Image Advance Arrivals: April 2024
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
The Sacrificers vol. 1
The future is an utopia ruled over by the five families in charge of it. Their price for ruling: The sacrifice of one child from each of their households. It’s a system that has gone well until now, as two of the sacrifices are determined to put a stop to everything. This is the latest series from writer Rick Remender who’s joined by Mignolaverse veteran Max Fiumara on art. While Remender has a track record for quality, he’s also one of the few writers I follow who has projects I’ve dropped after one volume (“Low” and “The Scumbag”). Yet he’s also delivered recent work that has shown that his projects just can’t be written off (“A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance”). Which of these things will “The Sacrificers” wind up being? I really can’t tell and it’s that uncertainty that makes me want to read this volume more than anything else solicited this month.
Drawing Blood #1 (of 12): They say “Write what you know” and this series is about a comics creator who wound up creating a globally popular franchise before they turned twenty. If you read that and thought, “Is this from Eastman or Laird?” then you get a cookie. The answer is Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” who’s co-writing and co-illustrating this series with David Avallone and Ben Bishop, respectively. This promises to be a thinly-veiled story of his life with the names changed to protect the innocent and Eastman from any lawsuits (I would imagine). Given that the creator has been so singularly tied to this specific creation over the years, it’s hard to say what you should expect from this. Though, if there’s one story he’s qualified to tell it’d be this one.
Geiger #1, Redcoat #1, & Rook: Exodus #1: Geoff Johns’ Mad Ghost imprint launches with three series in these solicitations – only two of which are part of an interconnected multi-title saga. They would be “Geiger” and “Redcoat,” both part of The Unnamed and featuring a couple of industry A-Listers, Gary Frank and Bryan Hitch respectively, illustrating them. I’m onboard with “Geiger” after I enjoyed its first volume. “Redcoat,” despite having Hitch, seems like a harder sell in that it comes across as more overtly silly with its title character having gained immortality in 1776 via a clandestine cabal known as the Founding Fathers – who count George Washington among their members, of course. “Rook,” on the other hand, comes off like a conventional sci-fi story as a farmer gets caught up in the struggle for the fate of a terraformed world after its controls fall into the wrong hands. Jason Fabok illustrates that story, which means it’s sure to look fantastic if nothing else. Still, Johns is the backbone of this imprint as he’s writing all three titles. So your enthusiasm for it will likely depend on how much you’ve enjoyed the writer’s work in the past.
Universal Monsters: Creature From the Black Lagoon Lives! #1 (of 4): The revival of these classic movie monsters via Robert Kirkman’s Skybound imprint continues with this latest miniseries. Co-written by Dan Watters and Ram V with art from “Manifest Destiny’s” Matthew Roberts, this new story picks up years after the events of the original film with journalist Kate Marsden tracking a serial killer in the heart of the Amazon. The thing is that this killer is actually human, but the creature that Kate finds along the way most assuredly is not. Whether it’s friend or foe, however, remains to be seen. I know that Roberts can handle drawing monsters in lush greenery thanks to his time on “Manifest,” though, Watters and V have yet to produce a series that gets me genuinely excited and the ho-hum setup from the solicitation text does nothing to change that.
The Cull vol. 1: Writer Kelly Thompson re-teams with her “Jessica Jones” collaborator, artist Mattia de Iulis for this new series about five friends who meet up one night to shoot a short film. Except they’re not actually going to do that because one of them has lied about the reason why they’re all there. It sounds like a setup for a horror/suspense series… until you look at the cover for this volume, which has something that is very kaiju-looking on it. Shades of “Cloverfield” anyone? While I like Thompson in general, both did good work on their “Jessica Jones” run, so I’m interested in seeing what they can do outside of a superhero title.
The Enfield Gang Massacre: Spinning out of the pages of “That Texas Blood,” which I stopped reading after one volume is this Western which promises the bloody origin of that title’s setting. Despite a first volume which told a story that was both predictable, familiar, and depressing, “That Texas Blood” is currently on its third volume, which implies that writer Chris Condon and artist Jacob Phillips must be telling a story that appeals to someone. That being said, I’m well aware of the appeal of a Western story done right thanks to the collective works of Garth Ennis. So I’m interested in this; though, the question remains whether Condon and Phillips are going to bring anything new to the genre or if they’ll just be content with hitting all of the familiar beats.
Fine Print vol. 2: It took a while, but the second volume of Stjepan Sejic’s series about Lauren, a woman who has been chronically unlucky in love and life, who winds up having to choose the next God of Desire, is almost upon us. While vol. 1 offered up some of the same kinky/romantic fun that drove his signature series, “Sunstone,” it was bogged down by having to set up its world and backstory. With all of that out of the way, the hope is that we’ll get a series that satisfies as much of our desires as it promises to do to Lauren’s.
The Forged vol. 2: Home Sweet Home: Co-writers Greg Rucka and Eric Trautmann, and artist Mike Henderson’s “Totally Not Warhammer 40k” series gets its second collection. Which picks up right after the squad of Forged commandos was transported right into the presence of the Eternal Empress. This puts the squad of well-intentioned grunts right into the center of some juicy political intrigue as they sound the alarm about the interdimensional alien menace that’s coming for them all. Vol. 1 was a perfectly fine bit of humans-vs-aliens sci-fi action, but didn’t offer a whole lot to set it apart from similar stories of its ilk. Rucka and Trautmann are looking to change that with this volume and its (apparent) focus on human politics, and I wish them the best of luck because I’d sure like to read a much-improved vol. 2 of this series. Also, for those of you reading this series in single-issue form, #7 is solicited here as well.
Local Man vol. 2: The first volume of Jack “Crossjack” Xavier’s adventures had an interesting hook: What happens when a superhero whose heyday was the glory days of 90’s Image has to go back home to rebuild his life – with its co-writers, Tony Fleecs and Tim Seely, illustrating the present-day sequences and the 90’s flashbacks, respectively. Unfortunately, it was let down by the emphasis on how much Jack’s life sucks right now and how much EVERYONE in his town hates him. I can’t say that it entirely put me off the idea of following this title to a second volume… buuuut I’m significantly more interested in the “Local Man: Gold” one-shot that’s also collected here and promises crossovers with other current Image titles, including (of all things) “Love Everlasting.” As for the main story, Jack finds himself involved in another mystery that has ties to his superheroic past. Let’s hope that he’s not as hated as before when he’s done with it.
Transformers #7: I expressed concern about how long creator Daniel Warren Johnson would stick around with this title given that his longest run writing and illustrating any one title was twelve issues of “Extremity.” With issue #7, it looks like he’ll be around for longer than I expected… because he’s not drawing this issue. Jorge Corona illustrates this issue, which is billed as the start of a story that will have all fans talking. About Starscream’s hatred of cassette tapes, if the cover here is anything to go by. As for how long Corona will be sticking around, there’s no indication of that here or elsewhere. Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if Corona is the new regular artist for this series, allowing Johnson to start illustrating whatever creator-owned project he wants to do next. While I’m sure he’s having a lot of fun with this title, I’m equally sure he’s not about to give up on doing his own projects in the meantime.