. I focused on stories tied into the Legends continuity, the old EU. I know it's a pipe dream to expect any of this to pop up again, but I hold out some hope...

Thrawn: Into the Unkown
Timothy Zahn and Nick Dragotta

If there's one character in all the Expanded Universe I wish would show up again in any way, it is the Grand Admiral Thrawn, the honorable Imperial Grand Admiral who is a mix between Irwin Rommel and Sherlock Holmes, a brilliant military leader who is the opposite of the bullying, narcissistic Imperials of the classic trilogy. Readers know that sometime around Empire Strikes Back, Thrawn traveled into the Unknown Regions, the vast quadrant of space unexplored by the Empire, populated by his own people, the Chiss, and countless other species, and spent the next few years fighting threats and establishing his beachhead, The Empire of the Hand. But other than a few scattered stories, very little is known of this time. A comic would be a great place for Thrawn's creator, Timothy Zahn, to tell stories of Thrawn battling new alien threats and setting up his undertaking. It would also feature the characters established as Thrawn's subordinates, like his right hand man,Voss Parck, the stormtroopers known as The Hand of Judgement, and eventually Baron Soontir Fel. For art, I picked Nick Dragotta, whose work on East of West shows he has a great sense of design that he could let run wild in creating the alien vistas of a part of space little explored anywhere in Star Wars literature. It's hard to write a story where the Empire is the good guy, but if any writer could do it, it's Zahn, and Thrawn and his crew are ideal for rehabilitating the image of the Empire as a monolithic force for evil.

Wraith Squadron
Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto

Created by the late, great Aaron Allston, Wraith Squadron was a group of misfits who were gathered by legendary X-Wing pilot Wedge Antilles to serve as a combination of X-Wing squadron and Republic Intelligence squad. Yes, they're spies who flew X-Wings, and that's a combination I just love. Appearing as one of the sub-series within the X-Wing novels and popping up in the New Jedi Order and a solo novel set towards the end of the period covered in the Del Rey novels, there are massive gaps in the Wraiths history that a writer could exploit to tell stories of starfighters and espionage. And if there's one writer in comics who has proven his mettle on spy stories, it's Greg Rucka, whose Queen & Country and Whiteout are some of the best spy stories in any format. And his recent Shattered Empire mini-series with Marco Checchetto shows the two of them sure now how to portray a great space battle. And while Rucka isn't known for his humorous stories, he has a biting sense of humor that should work with the Wraiths patented pranks. Let him fill in gaps or create some new Wraiths to go on undercover missions against the Empire and other threats to galactic peace, and you'll get a Star Wars thriller without compare.

Agent of the Empire: Behind Enemy Lines
John Ostrander and Carlos D'Anda

When I wrote a post about series that I felt ended prematurely, the Star Wars series I picked was Agent of the Empire, another espionage book, this one about the James Bond of Imperial Intelligence, Jahan Cross. A lot of what I'm going to write here I talked about in a briefer form there, but my idea for a new Jahan Cross story would flash forward a few years from the end of the previous series, Hard Targets, to shortly after the battle of Yavin. With the Death Star destroyed, Cross would be sent undercover into the Rebel Alliance to find and capture Leia Organa; usually in that post-Yavin world, we're seeing people hunting Luke Skywalker for Vader, or Han Solo for Jabba the Hutt, but Leia is, from a political standpoint, the more important target, as she is the face of the destruction of Alderaan and a rallying symbol for disaffected populations, as well as an able military leader. Cross, who has been doing his job but growing more and more disillusioned with the missions hos boss,Armand Isard, is sending him on, now has even more of a reason to hate the Empire, as he is Alderaanian, which gives him a perfect cover to go to meet Leia. The story would see Cross deal with his doubts about the Empire, and decide whether to join the Alliance, remain loyal to an Empire that destroyed his homeworld, or stay within Imperial Intelligence and try to fix things from within. Readers would also see the beginnings of Ysanne Isard, Armand's daughter and eventual replacement, rising to power within the intelligence community. After the great job he did capturing the classic Star Wars cast on his run with Brian Wood, I think Carlos D'Anda would be a great choice to draw a series where Leia is a central character; fill out the cast with other Alderaanian survivors, like Winter, Leia's best friend and right hand woman, and future Rogue Squadron pilot Tycho Celchu, and you have a series that could wrap up Jahan Cross's story, or set him in a different direction.

That might not be a Jedi, but tell me that Ewok isn't adorable

Itty Bitty Jedi
Art Baltzar & Franco

Kids love Star Wars. And while I wish I could share all my Star Wars comics with my nieces, godson, and other kids I know, I realize many aren't exactly appropriate. So what do you do? You call in Art and Franco, masters of the comics that kids of all ages, from five to fifty-five love. You can have all the Jedi from the prequels, who many kids love thanks to Clone Wars, as younglings at the Jedi Academy, with Yoda as their teacher, and just have them go on fun little adventures. Between Tiny Titans and Itty Bitty Hellboy, you know these guys can make it work. The kids could play games with the Force, compete against other schools, just basically do the kind of things that kids in Art and Franco comics do. I just want to see Yoda, Mace, Qui-Gon, and a baby Obi-Wan in the patented Itty Bitty style.

Legacy: A Tale of Two Solos
Corinna Bechko & Gabriel Hardman

The end of the second volume of Star Wars: Legacy did a good job of wrapping up the dangling plot threads of a series that clearly could have gone on for considerably longer, but any ending that comes down from corporate is going to leave some stories untold. The plot that I most wanted to know more about from the run that was never fleshed out was the connection between the long-lived assassin droid AG-37 and Han Solo, something hinted at in a few panels but never fully explained. I would love to see creators Bechko and Hardman get to come back and tell that story in an oversized one-shot that tells a parallel narrative: in one, we see whatever happened that put AG in Han's debt, and in the other, we see AG working with Ania Solo, Han's descendant and the principal character of Legacy Vol. 2. It would be a fun adventure comic set on the fringe, with plenty of scum and villainy to go around.

