Image Advance Arrivals: January 2025
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
The Power Fantasy vol. 1
I know I’ve given enough of these spots to comics written by Kieron Gillen, so what’s one more! This is a comic about superpowered individuals, though the definition of that isn’t probably what you’d expect. “Superpowered” in this series means that an individual has the destructive capability of the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal and there are six such individuals in the world at the start of the story. So let’s hope they never have a reason to start fighting, or maybe not! Gillen loves to pull off a great twist, and he’s reunited here with his “Peter Cannon” collaborator Caspar Wijngaard. So if this is all a feint and the first volume is all about these superpowered individuals fighting, we’re likely going to be in for a great time!
…as will be the case if they just sit around and drink tea. That’s how much faith I have in these creators.
The Lucky Devils #1 (of 9): It took a little while, but writer Charles Soule and artist Ryan Browne are finally back with a follow-up to their breakout hit “Eight Billion Genies.” The premise for this one sounds really promising as we follow a couple of humans who decide to start following the advice of the devils on their shoulders. I’m sure nothing will go wrong or potentially end the world from that. Also, what about the angels on their shoulders? Soule has been hyping this up on his newsletter and if you were at the New York Comic Con or quick enough on his webstore last weekend, then you probably already have a copy of this issue. So, uh… was it any good?
The Seasons #1: Ten years ago the renowned Seasons Detectives disappeared, leaving their daughters Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring, to fend for themselves. They did that quite well and the bond they’ve forged is now being tested by sinister forces, leaving Spring to try and save them all. The solicitation text pitches this as perfect for fans of “elevated whimsical horror” and “boundary-breaking horror.” So which is it? Confusion over what kind of horror story this actually is, I’ll be checking it out because it’s coming to us from writer Rick Remender, who is teaming with “Outcast” artist Paul Azaceta for this new title. So in addition to which kind of horror this series is trafficking in, there’s also the odd chance I might wind up dropping this title after reading its first volume!
Death of Copra #1 (of 4): Michael Fiffe’s love letter to the original run of “Suicide Squad” (as well as all the Marvel characters he likes) reaches its conclusion. Which it looks to do in the most inevitable way possible: Dismantling the team and everything behind it. Because it wouldn’t be a proper suicide run without that. “Copra” is the rare series that I’ve been following over the years, yet haven’t actually written a review for. Expect me to try and fix that when this final mini-series is collected and I do a podcast post-mortem on the whole thing.
Blood Train: This horror-themed one-shot follows a group of friends backpacking through Asia who decide to take the Siberian Express on their way home. What they don’t know is that one of them has been infected with a bioagent that’s going to turn them into a monster that will kill everyone on the train. No, this isn’t a secret “Resident Evil” spinoff, but the latest from Ninth Circle after their debut title “Freddie the Fix” in last month’s solicitations. This comes to us from veteran writer Adam Glass and artist Bernard Chang, and the premise is intriguing enough to make me want to check this out at some point to see if they can pull it off.
The Horizon Experiment: Finders/Keepers: The latest installment in this series meant for spotlighting genre creations from minority creators has a real “Why haven’t I seen this before?” setup to it. It’s about a Puerto Rican archaeologist who takes the opposite tack from Indiana Jones. Rather than finding artifacts and donating them to museums, she’s stealing the artifacts from museums to return to their indigenous owners. Sounds like fun from writer Vita Ayala and artist Skylar Patridge.
Ice Cream Man #43: I tried starting this ongoing horror comic a while back, but vol. 1 didn’t really do it for me. I may have to pick up just this issue, however, as it boasts a bevy of talented creators telling one-page horror stories illustrated by regular artist Martin Morazzo. They include: Grant Morrison, Matt Fraction, Geoff Johns, Patton Oswalt, and Zoe Thorogood. I think seeing them try this formalist challenge will be worth any kind of confusion that happens from however this issue tries to tie into W. Maxwell Prince’s ongoing story.
Chew: Nomnibus: John Layman and Rob Guillory’s great series about a world where chicken is banned and detective Tony Chu, who gets psychic impressions from the food he eats (except beets), solves food-related crimes for the FDA gets a one-volume softcover collected edition. All sixty issues of the main series plus the “Secret Agent Poyo,” “Warrior Chicken Poyo,” and “Demon Chicken Poyo” – all about the badass cyborg chicken who destroys everything in its path – are collected here. Definitely worth picking up if you’re not like me and didn’t already collect the entire series volume-by-volume.
Criminal vols. 1 & 2 and Kill or Be Killed Compendium: These Brubaker/Phillips joints are likely being reprinted in advance of the forthcoming “Criminal” live-action series from Amazon. More examples of stuff that’s absolutely worth getting in these formats if you didn’t buy them already.
Astro City Metrobook vol. 6: Collecting the remaining issues of the series’ run at Vertigo, which means that this will be the last one of these for a while. You know, until writer Kurt Busiek and artist Brent Anderson do more “Astro City” comics to warrant the printing of another “Metrobook.” That said, I think I’m ready to start collecting the series volume-by-volume when they finally do get around to that.
Radiant Black vol. 6: Collecting the second half of the “Catalyst War” storyline which follows a parallel timeline structure as we see what happens when the alien race that created the Radiants comes back to find them. In one timeline we see what happens when Marshall uses the power of Radiant Black to fight them off, and in the other we see what Nathan does with it. It’s not a bad gimmick, even though I’m afraid the outcome will be the creation of the series’ ultimate villain after one of these best buds couldn’t protect their friend from dying in their timeline. We shall see.