The Many Deaths of Laila Starr is a hell of a premise. Death is fired because immortality may become a thing, but what will death do to make sure that she retains her job? How far will she go? But this isn’t Neil Gaiman’s Death of the Endless, this isn’t the Western version of death in a cloak, this is the Hindu Goddess of Death with six arms - Kali - and she’s fiery.
Writers Fleecs and Forstner are taking their time, every issue slowly upping the stakes for our lovable piecemeal dog family that has been taken in by a serial killer after he murdered their female owners. Yikes! The genuine originality of this idea is only bested by the execution of it.
If you read my review of Ultramega #1, you’ll see my unabashed enthusiasm. I love a great kaiju story… Heck, I love a terrible kaiju story, but make no mistake Ultramega falls in the former category. It is stellar. The first issue introduced us to a world in which people turn into kaiju, and three humans were given the power to turn into protectors and fight them off. You saw how weary these heroes were, how depressed they were. The battles were insanely cool, and the ending was a shock!
Writer Greg Rucka (Lois Lane, Wonder Woman, Lazarus) and artist Leandro Fernández (Wolverine: Coyote Crossing, The Discipline) return to the world of immortal mercenaries found in The Old Guard from Image Comics.
Quick recap so far: We’re twenty years into the future with Zoë having all sorts of old troubles mixed in with some new ones. While the faces around her are mostly different, the jobs and the scrimmages seem familiar, but things are always different when you’re running with your young-adult daughter who’s got every bit of your stubbornness and her father’s dreaminess.
The writing team of Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden jump right into the action with this new series. It’s World War II with witches (both good and bad). The British Allies have a special item, and they need to get it to safety before they’re all wiped out.
James Stokoe’s Orphan and the Five Beasts is continuing to be as deliciously weird as I was hoping it would be! Taking its inspirations from manga and anime like Berzerker and Fist of the North Star and Hong Kong kung-fu cinema, Stokoe has fashioned a tale full of Chinese mythological world building and epically daffy anime-style battles. It’s perfectly magical and freaking badass.
“I am a Ranger Scout… and I believe in the Seven Laws.
From nuclear fire to radioactive waste, I will not succumb to the Badlands… for I am d-descended from the Prophet…. and his w-words shall not be denied.”
“Commander— hazard detected!
“Hear my prayer. And let me fear not the wilderness of death… now and forevermore, I am a Ranger Scout,,,”
“Seek shelter immediately!!”
This graphic novel plays just like a Peanuts television special. It doesn’t just have the Peanuts style, though that’s certainly part of it. It also has the familiar rhythm of a Peanuts special—a rhythm I can’t really explain, but if you’ve seen a Peanuts special or two and read this graphic novel, you’ll see what I mean.
In 1901, Jules Verne wrote a novel called The Lighthouse at the End of the World about a secluded lighthouse and its keepers in the middle of nowhere, and the pirates who attack it. Now, David Hine and Brian Haberlin have adapted that novel into a sci-fi comic that includes spaceships, wormholes, androids… and, of course, pirates. I haven’t read the novel, so I don’t know how faithful the comic is to the source material, but it does manage to be interesting enough in its own right.