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The Ministry of Compliance #1 is a hell of a start to an interesting world

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Thirty-seven years ago, Earth was secretly invaded by an alien force known as the Devolution, and they have been shaping the direction humanity has been going in ever since to prepare us to be assimilated into their empire. The Ministry Of Compliance #1 introduces a world behind the curtain, a subtle sci-fi epic full of political intrigue.

Story: John Ridley
Art: Stefano Raffaele
Color: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Ariana Maher

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.

TFAW
Zeus Comics
Kindle

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

The Ministry Of Compliance #1 feels like the start of a grand story

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The Ministry of Compliance #1

 Thirty-seven years ago, Earth was secretly invaded by an alien force known as the Devolution, and they have been shaping the direction humanity has been going in ever since to prepare us to be assimilated into their empire. The Ministry Of Compliance #1 introduces a world behind the curtain, a subtle sci-fi epic full of political intrigue.

Writer John Ridley has a hell of a career dominating film, television, and comics. He’s a master storyteller that crafts tales that will often make you think and rarely delivers things in black and white. There’s a lot of grey when it comes to Ridley’s stories and they can challenge your perception and thoughts on particular topics. He’s able to craft a story where even the worst of the characters have something about them you can sympathize with.

The Ministry Of Compliance #1 kicks off a story of administration, bureaucracy, and corruption. Ridley, through some interesting storytelling, lays out the world and how everything works. The Devolution has thirteen ministries, each responsible for manipulating a different aspect of human life. The Ministry of Compliance, the most feared of all the ministries, led by the fierce Avigail Senna, makes sure all the ministries stay in line and remain focused on the Devolution’s mission. Unfortunately, some Ministries have become corrupted, taking on the less admirable qualities of the people on Earth. This forces Avigail to act, relieving some of their duties just as the assimilation of Earth is to begin. But, something goes wrong before that can happen, leaving Avigail and the dysfunctional Ministries to deal with things on their own.

At its surface, Ridley delivers a story of corporate bureaucracy and unflinching loyalty. There’s something here to chew on as far as assimilating the masses and accepting whatever you’re told to do by the higher ups. There’s also a lot about not doing one’s job and becoming content, bloated, and corrupted by one’s role and power one has gained from that. Whether Ridley is talking about corporations, the political/non-profit space, both, or more, remains to be seen, but it’s more than enough to chew on in just this one issue.

The art by Stefano Raffaele is intriguing. With color by Brad Anderson and lettering by Ariana Maher, the visuals are both cold and corporate but also an action style that’s a dance to watch and a body count and blood splatter that’d make Tarantino proud. It’s a comic whose visuals deliver a weird balance of well tailored suits and rather icy and lifeless buildings mixed with blood flowing all over. It’s interesting to look at and plays off of some of the themes and concepts that percolate underneath.

The Ministry of Compliance #1 is another intriguing series from Ridley. There’s potential here for a hell of an epic and one that’ll be packed with details and worldbuilding. As a start, it should suck in those that enjoy sci-fi that’ll make you think mixed with a little John Wick action. It’s another excellent release that shows off Ridley’s talents that we need more of in comics.

Story: John Ridley Art: Stefano Raffaele
Color: Brad Anderson Letterer: Ariana Maher
Story: 8.5 Art: 8.25 Overall: 8.5 Recommendation: Buy

IDW Publishing provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: TFAW – Zeus Comics – Kindle

Exclusive Preview: Brooms, a queer, witchy adventure that shines light on history not often told

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It’s 1930s Mississippi. Magic is permitted only in certain circumstances, and by certain people. Unsanctioned broom racing is banned. But for those who need the money, or the thrills…it’s there to be found.

Meet Billie Mae, captain of the Night Storms racing team, and Loretta, her best friend and second-in-command. They’re determined to make enough money to move out west to a state that allows Black folks to legally use magic and take part in national races.

Cheng-Kwan – doing her best to handle the delicate and dangerous double act of being the perfect “son” to her parents, and being true to herself while racing.

Mattie and Emma – Choctaw and Black – the youngest of the group and trying to dodge government officials who want to send them and their newly-surfaced powers away to boarding school.

And Luella, in love with Billie Mae. Her powers were sealed away years ago after she fought back against the government. She’ll do anything to prevent the same fate for her cousins.

Brooms is a queer, witchy adventure that shines light on history not often told – it’s everything you’d ever want to read in a graphic novel.

