Another batch of first comic issues

AVENGERS SHARDS OF INFINITY #1 by Ralph Macchio and Andrea DiVito. Well, I was excited about this, believing it to be a tie-in to the INFINITY COUNTDOWN. Boy-talk about disappointing! It has NOTHING to do with that story and feels like it was sitting in a drawer from the Nineties and someone dug it up and decided to put it out. The shards in question is part of the Cosmic Cube and that leads to the team in a search for it. DiVito’s art is great but the story is a long, rambling excuse for spending $4.

THE BEEF #1 by Richard Starkings, Tyler Sahinline and Shaky Kane. Chuck works at the slaughterhouse, just like his dad before him did. But something has happened to Chuck, who has been eating modified beef all of his life. And now, he looks like the Incredible Hulk, minus his skin. This is one weird title with some even weirder art. It’s equally Underground Comic gross and Hernandez Brothers surreal. Truly, one of the weirdest reads this year…and I love it!

CAVE CARSON HAS AN INTERSTELLAR EYE #1 by Jon Rivera and Michael Avon Oeming. Cave Carson and his crew are back, this time on a mission to visit and, hopefully save Cave’s old friend Adam. This picks up from both the last series and from events n MILK WARS. Rivera writes a fun story and Oeming, whose work on POWERS caught my attention back in the day, creates a visual masterpiece. This is a bunch of fun with a character that Young Animal has managed to make relevant for today.

DOMINO #1 by Gail Simone and David Baldeon. Domino is back and is bringing her cast of characters with her. It’s back story and action and a whole lot of fun, wth Simone totally on point with this title. Readers will obviously make comparisons to Harley Quinn, but this is the quirky female anti-hero done right. Baldeon’s art shines and hey: a killer Greg and cover that would make a great poster(hint, hint, Marvel!). With a great cliff hanger ending, this is a fun read. Well done!

DRY COUNTY #1 by Rich Tommaso. I became a big fan of Tommaso’s work on DARK CORRIDOR, which led me back to SHE WOLF and THE COTTEN-STEEL PHOENIX. It’s Miami in the 1980’s, so it looks and feels like a twisted version of MIAMI VICE. His characterizations are great, his art is quirky and the mystery for Lou Rossi begins here. Again, Tommaso’s art is very quirky, but it grows on you. And the colors so make you think Crockett and Tubbs are going to show up. It’s loud and bold and a ton of fun!

ETERNTY GIRL #1 by Magdalene Visaggio and Sonny Liew. DC’s Young Animal 2.0 begins and this book is just what you would expect. Having been introduced in the back-ups of the MILK WARS mini-series, Caroline Sharp as a superhero working for Alpha 13 when she ended up getting strange powers while battling Madame Atom. Now she has to deal with all of that. A true psychological drama that hits on so may cylinders. Liew’s artwork is straight out of his work on DOCTOR FATE and Visaggio knows how to write a clever tale. Not for everyone, but the closest “Mainstream” comparison to Vertigo titles.

THE HUNT FOR WOLVERINE #1 by Charles Soule, David Marquez and Paulo Siquiera. Logan has managed to come back from the dead and now the X-teams are going looking for him. There is a lot of back story here as Pierce and his Reavers want that giant statue of Wolverine to sell the Adamantium. Surprise: he ain’t there. The teams fight and, in the end, the call goes out for the various heroes of the MCU to find him. This is a fairly long, unsatisfying set-up for the multitude of mini-series where the heroes search for Logan.

INFIDEL #1 by Pornsak Pichetshote and Aaron Campbel. Basically, our heroine is a Muslim woman living in a haunted house. Or is it all in her mind? This is a great psychological horror story for our times with killer art from Campbel that feels like an old Warren horror title. The first issue brings you down a dark rod and leaves you there. I can so see this as a film and I wouldn’t be surprised if that eventually happens. Great characters spouting cool dialogue. It’s grimy, dark and very disturbing.

INFINITY COUNTDOWN #1 by Gerry Duggan and Aaron Kuder. And so, after months of prequels, it finally begins. The Infinity Stones have been scattered across the universe, leading the Nova Corps and the Guardians of the Galaxy to find them before they end up in the wrong hands. It’s a big fight book that results in Groot being reborn as he once as, but with full speech capabilities. Oh yeah: Black Widow is back too, which kind of screws up the final reveal in the yet to be completed TALES OF SUSPENSE mini-series. Kuder’s art is amazing while Duggan’s story is just okay. I’m hoping it picks up in intensity before the end.

MAD MAGAZINE #1 by the Usual Gang of Idiots. I guess this is the era of reboot and this legendary magazine is no exception. At $6, and still being billed at CHEAP, the mag has gone to full color of slick stock, moving from its’ long run as black and white on newsprint. It’s filled with the usual features we have grown to love: parodies, takes on current events, fake ads, the ever-popular Fold-In, SPY VS SPY and lots of bits and pieces by Sergio Aragones. Much more adult than purely sophomoric (can we use the words vagina and dildo in a kid’s book?), it is chock full of work by some true legends in the comics world including Peter Kuper, Peter Bagge and Brian Posehn. Highlights include a killer LAST JEDI spoof and an amazingly spot-on ARCHIE take, where the classic character Starchie, done by Tom Richmond in a scary Will Elder style, gets brought to the present RIVERDULL. Okay…I’m hooked!

