Beyond the Breach brings two worlds together with a bang. It’s an entertaining tease of what happened that leaves us wanting to find out more about this new world.
Get your copy in comic shops! 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.
AfterShock Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review 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
Smahtguy takes us through the life of former Congressman Barney Frank from his humble beginnings to his eventual retirement from Congress. It’s full of ups and downs, warts and all, and a fascinating look at such an influential politician.
Story: Eric Orner Art: Eric Orner
Get your copy in comic shops! 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.
Metropolitan Books provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review 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
Dogs of London #1 kicks off a solid mob story that is a fantastic setup for what’s to come. While the plot is out there in the teaser pitching the series, it delivers a twist that’s intriguing and has us wanting to find out more!
Story: Peter Milligan Art: Artecida Color: Valentina Bianconi Letterer: Rob Steen
Get your copy in comic shops! 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.
AfterShock Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review 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
In the future humanity has been wiped out. Their excess and lack of caring for the planet has destroyed them. Robots have risen in their place to rule and care for the planet. But, even robots have work they don’t want to do. So, humans have been grown to perform the labor the robots no longer feel like doing. But, enslaved individuals strive for freedom. Metal Society #1 pits two warriors, a human and a robot, in an MMA-style battle to prove… something. That part’s not totally clear but the comic’s overall themes and focus is.
Zack Kaplan takes us into another sci-fi world using its setting to explore our own society. Fear of replacement by tools, yearning for freedom, choice, it’s all here in a first issue that’s packed with a lot to chew on and debate about. The comic is both breezy entertainment and dense debate at the same time. It’s rather impressive in that way.
As a fan of MMA, I’m super excited to see the actual fight to come but the first issue is a lot of setup introducing us to the world, the conflict, and the combatants. It does a solid job of building it all up delivering an easy to understand cause and a simple and different outlet to see that play out in. I finished the issue and immediately wanted to read more.
The art by Guilherme Balbi with color by Marco Lesko and lettering by Troy Peteri is fantastic. There’s a futuristic dystopian aspect about it that doesn’t feel depressing. The comic is definitely the future but it doesn’t deliver a neon skyline like so many. Instead, it’s foreign and familiar at the same time. And that futurescape is mixed with the grounded reality of the humans which reminded me a lot of the shanty town in John Carpenter’s They Live. The clash between worlds is clear and interesting and it too adds some depth to the debate and challenges the reader to reflect on our own world and reality.
Metal Society #1 is a hell of a start. It does what good sci-fi does, entertain and also explore our own world. But that exploration is even more interesting in that it takes on so much to reflect upon and forcing the reader to think and chew on their own. Wear a mouth guard, this looks like it’s going to be one hell of a read and fight to come.
Social isolation stories are a dime a dozen in film, especially those coupled with ‘coming of age’ themes set within broken family scenarios. We’re All Going to The World’s Fair certainly taps into all of this, but it does so in a uniquely disquieting way that disturbs just as much as it breaks your heart. That it achieves this using the language of horror, in subtle ways, makes it all the more outstanding.
Written, edited, and directed by Jane Schoenbrun, We’re All Going to The World’s Fair follows a girl called Casey as she takes on a social media challenge called “the World’s Fair.” It’s a combination of Creepypasta urban legend stuff with TikTok-like content creation sensibilities. The challenge is supposed to cause bizarre bodily changes (as if it were more of a gradual takeover of the body) while also warping the subject’s own sense of reality.
Casey (played by Anna Cobb) starts experiencing the challenge’s symptoms, but whether this is all imagined or not depends on how credible a shared online horror experience can be. This is made more complicated by Casey’s home situation, which the audience only gets flashes of. It’s up to them to piece it together, but it’s clear things don’t bode well in her house.
Going to The World’s Fair is a difficult movie to classify. The viral challenge aspect carries a mystery that gives just enough to put the story in horror territory, but it’s not the driving force behind it. It’s a vehicle for the movie’s intimate portrayal of Casey’s psyche. Her isolation from any meaningful human interaction that’s not filtered through a computer is where the movie truly finds ways to unsettle. Some might be tempted to call it a ‘coming of age’ yarn with light horror elements, but this also doesn’t do it justice. I settled on isolation horror, a kind of genre expression that looks at an individual psyche to explore the things that scare us when we’re left almost completely alone.
Anna Cobb’s performance is the reason why this works so well. Cobb makes Casey’s mental anguish and frustrations constantly bleed through her body language. She looks haunted in very single frame she’s in. The social media element accentuates this thanks to Schoenbrun’s decision to establish a kind of distance between Casey and the videos she sees on her computer. She’s never just hunched over a computer screen. She’s usually lying in bed, watching videos from a short distance. It creates the sensation she’s peering into someone else’s life rather than actively engaging with them online.
