Image Previews Picks: May 2023
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
20th Century Men
A crazed cyborg, an Afghan woman working for a better life, an iron willed Soviet hero, and a president with super powers walk into the end of the 20th century. Shenanigans ensue, obviously. This comes to us from writer Deniz Camp and artist Stipan Morain. They’re a couple of creators that I have no familiarity with and therefore have no expectations as to whether or not they’ll be able to pull off the promise that this miniseries will mix history, politics, and comic-book mythology into something new. Still, it sounds like the kind of oddball Image project that’s worth checking out on the chance that it delivers on the promise of its oddball premise. Also, I’m giving it points for not including a tortured analogy comparing it to two better but disparate media properties that you see in solicitations for new Image titles.
Arcade Kings #1 (of 5): Joe rules the roost at Infinity City’s Round House Arcade. At least, until his past starts catching up with him. This comes to us from creator Dylan Burnett, best known around these parts for illustrating “Cosmic Ghost Rider: Baby Thanos Must Die.” While there’s no questioning the versatility of the man’s art, I’m less convinced about his ability to invigorate what sounds like a bog-standard premise. The cover(s) to this first issue imply that there may be more of a sci-fi bent to the story than the solicitation text lets on, however. If that’s the case, though, then it would’ve been smarter to spell it out there instead.
Something Epic #1: Epics are people who can interact with another world where imagination becomes reality. Danny Dillon is one such character who finds himself now able to interact with all of his favorite fictional characters. Szymon Kudranski writes and illustrates this new series which looks to give him license to draw approximations of all of his favorite pop-culture creations. My guess is that this is going to wind up being akin to Sean Murphy’s work in “Joe the Barbarian,” but we’ll see. If nothing else, Kudranski looks to be taking the homage approach to this first issue’s variant covers as they reference “Terminator 2,” “Amazing Spider-Man #1,” old “Black Box” Nintendo games, and more. Hey, if it worked for “Stray Dogs,” there’s no reason it shouldn’t work here.
Starsigns #1: Saladin Ahmed is back with another series after launching “Terrorwar” with Dave Acosta in the last round of solicitations. This time he’s teaming with artist Megan Levens for a series about what happens when twelve people inherit the power of the constellations. We’re told that their power comes with a price, and… that’s it. Not an inherently bad premise for a comic, but certainly one that I wouldn’t have given a second thought to if it wasn’t coming from Ahmed.
Supermassive 2023: I’ve written before about how I think the Massive-verse, the superhero universe that sprung up out of the success of “Radiant Black,” has expanded too fast, too soon to hold my attention. To the creators’ credit, I haven’t been punished for reading just that series as it has yet to tie into the happenings in the other series in the universe. If that’s what you want to see, then that’s what these “Supermassive” one-shots are for as this one involves Radiant Black, Rogue Sun, and the Dead Lucky going after the Holy Grail. Yes, THAT Holy Grail. It sounds like this could be a fun adventure, and it’s going to look FANTASTIC as “Seven Secrets’” Daniele Di Nicuolo is illustrating it. I can’t say it’s enough to get me to pick up this one-shot, but maybe I’ll do it once they’ve put out enough for a “Supermassive” trade paperback.
Flawed vol. 1: The last book writer Chuck Brown and artist Prenzy did together was “On the Stump.” In theory it was about what our political system would be like if it was run more like the WWE. In practice, it got waylaid by a bunch of conspiratorial and supernatural nonsense. It’s still a story I think about from time to time and how I’d still like to see that concept revisited. “Flawed” isn’t doing that, as it’s about a psychiatrist who tries to solve people’s problems using words by day and then as a vigilante by night. I’m not sure if this is going to be a better series than “On the Stump,” but that book was close enough that I’d like to see if they get it right this time.