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The Black Incal by Alexandro Jodorowski & Mœbius

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I read The Incal at least thirty years ago, during the burst of Mœbius republications from Marvel. As I recall, I thought it was OK space opera, with an annoying main character and more mystical mumbo-jumbo than I preferred. (At the time, I was much more enthusiastic about the Blueberry stories, a long Western series drawn by Mœbius and written by Jean-Michel Charlier.)

Humanoids republished the original Incal series – in six volumes this time, matching the original French albums, unlike the Marvel 2-in-1s – in 2012, going back to the original French colors by Yves Chaland and taking out some minor censorship that had crept into English-language editions in the ’90s. And so, for no good reason, I’m taking another look at this series.

The Black Incal  is the first of the six albums of the main series, written by Alexandro Jodorowski and drawn by Mœbius. The stories originally appeared in Metal Hurlant in the early ’80s; Jodorowski went on to write a lot more in this universe – some of it under an “Incal” title and some not, a few with Mœbius but mostly not. And I have to admit that I do not have a high opinion of Jodorowski’s work, though I’ve mostly read the comics he wrote for Mœbius – he’s also a filmmaker and has done lots of other projects, so I may be reacting most strongly to their gestalt. (The worst thing I’ve seen is Madwoman of the Sacred Heart , if you want to see my heights of spleen and bile.)

The Incal, on the other hand, starts off as more-or-less conventional skiffy adventure, with only a few eruptions of Meaning. Our hero is John DiFool (a worrying name, admittedly), a “Class-R” private investigator in one of those ultra-urbanized, stratified medium futures, in an underground city on what seems to be Earth. He starts out being beaten and terrorized by mysterious masked figures, is thrown to what should be his death, and then saved by the Cybo-Cops. He tells them a plausible story – which might even be mostly true – about him bodyguarding an aristo woman for a night of debauchery among the lower classes before things went sideways and he ran away and was knocked out in the inevitable gigantic service tunnels.

John neglects to mention that he got a strange box from a gigantic dying “mutant,” or that other mutants and the alien Berg (from another galaxy, Jodorowski offhandedly remarks, to underscore how little he understands how any of this works) are fighting over this MacGuffin.

The MacGuffin itself is The Incal, a small luminous pyramid that talks and can bestow strange and wondrous powers on its possessor in ways that aren’t clear at all in this book. Descriptions of the series call it “The Light Incal” in distinction to the Dark Incal, the title object that John is sent by the main Incal to find in the back half of this book.

Most of this book is frenetic action overlaid with lots of talking. It’s the kind of action story where people narrate their every last action and emotional state, like a ’60s Spider-Man comic with slightly less quipping but vastly more emoting. John gets one story of What He Needs To Do and What It All Means from the Incal, but, as I recall, this changes somewhat as the series goes on, and the story gets bigger and more grandiose. There are various forces arrayed against John, but we’re not clear yet on who they all are, how they connect to each other, or what they want. But it is clearly John on the run with the vastly powerful thingamabob, with All Hands Against Him.

Oh! Also, near the end, one group of villains hires the Metabaron, a sleek figure in a metaleather jacket with a metashaved head and steely metaeyes, to find John and retrieve the Incal in his metacraft. (OK, not every noun associated with him has “meta” attached to it – but a hell of a lot of them do, in a way that gets silly within two or three pages.)

It ends entirely in the middle of the action; John has been captured yet again by someone we’re pretty sure is a villain and the Metabaron is getting metacloser. I suspect every volume ends more or less that way; I’ll see.

The Dark Incal is stylish and would move really quickly if it weren’t for all of the repetitive dialogue. Mœbius’s art is detailed – maybe to the point of being overbusy a few times, but mostly right in that sweet spot of Big SF action, with lots of gigantic constructed stuff looming and swooping around. I have the lurking suspicion that it will all add up to less than it seems, but that may be my memories of the last time I read it. It is the epitome of ’80s SF adventure in French comics, in all of the good and bad ways.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

Who Is AC? by Hope Larson & Tintin Pantoja

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If this were a TV show, it would be a pilot that didn’t get picked up: it obviously aimed to start a series, and, a decade later, it didn’t. There are a lot of plot points, themes, and ideas that aren’t completely explained or fleshed out here – but of course there would be, if it were going to be a series. Those are hooks for later stories, for further details to come later, room for the story to grow.

