Marvel's May previews reviewed

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #20.HU
NICK SPENCER (W) • CORY SMITH (A) • Cover by GREG LAND
ESSENTIAL “HUNTED” TIE-IN!
• The Vulture is one of Spider-Man’s oldest villains and his oldest villain…
• …but that doesn’t make him any less dangerous. Kraven’s biggest hunt has thrown everything upside down and there’s plenty of carrion for the Vulture.
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #21
NICK SPENCER (W) • HUMBERTO RAMOS (A/C)
Connecting Variant Cover by LEINIL FRANCIS YU
...
THE CLIMACTIC CONCLUSION OF “HUNTED” IS HERE!
• Spidey faces an impossible situation that will push him as far as he’s ever been pushed.
• Who lives and who dies when the hunters become the prey?
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #22
NICK SPENCER (W) • RYAN OTTLEY (A/C)
...
HUNTED AFTERMATH!
• The fallout from “HUNTED” continues to loom, and much of Peter’s life is called into question.
• What is left of Spider-Man after living through the harrowing hunt?!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

So have you guys heard about the realms? Apparently, they are all at war. And this realm warring is a comic book event series that is pretty damn close to eating up all of the available pages in Marvel's line this May. I've noted the above books simply because they are not tied into the War of The Realms event series, and were the first of the many, many, may titles I had to scroll down through before hitting something that didn't have to do with Jason Aaron's Thor-centric mega-narrative. (I just read the first collection of Spencer and Ottley's ASM though, and it was quite good).

The Spider- books, Ta-Nehisi Coates' Black Panther and Captain America, Daredevil, The Invaders, The Immortal Hulk, Ironheart, Shuri...honestly, it would be easier to list the books not tying into War of The Realms than those that are, and that's notable given how many spin-off miniseries with the words "War of The Realms" in the title there are; one wouldn't think the story would need to spill into the pages of Venom or Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl or whatever in order to be told in full.


CAPTAIN AMERICA: EVOLUTIONS OF A LIVING LEGEND TPB
Written by JOE SIMON, STEVE ENGLEHART, MARK GRUENWALD, MARK WAID, ROB LIEFELD, JEPH LOEB, ED BRUBAKER, RICK REMENDER & NICK SPENCER
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, SAL BUSCEMA, TOM MORGAN, DAVE HOOVER, RON GARNEY, ROB LIEFELD, MIKE DEODATO JR., JOHN ROMITA JR., JESUS SAIZ & CHRIS SAMNEE
Cover by ALEX ROSS
The many costumes of Captain America! The star-spangled costume of Captain America has been a timeless symbol of hope and freedom since his days fighting Nazism overseas and McCarthyism at home. This historical retrospective of Steve Rogers’ various uniforms and super hero mantles is a showcase of America’s ever-evolving sociopolitical landscape. From his early days fighting in overt patriotic garb as Captain America during World War II through his adoption of the predominately black uniform and title of the Captain at a time when he became a symbol of resisting absolute government control, Rogers has always worn his allegiance openly. Time and again, Steve has returned to Captain America’s red-white-and-blue iconography, proving that the symbolic clothing of the Sentinel of Liberty stands for a higher ideal than any one person or government can achieve. Collecting CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #180, #337, #438 and #451; CAPTAIN AMERICA (1996) #3; SECRET AVENGERS (2010) #1; CAPTAIN AMERICA (2012) #1; CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS #1; CAPTAIN AMERICA (2017) #695; and material from CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #1-2.
248 PGS./Rated T+ …$29.99
ISBN: 978-1-302-91848-4

I'm not a savvy enough Marvel reader to be able to match many of these titles and issue numbers to actual stories, but this sounds like a collection of the many different times Cap has adopted different, temporary costumes and code names as he became disillusioned with being Captain America and then would re-adopt a version of his original duds. That's an interesting idea to organize a collection around--although The Man Costumes of Captain America is a better-sounding title. I hope there's a lot of prose content in their to contextualize each of the changes.


INFINITY WARS BY GERRY DUGGAN: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION HC
Written by GERRY DUGGAN
Penciled by MIKE DEODATO JR., MIKE ALLRED, AARON KUDER, MIKE HAWTHORNE, ANDY MACDONALD, MARK BAGLEY & CORY SMITH
Cover by MIKE DEODATO JR.
ON SALE SEPTEMBER 2019
The full saga of Requiem and the Infinity Wars! The Infinity Stones are back. Individually, they grant their wielders great power. Together, they bestow the power of a god! As each stone’s location is discovered, forces converge for a battle that will send the universe down a dark path — to the end! Featuring the Chitauri, the Raptors, the Nova Corps, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Adam Warlock and more surprising Stone wielders! But who, or what, is Requiem? When she warps the Marvel Universe in half, what surprising heroes will assemble to stand against her? And when death comes at last, who will fall? Collecting INFINITY COUNTDOWN PRIME, INFINITY COUNTDOWN: ADAM WARLOCK, INFINITY COUNTDOWN #1-5, INFINITY WARS PRIME, INFINITY WARS #1-6, INFINITY WARS: FALLEN GUARDIAN and INFINITY and material from FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2018 (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN/GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY) #1 and THANOS LEGACY #1.
592 PGS./Rated T+ …$50.00
ISBN: 978-1-302-91496-7
Trim size: oversized

There were seemingly so many preludes and tie-ins to this series that I was waiting until the dust settled and the collections arrive at the library before even attempting it. This sure looks pretty complete; is this the book I want to read Infinity Wars in, or is this particular volume too complete, and I am better off just reading the main series...? And is this where all those neat-looking "Infinity Warps" characters show up, or is that another trade...?

Maybe I'm just getting too old for line-wide superhero event series like this, but this is one of those instances where I feel like Groucho buying guide books from Chico at the race track in A Day At The Races...

FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #6
TOM TAYLOR (W) • Yildiray Cinar (A) • Cover by ANDREW C. ROBINSON
...
• The neighborhood, and the planet, is doomed. Spider-Man is powerless to stop the end of the world. Only Earth’s Newest and Mightiest Hero, Spider-Bite, can save the day.
• Wait, WHAT?!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

Say, is that Spider-Man and Spider-Bite on the cover there...? If so, that's cool; this Spider-Bite character looks to be a sidekick in the mode of sidekicks as little clones of their mentors, like Toro to The Human Torch, or Kid Flash to The Flash when he was wearing his original costume or Tim to The Black Terror. To choose three universally known and beloved examples.

