Even more first issues

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: SINS RISING PRELUDE #1 by Nick Spencer and Guillermo Sanna. The next big event for Spider-Man starts with this. Sin-Eater, the masked vigilante who killed Jean DeWolfe, has come back from the dead and is ready to continue his work. This sets up his resurrection and fills in readers on the history of Sin-Eater. The artwork is hit or miss, with some nice callbacks to the original story back in the days of the black costume. It is a decent lead-in to a major Spidey story.
 
ASTERIX FREE COMIC BOOK DAY by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. The legendary Asterix gets a great treatment designed to introduce the gem to a broader audience. Asterix set the bar for such works as GROO and it’s evident here. Rush to your comics shop and get this.
 
BATMAN: THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE #1 by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini and Ty Templeton. This digital first series tries to reignite the feel of the classic series of comics and the television show. All the classic characters are here, with a surprise appearance in the end, and even an appearance by Lex Luthor, which ties the SUPERMAN ADVENTURES to this. The writing is fun, Templeton’s art is cartoony and it’s a nice callback to the past.
 
BIRDS OF PREY #1 by Brian Azzarello and Emanuela Lupacchino. This huge Black Label one shot is a rambling tale of revenge and retribution. The characters aren’t so much a team as they are a loose amalgamation that puts the three main characters into each other’s orbit. It’s a typical Azzarello script that is heavy and crime and biting dialogue. Lupacchino’s art is in the usual amazing style and hey: just remember this is not in continuity. If you get through that, it’s a fun read.
 
BLACK WIDOW #1 by Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande. The Widow is back and she’s in trouble again. After completing a mission she gets dumped out of her apartment…literally. Three months later and she is in San Francisco, designing blueprints for a building. And she has a new love in her life and Arcade plotting her death. I love the twists in this and want to see where this goes next.
 
BOMB QUEEN: TRUMP CARD #1 by Jimmie Robinson. I have been a huge fan of Jimmie Robinson’s work going back to CYBERZONE, AMANDA & GUNN and CODE BLUE. This book is the latest his long running series of mini-series featuring the titular villainess. This time, it’s 2024 and she’s coerced into running for President against President Trump. It’s a fun ride of a future where superheroes are banned and Trump is the chief bad guy.
 
DAREDEVIL ANNUAL #1 by Chip Zdarsky and Manuel Garcia. Daredevil gets his IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE moment in this Annual. Matt Murdock takes a backseat to Mike Murdock, who is not the happy go lucky fictional creation of Matt Murdock. He’s a separate flesh and blood entity that has turned to the dark side because of his path in his young life. Not an imaginary story…this actually ties into current continuity. It’s a little confusing if you haven’t been reading the series, but all makes sense if you have,
 
DCEASED: DEAD PLANET #1 by Tom Taylor and Trevor Hairsine. Taylor has mined the concept of heroes and zombies in the DCEASED series as was done with INJUSTICE. The world has come to an end and the remaining superheroes, those who haven’t become zombies in the previous series of series, try to find a cure and restore the world to something resembling normalcy. This is just dumb fun in the way MARVEL ZOMBIES is. It’s not an in-continuity series that would be an ELSEWORLDS tale back in the day.
 
EMPYRE: AVENGERS #0 by Al Ewing and Pepe Larraz. Marvel’s next big event, which will encompass over 50 issues, counting tie-ins and spin-offs. It’s time for a new Kree-Skrull War and Hulking is the front and center. The Avengers journey to the Blue Area of the moon to find it has turned green. That’s because the Cotati have been here and so is the long dead, but reanimated Swordsman. There are a ton of callbacks to Marvel history and that’s great for long time fans. Will this series truly reset the Marvel Universe’s place in space? Well, it will lead to a number of new series after this ends, including a new She Hulk series.
 
EMPYRE: FANTASTIC FOUR #0 by Dan Slott and R. B. Silva. Marvel’s next big event continues in this second lead-in to the EMPYRE event. The FF head into space and end up in the middle of arena battles where the usual main event is Kree versus Skrulls. Of course, that means The Thing ends up as their gladiator and they end up adding a young Kree warrior and an equally young Skrull warrior to their team…sort of. All this leads right into EMPYRE #1.
 
EMPYRE #1 by Al Ewing, Dan Slott and Valerio Schiti. The Kree and the Skrulls have finally found a way to exist in peace and have formed an alliance under the rule of The Hulkling, which has brought the Fantastic Four into the mix. The Coatiti are almost extinct and, under the lead of the former Swordsman and his son the Celestiah Messiah, they have reached out to The Avengers. That means that these two forces are going to end up bumping heads along the way. But who is the right side of history here. This leads to a rambling story which, before it is done, will result in many mini-series and crossovers including LORDS OF EMPYRE EMPEROR HULKLING,  LORDS OF EMPYRE CELESTIAL MESSIAH, LORDS OF EMPYRE SWORDSMAN, EMPYRE AVENGERS, EMPYRE CAPTAIN AMERICA, EMPYRE SAVAGE AVENGERS, and EMPYRE X-MEN, EMPYRE THE IMMORTAL HULK, plus crossovers into issues of CAPTAIN MARVEL, FANTASTIC FOUR, STRIKEFORCE and X-MEN. It should be noted that a number of one-shots and mini-series, first announced as part of this, got pulled including EMPYRE THOR, EMPYRE STORMRANGER, EMPYRE THE INVASION OF WAKANDA, EMPYRE GHOST RIDER, EMPYRE SPIDER-MAN, EMPYRE SQUADRON SUPREME, and THE UNION.
 
