Welcome back to Conskipper’s New Comic Day Picks for the week of September 1, 2021!
The leaves are starting to turn, kids are headed back to school, and Halloween is only two months away, and there are plenty of titles to peruse at your local comic shop this week.
–Black Hammer Reborn #3 (Dark Horse Comics): Jeff Lemire and Caitlin Yarsky excellent continuation of the original Black Hammer storyline is delivering all of the beats that fans of the original series have come to expect from the award-winning comic. Successful follow-ups to comics are never easy, but Lemire and Yarsky’s focus on Lucy Weber is as engaging and though provoking as any of the many spin-offs and previous series. Fiona Stephenson’s cover also helps capture the tone of the series with her portrait of the lovelorn superhero suitor in the laundromat.
-Aquaman 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (DC Comics): He doesn’t always get the love that he deserves, but it is now time to celebrate Aquaman’s 80th birthday! Similar to Green Arrow’s recent 100 Page Super Spectacular, this issue offers a who’s who of creative talent that showcases various stories from across the aquatic hero’s long history including a tale of romance with Mera, confrontations with Black Manta and Ocean Master, and ones featuring Arthur’s proteges Tempest and Jackson Hyde. The anthology brings together Geoff Johns and Paul Pelletier, Dan Jurgens and Steve Epting, Dan Watters and Miguel Mendonca., and many more creative teams. As a bonus, two of the stories act as prequels to two new Aquaman miniseries launching from port in September.
–The Avengers #48 (Marvel Comics): “World War She Hulk” Part Three continues the march to The Avengers #750 (legacy numbering, of course) with another “high stakes” story involving the team’s strongest and also most unstable member. “WWSH” continues the threads that Jason Aaron set up at the very beginning of his run on the title, and those waiting for the explosion will not be disappointed. The newly minted Red Winter Hulk has been unleashed on an unsuspecting world, and Gorilla-Man may be the key? Aaron (along with artist Javier Garron) has done a great job of mixing the household names heroes with the lovable C-Listers like Gorilla Man throughout his entire run, and this issue is no exception.
-Dark Ages #1 (Marvel Comics): Marvel has a whole slew of “event titles” on the horizon this winter, but the first one to kick off is Tom Taylor and Iban Coello’s Dark Ages. While readers may be experiencing “event fatigue” by next February, you do have to give credit to Marvel for being able to keep all the balls in the air while continuing to tell engaging stories and build on 80 years of continuity. This one brings back the ever-popular Watcher and an ancient threat to contend with. Taylor is used to managing large groups of heroes and villians in previous stories for DC such as Injustice and DCeased, so it will be fun to watch what we does with Marvel’s toybox. Coello’s art is also perfect for an event series like this one with his action-oriented style.
-Batman: Fear State Alpha #1 (DC Comics): James Tynion IV is about to wrap up his long stint on Batman with DC’s very own Bat-event, Batman: Fear State. The groundwork for Fear State has been bumbling up from the underworld of Gotham for over a year with the Scarecrow and Peacekeeper-01 at ground zero of the mayhem. The arrival of the mysterious anti-Oracle and the return of Poison Ivy also complicate matters for Batman and friends, and Tynion IV and Riccardo Federici set up the climatic tale in this one-shot.
That’s it for this week, so thanks for looking, and be sure to continue to support your local comic shop in a safe manner.