GIANT-MAN #1 & #2 (OF 3)
LEAH WILLIAMS (W) • MARCO CASTIELLO (A) • Cover by WOO CHEOL
...
WAR OF THE REALMS TIE-IN! ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS!
Issue #1 - At the behest of All-Mother Freyja, four men must rise to monstrous heights and infiltrate the most savage territory of New Jotunheim: Florida!
Issue #2 - Four of the biggest men in the Marvel Universe are on a mission in Frost Giant territory: kill the patriarch of all Frost Giants himself, Ymir, on behalf of Lady Freyja. But how exactly will they penetrate Laufey’s forces? By becoming masters of disguise!
32 PGS. (EACH)/Rated T …$3.99 (EACH)

Okay, I give up; why isn't this called Giant-Men, plural...?

And are these four giant men going to risk their lives just to reclaim Florida from Frost Giants? Er, that's okay guys; it's just Florida. Don't put yourselves to any trouble.

MARVEL TEAM-UP #2
EVE L. EWING (W) • JOEY VAZQUEZ (A) • Cover by STEFANO CASELLI
VARIANT COVER BY TBA
Looks like trouble for our hero, Spider-Man, also known as Kamala Khan. Er...wait. We mean Ms. Marvel, also known as Peter Parker. Dang, that’s not right either. Peter Khan? Kamala Parker? Well, whoever it is, this duo isn’t feeling so dynamic at the moment, and they need to work it out fast.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

Given how many Marvel superheroes live in New York City and the surrounding environs, you would think that sort of thing would happen more often, with heroes getting parts of their costumes mixed up at the laundromat. Hell, The Avengers probably all share a single washing machine; surely Hawkeye and Captain America have gotten their tunics mixed up at some point in the past...

SAVAGE AVENGERS #1
GERRY DUGGAN (W) • MIKE DEODATO JR. (A)
Cover by DAVID FINCH
...
The most savage, most unkillable team of characters in the Marvel Universe is assembled! Wolverine! Venom! Elektra! Punisher! And in their midst – Conan the Barbarian! Conan has returned to the Marvel Universe and his new adventures begin here. What is the City of Sickles? Who is the Marrow God? How is the Hand involved? The roughest and most dangerous characters rumble through this new title starting with...Conan vs. Wolverine? ’Nuff said.
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99

Conan as an Avenger...? Huh. I'm actually kind of surprised Marvel did something this cool and inevitable; it sounds like the sort of thing a fan or reader would want to read, but that the publisher wouldn't actually publish (I mean, I would have preferred the original Avengers found Conan frozen in a block of ice instead of Captain America in a What If? special, but this could be interesting too.

...

So, what do you think everyone is standing on on this cover...?

Walter Simonson draws a hell of a Darth Vader, doesn't he? That's one of the cover images for Star Wars #108, a special one-issue revival of the original Marvel Star Wars comic, which Marvel is apparently doing as part of their 80th anniversary celebration.

Well, that and because publishing more Star Wars comics is, like, one of Marvel's go-to moves these days.


TIMELY’S GREATEST: THE GOLDEN AGE SUB-MARINER BY BILL EVERETT - THE PRE-WAR YEARS OMNIBUS HC
Written by BILL EVERETT with CARL BURGOS & JOHN COMPTON
Penciled by BILL EVERETT with CARL BURGOS
...
Marvel proudly presents TIMELY’S GREATEST, a series of once-in-a-lifetime volumes presenting the greatest stories of the Golden Age, when Marvel was known as Timely Comics! Our debut volume celebrates the incomparable adventures of comics’ first antihero, Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner! Bill Everett’s Sub-Mariner cut a bold path, defending his undersea kingdom, invading New York City, fighting the Axis powers and battling both against and alongside the Human Torch! Like his signature character, Everett was an iconoclast ahead of his time. His lush, detailed artwork and engrossing ongoing storylines were unlike anything else of the era! For the first time ever, experience every adventure of Prince Namor from his 1939 debut through Bill Everett’s February 1942 induction into the armed services. Collecting material from MARVEL COMICS #1, MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #2-31, HUMAN TORCH COMICS #2-6, SUB-MARINER COMICS #1-4, ALL-WINNERS COMICS (1941) #1-4, DARING MYSTERY COMICS #7-8 and COMEDY COMICS (1942) #9.
864 PGS./Rated T …$150.00
ISBN: 978-1-302-91935-1
Trim size: oversized
TIMELY’S GREATEST: THE GOLDEN AGE SUB-MARINER BY BILL EVERETT -
THE PRE-WAR YEARS OMNIBUS HC (MARVEL 80TH, DM ONLY)
864 PGS./Rated T ...$150.00

Wow, this sounds like an ideal collection! I can't wait to...Wait, $150?! Goddamit, Marvel.

Well, I guess there's always a chance I might win the lottery before the final order cutoff...

THE UNSTOPPABLE WASP #7 & #8
JEREMY WHITLEY (W) • ALTI FIRMANSYAH (A)
CoverS by STACEY LEE
ISSUE #7 - MARVEL BATTLE LINES VARIANT COVER BY SUJIN JO
What do you do when your quasi-adopted stepdaughter reveals that she’s never had a birthday party, and doesn’t even know when her birthday is? Well, if you’re Janet Van Dyne — Original Avenger, Winsome Wasp, Pym Labs C.E.O. and Fashion Designer — you throw together the best last-minute birthday party the Marvel Universe has ever seen. But what happens when Nadia’s fellow Red Room graduate Bucky Barnes, A.K.A. the Winter Soldier, crashes the party?
32 PGS. (EACH)/Rated T+ …$3.99 (EACH)

That's a fine cover.

Um, that's all.

WAR OF THE REALMS #3 (OF 6)
JASON AARON (W) • RUSSELL DAUTERMAN (A)
Cover by ARTHUR ADAMS & MATTHEW WILSON
...
RECLAIM THE REALMS!
North America freezes into New Jotunheim. Europe becomes New Svartalfheim. Asia goes up in flames as the new domain of Queen Sindr and her fire goblins. Ulik the Troll lays claim to Australia while Amora the Enchantress raises an army of the dead in South America. Africa falls to the Angels of Heven while Roxxon Oil drops its stakes in Antarctica. Midgard now belongs to Malekith and his allies! The Avengers’ last hope lies in a series of suicide missions across the realms, starting with the rescue of Thor—last seen surrounded by an army of Frost Giants in Jotunheim…
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99

I really like Captain America's winter jacket on the cover there. It looks like everyone has some sort of winter wear and/or Asgardian artifact on the cover. I have to assume Spidey's silly-looking helmet is magic and performs some sort of function, as he is shown wearing it on other covers as well.