But, for whatever reason, it didn’t. Who Is AC?  is a decade-old standalone now; I suppose it’s just possible that writer Hope Larson and artist Tintin Pantoja could get back together and tell us what happened next, but this was a Sailor Moon-inspired, manga-styled graphic novel about superheroes and social media aimed at tweens. That audience is now in college; the phones they used in 2013 are four generations out of date; and the ways all of us interact online has shifted and altered. Any follow-up would either be a period piece or a full reboot.

But, if you can ignore the fact that the main character gets her superpowers from a candybar phone, the likes of which were I think solidly out of date even in 2013, AC is a fast-moving, if somewhat superficial, adventure story about one girl who gets superpowers and discovers there are Trolls lurking out in the world.

Lin just moved with her family to the small college town of Barnhurst – location deliberately left unspecified, but  notably small and far away from everything. On the flight over, her phone rang while in airplane mode, and something happened that transformed her. She can use that phone contact, in a way the book doesn’t over-explain, to turn into a costumed superheroine with what looks like a big spear and some vaguely computer-esque powers.

Trace is a young man, about the same age, who lives in Barnhurst. He works in a copy shop, where he meets Lin making her zine. He’s got a crush on Mel, who works next door at the get-your-photos-taken-in-old-timey-garb shop (which is sustainable as a business in a small college town? Barnhurst must get substantially more tourist traffic than it seems to). Mel is a bit self-centered, the stereotypical pretty girl, but seems like a basically nice, normal person, not an airhead or a spoiled brat. The two have a date, which does not go well, largely because Trace is even more self-centered and full of unwarranted assumptions about every last thing in the world than we expected. (He’s also about sixteen or so, which means it comes across as young and unformed and needing some life experience rather than completely horrible. But he is clearly reminiscent of That Internet Guy, who was a loathed type even in 2013.)

The same night as that date, Lin witnesses a hold-up at the copy shop. She transforms into her alter ego, saves the day, and captures the crook (who is a sad-sack guy trying to get money to pay for dental work). But she also transforms again on the way home, to see how it works, and causes an accident for an already-mad Trace and his bike.

Trace posts an angry rant online about the superheroine after he learns about the holdup, calling her Anonymous Coward. (Presumably, if there had been a series, AC would have stood for other things – but that’s the source of the name here.) At about the same time, a shadowy figure in a repurposed Pizza Hut somewhere nearby – clearly the Big Villain of the series, but not completely identified in this book – tempts Mel into becoming what I suppose I have to call an Evil Minion.

Mel and Trace are going to meet someone isolated the next night, where Mel will presumably use the power of the Negative Internet to change Trace into another Evil Minion like herself. But Lin shows up, and there is a battle with lots of 1s and 0s in it, and the hold of the Troll (I guess we can call the big villain that – he’s called a troll in the book, which implies he may not be alone) is broken.

Lin’s secret identity is still, we think, safe, though her costume doesn’t cover her face all that much. Mel and Trace are back to being friends, we think, and maybe, if there were a Book Two, might move on to more. But AC doesn’t have a real superhero name, the origin of her powers and the Troll are still mysterious, and it’s not clear what the significance of the plot of the book was.

So: very much an introductory first volume, mostly set up and mysteries. All things that will now never be cleared up; this is all we have. Pantoja gives it an energetic, mildly manga style, and Larson, as always, is good with the big personalities of young people. It’s not quite a complete story, but it’s fine as long as you think of it as a pilot episode getting burned off one random night in the summer.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson, Vol. 1

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I’ve been known to bemoan the fact that the caption was basically wiped out of mainstream US comics in an extinction event roughly congruent with the big ’90s crash. I’ll admit that captions may have made a comeback since, like tiny mammals after the Chicxulub impact, but I read mainstream comics only rarely these days, so I don’t really know either way. But my point was that captions were useful, and did work well in a lot of the iconic ’80s stories, so, geez, maybe don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater?

