This week’s comics are a grab bag of high concept and gorgeous art. Zeus makes loves to car engines in Hybrid Bastards, DC’s Kate Kane gets an awesome hardcover treatment, and Tribes: The Dog Years is an animesque apocalypse.
Let’s start with the Tribes graphic novel from IDW — in this tale, humanity has fallen due to a disease that limits the human life span to 21. The last remnants of mankind wander the ruins of a junkyard civilization, until hope comes in the form of a wizened stranger. The scripts by Michael Geszel and Peter Spinetta and art by Inaki Miranda give this end-times scenario an appealing youth-gone-wild vibe reminiscent of Akira meets the Feral Kid from The Road Warrior. You can read a 30-page preview of the title here. Recommended.
How about the rest of the issues this month?
Abe Sapien: Abyssal Plain 1 (Dark Horse): Mike Mignola and John Arcudi helm this flashback tale about everyone’s favorite ichthyological BPRD member investigating a downed Soviet U-boat.
After Dark 0 (Radical Comics): A dark science fiction series from the unlikely team of Peter Milligan, Wesley Snipes, and Antoine Fuqua, the director of Training Day. It’s $1.
Invincible Iron Man Annual 1 (Marvel): This variant cover by Samurai Jack’s Genndy Tartakovsky is the cover of the week, no fooling.
Batman Beyond 1 (DC): After a decade on the periphery of DCU continuity, Terry McGinnis finally gets the four-panel love he deserves with this six-part miniseries.
Astonishing X-Men 34 (Marvel): It’s curious that Marvel released this with Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis on the stands, but what can I say? I’m a fan of the Astonishing line’s BPRD approach to the X-teams.
Chronicles Of Wormwood: Last Battle 4 (Avatar): More theological debauchery from Garth Ennis in the vein of Preacher. You already know if you’re a fan.
Turf 2 (Image), GI Joe: Hearts And Minds 2 (IDW), and Secret Avengers 2 (Marvel): Second issue round-up for Jonathan Ross’ 1920 vampire-mobster-intergalactic noir, Max Brook’s hard-edged GI Joe yarn, and Ed Brubaker’s spy-Avengers title!
Predators 4 (Dark Horse): The comic book prequel to next week’s Predators feature film concludes here.
As for heavier (as in weight, not content) fare, we have The List trade paperback (Marvel; a collection of the Dark Reign “The List” one-shots including the “death” of Punisher and Jason Aaron’s Wolverine tribute to Grant Morrison); the Hybrid Bastards hardcover (Archaia Studios; in the best premise of the week, the god Zeus becomes ensorcelled and impregnates inanimate objects — you can read a preview here)…
… and the Werewolves Of Montpellier trade paperback (Fantagraphics). The idiosyncratic Norwegian cartoonist Jason delivers a tale about a burglar who dresses up as a werewolf…and the real-life werewolves who are less than impressed with his antics — here’s a preview.
What’s MY PICK OF THE WEEK? Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III’s Batwoman: Elegy hardcover. Good gravy, is Williams’ artwork gorgeous. This book collects the first of Rucka’s wonderfully pulpy Batwoman tales on Detective Comics and punches them up to a coffee table-worthy size. The story has an endearingly familial spin on Batwoman’s own Bruce-and-Alfred dynamic, and is accessible to new readers but still gives fans of Kate’s 52 saga a nod.
You can find the rest of the week’s releases here and your regional comic merchant here. Happy reading, gang!