There’s an interesting wrinkle added to this in the form of a character called “JLB” (played by Michael J. Rogers) that pushes Casey further down the digital rabbit hole. His interactions with her are also weird, fractured even, and do a lot to further establish Casey’s isolation. His unstable presence, along with the viral challenge’s influence, managed to keep me on the lookout for something terrible or somewhat supernatural lurking in the background. I never found anything of the sort, but that was because all I needed was to stay in the situation with Casey, to embrace the painful proximity we have with her based on how close she can be to the camera.
In a sense, the horror on display here is of the same type more indie/arthouse productions go for, meaning there’s nothing outright revealed as supernatural. The door is always open to interpretation, to varying degrees depending on the story. Fans of movies like Toad Road (2012) will find a lot to love here. In that movie, a group of relatively young characters embroiled in the excesses of drugs are paired with a dark urban legend that flirts with the idea that Hell or a hidden realm filled with terrible sights can be reached by walking a particular path deep in the woods.
While this movie does commit more to the supernatural than Going to The World’s Fair, there’s a similar sensation regarding the horrors of reality versus the horrors of myths that turn out to be true. Those looking for more of this type of horror should go watch Toad Road. When things descend into outright terror, it gets really dark. It shares that haunting quality that permeates throughout World’s Fair.
Going to The World’s Fair also boasts a remarkable soundtrack, created by Alex G, that plays with synth and retro sounds to best capture the digital horror world Casey traverses. There’s purpose behind each piece and they color certain sequences in ways that make them stand out individually. It’s as if Alex G gave every phase of the challenge a different theme that identifies or signals some change in it. It’s hard to think about the movie without thinking about the music that weaves itself through it.
Jane Schoenbrun crafts a sad tale of a girl struggling with loneliness in a world where social media doesn’t just isolate people but also puts them on a path that might or might not trap you inside another state of consciousness dictated by horror. It impresses in its subtlety, in its ability to foster the strange without losing sight of character. We’re All Going to The World’s Fair is haunting. I would even argue it’s intentions is to actually haunt viewers. It achieved that with me, and I won’t soon be forgetting it.
It’s been close to 30 years since we traveled to the year 2099 in the Marvel Universe and were introduced to familiar characters with a whole new spin. At the center of it all was Miguel O’Hara, Spider-Man 2099! The character has returned to the spotlight in recent years and after having some time travel adventures, he’s back in his own time dealing with some major shakeups. Spider-Man 2099: Exodus Alpha #1 kicks off a mini-event that spins us through the world of 2099 reintroducing characters and introducing brand new ones as well.
Written by Steve Orlando, Spider-Man 2099: Exodus Alpha #1 takes us back to Nueva York as The Cabal terrorizes the people and Spider-Man 2099 stands in the way. From there we get a conspiracy about a “rock” being dropped in the Wastelands resulting in materials that the Cabal wants and everyone wants to get for them. It’s a race to stop the bad guys getting things they can use for evil!
Spider-Man 2099: Exodus Alpha #1 is a fun return to the world of 2099 after some side quests for Miguel that didn’t quite fit the character. Protecting a neon-infused city against evil corporations and cabals is more his speed and the comic in some ways feels back to basics. There’s a bit that’s left out there for longtime fans that new readers might not get but overall, the comic is pretty friendly to those diving in. It’s Spider-Man in a futuristic city, exactly like it should be. The comic is a lot of what I remember after 30 years and exactly what I expected and hoped for. There’s the solid shocking language and slightly edgier Spider-Man but it’s mixed with some humor, heart, and solid action.
Paul Fry handles the art with Neeraj Menon‘s colors popping and Joe Caramagna‘s lettering adding so much personality. The comic looks amazing at times with vivid colors and solid action and angles. There’s some panels where what’s going on feels a little muddled and doesn’t quite convey clearly the details. But, this is a futuristic world that feels familiar and foreign at the same time. Like the story itself, it’s what I remember and expect. What’s great about the art is it lets Spider-Man 2099 be a look and visual language to himself. This isn’t putting the futuristic Spider-Man in familiar poses the original strikes. The visuals take a queue from that but doesn’t try to repeat it with neon.
Spider-Man 2099: Exodus Alpha #1 is a fun read that kicks off a nice way to celebrate 30 years. The comic feels like returning to old friends and hopefully the event itself is more of the same. It’s not groundbreaking but it is a lot of pop entertainment.
