Image Previews Picks: April 2022
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
A Righteous Thirst For Vengeance Deluxe HC
The Rick Remender-written comic I was most looking forward to last year was the conclusion of his and Wes Craig’s “Deadly Class.” While that series reached a satisfying conclusion, it wasn’t the one that surprised me the most. That would be “A Righteous Thirst For Vengeance” where the writer delivered the kind of breakneck action, solid characterization, and withering social commentary he’s known for in a much more restrained way. He kept the dialogue to a minimum, letting the incredible art from Andre Lima Araujo speak for itself and show a lot of these things rather than have the writer overexplain them.
The end result was the best short-form (two-volume) work that has had the writer’s name attached to it and one of my favorite reads from last year. If you’ve been feeling burnt out on Remender’s work recently, or feared that he’d lost it completely after “The Scumbag,” then this will help convince you that he’s still worth following.
Ginormous Kokju #1 (of 3): They’ve worked together on “Deadpool” and the ongoing adventures of Scotch McTiernan, and now writer Gerry Duggan and artist Scott Koblish are tackling kaiju! Specifically, everything about them that you’ve always wanted to know about them but were too afraid (or sensible) to ask. Which is why they’re telling a story about a giant monster that’s attacking the city because it can’t get any satisfaction. Sexual satisfaction, I mean. That should tell you right there if this is going to be the story for you. Me? Maybe if I was still in high school…
Deep Cuts #1 (of 6): Co-writers Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark bring us a new miniseries at Image that isn’t tied to the Massive-verse. They should be commended for that. However, this doesn’t sound all that interesting either. It’s not explicitly described as an anthology series, but the implication is there in the solicitation text and the fact that a different artist will be illustrating each of the six issues. Danilo Beyruth is up first with a story about a clarinet player who gets a job playing with his hero only to find out that (big shock) the music business may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. Maybe the writers have some great twist planned to upend my expectations, like they were in the first volume of “Radiant Black,” but I guess we’re going to have to wait for this first issue to come out to see if that’s the case.
Terrorwar #1: This comes to us from writer Saladin Ahmed and artist David Acosta. It appears to be a riff on “Ghostbusters” as Muhammad Cho runs a ragtag group of fighters whose job it is to take out Terrors, shapeshifting creatures who have a penchant for taking the form of their victims’ worst fears. This all takes place in Blue City, the last habitable place on Earth, so you could say that their job has a certain urgency to it. While there’s nothing that strikes me as amazing about this solicitation, I’ve read enough of Ahmed’s work on “Miles Morales” to make me curious to see what he’ll do when not working on the adventures of a company-owned superhero.
W0rldtr33 #1: After “The Ministry of Truth” and “The Nice House on the Lake” I’m willing to give James Tynion IV the benefit of the doubt when it comes to whatever new series he puts out. This, however… WOW! I can’t remember the last time I read a solicitation that made its series sound this bad. So get this: There’s a secret architecture to the Internet called the Undernet and some people found their way into it and chronicled their exploits on a messageboard called W0rldtr33. Then, someone broke into W0rldtr33 and tried to use the Undernet for nefarious purposes. Our protagonists thought they sealed the Undernet away, but “They were wrong. And now they will know the meaning of PH34R.” It takes a special kind of courage to use leet-speak like that unironically in this day and age. I’m still curious about how this series will turn out, but more from a hatereading perspective after reading this solicitation.
Hey Kids, Comics! Vol. 3: Schlock of the New #1 (of 6): I’m honestly surprised that Howard Chaykin’s thinly veiled take on the history of comics has made it to a third volume. The premise intrigued me enough to read the first volume, but the execution left a lot to be desired. Even if Chaykin wasn’t going to give us the real names of the people he was writing about, the story was told in such a haphazard way as to kill all narrative momentum, you wonder how much it would’ve helped if we’d known who these people really were. Either people dug this enough to make publishing a third volume feasible, Chaykin is just doing this for himself, or he changed up his storytelling with vol. 2 and attracted enough new readers who are eager for vol. 3. I hope it’s the last one, but I don’t feel like spending the money to find out.
Sweet Paprika: Black, White, and Pink (One-Shot): Return to the world of “Sweet Paprika” where creator Mirka Andolfo has decided to let some of her creator friends do their own thing in it. Katana Collins, Retsu Tateo, Kim Krizan, and Steve Orlando are some of the creators contributing stories here, but the star attraction is certainly Stjepan Sejic. The man has shown with “Sunstone” that he can do romantic comedy and drama with the best of them, and his series “Fine Print” does that while having the characters’ status as angels and devils actually mean something to the story. So is there a real chance that he could do “Sweet Paprika” better than its creator? Yeah, I’d say so. I may have to pick this one-shot up just to see that.
Vanish vol. 1: This is just your average story of a boy who went into a fantasy world as a kid, saved it, and returned home to grow up to be a man with mental problems, a bad smoking habit, and who drinks too much. Then a superhero team shows up to let him know that maybe his world-saving days aren’t over quite yet. This comes to us from the “Venom” team of writer Donny Cates and artist Ryan Stegman who I’ve got plenty of time for after their work on that series. Cates’ life may have run into a rough patch as of late, but worries about the future of this series aren’t going to stop me from picking up this first volume when I know this creative team consistently delivers good work. That said, issue #6 of this series is solicited here, so its future looks good for now.
Shirtless Bear Fighter vol. 2: Should tell you everything you need to know about this series from its title. Original co-writer Jody LeHup is flying solo this time while Nil Vendrell returns as artist. My main issue with the original series was that, for all its insanity, the plot was a bog-standard “Man Comes Out of Retirement to Settle Old Scores” affair. This time around, Shirtless is on a quest for his origin and that’ll take him right into the claws of the cosmic bear-god himself Ursa Major! So, I’d give this 50/50 in regards to whether or not it’ll be able to top its predecessor in insanity after that summary.
What’s the Furthest Place From Here #12: Not gonna lie, I was starting to get worried about the future of this series. I REALLY liked the first volume and was looking forward to spending more time in this post-apocalyptic world run by smartassed, foul-mouthed kids and what happened to the youngest member of one group, Sid, who disappeared while pregnant. The story comes back to her in this issue, so I hope that writer Matthew Rosenberg and artist Tyler Boss have some answers in store for us. If they don’t, that’s fine because we’ll be getting them in the forthcoming third volume of the series. Right guys?