Image Previews Picks: May 2013

Okay, there’s been no recent Image news that I feel the need to comment on so I’m at a.  Unless  “Peter Panzerfaust’s” storming of Diamond’s reorder charts counts as news.  I just got my copy of writer Kurtis Wiebe’s “Debris” today so we’ll see how inclined I am to follow up on this after I read it.  Also, this doesn’t really count as Image news per se but I hope that “The Walking Dead” fixes it habit of spotlighting a member of its supporting cast before killing them off.  Yes, the death in last Sunday’s episode was shocking, but we’ve been down that road before with the likes of T-Dog and Oscar.  It’s a familiar genre convention that you’d think the writers would be wise to, but I guess not.  Criticism about such conventions aside, I do like where they’re going with the second half of the season in terms of building towards the inevitable conflict with Woodbury.  I’m just worried about Rick’s left hand now that it looks like Merle will be joining them in the prison. ----more---- Ten Grand #1: While we’re on the subject of tired genre conventions, here’s a new series from writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Ben Templesmith that hinges on one of the oldest:  a hitman going out for one last job.  This is all so he can be with the woman he loves, but Joe Fitzgerald didn’t count on his final target having some very close ties to demons and he and his girlfriend wind up getting done in as a result.  Fortunately there’s an angelic(?) presence on hand to offer him a deal where for every time he dies in pursuit of a righteous cause, Joe will be reunited with the love of his life for five minutes.  Though it’s certainly a unique premise, the tropes make my head hurt with all of the eye-rolling they’re inducing.  And yet... Straczynski’s “Midnight Nation” had a lot of the same issues on the surface and that wound up working quite well.  Far better than you’d think it had a right to.  So, issues aside, I’m willing to give this the benefit of the doubt.  If nothing else, the art from Templesmith is sure to be fantastic. The Bounce #1: After getting fans to pay for “Sex” writer Joe Casey comes back with a new series about a superpowered slacker.  Beyond that setup there’s nothing in the issue’s description to distinguish this from other series about superpowered slackers, like John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke’s “Major Bummer” -- now available in a “Super Slacktacular” edition from Dark Horse.  Will this match the sixteen issues that series produced?  I’d tell you, but that would require EFFORT. All-New Secret Skullkickers #1: So I wound up getting two out of the three adjectives they used this month.  We’ll see what colorful descriptors next month’s issue brings. America’s Got Powers #7 (of 7): I doubted that this series would be completed within the 2012 calendar year and I was right.  Still, I’m looking forward to reading the forthcoming collection if only to see ersatz versions of Sarah Palin and David Tennant throw down over the fate of superheroes in this comic. Bedlam vol. 1: From “Morning Glories’” Nick Spencer and Riley Rossmo, artist of the aforementioned “Debris.”  This is another series that has been getting some decent buzz and now has a value-priced (read:  $10) collection of the first six issues to further said buzz.  From what I can tell about it, the series is essentially about the version of the Joker in a world with no Batman who was once a mad criminal overlord.  Then he got better and wants to help clean up the city.  Would you trust someone like that?  I imagine it’d be hard to do even after he’s been shot through the head.  Let’s see where it gets the people in this comic. Clone vol. 1: New from Robert Kirkman’s Skybound imprint.  I saw the writer, David Schulner, talk this series up at the Skybound panel at Comic-Con and he at least made it sound interesting.  The buzz on the series has since been fairly muted, but I figure there’s nothing to lose from buying this and seeing what it’s like.  It does have art from a man who spares no detail, Juan Jose Ryp, so it’s certain to be a feast for the eyes. Great Pacific vol. 1:  Trashed: Now I’ve been looking forward to this since it was first announced.  One thing about these value-priced trades from Image (and I may have mentioned this before) is that Amazon doesn’t discount any books that retail for under $10.  They’ll discount things under $10 that are priced above that, but they won’t do it for those books themselves.  Still, even if I’m not getting a discount, picking this up feels like a safe bet. Invincible #103: Angstrom Levy returns.  That sound you heard is the sound of shit getting real.  No, really.  It was.  If you missed it, then that might be it for a while.  I’ll let you know once it happens again.  Just keep watching this space.