New Comics for June 9, 2021

When it comes to comics, one of the hardest questions

to answer is a very basic one. Where do I begin?

With so many years of continuity and endless

amounts of series to choose from, finding a starting

point can be difficult, but that's where this

series comes in. Each week I look at all the

new books coming out, pick out ongoing series

starting new arcs, notable new series, graphic

novels and trades, and then I finish things off

by picking up my pick of the week, the thing

I'm most excited about coming out this week.

Let's start things off by looking at ongoing

series starting new arcs. Last week when it came

to the Hellfire Gala I combined all the books

that were part of it into one segment and I figured

let's do that again. It's a little bit easier

that way. And this week X -Men 21 and Excalibur

21 all come out and are all linked to the Hellfire

Gala. And we've had three issues so far last

week that we're focused on the story. And I was

kind of curious going in how exactly is this

going to play out? Is this just going to be a

dinner? And it is, but of course there's a lot

of kind of drama behind the scenes going on as

well. And we saw basically each team's perspective

to the story. So I could see some people finding

a bit repetitive because you're seeing a lot

of the that's repeated just through different

perspectives, at least with the first volume

of stories. Will that happen again this week?

Are we getting the beginning of a dinner again?

Is this going to progress the story even further?

We saw there's some things that are going on

that make the actual Hellfire Gala a little bit

more mischievous with what might be going on,

although it seems like. Everyone has different

different ideas of what they should or should

not be doing So it will clearly be a storyline

that's going to propel the x -men forward It

seems like this is going to majorly change things

because there has to be some fallout to what's

going on I did like the storage for the most

part. I think marauders was my favorite one That

was the first one If you're not sure which one

to read there is there is a read last and I believe

x -men 21 is next and then Excalibur and if you're

not sure they I always have those amazing charts

and all the x -men books so you can follow along

with what one you should read next. I don't think

it's that difficult to read them out of order

per se. Like I said, you're all kind of seeing

the same events just through different perspectives.

My guess though is this week we'll probably see

the story progress a little bit. I don't know,

it's at least different. It's something that

we've never seen in comics before and I'm all

about trying new things, seeing how they work.

I'd rather see people try something that's different

and off the wall and it failed and just get people

trying to relive the glory days of the X -Men

personally. So we'll see how it works out this

week. Strange Academy is another one of those

series that I tend to include each week because

it is one of those stories where almost each

issue is standalone in a way. Last issue was

all about a field trip and this next issue is

about a potential murder so there's not necessarily

discontinuing arc. It's actually kind of old

school in its format in a way where the A story

tends to be brand new, but the B and C stories

tend to be continuations of what happened before.

I do think most of them are pretty welcoming

each time. Some of the care dynamics you may

not know exactly, but I think if you use your

classic influencing skills you can kind of connect

the dots a little bit. I think Strange Adventures

has been one of my favorite comics for Marvel

since it came out. Scottie Young and Alberto

Ramos just make a perfect pair. The art in this

is fantastic. I could not imagine anyone else

doing this book it has the exact look you'd want

for a series like this. I know there's that Teen

Titans Academy that's out right now and some

people aren't digging that. I will say like if

you want to get into Marvel like you've never

been a huge Marvel fan or you're not sure where

to start this is a really good starting point

series. Now go back to issue one and try it out

because the cool thing about this is that it's

telling the story through the perspective of

these kids who are relatively new characters

so they're kind of getting the world explained

to them so not knowing much about who Don Dr.

Strange's, Beyond the Movie, or even... that

much is fine because they don't know either.

So you're kind of learning along the way that

they did. This is exactly the type of series

I think Marvel should do. And I love to see this

collected. I think this would be great for kids

as well. I think it does ride the line of not

necessarily being a YA book in design, but I

think most kids would get something out of this,

even though it's not necessarily geared exactly

to them. And in a way, those tend to be the best

kids books, ones that are not trying to dumb

things down or sanitize the actual. story. Just

ones that are a good story that as cliche as

they say are fun for all ages and so far that's

been the case with this book. Starting the arc

this week kind of again is Iron Man number nine.