Ben Skywalker: Heir to the Force
Christopher Yost and Marcus To

At the end of the Del Rey Legends novel era, Ben Skywalker, the son of Luke and Mara Jade, was in his late teens and was beginning to make his own way, as his father had retired to a more monastic life, but Ben was not ready to take up the mantle as Grand Master of the Jedi. This would be a star-hopping teen adventure comic, with lots of action and teen angst in the classic New Mutants sense. We would see Ben grow as a character, from the pretty together but still young Jedi that he is now to a man who would be able to take up the Skywalker mantle and head the Jedi order. He could get a new master, a new character who would be a no-nonsense Jedi who doesn't take any crap from him, Skywalker or no. His cousin Jaina, who would be starting the order that would become the Imperial Knights in Legacy would appear, as would Ben's love interest/enemy from the Fate of the Jedi series, Vestara Khai. Christopher Yost knows his teen heroes, having written for X-Men: Evolution (where he created X-23) and New X-Men, but the book that makes me think he's dead right for this is his year on Red Robin. I feel like Ben and Tim Drake have a lot in common: they're both serious kids with a legacy at their backs, and they're both detectives. And Yost's partner on the back half of that run, Marcus To, has a kinetic art style that did great stuff with acrobatic superheroes, so it's just another step to get him drawing Jedi.

The New Sith Wars
Joshua Williamson and Riley Rossmo

The main antagonist of the Legacy comics was the One Sith, an order of Sith Lords who put the order before their personal gains, thus making one Sith who would not destroy itself through in fighting. Del Rey's novels, the final ones still taking place decades before the Legacy comics, had started hinting at the One Sith, with small appearances by members of the order in the Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi series, as well as in Paul Kemp's Crosscurrent and Riptide. But in the Fate of the Jedi series, we also met the Lost Tribe, a group of Sith who had been separated from galactic culture for centuries and had just found a way back. While many of the Lost Tribe were killed at the end of the series, their homeworld was still out there with many members. So the question is: what became of them in between the end of the novels and the Legacy comics? Were they absorbed or destroyed by, or did they remain hidden from, the One Sith? This comic would answer that in a comic about bad people doing bad things to each other. Narrated by a Chagrian Sith who is destined by series end to become Darth Wyyrlok, adviser to Darth Krayt (and mother to the Darth Wyyrlok of the Legacy comics), the series would feature battles on disparate worlds between different Sith, and see each of them playing complex games that featured both political manipulation and physical force to make their sect come out on top. Joshua Williamson is writing some of my favorite comics on the market now, and between Ghosted, Nailbiter, Birthright, and Red Skull, he's proven he can write villains and sociopaths in a way that might not make you sympathize with them, but does make you understand and like them a bit, which is important in a book that is populated by Sith. Riley Rossmo draws both creatures of hideous horror and people of immaculate beauty, important to draw the distinction between the hodge podge of tattooed aliens that make up the One Sith and the human beauty and genetic purity obsessed Lost Tribe. The Jedi are usually the lead of Star Wars comics, but there have been notable exceptions where the Sith take center stage; this would be a string addition to those books. And yes, it's really just an excuse to see lots of red lightsabers and people using the force for creative mayhem; sue me, that sounds fun.

Untitled Frontier Jedi Buddy Comedy/Action
Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry

OK, so this one is actually more built around concept and creator than it is on characters, hence the title, or lack thereof. I've been watching some old episodes of Clone Wars recently (there may or may not be an Advent Calendar entry coming up), and realized how much I love the dynamic between Obi-Wan & Anakin and Obi-Wan & Quinlan Vos, and how Star Wars can lend itself really well to two mismatched heroes working together to fight for right. And when it comes to buddy comedies in comics, I can't think of anybody better than Fred Van Lente, who co-wrote Incredible Hercules with Greg Pak, a book that featured blowhard demi-god Hercules and the world's seventh smartest person, young Amadeus Cho, and who wrote Archer and Armstrong, featuring reprobate immortal Aram Ani-Padda and naive martial artist Obadiah Archer. So I'm thinking set the series around the Knights of the Old Republic/Old Republic era, when there was still a wild galactic frontier, and toss in a young impetuous Jedi and her Barabel partner. I'd love the book to have two female leads, as Star Wars has a history of strong female characters and this would be a great place to not only spotlight that, but also give readers another major non-human protagonist. Barabel, a lizard race that are nearly as big and fearsome as Wookiees, and Jedi have a long history of respect together, so the partnership makes sense, and if you make the Jedi the reckless one and the Barabel soldier the more reserved character, you toss the usual expectation on its head, which is right in Van Lente's wheelhouse. Partner him with Clayton Henry, one of his regular collaborators with a bright, energetic style, and you'd have a Star Wars Western for the ages.

Regular Star Wars guest contributor Brandon Borzelli brings you his own list, with tales of prequel era Jedi, Hutts, and a heroic little droid...

Master/Padawan

Grant Morrison and Humberto Ramos

There simply aren't enough stories (books or comics) dealing with Obi-Wan as a young master to Anakin and there are barely any stories that include Qui-Gon at all. This would be a series that would parallel both sets. Humor, frustration, adventure, anger, attachments, maybe even some dark side - all of it could be covered. We would see where Obi-Wan learned as a padawan, but where he failed as a master. At the same time this would cover how Qui-Gon's teachings set Obi-Wan up for failure later. After all, the Anakin story includes Qui-Gon as well. Who better to capture the relationship than someone that mastered Batman and Robin?

Ben Kenobi

John Jackson Miller and Jordi Bernet

The novel, Kenobi is among the very best the Star Wars line has ever produced. The western genre fits with Kenobi on Tatooine and the man-with-no-name fits Obi-Wan well. Luke's life may have been very boring on Tatooine but Obi-Wan's probably wasn't. This doesn't have to circle around Jabba, Fett, and the other well-known characters. This would be a chance to tangle with different gangs and sets of trouble as Obi-Wan looks to make sure the environment around Luke is relatively safe.

