Starlight Meets Scratch And Sniff Harley Comics Collection Oct 30

When I was a kid, I used to collect comics every week from the local shop. After a while, I started focusing exclusively on trade paperbacks and graphic novels; following a handful of books and having to wait for weeks to get a payoff could be such a pain. Thankfully working with The Escapist‘s Comics & Cosplay team introduced me to a ton of new books and series that make the wait a little easier… and we’ll use this week’s Comics Collection to introduce you to some of our favorites. This week, I checked out Batman in Arkham Manor, celebrity superheroes in The Multiversity: The Just, the students of Morning Glories, and the bastards of Southern Bastards. I even managed to squeeze in the dark children’s storybook Hansel & Gretel from Neil Gaiman and Lorenzo Mattotti. Meanwhile, Stew Shearer discussed the ending of Starlight, and the latest happenings of Copperhead, Superman, and Ragnarok. Finally, Marla Desat sniffs out the scratch and sniff Harley Quinn Annual #1, before bringing it home with The Wicked + The Divine, Inhuman, and the Legends of Baldur’s Gate series. But first, let’s take a look at: The premise: Several years ago, Superman constructed a network of Super-Robots to defend the Earth from crisis events and maniacal supervillains. The problem is they worked too well. Now the latest generation of superheroes, led by Chris Kent and Damian Wayne, have nothing meaningful in their lives, and fill the time with celebrity culture and re-enactments of past battles. But when a fellow hero commits suicide, Damian suspects something finally is threatening their sheltered little world, perhaps even from another dimension. It’s an incredible achievement that The Just is engaging when every single one of its characters are insufferably shallow. Part of that is the novelty of seeing DC characters as Real Worldesque “celebrities”, but Morrison’s meticulous references are another. The new Wonder Woman is Artemis. Shilo Norman’s kid sibling is Sister Miracle. Even the Alpha Centurion shows up, and he hasn’t appeared in comics for a freaking decade. Like other Multiversity books, picking up on the references is a pleasure in itself. Outside of that The Just is an incredibly meta read, with past and future Multiversity issues appearing as in-universe comic books. On the whole though, that shows The Just locks into place with the rest of the series while looking absolutely nothing like its peers in any way. Favorite Moment: “What Sandman? The Sandman? Neil Gaiman’s Sandman?” -Marshall The downside is that even if spoilers weren’t an issue, I can barely grasp what’s happening half the time. Starting from a private school where teachers torture, traumatize, and even murder students, Morning Glories has slowly added elements like time travel, religious mythology, quantum mechanics, and psychic powers without telling the reader how everything fits together. This volume collects half of Morning Glories‘ second “season”, resolving cliffhangers in ways that raise more questions than answers. And maybe there are no answers, and Morning Glories will also disappoint. But right now, if you love stories where the fun is creating your own fan theories and seeing how they hold up, Morning Glories is the series to get into. Favorite Moment: “No it’s fine, I just – Just let her apply to the school.” -Marshall Now, would you read this tale to your kids? Neil Gaiman and Lorenzo Mattotti seem to hope so, since they’ve crafted Hansel & Gretel as a chillingly dark children’s storybook. Gaiman’s text adds several historical details and flourishes, like a war and famine that instigated the need to “lose” children, while Mattotti’s art portrays everything using black-and-white shadows. In keeping with the realistic tone, the witch isn’t technically even a witch, just an incredibly dangerous old woman who took to cannibalism to survive. She still has a gingerbread house, though. The core lesson, as with Gaiman’s other children’s books, is that kids can absolutely defeat the darkness of the world. But even if you’re not a child, you’ll find a well-written examination of one of our most enduring fairy tales. Favorite Moment: “He’s not coming back for us.” Southern Bastards #5 flips back and forth between the coach’s early days on the football team and the fallout from last issue. There’s a lot to like here: Most of the town wants to forget the last story arc, and Coach Boss’ part in it, ever happened. Meanwhile, there are glimpses