OBLIVION SONG #1 by Robert Kirkman and Lorenzio DeFelici. With INVINCIBLE finished, Kirkman looks for the next big thing. It’s a quest book where our hero jumps between worlds to find people missing by a catastrophic event in the past. At the moment, I’m not a huge fan, as the set-up is long, and this feels like another monster epic (THE WALKING DEAD has over 175 issues and INVINCIBLE was around 150 issues). I’m hoping things will be clearer and it doesn’t just become a long TWD style book with a million characters who come and go after 10 or 12 issues.

THE PRISONER #1 by Peter Milligan and Colin Lorimer. There’s a new Number Six in town in this 21^st Century reboot of the classic series. Just like the series, it’s weird and wild and twisting in weird ways. Typical Milligan story with great art by Lorimer. Look for the Jack Kirby variant cover from the aborted adaptation from back in the day…that makes this long strange trip worth it.

SECRET WEAPONS OWEN’S STORY #0 by Eric Heisserer and Raul Allen. Another Valiant one-shot that ties into the SECRET WEAPONS mini-series from a few months back. This time, it’s Owen’s version of how he came to be part of the group. It’s a lot of fun if you read the mini-series, but means nothing if you didn’t Seek out the collection and slide this in with it.

SHADE THE CHANGING WOMAN #1 by Cecil Castellucci and Marley Zarcone. Shade is back from Young Animal and now she’s grown up. Like it’s predecessor, it’s got some trippy dialogue, spaced-out art and takes a couple of reads to get the vibe. Not a book for everyone, as it just drifts between teenage angst and philosophical meanderings.

SHADOWMAN #1 by Andy Diggle and Stephen Segovia. Valiant’s newest title brings back Jack Boniface-the Shadowman. Having been trapped for five years, the hero is back and dealing with some dark stuff going on in the Bayou. Along the way, he has to deal with Baron Samedi and his voodoo powers. I was a big fan of the original series and the reboot that Valiant crafted in their current universe. I could use a bit more back story to all of this and can see how this is going to tie into the forthcoming HARBINGER WARS 2. It’s a great jumping off point if you don’t know the character and a nice present for existing fans.

TAARNA #1 by Alex DeCampi, Esau Escorza and Isaac Escorza. A long time ago, there was this amazing little film called HEAVY METAL: adapted from the book of the same name. The centerpiece, and longest piece in the film, was an animation masterpiece called TAARNA. She was a silent barbarian hero with a taste for vengeance against her enemy. Well, she has been brought to comic book life by Alex De Campi and the Escorzas. As in the film, she never speaks but her actions speak volumes. It’s a good introduction and a great jumping on point. It looks amazing and De Campi’s writing is as sharp as ever. If you loved the movie, you will love this. Btw: she’s naked throughout some of it, so keep that in mind when you’re reading it at home with the kiddies around!

THANOS ANNUAL #1 by Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, Chris Hastings, Flaviano, Kieron Gillen, Andre Araujo, Katie Cook, Heather Breckle, Ryan North, Will Robson, Al Ewing and Frazier Irving. In a issue filled with six tales of Thanos, this brings the run on this title to an end. It also leads into Cates’ COSMIC GHOST RIDER mini-series. The stories are all strung together by the once dead Frank Castle who tells of some funny and also some despicable moments in the life of the Mad God. Fun, heartbreaking and definitely a nice coda to a great Cates run. Oh yeah: guest appearance by Odin!

VAMPERONICA #1 by Greg Smallwood and Meg Smallwood. Archie Comics dips back into the well for another horror take on classic characters. This time, Veronica Lodge is bitten by a vampire and must control her urges while battling the undead. Greg Smallwood’s art is beautiful, but the whole story just seems like a retread. We’ve had Jughead as a werewolf, Sabrina as a tormented itch and the hole gang fighting a killer plague…will we EVER see the end of that tale. C’mon Archie: this just doesn’t have the fun kick that AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE had. How about bringing that back and stop with these other series.

VENOMIZED #1 by Cullen Bunn and Iban Coello. Spinning out of the recent POISON-X crossover nd features the bad guys from the VENOMVERSE series, Eddie Brock as Venom fights to free Earth’s heroes who are being turned into Symbiotes. It’s a five issue weekly event that wraps up those storylines and acts as another mini-event designed to sell comics. Only for die-hard fans.

WEAPON H #1 by Greg Pak, Cory Smith and Marcus To. Springing out of WEAPONS OF MUTANT DESTRUCTION, we have Weapon H-a former military man who has been infused with the DNA of Wolverine AND the Hulk. You know that can’t be a good thing! He ends p in Canada where a bunch of crazy scientists are recreating a Wendigo. That means a bunch of blood and guts and some story thrown in. Fun character to work with and we even get a guest appearance from Doctor Strange. In the back-up, a little story involving Weapon H’s family and trying to figure out hat is really going on.

XERES #1 by Frank Miller. A long time ago, Frank Miller wrote and illustrated the amazing 300, which wowed fans and ater led to a pretty cool movie. This sequel of sorts tells the tale of the fall of the House of Darius and the rise of Alexander. It’s short on dialogue, long on Miller’s art, some of which is beautiful but most of which is very sketchy at best. This is truly for die-hard fans only. Personally, I would recommend the originals over this.