I say kind of because what this issue is going

to be doing is going back to the origin of Korvak

who is classic Avengers villain so if you've

not been keeping up with the Iron Man series

that's going on right now this might be a good

point to kind of jump in because Korvak has been

the main villain and based upon what Chris Cantwell

has said is going to be at least the main villain

to I think around issue 13 or so if not further

so he's going to have some staying power and

honestly Korvak's not a character I know a lot

about I have a minimal understanding of who he

is it hasn't really impacted my enjoyment of

this series thus far but I am looking forward

to this issue just to kind of get a better understanding

of who he is. There was also pieces of him in

the. the Marvel 1000 short mini series or whatever

you wanna call it that came out like two years

ago, I guess at this point that had a bunch of

like one page stories that relived his origin

and kind of that's now his new status quo. And

I think this is going to continue that. You're

not gonna need to read that to understand this.

I think this is just them going back to kind

of set the stage to get people caught up of who

Korvac is. So it's a good take your breath issue

before the main storyline continues. And I've

been really enjoying this take on Iron Man. This

has been a bit of a polarized. series i saw some

people who just it's not clicking with them some

people that have loved it i've been more on the

love that side a lot due to count the kafu art

it's i think not to drive people away but i keep

linking it to the way that tong king approached

batman in the sense of really diving deep into

the character of tony stark but this is also

diving deep into the character of hellcat and

i've really been appreciating and the way they've

kind of expanded her character got into her history

She's going to be actually the main focus for

the next few issues. I am and it won't actually

be in the next few issues He's kind of off in

this other other storyline Which is kind of a

brave choice to have a book called iron man and

not have him in it But can't well as build up

a good set of characters here that he can do

that Everyone from the scarlet spider to frog

man, but it's been working It's been a good mixture

of big action humor and character and I've been

really enjoying it's been one of my favorite

iron man runs in quite some time Also starting

a new arc this week is Black Hammer Vision with

issue number five and this has been another anthology

series and comics is full of anthology series

right now but the difference between this one

is these all take place in offshoots of the Black

Hammer universe if people don't know Black Hammer

is a comic that was started by Jeff Lemire and

Dean Warmerstead and it's this retelling retake

on things like the DC universe where you have

these analogs for classic DC characters that

kind of atonal to a different lens and there's

been a ton of different mini -series and what

this mini -series is is each time a different

creative team has taken a different character

or set of characters and told a story and a lot

of times in different genres. The first issue

was done by Pat Oswalt which was actually kind

of inspired by Ghost World. The last issue was

a meshing of genres which may have been my favorite

issue of the series thus far that had everything

from like a classic dinner mystery to some meta

humor and almost like a reality TV show was a

combination of. of a lot of things and then you

had that kind of classic slasher horror, one

of those issues as well. So each issue has kind

of been its own thing. The reason I'm excited

for this issue is because it teams up Kelly Thompson

and Leonardo Romero. And they were a team that

took on All New Hawkeye not too long ago. And

I really liked that book. I thought that was

a book that really got canceled too soon. I kind

of understood it. It was one of the first times

I felt like we were getting a Hawkeye book. Obviously

it was a Kate Bishop Hawkeye book, but a Hawkeye

book that wasn't trying to... relive the map

fraction Hawkeye. It was his own thing. It was

kind of in the spirit of that. But taking the

character of Kate Bishop and really fleshing

her out was a really solid series I would recommend.

If you are a fan of this creative team, Neil,

they'll be coming back for this issue. And they're

going to be focusing on the character of Skulldigger

and Skeleton Boy, who just had their series wrap

up. Actually, the trade just came out last week.

And it's kind of... Goldegger is like a combination

of like Batman and the Punisher with kind of

a gothic take on him So I'm interested to see

what they do with him. Goldegger is probably

the character that's been in the least amount

of Black Hammer books He's really had its miniseries

and that's about it So there's a lot of room

there for the character to grow and I did really

like that miniseries I thought the character

had a lot of potential so I'm excited to see

that the character is going to live on even if

it's only for this issue 14 years later, we're

getting Ant number 12. And again, this is usually

where I talk about ongoing series starting new

arcs. And technically, Ant number 12 is the end

of an arc, although this series hasn't been out

since 2007. I'll be honest, I've never read an

Ant comic. The reason I'm bringing it up though

is because this issue is done by Eric Larson.