WAR OF THE REALMS: NEW AGENTS OF ATLAS #1 & #2 (OF 4)
GREG PAK (W) • GANG-HYUK LIM (A) • COVER BY BILLY TAN
...
FEATURING MARVEL’S NEWEST HEROES WAVE, AERO & SWORD MASTER!
ISSUE #1 - A “War of the Realms” tie-in series! As Sindr, Immortal Queen of Muspelheim, and her legions of Fire Demons march on Asia, it’s time for a new band of heroes to unite to protect the Pacific Rim. Having brought together a ragtag team of heroes to defend the Earth from an alien invasion in the past, can Amadeus Cho reassemble his “protectors” -- Shang-Chi, Silk and Jimmy Woo to save the world from incineration? And where is Kamala Khan? And just who are Crescent, Io and Luna Snow??? Featuring Marvel’s newest heroes from China, Aero and Sword Master, and a mysterious new Filipino heroine named WAVE!
ISSUE #2 - The Queen of Cinders has conquered Korea -- and the rest of Asia! And only Amadeus Cho and a battered band of international superheroes stand between her and her ultimate goal -- to melt the polar ice caps and turn all of Midgard into a sweltering new Muspelheim! With the ice-wielding superhero Luna Snow down for the count, Amadeus and his team must find a new way to fight fire.
32 PGS. (EACH)/Rated T+ …$3.99 (EACH)

Hmm...

I'm a big fan of Jimmy Woo. And Amadeus Cho. And The Agents of Atlas. These other characters I could really take or leave, although the bear girl looks kinda cool. The idea of an all Asian or Asian-American super-team is interesting, of course, and will likely mean a great deal to other readers. I'm not entirely sure how Pak will have the "Agents of Atlas" name apply to this particular group of characters, but I suppose as long as Woo is there and in charge, it can work.

I hope this is good. I'll await the trade paperback collection though, because this particular event series looks even bigger and more complicated than Infinity Wars was and, well, you know...

DC's May previews reviewed

What gives, Superman? Are you under a red sun or what? That word-encrusted chunk of rock isn't that big, and yet you're struggling with it as if you were but a common Hulk or Spider-Man.

I have no idea what's been going on with the Super Sons and their adventures these days, but I kinda like this cover, particularly little Braniac's face.

Word on the street Internet is that with the previous Superboy, The Kid/Kon-El/Conner Kent version, back in circulation, he and Jonathan Kent will figure out who is Superboy and who gets a new code name. I'm a little worried, as I've grown to like the Jon character as he's been during Peter Tomasi's time writing him in various books, and he seems to have been aged and changed by whatever Brian Michael Bendis is currently up to in the Superman books (I resolved to read those in trade, so I'm pretty dang behind, obviously).

If I had to guess, I would assume Jon would keep the "Superboy" name, while Conner gets a newer, lamer one (hopefully not Superkid or Superteen or Superman Jr), but I guess we'll see.

Is it even worth mentioning that Bendis' track record with coming up with new hero names isn't the most stellar...? (See Geldoff and Goldballs, for example).

BATGIRL #35
written by MAIRGHREAD SCOTT
art by PAUL PELLETIER and NORM RAPMUND
cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
...
After Batgirl’s discovery of the Terrible Trio’s bid to control the Gotham underworld, she’s immediately off to investigate—starting with the group’s muscle…the Shark! Can Babs use her wits to survive a showdown with this bro turned bruiser? Or is he just a warm-up for the battle to come against this band of wild criminals?
ON SALE 05.22.19
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED T

See? The Terrible Trio have pretty cool designs.

You can't beat their original appearance, though:

Yeah, that's the stuff...

Say look, it's Batman on a horse! Or, at least, a Batman on a horse. It's not a very dramatic image of one of my favorite subjects of comics art, though.

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #1
written by BRYAN HILL
art by DEXTER SOY
cover by TYLER KIRKHAM
...
When the quest for justice drives Batman into some morally ambiguous areas, he calls in the most moral man he knows: Jefferson Pierce, a.k.a. Black Lightning, and his team of operatives known as the Outsiders!
Several years ago Batman personally put the Barrera family into hiding after they suffered through terrible experiments at the hands of an organization called the Ark. Now all but one of them have turned up dead...and Batman needs to locate Sofia Barrera before the wrong people get their hands on her—and her surprising power! But it wouldn’t be Batman without a hidden agenda, would it? And when Black Lightning, Katana, the Signal and Orphan find out what Batman is really up to, their every loyalty will be called into question.
RESOLICIT | ON SALE 05.08.19
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED T+
This issue is resolicited. All previous orders are cancelled This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for details.

Huh. When it was announced this comic was being pushed back to be fiddled with a bit, it raised a red flag, as I assumed it meant that the events of another comic were going to supersede what writer Bryan Hill had already written or planned for the title.. Either something bad, like Duke and/or Cassandra getting killed in superhero meat grinder Heroes In Crisis, for example, or something good, like Cass resuming the Batgirl or Black Bat name and getting a better, battier costume. Based on the solicitation for this first issue though, I'm not sure what that might have been, as it still looks and sounds just like it did when originally solicited for a December 2018 release.

Of course, the publisher deciding to hold off on a new title a few months to make sure it was just right--or at least better--probably shouldn't raise any red flags. After all, a book like Shazam probably could have benefited from the publisher holding off until they had a few issues in the can, rather than releasing a first issue and then immediately falling behind schedule.

I'm not a fan of Batman Beyond--the character, the cartoon, the comic--but I am a fan of Chris Samnee's art. And damn, is this another fine image of his. The busy background and garish colors aren't ideal, but they're part and parcel to the series' setting.


BATMAN: DAMNED #3
written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
art and cover by LEE BERMEJO
variant cover by JIM LEE
The stunning conclusion to the groundbreaking miniseries by the critically acclaimed team of writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo is here! Batman’s most baffling case brings him face to face with his worst nightmare in this highly anticipated finale!
PRESTIGE FORMAT
RESOLICIT
ON SALE 05.22.19
$6.99 US | 3 of 3 | 48 PAGES

"Groundbreaking"...? I mean, it was the first series to show Batman's penis but other than that, I sure wouldn't use that word to describe the first issue.

...

Did I say the exact same thing last month? I feel like I might have.


BATMAN/TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES III #1
written by JAMES TYNION IV
art and cover by FREDDIE E. WILLIAMS II
variant cover by KEVIN EASTMAN
The 80th anniversary of Batman collides with the 35th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in this stunning concluding miniseries to the BATMAN/TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES trilogy. Our heroes have battled the evil of the Foot Clan in Gotham City and Bane in New York, but now Krang has gotten his hands on the most dangerous technologies in the DC Universe—and no universe is safe from his wrath! Co-published with IDW.
ON SALE 05.01.19
$3.99 US | 1 of 6 | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED T

What, again? I was a bit ambivalent and disappointed in the first series, which I grant had a bit to do with me and my expectations for such a comic book crossover, and the sequel was in some ways better and some ways worse. I'm a little surprised that they're doing a third series by the exact same creative team, given that a large part of the potential appeal of such a series would be to see TMNT artists drawing Batman characters, and Batman artists drawing TMNT characters (Maybe they should do one of those Gallery pin-up books they used to, or would the current price of comic books make that seem like a rip-off to customers? I just really want to see Sophie Campbell and Jim Lawson draw Batman, and Kelley Jones and Guillem March draw ninja turtles! And Michael Zulli draw both!). That said, Williams is a pretty perfect artist for such a pairing of characters, and there's certainly something to be said for the if it's not broke, don't fix it school of thought here; certainly Teenage Caleb would have preferred that Simon Bisley handle the second and third Batman/Judge Dredd crossovers as well as the third...