Well, I hadn’t taken a look at any bathwater for a while. My opinion may have shifted somewhat.

Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson, Vol. 1  is the first of three fairly large volumes collecting their combined run on the Daredevil character, from 1979 through 1982. Now, there’s an asterisk there – several asterisks, actually – since this is corporate comics, and it was created assembly-line style. Janson was the inker before Miller joined as penciler, working over Gene Colan, and took over as penciler/inker afterward. And Miller started off as “the hot new artist,” picking up co-plotting after a few issues and eventually taking over as writer as well. So what most readers think of as “the Frank Miller Daredevil” starts up about halfway through this book.

But comics fans are completionists, and this is a complete package, so that’s a good thing. It also has extensive credits of who did what – something comics weren’t good at for a long time, but they made up for it starting sometime in the 1970s, and became obsessive about it in the flood of reprint projects starting in the ’90s.

Included in this book are:

  • Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man issues 27 & 28, written by Bill Mantlo and inked by Frank Springer; it’s basically a Frank Miller try-out, I guess, since Daredevil guest-stars
  • Daredevil #158-161, 163-166, written by Roger McKenzie (with Miller contributing for 165 and 166)
  • Daredevil # 167, written by David Michelinie and Miller
  • Daredevil #168-172, written by Miller

Now, Bill Mantlo has definitely written better comics than this. So has Michelinie. I don’t know McKenzie’s work well, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. But the stories here – even the ones when Miller takes over at the end – are filled with long, verbose, tedious captions that “set the scene” and “provide color commentary” but mostly tell us what we’re looking at and repeat standard phrases about the character and world.

Daredevil doesn’t have a single phrase that gets beaten into the ground like Wolverine’s “I’m the best at what I do and what I do isn’t pretty,” but both “man without fear” (including related references to DD never giving up on anything ever) and “hey, don’t forget this guy is, like, totally blind!” come up like a bad penny every few pages.

The stories are also…what’s a more polite word for cliched and standard? There were a lot of comics like these in the 1970s and 1980s, and only slightly different before and after that – superhero yardgoods, rolled out to fill up pages and entertain an audience that just wanted to see this guy in this costume punching a particular group of villains and repeating his catchphrase.

Miller was an solid artist from the beginning, which is good. And Janson supported him well. They worked well together to make eye-pleasing pages full of superhero action, only slightly marred by the reams of words pasted on top of all of it.

Once Miller starts writing the stories, the elements of his later work slide in. The last five issues here are one plotline, in which The Kingpin – up to this point entirely a Spider-Man villain, and at that point retired in Japan – comes back to New York for a vaguely described plea deal in which he will hand over a dossier on his successors to the Manhattan DA in return for complete immunity on all of his previous crimes. (Which is, what thirty years of murders and gang-lord-ing and attempted spider-squashing? Nice deal.) We also get a flashback to Daredevil’s college days, to meet the One Great Love of His Life, Elektra, the beautiful daughter of a Greek diplomat who drops out of school when Daddy is murdered by terrorists that not-yet-Daredevil isn’t quite able to stop. She drops out, of course, to become an international assassin in a skimpy costume made up of mostly red straps.

As, of course, you do. In superhero comics, at least.

Bullseye, the most iconic Daredevil antagonist – basically his Joker or Lex Luthor – turns up several times, with a lot of hugger-mugger and opportunities for Daredevil to emote and express his pure goodness and desire for justice, including during the Kingpin plotline at the end. (I do have to admit that Miller makes better use of him, with less histrionics, than McKenzie did.)

So the front half of Vol. 1 is just a slight step up from a standard Marvel comic of 1979 – Miller is energetic, but there were plenty of good, energetic artists then. The end shows more promise, but Miller is still working in the same mode: characters talk too much, and the narrative voice might be pulling back just slightly, but it’s still too intrusive, and spends far too much time telling the reader things he should already know or can see right there in the same panel.