Brooms

Jasmine Walls is a writer, artist, and editor with former lives in professional baking and teaching martial arts. She still bakes (though she’s pretty rusty at martial arts) and has a deep love for storytelling, creating worlds, and building tales about the characters who inhabit them. Along with Levine Querido, she has works published with Boom! Studios, Capstone, Oni Press, The Atlantic, and The Nib. She lives in California with two dogs and a large stash of quality hot chocolate.

Teo DuVall is a queer Chicanx comic artist and illustrator based in Seattle, WA. They graduated in 2015 with a BFA in Cartooning from the School of Visual Arts and have had the immense pleasure of working with Levine Querido, HarperCollins, Dark Horse, Chronicle Books, Scholastic and more. He has a passion for fantasy, aesthetic ghost stories, and witches of color, and loves being able to create stories for a living. Teo lives with his partner, their two pets – a giant, cuddly pit-bull, and a tiny, ferocious cat – and a small horde of houseplants.

What If? Dark: Spider-Gwen #1 is a comic legend revisiting a classic storyline

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What If? Dark: Spider-Gwen #1

I might get hate letters from the over-sixty crowd for saying this, but 50 years after he killed off Gwen Stacy in the legendary Amazing Spider-Man #121, plotter Gerry Conway does an incredible job course correcting it in What If…? Dark: Spider-Gwen #1, which is co-plotted and scripted by Jody Houser with art and colors from Ramon F. Bachs and Dee Cunniffe. Of course, this comic won’t have the historical value of “The Night Gwen Stacy Died”, which made superhero comics grow up for better or worse with the death of a key Amazing Spider-Man supporting character and also set a precedent for the “women in refrigerators” trope. But it’s a heartstrings-tearing look at loss and revenge through the characters of Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn that definitely lives up to that “Dark” subtitle while offering a sliver of hope and heroism in the end. In many ways, it ends up being a classic Spider-Man comic, but with Gwen Stacy instead of Peter Parker picking up the mantle as she takes responsibility for a big mistake she made and defending New York as a masked hero.

A recurring theme throughout What If Dark: Spider-Gwen is the toll that secret identities take on interpersonal relationships beginning with Gwen realizing that she never really knew Peter Parker, and that Harry Osborn never knew him either as well as his father Norman Osborn. Conway, Houser, and Bachs channel pain and loss throughout this one-shot, and most panels of Gwen are her alone channeling her grief over Peter’s loss into revenge. Even though Mary Jane offers her comfort and companionship, Gwen doesn’t bond with her until the very end of the comic after her life has plunged even deeper into darkness. What If Dark: Spider-Gwen is an elegy to the isolated, lonely superhero constrained by turn of the century genre conventions and lacking the vibrant community around contemporary heroes like Miles Morales, Jaime Reyes, Kamala Khan, and even Superman when Brian Michael Bendis wrote him.

While Conway and Houser’s writing adds new psychological depth to the character of Gwen Stacy that wasn’t present in her original stories, Ramon F. Bachs and Cunniffe’s art capture the look and the feel of that transitional period between the Silver Age and Bronze Age of superhero comics. The original Green Goblin suit and the Osborns’ tire tread haircuts are intact, but there are plenty of shadows, dark warehouses, and guns. The heroes might still be wearing primary colors, but Dirty Harry and Death Wish were showing in the cinema so putting on a trench coat and extralegally shooting a criminal wasn’t out of the question although Gwen justifies her pointing her father’s service piece at the Green Goblin to be justice because it belonged to a former police officer. The confrontation between Gwen, Harry, and the Green Goblin has masks and costumes, but lacks the wordiness and pro-wrestling-style fight choreography of the excerpt from Amazing Spider-Man #121 that opens the book.

Bachs’ art does the heavy lifting in the big emotional climax with some gorgeous, nostalgia-tinged work from him and Dee Cunniffe demonstrating how much Gwen loved Peter and also acts as a nice homage to Jeph Loeb and the late Tim Sale’s lovely Spider-Man: Blue comic. It’s a gorgeous page with sparse narration from Houser that is immediately undercut by the barrel gun and a reminder of the Dark in What If? Dark. This page and the whole last act of the comic are a reminder that all wearers of the Spider-Man mantle come from tragedy and an inability to stop bad things from happening like Harry Osborn becoming the “New Goblin”, or the death of their friends, families, and lovers.

Despite the title, What If? Dark Spider-Gwen isn’t a piece of edgelord superheroics. It’s actually a comics legend getting to revisit one of his classic storylines and with the help of co-writer Houser and artists Bachs and Cunniffe, Gerry Conway gets to give Gwen Stacy agency and a robust character arc even if the inciting incident of the story (Spider-Man drowning) is a little flimsy.

