By Molly Jane Kremer, Arpad Okay, Matthew Conrad Brown, 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.
Savage Town
Image Comics/$16.99
Written by Declan Shalvey.
Art by Philip Barrett.
Colors by Jordie Bellaire.
Letters by Clayton Cowles.
JJ: Reading an original graphic novel from Image Comics is like mainlining pure bliss. All the greatness with none of the wait. No slow burn, no cliffhanger, no bullshit. Just comics, a complete story, right here, right now. Savage Town comes our way courtesy of Declan Shalvey, known Bat-artist, setting his pens aside and letting Philip Barrett take the artistic reins. Jordie Bellaire making our eyes pop as usual, Clayton Cowles kind enough to help us read the damn thing with expert clarity. It’s a comics super-group, playing in one of the best venues in town.
It’s a crime story. People get clobbered in here, stuffed in the back of cars. Homes are set ablaze. Characters let their primal compulsions take over. Fury is a central theme. So is survival. It’s funny. It’s scary. Willem Dafoe should be in the movie. But for now we have Savage Town, in all its OGN glory. Now all we have to do is sit back and let Declan go to town on our cerebellum.
Magnus #4
Dynamite/$3.99
Written by Kyle Higgins.
Colors by Chris O’Halloran.
Art by Jorge Fornés.
Letters by Taylor Esposito.
MCB: Magnus is a beautifully complicated futuristic noir with a lot going for it. Our heroine, Dr. Kerri Magnus, is an A.I. psychologist chasing a murderous robot on the loose in the digital cloud world. As pieces of this million-piece puzzle fall into place, a clearer image of this vast and intricate world comes into view. From book to book, one can’t help but be riveted.
Dr. Kerri Magnus, a woman torn between two worlds and two minds, fits perfectly within the book’s constructs. Magnus melds a clean vintage visual style with bleeding-edge technological concepts and a modern vision of what a strong, well rounded female character can and should be. This book is the best of two worlds, synthesized into its own futuristic vision.
Some very big reveals happened in Magnus #3 so I’m excited to move forward with this new issue. This is a great run of a totally revamped and updated series, and it is only just beginning. Now is the perfect time to pick up the first four issues and catch up.
Mirror #8
Image Comics/$3.99
Written by Emma Ríos and Hwei Lim.
Art by Hwei Lim and Emma Ríos.
AOK: Mirror is back from summer break and its second act is truly underway. Fall finally heralds the return of the asteroid refugees. Space colony expats ruined the living splinter of a planet they once called home. Now they must return to their heavenly body of origin, with a chimeric menagerie of beast-people in tow.
I love this comic for how quiet it is. Mirror tells a story of both science and magic like an OG anime with folk tale grace. When I need a truly weird read that’s also stress free, this is the low-key beauty I turn to. There are high stakes and deep characters, musings on autonomy and commodity, an ever-present threat of death, but Mirror approaches it all with the somber elegance of a dream.
Hwei Lim’s watercolors are spellbinding, and Emma Ríos has the most surreal, vivid, mad visions to portray. An utterly beguiling mystery.
Generations: Ms. Marvel & Ms. Marvel #1
Marvel Comics/$4.99
Written by G. Willow Wilson.
Art by Paolo Villanelli.
Colors by Ian Herring.
Letters by Joe Caramagna.
MJ: Some of Marvel’s Generations one-shots have been excellent (Thors, Hawkeyes, Wolverines), some have been just okay (Iron Mans, Hulks) but the character that might be the most primed for an out-of-time meeting in the past with their Legacy namesake is Kamala Khan, the newest Ms. Marvel.
Already such a fangirl (in the most endearingly delightful of ways), Kamala had a (bordering on religious) vision of Carol Danvers in the very first issue of her first Ms. Marvel series, and seeing her interacting with Carol Danvers when she shared the Ms. Marvel moniker (and was the editor of “Woman” magazine) sounds like the premise of a perfect comic.
I wouldn’t be so stoked if it wasn’t Ms. Marvel writer and co-creator G. Willow Wilson penning the issue. Considering she pretty much kicks off the issue with “ *record scratch*: Yup, that’s me, Kamala Khan. You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation...” you already know we’re in for a spectacular thirty pages.
What books are YOU looking forward to reading this week? Sound off in the comments below.
