By Molly Jane Kremer 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. Here’s what has set our hearts ablaze this week.
4 Kids Walk Into a Bank #5
Black Mask Studios/$3.99
Written by Matthew Rosenberg.
Art/design by Tyler Boss.
Flatting by Clare Dezutti.
Letters by Thomas Mauer.
Wallpaper design by Courtney Menard.
JJ: 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank is a short film that informs some of your more kickass dreams. It’s an album from your formative teenage years that you play again and again and again. Each page crackles with angst and electricity, like a cozy lived-in flannel shirt. It elicits the sort of feelings you get when you decimate your opponents in a bout of D&D. When you sit outside Principal Tynion’s office. When you run outside to meet up with your friends.
Autumn is creeping up on us, and you know what that means — change. I can’t think of a better series in 2017 that illustrated the poignancy of change more ably than Matthew Rosenberg and Tyler Boss’ 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank. So as the leaves fall off the trees and the sweaters come raging out of the closet, maybe snag all five issues of Black Mask’s mini-series, curl up into a ball, and have yourself a time. You’ll find that it fits beautifully. It’s been a joy to have 4 Kids weave in and out of our lives. So it’s only right that its finale would be bittersweet.
The Wicked + The Divine #31
Image Comics/$3.99
Written by Kieron Gillen.
Art by Jamie McKelvie.
Colors by Matthew Wilson.
Letters by Clayton Cowles.
Flatting by Dee Cunniffe.
MJ: The Wicked + the Divine gets to the middle of what will make up its sixth paperback volume — the latter half of “Imperial Phase” — with issue 31, and shit gets real crazy.
Characters have become deeper and more truly themselves, damn the consequences. We can only assume the series’ already considerable body count will be increasing in tandem by the final pages.
Jamie McKelvie and Matt Wilson’s art is still one of my favorite things to look at on this or any plane — Wilson’s colors look exceptionally vibrant and affecting this month, and McKelvie’s character expressions connect with the reader on every level possible. Kieron Gilllen’s clever dialogue, plot twists, and so-deep-it’ll-drown-you character development never disappoints, and constantly surprises. Despite being a series that grounds itself so fully in the inevitability of mortality, I wish The Wicked + the Divine would never end.
Star Wars Adventures #1
IDW Publishing/$3.99
Written by Cavan Scott.
Art by Derek Charm and Jon Sommariva.
Inks by Sean Parsons.
Colors by Charlie Kirchoff.
Letters by Tom B. Long.
JJ: “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far –” yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s get to the good stuff.
IDW has a killer new license on their hands. Maybe you’ve heard of it. Adventures, thrills, derring-do. In outer space. On strange planets. Brimming with heroes and villains, cool spaceships and skwaking aliens, clean lines and vivid colors. It’s for the whole family, or anyone who’s looking for a breezier sojourn through a certain galaxy, far, far away from pesky things like slavish continuity or Easter eggs painted with foreboding.
It also has an instantly iconic cover from Elsa Charretier. Interior pages from Derek Charm and Jon Sommariva, two artists who have already left their indelible stamp on comics like Jughead and Batman/TMNT. Only now they’re filling their pages with Dex’s Diner, Jakku scavengers, scum and villainy. There’s Rey, and Obi-wan Kenobi too. Who the heck wouldn’t want to read this book? Nerf herders, presumably.
What books are YOU looking forward to reading this week? Sound off in the comments below.
