Marvel's annual Voices special edition has a decided African-American beat this year, as it leads off with Ironheart and Black Panther in back-to-back solo shorts, the latter of which is reprinted from Marvel's Voices: Legends. Their Latino Ghost Rider, Robbie Reyes, is heard from, and we have a glimpse of the wedding (!!!) of long time villains and friends Mystique & Destiny. See, DC? You can do a same sex marriage, and Marvel's done it twice in the last 15 or so years, both involving X-Men-related characters.
I don't know if DC has done it with Midnighter & Apollo, so...!
Rating: B+.
Image's annual Energon Universe entry again features GI Joe, Transformers, & Void Rivals, same as last year, but in a different order. In fact, the first two are involved in a crossover in the first story, written by Joshua Williamson. Daniel Warren Johnson writes & draws the Transformers middle feature. For serious fans.
Rating: B-.
Archie's Comics Spectacular is the usual mish-mash of 1 new 5 pager written by Adrian Ropp, plus a Deadpool parody squaring off with Pureheart the Powerful (Archie) by Ian Flynn & Steven Butler, and it seems they're testing the waters with a reboot of a 60's obscurity, Young Dr. Masters, who is dispensing advice to Archie & friends in 2 shorts. Most of these were probably in the deluxe digests found at Walmart and elsewhere.
Rating: A-.
Greg Weisman is back with a new Gargoyles miniseries starring Demona, and this preview sets up the series rather nicely. However, given Dynamite's problems of late, including late shipping titles tied into the issues besetting its parent, Diamond Distributors, I don't give this much hope of finishing.
Rating: B.
Back to Marvel. Unlike Fantastic Four, the only reason they're rebooting Amazing Spider-Man to #1 yet again is just to lure in new readers. Sometimes, it isn't worth it. Seems they think people are turned off by the higher numbers in the series, but DC has a couple of books well past 1000 issues, with a few more closing in. Meanwhile, the other webspinner, Miles Morales, is back in the Ultimate Universe. Ok, fine.
Rating: B-. Just not into it.
Video game hero Mega Man is back, and it seems the writers borrowed an idea from Batman: The Animated Series, as some reformed villains talk about how Mega Man has changed their lives for the better. "Almost Had 'Im" doesn't connect the same way as "Almost Got 'Im" did 33 years ago, though.
Rating: B+.
The latest from Oni/EC is Blood Type, spinning off from Epitaphs From The Abyss, which is ending. The other reprints in this tome come from Cruel Universe & Cruel Kingdom, and we reviewed the former previously. Seems EC & Oni believe they can make a vampire book work, seeing as others are doing it.
Rating: B.
Mad Cave has updated Speed Racer for today's generation, and entrusted the writing to David Pepose, who could probably use the work if Dynamite craters before his updated Captain Planet even hits stores (the series is 2 months late). Meanwhile, Mark Russell has been tasked with Racer X, who gets his own book in September (Speed Racer 1 is out in August). Seems Rex Racer's story is getting updated, too. We'll see.
Rating: B-.
Mad Cave also has The Phantom, with former DC writer Ray Fawkes writing the book. Fawkes' Ghost Who Walks is an amalgam of Tarzan, Batman, & The Shadow. Don't believe me? Check it out. You'll be glad ya did.
Rating: A.
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