Story: Steve Orlando Art: Paul Fry Color: Neeraj Menon Letterer: Joe Caramagna Story: 7.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.5 Recommendation: Read
Marvel provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
The triumphant return of Valiant’s best besties with Archer & Armstrong Forever #1!
When Armstrong seemingly loses his immortality, Archer refuses to let his best buddy go gentle into that good night. But when you live for millennia, you rack up plenty of enemies who’ll be thrilled to find out you’re no longer indestructible. Archer & Armstrong’s globetrotting quest for (more) immortality begins here!
I have a lot of feelings about Archer and Armstrong in general as characters, and they’re all warm and fuzzy. These books have never not been fun, and while some will lean more into the comedic element than others, you can be sure that with an Archer and Armstrong comic, you’re going to have a good time. And so it was, with this expectation of a fun book, that I first read Archer & Armstrong Forever. The comic – written by Steve Foxe, with art by Marcio Fiorito, colours by Alex Guimaraes and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou – did not disappoint.
Archer & Armstrong Forever has one of the more unique promotional items attached to it in the form of a severed ear that doubles as a stress ball. It’s both hilarious and oddly disturbing. I love it.
The comic starts out with a fantastic chase sequence showcasing the differences between our two leads, and brings back one of my favourite parts in any Archer and Armstrong story; the little blurbs explaining what Archer is doing, because some of those explanations will elicit a little more than a stifled chortle and a head shake. Fiorito’s panel layouts and choreography is so perfectly fitting what the characters are capable of; I’m hesitant to go to far into hyperbolic territory, but this book is freaking amazing to look at. There’s so many things on the page that will catch your eye, and yet you’re never losing site of the story itself.
Whether that’s because of how Otsmane-Elhaou has laid out the letters to keep you on track, or how Guimaraes’ colours blend perfectly with Fiorito’s artwork…. man this book is just pretty to look at. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s exactly the kind of book I love to read. There’s an emotionality to the pages that hides behind the bombastic artwork, but once you notice it, the book just sings.
It’s spectacular.
One of the more interesting things to me about Armstrong was that due to the nature of how he became immortal, he always knew it would end at some time, and so it’s brilliant seeing his casual nonchalance about the potential imminent end he’s facing whereas Archer is less than thrilled. Given that a lot of the stories around the pair tend to have Armstrong acting as a damage sponge in darkly humorous ways, I’m looking forward to following the series to the conclusion of the arc.
Story: Steve Foxe Artist: Marcio Fiorito Colourist Alex Guimaraes Letters Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou Story: 8.8 Art: 8.9 Overall: 8.8 Recommendation: Buy
Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
I’ll admit that I was a fan of the original Flashpoint even oh so many years ago. Yes, it was grim and gritty, but the alternate world was interesting and shook up DC’s classic characters. It opened up a world of possibilities, not just in the story itself but what came after. Flashpoint Beyond #1 takes us back to the world but one slightly different.
Focusing on Thomas Wayne, he knows this isn’t quite the world he lived in. There’s subtle differences and there’s others that know this as well. With a mystery of who’s trying to stop Thomas from correcting things as well as something going on in the main DC universe, Flashpoint Beyond #1 mainly focuses on Thomas’ story.
Written by Geoff Johns, Jeremy Adams, and Tim Sheridan the comic is an interesting one. There’s some aspects that are really great and then others that fall really flat.
What works well is Thomas’ story as a whole. He knows something is wrong and must deal with a world gone mad to try to solve the mystery. His “Alfred” is Oswald Cobblepot and his “Robin” is the son of Harvey Dent. The interactions with Oswald are fantastic and what’s done while Thomas is away is beyond entertaining and almost worth the read.
Where the comic falls flat is everything else. The threat of a world war feels like it’s taken out of Watchmen. It’s missing the countdown clock and nine panel pages. Then there’s what’s going on with Bruce and something with DC’s Timemasters. It doesn’t get much time and unless you know the character he’s dealing with, it has little to no impact.
The comic overall feels like it’s using concepts and plotlines that were meant for something else. With mentions of “The Button” which goes back to DC’s Rebirth, the comic comes off as the next step for “The Button”, then “Doomsday Clock”, but each is a choppy continuation of the other. With so many rumored changes of DC’s directions, it overall comes off as a comic that’s out years after it was meant to be.
The art is the highlight of the comic. Xermánico and Mikel Jani split the duties and while the styles differ, the overall visuals are solid. With Romulo Fajardo, Jr. and Jordie Bellaire on color and Rob Leigh handling lettering, there’s a nice shift in styles depending on the world. Thomas Wayne’s world is dark with a gritty dirtiness about it. Bruce’s is a bit brighter and has a more traditional look about it. The style works for the comic quite well as it makes Oswald’s moments far funnier than they should be. There’s a dark humor about it all and a lot of that is driven by the visuals.