I’m assuming all that gets better in Vol. 2; I’ll have to take a look.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

Last Kiss: Sex Day by John Lustig

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I try not to be a gatekeeper. I have standards and expectations – and, like everyone else, some tropes and styles and story-structures I like better than others. But I like to think I can take the how and what as it comes.

So I haven’t mentioned the syndicated comic “strip” Last Kiss here before, as far as I can tell. But I’ve been aware of it, and read it here and there, and I’m definitely not against it. (I’m sure some people are – repurposing of art brings out a lot of thoughts and emotions in some people.)

The deal of Last Kiss is that John Lustig takes panels from mostly ’50s romance comics – a lot of Dick Giordano and Vince Colletta, I think, a lot of people who can’t be exactly credited seventy years later – edits them a bit, has them recolored, and adds new, humorous dialogue and captions. It’s all juxtaposition humor, with those clean-cut young men in crew cuts and young ladies in classy gowns talking about Gangnam style or whatever. Last Kiss has been running for quite some time – I want to say something like twenty years, in CBG and as a few issues in comics format and mostly on GoComics – but there’s a deep well of original material to work from, and I don’t think Lustig pushes out lots of material at any one time.

Last Kiss: Sex Day  is a mildly themed – sex is the theme, though that’s at least an underlying theme a lot of the time in Last Kiss, since it starts with romance comics to begin with – collection of the strip from 2013, a short book of about sixty pages. As far as I can tell, it’s only available digitally, which is just fine for this kind of frivolous exercise.

Last Kiss is all individual panels, and they’re presented one to a page here, with an occasional second page to show what the art looked like in its original form and with its original dialogue. (Lustig’s is always funnier, but often vastly less weird.) It’s sarcastic, it’s at least mildly “weren’t those old people totally squaresville” humor, and it’s all in the same territory of jokes. So this is a good length, and an amusing package: if you like the idea of Last Kiss, and don’t mind some mildly risqué humor, Sex Day is a fine sampler.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

White Tiger Reborn Celebrates Hispanic and Latin American Heritage Month

New York, NY— July 21, 2025 — Marvel Comics will celebrate Hispanic and Latin American Heritage Month this year by spotlighting Marvel Comics’ first Latin Super Hero in WHITE TIGER REBORN #1, a Marvel’s Voices Comunidades special. The one-shot will feature two gripping tales: a story by superstar writer Daniel José Older and rising star artist Bruno Abdias and a story by Bram Stoker award winner Cynthia Pelayo and acclaimed artist Moises Hidalgo, marking the exciting Marvel Comics debut of both Abdias and Pelayo.

The special will uncover never-before-seen moments in the original White Tiger Hector Ayala’s history and propel current White Tiger, Ava Ayala, into a new era as she reforges her link to the Tiger God and makes the mantle her own. In addition, October’s issues of Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Incredible Hulk will have WHITE TIGER TEAM-UP VARIANT COVERS by iconic artist J. Gonzo that each showcase one of the three bearers of the White Tiger mantle alongside the series’ titular star.

THE RETURN OF THE WHITE TIGER!

Ava Ayala is the current wielder of the powers of the White Tiger, bearing the amulet of power that imbue its host with a connection to mystical power and martial arts prowess. As Ava returns to her old stomping grounds to protect the innocent, she becomes embroiled in a mystery that forces her to confront her family’s murder and history linking them to the White Tiger mantle as Ava is brought face-to-face with – Hector Ayala, her dead brother and the original White Tiger?!

“While it’s always a deep honor to carry on the legacy that Bill Mantlo and George Pérez began so many years ago, this story feels particularly special, as it marks a major turning point in the decades-long saga of the White Tiger,” Older shared. 

“As a Puerto Rican author, it is an honor to make my Marvel Comics debut with White Tiger,” Pelayo said. “I’m grateful to be a part of the experience of new audiences, and old, learning about the legacy of the first Latin American, and Puerto Rican, superhero in the history of American comic books.”

