TMYN’s Comic Book Buy Pile 5/27/15

Myles: 

Archie’s brand renaissance continues this week with Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #3 by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack, and Jack Morelli. As with Afterlife With Archie, this book is set in a darker world than what longtime residents of Riverdale are used to. However, unlike Afterlife with Archie or the zany insanity of Archie vs Predator, there’s not an ounce of novelty here.  That’s no slight to either previously mentioned title, but what the creative team has done here is taken the stripped-down concept of Sabrina as a teenage witch who lives with her aunts (and yes, Salem, the talking cat) and removed all of the Sunday Funnies sitcom-style humor frrom it.

Morelli and Hack’s stunning painted artwork hammer this home brilliantly, complimenting Aguirre-Sacasa’s macabre story by presenting it as a legitimate classic EC comic. And it’s not just some kooky throwback darkness, or popping well known characters into a zombie apocalypse, this is a horror comic. Plain and simple. In #3, it’s the eve of Sabrina’s sixteenth birthday, and she has to make the decision to either accept her lineage as a witch by completing a ritual to gain forever access to the Dark Lord’s power, or turn her back away from it all to be a normal girl.

OK, that doesn’t sound too bad, right? Simple witch story. No. That’s Dark Lord in the classical sense. The kind one sacrifices goats to and who appears with a ghoulish cow skull instead of a normal face. This extremely serious take on Sabrina is another example of Archie understanding how to expand its brand in different and fascinating ways. It’s definitely not guaranteed to please the more PG oriented crowds, and it’s certainly not a children’s book, but it’s absolutely a good comic. With this, and the new wave of Archie comics coming out this year, I’d venture to say this is the most vibrant and inviting the Archie brand has ever been. If you’re a fan of horror, or enjoy serious/twisted takes on classic characters, Sabrina is your girl.

Patrick:

So this week came the much hyped and lauded release of Dark Horse comics’ “Fight Club 2” Issue 1 by Chuck Palahniuk and with art by Cameron Stewart and ink by Dave Stewart. We got a taste of what this series was going to be about on Free Comic Book Day and my appetite was officially whetted then, and today I am happy to report that the first issue delivered. This first issue wasted no time in introducing us to the man calling himself Sebastian that was once two people. Its a world that I remember fondly on screen and in book form that is fully realized here in comic book form.

One thing that struck me right off the bat about this issue is that it feels like condensed Palahniuk. I was worried that the transition from book to comic might leave something out, but it actually fits well in the visual medium in much the same way the book translated perfectly to the big screen. In this issue we get a few cinematic splash pages, a lot of great and obtrusive art covering character’s inner monologue (much like audio in a film overtaking the character’s dialogue), and we see the characters ten years on in a new status quo.

I think some people were a little depressed at some of the previews for this book because it sends the main protagonist seemingly backwards as he is once again a bland pencil-pusher that his alter-ego sought to liberate, but by the end of this issue that and a lot of the other introduced status changes are turned on their ear in a way that makes me intrigues to see what Palahniuk has to say about these characters over 20 years since he wrote the initial short story about a character letting go of a steering wheel and letting the car take us where it wants. I am buckled in next to Sebastian, Marla and Tyler for this ride and am eager to see where it goes. “Fight Club 2” is on stands today.

Drew:

For a long time now I’ve said that Invincible is the Robert Kirkman book that deserves to be adapted for television … And then a fight scene comes along that reminds me how difficult that adaptation would be. Unlike The Walking Dead, Invincible is loaded with color, which makes it all the more jarring when a beloved character’s entrails are strewn across an alien battlefield. And then somehow Ryan Ottley balances scenes like that with very sweet scenes of babies. And then menacing scenes of babies. Trust me, it makes more sense than it sounds.

This arc of the book has taken the whole story off Earth, focusing more on main character Mark Grayson aka Invincible and his wife and newborn daughter getting a new start after escaping the betrayal of one of their closest friends. The last few issues have really focused on this, especially when it comes to the struggles of new parents. Oddly, despite me having young children and being able to absolutely identify with what they’re going through, I just haven’t connected with those parts of the story. But as the cover states, “You didn’t think we’d focus on Mark and Eve raising Terra every issue, did you?” We’re finally getting back to setting up a “big bad” for this part of the story. Who is this villain? Well to give a proper explanation we’d have to go through dozens of issues of backstory, much more than your typical Superman or Batman story. It’s a rich universe, but that also comes with more need for background info to really get the most out of it. Is that a bad thing? Kinda.

It’s really tough to just pick up Invincible at this point, and I’m not talking about just the first issue of the current arc. There’s a lot to see and be explained here. Even the Star Trek parody characters who seem like some kind of hilarious cameo cavalcade have been in this book before, years ago. The series has been running since 2002 with the same writer, and quite frankly I can’t remember the last time they took the time to give new readers any chance to catch up short of buying trades or digital omnibuses. But as someone who started with those omnibuses a couple of years ago, it is absolutely worth your time to go back and read through it. You won’t be disappointed … Until one of your favorite characters gets killed and never comes back.