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New Comic Book Day: R.E.S.P.E.C.T. da Death-Defying Doctor


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Question for the comics-reading hivemind: just how does Wolverine keep his claws clean?

Is adamantium a stainless metal? Do they always come out all sticky? Like, if Wolverine killed you, would your last thought be “oh god, ew, it smells like Logan’s knucklemeat?”

These questions (and more) will, I’m sure, go unanswered in the first issue of the four-part Death of Wolverine, out this week from Marvel.

Also: where the hell is Superman and why are people around the world randomly getting his powers? That’s the big Q that Action Comics: Futures End #1 plans to A. The latest issue of Futurama does the Vice Versa thing minus the body swap, and the first issue of The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage spooks up the joint in the new batch of comics releases.

Concrete Park: R.E.S.P.E.C.T. #1 (Dark Horse Comics)

I’m gonna have to revisit Concrete Park later this week after having to bail about three pages into the first issue of the second volume. I think it was the part where the lead nice-guy gangbanger or whatever screams “No, I don’t believe you” when he finds out that the sinister group that kidnapped him and a bunch of other criminals wants to use them as slave labor on another planet.

You’re dumb, holmes. Too dumb for me this week.

The ripped-from-GTA-key-art look of the book doesn’t help, either, but the script led to the swift anesthetization of my brain.

Maybe it gets better, but life is too short and so is my patience.

You can buy Concrete Park: R.E.S.P.E.C.T. #1 via Dark Horse Digital.

Action Comics: Futures End #1 (DC Comics)

You’d think the guy rounding up each week’s new releases would be on top of the regular event cycle in comics. Well, you’d be wrong.

Case in point: the Futures End books winding their way through DC this month kind of sort of escaped my notice as DC tries to recapture some of that One Year Later heat, I guess? If you’re going to crib from your own work, then you’d best reuse some of the best.

Both Action Comics and Detective Comics are the most shameless cases (and I mean that in a good way), recalling the post-52 period where Superman was no longer Superman and the Riddler was solving crimes in Gotham. The latter was actually one of my favorite changes that I still file under “why the hell didn’t that stick,” because asshole-Riddler-as-detective is kind of brilliant.

You can buy Action Comics: Futures End #1 via comiXology.

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The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three – Prisoner #1 (Marvel Comics)

Raise your hand if you’re a member of The Dark Tower Appreciation Club. Good. Now how many of you kind of hate Eddie Dean?

Marvel’s seemingly endless adaptation of Stephen King’s meta series finally reaches the second novel, 1987’s The Drawing of the Three, which introduces ’80s junkie Dean, another case of Stephen King’s kinda autobiographical dicks from New York who are also hooked on smack but love their mommas (the other being The Stand‘s Larry Underwood).

Early going with both characters is kind of a chore: each is an unrepentant, selfish whiner and you can feel King’s own loathing/sympathy for the addict in each character. Eddie actually became one of the best characters in the series by its final issues, but here’s hoping writer Peter David can smooth out some of the larger passages of self pity and clunky King-isms about inner city life.

You can buy The Dark Tower: The Drawing of Three – Prisoner #1 via comiXology.

Kill My Mother GN (Liveright)

Winner of title of the week. You know, if we were giving out awards.

Writer and illustrator Jules Feiffer is responsible for this noir-inspired story about five women from two families linked by a hard-drinking private dick. Solicitation, you had me at “inspired by the works of “Hammett, Chandler, and Cain” but you’ve got my money thanks to a focus placed squarely on the ladies in the narrative.

Noir fans know that the genre often doesn’t have time for women unless their damsels (or femme fatales playing at the same), so to hear that they’re driving the story is kind of exciting. That it’s the latest work from the cartoonist, illustrator, and writer of Carnal Knowledge make this one instantly worth picking up.

You can order the Kindle edition of Kill My Mother via Amazon.

Futurama Comics #72 (Bongo Comics)

Was there seriously not an episode of Futurama where Zap became captain of the Planet Express?* That’s the premise of this month’s issue of the long-running Futurama out of Bongo (oh, and Leela squeezes into Zap’s tunic to take control of his ship, so it’s all even).

*Yeah, I know there was that one episode where he joined the crew, but it’s amazing to me that this story had to find its way into the comics.

You can buy Futurama Comics #72 via… what the hell? Bongo doesn’t offer this book digitally. Not cool, Bongo – your Simpsons books are readily available via comiXology, but why is your book about the future constrained to the format of the past? Looks like you’ll have to hunt it up in print, if you want to read it.

Death of Wolverine #1 (Marvel Comics)

You can buy Death of Wolverine via comiXology.

Grumble grumble, rabble rabble, “Endless Grousing About Event Books From an Internet Crank: Selected Readings.”

We talked about this one a little bit last week, with one commenter getting a little flustered that Logan would be out of play (while characters like Captain America and Thor would have alternate characters taking their places for the near-ish future). Good riddance.

No! I don’t mean like “good riddance” to some fictional dude who’s been in a few comics stories I dig. It’s more like: let the character rest: give maybe the most ubiquitous hard-ass at Marvel a couple month’s break until someone can find a good story to tell that doesn’t involve dead girlfriends or villains out for revenge (who ultimately kill Logan’s girlfriend).

Charles Soule has written some really good comics in the past (you should check out 27 if you haven’t already done so), and he’s deft at tackling legacy and tricky, troubled characters. Hopefully, he’ll have something to say about comics’ oldest Canadian.

The Death Defying Doctor Mirage #1 (Valiant)

Book of the week, dorks. Even if I did think it came out a month ago (Valiant’s advanced review game is strong).

Actually, I’m a little torn on this book: the contents are fine and set up some very, very strong urban supernatural mystery bits and pieces, but I confess, I’m missing the cute The Thin Man vibe of the original (even if one half of the title was dead-ish).

This time around, it’s Mrs. Dr. Mirage in the lead, recast, and a supernaturally-gifted private investigator who can speak to ghosts (except those of her late, departed husband). When she gets drawn into the mystery of wealthy businessman with a boogeyman in his basement, there’s a chance she might be reunited with the very dead love or her life (one way or the other).

Jen Van Meter finds the heart of the book’s brittle character while Roberto de la Torre’s art keeps it spooky.

You can buy The Death Defying Doctor Mirage #1 via comiXology.

Those are my picks for the week. What’s on your list?