by Dan O

Love to Easy Howard for bringing to my attention I need to give you all some comic book content and do it more regularly. I want to write about it.

So after Comixology got bought by Amazon It ruined my digital digestion of comics. I went to a purely physical model, back to the store week to week. It just wasn’t sustainable as much of a pack rat as I already am. At a critical bursting point I vowed to instead figure out this digital world. I got an open door to Marvel Unlimited as well as GlobalComix and dove into everything I’d been missing.

This will be a way for me to pick a few series you should check out and tell you why I love them. Disclaimer: during the physical days I had been deep in the Image universe of incredibly well illustrated but dry Science Fiction and Dystopian books. When I got GlobalComix and Mavel U I wanted the super suits again.

Wonder Woman:Dead Earth story and illustration by Daniel Warren Johnson

If you haven’t read Murder Falcon by Daniel Warren Johnson do that. Its incredible. He’s not just one of the best and most original illustrators, his brain is different. He wants different things out of the story. As grungy and broken as the world is in this book its all in place to test Wonder Woman’s dedication to her core belief in love and forgiveness. These are great values to have but values have a difficult time dealing with the horrors of what happens. Can you stick to who you want to be even when the unthinkable is reality? Who do you stand with? Daniel Warren Johnson shows us her eyes as she deals with it, as she cries for a broken world and finds out who broke it.

Namor: Last King of Atlantis story by Jason Aaron illustration by Paul Davidson and Alex Lins

Jason Aaron enjoys manly a-holes(Cam’ron just screamed PAUSE). Namor has been THE super abrasive jerk of the ocean longer than I’ve been alive. Aaron’s mission is to give you why, show you his upbringing and how he was molded, and at the same time hold him accountable to the damage he caused as king. He has a limited time to bring the 7 warlords fighting for kingship together before the surface attacks. The splintered groups of Atlantis fighting for liberation in different ways has interesting Mexican Revolution parallels. I’m really excited to see how this series concludes. It has showcased how important Namor is when used thoughtfully.

Uncanny X-Men story by Gail Simone illustration by David Marquez and Matthew Wilson

The Hickman X-Men run will go down in the Marvel history books alongside some of the best(Grant Morrison, Joss Whedon, Chris Claremont) but I definitely felt boxed in by it at one point. Hickman is a world builder and with the X-Men world to work with he spun into overdrive. Simone gave me exactly what I wanted, the opposite of the Hickman experience. Her run is centered around Rogue and it is emotional, romantic about community and looking out for one another as well as how you deal with tragedy. It’s dripping with character development and that’s the one thing Hickman isn’t really great at. I needed the warmth of the X tribe and Gail is smashing it.

Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. 1952 story by Mike Mignola & John Arcudi illustration by Alex Maleev & Dave Stewart

The push and pull of the Hellboy universe is that the movies make Hellboy a jolly adventure trip…and that makes sense. Hellboy is one of the coolest looking characters in comics and built with a wry sense of humor. The books are not like the movies. They are dry and gorgeous to look at. Every story is grounded in historical mythology you can look up and confirm. The stories are always full of the sadness that historical mythology stands on and this ones no different. Maleev is one of the best illustrators of all time so adding him to the roster made perfect sense. Hellboy is a world with its own rules like The Twilight Zone but you can always count on it. This book has great characters, real tension, history and eye popping art.

Catwoman: Lonely City story and illustration by Cliff Chiang

Chiang is an important creator and this is his best. At one point, Catwoman is sneaking up on Barbara Gordon who is now a politician with Gothams safety on her mind and Barbara tosses off a quick explanation that Batman was always able to sneak up on her father because his hearing wasn’t good in one ear. Its that kind of detailed world development that makes this book so rewarding. It’s set in the future, after Batman has died and the characters you know have been forced to move on. Poison Ivy’s life has changed, Edward Nygma is a practical person, and Catwoman is struggling to find her place. The art is just as detailed and engaging as the writing. I know this is one of those otherworld one offs that doesn’t count in the continuity but it is loaded with moments that will live in my mind as the true heart of not just Catwoman but other characters in the Bat universe as well(love you Killer Croc).