By Molly Jane Kremer, Stefania Rudd, and Don Alsafi. Comics that challenge us, slay us, beguile us — the comics we simply can’t wait to devour. That’s DoomRocket’s Staff Picks. Here’s what has set our hearts ablaze this week.
Punisher: The Platoon #1
Marvel Comics/$3.99
Written by Garth Ennis.
Art by Goran Parlov.
Colors by Jordie Bellaire.
Letters by Rob Steen.
DA: “Dude with guns” isn’t the most creative concept, so it’s surprising just how much mileage the Punisher has gotten out of it. In the 1990s, he actually had four ongoing titles — at the same time! (Just imagine.)
And yet one of the best Punisher stories ever told was in 2003’s Born, by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. It was both an origin story and a prequel, told in the jungles of Vietnam during his final tour as a serviceman, and posited that maybe it was the horrors he saw in those days that turned him into the violent killer he would become, and not just his family’s accidental slaughter some years later.
This week’s Punisher: The Platoon goes back even further, showing a younger Frank Castle during his first tour of duty. This time Ennis has teamed up with Goran Parlov, and it looks to be more of a full-on war comic. If it’s even half as good as Born was, it’ll be something to check out.
Giant Days #31
BOOM! Box/$3.99
Written by John Allison.
Pencils by Max Sarin.
Inks by Liz Fleming with Irene Flores.
Colors by Whitney Cogar with Kieran Quigley.
Letters by Jim Campbell.
SR: Giant Days #30 left me in anticipation, grappling with feelings that ranged from “Oh, c’mon! What next?” to “Yes, but why do I have to wait until next month?” And now the wait is over.
What will happen for friend-roomies, Daisy, Susan, and Esther, after their falling out over Daisy’s girlfriend running up the gas bill? (Oh, Ingrid.) Will Easter Break have cooled off tempers? Will Daisy even bother coming back? And let’s not forget about poor Esther, caught in a friendship-trap due to a romantic triangle between Susan, Emilia, and McGraw. (Isn’t second year supposed to be easier than the first?) No matter what happens, our favorite co-eds keep plugging along in their day-to-day lives, learning and growing from their decisions as best they can. As best anyone could. And that’s enough to keep me hooked.
Star Wars #37
Marvel Comics/$4.99
Written by Jason Aaron and Dash Aaron.
Art by Salvador Larroca and Andrea Sorrentino.
Colors by Edgar Delgado and Lee Loughridge.
Letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles.
MJ: Marvel Comics’ Star Wars has been a rollicking good read and a consistent best-seller since its debut back in January of 2015, and it could be said that writer Jason Aaron has everything to do with that. His adoration of and respect for the franchise and its filmic source material is evident in every page. His adherence to the adventurous joy of the original series makes Star Wars one of the most faithful movie continuations in comics. Thanks in part to the close involvement of Lucasfilm, characters’ dialogue is so spot-on you can almost hear the actors reciting it to you. If only.
But with this issue comes sad news: Star Wars #37 is the end of the Jason Aaron era. He’s topped off his run with a few done-in-one issues, and this last one centers around the SCAR Squadron, an elite squad of (actually bad-ass) Stormtroopers. (Created for the series by Mr. Aaron himself.) There’s also a back-up story here—the final installment of those Ben Kenobi-narrated journal entries that have popped up from time to time—and it’s co-written (adorably) by Mr. Aaron’s son, Dash. (As if I wasn’t feeling misty enough about Aaron’s departure!) This will most certainly go down in the galactic annals as a seminal run of sequential Star Wars. I will miss it muchly.
What books are YOU looking forward to reading this week? Sound off in the comments below.
