First Issues NOW!

There's a good reason I say that the best way to enjoy Star Trek right now is intravenously with IDW. This is a good example why. 

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS: THE SEEDS OF SALVATION #1, written by Robbie Thompson, art by Travis Mercer, colors by JP Jordan, with letters by Jodie Troutman.

Steve Orlando and Nicola Scott? This is a team designed to make me melt. And yes they did. 

GATCHAMAN: JOE - BLOODLINE #1, written by Steve Orlando, art by Nicola Scott, colors by Joao Canola, with letters by Frank Cvetkovi

Pulp sci-fi crash landing on Earth? I'm here for that, you can bet your sweet bippy. 

RED VECTOR #1, written by DB Andry and Tim Daniel, art by Chris Evenhuis, colors by Sjan Weijers, with letters by Buddy Beaudoin.

I'm just happy that Chris Priest is on a - hopefully - ongoing isekai series. 

SONJA REBORN #1, written by Christopher Priest, art by Alessandro Miracolo, colors by Giovanni Caputo, with letters by Taylor Esposito.

This doesn't even seem like Mark Millar believes his own hype anymore. Shame. At least he was entertaining when he was trying to top himself. 

NEMESIS: FOREVER #1, written by Mark Millar, art by Matteo Scalera, colors by Giovanna Niro, with letters by Clem Robins.

Like seriously. This story really loses a lot when you're not an angsty 20-something who doesn't know that you can just have Early Access on Steam. 

MASTERMINDS #1, written by Zach Kaplan, illustrated by Stephen Thompson, colors by Thiago Rocha, with letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

Honestly, just a fantastic fun read from start to finish. Good one-shot. 

HELLBOY AND THE BPRD: PROFESSOR HARVEY IS MISSING #1, story by Mike Mignola, art by Giuseppe Manunta, with letters by Clem Robins.

There is no review, just me screaming about BATMAN DOING A RIDER KICK! 10/10

IMMORTAL LEGEND BATMAN #1, written by Kyle Higgins and Matt Groom, art by Erica D’urso and Dan Mora, colors by Igor Monti and Tamra Bonvillain, with letters by Becca Carey.

Apparently it's the second stage of Al Ewing's Immortal Thor run so maybe it works better in that sense. 

THE MORTAL THOR #1 written by Al Ewing, art by Pasqual Ferry, colors by Matt Hollingsworth, with letters by VC’s Joe Sabino.

If this be the reason I become hyped for the upcoming Planet She-Hulk series, then so be it. If that's all this event did for me, then cool.

IMPERIAL WAR: PLANET SHE-HULK #1, written by Stephanie Phillips and Jonathan Hickman, art by Emilio Laiso, colors by Matt Milla, with letters by VC’s Joe Caramagna.

I haven't read anything in the whole Imperial thing. It's another Marvel Cosmic book about everyone fighting so it's pretty stock. This is just pretending Black Panther isn't a lead in that apparently. 

IMPERIAL WAR: BLACK PANTER #1, written by Victor LaSalle and Jonathan Hickman, art by Cafu, colors by David Curiel, with letters by VC’s Ariana Maher.

And the finale to the great Bring on the Bad Guy series is... adequate. Just as a point, I would rather an okay ending to a bad ending so it doesn't take away from all that came before!

BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: MEPHISTO #1, written by Marc Guggenheim, art by Alvaro Lopez, colors by Neeraj Menon, with letters by VC’s Travis Lanham.

Another great one-shot for this story, and a great one to bring us to the finale in the next one. 

BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: DORMAMMU #1 written by Alex Paknadel, art by Javier Pina, colors by Erick Arciniega, with letters by VC’s Travis Lanham.

Was it good? It was better than good. It was great. It is so great I'm getting all the variants and adding it to my Doom 2099 collection! 

DOOMED 2099 #1, written by Frank Tieri, art by Delio Diaz and Frank Alpizar, colors by Andrew Dalhouse, with letters by VC’s Travis Lanham.

I feel like maybe I'm just aged out of new iterations of the X-Men canon. But seriously though, stop calling Magneto Max. Call him Mags, if we want to shorthand it. Oh and it's a reprint from the X-Men From The Ashes book.

“In Dreams” written by Alex Paknadel, art by Diogenes Neves, colors by Arthur Hesli, with letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles.
“Pygmalion” written by Alex Paknadel, art by Phillip Sevy, colors by Michael Bartolo, and letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles.

If you like the movie, this is a must read. If you like horror comics, this is a you should read. Otherwise, eh, it's not really made for you. 

EVENT HORIZON: DARK DESCENT #1, written by Christian Ward, art by Tristan Jones, colors by Pip Martin, with letters by Alex Ray.

And so, someone who's never read the original TMNT comics gets to see half of the original creators make a TMNT comic. Trippy. 

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES JOURNEYS #1, written, penciled and lettered by Peter Laird with inks by Jim Lawson.

I am really looking forward to the future issies, but this may have been the type of first issue that has to happen so the next issues can happen. 

EAT YOUR YOUNG #1, written by Brian Buccellato, art by Mattia Monaco, with letters by Buddy Beaudoin.

I mean this without any negativity: Resident Alien is a fantastic comfort read everyone should have. Eventually means I'll have to watch the show, I think. 

RESIDENT ALIEN: THE BOOK OF CHANGES #1, with scripts by Peter Hogan and art plus lettering done by Steve Parkhouse.

It's not bad, which is better than the last Valiant Beyond book, I think. 

VALIANT BEYOND: TALES OF THE SHADOWMAN #1, written by AJ Ampadu, art by Sergio Monjes, colors by Jon Amarillo and flats done by Ludwig Olimba, with letters by Ezequiel Inverni.

