Review Category: Comic Books

FORMAT: TRADE PAPERBACK, DIGITAL (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 24TH

In the climax of The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader reveals he’s Luke’s father and asks him to join the Dark Side – a massive shock to audiences and Skywalker alike, but what’s never been explored is how that encounter, in particular Luke’s rejection, impacts daddy.

That’s the pitch for Greg Pak’s run on Darth Vader, which will follow the Dark Lord’s life between Episodes V and VI. In this first volume, Vader’s mad – his plans to overthrow the Emperor with his son at his side are kaput. Seeking explanation, he hunts down everyone involved in hiding Luke from him, and encounters… Padmé Amidala? Surely not!

Well, someone who looks a lot like Padmé… a certain twist from The Phantom Menace explains it. Vader teams up with old acquaintances of his wife (you’ll recognise some, though mercifully not that Gungan) to investigate her final hours. With both these characters and Vader himself – at his most unstable – built on in interesting ways, Pak’s script excellently combines the Imperial era and elements from the prequels into a coherent whole.

The same can be said of the artwork, as illustrator Raffaele Ienco and colourist Neeraj Menon depict this era’s Naboo and its denizens with a mix of its colourful prequel grandiosity and the worn-down grittiness of the Empire. They also capture that cinematic Star Wars feel, with dramatic compositions befitting Vader’s rage and plenty of exciting action, not least a battle against a certain ‘bigger fish’.

FORMAT: TRADE PAPERBACK, DIGITAL (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 17TH

The latest instalment in the multi-platform epic Time Lord Victorious is the comic story Defender of the Daleks, published by Titan. Previously available as two separate issues, it’s now released in collected format.

The Tenth Doctor finds himself shunted to a timeline where the Daleks weren’t wiped out by the Time War. Instead, they’re asking for his help! The Hond, a monster from the Dark Times of the universe, is coming for them.

There’s a fun tone to this retro Dalek space adventure, especially Roberta Ingranata’s energetic art and Enrica Eren Angiolani’s vibrant colouring. Writer Jody Hauser nails this Doctor’s cheeky but brooding manner of speech, and Ingranata is similarly spot-on with the likenesses; you can almost hear David Tennant saying the lines. There’s particular enjoyment in seeing the Doctor reluctantly teamed up with the scheming Dalek Strategist (the Cummings to the Emperor Dalek’s Johnson).

But ultimately, the story feels inconsequential. It takes all of the first issue for the Hond to appear, and when it does, it hardly seems as threatening as it’s been built up to be.

And it’s an odd choice to have this be a Tenth Doctor story, not only because awkward narrative fudges are always necessary to have him face the Daleks (who are extinct in his time), but also because his appearance here has no connection to his main Time Lord Victorious arc; it seems a missed opportunity to bring Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor into the project.

FORMAT: TRADE PAPERBACK | RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 10TH

When Marvel announced they were resetting the numbering of their Star Wars series back to #1 less than five years after relaunching with their million-selling return to the franchise, many fans understandably asked “Why?” Indeed, as this new era delves into the post-The Empire Strikes Back narrative, surely using that title would have made more sense? Perhaps, but these are mere details as we tackle head-on the aftermath of the greatest of all sequels, writer Charles Soule wasting no time in taking us back to familiar locations.

Within the first four issues we have already travelled to Tatooine with Lando as he hunts for clues regarding coffee table Han Solo’s whereabouts, while Luke zips back to Bespin to search of his lost lightsabre. It’s an odd decision – arriving on Tatooine in Return of the Jedi always felt like the final stop on a long, circuitous galactic journey, while returning to Bespin so quickly feels off somehow, despite our heroes all having valid reasons to be there. So it’s when Luke’s search eventually leads him to the world of Serelia following a vision where the real ‘beyond the movie’ story starts, as we head away from the familiar and into new worlds and situations.

The art from Jesus Saiz is crisp and solid, and Soule has consistently proven he knows these characters well, so Marvel’s flagship Star Wars title is certainly still one to keep up with.

WRITER: JOHN WAGNER | ART: CARLOS EZQUERRA | PUBLISHER: REBELLION | FORMAT: HARDCOVER | RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 12TH

In some other world, 2000AD’s classic bounty hunter comic strip Strontium Dog is a well-loved TV show that evokes samurai and western themes with a sci-fi aesthetic. Sadly we aren’t in that timeline, instead, we have a wealth of Strontium Dog comics.

