(W) John Lees (A/CA) Sally Cantirino (C) Dearbhla Kelly (L) Lucas Gattoni (CB) Lisa Sterle
Orla Bard is an antique restorer, romance novel enjoyer and keen birder. She also believes in true love, continuing to navigate Seattle’s singles scene despite repeated disappointment. But Orla has a secret. She is afflicted with The Ick, a man-eating monstrous entity dwelling inside her, who violently emerges whenever she gets too angry or afraid. Unable to rid herself of this curse, Orla uses The Ick to save other women by removing the scummiest men from the dating pool…permanently. Hearts (and bodies) will be broken in this offbeat romcom/creature-feature mashup!
(W) Dennis Culver, Jordan Thomas, Dan DiDio, Marc Andreyko, Michael Moreci (A) Joe Mulvey, Stefano Simeone, Igor Mark Lima, Lee Ferguson, Alex Sanchez (C) Fabi Marques, Mark Englert, Adriano Augusto, Dan Brown (L) Buddy Beaudoin, Lucas Gattoni, Taylor Esposito
A collection of multiversal Flash Gordon stories!
Vultan, Prince Barin, and Thunn each share the spotlight in separate full-length one-shot tales that further explore their roles in Mad Cave Studio’s ongoing Flash Gordon series. Additionally, this first collection includes 6 ‘Flash Fiction’ short stories–wholly original takes on classic Flash Gordon characters in new genres and settings. From westerns to horror to crime and more, there’s a Flash for everyone!
Krypto, the last dog of Krypton, has landed on an alien world called Earth after his shuttle test went catastrophically wrong. Krypto wanders into a city, scared and hurt… But this lost dog has found someone to take care of him. A young man: troubled, unkind, but ambitious. Krypto just wants to be loved, but that may not be something this boy is capable of. Krypto may be the first to suffer at the hands…of Lex Luthor!
Story: Ryan North Art: Mike Norton Color: Ian Herring Letterer: Lucas Gattoni
Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site
Jo and Hal hatch a plan to strike back at Abin Sur and free Evergreen. But is their understanding of Abin Sur and his plans for Evergreen correct, or will they just create a bigger disaster in the process?
Story: Al Ewing Art: Jahnoy Lindsay Letterer: Lucas Gattoni
Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site
There will come a day when Krypto stands beside Superman, helping him fight off monsters, aliens, and supervillains–a day when this dog will save his adoptive world thanks to the incredible powers granted him by Earth’s strange yellow sun. But he’s not there yet. Today, Krypto is a normal puppy on Krypton, spending each happy, snoozy, endless day alongside his family: Jor-El, Lara, and baby Kal-El. But when a rocket test goes wrong, Krypto finds himself lost in space–and soon crash-landing, all alone, on a strange and alien world called Earth. Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton #1 puts the star of the upcoming Superman film in the spotlight delivering an origin tale that’ll get you to choke up.
I’ve never been much of an animal person. I had a few pets growing up but no cats or dogs and only one I really got attached to. I hate to see animals suffer or when it’s clear they’re sad, but I’m not what I’d call an “animal lover” (though I did just get a cat who loves to snuggle with me). Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton #1 though, hits me in the heart.
An origin of sorts, Ryan North kicks off the series following Krypto’s journey from Krypton to Earth. How did the dog get here? Well, all of that is answered as we see Kal-El’s parents scrambling as to what to do knowing Krypton is dying and its leaders are doing nothing about it. We see the process they go through which includes building the familiar rocket that eventually sends Kal to Earth but they had to test that right? Well, after some unmanned tests, Krypto is chosen to see what will happen.
North sets up Krypto as that loyal best friend, following commands, curling up with a baby Kal-El, generally being a loyal dog that would be a great addition to any family. It’s an adorable comic that does a great job of connecting the reader to care about Krypto, especially when things go wrong. North nails down his journey and those final moments before he’s swept away really nail down the emotion of it all. But, North also does an excellent job of getting to the point, Krypto getting to Earth. The comic doesn’t linger with a solid pace getting readers to care but also to the main story that’s to come.
Mike Norton‘s art is great making Krypto adorable while also capturing the heartache of the entire situation. While Krypto rockets through space, a few panels just hit the reader hard. It’s such a sad but sweet moment showing such trust between Krypto and his family but also such a betrayal in some ways too. Norton is able to convey so much through the art and it’s key seeing as Krypto has no dialogue to really tell us what he thinks. There is an intriguing thing at the end of the issue as far as the art as the Earth Krypto lands on feels like there’s sort of a mix of styles of time period. So we know where Krypto has landed but the “when” is a bit up in the air based on the art detail.
Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton #1 hits hard in so many ways with a sweet story that shows off why this lovable canine has such a fandom. It’s a great debut that gives a great origin story that is sci-fi adventure mixed with an emotional center.
