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Greetings Martians and Venusians, 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 13!

coverkongKong of Skull Island #1 (of 6)

Publisher: Boom! Studios
Release Date: July 13, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $3.99
Digital Price: $3.99

Quick Hit: Serving as a prequel to next year’s ‘Kong: Skull Island’ film, this mini-series looks to set the groundwork – and expectations – for movie-goers.  The news surrounding the movie is certainly intriguing – Warner Brothers has recently announced that it will exist in the same universe as 2015’s ‘Godzilla’ and serve as a stepping-stone into a ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ crossover mega-event film to be released in 2020 – and the cast is crazy-good, with Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, and John Goodman all coming out to play.  The comic series, however, puts readers in a vastly different time; whereas the film is set in the 1970s, ‘Kong of Skull Island’ appears to take place hundreds if not thousands of years prior, in a prehistoric time when two tribes in an uneasy alliance have semi-tamed the giant Kong apes and use them in competitive gladiator-style matches in an attempt to appease their gods.  In this first issue, one of the tribe’s boats carrying a few Kongs is thrown off-course by a storm and ends up near the fabled and feared Skull Island, where we do learn that other legendary gargantuan creatures are less mythical and more actual.  It’s an intriguing opening to what should be a fun mini-series; this is one giant-sized story that you won’t want to miss!

covervoltronVoltron: Legendary Defender #1 (of 4)

Publisher: Lion Forge Comics
Release Date: July 12, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $2.99
Digital Price: $2.99

Quick Hit: If you’ve seen the new ‘Voltron: Legendary Defender’ cartoon series on Netflix, then you’ll be right at home with this mini-series, as it begins its tale right after episode 8 of the first (and to-date, only) season.  If you haven’t seen it yet – well, what the heck are you waiting for?  Go get you some!  It really is a nostalgia-lovers dream, taking the fun and action of the original 1980s cartoon series and infusing a healthy dose of modernized humor and anime-styling to boot.  If you’re a non-anime person, don’t be warded off too quickly: the series is definitely done American-style in terms of plot, pacing, etc., but the visuals are given the far-east treatment.  In this issue, the Voltron team of Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Keith, and Shiro are on a training mission, learning to better control their new lion vehicles, when their trainer and mentor Coran is snagged by a bookie looking to collect on an old bet.  In order to save him, the quintet must retrieve a Yalexian pearl from the nigh-indestructible monster of Krell.  It’s something that no one has ever been able to do before, but if anyone can get it done, surely it’s the Voltron team, right!  Right?

coverconanConan the Slayer #1

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: July 13, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $3.99
Digital Price: $3.99

Quick Hit: The long-standing saga of Conan the Barbarian gets a fresh new series from the fine folks at Dark Horse!  Written by Cullen Bunn, he of ‘Uncanny X-Men’ and ‘Deadpool’ writing-credit fame, this issues sets a story in full motion, finding Conan wandering the desert after a particularly bloody-looking battle shown in flashback.  He continues to fight those who are chasing him, until he wanders deliriously into a camp of warrior Kozaks, who are unsure of whether they should let him live or die.  With gritty-awesome art by Sergio Fernandez Davila, this ‘Conan the Slayer’ is one savage series, in all the right ways.

coverninjakNinjak #17

Publisher: Valiant
Release Date: July 13, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $3.99
Digital Price: $3.99

Quick Hit: In a universe full of amazing and unique characters such as Valiant’s, it sometimes feels like the ‘Ninjak’ storyline goes largely unheralded.  Often dismissed as a “Batman for hire,” the series actually goes much deeper than that, while still maintaining a healthy focus on comic-book style action.  Colin King is the titular assassin-for-hire, and this issue is the culmination of a five-part story that has seen him lose his secret identity, his fortune and home, and much of his group of friends and associates.  The end of issue #16 revealed that Roku, the beautiful-but-deadly killer from the Shadow Six organization, is the architect behind Ninjak’s fall from grace, but the real reasons as to why Roku is so hell-bent on his destruction are all revealed here, and they are quite a doozy!  With a fresh storyline and largely unexplored territory for the character to come in future issues, this is a great spot to jump on board this mainstay Valiant title.

 

covernewsupermanDC Rebirth: All New Super-Man #1

Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: July 13, 2016
Physical Cover Price: $2.99
Digital Price: $2.99

Quick Hit: The Rebirth is in full swing at DC, and this ‘All-New Superman’ title is likely one that will draw the most intrigue from many fans.  Throughout the long stretch of his existence, readers have known Superman largely as one being – Kal-El/Clark Kent, with the occasional Superboy or Steel thrown in to take up the S-mantle for a bit.  But ‘All-New Superman’ is quite a departure for DC, and the title states it plainly enough – this series is determined to give you something new, an Asian Superman!  Written by Gene Luen Yang and drawn by artist Viktor Bogdanovic, this series debut features Kong Kenan, a brash bully whose act of heroism in front of the Chinese media gets him selected by a shifty government organization to be a test subject in one of the greatest experiments of all time: an attempt to inject a serum replicating Superman’s powers into an average human being.  With a surprisingly strong story and an intriguing look at Eastern culture that most of us Westerners normally don’t have access to, this is a series that definitely bears watching.

horizontal lineTony Schaab wishes Mars would attack, just one time – at least then we could all go back and watch the historical document ‘Mars Attacks!’ to see how our ancestors handled it back in the day.  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.