Triple Shot: X-MEN #1, CHEW #34 and EARTH 2 ANNUAL #1 at FORCES OF GEEK

This week’s Triple Shot relaunches one of Marvel’s hottest books with an all-female cast, you’ll be hungry for more after reading the latest issues of Chew and Earth 2, but for different reasons.

There’s a new Batman in the town, but is his reveal the ultimate bat-tease?

X-MEN #1
WRITER: Brian Wood
ART: Olivier Coipel
Publication Date: May 29, 2013
Price: $3.99
Publisher: Marvel Comics
UPC: 75960607924700111
Buy it HERE

The role of female characters and creators diminishes over the years for some unknown reasons. When a book stars a female, or if Gail Simone publishes a new book, tumblr explodes with glee. 

This book, is certainly no exception to that rule, as popular writer Brian Wood (The Massive, Star Wars, Mara) relaunches X-Men at number one. 

Starring in the book are Psylocke, Rachel Summers, Storm, Kitty Pryde, Rogue and the return of Jubilee.

Jubilee’s a mom now, that is to say she’s the adopted mother to an orphaned baby. She’s on here way back to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning with the tyke when she realizes she’s being followed and calls home for help.

This book has all of the elements of great comics, X-Men or otherwise. An orphaned baby with powers that may hold the secret to mankind’s survival, the best train scene we’ve seen since Skyfall, and a billion year old mystery to be solved with Caselli and his sister, Arkea Prime.

Oh, and there’s a Doop cameo. 

So far Bendis has done Uncanny and All-New X-Men right, and here comes along Brian Wood to add to the modern mythos. This is for certain the book people will be talking about most this week.

CHEW #34
WRITER: John Layman
ART: Rob Guillory
Publication Date: May 29, 2013
Price: $2.99
Publisher: Image Comics
UPC: 70985300808803411
Buy it HERE

This cover ships with three covers!

No, no no, silly, not three variant covers available from exclusive retailer, three covers on your book, with the cut along the lines marks so that you, the comic collector can play the interchangeable face game with the covers.

ComiXology customers will have to use their imagination on this gimmick cover that is the direct opposite of your comic shipping in a bag, it’s asking, nay, begging for you to take scissors to your cover!

Do you have the guts…or another $2.99 to spend? Layman and Guillory continue to have fun with this detective book from the lettering to the cover concepts and sneaky inside jokes. This issue has Olive donning a Mike Norton Battlepug shirt.

We’re 4/5ths of the way through the Bad Apples storyline, wherein our hero Tony Chu is hunting down the Vampire Cibopath. His hunt leads him to Eastern Europe, an undisclosed location that could be Transylvania.

This issue serves us up a plate of new food-related powers including one guy that can string guitars with pasta noodles. Admittedly, not a very useful power but he looks like Slash so that’s cool. Senator David Eccles is a Bromaformutare—meaning his head transforms into the last thing he ate. On his campaign trail, he first looks like Mayor McCheese but takes a bite out of an apple pie before his speech is over. That is one way to get votes in the Chew-verse. Also, this can get you in trouble if you are literally what you eat in the Chew-verse where chicken is illegal.

This book is consistently great and surprising, and the schedule ships toward the end of each month. Just as I’m getting full from a month’s worth of comics, I always find room for Chew!

EARTH 2 ANNUAL #1
WRITER: James Robinson
ART: Cafu / Julius Gopez / Cam Smith
Publication Date: May 29, 2013
Price: $4.99
Publisher: DC Comics
Buy it HERE

It all seemed right. I mean, I’m not buying issues of Earth 2regularly, but I’m hip to the concept.

Earth 2 is the closest we’ll get to Elseworlds in the New 52 so you an imagine how I nearly made a boom tube when the solicits were shoving a new Batman my way. I’d already bought the action figure in my mind because the design was equal parts Batman Beyond, Flashpoint Thomas Wayne Batman and Alex RossKingdom Come Batman.

Spoiler warning - if you desperately want to know the identity of the Earth 2 Batman, you won’t find him here. Batman stays on the sidelines as we watch the origin of Captain Atom and briefly see some action with Kirby Fourth World creations Mister Miracle and Big Barda. 

James Robinson is a great writer, and the art by Cafu (T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents) is amazing. Sure, not everyone buys these Annuals, but I feel completely duped by DC Editorial promising something (for a hefty $5, noless) and not delivering. 