Jedi Purge

Randy Stradley and Doug Wheatley

Another comic focused during the Dark Times. This comic would be similar to the Dark Times but jump around a bit more. Darth Vader continues his two-fold quest of 1) Hunting Jedi (against his master's wishes) and 2) Attempting to recruit an apprentice. He would eventually come across a Jedi he knew from the past and potentially admired to the point that he would want this Jedi to turn to the dark side. The comic could potentially touch on Ahsoka, but she would probably need to stay in the shadows when it comes to Vader so as not to conflict with the Rebels TV shows. Dass Jennir and K'Kruhk could make appearances but it seems like this might focus more on Vader and not the Jedi. Although, he would seem a fitting end to Jennir's story would be death at the hands of Vader.

The Hutts

Jeff Lemire

A couple of the Han Solo novels painted an intriguing web of Hutt power and gang warfare between clans. Lemire seems to deal with the "weird" really well and he might be able to pull off the more gruesome aspects of the Hutts in a unique way. Of course, the comic could have some appearances from the known Bounty Hunters and maybe even Han and Chewie. The book could be brutal and fun at the same time.

R2-D2: Hero to the Galaxy

Roger Langridge

How many times has R2 saved the day? Just from the films, six, seven, more? This could be a comic that keeps the focus on R2 and how he works behind the scenes to save the day. The settings could go back as far as the palace on Naboo and work his way through the rebellion years. It would be a more lighthearted book, but it would have real Star Wars-like situations.

Aurra Sing may be a bounty hunter, not a smuggler, but I think this shows Robertson would do well with those Star Wars characters in the fringe.

The Smugglers

Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson

Han and Chewie and a cast of scum and villainy. Star Wars at its best - adventure. With the mix of dog-fighting and complex plots, this kind of story is right up Ennis' alley.

Palpatine

Scott Snyder and R.M. Guera

This is a story that is begging to be told. We don't need constant political drama and manipulation from the character. Some apprentice scenes with Plaguies, some one-off killing of some rivals (maybe even Jedi). It needs to be faster moving than the Prequels but it will be a dark look at a character that is always a supporting role, but such an important one.

The Jedi Masters

Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke

Who better to explore a cosmic force than the mastermind behind the resurgence of Green Lantern? Why is Mace Windu so angry? Where did Yoda come from? How did all the other Jedi Masters come to the council and why are they so weak in comparison? The series would need action, but balanced with character studies. Johns can juggle a large cast like no one else. This would be a great book.

Count Dooku

Rick Remender andTony Moore

If you have ever read Fear Agent then you know where I'm going with this. Remender wrote a time-traveling epic where the lead is an alcoholic with a stubborn attitude to bend things to his will. If Anakin's story is a tragedy then so is Dooku's, except he was replaced and not redeemed as Vader was.

The Sith

John Ostrander and Jan Duursema

Last but not least a comic from the Star Wars team that brought some of the best Clone Wars comics and the epic Legacy tale. Who better to re-write the history of the Sith than this pair? It's all a blank slate to get the universe up to Darth Sidious. This pair knows how to universe-build and present the Sith as a complex set of characters rather than one dimensional as Darth Maul has been depicted.

My partner in crime for my Dewey's days, John Bush, has a reunion from one of the '00s seminal books on a project, along with an irreverent mash-up of a favorite Image series and everyone's favorite Wookiee...

The Rise of Palpatine

Jonathan Hickman and Ryan Bodenheim

Palpatine didn't get to where he was overnight. He came from humble beginnings to shake the galaxy to its core. Who better to tell the tale of the man who had to beg, borrow, steal, bribe, blackmail, murder, torture, lie, and pretend to be friends with Jar-Jar in order to bring the galaxy to its knees than Hickman? Think of all the opportunities for complex political shenanigans for Hickman to exploit. For art chores, Hickman's frequent partner-in-crime Ryan Bodenheim has shown he can bring some sinister personality to his characters, and that's really what you need when you're talking Palpatine.

A panel from the Eic Powell drawn Star Wars story, "The Hovel on Terk Street" from Star Wars Tales #6

Tales From the Mos Eisley Cantina

Jason Aaron and Eric Powell

I think it's been pretty well established that you don't end up in the cantina if your life is in a good place. Rogues, scoundrels, and smugglers from all over litter the place and they've all got their own hard-luck stories. I'm all in for Southern Bastards in a galaxy far, far away, is what I'm saying. As for art, who draws better violent, down-on-their-luck freaks than Eric Powell?

Imperial Engineering Authority 

Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch

So Death Stars and star destroyers don't just appear out of nowhere, yeah? Someone's got to build them, but then before that someone's got to design them. Welcome to the world of the IEA, a collection of geniuses put together by Palpatine to keep his empire supplied with war machines. Some of them are very excited to be there, some just don't want their families jettisoned out of the nearest airlock. The series would have something of an anthology feel, with each arc following a different team of engineers working on a specific project, connected by a troubleshooting team that would travel from site to site whenever a project hits a snag. And, frankly, a series of stories focused on one bizarre scientific theory after another sounds like exactly what Ellis likes doing right now - and I'm on board with that. He'd reunite with his Authority co-creator Hitch because if you're going to need lots of sweeping shots of under-construction super weapons, Hitch has shown an almost unparalleled aptitude with that.

Chu-Bacca

John Layman and Rob Guillory

On an assignment gone wrong for the Galactic Rebellion, Chewbacca finds himself forced to go undercover as T'Onee Chu-Bacca, completely normal human being and agent of the Imperial Food and Drug Administration. Using a little-known but completely plausible ancient Wookiee hunting technique to absorb the history of anything he tastes, Agent Chu-Bacca and his droid partner K0L-B are tasked with investigating the appearance of a strange new fruit called Gallsaberries recently discovered on Coruscant.

And finally, my friend Nancy Kindraka, whose collection of Star Wars books exceeds anyone else I have ever met, adds in some indy creators, and has a pick for a Wraith Squadron book I wish I had thought of first...

If I could have any wish it would be to have the late Edvin Biuković back and drawing anything Star Wars. (Or possibly just anything.) His work on X-Wing Rogue Squadron and the adaptation of The Last Command was amazing.

Short of that, here's what I'd love to see:

Jedi adventure one-shot or mini 

Stan Sakai

I've been a fan of the long-running adventures of Sakai's samurai rabbit Usagi Yojimbo since forever. Sakai tells excellent stories and backs them up with elegantly paced visuals. And he does great sword fights!