Of course, part of the reason this is such a surprise to me is that between the DC-published first and second Tynion/Williams series, IDW published a fun little crossover paring specific versions of the characters, those from the Batman: The Animated Series cartoon and the then-current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series on Nickelodoeon. That too had some problems, but benefited from its narrow focus, so that a reader need not view it as a once-in-a-lifetime, ultimate team-up between Batman and the TMNT. So I thought it would be IDW's "turn" to do a Batman/TMNT crossover, and God knows there are plenty of "versions" of the characters that would be fun to pair, if they wanted to do a spiritual sequel to their first one, like, I don't know...Batman '89 meets Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles '90 or Batman '66 meets the original cartoon Turtles or Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns Batman meeting the Miller-inspired Mirage Turtles on and on.

Of course, the solicitation does mention no universe being safe from Krang (who, remember, is totally lame), so I suppose this series has the possibility of incorporating other versions of the characters from alternate dimensions, even if it doesn't seem to be the case (or, if it is the case, it doesn't look like they will be using different artists to denote different dimensions or anything).


DCEASED #1
written by TOM TAYLOR
art by TREVOR HAIRSINE, STEFANO GAUDIANO and JAMES HARREN
cover by GREG CAPULLO
...
“I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was Death, and Hades was following close behind him.”—Revelation 6:8
A mysterious techno-virus has been released on Earth, infecting 600 million people and turning them instantly into violent, monstrous engines of destruction.
The heroes of the DCU are caught completely unprepared for a pandemic of this magnitude and struggle to save their loved ones first…but what happens to the World’s Greatest Heroes if the world ends?
New York Times best-selling writer Tom Taylor (INJUSTICE) returns with a terrifying new tale and is joined by artists Trevor Hairsine (LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT) and Stefano Gaudiano (The Walking Dead).
ON SALE 05.01.19
$3.99 US | 1 of 6 | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED T+

Hm. This sounds an awful lot like bits of the Marvel Zombies stories. I have, like any DC comics reader who has seen too many zombie movies, imagined what a zombie outbreak story set in the DC Universe might be like. It's...hard to game out too far. Even if you set it in Gotham City, where the majority of the superheroes aren't super-powered, one would have to come up with some truly complicated rationale for why Superman and the Justice League don't just swoop in and save the day.

Zombies just aren't really a threat in the DC Universe. (One neat take, of course, would be if Batman and Superman refused to kill the zombies, and wouldn't budge from their no killing ever code, being unpersuaded that it's okay to kill what is technically already dead; those guys trying to find away to "save" the traditional zombie movie version of zombies while so many of their peers are intent on bashing their heads in would make for a neat moral conflict, I think.)

Anyway, I assume writer Tom Taylor has long since gamed all that out, or they wouldn't be soliciting it at all. It will be interesting to see what kind of "techno-virus" can turn a large swathe of Earth's population into a horde capable of threatening Superman and DC's other god-like heroes. This rather dark and depressing (and derivative) sounding storyline wouldn't generally generate much in the way of interest, let alone excitement, from me, were he not involved. Taylor has found room in his Injustice story for some actually amusing bits, so there's some hope for this.

I'm not much of a fan of Harisine's style, and I haven't read much of Gaudiano's, so I'm not sure what to expect from the series, visually.

DETECTIVE COMICS ANNUAL #2
written by PETER J. TOMASI
art by TRAVIS MOORE
cover by GUILLEM MARCH
After years on the shelf, Batman returns to the Black Casebook! Throughout his career, Batman has compiled his most disturbing cases into one volume, its every page filled with bizarre horror and crimes he never quite managed to solve. Now a case from the past has re-opened itself in the here and now…and Batman will find himself face-to-face again with one of the deadliest villains he fought in his early years: the Reaper!
ON SALE 05.29.19
$4.99 US | 48 PAGES

Batman: The Black Casebook should probably be an ongoing series. God knows there's enough material for new, more realistic, canonical versions of Batman's wildest and weirdest adventures to last a hundred issues or so. Pretty much anything from the 1950s, really.

As with any comic in which Guillem March draws the cover but not the interiors, this sound like it may be a visual disappointment. I mean, I'm sure Travis Moore is an okay artist and all, but I really dig March's Batman art, and there never seems to be enough of it.

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER #1
written by G. WILLOW WILSON, JOSHUA WILLIAMSON, MARIKO TAMAKI, DAN DiDIO, COLLIN KELLY, JACKSON LANZING and others
art by STJEPAN SEJIC, TOMY RANEY, CULLY HAMNER, KYLE HOTZ, CIAN TORMEY and others
cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
“Who let the dogs out?” DC does this summer as we unleash the beast within and join Krypto and Superman, Bat-Cow and Batman, Wonder Woman and Ferdinand and many more for eight sun-kissed stories in this can’t-miss animal-sized spectacular!
ONE-SHOT | PRESTIGE FORMAT
ON SALE 05.29.19
$9.99 US | 80 PAGES
FC | RATED T

This appears to be a seasonal special in the style of last year's DC's Beach Blanket Bad Guys Summer Special. As is often the case with these big anthologies, there's not much solid information about the contents, just a partial list of writers and artists, and the super-pet protagonists of three of the eight promised stories (Er, not that Ferdinand is a pet, of course...).

As a fan of DC Universe super-pets, I'm obviously kind of excited, although seeing that Dan DiDio has once again looked at all of the possible comics creators available to hire and decided that no, actually, he's the best guy for the job yet again is as depressing as it always is.

THE FLASH #70
written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON
art and cover by HOWARD PORTER
...
“The Flash Year One” starts here! Barry Allen feels helpless in his life in Central City. As a forensic scientist, he’s always catching criminals after they’ve committed their crimes. All that changes one fateful night when Barry is struck by a bolt of lightning and doused in chemicals. When he wakes from a coma, he realizes he can run at incredible speeds. Can Barry master these powers and be the hero his city needs...or will the powers burn through him?
ON SALE 05.08.19
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES

It looks like New 52 Superman's "Year One" t-shirt logo and jeans look was much more (retroactively) popular and influential than we knew. I wonder if we'll get "Year One" stories featuring the rest of the league in such off-the-rack, casual costumes in the near future? (If you revisit the Batman and The Outsiders cover above, I think some of those guys could benefit from the look. I think Orphan would look a billion times better just wearing a black t-shirt with a yellow bat on it, for example, or even a gray one with a black bat. Black Lightning would certainly look better with a blue t-shirt with a black lightning bolt on it).