He's going to be taking over this character and

starting a brand new series. So my thinking was

if you're interested in the new Ant series that'll

be coming out from him, you're probably going

to want to check out this issue because... One

would think that this is going to be launching

that new series are being kind of the linchpin

from this book to the new book So will you need

to read what happened before that the 11 issues?

My guess is maybe maybe not. I don't know. It's

been 14 years I think they should be smart enough

to realize people are gonna be coming into this

fresh So how do you kind of get people caught

up with a series that? not many people are aware

of to get them ready for the new book. Eric Larson,

of course, has been dedicating most of his time

to the Savage Dragon comic that's broken records

at this point. If you are a huge Savage Dragon

fan, or maybe you're a huge Eric Larson fan,

but have been kind of not really keeping up for

Savage Dragon, I know a lot of people love his

work from back when he worked with Marvel, things

like Spider -Man. and you're like, I want more

Eric Larson art in my life, but I don't really

wanna read Savage Dragon just because it's so

deep in, I don't know where to start. Now you

can check out Ant, this issue number 12, and

then shortly, not too long, we'll actually be

getting a brand new series. So excited just to

see this. This is kind of a weird experience.

I'm always a fan when a series that ended too

soon gets a second life, and especially seeing...

Eric Larson that's obviously been in the game

for such a long time focusing on one character

to start a new character again That to me has

a lot of potential. We'll see how it works out

this week Now we talked about ongoing series

starting new arcs Let's look at notable new number

ones coming out starting with DC pride number

one and this is a another anthology series celebrating

this being pride month and when you time a company

does something that is in spirit of pride month

you have to be a little bit worried because in

the sense of is this coming from a genuine place

or the are they coming from a place where they're

just trying to cash in because that's what everyone's

doing and I will say. looking at the creative

list here it seems like the heart is in the right

place because there's a lot of fantastic creators

here who certainly represent the lbgt community

for steve orlando the james tinney and the fourth

and not even including the actual characters

within the comic themselves and there also will

be some profiles of lbgtq uh executive and things

like that within the pages to go beyond the names

that we already know so that that definitely

has me excited and i will say dc has done a really

good job when it's come to a lot of these anthologies

series a lot of these celebrate series, getting

great creators that are, you know, well known

within the industry. Like I mentioned, like James

Tinian, as well as those are kind of coming out

and also focusing on characters that probably

don't get the limelight that they should. Maybe

if they have a breakout story within this, you

know, it will lead to something even greater.

And especially some of these characters like

Batwoman who I don't know where she's been in

some time and obviously a character that has

had successful series and unfortunately is not

the case right now. So I do think this is a good

step in the right direction. My hope is This

will lead to, you know, more ongoing series and

more diversity within the line of DC Comics,

because again, I always talk about how my favorite

thing when it comes to comics is the ability

to be diverse in style, medium, storytelling,

and creators. And that comes from the Big Two

or Marvel or DC, whatever it may be. So if you're

looking for a good anthology series book to check

out, hopefully this will be another one to add

to the pile. New from Aftershock this week is

Bunny Mask number one, and this is calling from

Paul Tubin, who was best known for his series,

Cold Air, which was previously nominated for

an Eisner, and it's great to see him coming out

with a new horror series yet again, and drawn

by the same artist that did Dark Interlude, which

is a fantastic looking book. So looking at the

creative team, there's a lot to be excited about.