Story: Ryan North Art: Mike Norton Color: Ian Herring Letterer: Lucas Gattoni Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy
DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Hal Jordan has been overcome by his curse and has turned his sights on Jo! Can the new Lantern figure out how to hold her ground, or will her light be extinguished for good?
Story: Al Ewing Art: Jahnoy Lindsay Letterer: Lucas Gattoni
Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site
DC Pride 2025 #1 is a little different from the previous installments of DC Pride in that it’s not a collection of short stories featuring LGBTQ+ DC Comics characters, but is a single narrative centered around a gay bar that Alan Scott frequented in the 1930s and told predominantly from the POV of a new character named Ethan, who is a trans military veteran that ends up caught up a kind of multiversal/elemental saga. I applaud the scope of this comic book, which has big jam session energy as different characters end up in different pocket realities based on wishes they made at the gay bar or graffiti they scrawled. We get Apollo and Midnighter living in 1950s domestic bliss courtesy of Sam Maggs and Derek Charm, a single, psychiatric girl boss Harley Quinn from Maya Houston, Max Sarin, and Marissa Louise ; and a gorgeous sapphic romance between Jo Mullein and Nubia from Houston, Vita Ayala, and Vincent Cecil to name a few. The reading effect is like jumping from comic to comic and look at paths not trodden with some iconic queer characters and a few new or not so iconic ones.
As Tim Sheridan, Giulio Macaione, and Emilio Pilliu Alan Scott-centric frame story shows, fighting supervillains and having superpowers is a metaphor for being queer in DC Pride 2025. It might be tempting to give up and lie low, especially with the United States’ hard turn to fascism, and homophobia and transphobia promoted by folks in power, but Alan Scott, Ethan, and their companions’ actions in the comic act as a clarion call to resistance. The stuff with the Crimson Flame and Scott having his own Red Lantern is a little Geoff Johnsian for my taste, but it’s so cool to watch Alan Scott have a Sailor Moon type transformation sequence and return into action to help save the next generation of queer heroes symbolized by Ethan. I love Macaione’s use of greens to show a possible, idyllic future for Scott and a non-Red Lantern/Russian spy Johnny Ladd, but it’s a happiness based on a lie like the other possible futures in the book.
However, DC Pride 2025 isn’t all serious action and has a lot of humor and playfulness. Jude Ellison S. Doyle and Alex Moore recontextualize Golden Age Z-list Wonder Woman villain Blue Snowman coming to terms with their gender fluidity alongside nonbinary superhero Envoy in one vignette. I love how they poke fun at the restrictions of the gender binary using the classic tropes of a superhero brawl, and how even well meaning cisgender people can be just plain annoying at times. It’s so cool seeing this kind of story and voice in a mainstream, corporate comic showing that nonbinary characters don’t just have to be righteous heroes, but can be kind of messy too. DC Pride 2025 really hits the spectrum of queer identities, including asexuality with Connor Hawke getting a short story where he resists his father’s reputation as a womanizer and just wants to live his own life. I have to give a special shout out to Philip Sevy’s art in this short sequence, which seems like it’s right out of the late 1990s period where he was member of the JLA. Both the visual and character variety of DC Pride 2025 makes it an engaging read, and the book is a testament to the active work that DC Comics has done to cultivate LGBTQ+ characters in the past decade or so. (I need a monthly Midnighter and/or Apollo book though.)
After a wild and wacky cosmic adventure set in the DC Multiverse, DC Pride 2025 wraps up with a beautiful nonfiction storyfrom Jenny Blake and Sara Soler about Blake coming out as a transgender woman earlier this year. It has gorgeous soft lines and a refreshing color palette to go with Jenny Blake’s honest and humorous script about how old comics about Clark Kent switching genders had an influence on her own gender identity journey. I love how Soler inserts different DC characters into the panel to blur the line between fantasy and non-fiction with Blake’s most famous co-creation Black Lightning making an appearance as well as transgender superheroine Dreamer, who shares coffee with Blake. The story shows that you’re never too old to be your authentic self and hints at a longer graphic memoir, which I hope Jenny Blake gets to realize at DC or elsewhere.
DC Pride 2025 is an ambitious comic with summer crossover energy that tells an epic story with DC’s LGBTQ+ characters while still taking time to dig into their individual hopes, fears, and dreams. It’s a showcase of queer representation on the page and on the issue’s creative teams, and Blake and Sara Soler’s memoir is a beautiful coda and rallying cry to continue to be queer and fearless in an increasingly dark and hateful world.