WHITE TIGER: REBORN #1
Written by DANIEL JOSÉ OLDER & CYNTHIA PELAYO
Art by BRUNO ABDIAS & MOISES HIDALGO
Cover by MIKE HAWTHORNE
Variant Cover by JHONY CABALLERO
Variant Cover by MATEUS MANHANINI
On Sale 10/1

IAMTW Announces 2025 Scribe Award Nominees

  • News
  • July 24, 2025

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers unveiled the nominees for this year’s Scribe Awards. Early this year, they announced that prolific tie-in writer Dayton Ward had been named the recipient of their Lifetime Achievement Award for the year.

ADAPTED NOVEL

·      Blast from the Past! By Chris McGuire (The Racoons)

·      Cwej: Requiem by James Hornby (Doctor Who)

·      Doctor Who: 73 Yards by Scott Handcock

·      Doctor Strange: Dimension War by James Lovegrove

·      Terrifier 2: The Official Novelization by Tim Waggoner  

AUDIO DRAMA

·      Archipelagio by Tim Foley (Doctor Who)  

·      Cass-Cade by James Moran (Doctor Who)

·      The Krillitane Flint by John Dorney   (Doctor Who)

·      Nowhere Never by Katherine Armitage  (Doctor Who)

·      Star Cops – Blood Moon by James Swallow  

GRAPHIC NOVEL

·      Alex Rider: Snakehead by Antony Johnston    

·      Dark Souls: The Willow King by George Mann  (Dark Souls)

·      Godzilla vs. Cthulu by Jonathan Maberry

·      Infinite Darkness: The Beginning by Keith R.A. DeCandido   (Resident Evil)

·      Wheel of Time by Rik Hoskin 

·      Wrath of Beth by Jake Black (Rick and Morty)


ORIGINAL NOVEL, GENERAL

·      A Bitter Taste: A Daidoji Shin Mystery by Josh Reynolds  (Legend of the Five Rings)  

·      Murder, She Wrote Murder Backstage by Terrie Farley Moran

·      Off Beat (Top Drek 1) by Marie Bilodeau (Shadowrun)

·      Quantum Paradox by Justin Sloan (PlanetQuest A game by Galactic Entertainment)

ORIGINAL NOVEL, SPECULATIVE

·      Arkham Horror: The Forbidden Visions of Lucius Galloway by Carrie Harris

·      Batman: Resurrection by John Jackson Miller

·      Firefly: Aim to Misbehave by Rosiee Thor

·      Runescape: The Gift of Guthix by Erin M. Evans

·      Star Trek – Strange New Worlds: Asylum by Una McCormack  

SHORT STORY

·      “Family History” by David Mack  (Star Trek: The Next Generation)   

·      “Here There Be Monsters” by Tim Waggoner  (The Mythago Wood novels by Robert Holdstock)

·      “The Lilac and the Stone” by  Catherynne Valente          (World of Warcraft)       

·      “O’ Deadly Deathtrap” by Bobby Nash (Remo Williams, The Destroyer: The Adventures Continue)

·      “The Tomorrow Ghost” by Robert Jeschonek  (Kolchak: The Night Stalker)

YA/MG

·      Down in the London Underground by George Ivanoff (Doctor Who)

·      Life is Strange: Heatwaves by Brittney Morris

·      Prince of Glass and Midnight by Linsey Miller (Disney’s Cinderella)

·      The Raccoons: The One That Got Away by Iain McLaughlin

·      Star Wars: The High Republic: Tears of the Nameless by George Mann

·      Wings of Starlight by Allison Saft (Disney Fairies)          

The Awards will be presented tomorrow during the annual IAMTW panel at San Diego Comic-Con at 2 p.m. PST. Each year the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers presents the SCRIBE AWARDS to celebrate outstanding works tied to popular licenses such as novelizations of movies and TV shows, as well as numerous original works set in the worlds of Star Wars, the MCU, the DCU, video games, popular TV shows, and much more. The Awards event at SDCC includes a lively panel discussion with current nominees and past winners. Hosted by The New York Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry, president of the IAMTW.