The premise of Bunny Mask is odd, but like I

said, I do like things that can be odd. A bunny

mask is this character, this individual, this

being that existed before the dawn of existence

and was locked in a cave but has now broken free

and has some sort of random connection to a young

girl that lost her father 14 years. prior, with

a title like Bunnymas looking at the actual cover

of it as well, one would think that this is going

to open the doors to a lot of horror fans. And

we've had a lot of great horror books, especially

from Aftershock. Aftershock has had a really

great year this year with a lot of new series

that have had a lot of promise. Looking at the

creative team, I think this could be another

one to be excited about, especially if that's

the type of genre you enjoy. Coming out this

week from black mass studios is white number

one And this is a continuation series from black

that came out a few years ago and black was a

book in which there were superheroes but only

black people had Superpowers and most of them

found out about their superpowers after they

were killed or similar to the Axemen kind of

taking the idea of superheroes and turning it

on its head and White is a continuation that

picks up a few years later after people discover

black people have superheroes and you have people

rising in the political landscape to try to put

some control on that, especially a presidential

candidate. It doesn't take a brain scientist

to see that this is a series that is soaked in

social commentary. It makes no bones about it.

It's very pointed in what it's trying to say.

I will say if it's like the black series. of

course you know the headline was about the fact

that only black people had superpowers but it's

commentary was a much more deeper than that and

much more widespread it got into things like

community policing as well when it comes to having

something to say it's not just about what you

say it's about how you say it and i thought black

did a really good job of pointing out his point

of view and within all that telling it just a

good story about superheroes and the underground

and building up this world. I will say that this

may be a hard book to find because there was

a limitation on copies so your local store may

not have them available. If you can't pick them

up, Black Mask does typically put their things

up digitally in some way or through trace. You

might be able to get into Comixology. The timing

on that does vary a great deal. So it could be

Later could be never. I'm not sure, but if you're

at all interested in this and you go to your

shop, I would say you're probably going to want

to pick it up because it's going to be relatively

hard to get. Unfortunately, but it's kind of

one of those things. And the other thing with

black mask is unfortunately there's tends to

be a lot of delays with their work and books

will kind of go off schedule or show up and go

away. black when it first came out i thought

it was typically on on point did a good job of

keeping a schedule compared to a lot of other

black mass series so hopefully that'll be the

same case for white when it comes out this week

Also coming out this week from Dark Horse Comics

is Secret Land number one and I'm excited for

this because this seems to be Historical fiction,

which I'm a huge fan of and we rarely get in

the world of comics It stars Ben and Catherine

and both are soldiers in World War two This is

taking place shortly after Hitler is killed Ben

is a soldier that is now shifting focus to fight

in the Pacific where Catherine has gone undercover

and as the Third Reich is going to their last

bastion to try to be there to basically help

them implode from the inside. Ben potentially

believes his fiance has been killed, so how does

that impact him and impact the way he fights?

Knowing that he's going in headfirst into one

of the deadliest battles, battlegrounds ever

in human history. On the outside looking in,

this appears to be a book with no supernatural

element whatsoever. No superpowers, no vampires,

nothing like that. No horror stories, just straight

human drama. And again, I'm a fan of that, because

we rarely get it. Dark Horse has done series

like this. Of course, you've had Rebels, for

example. That was about the time, you know, during

the American Revolution. You also had books like

The Butcher of Paris that came out a few years

ago, which was really good about a serial killer.