Story: Vita Ayala, Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Maya Houston Story: Sam Maggs, Tim Sheridan, Josh Trujillo, Jenny Blake Art: Don Aguillo, Vincent Cecil, Derek Charm, A.L. Kaplan, Giulio Macaione Art: Emilio Pilliu, Max Sarin, Philip Sevy, Sara Soler, Alex Moore, Skyler Patridge Colors: Eren Angiolini, Jordie Bellaire, Triona Farrell, Marissa Louise Letters: Aditya Bidikar, Frank Cvetkovic, Lucas Gattoni, Ariana Maher, Morgan Martinez, Jodie Troutman Story: 8.9 Art: 9.3 Overall: 9.1 Recommendation: Buy
DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Brilliant young inventor Michael Holt’s life was destined for greatness…yet everything screeched to a halt when his wife Paula and unborn son were killed in a car accident. The Holts once shared ambitious dreams of using their technology to help others, but after the tragedy, Michael retreats from society and sells Holt Industries to mysterious and craven tech billionaire Athena Prescott. The domino effect of Michael’s actions set off an explosive chain of events that take a not-so-ordinary man from the depths of despair to the heights of heroism! Meanwhile, in the present day, Mr. Terrific continues his research into what became of Darkseid after the events of the DC All-In Special…and comes to realize that his past and the present might be inextricably linked… Mr. Terrific: Year One #1 is a retelling of the character’s past, expanding his origin and focused on the future.
I honestly don’t know much about Mr. Terrific. He has always been a character that’s been in the background of the comics I’ve read and even when he was more of the title character, it felt like it was more in a team sort of way. So, Holt’s history is rather vague for me and going into Mr. Terrific: Year One #1, I wanted to get a better sense of the character and motivations. I know of the tragedy, at least small details of it, but beyond that very little of the character.
Written by Al Letson, the debut issue answers a lot of questions and lets readers know what type of character Holt is. In the present, he’s attempting to figure out more about Darkseid’s attack on the Justice League Watchtower, a plot point that hasn’t really been dealt with a lot since. It’s the past where things get interesting.
Letson introduces a Michael Holt that’s a shut in. Brilliant, he’s still dealing with the tragedy of the loss of his loved ones, rarely going outside and instead locking himself up indoors. He’s sold his company going with the easy sale instead of the “right” sale. Now, he’s working on a new project, which seems like a fancy fitness/motivational app. There’s something kind of amazing and a hell of a statement being made in the comic taking the brilliance of Michael Holt and focusing it in on such a trivial thing. But that’s sort of the point of the debut issue.
Letson has a big point being made in the first issue. Holt is at the point in his life where his brilliance is being wasted. Instead of big picture problems, he’s making a fancy Peloton. He’s not a hero yet, he’s a tech bro that is focused on mundane small picture commercialism when they can be tackling major problems impacting the world. There’s a lot of growth from that we will hopefully see. Letson starts the comic with what Michael Holt becomes and takes us back to where he started.
The art by Valentine De Landro and Edwin Galmon is solid. Galmon handles the opening present sequence while De Landro’s art takes us to the past. Marissa Louise joins De Landro on color by Lucas Gattoni handles the lettering. Everything looks solid with an interesting style difference between the two time periods. Compared to the present’s style, the past feels like a gritty 70s movie in some ways, almost like we’re watching an old movie on VHS tape compared to the modern times’ 4K high def experience. It’s kind of cool like that really giving the two stories a distinctive feel. The modern times is a typical superhero experience while the past is more heist/crime.
Mr. Terrific: Year One #1 is a solid start to the series. For those that are fans of Mr. Terrific, it expands on his origin and for those that are new, it’s easy to dive in. The team has delivered some depth to the character with a good focus on Holt’s emotional state and where he’s at in his life. This isn’t the story of a hero learning the ropes, this is a broken man learning to climb out of depression and becoming a hero.
Story: Al Letson Art: Valentine De Landro, Edwin Galmon Color: Marissa Louise, Edwin Galmon Letterer: Lucas Gattoni Purchase: 8.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.5 Recommendation: Buy
DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
(W) Bradley Clayton, David Hazan, David M. Booher, Anthony Oliveira, Al Ewing, Jarrett Melendez, Joe Glass, Hamish Steele, Josh Cornillon, Joe Corallo, Matt Miner, Konner Knudsen, Greg Anderson Elysee, Josh Trujillo (A) Noah Dao, Jacoby Salcedo, Luciano Vecchio, Bradley Clayton, Gavin Mitchell, Giopota, Josh Cornillo, Chase Bluestone, Daryl Toh, Xavier Lavagnino, David Brame, DJ Kirkland, Auguste Kanakis, Ilias Kyriazis (C) Patricio Oliver, Vincent Batignole (L) Lucas Gattoni (CA) Ricardo Bessa In Shops: May 21, 2025 SRP: $19.99
A brand-new collection of queer romance stories from the GLAAD Media and Ringo Award winning anthology series, Young Men in Love. This modern take on classic romance comics celebrates love between men while stretching across several genres including fantasy, sci-fi, superhero, horror & historical fiction!
Abin Sur has arrived, and he is here to judge all of the people of Evergreen, including Jo Mullein and Hal Jordan. But is this alien being friend or foe, and just what will his judgement bring?
Story: Al Ewing Art: Jahnoy Lindsay Letterer: Lucas Gattoni
Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site