Strontium Dog – Search and Destroy brings together the strips from the comic Starlord, a short-lived science-fiction anthology comic book that was merged with 2000AD back in the day when merging comic book titles was still a thing. Strontium Dog is the futuristic story of Johnny Alpha, a Search/Destroy Agent for the Galactic Crime Commission. Johnny is a mutant and as such he’s not allowed to have a normal life; very few jobs are available, but hunting down criminals is allowed. S/D agents are nicknamed Strontium Dogs, after  the radioactive element.

Johnny has all sorts of cool futuristic weapons and mutant eyes that glow (and can also see through walls). He is assisted by Wulf Sternhammer, a strong and very large Viking of a man who fights villains with his enormous hammer. Mostly they go to colourful places and murder bad guys, occasionally taking in the sights before going on to the next mission. It’s essentially a series of short but sweet crime adventure stories. With a side-order of Johnny having to cope with bigots hating him because he’s a mutant.

As these are the early stories, you may expect it to be rough around the edges. Nothing could be further from the truth; Johnny and Wulf are fully formed as characters and pretty much the whole set-up is there. The broader story notes, such as the Search/Destroy base and the other agents came later. These strips are solely about Johnny, Wulf, and the friends they make on the way.

The biggest feature here is Carlos Ezquerra’s absolutely gorgeous art. It’s an early example of Carlos’s genius. Writer John Wagner has always been fond of creating weird monsters in his stories and Carlos excels at making odd ideas look utterly strange and surreal.

Some of the pages are in glorious full colour and it really enhances the art, it’s a pity that the other pages aren’t colourised, but then it is supposed to be a reprint rather than a remaster. The stories are fun and if you don’t know about this sci-fi bounty hunter and want to, then this is an excellent place to start.

FORMAT: SINGLE ISSUE | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The Ultramarines are often maligned as the ‘vanilla’ faction in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. The ‘by-the-book’ strait-laced Space Marines are frequently used to introduce people to the Grim Dark future and as such many of us move on to more quirky and bizarre elements of this massive franchise. Marvel Comics have chosen to take us back to basics with Warhammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar, giving us an origin story of sorts for one of Ultramarine’s greatest heroes.

It’s a very welcome approach; the first issue doesn’t overload us with intricate lore, but instead sets up the sort of mystery that humanity’s genetically enhanced super-soldiers are good at solving – one that requires shooting things. Kieron Gillen plays this book incredibly straight. Calgar is a hero of the Imperium Mankind, steadfast and indefatigable. The voice of the character is perfect; this is an unyielding power in the face of insurmountable evil. The narrative introduces the basics of the setting without it feeling forced. This is a grim future, filled with war. Humanity stands on the edge of true chaos and worse. The result is lots of action and solid storytelling.

Jacen Burrow’s art is a perfect mix of Games Workshop’s busy gothic style and Marvel’s famously bold imagery, striking the balance between clarity and detail in an exact fashion, right down to the vehicles and armour. This is a promising start to what we hope becomes a very long running series.

FORMAT: SINGLE ISSUE | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Nobody dies in comic books. Or, if they do, they never die for long. This is the dilemma at the opening of Immortal She Hulk. Jennifer Walters has gotten into a habit of dying. Thankfully also a habit of coming back, but that’s where the existential dilemma lies.

Turning to death, resurrection and general healing expert Wolverine, and resident immortality expert Thor, She Hulk/Jen Walters spends a good chunk of the story exploring recent events, her many deaths, and the implications of her inability to stay dead. Rest assured, dear reader, if you’re looking for ass-kicking comic book action, and not just existential angst, the implications are not good. Cosmic horror, threats from beyond the grave-type not good.

Given the recent traumas and whole existential tone, the She Hulk herself is largely lacking her normal sense of humour/outright aggression and the introspection may not be what fans are looking for. But the comic’s lurking sense of un-nameable Big Bad is palpable and the willingness to look a crazy comics trope dead in the eye and ask ‘Ok, so what would it be like to keep failing to stay dead?’ is brave and well handled.

