Kristine Chester (309)
Favorite Comic Book Series: Atomic Robo
Favorite D&D Class: Wizard
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Cookies N' Cream
In the 1940s, the world was introduced to, arguably, the first Asian superhero, The Green Turtle, a masked man with a turtle cape, a haunting shadow, and a mysterious background who was featured in five issues of Blazing Comics. Now, 70 years later, Gene Yang (Boxers & Saints, American Born Chinese) and Sonny Liew (My Faith in Frankie, Sense and Sensibility) have brought new life to the character and delved back into his origins in the The Shadow Hero.
There are many different flavors of hit men. Some are masters of political assassinations, some try to find inventive new ways to kill people, some yodel, but they all have their own distinctive style, their mark. Mike Fallon's is a gift for setting up accidents. What looks like a suicide or a terrible car accident might, in fact, be a murder caused by an accident man.
You know how whenever Batman captures a villain, he'll have escaped from Arkham Asylum and be back on the streets by next week? Yeah, Thaniel doesn't let the bad guys get that far. Possessing a mysterious power reminiscent of the grim reaper and a thirst for vengeance, Thaniel finds himself cleaning up the streets of his hometown one murder at a time.
Cosmic Times' Decisions is about the choices we make in life. The hard choices. The ones that determine how a person's life turns out. The comic series follows two wandering specters as they provide people at a crossroads in their lives the opportunity to review their choices and see potentially different outcomes before making their final decision.
In the 1940s the world was introduced to, arguably, the first Asian superhero, The Green Turtle, a masked man with a turtle cape, a haunting shadow, and a mysterious background who was featured in five issues of Blazing Comics. Now, 70 years later, Gene Yang (Boxers & Saints, American Born Chinese) and Sonny Liew (My Faith in Frankie, Sense and Sensibility) have brought new life to the character and delved back into his origins in the first chapter of The Shadow Hero.
I'm unabashedly a fan of Marceline the Vampire Queen. For those of you who don't know, Marceline is a 1,000+-year-old vampire/demon originally hailing from the Nightosphere, land of all things creepy and dangerous. Marceline's family is having a reunion, and she doesn't want to go alone, because family stuff is awkward even when you're not the spawn of the Lord of Evil. In a surprising turn, accompanying her is Jake the Dog who really just needs something to do because he's bored.
Finn and Jake in a . . . Post-Apocalyptic World? Adventure Time covers a lot of genres, but this is one I never thought I'd see explored. As the boys head off into a grim and desolate wasteland to continue their reverse quest to convince the Monkey Wizard to kidnap Princess Painting, they team up with Marceline the vampire, because, you know, vampires are awesome.
I am so delighted with this issue that I'm not sure I have the words to properly explain why. Like all of the best episodes of Star Trek, Star Trek #30 touches on a serious exploration of a real world issue and has fun the entire time it's doing so. These examinations of our culture are why I love Trek in the first place, and Star Trek #30 tackles the issue of gender, and all of our modern-day stereotypes of gender, wonderfully.
Some things you can't come back from. The new Tomb Raider comic written by Gail Simone with art by Nicholas Daniel Selma picks up immediately after the events of the 2013 Tomb Raider video game, which rebooted the franchise (and is a must play. You can read my thoughts on the game here). Tomb Raider still follows Lara Croft, a wealthy British girl who looks for lost treasures and kicks a-- in the same vein as Indiana Jones. The reboot has set her around 21 years old, and the game is the recounting of her first real brush with danger. Given all of the running and gunning that Lara and her companions had to do, the comic takes a surprisingly realistic turn by focusing on issues of PTSD. It examines the different ways people try to cope with their experiences and, more importantly, how they are forever changed by the things they've seen and done. It's the start of a fascinating and gritty look that few action-adventure stories bother to go into.
Katelyn (Kit Quinn) is a woman who hit her head and now thinks she's the superhero Trinity Infinity. Her friends - Lilly (Lola Binkerd), Paul (David Dickerson), and Silvia (Tallest Silver) - have been trying to help her cope with life by using elaborate comic book scenarios while Paul's ex-girlfriend, Morgan (Megan Alyse), has been trying to snap Katelyn back into reality. Their back-and-forth struggle finally comes to a head in the final episode of Sweethearts of the Galaxy.
