If you’re here in the Panel Discussion programming block, you might be a lapsed comics reader, trying to find a way back to the JLA Satellite. Or you might someone killing time until you pick up your weekly Wednesday pull list. Or maybe you’ve said goodbye to dozens of longboxes to embrace the promise of digital comics. Whichever it is, you’re still interested in the good stuff.
Welcome, then, to the Panel Discussion Dozen Quintet, where I pick out just-released or out-soon comics that I think are worth paying attention to. Ready? Then, let’s meet the sequential art that’ll be draining your wallet this week. Be sure to chime in with the books you’ll be picking up or that you think everybody should be ready in the comments.
The Victories #1
I loved the previews of Michael Avon Oeming’s The Victories that we ran on Kotaku a while back. This book’s out this week and I’m hoping that Oeming will give readers a keener, darker look at superhero obsession as the series spools out this summer.
Of all the Before Watchmen series that are rolling out as part of DC Comics’ controversial cash-in prequels, I was worried about this one the most. But after reading an early copy of this first issue, I have say that this comes across as a great pairing of talent and subject. Writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo capture the nihilism and grit of the title character, while delivering a jarring replica of 1970s Manhattan as a backdrop.
The new story arc that continues here throws tortured enchantress Josephine in the sex- and drug-drenched underworld of Los Angeles in the 1970. Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have crafted a series that shows that magic can’t exist without horrific consequences. It’s those consequences that keep me coming back for more.
Saga #6
You don’t want to be the person who’s not reading one of the best comics coming out today, right? It has a Rocketship Forest, guys.
The big question looming over writer Mark Waid’s run on the Man Without Fear has been whether Matt Murdock’s new, miraculously upbeat on life hides a darker dysfunction underneath. Answers to that start trickling out in this issue, drawn by the incredibly awesome Mike Allred. I can’t wait to see how an artist of Allred’s talents takes on the visual language this book has established for Daredevil’s hypersenses.
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