I know, sometimes the problem is me but other times, maybe it's actually the comic.

THIS ENDS TONIGHT #1, story by Gerry Duggan, Kelvin Mao, and Robert Windom, art by Jae Lee, colors by June Chung, with letters by Joe Sabino.

I'm not entirely sure how best to say that I like anthropomorphic animals in a world war setting without sounding weird. 

ESCAPE #1, written by Rick Remender, art by David Acuna, with letters by Rus Wooton.

I mean two out of three ain't bad, right? Actually all three are really good in their own right. 

Yeah, it's a fun one-shot but every time they do a fun one-off, it makes me really want them to do a fun event. LIKE THIS! Yes, it's more rant than review. 

MARVEL ALL-ON-ONE #1, written by Ryan North, pencils by Ed McGuinness, inks by Mark Farmer, colors by Marcio Menyz, with letters by VC’s Joe Caramagna.

Did a Black freakin' Cat book just become my favorite Spider-adjacent book this entire month? Yeah, ain't it cool? 

BLACK CAT #1, written by G. Willow Wislon, art by Gleb Melnikov, colors by Brian Reber, with letters by VC’s Joe Caramagna.

Honestly, pretty good first issue, although definitely going to be a "need more info" on later to really get a grasp. 

JUSTICE LEAGUE RED #1, written by Saladin Ahmed, art by Clayton Henry, colors by Arif Prianto, and letters by Lucas Gattoni and Ryan Christy.

This is a perfect juxtaposition of: a good comic can be hindered by long form consistency. I say it's still worth checking out for yourself though! 

ALL-NEW SPIDER-GWEN: GHOST-SPIDER #1, written by Stephanie Phillips, art by Paulo Villanelli, colors by Matt Milla, and letters by VC’s Ariana Maher.

Ignoring Sam's inability to say names, it is definitely the best. Although with a name like that I really hope this means we'll get a Mighty Ducks TAS launch too! 

UNCLE SCROOGE: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST DUCK #1, written by Jason Aaron, art by Mahmud Asrar, Ciro Cangialosi, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Danielle Orlandini, colors by Arianna Consonni, with letters by VC's Joe Caramagna.

The last Monster High was so good, Sammi decided she needed to make this her pick too and y'know something? the IDW Monster High books may actually be pretty good. 

MONSTER HIGH: PARTY MONSTER #1, written by Heather Nuhfer, art by Kellee Riley, with letters by Johanna Nattalie.

On one hand, the art is nice. On the other, it's currently being discussed on Comics Twitter for a perceived controversy. Otherwise this is really not worth talking about, sadly. 

Valiant Beyond: Bloodshot #1, written by Mauro Mantella, art by Fernando Heinz Furukawa, colors by Brushu Studio and Rocio Zucchi, with letters by Ezequiel Inverni.

Somehow it seems every week this show becomes me needing to try to get more people on the Space Ghost train and eventually I will run out of things to say about how perfect it is. 

SPACE GHOST #1, written by David Pepose, art by Jonathan Lau, colors by Andrew Dalhouse, and letters by Taylor Esposito.

All hail the new flesh - wait no wrong Cronenberg reference. Either way, this is a top notch read! 

CEMETERY KIDS RUN RABID #1, written by Zac Thompson, art by Daniel Irizarri, colors by Brittany Peer, and letters by Andworld Design. 

A Black Label book by the guys that created Ice Cream Man about new Kryptonite? YES PLE- oh and look, there's Batman. Hi, Batman! 

SUPERMAN: THE KRYPTONITE SPECTRUM #1, written by W. Maxwell Prince, art by Martin Morazzo, colors by Chris O’Halloran, and letters by Good Old Neon.

It's a bunch of yautja - and Kraven the Hunter - going to Earth to hunt and kill Marvel characters. What were you expecting? 

PREDATOR KILLS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE #1, written by Benjamin Percy, pencils by Marcelo Ferreira, inks by Jay Leisten and Daniel Piccioto doing both, colors by Frank D’Armata, with letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles.

I mean it's Red Skull killing the same Nazi over and over for a full issue, that doesn't mean it's bad. 

BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: RED SKULL #1, written by Stephanie Phillips, art by Tommaso Bianchi, colors by Romulo Fajardo Jr, and letters by VC’s Travis Lanham.

Why yes, the biggest hurdle in recording anything is being able to pronounce Cheetah and Cheshire. Yes, I cut about 10 minutes of struggling. Either way, that's still a great comic. And I think we're officially on Sam being either the Comic Casualist or the Casual Comicist.

On this week's special segment, Sammi's Pick, she chooses another crossover title. This time from Dark Horse. Neat. 

What's better than pulp horror? Nothing but pulp sci-fi is definitely at least on par! 

“In A Strange Land” written by J. Holtham, and art by David Rubin.
“Catch & Kill” written by Ann Nocenti and art by Kano.
“The Fittest” written by Greg Pak and art by Charlie Adlard.
Originally published in Weird Fantasy #22, we have “Derelict Ship” written by William M. Gaines and Al Feldstein, art by Bernard Krigstein, and colors corrected by Inaki Azpiazu.

I haven't gotten to say it about a romcom this year but boy howdy can I not wait for issue 2! 

ORLA! Written by John Lees, art by Sally Cantirino, colors by Dearbhla Kelly and letters by Lucas Gattoni.

There's nothing worse than seeing a bland version of something you REALLY enjoy. Shame. 

TRAMPS OF THE APOCALYPSE #1, with the script, interiors and cover art done by Alice Darrow, with interior and cover colors done by Hugo Blanc and letters by Frank Cvetkovic.