Wow, look! Walter Simonson is drawing the cover for the fourth issue of the surprisingly great Female Furies miniseries.

...

Wait, why wasn't Simonson drawing all the covers...?

Well that doesn't look like a swastika on Overman of Earth-X's chest there; it looks more like that...throwing starfish thing from Krull...the...whattayacallit...

The Glaive. That's it.

I've already mentioned how fond I am of Guillem March's work, right...?

SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP #48
written by SHOLLY FISCH
art and cover by DARIO BRIZUELA
Over the years, Scooby and the gang have nabbed enough nefarious villains to fill a rogues gallery. But the tables are turned when they have to help a rogues gallery of the Flash’s most nefarious super-villains! Can the gang rescue the Rogues from the ghost of a fellow Rogue—that sinister spinner, the Top? And if they do, can they also rescue themselves from the Rogues?
ON SALE 05.22.19
$2.99 US | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED E

Whew! Am I ever glad to see this solicitation! There were a few weeks there where I worried that maybe Scooby-Doo Team-Up got canceled. But then, that wouldn't have made sense, would it? After all, why would DC cancel their best superhero comic...?

SUPERMAN: LEVIATHAN RISING SPECIAL #1
written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS,
MATT FRACTION, GREG RUCKA and MARC ANDREYKO
art by YANICK PAQUETTE, STEVE LIEBER and MIKE PERKINS
cover by YANICK PAQUETTE
An all-star roster of writers and artists highlight the new threat of Leviathan, but also tees up new ongoing series for Jimmy Olsen by writer Matt Fraction and artist Steve Lieber, and Lois Lane by writer Greg Rucka and artist Mike Perkins, coming in June! As Leviathan enacts a plan to take down Superman, it’s up to Lois, Jimmy and the heroes of the DC Universe to rescue the Man of Steel.
ONE-SHOT | PRESTIGE FORMAT
ON SALE 05.29.19
$9.99 US | 80 PAGES
FC | RATED T

Kind of burying the lede here, aren't they? Rucka and Perkins doing a Lois Lane comic and Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber doing a Jimmy Olsen comic is an infinitely bigger deal than anything going on in the Superman books proper, right? I've wanted Rucka (and Ed Brubaker) to do a The Planet series similar to Gotham Central since I first read an issue of Gotham Central, so I do hope this will end up being closer to that than Rucka doing his usual female protagonist-who-isn't-Wonder Woman schtick. He did write a lot of Lois during his run on Superman forever ago, and it wasn't all that great, but there were a lot of mitigating factors back then, I think. Nick Spencer did pretty amazing things with Jimmy Olsen in his 2011 book (with R.B. Silva), and I think Fraction and Spencer have enough in common that he's another writer I'd be really excited to see handle Jimmy.

Now enough speculation: Let's get to the important question. What the fuck is Power Girl doing up there? Does she exist any more or what? I thought she didn't really exist in the current DCU, and was just an extra-dimensional Supergirl from the first post-Flashpoint Earth-2 disguised as...you know what, nevermind. I don't even care anymore.

DC ¡LUCHA EXPLOSIVA! BATMAN, DEATHSTROKE, SUPERMAN, METALLO II, WONDER WOMAN AND THE CHEETAH ACTION FIGURES
Técnicos! Rudos! Superhero and wrestling fans—“¡A la lucha!” The wrestling collectible event of the year is here! From the team at DC Collectibles comes a joyful and imaginative new universe that combines the enthralling world of Mexican wrestling and the heroic history of DC Comics: DC ¡LUCHA EXPLOSIVA!
This all-new line of 7" action figures take its roots from the deep history of Lucha Libre and Mexican luchadores. Each figure is a Latin American-inspired reimagining of a classic DC hero or villain, complete with an all-new backstory drawn from Mexico’s rich cultural history.
With six figures set for release in 2019 and more coming in the years following, fans will be able to create epic storylines of betrayal and redemption, alliances made and broken and emerging heroes and villains. Which figure will you choose to be the campeón?
• Allocations may occur
• Final products may differ from
images shown
$35.00 US
EACH FIGURE SOLD SEPARATELY

DC is totally going to do a comic book series based on these figures like they did with Ame-Comi Girls and DC Comics Bombshells, right? Like, don't they have to...?

An unfocused, un-tidy post about Marie Kondo and Yuka Uramoto's The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story

Sometimes I really miss Comics Alliance. Sure, I miss it as a reader, as there aren't really any good places to go to find smart analyses, funny jokes and quality writing about comics on the Internet anymore*, and most of the long-lived sites that do cover comics are so choked with comics-adjacent stuff about superhero TV shows, movies and video games that it hurts my will to live too much to wade through them to find the occasional bit of comics coverage that interests me.

Of course I also miss it because sometimes I'll think of a story about comics I want to write, and I don't have anywhere to pitch it, because no website ever arose to fill CA's precise niche in the online comics coverage ecosystem, an ecosystem that seems to have shrunk dramatically even as Western pop culture as a whole became obsessed with comic book characters.

Such was the case a few weekends ago, when I was wandering through my local Barnes and Noble and was confronted by this, the cover to The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story, the 2017 adaptation of Marie Kondo's phenomenal-selling 2014 book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I never read the book, although I have handled it plenty. I work in a library, so I checked that book in and out, pulled it off the shelves and put it back on the shelves dozens and dozens of times. It's cover became almost as familiar to me as James Patterson's face, which I see more often than the faces of any of my loved ones.

Kondo seems to be having something of a moment now, thanks to the debut of her new Netflix series Tidying Up With Marie Kondo. If my Twitter feed--which is like 95% comics people, 3% politics and 2% Mystery Science Theater 3000 and 90210 alum--is any indication, she had become quite the topic of conversation. Comics people in particular seem sort of fascinated with her, in large part because they are aghast about this whole "no more than 30 books" rule. I mean, comics-reading, which often goes hand-in-hand with comics collecting**, is pretty much in diametric opposition to tidying-up, or leading any sort of minimalist lifestyle. (Sure, you could just read comics online, but I abhor the experience, even if it makes sense to me environmentally...and financially. Like, I'm eventually going to have to buy a house just to store my comics midden, which currently fills my apartment and a room of the Mozzocco Ancestral Home).

