Greetings Rocketeers and Rockettes, and welcome to Comic Book Quick Hits! Every week I’ll be writing a “Quick Hits” review piece to give some brief highlights to a handful of great comic books that have come out in the last week or two, so you can swing by your local shop and snag an issue or two while they are still hot on the shelf. I’ll also be writing “Comic Cluster” reviews, which will be focused on 3-6 consecutive issues of one specific title, so that you can get a more in-depth feel for an over-arching storyline, art, etc., to see if you’d like to commit to a specific series for a longer haul. Here are your Quick Hits for the week of July 27!
Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #2.11
Publisher: Titan Comics
Release Date: July 27, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $3.99
Digital Price: $3.99
Quick Hit: We’ve featured a few other Doctors in the Titan lineup here in Quick Hits before – Twelve for sure, because he kicks ass, and I’m pretty sure Four and Nine in their individual series as well – but this is Eleven’s first time joining us here in the column. The big deal with this issue, my friends, is one that long-time ‘Doctor Who’ fans will surely realize as a bit of a “big deal:” this issue kicks off a brand-new story arc that occurs within the spectrum of The Time War, a large and disastrous conflict between the Time Lords and the Daleks, culminating in the time-bending destruction of both species apparently by The Doctor himself. Can you have a Time War story without featuring the War Doctor, you ask? Well, apparently not, because he guest-stars in this issue!
Space Brothers #279
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: July 28, 2016 (digital); August 10, 2016 (print)
Physical Cover Price: N/A
Digital Price: $0.99
Quick Hit: For the manga fans out there, this one’s for you! The long-running comic that has been serialized in Japan since 2007 finally makes its way across the pond to the United States. The story follows two brothers, Mutta and Hibito, who witness a UFO in the sky when they were young. In the year 2025, after the two have grown up, Hibito has become a full-fledged astronaut and is preparing for his first moon mission; Mutta has been largely aimless and unsuccessful in his life, but an acceptance into the new astronaut training program reunites the two brothers. If you’re worried about coming into a new series in the 279th issue, don’t be: each issue of the original serial is about 24 pages long, but all the previous issues have been conveniently gathered into massive 250-300 page collections that are available digitally for as low as $4.99 apiece (at the time of this posting). Happy reading!
Predator vs. Judge Dredd vs. Aliens #1
Publisher: IDW
Release Date: July 27, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $3.99
Digital Price: $3.99
Quick Hit: Did you not read the title of the book above? What more should I have to say about this one? Go back and read the title again, I’ll wait.
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It’s FREAKING Judge Dredd taking on the Predator species and the Aliens species?! What more to you need to know? How can it not be totally bad-ass? Just go read it already!!
Rochelle #1 (of 3)
Publisher: Antarctic Press
Release Date: July 27, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $3.99
Digital Price: $1.99 (at time of posting)
Quick Hit: Antarctic Press takes a stab at creating a new hero – and a teenaged one, no less! Far from just a female version of Spider-Man, Rochelle Planeta is a legitimate human/cockroach hybrid being that’s just trying to balance going to high school and fighting crime on the side. Sure, it sounds a little Peter Parker-esque, but I promise that this book is much more than that. After making her debut at AC Comics last year (on the flip-side of a reprint of a classic ‘FemForce’ comic, no less), Rochelle has landed a three-issue mini-series with the creative team intact: creator and writer John E. Crowther has teamed with long-time industry veteran artist Dell Barras to bring a peppy, classic-comic-inspire take on the superhero genre. It’s worth taking a peek at, especially if you’re a digital reader, where AP is offering a 50% discount on their issues. Neat!
Tony Schaab mixed up all this fake puke at home and then he went to this movie theater, hid the puke in his jacket, climbed up to the balcony, and then he made a noise like this: hua-hua-hua-huaaaaaaa… and then he dumped it over the side, all over the people in the audience. And then – this was horrible – all the people started getting sick and throwing up all over each other… and he never felt so bad in his entire life! A lover of most things sci-fi and horror, Tony is an author by day and a DJ by night. Come hang out with Tony on Facebook and Twitter to hear him spew semi-funny nonsense and get your opportunity to finally put him in his place.