And again, in World War II, when France was occupied

by Germany. And this creative team, I don't really

know much about. I've not read a lot of their

books, but I am excited to see a book like this

exist. And when I do see a book like this, I

do try to support it, because we rarely get a

story like this that is human drama, that is

history -based. As a huge fan of history myself,

this doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be

good. It may not end up being good. But the premise

has me excited, just the idea of it and the fact

that it exists. So it's kind of checking all

those boxes for me. We'll see how it actually

turns out this week. Now we talked about new

series. Let's move over to the world of trades

and graphic novels starting with Batman Earth

one volume three and usually in this segment

I don't talk about volume threes or anything

like that. I look for a starting point So volume

ones are complete trades However with the earth

one series most of them tend to be really welcoming

No matter what volume you jump in the first volume

tends to be a reimagining of the characters origin

the second Volume tends to expand upon them and

so on so despite the fact that maybe you have

not read the first two volumes You may be able

to pick this up. I will say I recently did a

review of Green Lantern earth one volume two

and and I do think that is a place you can kind

of jump into because although things are Changed

to a good extent. It's not like it's completely

different. Ultimately Green Lantern is Green

Lantern thing with earth one books I do feel

like they are directed towards a different audience

in the way at least Green Lantern was more the

the bookstore crowd that the fantasy elements

I think are toned down a bit. I don't see them

more realistic or anything like that but in a

way they feel like more the story is that you

would see transitioned into the actual like Motion

pictures or things like that things are a little

bit more palatable for fans that are not your

typical comic book reader And things are not

as wacky and crazy, but they're easier easier

to digest in that way So I know we have so much

Batman content You might be like do I really

need another take on the Batman story and most

of these have been quite good I did enjoy the

first two volumes of Earth one Batman. So hopefully

that'll be the same case for volume three Speaking

of omnibuses, we have Spider -Gwen omnibus that

comes out this week and Spider -Gwen is a character

I'll say that I've actually not read a lot about

mostly the only time I've read her stories is

when she is kind of taking up space in different

Spider -Mans or crossovers here and there I think

I just early dismissed the idea of having Gwen

Stacy come back as a Spider -Man character even

if she is in a different dimension. However,

you know, Spider -Man into the Spider -Verse,

she was fantastic in that. So maybe I was wrong

and then I've heard a lot of great things about

the character as well. So if you're like me and

you skipped out on the character and were interested

in diving in, know that the omnibus is coming

out this week. Again, the thing with omnibuses

is that they do run you a pretty penny. So they

may not be the thing you want to blind buy. If

you are a huge Spider -Gwen fan and you wanted

a complete collection, know that this volume

will be coming out this week. Also coming out

from Marvel this week is Doctor Strange the oath

and this is a book that's been out a lot There's

been a lot of different versions of this I do

think it's one of the best doctor strange stories

ever told doctor strange is one of those characters

that's been around a lot he's a great spice to

add to a different team or to a different book,

but His individual series tend not to be all

that great. I did like Jason Aaron's run on the

character, even Donny Cates' run on the character,

but Mark Waits was a little bit indifferent.

I thought it started off well and I never read

it when he became a doctor again. But this, you

know, being a miniseries, a complete series done

by Brian Kayvon is, I think it captures the essence

of the character and it's really palatable for

anyone that just wants to read more Doctor Strange

and you've never really liked his books. This

is the book you'd want to check out. Again, this

is a book to find though I tend to find them

a lot especially when at things like comic cons

and things like that so this might be a bit expensive

being brand new so if you wanted to wait you'll

probably be good or you may be able to find a

cheaper version at your local comic book store

in the bargain aisle also coming out this week

from Marvel this is a big week for Marvel when

it comes to trades and graphic novels and and

collections it's the art of George Perez and

when I think George Perez I don't think of his

work at Marvel to be honest can't even think

of what he's really known for with that company.

If you are a George Perez completist, I know

a lot of people, when they talk about their favorite

artists, George Perez is there, especially people

who first really read comics in the 80s, and

he was one of the most notable names in comics

for some time. And with that, he's still garnered

a huge amount of fandom, obviously for really

popular titles at that time. If you are at all

interested in his marble work and wanted to see

kind of an art collection of that, I mean, he

is a fantastic artist for sure. You'll not be

able to check out this collection this week.

Like I said, I don't know much about his marble

work, which has me somewhat interested. I don't

tend to collect art collection books that just

aren't my thing, but I know there are a lot of

people who love this type of thing, and marble

tends to do a pretty good job with this. I know

people tend to complain about the quality of

their monthly series, which is usually valid,

but when it comes to their collections, I've

had better experience with them, at least personally.

Hopefully that will be the case for this collection.