So despite whatever clicks a post about Marie Kondo and tidying-up might provide a comics site, on the tried-and-true journalistic formula of taking whatever is popular and applying it to your readership, I also just find a sort of satisfying irony in the existence of the book in the form of a comic, given that the contents of the book would suggest that I discard what is probably at least 100 volumes just like it. That is, The Life-Changing Manga is basically How To Throw Away Your Comics: The Comic.

While most of the tankobon I've accumulated now reside in my ancestral home, here is how I'm currently storing the last five years or so worth of them, now that the small book shelf with small, digest-sized shelves on it that I have in my apartment is full.

That...is not tidy.

Anyway, that irony: You could say it sparks joy for me.

At the very least, I would have pitched a review of the 2017 manga to Comics Alliance, particularly since I don't recall it getting much attention at all in the comics media at the time. But I do think there's probably a decent essay in there too about the strange clash between a manga volume about discarding manga volumes, and the clash between the forces of tidiness represented by Kondo and the materialism of the comics reader, which in many cases is little different than a comics collector which, at a certain point, is little different than a hoarder.

There are a couple of general interest news, politics and pop culture websites I read regularly that occasionally cover comics when merited, and so I even thought about perhaps pitching a piece to one of these sites. So I sat down and read the manga--in the Barnes and Noble cafe, after which point I put it back on the shelf, rather than buying it and bringing it home to add to the precarious piles of manga atop the graphic novels atop the bookshelf full of books and comics collections.

At that point, I realized that while elements of Kondo's method really do sound appealing, and that I and my apartment and my life could probably benefit from them, there are two areas of my life I could never, ever tidy: The books and the paper, given all the notes and scribbled lay-outs I have for dozens and dozens of comics and short stories and novels and prose books that I will, honestly, probably never actually write or see published, but I can't just throw ideas away, you know?

So pitting Kondo vs. comics collecting within my own apartment and recording the process for the sake of an article? Pretty impractical (Also, I don't know how much those sites pay freelance writers, but, based on my past experiences, freelance writing generally pays somewhere between 1-3 graphic novels, depending on the venue. And the graphic novels. The economics here wouldn't work out).

Then I thought about this whole sparking joy thing, which is Kondo's measure of whether you should keep something or not. Would that make for an interesting way to review one's comics holdings?

Like, just looking around the "office" corner of my apartment...

This sparks joy!

Oh, um...I actually haven't read this yet. I accidentally bought the second volume rather than the first, so I still need to go back and buy the first volume and read that, and then I can read this and determine if it sparks joy or not.

I'd be lying if I said this sparked joy. Sorry Aquaman! Sorry Mr. Aparo!

Oh, I thought this was a great read, but I'm unlikely to read it again, so I felt joy at the time but now...no joy...?

Oh hey, I read the first half of this but never finished it...! I guess I'd have to get back to you on whether it sparks joy or not...

And so on. I mean, that's certainly a criteria for criticism. And if paired with a few paragraphs with each "joy" or "no joy," maybe it would be a fun blog to read, but...nah, it would take forever. I mean, reviewing every comic I read as they come into my apartment and/or midden is basically what this blog is, and this has taken me...yeesh, like 12 years...?

So there probably isn't much more to the idea than a simple review of the book. Certainly not an essay. Or, at least, not an essay from me. I still like the idea of tidiness vs. comics hoarding, and the idea of Kondo as an avatar of a force for goodness and clarity striking at the inertia and materialism inherent in amassing a personal library/book hoard, but I don't think I have the discipline to write such a tightly focused piece. Especially since I don't have anywhere to write such a thing. Except here. And, if you've been reading EDILW for very long, you already know that none of the writing I do here can be called disciplined or focused.

Still, I could at least review the book here...

**********************

Marie Kondo's name is very large on the cover, appearing alongside her manga avatar, and you would have to stop and look a bit closer to see the name of her collaborator, manga artist Yuka Uramoto, who is credited as the illustrator. I'm curious if Uramoto just drew the pictures, working from a script or some kind of breakdowns from Kondo, as "illustrator" implies, or if she actually did much more, literally adapting the prose book into comics form. I guess short of asking one of the pair, there's no real way to know. I suppose it's worth noting here that the book is set-up as a work of fiction, telling the story of a character badly in need of the life-changing magic of tidying up as a way of demonstrating Kondo's principles, methods and their benefits.

**********************

I think it's somewhat weird that this book even exists, because I am not entirely sure what kind of crossover exists between "People Who Want to Magically Change Their Lives By Tidying Up" and "People Who Read Manga," but then, it is published by Ten Speed Press, which is Kondo's joint, and, well, she is Japanese and the crossover between "People Who Are Japanese" and "People Who Read Manga About Basically Anything" is pretty sizable, really. (Er, not to over-overgeneralize, of course...)

I'm glad this book exists, though. It was a format that I could easily read, enjoy, digest and even incorporate into my own life, if I wanted to, after just one sitting. I don't know how good a job it does adapting the prose book, having not read that, but high-quality manga adaptations seem like a particularly good way to take in popular books that people are talking about, without having to devote many hours or multiple sittings to them. Like, I would never have read the original based solely on the fact that it seems popular or that people are talking about it, but I'll spend the time it takes to drink a couple of cups of coffee in a Barnes and Noble cafe with it, sure. Eat, Pray, Love, Fifty Shades of Grey, Outlander, The Secret, a book about hygge, whatever Oprah is hyping--I'd read, or at least attempt to read, manga versions of any of those topic of conversation books.

I say attempt, because I suspect there's more to this book's being effective and enjoyable than just the fact that it has been turned into a comic book. Like, I've tried a few of those Manga Guides To Subjects That I Struggled With In School books before--the first for a review for a newspaper--and they were sort of fun as a novelty, but turned into slogs very fast. This was a breeze, and that has a lot to do with the fact that it is so well told, I imagine.

Also, there are sections in here on how to fold socks, shirts and suchlike. I have no idea how you do that in prose. I mean, I know how you do that in prose, but I can't imagine it working (For what it's worth, I tried the sock folding method of Kondo's, and I did not care for it. I plan on attempting the t shirt folding technique later, but it has so many steps that I've been procrastinating doing so).

*********************

As I said above, though the book is non-fiction, the manga tells a fictional story that incorporates Kondo's lessons. Our protagonist is Chiaki Suzuki, a busy 29-year-old single sales representative who lives in an apartment in desperate need of tidying up.

Chiaki reaches a crisis point one night when she's soaking in the bathtub and receives a knock on her door. Through the peephole she sees that it is her next door neighbor, and that he is very cute, so she rushes to find nice, clean clothes before answering him. In the process, she falls, and he comes in to see if she's okay...and he then sees the state of her apartment, as she's pinned to the ground beneath clutter.

