Direct Download (15:14)
2020 is the 10th anniversary of the Longbox Review podcast, and to celebrate, I am spotlighting 10 episodes from the archive. This is a rebroadcast of episode 1 where I talked about Batman #700, Superman #700, and Wonder Woman #600.
Thank you for supporting the podcast over these 10 years.
Go here for a complete list of comics releasing this week.
What are you getting this week?
What are some other comics I missed that I should buy?
Go here for a complete list of comics releasing this week.
What are you getting this week?
What are some other comics I missed that I should buy?
JUSTICE LEAGUE #40 by Robert Venditti, Doug Mahnke, Richard Friend, David Baron, Tom Napolitano, Andrea Shea, and Alex R Carr, with cover by Bryan Hitch and Jeremiah Skipper
Justice League returns to my pull list because Robert Venditti is writing it. I dropped this title shortly after the Rebirth relaunch because I just don’t really care for Scott Snyder stories. But Venditti is awesome, and he’s got Doug Mahnke visualizing the story, so there’s a great team here. I understand that this story takes place prior to the story Snyder and company were telling that ended (for now) in issue 39, but it does occur after recent events in the Superman and Batman titles (i.e., Superman having revealed his identity to the world and the death of Alfred), so that’s not confusing. I don’t particularly care for yet another Eradicator story, but I do like the interaction between the characters, especially the conflict between Batman and Flash. Even better, Madame Xanadu makes an appearance, though it’s a different take of the character than the one shown in Hawkman last year, but I don’t mind the apparent incongruity — continuity isn’t that important to me anymore. I heard Venditti on a podcast explain that DC wants him to tell shorter stories, so I’m looking forward to where he takes these characters.
Go here for a complete list of comics releasing this week.
What are you getting this week?
What are some other comics I missed that I should add to my Buy list?
VALKYRIE: JANE FOSTER #7 by Al Ewing, Jason Aaron, Pere Perez, Jesus Aburtov, Joe Sabino, and Mahmood Asrar and Matthew Wilson (cover)
The best Marvel comic you’re not reading continues with the Marvel Medics treating Death herself! The plot is pretty simple (the medics journey to Death’s realm to prevent her from dying and have to face some uncomfortable situations along the way [a la the Hero’s Journey]), but the execution of the scene with the portraits, Jane’s conversation with the Death of Death and her soliloquy as she answers Its question (“Do we need Death?”), and how the final page connected all of what came before was so great.
Go here for a complete list of comics releasing this week.
NEAR DEATH v1 by Jay Faerber, Simone Guglielmini, Ron Riley, Charles Pritchett, Tom Coler, and Daniel Freedman
Some time last year, probably during an Image sale on Comixology, I bought both volumes of Near Death primarily because I’m a fan of Mr. Faerber’s comic books. That and I am a sucker for the “bad guy” attempting a shot at redemption. In this case, hitman Markham dies briefly and finds himself being haunted by all of the people he’s killed. He comes out of the experience not wanting to end up in that place again, and so decides he needs to balance the scales. He does this by helping people and, with a few missteps, not killing anyone in the process.
One thing I enjoy about this premise is that Markham’s motives aren’t altruistic and he has no compunction about killing again, but he chooses not to. It reminds me somewhat of the Rockford Files but edgier. Guglielmini’s art is sufficiently noirish and moody, but I’m never confused about where my eyes should scan across the pages and who I’m looking at, which, surprisingly, is a lot more of a problem in other comic books I’ve read than you’d think. And after reading both volumes of this title, I can now read the recently released OGN Over My Dead Body!
What are you getting this week?
