4.22.15 [#PicksOfTheWeek]

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It seems like it’s either boom or bust for my weekly pull. I think I only ended up buying two books last week, so naturally there’s about a dozen this week that I’m interested in. Drones #1 (IDW) by Chris Lewis and Bruno Oliveira looks interesting, pitting the notion of post-9/11 covert drone warfare up against a terrorism themed hotel on the Las Vegas strip. Whaaa? It’s just crazy enough that it’ll probably be totally great or totally crash and burn. We’ll see!

Image Comics is bringing two of their absolute best this week, with Lazarus #16 (Image) by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark, and Manifest Destiny #14 (Image) by Chris Dingess and Matthew Roberts. If you follow my best of the year lists, both of these were selections last year, so you should definitely check them out. Lazarus brings a dystopian future based on a) organized crime corporations ruling the world, b) severe income inequality fast-forwarded to apocalyptic proportions, and c) rapidly advancing biotechnology creating hardened super-soldier enforcers. Manifest Destiny tickles my fascination with historical speculative fiction in a time period that’s super cool, tracking Lewis & Clark’s fabled expedition into the monster-filled territory of the Louisiana Purchase.

Image Comics also has the non-nuclear family dynamics of assassin kids within an 80’s cultural context in Deadly Class #12 (Image) out from Rick Remender and Wes Craig, the follow up issue to Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko’s very strong politically-charged sci-fi debut with Invisible Republic #2 (Image), and the oh-god-what-will-he-pull-next? fascination of Chip Zdarsky and Kagan McLeod’s Kaptara #1 (Image).

I’m also very excited to check out Mono Vol. 2 #1 (Titan Comics) by Brian Wood and Sergio Sandoval. I believe this is the first of a two-part story about an alt-history WWII mission in the Pacific Theatre, and one of the rare (only?) Brian Wood projects that I didn’t read in its first incarnation since I’m not a huge fan of the existing digital comics experience (seems like there’s still room for some innovation here by newcomers), so I’m glad to see a print version following with Titan’s lush production values. Also? Gorillas!

I’ll probably take a half-hearted flip through Star Wars #4 (Marvel), a book that has become totally yawn-inducing with the out-of-character fan-fic plots and off-model inconsistencies in the art (a host of criticisms I could probably level at all the current Marvel SW books, and I desperately hope the recently announced Lando series by Charles Soule and Alex Maleev will break the trend), as well as The Life After #9 (Oni Press), a book that made a strong start for me, but one that I’ve sort of lost interest in during the last couple of issues. With so many strong books out there, it just happens sometimes.

As for trades, the only thing that jumped out at me to recommend is Winterworld Volume 2: Stranded (IDW) by Chuck Dixon, Tomas Giorello, and Tommy Lee Edwards. Chuck Dixon has taken a pretty bad rap lately for some of his conservative world views, but hey, if you only followed the work of people whose political or religious beliefs you agreed with 100%, you probably wouldn’t be reading very many comics. Dixon is responsible for one of my favorite extended runs on Nightwing years ago, and this series about survival after cataclysmic climate change is an interesting and grounded take on a popular setting.