I’ve no gripe with the Captain Atom origin or the Barda, Scott Free and Hawkgirl cameos but I bought this book under false pretenses. Marketing led me to believe an alternate version of the Dark Knight would be revealed. He was there and he fought a bit, but we are no closer to knowing the man behind the mask. This was a miscalculation, I can’t imagine I’m the only one feeling this way. I don’t care about the Earth 2 continuity a year after it’s launch but thought this might lead me in.

No way am I enthusiastic about getting the next issue to have the same bait and switch happen. This was a $5 trick you played on me, DC. I’m not happy.

TRIPLE SHOT: CHEW #32, ACTION COMICS #18, THE WHISTLING SKULL #4

Image has another huge week with too many books to review so we pick on the cibopathic Chew for our first shot this week. 

Over at DC we knock back a potion of Grant Morrison’s final Action Comicsissue before dusting off the JSA Liberty Files: Whistling Skull #4.

CHEW #32

WRITER/LETTERER: John Layman
ART/COLOR: Rob Guillory
Publication Date: March 20, 2013
Price: $2.99
Publisher: Image Comics
UPC: 70985300808803211

Image had an incredible week, and when you are the go-to place to publish your own work and have the top talent in the industry dropping projects at your feet, you inevitably have some of the best books come shipping consistently.

It has been nearly four years since the debut of Chew, a crime story in the not so distant future where eating chicken is illegal. Not only that, the FDA has risen as a top federal crime agency and in this world people have sense based superpowers.

Some can communicate through food, detect the future of what they eat, and some like the star of the book, Tony Chu can read the history of the food he eats.

That is to say, when Tony eats a hamburger he experiences the lives and loss of 100 cows. This comes in handy, when more than once Tony has had to sink his teeth into a corpse to find out what happened to the body.

Chew is a hilarious book based on such a bizarre concept that is the reason for it’s success. You’d be lost picking this issue up if you are not caught up, a lot has happened in the past few issues. Newcomers should pick up the perennial bestsellers Chew Vol.1 in paperback or hardcoverOmnivore Edition.

Tony tackles terrorists at the taco tasting and immerses himself in his work while mourning the loss off his sister. Over lunch a strawberry milkshake lunch, tensions rise between Colby and D-Bear in an illegal chicken shack when Colby connects the dots on D-Bear’s post mission phone calls. Luckily this ends in a knock out fight in the kitchen with butcher knives and swearing.

Near the end of the issue, Tony makes plans to reconnect with his cibopathic daughter, Olive Chu.

Fun issue but this would be confusing to anyone not caught up, so save your lunch money for a few days and pick up the trade to dine on these fine comics!

ACTION COMICS #18

WRITER: Grant Morrison, Sholly Fisch
ARTIST: Rags Morales, Chris Sprouse and more
Publication Date: March 20, 2013
Price: $4.99
Publisher: DC Comics
UPC: 76194130637701811

Mr. Morrison has had quite a couple of weeks. First, the death of Robin Damian Wayne in Batman Incorporated #8, and now this…

Grant and Rags finish up their run on Action Comics, starring none other than the big guy, Superman.

The breaking news is that Andy Diggle (The Losers, Daredevil, Doctor Who), tapped to take over after this team’s departure with Tony Daniel (Batman, Detective Comics) on art has quit the title over professional differences with DC Comics.

Tony Daniel will now be both writing and drawing the book, after Diggle’s one and only issue #19 hitting the stands next month.

We’re going to be keeping an eye on this nugget of gossip for sure. Many creators have expressed similar differences with the higher ups at DC since the New 52 relaunch.

This issue was not cheap at a $4.99 cover price but was worth the price of admission to the fifth dimension. Morrison has done what he promised to do in his bestselling novel Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human. He’s let Schrödinger’s cat in and out of the multidimensional bag and referenced 75 years of Superman’s history from each Crisis to silly Golden Age Legion of Super-Heroes stories starring Superboy to a brand new and over arching reconfiguration of the Fifth Dimensional imp Mister Mxyzptlk. 

If you can let this 18 issue Superman story wash over you from a place of superhero innocence and remember that this is the development of Clark Kent before joining the Justice League, this issue leaves off at a great point. By feeling that Clark graduated from the blue jeans and sprinting around in a single bound to fighting fifth dimensional time bubbles and hoisting an impossibly giant Doomsday into space, Kal is ready to take on saving Metropolis and the world (and the terraformers on Mars) hundreds of times over. 