Flashpoint Beyond #1 has a lot going for it and maybe as it goes along things come together. But, as is, the comic feels like concepts from something else reworked multiple times into this. It throws out a bit too much and it’s interesting aspects at times feel like bad background scenery. The comic feels like it’s just slightly off, which may be rather appropriate since that’s what Thomas Wayne is experiencing and attempting to investigate himself.
Story: Geoff Johns, Jeremy Adams, Tim Sheridan Art: Xermánico, Mikel Janin Color: Romulo Fajardo, Jr., Jordie Bellaire Letter: Rob Leigh Story: 7.0 Art: 8.0 Overall: 7.0 Recommendation: Read
DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
I’m always interested in seeing how a new spin is put on a story we’ve seen many times before. In this case, an attempt to fix the ozone layer instead dooms the planet by enhancing sunlight so that it begins to torch anything it touches. In a move, nuclear weapons are set off which also slows the rotation of the Earth so that people can drive ahead of the sun and survive. The human population is now forever on the move attempting to escape a fate of fire in 78 MPH #1.
Written by Mauro Mantella, 78 MPH #1 is definitely entertaining in its turn your brain off and try not to think sort of way. It’s a B-movie concept, if that, ad that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There’s a goofiness about it all where it explains just enough about how the world has changed for readers to accept it and not really begin to think too much. It’s kind of brilliant in a way.
The debut issue is mostly written as a journal walking us through the world as it stands now. We get the situation, how everyone survives, and a sense of the obstacles in the way. Literally, the every moving city of cars is held up by rocks. Yes, that’s how simple the threat is. And when we get there, Mantella deftly builds up the tension leaving the reader to ponder where it’s all going to go with each panel.
The art by Tomás Aira is good. Aira is joined by Germán Nobile on color and together the style has dirty grimy aspect about it all. Like the concept itself, enough is teased to get you to accept this world. It’s a big moving group of cars but not much else is explained in how it all works. It just kind of is. There’s some very cool moments as the world burns but overall, it’s a style that’s not necessarily to my taste.
78 MPH #1 is a comic that almost dares you to not think too much about the details. It feels like a film pitched to Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich and even they said the concept was too far out there. I’m intrigued to see where it goes in further issues but right now it feels like a horror film where the sun is the stalker and those living are trying not to be hacked up. I want a bit more than that and here’s hoping the comic can deliver.
When I first discovered Skottie Young, it was due to his cute takes on superheroes. From there, that “cute take” turned into twisted takes on cuteness. The same “awe” style but with a humor about it all that betrayed the innocent look. Which is why I was so very intrigued by Twig #1. The comic’s description describes it as a “Bone-esque” adventure. So, going in, I wondered if this was really a comic geared towards kids or if there would be some subversive aspect to its kid-friendly look?
Written by Young, Twig #1 introduces us to an intriguing world that has a Jim Henson quality about it. Twig and Splat are friends and Twig is starting a new job. It has something to do with a quest and a jewel but all of that is kind of muddled as we’re thrown into a cute and awe-shucks world. Everyone seems rather nice with animals, plants, and even mountains given life and personalities that make it all very magical.
Twig’s mission is to take a red jewel/egg thing to The Pathsayer to find out what it is and then be sent on a further adventures. Of course things don’t go as planned setting up something grander. Where is it all going? I’m not quite sure but the setup so far feels like something young readers into fantasy would enjoy. The issue is, it’s a monthly comic and by the end, you immediately want to read more. In a reality where a lot of stories like this are released as graphic novel volumes, the monthly floppy release of Twig #1 works against it a bit.
The art is provided by Kyle Strahm and it’s fantastic. With color by Jean-Francois Beaulieu and lettering by Nate Piekos, the comic pops in vibrant colors and creatures and characters you want to squeeze and hug. It’s very Jim Henson in the design and look and that’s absolutely meant as a compliment. If someone told me they were behind all of the designs, I wouldn’t be surprised. The characters and look very much hit the nostalgia button and create a sense of wonder as we get to see more and more of the world. The art does a fantastic job of balancing grand scenes with more intimate interactions.
Twig #1 is a cute and fun start to the series. The designs are fantastic and while opening feels a bit short, it’s definitely enough to get readers to want to come back. Again, my issue is that it’s a monthly release. The opening hints to me this might have been a stronger read as either a graphic novel or extended/oversized issues. We’ll see if that plays out but it’s a world I want to explore more of with creatures I want to hug and hang out with.
