Erik Cheski
I've got you . . . under my skin . . .
War never changes, not in your body, anyway. Gabriel Creations brings us the best anthropomorphized version of our immune system since Osmosis Jones. Okay, this is actually much better, but how often do you get to reference that particular movie? Taking a look at the microscopic systems that protect our bodies in a fun and action-filled way is really fun, and then there's the macroscopic consequences to deal with, as well.
Whether you’re top of the heap or the bottom, we all look the same in the end.
Issue #1 had us hooked, and now the second issue is delightfully reeling us in. Rolling with a more stately pace for the most part, this noir-ish world gets a whole lot bigger, a whole lot smaller, and exceptionally more dangerous. I was, at first, afraid that this issue would turn into an exposition dump, layering all of the (admittedly interesting) nuance to the world of the Spire, and, yes, there is a lot there, but the killer from the first book interrupts at an unexpected and opportune moment to keep the mystery and us alive.
Are you my mother?
Dark Horse gives us a dour, broken world that somehow manages to craft love and light into a fun and deliberate story that’s perfect for anyone who picks up an issue. Set in an Orwellian/Lenin nightmare, young Veda’s mother is killed in the factory she works in while her daughter lies hidden, unknown to any other living soul. Much like staying in a store past closing, our little protagonist finds herself in a strange world of the afterhours life of the machines in the place she knows as her whole world. The machines take her in, and she finds that she can communicate in their own language, changing the shape of their world forever.
You and what army? Oh . . .
School is hard. There are kids picking on you on the playground, teachers picking on you in class, and the kid in the back picking his nose. It can be a devastating developmental time, but you know what makes it easier? Being the CEO of a multimillion-dollar corporation and having an army at your command (though the numbers in said army are a touch less than one might expect . . . ). Jacob Chabot has imagined just such a scenario, and it’s a great series for readers of any age to get a start on this reprint of the first collected volume.
Rise and shine . . .
It can be hard to get out of bed sometimes. That snooze button sits atop your alarm like a siren, guiding you back to slumber for another nine blissful minutes. When you finally give up the hope that school/work is canceled and you can't stay in bed any longer, some days it takes all the energy you have just to get vertical. Imagine how hard it is for the Earth to do the same. This is the concept of Action Lab's new series, Awake, where we meet a young girl who has the power to wake a planet, bringing it to consciousness to protect and nurture the life on its surface. Young Regn is on her first such assignment, and something is off . . .
What goes around comes around and around and around . . .
Welcome to the second issue of Robert Alter’s Cyberpunk meets ancient playground. In the last issue, we got a lot of info about a corporate-run police state, where most people have gotten on with their future badassery in the form of cybernetic implants. Tragically, this has led to new types of disease in this dystopian wonderland, and a hero from the past regains herself to fight for the future.
Life is expositions hurled at sunsets.
Chris Sheridan has decided to take one cool thing (motorcycles) and marry them to another cool thing (samurai), making a third slightly more cool thing than both separately could be. Landing his creations somewhere between the worlds of Kirasowa, Samurai Jack, and Aeon Flux, he makes an art form of the long, slow draws that classic westerns and samurai flicks from the '70s excelled at.
This book is fun.
Super fun. ‘cause they’re supers . . . yeah, anyway. Nicolas Touris and Armando Acevedo are super goofy and creative folks, and I love what they’ve put together in the first issue of this series. Feeling like a mix of Borderlands and Samurai Jack, there’s a lot of solid ideas contained within this story that they manage to both elevate and make fun of in seemingly the same breath. I dig it.
Goku has been training . . .
King Tiger makes a triumphant return to Dark Horse at the hands of Randy Stradley and Douglas Wheatley (refraining from Portal riff . . . poorly). Hovering between Doctor Strange, Harry Dresden, Goku, and Liu Kang, Tiger protects Earth Realm (not their term, I just can’t help it sometimes) from extra-normal powers hellbent on death, destruction, and general bad attitudes. Okay, maybe not so much on the last one, but you get the idea. Having launched backup shorts during the Blackout miniseries, King Tiger is ready to do some goodery.
Heroes, sometimes, make themselves.
It’s likely the dream of anyone who does a stunt or super-power show, to really become the hero you play day in and out. It doesn’t quite go that way in the first issue of Dartman, but the dream is definitely there.