Plot: Gerry Conway, Jody Houser Script: Jody Houser Art: Ramon F. Bachs 
Colors: Dee Cunniffe Letters: Ariana Maher
Story: 7.9 Art: 8.3 Overall: 8.1 Recommendation: Buy

Marvel Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle

IDW reveals John Ridley and Stefano Raffaele’s The Ministry of Compliance

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For 37 years, humanity has been manipulated by an extraterrestrial organization called the Devolution. Utilizing 13 ministries, these cunning alien agents have infiltrated every aspect of humanity’s culture, weakening civilization by strategically destabilizing it and flooding the planet with misinformation to accelerate chaos and division among mankind. This has all been in an effort to take over and reshape the planet, and these secretive saboteurs truly believe they are helping humanity in the long run. But what happens when the interstellar operatives begin to turn on each other, and humanity is caught in the middle of the cosmic conflict?

Eisner-nominated storyteller John Ridley reunites with GCPD: The Blue Wall collaborator Stefano Raffaele to present The Ministry of Compliance, a sociopolitical sci-fi thriller that is full of extraterrestrial espionage and excitement as the creatives take a look at the world we live in today through the lens of an inconspicuous alien invasion.

The Ministry of Compliance #1 goes on sale November 15, 2023, featuring primary covers by Raffaele and colorist Brad Anderson, letters by Ariana Maher, and variants by Ryan Sook, Claire Roe, and Edwin Galmon with more to be announced soon.

DC Pride 2023 is another great anthology with a lot to celebrate and entertaining

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DC Pride is back again with a brave and bold and all-new collection of stories starring DC’s fan-favorite stable of LGBTQIA+ characters–many of whom will find themselves in thrilling team-ups the likes of which you’ve never seen before!

Story: Grant Morrison, Jeremy Holt, Leah Williams, Mildred Louis, Rex Ogle, A.L. Kaplan, Josh Trujillo, Nicole Maines, Christopher Cantwell, Nadia Shammas
Art: Hayden Sherman, Andrew Drilon, Paulina Ganucheau, Stephen Sadowski, Skylar Patridge, Mildred Louis, Bruka Jones, A.L. Kaplan, Don Aguillo, Rye Hickman, Claire Roe, Triona Farrell, Babs Tarr, Angel Solorzano, Travis Moore, Tamra Bonvillain, Noah Dao, Maria Llovet, Brandt & Stein
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar, Lucas Gattoni, Frank Cvetkovic, Ariana Maher, Morgan Martinez, Rusty Gladd
Color: Marissa Louise, Enrica Erin Angiolini, Tamra Bonvillain, Dearbhla Kelly, Bex Glendining

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.

Kindle

DC 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

Storm #1 delivers a frustrating start

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Storm #1

Storm has been an interesting character when it comes to the X-Men. She’s held the spotlight a few times and been a key member for quite some time, but it also feels like she’s either a major player or relegated to the background. Storm #1 kicks off a new miniseries taking place during the early period of her “Punk rock leadership” of the team.

Written by Ann Nocenti, the comic takes us through the major change that Storm has recently gone through as she leads the X-Men against Mystique and her Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. While Storm absolutely deserves a series like this, the execution in storytelling and art is rough delivering a reading experience that’ll leave fans wanting. She’s a great character and this period was an interesting one but overall she deserves far better than this.

Opening with the typical battle against Mystique and her crew, we get the talk of tactics and eventually Mystique and her team are… let go? Yes, defeated, they’re released to terrorize another day. But, you need to do that as Storm immediately begins to critique her teammates and their performance in battle. They don’t head back to the mansion, they do it right there among the rubble and destruction they caused. And after that? A beach day, enjoying the water that’s right there… and everyone has swimsuits handy to use. It all makes little sense and the rather odd, choppy, and at times nonsensical storytelling the comic delivers throughout.

The art by Sid Kotian doesn’t help. It delivers a style that at times warps familiar faces delivering an almost comical art style. It just looks… bad. The comic attempts to go with a retro look in some ways but delivers visuals that range from great to horrible. It’s an inconsistent look that adds to the overall frustration of the comic.

There’s a lot underneath the surface of this comic that could make for a very interesting read. The friction between Storm and Kitty over Storm’s recent changes. The recent introduction of Rogue to the team. Storm having to figure out her role and self while having so much thrown at her. It all has so much potential. Instead, we get a comic that squanders its most interesting aspects for a debut for a character that deserves far better.