of how the “never-give-up” attitude of Coach Boss actually made things worse, especially since he wasn’t originally wanted on the team. But the best hints of the future come near the end, when Boss reveals all the different characters and organizations, illegal and otherwise, that he has ties to. There’s several years of storylines between each of these figures alone, and that’s not even getting into a certain Tubb who we saw in the previous arc. Saying much more would be getting into spoiler territory, so let me just say that Southern Bastards is among the best comics on the shelves right now. You should absolutely check it out. Favorite Moment: “Holy shit, he ain’t even cleaned the blood off.” -Marshall When the story opens, Batman knows this is the best temporary answer, but still struggles with his childhood home being shared by Gotham’s criminals. Regardless, he seems prepared to continue with his usual crimefighting (after sealing the cave as a precaution), until a prisoner is murdered in unexplainable circumstances. That alone is enough to prompt Batman to return home for good, but not as a Wayne; this time he’ll be Arkham’s latest inmate. Outside of that, most of the story is just setup for the rest of the arc. There’s a few good moments highlighting how Gotham reacts to the loss of the Asylum, and it’s amusing to see how Bruce and Alfred now operate from an apartment building. But for the next few issues, this story looks like it’s going to live up to its title by focusing squarely on Arkham Manor and its secrets. With the intro out of the way, it’ll be interesting to see what happens next. Favorite Moment: “I left that on there just to make you laugh.” -Marshall When it began, a new super powered being name Ulysses emerged from another dimension. Endowed with abilities fairly equivalent to good ol’ Supes, it was revealed that Ulysses was originally from Earth but wound up teleported to a world of peace loving aliens after an accident involving his scientist parents. Hoping to get to know his homeworld, he tags along with Superman on a mission to take down the Machinist. This leads him to the revelation that the Earth, unlike the world he grew up on, is still embroiled in blood and often petty conflicts. Rebuffed by Superman after suggesting they use their powers to destroy all of Earth’s weapons, he launches a new plan to bring millions of deserving peace-minded Earthlings back with him to the other dimension. What I like about this idea is the somewhat morally grey area it places Superman in. I always love stories that explore his role in the world and the potential good/harm he could do if he were to ever just cut loose and use his powers to force the world to be a better place. Both his refusal to do so and Ulysses’ resultant frustration are understandable and I’ll be waiting eagerly for issue 36 to see how the brewing conflict between the two men proceeds. Favorite Moment: “My parents… Everything they said about Earth. Why they wanted to leave it… Maybe they were right.” -Stew Starlight has been probably my favorite read since the book debuted earlier debuted earlier this year. That being the case, I’ll go ahead and admit that I had no idea this was only going to be a six issue mini-series. With issue 6 now here and the series done, in turn, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to harboring at least a little bit of disappointment. The concept, writing and art in Starlight have been so consistently fantastic that I could have easily read a hundred issues without getting bored. Sadly that won’t be the case. Regardless, Starlight 6 is still is a fine read and closes the space opera of Duke McQueen on a note that’s fun, action packed and heartwarming all at the same time. It’s old school space opera at its absolute finest. I’ll put it out there that I didn’t leave the book feeling 100 percent satisfied. But that mostly has to do with the fact that this series could have been so much more than 6-issue run. Favorite Moment: “Starting to wish you’d stuck a few doors on this place?” -Stew Luckily that isn’t the case with Copperhead. Issue 2 picks up where left off both in terms of story and quality. The newly hired Sherriff Bronson and her deputy Boo are investigating a house full of dead bodies, looking for clues as to who might have been behind their brutal murders. Meanwhile, her young son and his new friend meet a mysterious, armed-to-the-teeth stranger roaming the wastelands. He helps them in a moment of danger, but what was he doing