Image Previews Picks: June 2020

Above-the-Board Recommendation:

Chu #1:

Writer John Layman spent a week teasing this spin-off to his and Rob Guillory’s signature series.  I say “spin-off” and not “sequel” because this looks to take place concurrently with “Chew,” albeit with a very different main character and focus.  Saffron Chu wasn’t talked about a whole lot in the series, but it was hinted at that she was the reason protagonist Tony Chu didn’t get along with most of his family.  You see, where Tony is a cop who is a cibopath (someone who gets psychic impressions from the food he eats), Saffron is a criminal who is a cibopars (someone who learns secrets from those she eats with).  With the kinds of mindsets and abilities they have, a falling out between the two of them was all but inevitable and this first arc looks to tell that story.

After “Chew” and his follow-up “Outer Darkness,” I’ve got plenty of time for Layman’s creator-owned works.  While Guillory won’t be back for this series, I’m optimistic that new artist Dan Boultwood will be able to deliver the goods.  He at least makes a good impression with that cover to the first issue.

Blackhand & Ironhead vol. 1 HC:  Take on eager novice superhero.  Add one legendary superhero father with a corporate empire to his name.  Have his untimely death reveal a lot of uncomfortable family secrets. Make one of them be the fact that the aforementioned novice superhero has a sister who’s also a villain.  Put them together and you’ve got the recipe for this creator-owned title by David Lopez, making its print debut after first appearing on the Panel Syndicate. While $25 for 152 pages is a little pricey, it’s a wider trim size like fellow Panel Syndicate title “The Private Eye.”  Also, Lopez is an artist whose work has always impressed me from “All-New Wolverine,” “Mr. & Mrs. X,” and the “Ghost in the Shell: Global Neural Network” anthology. It should be neat to see what he can do when he’s working on his own material and not someone else’s.

All-America Comix #1:  That “troll move” I mentioned that writer Joe Casey would be pulling in these solicitations?  Here it is. Some history: Casey originally created America Chavez for Marvel in the pages of his forgotten villains miniseries “Vengeance.”  He, and artist/co-creator Nick Dragotta were prepared to release a version of this back when people were clamoring for a Chavez solo title, but that never happened for one reason or another.  Now Chavez is back with a new miniseries and Casey is teaming up with his “Wildcats 3.0” collaborator Dustin Nguyen to deliver this one-shot that has America Vasquez finding out the cosmic secrets of the universe.

My money says that digging into the differences between the two characters and Casey’s timing on this release will be more interesting than this actual comic.  That it promises Chavez finding out the secrets of the universe sounds like more of an excuse to give the writer to deliver an issue’s worth of the kind of philosophical wankery that drags down the titles of his I actually like.  Still, it should look good with Nguyen returning to pencil artwork rather than the sketchy painting style he’s adopted for so long in the pages of “Descender”/”Ascender.”

Black Magick #12:  You can’t say that writer Greg Rucka doesn’t have a strategy when it comes to delivering the creator-owned titles that he writes.  The problem is that “Publish a new volume after everyone has forgotten about the series,” is a TERRIBLE strategy. Vol. 2 of this series came out back in May 2018.  Which is still a shorter wait than we had between volumes of “The Old Guard,” with artist Leandro Fernandez. Unfortunately “Black Magick” doesn’t have a Netflix film in the pipeline to help promote it.  So everyone should go out and buy the first two volumes, or the single issues as they arrive, because Rucka and artist Nicola Scott have been doing good work on this title and it deserves better than to just fade away.

Fire Power by Kirkman & Samnee #’s 1&2:  I’m looking at the solicitation text for the first two proper issues of this series, and they’re not doing anything to help it shake that “Ersatz Iron Fist” vibe.  What’s worse is that they look to be taking the story into thoroughly familiar territory. The kind where the hero has turned his back on his purpose because HE DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS!  Except now he’s going to have to confront it again because the bad guys are coming for his family. If Robert Kirkman is trying to hide the thing that’s really going to set this series apart, then he’s doing a REALLY great job of it with these solicitations.

The Clock:  You know, I bet writer Matt Hawkins and artist Colleen Doran are thinking right now that, “Boy, did we pick the wrong time to release our miniseries about a worldwide plague about viral cancer.”  As for me, I’m now more inclined to pick it up. Both to support them and because I really don’t think the story that they’ve created will have many substantial parallels to the current outbreak we’re facing.  At least, not enough to get me to stop reading it.

Killadelphia vol. 1:  Sins of the Father:  Small-town cop Jimmy Sangster returns to Philadelphia to bury his father and runs into the one thing nobody ever wants to find when they return to their hometown.  Vampires! What? I really don’t think I’m wrong about this. Anyway, this comes to us from TV writer Rodney Barnes and “Spawn” artist Jason Shawn Alexander. While such an eclectic combination of elements may not seem like it has wide commercial appeal, “Killadelphia” was one of Image’s biggest launches last year.  So now I’ve got more of a reason to check it out and see why it clicked with a wide audience.

It wasn’t Image’s biggest launch of last year, though.  That honor went to…

Undiscovered Country vol. 1:  Destiny: That this wound up being a smash hit on arrival isn’t that surprising when you consider the talent behind it.  The series is co-written by Scott Snyder and Charles Soule, with art from “Amazing Spider-Man” and “Darth Vader:  Dark Lord of the Sith” artist Giuseppe Camuncoli. It also has a killer, if disturbing and/or depressing high concept behind it too:  For over a hundred years, the United States has separated itself from the rest of the world behind a giant wall encircling the country.  Now, two teams will try to infiltrate the country from opposite coasts to find out what these crazy ‘Muricans have been up to all this time.  I’ve got time for all of the creators involved in this series, though I’d bet on this reading more like Soule than Snyder given how the former can write multiple monthly titles at once while the latter can struggle with just getting one out in a given month.