The Gosh! Authority 03.07.24

Hello! 

No events this week, so I'll take the opportunity to give a plug to the new DC Compact Comics line of graphic novels. This isn't any kind of stitch-up, I genuinely think these books are a brilliant way to read and share classic (and some not-so-classic-but-smartly-chosen) DC material. If you're unfamiliar, it's a reduced-size format (around the size of a classic bookstore "trade paperback" format), printed on a good quality newsprint paper, and perfectly priced at £8.99. They're brilliant for a commute or holiday read, fitting easily into a bag, and are great reading or lending copies. So far we've seen Batman Court of Owls (reprinting the first 11 issues of the Snyder / Capullo run) and Watchmen (needs no introduction), and this week we've got Morrison & Quitely's All Star Superman (an all-timer) and the excellent Far Sector by N. K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell. Upcoming releases include Batman Hush, the Cooke / Brubaker Catwoman, and Azzarello & Bermejo's Joker, among others. I'm a big believer in this cheap and cheerful format, so let's support them so we can see some more!

Okay, solid week, so let's get down to it.

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• ABSOLUTE POWER #1 - After last week's lead-in, here comes the main event! Mark Waid and Dan Mora unleash all-out war as Amanda Waller brings the hammer down on the DC heroes. Against the tide of state-sponsored violence and misinformation, Batman leads a fledgling resistance.

• SPIDER-MAN REIGN 2 #1 - Remember that time when Kaare Andrews wrote and drew a story where MJ had died of cancer due to exposure to Peter Parker's radioactive sperm? Those mid-2000's were pretty heady days over at Marvel! 18 years later, Andrews is back with a sequel set in the same dystopian future, and given his past track record I'm very curious to see what he's done with the Black Cat and Miles Morales...

• FREE AGENTS #1 - 80's comics royalty Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza team up with artist Stephen Mooney for a brand new sci-fi superhero series. The survivors of an intergalactic war are stranded on Earth, free to make their own choices at last and forge a better life. But wouldn't you know it, intergalactic war has a terrible habit of following you around, and they're going to have to fight to keep this new life.

• GRENDEL DEVIL'S CRUCIBLE DEFIANCE #1 - Matt Wagner always described Mage as his life's work, but Grendel is where it's at for me. With its genre-jumping, history-spanning tales of crime lords, vampires and robots, there's a little something for everyone across its many pages. We're back with cyborg Grendel Prime this time, back from his jaunt through space to find a new home for humanity and faced with an Earth that has changed for the worse.

• LIFE OF WOLVERINE #1 - Lie awake at nights trying to piece together all the disparate fragments of Wolverine's past? Good news, sleepless ones, Jim Zub & Ramón Bachs are here to set the record straight with a canonical recounting of Logan's complete history (minus the boring bits).

• ALL THE THINGS WE DIDN'T DO LAST NIGHT #1 - This one-shot collects Maria Llovet's story from the Image 30th Anniversary series. Expect sexy people doing horrible things in the standard Llovet style as a jewel thief and a hitman learn about each other's secret lives.

• STAR WARS INQUISITORS #1 - The Jedi-hunting specialists get a little time to shine in this new series by Rodney Barnes & Ramón Rosanas. Darth Vader has one surviving Jedi at the top of his list: the mysterious Tensu Run, who seeks to rebuild the jedi order. Unleash the Inquisitors!

• WOLVERINE DEEP CUT #1 - Untold Tales of the Oz-Men! Chris Claremont and Edgar Salazar fill in some of the blanks from the era when the X-Men were based in the Australian Outback. After Uncanny X-Men #246, Wolverine disappeared for a few issues on a personal mission which was never revealed (because he's so mysterious and that). Until now!

• WEREWOLF BY NIGHT BLOOD HUNT #1 - A one-shot Blood Hunt tie-in by Jason Loo & Adam Gorham which stars Jake Gomez, the current Werewolf by Night. Sounds like he's about to get some new powers ahead of his upcoming RED-BAND ULTRAVIOLENT MINI-SERIES! I think I'm seeing a pattern...

• X-MEN BLOOD HUNT PSYLOCKE #1 - Kwannon gets in on the vampire-killing game in this one-shot by Steve Foxe & Lynne Yoshii that also introduces a new (probably vampiric) villain.

• ANNIHILATION 2099 #1 - Basically a Nova 2099 series, set on some distant Knull-ravaged planet and starring the last surviving member of the Nova Corps. Steve Orlando and Ibraim Roberson jump in their time machine for this weekly mini. Cool Nick Bradshaw covers on this series, btw.

• DOCTOR WHO FIFTEENTH DOCTOR #1 - All new comic exploits of Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor courtesy of Dan Watters and Kelsey Ramsay. Following a distress call, we're off to a shopping mall during the last days of Earth, which sounds pretty damn Doctor Who to me.

And that substantial pile is it. See you next time!

Andrew