The Gosh! Authority 08.01.25

Hello!

Happy New Year! I'm back from the Land Down Under (the best one, with all the birds and none of the snakes), lightly jetlagged and playing catch-up with everything I've missed. Quite a lot, as it turns out, with plenty more to come this week. I'd better crack on before my brain starts telling me it's 3am or something, so without further ado....

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• AQUAMAN #1 - Jeremy Adams & John Timms relaunch DC's premiere water breather into a new ongoing. Arthur's powers have been amped up considerably during Absolute Power, and he's keen to put them to use. Luckily there are some giant monsters rising from the deep to give him an excuse. I'm not normally bothered by Aquaman, if I'm honest, but Adams has proven himself to be pretty adept at bringing a healthy dose of humanity to his superhero tales, so I'll be checking it out.

• EC CRUEL KINGDOM #1 - Oni takes the EC brand into new territory with this anthology of dark fantasy tales by the likes of Cullen Bunn, Justin Jordan, Al Ewing, Dennis Culver, Chris Condon, Charlie Adlard, Kano and Leomacs. Strange to think that EC never dedicated a title to the sword and sorcery genre, but I guess they predated its resurgence in the 60s. Well, I'll happily take one now!

• MAGIK #1 - Ilyanna Rasputin gets time in the spotlight for a new ongoing series of demonic mutant mayhem. Ashley Allen and Germán Peralta drop Magik into Alaska, where something ancient and evil is tirring beneath the ice.

• DAREDEVIL UNLEASH HELL RED BAND #1 - Elektra is wearing the mask for this blood-spattered red band series from Erica Schultz and Valentina Pinti. She's on the trail of a ritualistic killer whose murders have come to Hell's Kitchen. 

• FANTASTIC FOUR #1 FACSIMILE ED - This is pretty cool. Over the next 12 months, Marvel will be releasing facsimiles of the first 12 issues of FF. Hopefully they'll be using the recoloured files from their "Remasterworks" series!

• GREEN LANTERN FRACTURED SPECTRUM #1 - It's that Jeremy Adams again, this time with artist V. Ken Marion. This one-shot sets up a new era for the Green Lantern Corps, as they encounter new Fractal Lanterns, whose powers manifest turbulent aspects of the emotional spectrum.

• JUSTICE LEAGUE THE ATOM PROJECT #1 - Ryan Parrot, John Ridley and Mike Perkins (it's so nice to see Perkins getting so many high-profile jobs lately) launch what DC are billing as a superhero spy thriller (though I suspect more Bourne Identity than Slow Horses). Atoms Ryan Choi and Ray Palmer are heading the Atom Project for the JLA, attempting to reassign powers to their original owners after they got scrambled during Absolute Power. But not everyone wants their powers back, most notably Captain Atom, who will do whatever it takes to stop them.

• NEW CHAMPIONS #1 - Steve Foxe, Ig Guara and Ivan Fiorelli launch a new team of Champions. The mysterious Hellrune gathers a roster of young heroes together to face the threat of the Cult of Hela.

• DINOSAURS VS COWBOYS #1 - It's six-guns against claws as dinosaurs are rediscovered in 18th Century America. A fun looking romp by Chris McAuley, Shane Chebsey, John McCrea and Eoin Coveney.

• LUCKY DEVILS #1 (OF 9) - Charles Soule and Ryan Browne follow up on Eight Billion Genies with a brand new story featuring two rebellious demons who are stirring up trouble on the various layers of hell. Collar and Rake are trying to foment an infernal rebellion, and they're using two oblivious good-hearted humans to do so. Cheeky little devils. 

• THOSE NOT AFRAID #1 - A serial killer thriller from Kyle Starks and Patrick Piazzalunga. Two serial killers are approaching a grisly state record for kills, and so enter into a competition with one another while playing cat and mouse with the investigators on their trail. 

• ZOOTOPIA #1 - New stories of Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde on the streets of Zootopia courtesy of Jeff Parker and Alessandro Ranaldi.

• DEATH OF COPRA #1 (OF 4) - The final arc of Michel Fiffe's indie superhero saga kicks off here, returning to Image for its four issue run. If you previously bought the imported issues of Copra from us, we'll be copying those orders over, but if you no longer need to get them from us then please do let us know! 

And that's a wrap! See you next week!

Andrew.