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 August 17!
Star Trek #60
Publisher: IDW Comics
Release Date: August 17, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $3.99
Digital Price: $3.99
Quick Hit: It’s here, the conclusion of this ‘Classic’ Trek-themed run from IDW, and it has certainly been an entertaining series. With issues #59 and 60, of course, it culminates in one of the greatest ways possible: a crossover between the ‘Prime’ Universe characters and the ‘Kelvinverse’ crew shown in the three most recent JJ Abrams-led films! It’s a fun way to pass the torch, as it were; even though this comic series is ending, a new series, ‘Star Trek: Boldly Go,’ launches in October and focuses on the Kelvinverse characters. This two-part story arc, about the characters from each crew having their “mental bodies” transferred into the other universe’s versions of themselves, is classic ‘Trek’ storytelling at its best.
Supergirl: Rebirth #1
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: August 17, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $2.99
Digital Price: $2.99
Quick Hit: Kara Danvers gets the “Rebirth” treatment this week, as her story begins to take shape in this new DC universe. As Supergirl prepares to adjust to her new life on Earth, attempting to “fit in” with a secret identity and new set of surrogate parents, danger strikes close to home when a Kryptonian long banished to the Phantom Zone gets loose on Earth and begins to wreak havoc. For me, this is a very interesting series to keep an eye on, as I’m most curious with the potential for the “alter ego” storyline that Supergirl could develop. Kara will be a high school student, but placed in an “advanced math & sciences” school, which could provide an excellent opportunity for DC to move away from the standard “superhero as a high school misfit” trope. Also of note with DC’s “Rebirth” comics: only a $2.99 price tag, a lovely feature in a sea of $4-$5 comic books.
Doctor Who: Supremacy of the Cybermen #2 (of 5)
Publisher: Titan
Release Date: August 17, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $3.99
Digital Price: $3.99
Quick Hit: TheCyber-takeover of all time and space continues! It’s been fun having so many different ‘Doctor Who’ series being fired off from Titan every month – heck, just last week saw the release of three different DW titles on the same day, with a new ‘Torchwood’ series thrown in for good measure – but when Doctors cross paths with each other, it’s always a good time. So far, ‘Supremacy of the Cybermen’ isn’t disappointing, although all of the different incarnations of the Doctor featured in this story (that’s Nine, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve, for those of you keeping track at home) have yet to actually interact with each other, they’re just working on the same problem from different eras. Don’t let that dissuade you, though – this is Gallifreyan fun at it’s timey-wimey finest!
Kong of Skull Island #2 (of 6)
Publisher: Boom! Comics
Release Date: August 17, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $3.99
Digital Price: $3.99
Quick Hit: Continuing the prequel mini-series that will lay the groundwork for the upcoming ‘Kong: Skull Island’ film that wowed audiences at this year’s San Diego Comic Con, the second issue of this story keeps the prehistoric action moving at break-neck pace. This tale appears to be set thousands of years before the events we’ll see on the big-screen, and I must say that I’m quite intrigued to see how it all ties together. Skull Island exists as a mythical and insanely evil place to the tribes featured in this story – tribes that have domesticated Kongs, for the record – so when a boat carrying tribesmen and Kong gets forced to land on the terrifying isle, they encounter more monstrous terrors than they ever bargained for. It’s not too late to jump on-board this six-issue series – if you have any desire to see next year’s film, I suggest that you do.
Superf*ckers Forever #1 (of 5)
Publisher: IDW Comics
Release Date: August 17, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $3.99
Digital Price: $3.99
Quick Hit: Truth time: I only cracked this issue open because it had a dirty word in the title. Tee-hee! But seriously – a company as mainstream as IDW doesn’t normally take a flier on a random adult-themed comic like this, unless they slap huge “Parental Advisory” graphics all over the cover. None to be found here – but still plenty of wild grossness within. For those unfamiliar, artist/writer James Kochalka has been featuring his adorably morally-bankrupt heroes for a long time, but this is their first mainstream comic series. If this comic was animated, it would be right at home on “Adult Swim” or one of the later hours on Cartoon Network; it’s random, profane, a little disturbing, and tons of fun to read. Ch-ch-check it out, yo.
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.