GIANT-SIZE X-MEN: FANTOMEX by Jonathan Hickman and Rod Reis. Hickman’s series of stand alone one shots continues with this wild tale of the mysterious X-Man. After his “birth”, he spends his life, ten years at a time, going to The World to meet with his clone-each time going with a different army including the Howling Commandos, the Hellfire Club and an assortment of X-Men. It’s a trippy tale with art the is reminiscent of Bill Sienkiwicz.  
 
GIANT-SIZE X-MEN: MAGNETO by Jonathan Hickman and Ramon Perez. In the past, Magneto meets with Emma Frost, who wants an island of her own. That leads to Erik meeting with Namor, who wants a favor before he lets her lease an island. Thus we have an adventure between the two to help Namor to ultimately help the White Queen. The book looks great, but lacks a ton of meaningful plot. Probably the worst and most disappointing release in the GIANT-SIZE line to date.
 
FANTASTIC FOUR: ANTITHESIS #1 by Mark Waid and Neal Adams. I have to say that I knew this book was coming about a year ago in the form of some confidential information from the inside. And I have to say that it was worth the wait! The story is set in the past, as Franklin and Valeria are still very little kids. And you get the Silver Surfer, Annihilus and Galactus too. Waid’s story is fun, while Adams art, with super tight inks from Mark Farmer, harkens back to classic Adams’ style. If you are a fan of the classic FF days, this is a must have.
 
MAESTRO #1 by Peter David, German Peralta and Dale Keown. Peter David comes back to the character he created and promises to give us the true origin of the future Hulk. With an opening/framing sequence by Keown, the art duties get turned over to Peralta with great results. The world has come to an end and Hulk finds himself on a fact finding/self examining road trip with an aged Modok by his side. This was so much fun to read and I can’t wait to see where David takes it.
 
MARVEL SNAPSHOTS CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE FALCON #1 by Mark Russell and Ramon Perez. Remember Mad Bomb? The legendary Jack Kirby epic that twisted heads and proved Kirby was still The King? This one-shot pays homage and brings it back again with Mad Bomb II. It’s old school adventure, short of the alleged stars of the book and long on the tale of someone looking to make his world better by joining A.I.M. It’s a nice tribute to an age gone by, but with a tale that fits nicely into the contemporary world.
 
MARVEL ZOMBIES RESURRECTION #1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Leonard Kirk. Continuing from the story in the last MARVEL ZOMBIES outing, Peter Parker, Forge, Moonstone and the Richards kids try to survive in an infected world where most of the superheroes are dead or undead and looking to feed. The story is a fun non-continuity romp with great art from irk. If you like DCEASED, you’ll love this.
 
NEGAN LIVES #1 by Robert Kirkman and Charles Adlard. He’s back. The super popular baddie from THE WALKING DEAD is here in a stand alone tale where our “hero” mourns about his bat, his wife and his place in the world. It’s uncertain where exactly it falls in THE WALKING DEAD continuity, but Kirkman does reveal it’s somewhere between issues #174 and #193. And it could lead to a sequel, by the way the book ends. It also acts as a nice lead-in to Image’ reprinting of the entire series in color.
 
SACRED SIX #1 by Christopher Priest, Jae Lee and Gabriel Ibarra. Dynamite continues to focus on its’ key assets with another Vampirella themed title. This one, written by VAMPIRELLA  scribe Christopher Priest, teams up Vampirella, Draculina, Pantha, Nyx, Chastity and Lilith in a series which ties into the main series with the addition of Drago and The Six. It’s typical Priest, with false starts, confusing moments and a story which forces the reader to think to get to the endgame.
 
SPIDER-MAN FREE COMIC BOOK DAY EDITION #1 by Jed MacKay, Donny Cates, Patrick Gleason and Ryan Stegman. Better late than never, due to the industry shutdown. The first is a fun team-up between Spidey and Black Cat up against the classic Vulture. But it’s the second tale, a Venom story, that is the real reason to pick this up as it leads directly into VENOM #26.
 
X-FACTOR #1 by Leah Williams and David Baldeson. What do you do when you need a team to investigate missing mutants and deaths and you can’t get the help from? You create X-Factor Investigations and let the do the leg work. Yes, it’s another new X book and another new team comprised of Northstar, Polaris, Daken, Prodigy, Prestige, Eye-Boy, Hope, Egg, Elixir, Proteus and Tempus-most of whom are not household names in the X-Universe. The concept is fun, the dialogue is snappy and the artwork rocks. This could be the unexpected hit of the X books.
 
X-MEN: GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS EXTENDED CUT #1 by Chris Claremont and Brent Eric Anderson. Back in the 1980’s. Marvel launched the first series of graphic novels, many of which, specifically THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL, have gained legendary status. It was the early days of the Direct Market, where publishers began to think outside the box. X-MEN: GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS was one of those legendary titles, with a wonderful Eighties political feel. Marvel reprints this book, at last, as a two issue miniseries with added wraparound content, bringing the tale’s perspective into today’s timeline. The storytelling and art hold up nicely after all these years, especially when comics were filling pages with multitudes of panels per page. If you don’t own the original, you need to put this into your collection. It truly is possibly Chris Claremont’s finest work.
 
X-MEN FREE COMIC BOOK DAY EDITION #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Tini Howard, Tom Taylor, Iban Coello and Pepe Larraz. This is a winner, for folks who want to see what the future of large Marvel events has in store. The first tale makes beautiful use of Tarot imagery to set of the events in the forthcoming X OF SWORDS mega story running trough the X titles. The second tale is the lead-in for the big line-wide DARK AGES story, which actually should have had its’ own stand along book, rather than shoving it into the X book.