IT’S NEW COMIC BOOK DAY! #NCBD
The best day of the week just got a lot better with a new round of awesome comics arriving in stores this week. Staff members at Major Spoilers are here to help you with your comic book selection this week, with their roundup of comics they recommend.
AGE OF APOCALYPSE #4
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Iban Coello
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: The philosophy of Apocalypse has always been let the fittest survive,� but by its ultimate extension, that would only leave one person standing! As mutants fall from the shocking release of a devastating plague, who will live and who will die? And if Apocalypse falls, who will rule in his place…?
ROB: Playing with one of the parts of the X-Men lore I started with has made this book one of my favorites from the Secret Wars. And then the story has been good as well. Besides, who doesn’t love the over the top look of the AoA characters?
ALL-NEW HAWKEYE #5
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Ramon K. Perez
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: A boy at odds with his big brother. A hero out of sync with his partner. Team Hawkeye, both past and present, is fractured. Things come to a head as Barney, Clint, and Kate learn what it means to carry the name Hawkeye.
WAYNE: Maybe it’s just me, but I find the story being told by this new creative team more engaging than the previous one, what with the double storyline and all! Highly recommended!
BEAUTY #2
Writers: Jeremy Haun, James A. Hurley
Artist: Jeremy Haun
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.50
SOLICITATION: The Beauty has transformed average people into beautiful people. But is it killing them, too? Detectives Vaughn and Foster are close to learning the truth, and that puts them directly in harm’s way. Sometimes the truth isn’t pretty.
WAYNE: This comic has a really fascinating premise and is a terrific read! What would we all do to be more attractive? It’s worth finding the first issue and reading it before reading this one because you need to know what’s going on! Really!
FADE OUT #9
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Sean Phillips
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $2.99
SOLICITATION: NEW STORY ARC. Act Three begins as the mystery heats up! NOMINATED FOR THE EISNER AWARD FOR BEST NEW SERIES!
STEPHEN: I love this noir murder mystery that plays out against the backdrop of Red Scare era Hollywood. Everything has been building to a head, and everything may just blow up in this issue. Can’t wait to see what Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have in store for us this month!
INVADER ZIM #3
Writer: Eric Trueheart
Artists: Aaron Alexovich, Megan Lawton
Publisher: Oni Press
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: An ancient secret, a four-hoofed legend, and a plot to kick all life off the earth. Now Zim will stop at nothing to summon the awesome, mulish power of… The Star Donkey!
WAYNE: This comic is very true to the original animated series, so it’s great fun and a super read! You don’t need to have the first two issues to enjoy this one, but I’ve found them all wonderfully entertaining, so if you’re a fan of the show like me, I recommend you buy all three!
INVINCIBLE #123
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Ryan Ottley
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $2.99
SOLICITATIONS: Loose ends are tied up, conflicts are brought to a resolution, a door is closed…so that a new one can open.
STEPHEN: See, it is issue 123 1…2…3… so you know it has to be good. Actually, Invincible has, for the most part, been a very solid series, and though Kirkman has changed the tone a few times, this book is still solid.
JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS #7
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Emma Vieceli
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: • VIRAL PART 1! Jerrica and her sisters face their biggest threat yet-success! Meanwhile, the Misfits aren’t taking these upstarts laying down… as they find themselves under new management…
MATTHEW: Read. This. Book. It’s really good, you guys, and that’s not just my nostalgia factor talkin’…
MIXTAPE #1
Writer: Brad Abraham
Artist: Jok, Gervasio
Publisher: Space Goat Productions
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: First issue! Five left-of-the-dial, music-obsessed teens struggle through the rise and fall of Generation X and the Alternative Rock era of the 1990s. They learn that the bonds of friendship they thought were unbreakable have already begun to crack, and the music they thought they’d love forever has already started to fade.
MATTHEW: Sometimes, you have to embrace your Gen-X roots and steer into the skid, and this one sounds interesting…
PREZ #4
Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Dominike “Domo” Stanton
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $2.99
SOLICITATION: The American Sentry program creates a PR nightmare for President Beth Ross, while a hinky experiment in artificial intelligence produces a killer robot with a taste for musicals. Plus, an eccentric trillionaire forces senators to live with the consequences of their own laws.
GEORGE: One of DC’s best entries of late, Prez is wonderfully biting satire coupled with energetic art. I like DC’s willingness to experiment with titles like Prez and hope that the recent rumors of them backing off of such risks remain as rumors.
SECRET IDENTITIES #7
Writer: Brian Joines, Jay Faerber
Artist: Ilias Kyriazis
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: DOUBLE-SIZED SERIES FINALE!
The Front Line’s world is rocked when the truth of Crosswind’s deception comes out. Will any of them survive the intruder’s final victory? It all ends here!
GEORGE: I’m sad to see this one ending, but pleased that at least it is getting a proper ending. Secret Identities is well worth your time, now, or in the trade collection that hopefully follows.
SEX CRIMINALS #12
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Chip Zdarsky
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.50
SOLICITATION: Suzie and Jon continue the worst recruitment plan in the history of entertaining second-act montage sequences. Getting the band together never had so many fluids. By Hollywood jerkhole MATT FRACTION (ODY-C, SATELLITE SAM, Hawkeye) and literally a shed-full of car keys that somehow manages to draw comics.
MATTHEW: This book keeps getting weirder, more personal and more interesting. If you’ve never tried it (and you’re over 18 and not easily offended), you absolute should.
SPIDER-ISLAND #4
Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Paco Diaz Luque
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: • Venom and his band of monstrous allies take the fight straight to the Spider-Queen! • One hero makes the ultimate sacrifice.
ROB: Agent Venom has been great leading his own team of Monster Avengers and this looks to wrap the story up nicely.
SPIDER-VERSE #5
Writer: Mike Costa
Artist: Andre Araujo
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: As Gwen Stacy explores her past, the Spiders square off against their greatest foe!
ROB: Who doesn’t want more versions of Spidey? Hoping this one actually plays into the larger Secret Wars set up a bit more than I am for a number of the other books.
TOKYO GHOST #1
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Sean Murphy
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
SOLICITATION: The Isles of Los Angeles 2089: Humanity is addicted to technology, a population of unemployed leisure seekers blissfully distracted from toxic contamination, who borrow, steal, and kill to buy their next digital fix. Getting a virtual buzz is the only thing left to live for. It’s the biggest industry, the only industry, the drug everyone needs, and gangsters run it all.
And who do these gangsters turn to when they need their rule enforced? Constables Led Dent and Debbie Decay. This duo is about to be given a job that will force them out of the familiar squalor of Los Angeles to take down the last tech-less country on Earth: The Garden Nation of Tokyo.
Bestselling writer RICK REMENDER (BLACK SCIENCE, DEADLY CLASS) and superstar art team SEAN MURPHY (CHRONONAUTS, Punk Rock Jesus) and MATT HOLLINGSWORTH (WYTCHES, Hawkeye) examine our growing addiction to technology while thirsting for a nature we continue to destroy.
GEORGE: Two A-List talents working on a book with very heavy Akira vibes. I’m in. Sean Murphy is always a very talented artist, and the preview art looks like he’s at the top of his game.