John Davis-Hunt’s art is rock solid and particularly good on scenic details (like post-Cotati ruins and the decaying underworld of… is it She Hulk’s subconscious…?) although the cover art depiction of She Hulk with almost randomly bulging musculature is just plain weird.

FORMAT: TRADE PAPERBACK | RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 20TH

The Shape of Elvira, writer David Avallone’s follow-up to his 2019 series, Mistress of the Dark, is replete with wordplay, sexual innuendo, and more than a few gags that a ’50s Borscht Belt comic would find hacky. That is to say, it is 100% Elvira, through and through. For those who grew up watching the Mistress of the Dark intro cheesy horror or star in her own titular (pun intended) horror comedy, this is right up their alley.

Granted, the four-issue series from Dynamite is 100% a knock-off of Gullermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, but in the same way that Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein is a Universal Pictures lift – it’s entirely a silly parody meant to poke fun at any number of genre tropes, with a heaping helping of eye-winking and breaking of the fourth wall. Elvira herself will turn out of the panel to address the reader directly, fully aware that this story of making a movie about a creature named Gill is silly.

If all of that sounds fun, The Shape of Elvira is going to be a breezy, fun little read. Using two agents of The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is a great touch which elevates this above yet another story about the craziness of the world of showbiz, and Elvira’s one-liners are so spot-on, the reader can hear Cassandra Peterson’s Valley Girl accent speaking each and every one.

As per usual with Dynamite’s licensed properties, the artists all seem more interested in making sure the lead looks like her real-world counterpart than creating solid art, but it’s fine enough. While The Shape of Elvira isn’t breaking any new ground, for fans of the character, the series is a fun way to kill a lunch break.

FORMAT: TRADE PAPERBACK | RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 30TH

Being held in the confines of Vader’s Castle can’t be much fun, but the team at IDW Comics, led by writer Cavan Scott and a team of artists, appear to be having a grand time as we return to Mustafar for a quintet of creepy tales just in time for Halloween (which is actually celebrated in the Star Wars galaxy, specifically on Endor if you remember your ‘80s-era Ewoks comics!).

Kicking off with ‘The Horned Devil’ we’re ignominiously dumped on Lotho Minor, the home of the former Darth Maul – at this point still half man, half spider – as he does his best Pennywise and hunts down a gang of lost children, before ‘The Curse of Tarkin’ sees a Frankenstein’s monster created out of different alien parts return to its ‘father’ the Grand Moff, wreaking havoc aboard a Star Destroyer before finding some kind of redemption.

‘Bop-Sh-bopp, Little Sarlacc Horror’ brings us the ever-lethal Asajj Ventress on the hunt, finding a pet Sarlacc in a tale drawn by UK artist Nick Brokenshire, while ‘Vault of the Living Brains’ swings us to Tatooine as Jabba and his cousin Crakka bet on their fighting beasts, a wager that doesn’t end well for Crakka, before the final entry ‘Night of the Lava Zombies’ sees Vader finally arrives as Mustafar zombies attack.

Return to Vader’s Castle is hugely fun and beautifully crafted and, hopefully, this anthology series could become a Halloween tradition that continues for a long time in Star Wars literature.

FORMAT: PAPERBACK | RELEASE DATE: SEP 23^RD

Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia takes the popular BBC show Sherlock and turns it into a manga-style comic book. The result is something rather charming – both Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman look absolutely stunning in the traditional Japanese style, with Sherlock Holmes looking like every inch the super-genius he’s meant to be.

We get plenty of meaningful glances between Holmes and Watson and this is intensified when Moriarty turns up. The character design and the stark black and white style hammers home the style over substance approach that Steven Moffat’s Sherlock is famous for. In terms of visual storytelling, this is a triumph. Unfortunately, the story this book is based on isn’t very good. Appearing on our screens in 2012, the two-part story was inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Scandal in Bohemia, but re-imagined the character of Irene Adler as a cross between a mastermind and the ultimate victim. The stakes are low and there’s no real way for the reader to engage with the mystery. Without the music and pacing of the TV show, all we really have is some nice art and Adler looking like a Disney princess.

The graphic novelisation of A Scandal in Belgravia exposes the TV show for what it really is – a tour-de-force in production and acting, but lacking in the way of anything resembling a crime/mystery story. And without that, can you truly describe it as a Sherlock Holmes story at all?