Mara Jade, Mirax Terrik, and Winter solve the galaxy's problems 

Chuck Wendig and Fiona Staples

Mara, Mirax, and Winter are fantastic characters from the Legends expanded universe, and I desperately want to see them reintroduced. (We need more female characters in Star Wars in general.) I think they'd make a shrewd, dangerous, and highly resourceful team à la Leverage. You need a problem solved and a bad guy taken down? They can do that. I have no idea if Wendig is suited to writing for comics but I would trust him to try.

Wraith Squadron

Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener

A squadron full of highly intelligent misfits tasked with impossible missions for the greater good? That's Wraith Squadon, and it's also one way to describe Clevinger and Wegener's Atomic Robo. I'd love to see the Robo brand of kinetic energy and wacky hijinks applied to Wedge Antilles's commando squadron.

Princess Leia ongoing 

Greg Weisman and Pepe Larraz

Leia is amazing. She's a princess, a senator, a freedom fighter, a leader, a diplomat, a decent pilot, a great shot, and we need more stories about her. Weisman and Larraz's first volume of Kanan: The Last Padawan was excellent. I'm glad we're getting more from them with more Kanan but I think they'd be similarly excellent with Leia.

If Noelle Stevenson could work this drawing into her story, I know it would make the top of my read list

Zam Wessell one-shot or mini 

Noelle Stevenson

Stevenson has a collection of Zam figures and has written odes to her on Twitter. IT WOULD BE AMAZING.

Anything that floats their boat by female creators

Star Wars is not just for boys (and has never been just for boys) and I'm all for things that bring the ratio of male to female authors and artists to parity.

Resurrect the Star Wars Tales anthology

Some canon stories, some decidedly non-canon stories, a wide swath of writers and artists, a little something for everyone, and each one a slice of Star Wars. I thought they were great.


So that's our picks. Do you have a story you'd like to see? Reply here, on The Matt Signal Facebook page, or on twitter @mattlaz1013. I'd love to hear your suggestions.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 12/3

Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire #4
Story: Brian Clevinger
Art: Scott Wegener, Anthony Clark, & Jeff Powell

Things are looking bad for Earth. An island of Biomega, this undifferentiated mass of monster that spawns kaiju, is heading to make landfall in Tokyo, and only Atomic Robo can stop it. Well, at least stop it without causing nuclear winter or a mass extinction in Tokyo. So really, it's just another day at the office for Robo. With the Biomega island getting near land, Robo makes a Hail Mary to stop it, heading to Kazakhstan to board a Russian space rocket to use a Nazi-launched space weapon to blast the island to nothingness. And that sentence is why I love Atomic Robo. It combines the real world history with crazy science ideas and conspiracy wackiness to come up with something that is more than the sum of its parts. And now that Robo has a body again and is up and about, the book is complete. It was nice to spend more time with the Action Scientists and get to know them better, but there's a reason this book is called Atomic Robo! Robo's cool under fire reactions to the possible extinction of everything on Earth is part of his charm. What also makes this issue prime Robo is the time table is ticking on two ends; not only is the Biomega threat looming, but Robo has only limited power in his system, so has only a couple of hours before he powers down again to save the world. It's a tense situation made all the tenser. And it wouldn't be an issue of Atomic Robo if even more wasn't happening. That's the beauty of Robo's comic; creators Brain Clevinger and Scott Wegener make every panel count. Robo's Chonese allies are trying to figure out exactly how Robo is powering himself, which won't bode well when they find out he's draining from their grid, and Majestic/Ultra, the international science army, are sending in their giant mechs to fight the Biomega. Wegener hits that sequence out of the park, drawing not just incredible giant robots, but equally incredible monsters. This is where comics succeed where most other visual media fail: there's no budget, no limit aside from the imagination of the people writing and drawing it, The issue ends with Phil (my favorite Action Scientist other than the maybe-late and lamented Jenkins) arriving on Hashima Island, a locale familiar to the Robo faithful, and after pulling off a pretty hilarious fake out, heading down below the surface to meet an old... let's be nice and say acquaintance of Robo's. The set-up for a climactic issue has me really excited for next issue. Before the switch to IDW, I read Atomic Robo in trade, and now I don't know how I missed out on these monthly doses of Action Science!

East of West #22
Story: Jonathan Hickman
Art: Nick Dragotta & Frank Martin

The silent issue is a tricky beast. It can sometimes come off as lazy, or something the creators are doing as a stunt. But when it's pulled off right? It is a sight to behold. And this month's issue of East of West? This, my friends, is a sight. East of West is often a title that spends issues building up to an explosion, with the politics and hunting boiling over into an explosion of action and violence; it's masterful slow burn. This issue is all burn in the best way, as assassins invade the palace of the house of Mao. I want to spend a whole paragraph explaining, analyzing, talking about the countdown clock that runs through the issue, but I don't want to spoil anything. Artist Nick Dragotta, who started this series as an artist I liked and has become an artist I adore, hits a homerun, scores a midcourt shot, hits a hole in one, insert your chosen sports metaphor here. His storytelling has never been better, cleaner, and without anything to distract from his art, he shines. There's a fight scene that could very easily have come across as tawdry and exploitative, but instead shows the power of a principle character in a way that is breathtaking. If you've never read East of West, this may not be the perfect jumping on point for you, but if you're a fan of comic art as a form, there's not a better comic to see a master craftsman at work than this one.