The last graphic novel we're going to talk about

this week is In by Will MacPhail. And this is

a story about himself, really, looking at his

inability to connect with individuals, to connect

with people, talking about how difficult he has

to have actual conversation, how it's just hard

for him to go through the motions, and kind of

this personal memoir, although it doesn't seem

to actually be talking about Real -life events

maybe a combination of both and how they evolve

This is already been getting a lot of praise

a lot of really strong reviews. So I'm quite

excited about it I almost made this my pick of

the week But it just from a creator that I don't

know much about I am excited about it It looks

like it could be something really good because

I do like Books like this that really get into

so much personal struggles when you see them

kind of lay everything out on the page and the

things they struggle with it because I do think

Even it's not something you directly can relate

to there's something about that that you can

almost relate to through osmosis Seeing their

struggle, especially when there's a lot of honesty

on the page It tends to yield really great stories

and they tend to be some of my favorite things

that comic puts out Hopefully that'll be the

case with this book. And again, it will be coming

out this weekend. So one of those books you'll

probably be able to maybe not find at your local

comic book store. But if you're interested in

it, checking out at the bookstore or your Comixology

Unlimited, because it will be available digitally

as well. Alright, we talked about ongoing series

starting new arcs, notable new series, and trades

in graphic novels coming out. Now it's time to

talk about my pick of the week, the thing I'm

most excited about coming out this week. So when

I looked at the landscape of comics this week,

I don't know how things are going to turn out.

This seems like a week that might be on the lesser

side. Hopefully I'm wrong, usually when I go

into a week with high expectations I'm disappointed

and low expectations I end up walking away happy.

We shall see. I will say when it came to picking

out my pick of the week, the thing I was most

excited about It was an easy choice, because

I looked at the creative team and I'm like, oh,

I love when they work together, or at least when

they worked together last time. My pick of the

week this week is the six sidekicks of Trigger

Keaton, number one. And this story is about Trigger

Keaton, who is this crazy action star that has

been killed. And now the sidekicks of people

that were always at his side have to figure out

who murdered him. Unfortunately... It seems like

everyone hated Trigger Key, and it's probably

one of those stories that was all about him,

and it led a lot of people to be the suspects

in this murder. What can this lead to? It seems

to be a love letter to the action genre. The

reason I'm excited about this is because of the

creative team, which is written by Kyle Sarge,

art by Chris Schoenreiser, and I should probably

pronounce, what should I do, apologize. The last

thing they worked on that I read, which was Mars

Attacks, which was a book that was a trillion

times better than it had any business being.

Of course, it was a Mars. so it started off silly,

but at the heart of it was this... father and

son story and the way it evolved. It was so heart

-wrenching. I was not expecting that from that

book. I highly advise checking that out if you

got a chance because it was very underrated book

and I've read a lot of Kyle Sartre's stuff as

well. Sex Castle is kind of another book that

seems somewhat similar to that in the way it

approached kind of the crazy action of the 80s

and 90s and assassination that he did a few years

ago as well with Erica Schultz. That was a really

solid book. He certainly loves certain genres

and is not really afraid to show it and is really

partnering himself up with strong artist as well.

Chris Sharves -Rycer, I cannot say his last name,

is a very accomplished artist. His art is not

exactly like Kyle Sark's. I like Kyle Sark's

art. I know some people don't love his stuff,

but I do, especially like Rock Candy Mountain.

But I think this art will probably be a little

bit more detailed than that and probably fit

the story maybe a little more. And I'm all...

I'm all in for a book like this one that is going

to be off the wall fun and enjoyable. I feel

like it's something we really Need right now

and a lot of the books I talked about this week

tend to be on the more serious side So I think

this is something that can really, you know be

a huge adrenaline punch forward that we need

in the comic book genre, so we'll see how it

goes. If you're a fan of his past work, if you're

a fan of things like the 90s action films, if

you like Chew, it was something it compared itself

to, you may want to check out this book. It's

one I'm not seeing a lot of people talking about,

but it has, I think, a good chance to be one

of the best new series if it all works out well

and is kind of a continuation of what worked

well with their past work. Anyways, that's it

for me for this week. Let me know what you're

excited about coming out this week in the comment

section below. I always appreciate any comment,

any like, any view. I know there's so many comment

channels out there, so I truly appreciate that.

Just remember that comments are for everyone.

The key is finding the right one. Until next

time, keep reading.