Greetings, humans! It’s Tony here, your friendly neighborhood reviewer, with some new-comic knowledge to drop on you all. Every week I’ll be writing a “Quick Hit” 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. For today, however – here are your Quick Hits!
Batman ’66 Meets The Man from U.N.C.L.E. #12
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: May 11, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $2.99
Digital Price: $0.99 (at time of posting)
Quick Hit: Sometimes, you just like a good crossover, and few characters have been crossing-over for longer or with more random-icity (yes, it’s a made up word, it’s okay) than Batman. The Caped Crusader has worked with everyone from The Harlem Globetrotters to Judge Dredd to Bugs Bunny & The Tazmanian Devil. Even though we just got a “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” film in theaters last year, the TV show originated in the 1960s, so it actually makes perfect sense that secret agent Napoleon Solo goes to work with 1960s Batman & Robin to stop the evil global agency T.H.R.U.S.H. from, y’know, doing more bad-guy-type stuff. This issue is the climactic conclusion to the 12-part maxi-series!
The Punisher #1
Publisher: Marvel
Release Date: May 4, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $3.99
Digitial Price: $3.99
Quick Hit: After FAR too long without his own series on the shelves, the Punisher has made his triumphant return to the comic pages. Likely thanks in no small part to his success on the ‘Daredevil’ series on Netflix, Frank Castle is back in action in his usual way – killing bad guys with little to no remorse. This issue teases a connection from Frank’s past that will likely come into play as this series progresses.
Back to the Future: Citizen Brown #1
Publisher: IDW
Release Date: May 11, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $4.99
Digital Price: $4.99
Quick Hit: If you have not been reading IDW’s ongoing ‘Back to the Future’ series, you have been missing out on one of the best sci-fi series in recent memory. The nostalgia factor is high here, obviously, and now the publisher has decided to take the story first explored in a 2010 BTTF video game and extrapolate it to comic-book form. When a time-traveling DeLorean shows up empty at Marty McFly’s house in 1986, it’s up to him and Jennifer to head back in time to 1931 in order to save Doc Brown – again!
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor #2.5
Publisher: Titan
Release Date: May 11, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $3.99
Digital Price: $3.99
Quick Hit: As I mentioned in my 5 New Ways to Get Doctor Who This Year feature, Titan Comics is producing awesome news stories of multiple Doctors – and it all couldn’t come at a better time, since we won’t be seeing any new episodes of Doctor Who until December of this year. For hard-core Capaldi fans like me, this ‘Twelfth Doctor’ series is phenomenal, and this issue doesn’t disappoint, as an old foe makes its deadly return!
Star Trek: Manifest Destiny #2
Publisher: IDW
Release Date: May 4, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $3.99
Digital Price: $3.99
Quick Hit: Did you know that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise? If you answered “yes,” then congratulations, you’re a true fan! This mini-series features the “rebooted” crew and universe from the recent Trek films, and it shows the crew of the USS Enterprise facing off with their foes, the Klingons, in a really cool deep-space battle. And I’m not talking ship-to-ship combat here: this is hand-to-hand combat in the cold reaches of the void. Very cool stuff.
Tony Schaab’s last ever message to humanity was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double backward somersault through a hoop while whistling the star-spangled banner, but in fact the message was this: So long and thanks for all the fish. 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.
