The Gosh! Authority 20.07.22

Hello!

The extraordinary Lizzy Stewart will be with us this Wednesday evening to launch her latest graphic novel Alison (which received a glowing review in the Observer this past weekend). Lizzy will be here from 7-9pm to sign copies and toast the launch of this stunning book. Get all the details here.

So remember last week how I said this would be a monster double-Marvel week after last week's delay? Despite indications that might not happen due to storms in the States, it has indeed happened! Crack open your savings accounts, True Believers!

I'm writing this on Monday, and we're at 33 degrees at 11.40am. Sigh.

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• AXE EVE OF JUDGEMENT #1 - The big Avengers / X-Men / Eternals crossover arrives, the brainchild of Kieron Gillen (and therefore afforded higher expectations than we might normally have of these things!) Following on from the events of the FCBD one-shot, the Eternals have decided that mutantkind's conquest of death has created one immortal race too many, setting mutants up as the new Deviants. Gillen is joined by Pasqual Ferry on art duties for this lead-in to Judgement Day. Speaking of which....

• AXE JUDGEMENT DAY #1 - The event kicks off in ernest! Kieron Gillen is joined by Valerio Schiti for the core mini, with the Avengers getting well and truly dragged into the mess.

• DAREDEVIL #1 - Chip Zdarsky's acclaimed run picks up from the end of Devil's Reign, with Matt Murdock presumed dead, forcing him to leave his old life behind. Artists Rafael de Latorre & Marco Checchetto help to launch this all-new era for Marvel's greatest street fighting man.

• X-MEN HELLFIRE GALA #1 - Mercifully just a one-shot this year, but still as momentous as last time, it's the social event of the mutant year! Expect major revelations, shifting alliances and of course the latest election for membership of the flagship X-Men team! Gerry Duggan is joined by artists Matteo Lolli, Kris Anka, Carlos Villa & Russell Dauterman.

• DEFENDERS BEYOND #1 - Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez are back with a follow-up to their 2021 Defenders mini. If you missed it, that series was a true successor to the weird, trippy cosmic Marvel comics of the 70s (aka the Starlin LSD years), so I'm hoping for more of the same here as a new team of Defenders forms, consisting of Loki, America Chavez, Blue Marvel, Tigra and Taaia.  

• DARK SPACES WILDFIRE #1 - Dark Spaces is an all-new anthology series published by IDW themed around desperate people in desperate situations and the choices they make, told in a variety of genres. Wildfire is the first of them, a five-issue mini-series written by Scott Snyder with art by Hayden Sherman. Set during the 2020 events of the Arroyo fire in California, Wildfire focuses on a group of female inmates who are working as volunteer firefighters and seize the opportunity to undertake a daring heist.

• DC VS VAMPIRES ALL OUT WAR #1 - Matthew Rosenberg and old Gosh pal Alex Paknadel work with artist Pasquale Qualano for this spin-off 6-issue mini-series set in the apocalyptic world of DC vs Vampires. Presented in black and white and promising a grindhouse aesthetic, the story follows John Constantine as he assembles an unlikely alliance for a suicide mission aimed at taking out one of the top-ranking super-vamps. I was initially quite sceptical about DC vs Vampires, but it's totally won me over with its bonkers, go-for-broke charms. Excited for this. 

• ROGUES GALLERY #1 - The star of a popular superhero television show, resentful of the character she plays, is forced to come to terms with her alter-ego when her home is invaded by a group acting as her character's arch villains. It's a cool little concept, and I'm looking forward to seeing what actress/writer/model Hannah Rose May and artist Jason Miller do with it.

• BLINK #1 - A woman who was found as a child abandoned, amnesiac and covered in blood searches for the truth behind her lost childhood. What she finds is an encrypted website which streams CCTV footage of rooms in an abandoned building. But in her efforts to get to the bottom of it, she once again finds herself entangled in the nightmare that stole away her youth. Created by Christopher Sebela & Hayden Sherman.

• STAR WARS THE MANDALORIAN #1 - Rodney Barnes & Georges Jeanty bring us an adaptation of the Mandalorian streaming show. Would have been nice to have original stories, but people are so hungry for Mando comics I don't think it'll matter!

• BROTHER OF ALL MEN #1 - Hard boiled detective fiction meets folk horror in the period thriller set in the wilderness of Western Canada in 1928. PI Guy Horn travels to a small cult community to rescue his brother, but his personal demons threaten to pull him into its seductive clutches. Zac Thompson & Eoin Marron are behind this one.

• ARTEMIS WANTED #1 - A one-shot by Vita Ayala & Skylar Patridge picking up after the events of Trial of the Amazons, with Artemis on the run for her crimes. What future can there be for an Amazon fallen so far from grace?

And that's it! See you next time!

Andrew