Thursday, October 31, 2013

Witchblade, Poe's Raven and Red Death, and the Return of Gaiman's Sandman (New Comic Day)

DC and Marvel both greatly disappointed me this week.  Last month, I praised the art in Captain America: Living Legend 1 and this week’s second issue with a new artist doesn’t live up to the first issue’s legend.  While at DC, most of the titles are “Summer Annuals” – a bit late as it is late October – of which Nightwing Annual 1 stands out.  DC’s most notable non-Annual is Damian Son of Batman 1 – but that notability is in its sub-par art – shockingly from the usually more reliable Andy Kubert.  Also, Damian seems to be printed on a lower than usual quality of paper. 

Better picks from the big two include DC’s Sandman Overture 1 by Neil Gaiman and J.H. Williams (Williams’s art can’t actually be called “good” but it has a gritty character that works well with Gaiman’s writing style) and Marvel’s Kick Ass 3 4 and Guardians of the Galaxy 8 (featuring an alternate Thor vs. Thanos cover).  Also from Marvel comes the release of the Thor vs. Thanos TPB.

I should probably also mention Marvel’s Cataclysm 0.1 – I really have nothing to say about it but if you’ve been looking forward to it, there you go…

Over in the rest of comicdom, this week is the week for covers.  IDW’s Danger Girl 2 is out sporting an awesome alternate cosplay photo cover (for subscribers only, but availability may very).  Also, out this week Zenescope – the company were the covers are always the best part of the book – has issues from two Grimm Fairy Tales Presents… mini-series: No Tomorrow and Realm Knights both on issue three, but better still is their non-Grimm title Hit List 2 featuring a femme fatale cover – if possible I recommend variant cover C by Oracle. 

But my favorite cover this week appearing on Witchblade 170 is a retro throwback to 80s Marvel covers.  Very rough and with hard lines even the logo and title information are in that classic Marvel style.  Inside the art is much sharper – a little cartoonish but still lovely to look at.  The story is typical second tier fair.  Looking at lead character Sara Pezzini’s outfit and appearance one could easily dismiss her as another uber-hot but shallow and artistically bankrupt Image heroine but writer Ron Marz and artist Laura Braga bring a much more developed character to the page than one comes to expect from an Image title.  I highly recommend this issue and despite the rather high issue number this is an excellent jumping on point. 

Finally, if a Halloween read is more what you’re looking for this week, Dark Horse provides with Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven and the Masque of the Red Death by Richard Corben who previously adapted works by Poe for Marvel’s Haunt of Horror line.  Corben’s art leaves something to be desired but can lend personality when applied to the right story as was the case with Haunt of Horror

But what are you reading this week?  Leave a comment or message me on twitter @nerdisnewcool to let me know. 


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