Robin War #1
Story: Tom King
Art: Rob Haynes, Khary Randolph, Alan Mauricet, Jorge Corona, Andres Guinaldo and Walden Wong, Emilio Lopez, Chris Sotomayor, Gabe Eltaeb, & Sandra Molina

This is how you start a crossover! Robin War, the event tying in all the comics featuring everyone who has, in current continuity, ever warn an "R" on their chest, is more than just a comic about teen superheroes fighting for their right to be teen superheroes. It touches on issues of policing and government, and, along with Batman #44, shows how the Batman titles are DC's best attempts to touch on some of the society's real issues, When one young Robin inadvertently shoots not just a criminal but the police officer who has arrived on the scene, This quickly spreads into "The Robin Laws," which basically make underage vigilantism, or even the possession of anything Robin related, illegal. We see limits to freedom and the abuse of power by the police. If the individual panels of the police tasing and beating kids aren't enough to make this clearly a problem, we see Duke Thomas, lead of We Are Robin, arrested not because he's out in costume, but because he's wearing red sneakers and, "Red means Robin." Duke is considerably smarter than the arresting officer and escapes, and calls a meeting of all the Robins. Meanwhile, two other factions are getting involved. Red Hood and red Robin are in communication, trying to decide what to do, especially when a certain x-factor returns to Gotham. And we see that Councilwoman Noctua, who is spearheading the anti-Robin legislation, is working with the Court of Owls to set off the Robin War, not exactly a surprise after last week's We Are Robin and the cover to this issue. The Robin gathering is broken up by the arrival of Damian, angry to see what in his mind are a crowd of posers using the name he's earned, but his beatdown of the Robins is interrupted by the arrival of Jim Gordon as Batman, who Damian is equally not impressed by and who he proceeds to take out with ease.When Damian doesn't listen to the Reds, they call in the one person left he will listen to, Dick Grayson, and all the players are in place, especially as the Talon of the Court makes sure the Robin responsible won't be able to come forward. That coming forward, that discussion of taking responsibility for one's actions, is another key theme here, as Duke believes it's what needs to be done, not just to put things right, but because it IS right, another reason to love Duke Thomas. As you can see from the list above, there are a lot of artists involved here, and these jam issues can often look like a mess, but the whole issue has breakdowns by Rob Haynes, and so there is a unity to the general look of the comic that helps keep the flow constant. With its strong characterization and fast-moving plot, Robin War has the potential to be the best Bat Family crossover of the post-Flashpoint era.



Dan Grote reviews another sterling issue of Doctor Strange this week...

Doctor Strange #3
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Chris Bachalo & Tim Townsend

A good creative team can convert a nonfan into a new fan with minimal effort. Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire turned Blue Beetle and Booster Gold into DC heads’ fave besties. Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting turned a lot of people into flag-waving Captain America devotees. Mark Waid and Fiona Staples showed naysayers the beauty in Archie Comics.

And Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo have me wondering what I’ve missed all these years in the Sorcerer Supreme.

Of the many All-New, All-Different Marvel series that have launched since October, Doctor Strange may be my favorite. Aaron and Bachalo have woven a wonderful, swirling tapestry in which there is weirdness all over the mundane to the point where, to a mystic like Strange, the weird is mundane.

Until it’s not.

Something is chasing magical beings across dimensions, leading to infestations on Earth of creatures that, while hideous and possessed of many eyes and teeth, are not so much deadly as hungry and scared. Strange has seen bits and pieces of this so far the first three issues, but when he steps into Fandazar Foo, an interdimensional nexus conveniently reachable via a doorway in his house, he discovers the full scope of what is happening. Other dimensions’ sorcerers supreme hang slaughtered from the trees. A plane that should be rife with rainbows is gray bordering on dead (Note: Bachalo’s color game is as strong as his pencils, and in fact the art is at its best when the two work in contrast). The Empirikul, like winter, are coming.

In between all this, we get giant slugs, mushrooms straight outta Wonderland, a sweet ax, a heart-shaped grenade, New Yorkers barfing en masse, unfortunate knocks on Cleveland, floating Easter Island heads with third eyes, the brutal execution of a floating space whale and a naked Stephen Strange, because why not?


I know writers and artists work in different parts of the world, communicating via pdfs and Dropbox files. But in my heart, I picture Aaron and Bachalo exchanging ideas back and forth in person, and high-fiving when they stumble on something batsh** enough to put into the book. Those imaginary high-five moments are why you should be reading this book.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 10/7

Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire #2
Story: Brian Clevinger
Art: Scott Wegener & Anthony Clark

Atomic Robo is back! Again! After the first issue of the current volume of Atomic Robo, where a few of the action scientists of Tesladyne were able to retrieve the head of Atomic Robo from a warehouse currently controlled by the international super-science secret police, Ultra, we get a return of everyone's favorite super genius robot. Well, his head in a box anyway. The first few volumes of Atomic Robo had our heroes with nearly unlimited resources, but now, on the run from Ultra, they have to make due. I've missed Robo himself all these months, and it was wonderful to see that, as much as I missed him, those who work with him miss him more. I can only imagine what a great boss Robo must be to inspire so much loyalty in his employees, and how much joy in  his return. But there's much more for the team to do, and so they set off for the Disputed Zone, a stretch of the South China Sea that has dubious political ownership, where sales the Vasilia, a ship with the international super science black market (God, I love writing sentences like that), which comes from the remnants of Department Zero, the Soviet Tesladyne-analogue, which just screams for a story of its own. While the team is working on getting together everything they'll need to restore Robo, Ultra continues to prepare for the Biomega threat, which I'm sure will have nothing to do with the plot going on involving Robo, nothing at all... And back with the Tesladyne crew, well, things go well and they're able to put together a temporary body for Robo, only to be raided by Project Zero's security guards, led by... Phil, one of their old coworkers! I love that we're slowly getting the band back together, and I love the genre awareness that Robo has, when he's told that Jenkins, his right hand man of butt-kicking's body wasn't found, and Robo is completely sure he's not dead. This scene also has a great Hackers reference, which every comic should have more of. Oh, and a Biomega attack. Biomega are naturally big scary kaiju things, which are designed incredibly by artist Scott Wegener; they feel right at home in the tradition of kaiju without looking like Godzilla knock offs.  So, two issues into the new volume, we've got more of Tesladyne together, Robo back (well, he doesn't have one, but he is anyway), and giant monsters. Yup, it's Atomic Robo, and it's wonderful.