Story: Ann Nocenti Art: Sid Kotian
Color: Andrew Dalhouse Letterer: Ariana Maher
Story: 6.25 Art: 6.0 Overall: 6.15 Recommendation: Pass

Marvel provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: TFAW – Zeus Comics – Kindle

Exclusive Preview: Silk #1 (of 5)

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Silk #1 (of 5)

(W) Emily Kim (A) Ig Guara (C) Ian Herring (L) Ariana Maher
(CA) Dave Johnson, Elena Casagrande, Derrick Chew, Peach Momoko, Tom Reilly
Rated T
In Shops: May 10, 2023
SRP: $3.99

SILK SWINGS BACK INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE! There’s something rotten in Los Angeles, and ace detective Cindy Moon is on the case! Wait…that can’t be right. In this mind-bending new series, Cindy will face old foes and never-before-seen dangers that will take her to the breaking point! Brought to you by all-star writer Emily Kim (SILK, TIGER DIVISION) and Marvel veteran Ig Guara (GHOST-SPIDER, SPIDER-GWEN)!

Silk #1 (of 5)

The Forged #1 starts a familiar sci-fi action adventure

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The Forged #1

In the 11th Millennium of the rule of the Eternal Empress, a squad of planet-smashing super soldiers find their routine mission to be anything but. These are the Forged. They take no prisoners. The Forged #1 kicks off the action with introducing us to the sci-fi world while also delivering a lot we’ve seen before.

Written by Greg Rucka and Eric Trautmann, there’s a lot I liked about The Forged #1. It’s a sci-fi story featuring soldiers being sent on a mission they have a bad feeling about. If that sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen that exact story many times before. And that’s the bad thing about The Forged #1 as well. We’ve seen a lot of it. While the art is great and the setting and characters are interesting, at its heart is a plot that’s been done over and over.

The Forged #1 is forged from a lot of what’s come before. In the description it’s mentioned that it’s inspired by Conan, Heavy Metal and “other comics you tried to hide from your parents.” In its DNA is also Aliens, The Fifth Element, Starship Troopers, and a lot more. None of that is a bad thing but it also puts the pressure on to deliver something that’s a bit different from all of those elements. Unfortunately there’s only a little of that.

What gives the series hope is its core of characters, the actual tactical team being sent on the mission. Their comradery and interactions save the comic and make it entertaining enough to check out as well as continue on to the second issue. Likeable characters, though each fitting a certain role, keep things going and make the read worth it.

What’s also worth it is Mike Henderson‘s art. With color by Nolan Woodard and lettering by Ariana Maher, The Forged #1 is an intriguing start taking place mostly on a ship. It’s all rather unremarkable for the most part, creating an almost sterile feel to the issue. And that’s actually interesting. With intriguing character designs in the stories they tell, it’s a world that feels a bit “clean” but with a slight grime just underneath the surface. There’s some great colors that pop at times enhancing intriguing page layouts at key moments.

There’s nothing inherently bad about The Forged #1. It’s entertaining sci-fi action. It’s problem is so far it’s sci-fi action we’ve seen before. The troops getting their orders preparing for the drop on a mission you know is going to get fubar. It’s rather pain by numbers in that way. Still, it’s an entertaining read setting up potential for an intriguing world and hopefully more interesting mission to come.

Story: Greg Rucka, Eric Trautmann Art: Mike Henderson
Color: Nolan Woodard Letterer: Ariana Maher
Story: 7.65 Art: 8.4 Overall: 7.75 Recommendation: Read

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: TFAW – Zeus Comics – comiXology/Kindle

Exclusive Preview: Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones #1

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Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones #1

(W) Emily Kim (A) Kei Zama
(C) Triona Farrel (L) Ariana Maher
(CA) David Nakayama (VCA) Peach Momoko, Bengal, Elena Casagrande, Greg Land, C.F. Villa
In Shops: Mar 01, 2023
SRP: $4.99
GHOST-SPIDER’S LIFE TURNS UPSIDE DOWN!
Ghost-Spider comes face-to-face with some of the deadliest Spider-Man villains, including Doc Ock, Sandman, Vulture and more! But wait! Why do they all look like Gwen! Writer EMILY KIM (SILK) and artist KEI ZAMA (AVENGERS MECH STRIKE) take Gwen down a twisted path as she must stop whoever is cloning her into infamous Marvel villains!

Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones #1
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