The Comics Dispatch is my weekly column looking at what will be among the books I actually will be purchasing this week. I try to keep to an actual budget of twenty dollars though its not often I keep to it given how many good books there are nowadays but that is the aim. Each week I start with my "highlander" of books assuming I could only get one and I follow the pull list with a suggested collection or original graphic novel for those who don't do periodicals...
Ms Marvel #14
So my choice of if I could only buy one this week is a book I think usually manages to be able to stand alone even in the middle of a story. G Willow Wilson's inhuman creation that started just over a year back is still the book that reminds me of what it was like to read comics as a kid; she brings me back to a sense of wonder that many of the cool writers don't capture. Kamala Khan captures my imagination because she is someone I can identify with much like Agent Colson of SHIELD she's a fangirl of the heroes around her, she's a gamer and is not afraid for people to know these things about her. She struggles with the culture around her and limitations society places on her and the expectations of her family really matter to her but in a good way. In these ways she reminds me of the early Peter Parker and I do truly enjoy seeing her encounter the world and come to terms with it. The art I. This book has elways been great in my opinion and the artist this issue Takeshi Miyazawa is up to snuff I think given how pretty the last issue was, he does the cover here too so you can see his style...$2.99
Hexed #9
Nelson and Mora's great urban fantasy caper story would have been my if I could only get one if this was not a Ms. Marvel week given how consistantly thrilling and well told and drawn story. Michael built the mythology for this book from the legacy of HP Lovecraft and the like of cosmic, existential horror while working on parts of the comic Fall of Chuthlu. Witches, hell, ghosts, demons, arcane artifacts and multilayered plots and counterplots if these are story elements that intrigue you this is certain to be a title up your alley. Up till now there have been many irons in the fire story wise so there may be a bit of a learning curve but its book that is easy to get stuck into and and a great deal of horror fiction fun. One of my favorite books when I see its on the offing and if you have not seen Dan Mora's art the covers are again a good example of the quality and detail he usually hits. $3.99
Shutter #11
Like Hexed Shutter could easily have been my just one choice books and that would be for both the book itself and the back materials Joe and Leila include here but get left out of the collected edition. Joe Keating is great at misdirection as a writer and what appears to be a Indiana Jones fantasy romp is really something much deeper exploring family and the what lies you may just may be living with without knowing it. This is the penultimate issue of the second story arc that revealed to Kate that her family is far larger then she thought and calls into question what kind of person her famous explorer father really was. It may be the wrong time to join this book but I would urge people who didn't do so earlier to take a look at it specially fans of Saga given I would say this is a magical realism version of that wonderful drama. $3.50
Secret Identies #3
Speaking about stories revolving around lies and unspoken truths Joines and Faeber's new superhero team book is so full of lies I wonder what is actually the truth. I would assume the initial idea was formed around all the lies that build up over time as superhero stories go on for years and years and more so called secrets get created. The story is a great homage to the Teen Titans Judas Contract which saw a mole infiltrated into an established super group. As readers we are in on the gag right up front and we also know who is the one manipulating Crosswind into the position of confidential informant and some of the real tension they have created so far is more related to the secrets held by all the remaining members. I enjoy superheroes I really do and I like a lot of these characters and can see likeing them in to the future but I wonder what I will think about them once we really know more and who the actual heroes in th bunch will turn out to be. Its kind of a soap opera and its a bit of a guilty pleasure but it is good comics too. $3.50
Its a week I may actually keep to budget even if I get the Thor issues I have missed recently given I'm hiring right around fifteen dollars.
In terms of collections
As a fan of golden age pulp adventures and having grown up watching things like the TV rebroadcasts of the Flash Gordon and Superman serials and Wild Wild West I love heroic tales that take a bit of this a bit of that and the other and make something startling new out of it. Five Ghosts takes a treasure hunter like hero and infuses him with the essences of five legendary literary figures whom are not all heroic in nature and takes him on a series of roller coaster ride chiff hanger filled mystical journeys. The book has a very Indiana Jones reimagined pulp style adventure with cliffhangers abounding and enjoying the fun of the genre. Its a well paced solid tale and leaves lots of room to explore the concepts....
$9.99
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