He did not come over to flirt with her, it turns out, but rather to tell her that the garbage bags she's storing on her balcony--she put the garbage on the balcony to get it out of the way, but then forgot to take it outside on garbage day--has begun to smell so bad that it's bothering him in his apartment.

Seeking help online as she lay in bed with her phone, she finds Marie Kondo--"Konmari"--and engages her services.

Chiaki is quite surprised to mee tKonmari, who is much tinier and more cheerful than she imagined--she repeatedly refers to her as a fairy--and even more surprised by her unusual methods. She expected help in cleaning, but instead she gets advice on changing her life.

From here, the book is mostly devoted to Konmari communicating her method to Chiaki directly, and the reader indirectly, as we sit in on their lessons. Intermittently, we learn more about Chiaki--that she falls in love quickly and often adopts the interests or hobbies of her paramours, but none of her relationships have lasted long--and what she wants most out of her life and out of her apartment. We periodically check in with her neighbor, and they gradually begin a flirtatious relationship.

That deciding what one wants from life and one's home is the foundation of Konmari's method. In fact, the entirety of their first lesson is basically a meet and greet, and a homework assignment: "I just want you to think about this question...what kind of life would you like to live here?"

She goes on, "Tidying up will change your life dramatically. So how would you like to change?"

(Here let me pause to note that I am currently in a mid-life crisis--like, an actual, literal mid-life crisis, since I'll be 42 next month; I've been having life crises of various sorts on a semi-regular basis since I was about 17--as I'm no longer certain what I want to do with my life, so I can't answer this question, which will keep me from actualizing the Konmari method, as much as I'm interested in attempting some of it).

Once that's decided--Chiaki wants to make and eat delicious meals at home, eventually with another person--they get to work. Between each chapter are a few paragraphs of prose, explaining the principle just explained or previewing what comes next, and then we see as Konmari and Chiaki put it in action.

So they finish discarding first, Konmari talks about sparking joy, tidying by category (clothes, books, papers and komono), dealing with sentimental things, and so on. There's a surprising amount of drama in some of this, particular one of the items from the sentimental category, as Chiaki and Konmari deal with the challenge of a painting that an old boyfriend made of her and gave to her when they were in their twenties. Konmari argues with getting rid of it--"If you hang on to things because you can't forget an old love, you'll never find a new love," she tells Chiaki--but she struggles with it, throwing it away, retrieving it, sleeping next to it in bed that night. I would have kept the picture, but then, as we've already established, I am closer to a hoarder than a tidy person.

I don't know who is right about such matters, either. Konmari's words are proven true almost immediately, as Chiaki and her neighbor do indeed begin a relationship, and he becomes the "new love" that replaced the old one, but then, this is a fictional story that Kondo and Uramoto are in charge of, so this "example" is highly manipulated.

The most fun part of the book happens near the end, after Chiaki's life has been changed, and Konmari explains her own secret origin. We flash back to her childhood. She enjoyed tidying bookshelves and complaining about the how untidy other parts of the house were, and she became obsessed with tidying up her room; cheerfully explaining that she had a "nervous breakdown" over tidying, and here Uramoto provides a panel of young Kondo in her school girl uniform, dragging a trash bag through her room while her eyes glow, and she looks frantically around the room for something she can discard.

Then a voice seemed to speak to her, telling her that it's not what one discards, but what one keeps: That is, the stuff that sparks joy.

Manga, with its hyper-expressive characters and explosive emotions portrayed for comedic effect, is the perfect medium for Konmari, who is here a fairly ideal manga character. While present-day Kondo moves back and forth from prim, proper pleasantness and stern task-mistress, childhood Kondo is an obsessive.

***********************

Among the most relatable scenes are those dealing with books, obviously. At one point, Konmari turns her attention to the books that Chiaki has yet to read, and it's a pretty healthy-looking stack, which Konmari has no mercy for:

Here's my own personal "to read" stack...s:

I guess, in my defense, I am a semi-professional comic book critic, so I get sent a lot of books for review, in addition to buying a bunch I intend to read someday. And because I also have that full-time library job, I don't get to plow through those books with the speed and efficiency I would if I were a 100% professional comic book critic. So there's that.

Konmari has an answer to Chiaki's retort about book throwing-away, as she has clearly heard it plenty of times before: How would you like it if someone got rid of your book? Konmari's cool with that, so long as her book doesn't spark joy with the person throwing it out.

**********************

Another was when Konmari catches Chiaki in the middle of planning to send something to her parents' house.

That is one of my major de-cluttering strategies too, as if I were forced to live with my entire comics library/collection/midden/hoard in my current apartment, I would have to sleep outside in my car while my comics lived in here. Am I...Team Chiaki...?

What's wrong with sending stuff to your parents' house? It means filling their house with stuff that doesn't spark joy, and thus prevents them from achieving the life-changing magic of tidying-up. I don't feel too bad about it, though, as I come from a long line of people-who-save-everything-forever, so The Mozzocco Ancestral Home has more than just hundreds/hopefully-not-thousands of comics cluttering up its spare rooms...



*Well, I do click to and read The Comics Reporter and The Comics Journal and The Beat every week day, of course, and if you, dear reader, happen to have a blog or to work on a website that covers comics, than I certainly read that. Obviously. I mean, how could I not? We're friends, right?

**Even if, like me, the act of "collecting" comics amounts to little more than not wanting to throw away the hundreds and hundreds of comics, graphic novels and tankobon I've purchased over the decades because, jeez, do you know how much money I spent on these damn things? Oh God, I hope its just "hundreds and hundreds" of comics, and not thousands and thousands at this point...

Review: Female Furies #1

When DC Comics first announced Female Furies, a six-issue mini-series featuring a group of characters from Jack Kirby’s sprawling 1970-1973 saga about a mythic war between twin planets populated by superheroes and supervillains, there was little indication that writer Cecil Castellucci had anything out of the ordinary in mind.

Here is how the first issue was solicited to retailers and readers, back in November:

All their lives the Female Furies have been raised to be the meanest, most cunning and most ruthless fighting force on all of Apokolips. So why are Granny Goodness' girls left behind every time the men go to war? With the might of New Genesis hanging over the planet, and the Forever People making mincemeat out of Darkseid’s army, Granny thinks it's about time that changed...And so, Big Barda, Aurelie, Mad Harriet, Lashina, Bernadeth and Stompa set out to beat the boys at their own game. Little do they know the game is rigged—and one accidental murder could spell disaster for them all!

If this was going to be a feminist reading of the characters and their place in the traditional Apokolips vs. New Genesis story, if there was any telegraphing in the announcement at all, it seemed to be of a rather standard, current pop culture, safe level--women are just as good as men, or, specific to this setting, just as good at being bad as men.

