Image Previews Picks: March 2021
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Ultramega #1
I wouldn’t say that the premise for this new series strikes me as being all that interesting: A cosmic plague is turning people into giant monsters and the only ones who can fight them off are three individuals with extraordinary powers. They’re collectively known as the Ultramega, of course. It’s a conventional setup for what sounds like a lot of “Godzilla” and “Pacific Rim”-style giant monster fightin’ action. The reason I’m talking about the first issue here is that this new series is coming to us from James Harren. After years of excellent supernatural action work on “B.P.R.D.,” that were followed up with three volumes of “Rumble,” a two-issue guest arc on “Seven to Eternity,” and a gonzo issue of “Thor” that was essentially one big fight scene, there’s nobody I’d trust to do justice to this premise more than Harren. This first issue clocks in at a hefty $8 for 68 pages, but I’ve got a strong feeling that it’ll be worth it to see the artist cut loose to give us monster-fighting action like we’ve never seen before.
Karmen #1 (of 5): The title character is an angel who doesn’t play by the rules and decides to help a young woman through a bad case of heartbreak. This miniseries comes to us from Guillem March, who is illustrating and co-writing it with Dan Christensen. At first I was wondering how March would manage this new series, given that he’s also illustrating the new “Joker” ongoing at DC. Then I caught the “five part series” bit in the solicitation and it all made sense. This is bound to look good, as is the case with all of March’s work, though the real question is whether or not he and Christensen will bring anything interesting to the story beyond a quirky setup.
Nocterra #1: Ten years ago the Earth was plunged into an unnatural darkness that turns everyone who spends too long in it into monsters. If you want to survive in this world, you’ve got to stay close to whatever light is at hand. Which is what Valentina Riggs does as she and her heavily illuminated eighteen wheeler find work in ferrying people and things in this dark new world. This comes to us from Scott Snyder and Tony Daniel, two of DC’s A-List creators. That they’re starting a new Image series together implies that they’re both done with that company (for now, at least). It’s also worth mentioning that while both creators do good work, neither has demonstrated the ability to keep to a monthly pace over at that company. So while I’m expecting this series to be worth reading, I’m also expecting to see 2-3 months of down time between arcs.
Bitter Root #11: The series about a monster-hunting family in the 1920’s where the monsters they’re hunting are actually racism personified, returns for its third arc. I can respect what this series is trying to do, even though I feel “Bitter Root” is more focused on its message than its storytelling. Will I give it a third chance to see if vol. 3 is when it finally clicks with me? Check back here later in 2021 when this new arc is collected.
The Fall vol. 1: In which the world faces an apocalypse of its own making as its systems fail everyone and one family has to struggle to survive amidst it all. No, this isn’t being billed as “The Feel-Good Read of 2021,” but is being compared to “The Walking Dead” and Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” in the solicitation text. It’s possible that this could be worthy of being compared to those seminal titles. However, with a creator that’s unknown to me and a very generic description of its apocalypse, “The Fall” faces an uphill struggle to convince me that it’ll be worth reading in March. Assuming we haven’t gone through our own apocalypse in real life by then.
Friend of the Devil: A Reckless Book HC: Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillps’ OGN series about troublemaker-for-hire Ethan Reckless gets its second volume. This time around he’s drawn into Hollywood’s secret occult side when a woman he’s looking for turns up in the background of an old B-movie. The first “Reckless” OGN arrived at my place this week and a review will be forthcoming, eventually. My initial thoughts are that it wasn’t as good as I expected, but still pretty entertaining. If nothing else, it was interesting to see that a “good” protagonist from Brubaker and Phillips is just as capable of screwing things up as one of their “bad” ones is.
Big Girls vol. 1: Who do you call when men start turning into giant monsters looking to take out their aggressions on the world? Equally giant girls, of course. It’s a ridiculous premise from creator Jason Howard that I think might have some social commentary attached to it. I’ll likely pick this up just to see what Howard is capable of when he’s working by himself, instead of with Warren Ellis. My initial expectation is that this will likely be better than their “Trees” series, but not as good as their action epic “Cemetery Beach.”
Inkblot vol. 1: This is about a sorceress who creates a cat that can wander through and unravel reality. Being a cat, the latter looks to come naturally to it and it’s down to the sorceress to find a way to deal with it. This comes to us from Emma Kubert (daughter of Andy) and co-writer/co-artist Rusty Gladd. I’m a cat person, so the premise definitely holds appeal for me. Plus, I’d like to see what the Kubert’s third generation has to offer.
The Scumbag vol. 1: Cocainefinger: Ernie Ray Clementine is a profane, illiterate, drug-addicted biker with fifth-grade education. Then he took a serum that turned him into a super-spy, who is also a profane, illiterate, drug-addicted biker with a fifth-grade education. This looks suspiciously close to writer Rick Remender having fun with a series, in the vein of his best creator-owned title, “Deadly Class.” Speaking of which, its artist Wes Craig provides art for an issue here, along with the likes of Lewis LaRosa, Andrew Robinson, Eric Powell, and Roland Boschi. It’s a strong artistic lineup for this volume, so let’s hope this volume winds up as being as irreverent as its title implies.
Killadelphia vol. 2: Burn, Baby, Burn: I thought the first volume of this series about president-turned-vampire John Adams leading a vampire insurrection in the City of Brotherly Love was alright. The story had ambitions, but not a lot of depth. I did like the thorny relationship protagonist James Sangster Jr. had with his dad, until it appeared to be wrapped up at the end of the first volume. As for the second volume, it’s Abigail’s show now. With her husband out of the way, the former first lady aims to unveil her plan to reshape America by using fear itself. I’ll admit that I’m curious to see if writer Rodney Barnes and artist Jason Alexander can get things to click with this volume. I’m willing to give them the chance to prove that, assuming vol. 2 doesn’t get lost in the shuffle this spring.
Undiscovered Country vol. 2: Unity: While I was expecting to like the first volume of this series from co-writers Scott Snyder and Charles Soule, and artist Giuseppe Camuncoli, I was surprised by how fun it managed to be. Their vision of an America that had been cut of from the rest of the world for decades was less of a political allegory, and more of a crazed funhouse ride as a specialized group of individuals found that things had become seriously weird and feral inside the country. I very much want to see if vol. 2 can deliver more of the same, even as the solicitation text implies we’re getting a “technology gone wrong” plot that involves the cast being potentially assimilated into a hive mind.