Supergods could be a prerequisite to Morrison’s Action run, I’m curious to see if fans were turned off from the writing here, because I was teetering on the line of enjoyment / confusion through most of it, with leaning toward over 90% of enjoyment by the end of each issue. The trick is that Morrison doesn’t want these to be easy comics to read, and the more you understand that the better your experience may be!

The backup story drawn by Chris Sprouse and sometime Action writer Sholly Fisch is a cute and well drawn story set in the future at a Superman museum. This is in the era of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Basically a young kid stands up to bullying while Superman videos play in the background and we hear “Man of Tomorrow”, “Faster than a speeding bullet”, “Look, up in the sky” as sound bytes from the movies. Sprouse is an amazing artist, and we hope to see him draw more DC Comics in the future. He may not though, as he also jumped ship from his DC assignment Adventures of Superman earlier this month with anti-gay bigot writer Orson Scott Card. Sprouse did the Kal El thing and stood up for justice. Way to go, Chris!

THE WHISTLING SKULL #4 (JSA LIBERTY FILES)

WRITER: B. Clay Moore
ARTIST: Tony Harris
Publication Date: March 20, 2013
Price: $2.99
Publisher: DC Comics
UPC: 76194126988700411

As we near the end of this week’s missive, save for the most popular superhero of all time, these books aren’t that easy to pick up and enjoy without a bit of prep.

Luckily the audience here has years of comic book experience to be able to handle this kind of thick, psychedelic and rare form of comic book suggestions that you’ve come to expect from us!  That is to say, when suggesting you read The Whistling Skull, branded as JSA Liberty Files, you’ll undoubtedly not be surprised that this book has absolutely nothing to do with Justice Society, Earth Two, Jay Garrick or Hawkman.

B. Clay Moore and Tony Harris have devised a way to tell old school bizarre tales of the weird starring original characters under the DC Comics banner. With no connection to the New 52, no superheroes that you know, and starring The Whistling Skull alongside partner Nigel this is a very strange book, indeed. 

This is also the book I am most looking forward to reading each month.

The Whistling Skull and Nigel are patrolling the English countryside and stumble upon the work of ex-communicated Nazi doctor Klaus Hellman. Hitler was not keen on Hellman’s machinations for making his own brand of super-soldier and was kicked out of the reich. Posing as broken down circus caravan, The Whistling Skull and Nigel stop to assist but are trapped by the Nazi Hellman and his band of gypsy freaks.

The origin of The Whistling Skull and his powers are slowly being revealed, but he is the most recent in a long line of Skulls. Nigel is a sweet and innocent—albeit not that bright—Watson to the Skull’s Sherlock. This fantastical WWII superhero adventure story sits on the shelf nearHellboy/B.P.R.D. or is reminiscent of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Also, what is amazing about this book is that while familiar, it is truly unique in scope and the art by Tony Harris is amazingly detailed and dark. Noir overtones, occult madness, Nazi Doctors and a skull with a steampipe on the right temple. Can you ask for anything more? Yes. “More issues of this please”, I say, with my fingers crossed, to not have DC editorial mess with this amazing book!

[READ MORE at FORCES OF GEEK]

DigBoston and LeaguePodcast Comic Book Picks of the Week for September 5, 2012

COMICS

Aww Yeah, ape talk. Set eight years before Taylor and crew landed on the Planet, Doctor Zaius fights a mad monk hell bent on awakening the Alpha Omega bomb from the Dark Side of the Moon. It’s finally here, a simian jumping on point for Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm #1 written by Corinna Bechko. . … Moving trucks don’t mean it’s the end of summer! The Summer of Valiant continues, if even for a few more days! Last month EARTH PRIME TIME told you about Fred Van Lente & Clayton Henry’s Archer and Armstrong #1. Issue #2 is here as we follow Obadiah and Armstrong into decrypting the ugliest secrets on Earth like the Masonic crypt of Wall Street’s 1%. Occupy the LCS to support creator-driven comics! … It’s almost unfair for us to keep picking Chew but who said we needed to be fair? Chew is funny and bizarre and drawn well. What other comic has a secret agent cock-fighting chicken special agent? Chew #28 shows Tony getting kidnapped—again! Special furry-bait cover, natch. Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com.

Pass the Daily Dig along! Your friends can sign up here!