Completely Howling Mad by Peter David

Join Us for Peter David Tribute at San Diego Comic-Con

ComicMix and the David Family invite you to join us in celebrating Peter David’s life and legacy at San Diego Comic-Con 2025. We’re giving you several opportunities to do so…

Completely Howling Mad by Peter David

While you’re on the exhibition floor, stop by the ComicMix Booth (#2308), where we will be selling the new release of Completely Howling Mad. This is a numbered hardcover edition, and limited to 500 copies. Completely Howling Mad reprints Peter’s 1989 novel Howling Mad with his never before reprinted sequel novelette, Moonlight Becomes You. This is a Comic-Con 2025 exclusive, and all proceeds will go to the Davids. 

Over the course of the weekend, we will be hosting a silent auction at the ComicMix Booth (#2308), where you can bid on many items, including the following:

“Kolchak the Nightstalker: 50th Anniversary” art, page 12 of “The Enemy Within” by JK Woodward. Materials: Gouache on 12×18” coldpressed cotton paper.  
Hulk: “Future Imperfect #1” (written by Peter David) Color Production Art Page 11 (Marvel, 1993) by Tom Smith, with linework by George Pérez. Materials: 12”x15” illustration board, 9”x13” Bristol board, watercolors, acetate, ink. This piece features George Pérez linework on Bristol board, and Tom Smith watercolors. It is in Excellent Condition, and is autographed by both George Pérez and Tom Smith.

There will also be books signed by Peter and various comics scripts available. We are also gladly accepting contributions to the auction. Please leave your donation at the ComicMix Booth (#2308), with a card listing its description, along with your name and contact information.

Bidding for all will be in-person only, and will close at 2pm Sunday. All proceeds will go to the David family. 

All weekend, there will be a guest book at the ComicMix Booth (#2038) for people to sign and leave their remembrances of the Amazing, Incredible, Spectacular, Sensational (and other licensed adjectives besides)– and dearly missed Peter David.

And at 7pm on Saturday, July 26th, we’ll be gathering in Grand 10 & 11 at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina for a panel titled, “Peter David: A Celebration of His Life, Work, and Legacy.”  

We’re looking forward to gathering and sharing memories of the amazing “Writer of Stuff.” Panelists will include comic legends, friends, and collaborators, such as Paul Levitz, George Takei, Mark Evanier, Chris Ryall, J. K. Woodward, and Glenn Hauman, and moderated by Maggie Thompson of Comics Buyer’s Guide.

Please come by and tell us your stories of the man who brought us so many of his own.

Robot Chicken: The Complete Series Cming in Oct.

BURBANK, CA (July 22, 2025) Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment invites fans to relive two decades of pop culture mayhem with the release of Robot Chicken: The Complete Series on DVD on October 7, 2025. For the first time ever, 228 episodes of the Emmy® Award-winning Adult Swim series, including iconic specials themed around DC, Star Wars, The Walking Dead, Archie Comics, Christmas, and more, will be available in one definitive collection. 

This milestone release celebrates 20 years of the rapid-fire “channel flips” that propelled viewers through Robot Chicken’s twisted takes on nostalgia, pop culture, and everything in between. Fueled by old-school stop-motion animation and a crew of deeply disturbed toys, the quarter-hour show defined a generation of late-night animated sketch comedy. 

Robot Chicken: The Complete Series marks the first time the full series will be released on DVD. The fll series is also available on digital now.  With 228 episodes, fans can own the entire chaotic journey, along with an exclusive 20th anniversary bonus feature available only on the DVD, which includes many past guest stars. This is not one to miss!  

Created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, Robot Chicken has won six Emmy® Awards and earned critical acclaim for its irreverent writing, handcrafted visuals, and jaw-dropping celebrity voice cameos.  

SERIES INFORMATION: 

Robot Chicken: The Complete Series 
Includes 24 Discs with 228 episodes plus not-to-miss 20th anniversary special bonus content, only available on DVD. 