Nailbiter #16
Story: Joshua Williamson
Art: Mike Henderson & Adam Guzowski

After declaring Nailbiter my favorite horror comic on the racks a couple weeks back, how could I not review this excellent one off issue this week? It's Halloween in Backaroo, and you'd think that a town filled with so many day to day horrors wouldn't celebrate Halloween, but I looks like they do it in spades. But being Backaroo, there are certain very specific traditions, as we follow a group of kids who plan to knock on the door of the current local boogeyman, Edward Charles Warren, the Nailbiter. There's a lot of typical and classic kids out on Halloween in a spooky story/urban legend, with the one kid who's kind of reticent and his friends who keep egging him on and teasing him. And when they arrive and knock on Warren's door, they find it... unlocked. And when they go in to investigate, well, they find more than they bargained for, but less than what they might have feared. Warren is such a complicated character. I know he's a monster, a killer of multiple people in the coldest of blood, but it's very hard not to like him. He has his principles, he's a monster with a very particular code, and his kindness to the kid left behind, like telling him how he did he same thing when younger at the home of another the Buckaroo Butcher, the Bookburner, is the kind of thing that makes you hope there's something in Backaroo making people monsters and there's a cure. Of course, Nailbiter is an ensemble book, and we spend a few pages off in the hospital with Sheriff Crane at the bedside of her daughter, Alice, recovering from her stabbing and talking with Morty the Mortician, and Agent Finch runs afoul of the FBI, finding out not only that Carroll, his fiend and the instigator of so much of what has happened, has awakened and disappeared under the auspices of FBI Agent Burke, who we know has been infected with some of Buckaroo's madness. Things aren't looking good for Carroll, and Finch's hot temper has once again gotten him into trouble, which is par for the course for him. But this issue is Warren's, further digging into his mindset, and setting him of on a roadtrip. The final pages look like they're setting up a new Butcher, and the title of the next arc, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," has me already haring fiddle music. Nailbiter is a comic perfect for a Halloween issue, and this one did not disappoint.

Paper Girls #1
Story: Brian K. Vaughan
Art: Cliff Chiang & Matt Wilson

Credit where credit is due, Brian K. Vaughan has range. Paper Girls, his third series currently running through Image Comics, is a completely different animal than either his space opera/love story Saga or his revolutionary tale We Stand On Guard. Set in the '80s, Paper Girls starts on Halloween night, as Erin goes out to deliver her paper route, and quickly runs into three toughs who are scared off when three other paper girls, Mac, Tiffany, and KJ show up. Erin is taken in by this sisterhood so they all have cover on this particularly dangerous night, only to encounter weirdoes in robes who steal from them and lead them to a house with a device that looks alien in the basement, and once it goes off, they find themselves in a world with a strange sky. Even stranger, when they confront the berobed men again, they are something less than human underneath and drop a device with a version of a logo familiar to us but foreign to the 80s. This is Vaughan hearkening back to Runaways, his last teenager coming of age story, but adding in psychedelic prophetic dreams with elements of the Challenger disaster, fewer evil parents, and more weird alien languages. The first issue spends much of its time giving us a feeling for Erin and Mac, who interact the most, but still spends time making more Tiffany and KJ more than cardboard characters. As always, Vaughan is working with an impressive artist, in this case Cliff Chiang, who is a favorite of mine from his work on Wonder Woman, Zatanna, and Human Target. One of the important things about Chiang in relation to this title is when he draws teenage girls, they look like teenage girls, not shrunken adults. They are also wonderfully expressive. But along with the normal stuff, he also draws a great alien machine and freaky guys under robes. And Erin's bedroom has a movie poster from The Monster Squad up in it (Seriously folks, it's around Halloween, and if you haven't seen that movie, or seen it in a while, do yourself a favor and go out and watch it. It holds up). With a wealth of mysteries, well thought out characters, and excellent art, Paper Girls looks like it will sit nicely with Image's current crop of series.

Rowan's Ruin #1
Story: Mike Carey
Art: Mike Perkins & Andy Troy

Mike Carey's comics work usually has a touch of horror; Lucifer had it's share of monsters, as did The Unwritten, and even his run on X-Men had a giant consciousness eating monster. But Rowan's Ruin is the first time in a while Carey has dived in to pure horror. Opening with a young woman being pursued by some sort of revenant, we flash back to see the woman as Katie, who has just agreed to swap houses with a British girl, Emily, so Emily can see the States and Katie can see England. Arriving at Rowan's Rise, the house she will be living in, Katie gets a bad feeling, but she ignores it, and goes about seeing the local landscape. But things are off, and Katie's bad feelings about the house get worse; it seems to eat electricity, for one, and is old and lonely. Most of this first issue is dedicated to getting to know Katie. Narrated by her blog, we get inside her head, and even see her starting to get involved with a local constable, James Hallam. But there's a pall hanging over Rowan's Rise. Inside Emily's bedroom, locked but suddenly mysteriously opened after a fuse blows, we see the room of someone disturbed; not necessarily insane disturbed but haunted disturbed. Mike Perkins is a great artist, but the scene that really sent gooseflesh up my arms was Emily's room. Festooned in horseshoes hanging from the ceiling, with a circle of salt around her bed, and a booby trap of nails under the window, this is the room of someone who is trying to protect herself from something. More disturbed than ever by this, Kaie confides in Hallam that as a child she had feelings about places, and after years of therapy she got past it, but now those feelings are creeping back. Carey plays with atmosphere, contrasting the beautiful English countryside near Stratford with the dark foreboding of Rowan's Rise. Even without the opening flashforward this would all have the feeling of a classic haunted house tale, but with that it takes on the drumbeat of the inevitable, moving inexorably, horribly towards the monster's coming. Tension is the key to a good scary story, and Rowan's Ruin #1 sets up the tension for the remaining issues perfectly.

