Image Previews Picks: March 2019
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
The Wicked + The Divine vol. 8: Old is the New New
When an ongoing series produces spin-off miniseries or one-shots one of three things can happen to them: They won’t be collected. They’ll be collected alongside issues of the regular series. They’ll be collected in their own special volume, which is what we have here. Vol. 8 collects all six “The Wicked + The Divine” specials which spotlight the returning gods in different eras. From the gathering where Mary Shelley gave birth to “Frankenstein,” to the sacking of Rome, to an Agatha Christie murder mystery, and that time in the Dark Ages when Lucifer the Nun heard Ananke’s confession. There will also be some off-season holiday cheer with the Christmas special and hopefully plenty of good laughs as Gillen, McKelvie and friends take the piss out of their series with the “Funnies” special. Gillen has also intimated that those of us who read the series in trade paperback form will be in for some surprises versus those who read these one-shots when they were published. So in my case, reading this should make re-reading the whole series veeeeeeeeeeeery interesting.
Assassin Nation #1: There was a man who was once the greatest hitman in the world. He’s retired now, but someone’s trying to kill him. So he does what anyone in his former line of work would do: Hire 20 other assassins to be his bodyguards and work out who this person is. Notable for the fact that this is coming from artist Erica Henderson who spent the last few years at Marvel illustrating “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” and left last year to pursue unnamed creator-owned work. Now we now what that unnamed creator-owned work is. Kyle Starks is writing this and while I have yet to read anything he’s written, I imagine you don’t write the “Rick & Morty” comic for as long as he has without doing something right.
Lazarus: Risen #1: Hey Rucka and Lark, I see what you did there. The creators’ series about a post-democracy world ruled by powerful families restarts after a lengthy hiatus with some changes. The issues will now be bigger at 64 pages with longer main stories, short stories about the world, and supplemental material. It’ll also be correspondingly more expensive ($8 an issue now) and come out on a quarterly basis. I’m fine with all this so long as Rucka and Lark can keep to that quarterly schedule. Even if it means I’ll probably have to wait another year to find out how things are going for Family Carlyle after the Dragon handed them their ass and they were stabbed in the back by one of their allies.
Ministry of Space (New Printing): Warren Ellis and Chris Weston’s alternate history miniseries about a Britain that made it to the stars in the aftermath of WWII. And all of the bodies they stepped on to make it there. On one hand this is easily one of Ellis’ better three-issue stories as he compacts a lot of history and character into a fairly small space with some fantastic art from Weston. On the other, it’s got a final page twist that arguably undercuts the point he was trying to make of the miniseries. I wouldn’t say that last page negates the whole miniseries so just consider yourself warned.
Oblivion Song vol. 2: The first volume of this series from Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici was alright. We got some solid storytelling married to a fairly predictable story. Now we’ll see if they can deliver any twists that’ll make me want to keep following this series for reasons other than my love/patience for Kirkman’s work.
Regression vol. 3: This saga of past lives, bugs, and demons wraps up with this third volume. Things were looking pretty bleak for everyone at the end of vol. 2 with Adrian finally giving himself over to the other presence inside him. While his assumption of power seems like a foregone conclusion, there are forces working against him in the past, present, and… future? We saw a little bit of that last part in the previous volume, now it’s time to see if Cullen Bunn and Danny Luckert can make it work within the context of the overall story.
The Walking Dead vol. 31: The Rotten Core: Yeah, I was considering this for the “Above-the-Board Recommendation.” Given how I tend to gush about this series in my reviews, I felt it was too obvious a pick. That said, this series has been really great for a really long while now and I can’t wait to see where it goes next. Even if the solicitation text implies that Rick’s tour of the Alexandrea-aligned settlements with the Commonwealth’s Governor is going to go real wrong real quick, I’ve got faith that Kirkman has some surprises in store in regards to how it’ll all play out.
Black Science #42: The final issue. Will the saga of Grant McKay and his family reach a happy end with some moments of uplift that feel genuinely earned? Or will writer Rick Remender grind them down as much as he can before allowing just a little bit of happiness to sneak in at the end to convince readers to keep this series on their shelves? I’ve gone back-and-forth on this series over the course of its run and, if nothing else, I’m looking forward to reading its conclusion so I can have a concrete opinion about how worthwhile it was.
Paper Girls #26: The final arc kicks off with this issue. I’m not mentioning this series because of that, but because the solicitation text includes a message from writer Brian K. Vaughan talking to retailers about how now is the time to get caught up on “Paper Girls” what with his signature series “Saga” on hiatus. I hate to break it to you Brian, but given how well “Saga” sells I don’t think retailers are going to be happy with your recommendation that they throw their support behind your other series that doesn’t sell as well. I think they’d rather have a return date for “Saga” from you more than anything else.