PRODUCT: 
DVD 
Audio: English 
Subtitles: English  
Rated: TV-MA 

Spider-Boy Receives Facsimile Edition

New York, NY— July 22, 2025 — After almost thirty years, SPIDER-BOY #1, one of the all-time great DC/Marvel crossover comic books, will be boldly re-presented in its original form – ads and all—in SPIDER-BOY #1 FACSIMILE EDITION!

On sale in October, SPIDER-BOY #1 FACSIMILE EDITION reprints SPIDER-BOY #1 by writer Karl Kesel and artist Mike Wieringo. The iconic one-shot was initially published in 1996 by Amalgam Comics, a joint imprint between Marvel Comics and DC, which introduced dozens of new heroes created by merging popular characters from both comic book universes. The project was an industry sensation, and SPIDER-BOY, a mix of Spider-Man and Super-Boy, was one of the standout stars! Now, fans can pick up the character’s rare first appearance and revisit the unique world of Amalgam Comics just in time for Marvel and DC’s newest groundbreaking collaboration—DEADPOOL/BATMAN and BATMAN/DEADPOOL!

As iconic heroes of two worlds collide in the Amalgam Universe, get ready to meet Pete Ross – your friendly neighborhood clone known as Spider-Boy! Join the amazing Arach-Kid mid-fight as he protects Project Cadmus from the deranged D.N.Alien, Bizarnage! But even if he can solve that problem, big trouble lies ahead courtesy of a somehow giant-sized King Lizard! Can Spider-Boy bring his reptilian rogue down to size in time to meet the blind date lined up for him by his ally, Otto Octavius? Face it, tiger – you’re dying to find out!

MARVEL/DC: SPIDER-BOY #1 FACSIMILE EDITION
Written by KARL KESEL
Art and Cover by MIKE WIERINGO
On Sale 10/1

REVIEW: Avatar Legends: City of Echoes

Avatar Legends: City of Echoes
By Judy L. Lin
320 pages/Amulet Books/$21.99

I know this much about The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, so I approached this first novel in what is being billed as the Avatar: Legends series. Is the title intended to be about stories set in and around the Avatar series, or is the legend in question the protagonist in this Young Adult novel? That’s open to interpretation.

Set in Ba Sing Se, the last major city in the Earth Kingdom, mainly in the Lower Ring, we come across refugees from the atrocities committed by the Fire Nation, as they seemingly rampage across the world. The Avatar is nowhere to be seen and is rumored to be dead (we know better, right?). We focus on Jun, a sixteen-year-old whose family has been lost, so she and her grandfather take refuge wherever they can. She enrolls in school, utilizing her skills as a calligrapher to do what she can to support herself.

Jin’s best friend, Susu, is from a family that owns the popular Wen Bakery. Things kick off when Susu signs a contract to serve the Upper Ring after her father gambles away the bakery. Jin promises to find a way to raise the funds to settle the debt and regain her friend. This results in allying herself with the somewhat aloof Xuan, a classmate whose family runs the apothecary where she gets her grandfather’s medicine.

From there, she takes on increasing risks to find money and Susu, becoming a messenger for the Black Market Silver Fangs before being initiated into their ranks. When she encounters Susu, she is a brainwashed member of the Joo Dee and does not recognize her bestie. As the Fire Kingdom’s soldiers invade the city, she also becomes part of the resistance.

Our focus rarely leaves Jin, who is constantly challenged about her assumptions regarding people, as well as her nascent skills as an Earthbender. Her growth drives the narrative as she befriends other refugees-turned-freedom fighters, including Smellerbee and Longshot.

Lin keeps the story moving along at a good pace, offering each character just enough of a personality to be interesting, but none are provided much in the way of depth. Conversations that would have allowed the characters to grow are truncated in favor of advancing the plot. The contrasting lives of the two rings are also given short shrift, so she imagines her readers can picture the locales based on the animated series. Speaking of which, we see Jet’s familiar attack on the Pao Family Tea House from Jin’s point of view, giving you an anchor as to where this fits into the overall continuity.

Events present obstacles and challenges, but few of the characters are truly endangered, blunting the edge this could have had.

Clearly, I am not the audience for this work, but it was an entertaining enough read and fans of the series should enjoy this self-contained story.

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