Southern Bastards #11
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Jason Latour

One of the best parts of any of Jason Aaron's books, and especially his crime comics, is the depth and ambiguity of his characters even the blackest of villains has a side that is not so dark, and nearly all his heroes are far from spotless. The new issue of Aaron and Jason Latour's southern crime epic Southern Bastards introduces a new character, and one who I found absolutely fascinating, a character I couldn't take my eyes off of. Boone is a southern man, a woodsman. He is a bow hunter, but not for sport. He kills to eat. He's a self professed holy roller and snakehandler. He is a man of faith, who goes to church, but who kills a man because that man committed an unspeakable crime, and this is what God would want him to do. He might be the first character we've met in this entire series who can't stand football. And he hates Coach Boss, the series' principal antagonist. Listen, I'll be up front if you haven't figured it out yet: I'm about as much the stereotypical Yankee intellectual as you can get. But this issue so deeply dives into Boone's mind that I get a real feeling for the man. In one issue, Aaron has found a way to define a completely different southern man than any other we've seen, a study in contradictions in many ways, but a man who is confident in what he's doing, because he has his faith. Jason Latour's art is stellar as always, crafting the world of Craw County, and this issue really drew my attention to the colors he's using. I wouldn't say the color pallet is muted, but it's unique to the book, really setting it apart from everything else on the racks. The scenes of Boone in the woods, of him facing down some of Boss's men as they encounter each other on boats travelling along the river, and of snakes crawling all over him at his church are indelibly grafted onto my memory. Aaron and Latour are setting up a board with many different pieces in place, and this new one, Boone, strikes me as far more than a pawn. He's a knight, maybe a tarnished one, but an important piece that will be making his move against Coach Boss soon enough, and I can' wait to see what that move is.


And Dan Grote brings two reviews for two of this week's most anticipated launches...

Jughead #1

Story by Chip Zdarsky

Art by Erica Henderson

When I found out Chip Zdarsky (Sex Criminals) and Erica Henderson (Unbeatable Squirrel Girl) were going to be teaming up on the all-new, all-different adventures of Archie’s be-crowned best friend, I pretty much yelled “Shut up and take my money” at my phone.

I was not wrong.

Jughead’s solo sojourn fits perfectly in the retooled Archieverse but also stands perfectly on its own. Whereas the main Archie book by Mark Waid and, until recently, Fiona Staples, is more teen soap, Jughead is quirky teen comedy, hence the creative team, which specializes in quirky characters and generally laugh-out-loud comics. There’ll be no talk of the Lipstick Incident here, but there will be plenty of talk about hamburgers.

With the new series comes a shakeup in Riverdale’s status quo. Longtime Principal Weatherbee is out, clearly not of his own volition, and a younger, leaner, angrier-looking Principal Stanger is in. Stanger is immediately positioned as Jughead’s nemesis when he changes the cafeteria menu, replacing lasagna Mondays with a high-nutrition gruel. As someone whose one true love is food, this will not stand.

This leads into a terrific parody of Game of Thrones, complete with a dragon, an incest reference and football player Moose in the Hodor role. Such dream sequences and other flights of fancy appear to be a regular part of the book, as next issue teases the return of Jughead’s Time Police.

The thing to remember about Jughead is that he appears lazy, but he can be quite resourceful when compelled to action (which we saw in Archie #1 when he set about his own plan to reunite Archie and Betty). The book opens with him spending an entire night killing people in a video game, then, upon arriving at school, mocking Betty for protesting the clear-cutting of trees by Veronica’s developer father. Once Stanger implements the new food policy, Jughead makes his own protest sign, has the home ec teacher show him how to make his own burgers, then bypasses Stanger’s rules by selling burgers for charity in the cafeteria, piggybacking on Betty’s open-space initiative and turning the new principal’s face new shades of red.

Also, he dispenses this nugget of wisdom by which I will now live my life: “Teach a man to fish, and he’ll bring home fish, which are gross. Teach a man to make burgers, and he’ll be the hero Gotham deserves, or something.”

Doctor Strange #1

Story: Jason Aaron

Art: Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend

Stephen Strange has an odd place in Marvel’s pantheon. As the Sorcerer Supreme, he’s arguably one of the most powerful people in the universe. As a member of the Illuminati, he’s helped manipulate events over decades. Heck, in this summer’s Secret Wars, he was literally the right hand of God (till, you know, God killed him).

Yet the one thing he hasn’t been able to do, at least in the past few years, is carry his own book.

But with a movie coming out next year, Marvel can’t afford to let its top mystic ride the bench anymore. And so, in the first week of the All-New, All-Different age of Marvel, we get Doctor Strange by Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo.

First of all, how has Chris Bachalo never drawn Doctor Strange before? His dark, psychedelic, heavily inked style is a perfect fit for the doctor. Artwise, this book is all giant-mouthed soul-eaters, tentacle porn, mystical bacteria, and floating teddy bears. Everything is in constant, swirling motion, even Strange’s cloak, which he can ride like a magic carpet or tie around his neck like a hipster scarf. (His tunic also transforms into a sleek denim jacket when he’s on the street).

Storywise, Aaron is creating a Doctor Strange for new readers, much the same as he’s done with Thor in the past couple years. An intro page quickly retells his origin, reprinting classic Steve Ditko art, but that’s all the continuity you need for this book. Baron Mordo, Clea, Dormammu, Wong and the rest of his normal supporting cast are all on the shelf, at least for now. This Strange is too busy making house calls, casting interdimensional bogeymen from children’s nightmares, wrestling soul-sucking leeches on the streets of Brooklyn, hitting on women of all planes of reality, and showing up late for drinks with his fellow Marvel mages.

Aaron’s Strange eschews shadowy meetings with Namor, Black Panther and Reed Richards in favor of pub crawling with Doctor Voodoo, Shaman of Alpha Flight, and the Scarlet Witch, all of whom take pot-shots at Strange as if he were their version of Andre from The League. I quite like this unexpected circle of friends, both for its diversity and the fact that no one is treating Wanda like the delicate continuity wormhole she’s been for the past decade.

