by Molly Jane Kremer, Arpad Okay, Sara Mitchell and Jarrod Jones. Comics that challenge us, slay us, beguile us — the comics we simply can’t wait to devour. That’s DoomRocket’s Staff Picks. From Image Comics’ ‘Bitter Root’ #1 to G. Willow Wilson’s highly anticipated debut on ‘Wonder Woman’, here’s what has our hearts set ablaze this week.
Proxima Centauri #6
Image Comics/$3.99
Written and Illustrated by Farel Dalrymple.
SM: Sometimes I feel suspended. Like I’ve let go of a cliff’s edge and I’m ready to fall, but somehow get stuck in mid air. I want to hit the ground but I’m just floating. Oh well, I think to myself. Nothing to be done. And I float there. It’s a nice, clear, empty feeling that eventually gives way to a smooth trickle of feelings, color, connections, and memories that completely fill the space and create a new world to finally land in. This is the best way I know how to describe what it’s like to read Proxima Centauri.
The art is so dense that within each page, you can let your eyes navigate from image to image, detail to detail, and take a route that no one else will. You might not understand exactly what’s happening upon your first read (I certainly didn’t), but it’s like the initial floating feeling; you have to be patient in order to be rewarded. And in the end, you get to have a weird, personal experience that not everyone will understand from the outside. Proxima Centauri isn’t just for anyone, it requires a little extra care. The last issue comes out today, so take a leap and allow yourself to fall — you might get lost, and it will definitely get weird. Have fun.
Wonder Woman #58
DC/$3.99
Written by G. Willow Wilson.
Art by Cary Nord.
Inks by Mick Gray.
Colors by Romulo Fajardo, Jr.
Letters by Pat Brosseau.
MJ: G. Willow Wilson’s name is enough to make me pick up a comic book, sight unseen. Her exciting work on Ms. Marvel — starring her co-creation Kamala Khan, one of the most successful and popular new characters Marvel introduced in the past twenty years — has proven she can thoroughly innovate in a genre often defined by its lack of change. Wilson is one of the best writers in superhero comics today, and now she’s writing the most iconic woman superhero in the world: Wonder Woman. (You can imagine my shout of joy when I heard this particular news.)
After their work on The Unexpected (with another recent, critically-acclaimed Wonder Woman scribe, Steve Orlando), pairing Wilson with penciller Cary Nord and inker Mick Gray makes great sense; their action sequences are top notch, with just the right amount of pathos amidst the bombast. Romulo Fajardo, Jr. continues his glorious run on the series (he’s colored forty-four issues so far), continuing to keep Wonder Woman one of the prettiest, most striking books on the stands.
My eager anticipation for this new storyline, “The Just War,” runs high — the highest I’ve had for this series since Greg Rucka’s return to the series. (Actually, it might be higher now.) Wilson writing Wonder Woman is one of DC’s smartest moves yet. I can’t be the only reader with expectations soaring higher than a certain someone’s Invisible Jet.
Euthanauts #4
Black Crown/IDW Publishing/$3.99
Written by Tini Howard.
Art by Nick Robles.
Colors by Eva de la Cruz.
Letters by Aditya Bidikar.
AOK: Black Crown continues to offer some of the most visionary comics on the market, Euthanauts being one of its more captivating titles. I cannot understate how gorgeous and fresh the collaboration between Nick Robles and Eva de la Cruz is. A psychedelic concoction brewed from Tini Howard’s mind-bending script about the deep diving explorers of the afterlife, well flavored with a mix of 2D linework, 3D textures, and distinctly rendered characters who fall somewhere between the two. The colors and finishes raise Euthanauts up from grace into utter divinity.
Thread the needle and then trace the loop from Shade: The Changing Man to Alan Moore’s Promethea and you’ll find this side of the stitch, Euthanauts. All are concerned with the beyond, magic and finding the self, dissolving the self. Euthanauts, a fiction about death-life, stands out by being the most grounded of the three, a world born of our dreams, bound by and grounded in our finite experience.
Mister Miracle #12
DC/$3.99
Written by Tom King.
Art by Mitch Gerads.
Letters by Clayton Cowles.
JJ: Bid adieu to Mister Miracle. 12 issues of existential despair, mid-life angst, traps of all kinds — be they Apokoliptian or self-made. The passion that comes with surviving alongside the one you love. The strength that can be derived from it.
It’s Kirby-scale theatrics with a kitchen-sink sensibility. A family drama that doesn’t skimp on the Krackle. Depression beards, Electric-Blue t-shirts, veggie platters — all odd decisions, all ones we’d make if our lives were falling apart and we had no idea why. When reality seems to distort around us when we’re at our most vulnerable.
You won’t find double-page action here. No high-wire showboating. Just pure comics. Mister Miracle zeroes in and embraces the nine-panel grid, lives in it, thrives in it. It’s just how Tom King likes to write. And if Mitch Gerads gets a cramp here and there, well it’s worth it, dammit. Career-best stuff from some of the best we’ve got. Appreciate them. Appreciate this. Remember it when the red curtain drops.
What books are you looking forward to reading this week? Sound off in the comments below.