out there with all those guns in the first place? Plain and short, if you enjoyed Firefly at all, you should be reading Copperhead. It’s grimy, dirty, worn out and wonderful. Favorite Moment: “No, I’ve never seen anything like this. Not since the war.” -Stew What’s most interesting about Ragnarok to me is the fact that, at this point, I still can’t quite figure out where it’s going with things. If issue 2 is any indicator, we might be looking at the beginnings of a new non-Marvel Thor book. That said, considering how quickly it removes one protagonist from the picture, it might still too early to tell. Regardless, Ragnarok continues to be an excellent read in its second issue and I’d definitely encourage fantasy fans to give it a look see. Favorite Moment: “This place has been my tomb. Its ruins shall be your monument.” -Stew The four distinct art styles really make this book stand out. It makes it especially obvious when the lines between timelines are blurred, and it adds an extra element to the characters. The dialogue feels stilted at times as it tries to also maintain the four time periods, sometimes feeling excessively stereotyped for the 1890s and disconcertingly exaggerated for the 2050s characters. The art does a fantastic job of communicating the different time periods, and the whole thing would likely work as well or better if the dialogue didn’t try to work so hard. Despite that, the mystery is keeping me curious enough to keep coming back to this Vertigo series. Favorite Moment: “At least we’re English thieves.” – Marla In addition to being a really fun issue, the art is superb. Artist Jon Timms is joined by Stjepan Sejic, Joe Quinones, Ben Caldwell and Kelley Jones to illustrate Harley’s hallucinations as she tries to bust her good friend Poison Ivy out of Arkham Asylum. I haven’t picked up any other issue of the series, but the annual was funny enough and just spot-on-Harley enough to get me interested in picking up the ongoing series. Favorite Moment: “You know that form you signed? That makes sure I am not liable for your death. No matter what happens. ” – Marla Writer Kieron Gillen knows when to lay on the dialogue and when to back off and let artist Jamie McKelvie’s art take over the page. This issue # 5 wraps up the first arc of The Wicked + The Divine with a violent climax and sets up superfan Laura to delve much, much deeper into the lives of the gods. We’ll have to wait until December for the next issue and the start of the second arc, “Fandemonium”, but between now and then the trade paperback collecting the first five issues is due out, making getting caught up easy. Favorite Moment: “I’d rather die than go back.” – Marla Inhuman smoothly introduces a pair of new characters with Frank McGee, a Nuhuman detective rejected after his transformation, and Attilan’s one remaining guard, inspector Auran. After stumbling a little with its growing cast, Inhuman has found a good balance between recurring characters and building a world that is packed with new Inhumans. Inhuman is also integrating itself with the rest of the Marvel universe, so you’ll get a bit more out of this issue if you’re also following New Avengers, but nothing is indecipherable if you’re not. This issue begins artist Pepe Larraz’s run on the series, and I love his take on Medusa and the depth that Auran and Frank’s conversations get from his choice of expressions. With only seven issues, this series is a great place to get to know the Inhumans, though I’m most excited to see more of Auran and Frank. Favorite Moment: “Things were real sad all around.” – Marla Minsc is perfect in this issue, and any fans of Baldur’s Gate will instantly hear his voice clearly jumping off the page. Writer Jim Zub is spot on with Minsc’s dialogue, but the writing is a little weak in some places. Some panels would have a lot more impact if left without any words. It’s a decent debut issue, with Max Dunbar’s art really shining in the full page spreads and large panel fights. Delina’s magic looks suitably fantastic, brought to life by John-Paul Bove’s colors. If you’ve spent nights with a flashlight under the covers tearing through Forgotten Realms novels, or long days replaying Baldur’s Gate, Dungeons & Dragons: Legends of Baldur’s Gate is a fun indulgence in that nostalgia. If you’re looking for a fantasy world with a little more depth and polish, you’re less likely to be satisfied with Minsc and Boo. Favorite Moment: “A turbulent stewpot where man and hamster may find grand adventure!” – Marla