The book’s long game appears to involve some sort of interdimensional migration (there should probably be a blanket ban on the word incursion after Hickman’s Avengers run/Secret Wars), with all sorts of be-fanged nasties fleeing other realms ahead of a coming slaughter (“Great. Another one of those,” Wanda says casually). There’s also some talk about keeping the cosmic balance by sacrificing a life for every life saved through magic. As of right now, I plan on sticking around to see how these themes play out.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 9/9

Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire #1
Story: Brian Clevinger
Art: Scott Wegener & Anthony Clark

Atomic Robo is back, and now coming out from IDW! And after all the recent stressful events in his life, he's taking some time off in the '60s to tour with Johnny Cash! Oh, wait, no it's a completely different ring of fire. We're back in the present this story, and following Bernie, Lang, and Vik, the Action Scientists who survived Robo's "final" clash with Dr. Dinosaur, months after that battle, and things are not looking good. Majestic, the secret government agency, has claimed all of Tesladyne's property, arrested all the employees they know are alive, and Robo is presumed dead. Of course, if you read Knights of the Golden Circle, you know where Robo wound up, and this issue, with some spiffy science that I didn't completely understand (it involved a fifth dimensional cardinal direction called zorth), the team, along with new member Foley, head out to retrieve a package that the reader knows is Robo. The four scientists are distinct in personality: Vik sort of den father to the team, Bernard frustrated with the situation and having to pull himself out of a bottle, Lang staunchly dedicated, and Foley as the newbie. The mix of personalities gives a nice conflict. Breaking into Tesla's old Colorado Springs facility is a fun caper sequence, with decoy drones, soldiers, and a warehouse that makes the one from Raiders of the Lost Ark look like a filing cabinet. And once it's done, the team is rewarded. All of that would be enough for most comics, but in Japan, Majestic is encountering a whole other set of problems, a "biomega" threat that can't be any good for anyone, but will involve giant mech suits, which is always a major plus. Atomic Robo is a comic full of big crazy ideas, as well a lot of fun moments, and well written characters. With distribution through IDW, a higher profile can only help get Robo out to more people, and that's great news. There's only so many times and ways I can say it, but I'll say it again: GO READ ATOMIC ROBO!!!

Batman #44
Story: Scott Snyder & Brian Azzarello
Art: Jock & Lee Loughridge

While I love Scott Snyder's long story arcs on Batman, I've found that some of his best stories have been the shorter one or two issue stories he has done. This issue (with a writing assist from 100 Bullets creator Brian Azzarello) is another of those impressive single issues, one that, while set long before the events of the main story, establishes some of the background of the new villain, Mr. Bloom, and also tells a tale of Gotham City and the crime that we don't often see Batman deal with. It's an issue that pulls in a lot of the issues we're dealing with in society, issues like the origins of urban crime, of police shootings, and gentrification, but the comic never forgets it is a story about Batman, and never preaches. The story begins with Batman finding the body of Peter Duggio, an African American youth who has not only been shot repeatedly, but seems to have been dropped out of a plane and onto the marshes outside the city. Batman follows a trail that leads him to The Corner, a part of Gotham's crime ridden Narrows, where Duggio's father owned a shop, and on to the Penguin, the local gang called the Four Fives, to a police officer, to Bruce Wayne, and finally to a mysterious alley where (unbeknownst to Batman) Mr. Bloom had set up shop. We see exactly how far the circumstances of his life led to Peter's death, and how no one was there to help him when he needed it. The narrator of the story if omnipotent, not the usual first person of many of Snyder's Batman stories, and may well be Gotham itself, talking about Peter, about Bruce as a young man, and about all the people who were involved to get Peter to the place he ended up. And at the issue's end, we see that Batman might have learned something, something about how he must be as much a part of the city as he is above it, and how he must listen to it. I have written before that I feel like Batman needs to be a character who does his best to protect the innocent as much (if not more than) punish the guilty, and a Batman who will listen to the people of the city is a step in that direction. On top of an excellent story, this issue is drawn by Jock, who worked with Snyder back on his impressive Batman debut, "The Black Mirror" in Detective Comics. Jock's rough, dark style really works with this tale of Gotham's gritty side, but also has faces that express the pain and frustration of people on The Corner, and Batman's own anger at the death of Peter Duggio. He also draws an impressive monster, but you'll have to read the comic to find out why that talent in required for this story. If you've read my reviews of this title, or anyone's, and have been curious to see what this book is really like, I can think of few better issues than this one to try out.

Harley Quinn Road Trip Special
Story: Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti
Art: Bret Blevins, Moritat, Flaviano Armentaro, Pasquale Qualaro, Jed Dougherty, Mike Manley, & Paul Mounts

These Harley Quinn jam specials are some of the most fun comics DC puts out, and I'm glad to see Conner and Palmiotti continuing to do them. After an annual, the Holidays, Comic Con, and Valentine's Day, this special focuses on Harley on a road trip with her gal pal, Poison Ivy and Catwoman. I like that Harley Quinn as a series remains unbeholden to so much of the continuity of the New DC, as Harley has interacted little with Catwoman since the relaunch, but that doesn't matter for this story. The plot revolves around Harley finding out that her beloved uncle Louie has passed away, and it's up to her to not only pick up her inheritance (a classic RV) in Los Angeles, but drive it and Louie's ashes back to New York so he can be buried with his wife, Aunt Alice. With a couple of phone calls, Harley recruits Ivy, who is mid-battle with Batman, and Catwoman, who was considering going out to L.A. anyway to steal a necklace someone stole before her anyway, and they're off to California. The comic is a wild road trip story, with the Sirens (yes, I know they're never addressed as Gotham City Sirens anywhere, but it's a good shorthand), going to parties in L.A. and Vegas, having some of the RV, a brief run-in with Bizarro and Jimmy Olsen on their own road trip in the Bizarro mini-series, and running afoul of Darwolf, the thief Catwoman liberated the necklace from. There's really no threat there, because let's be fair, very few people could stand up to these three. The story is as bawdy as readers have come to expect from these Harley stories, with more double entendres per panel than pretty much any comic you can imagine. An if that's all that this comic had, it would be perfect bubblegum comics: not filling, but a ton of fun. But we get Harley dealing with the loss of her uncle, and some smart character work with Harley and her ever growing extended family of wacky characters. Poison Ivy, who in many other comics is portrayed as cold and calculating, has her best nature brought out by Harley, and while I'm enjoying Catwoman the crime boss in her won book, it's fun to get a classic version of the character here. And I'd have to go back and double check if it's in all of them, but this is at least the third of the big Harley issues with a crazy hallucination/dream sequence, this time from Moritat, one of my favorite artists in comics now. And it was great to see Bret Blevins back. Blevins draws about half this issue, and has a long history with Batman, having drawn a sizable run on Shadow of the Bat back in the day. If you're looking for a great comic to wind down the summer with as autumn grows nearer, you should check out the Harley Quinn Road Trip Special.