That is, in large part, what makes this issue so surprising, if not shocking: Castellucci and artist Adriana Melo have turned a story about a half-dozen female super-warriors, each with a particular gimmick or power reflected in their often childish name--Lashina, Stompa, Bernadeth, etc--into a #MeToo-era superhero comic exploring and eviscerating all of the types and degrees of sexism women are subjected to on a daily basis in a world where men hold all of the power.

If you’re unfamiliar with what has become known as Kirby’s Fourth World story, here are the basics. Red-eyed, stone-skinned god of evil Darkseid rules the industrialized hell-scape planet Apokolips with an iron, dictatorial grip, his high court helping him keep the population down while he quests for The Anti-Life Equation, which will allow him to crush all free will and subject all sentient life in the universe to his will. He is opposed by the white-haired, white-bearded Highfather, ruler of Apopolips' utopian sister planet New Genesis, whose heroes all seem like your typical superheroes, albeit it cut with pop culture hippie-ism and New Age philosophy.

The two rulers traded sons once upon a time as part of a peace deal, so that Highfather’s son Scott Free was raised on Apokolips, eventually growing up to be the super-escape artist Mister Miracle, husband of Big Barda, one of the Female Furies, while Darkseid’s son Orion was raised on New Genesis, struggling to repress his bestial nature while fighting for the side of good against his own evil father.

In that story, the Female Furies have always been among the more colorful of Darkseid’s "name" soldiers, standing out from the crowd of winged Parademons and giant dog-riding warriors; they are the elite squad serving directly under Granny Goodness, a short, stocky hag in green chainmail who is in Darkseid’s inner circle and is charged with raising the population’s orphans, like Barda and Scott.

Female Furies opens in the distant past, the night that Darkseid takes control of his planet, in order to better catalog the indignities Granny Goodness suffered in her career. On that night, she wasn’t yet "Granny," but is just the ironically named Goodness--Big, tall, strong and young. It is she that defeats and strangles Darkseid’s mother Heggra for him, although she gets a last minute assist from Desaad, who immediately takes credit for her accomplishment.

After the battle, Darkseid corners her and propositions her: "Battle makes me hungry for what food cannot fill," he intones, grabbing her. She resists long enough to let readers know she doesn't reciprocate Darkseid's lust, but reluctantly obeys when he makes it clear her "career" depends on it. "Do as I say and rise higher than anyone else," he says. "Refuse and find yourself back with the lowest of the low."

While her obedience doesn't hurt her career, it doesn't seem to help much, either; she's given a less-than-desirable post, while the male members of Darkseid’s court all grumble at the fact that she gets "special" treatment from their god-king. The treatment she receives will sound familiar, as the Apokolips bros call her hysterical, suggest she be less emotional, comment on her looks and how she uses sex to get what she wants.

In the present, the cycle begins anew, as she presents her new Furies to Darkseid and her co-workers, but they seem more interested in the women's looks than their fighting abilities. After Darkseid refuses to let the Furies join the males in his armies--some of the arguments sounding quite familiar to anyone who has followed arguments of the integration of our own armed forces over the years--one of his circle, Willik, offers to give one of the Furies, Aurelie, private martial arts lessons.

She refuses, but is eventually convinced by Goodness, and during the training, Willik repeatedly gropes her, making a threat similar to that Darkseid gave to Goodness years ago. Aurelie is similarly punished by her peers, who chide her for using her looks to her advantage, for taking so long with Willlik and, not knowing what happened, Barda scolds her: "Stop complaining...Any of us would trade places with you in a heartbeat to get private instruction from Protector Willik."

Double standards, objectification, gaslighting, sexual harassment, sexual assault--in just the first 22 pages of the series, Castellucci covers a lot of ground, little of which has been previously covered in the almost 50 years of tellings and retellings of characters' stories, and little of which seems to contradict or take away from any of those previous tellings.

The genius of using these particular characters for such a story isn't merely that they are among the only female characters in the male dominated story cycle--in much the same way that Castellucci and Melo still stand out as rare in the male-dominated superhero comic market*--or that they are demonstrably better at fighting and killing than their male peers, the vast bulk of which don’t even have names, but that their home setting has always been the most cartoonishly evil place in comics, this side of hell.

Of course working with the god of evil, ruler of a planet of evil, who is intent on subjugating all life is a hostile work environment. Darkseid coercing a henchwoman into sex, or his other underlings sexually harassing her, might not be something we have seen in their past appearances, but it's certainly well within conceivable behavior for them. The trick of writing comics starring supervillains is to always pit them against worst villains, and next to Darkseid and his court, the Furies can’t help but seem heroic--even were it not for the presence of Barda, whom we know ultimately rebels against Apokolips and fights for New Genesis at some point after this series concludes.

There's also the matter that, while these characters are, like seemingly all superhero characters these days, fodder for cartoons, TV shows and even have a movie in the works, they are minor enough in the grand scheme of things that Castellucci and Melo can make the bad guys particularly repugnant without worrying too much about making them unmarketable, in the way DC might have worried if someone proposed a comic book in which, say, Lex Luthor, Brainiac and The Joker sexually harass Cheetah or Giganta in The Legion of Doom headquarters or something.

While Castellucci’s first issue chronicles all this supremely toxic male behavior, that;s not all there is to it. It's complicated, as the difference between Goodness' and her Furies' reactions, and Goodness' reaction to their reaction reflect generational tensions and differences that have arisen in the wake of Weinstein and #MeToo, and, well, this is still a story. Near the end of the first issue, immediately after being groped by Willik, Aurelie hears one of the male soldiers offering to torture a victim less of she kisses him, and she responds by slitting his throat, forcing Barda to help her hide the body and keep it a secret. With five more issues and about 100 pages to go, clearly it won’t remain a secret.

It's also funny. There is some humor in the juxtaposition, and in the discomfort that juxtaposition causes in readers, who might laugh nervously at the chutzpah of the book, but Castellucci includes scenes clearly meant to be read as funny, as in the second stage of the Furies' demonstration of their martial abilities to Darkseid and his court, which is basically just a 20th century beauty pageant transported into space, complete with a bake-off and evening gown and swimsuit competition (the latter renamed a "smile competition").

Humorous, yes, but blackly so.

It's always difficult to review a comic book series by its first issue, particularly a limited one like this, when one knows it will completed and republished in a new and complete form in a half-year's time, but it can be worthwhile when an easy to overlook comic delivers so much more than is expected. How successful Female Furies will ultimately be as a story remains to be seen, of course, but the first issue reveals that it is one well worth reading to see: Sharp, funny, relevant and ambitious, it's the too-rare superhero comic book with a point to make.



*I counted 58 serial issues of comics slated for release by DC into the direct market for this month, only three of which have both a female writer and a female pencil artist/primary artist listed among the creators, but it's always possible I miscounted a book or two.