Image Advance Arrivals: March 2023
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Feral #1
“Stray Dogs” was an out-of-left-field hit for writer Tony Fleecs and artist Trish Forstner. It was so successful that, while the miniseries reached a definitive end, they published a two-issue anthology of stories to fill out more (mostly inessential) backstory for its canine cast. Now the two creators are back with a proper follow-up that looks to take place in a new world with an all-new threat as Elsie, Lord Fluffy Britches, and Patch try to survive a deadly rabies outbreak near their owners’ farm.
While “Stray Dogs’” “Animated Don Bluth Film as Horror Movie” execution was a kind of lightning in a bottle, “Feral” has one major advantage over it: Its protagonists are cats. Which means that it could very well be the superior story. As science has shown: Cats > Dogs. That’s an equation right there – you can’t argue with it. So I’m very much looking forward to seeing what the creators do with having the superior pets as protagonists here.
Napalm Lullaby #1: Writer Rick Remender is back again with what will be his third concurrently-serialized series in these solicitations – the others being “The Sacrificers” and “The Holy Roller.” This one is notable as it sees him reunite with artist Bengal, with whom he collaborated “Death or Glory” which, if nothing else, delivered one of the most amazingly kinetic action scenes I’ve ever read in comics. I bring this up because it sounds like their skills at crafting memorable action scenes are going to be put to the test to keep me interested in this title.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: A child with unimaginable power is raised by zealots to believe in their religion/cult as their leader has created a modern dystopia where his word is law. Call me crazy, but I just think this child might come to believe that this way of living is wrong. That all people should be equal and the people who raised him may be BAD. If Remender has some kind of spin on this that’s not evident in the solicitations, then I don’t know why he’s keeping it close to his chest here. Fortunately, the thought of him teaming up again with Bengal is enough for me to want to check this out despite my misgivings.
Local Man: Bad Girls: The first volume of this series didn’t get off to the strongest start, in my opinion. Creators Tim Seely and Tony Fleecs piled too much misery onto former superhero Jack “Crossjack” Xavier as he tried to pick up the pieces of his life after returning home following being kicked off of his superteam. Still, this series appears to have struck a chord as the creators are now doing additional one-shots alongside the serialization of the title’s second arc. As for what this one-shot is about, the subtitle says it all. If you look at that and go, “What’s so significant about ‘Bad Girls?’” just know that buxom, scantily-clad women beating the crap out of other people, themselves, and being beaten on was a trend that was insanely hot for a while in the 90’s. If you don’t remember it, then don’t worry – you didn’t miss anything.
Monstress #50: It’s billed as a landmark issue in the solicitation text, but otherwise it looks to be business as usual for this title. No higher cover price with extended page count to mark the occasion either. Just a story about Maika navigating her first encounter with the Wave Court, and Master Ren navigating the politics of the cat world. Which honestly sounds like it’ll be really fun by itself.
Transformers #6: Wherein the Autobots and Decepticons fight, and someone doesn’t make it out alive. Which, if the main cover to this issue is any indication, means that a change in ownership of the Matrix of Leadership is in the cards. Let’s hope that it goes better this time than when it happened back in the 80’s.
Something Epic vol. 1: Szymon Kudranski’s series about Epics, people capable of interacting with the fantasy world where our creativity takes physical form, gets its first collection and moves onto its second arc with the eighth issue in these solicitations. While I’ve seen Kudranski do solid work elsewhere, this series has basically been advertised on the “power of creativity” sentiment in its solicitations, and pop culture homage covers with each new issue. There’s nothing wrong with homaging your favorite stuff, so long as it’s done in a way that doesn’t hamstring the story – looking in your direction “Crossover.” We’ll see if Kudranski pulls it off in March.