Harrow County #1

Come on, now, with a cover like that, there’s really no chance I’d be able to resist this new horror comic by Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook, right?

After the citizens of Harrow County capture and prepare to destroy a formerly helpful witch who’d turned to dark forces to increase her power, she pronounces a curse upon them — even while she burns from a noose, she promises to return someday and see all the townspeople again. Years later, we meet up with Emmy, a country girl about to turn 18. Even with her father’s livestock dying mysteriously around them, she’s got a way with animals, sometimes bringing them from the brink of death. She feels stifled inside her home but gets a greater sense of freedom from the woods outside her house, even though she fears the old rotten tree not far from her window. And sometimes, she sees haints out in the woods, and she wonders what they have in store for her.

Verdict: Thumbs up. A wonderfully slow but creepy story, alongside glorious art that mixes the beauty of nature with the monsters hiding in the dark. This first issue promises some epic horror — get on board early.

Injection #1

And another new horror series, this time by Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, and Jordie Bellaire, the creative team behind the amazing first set of issues of the recent “Moon Knight” relaunch.

We start off with Professor Maria Killbride, a patient at grim Sawlung Hospital, a woman with a cane and a overpowering with for a sandwich. The company she used to work for is calling her back into action to investigate a missing persons case, whether she wants to or not. The former members of her team haven’t quite landed in insane asylums yet, but they’re not the people they used to be — Brigid Roth is unhappily running high-end tech support, while Robin Morel has tapped into powers he’s not even sure he wants to deal with. And Maria finds herself exploring a very large space that shouldn’t be there at all.

Verdict: Thumbs up, at least for now. It seems interesting, but I can’t say I can really tell you what’s going on. But it is a first issue, after all, and sometimes, these take a little time to get cycled up to top speed.

Lady Killer #5

Josie has a plan to deal with the Company targeting her for elimination, with the help of fellow assassins Ruby and Reinhardt. But does Josie have a chance to prevail against the deadliest killers on the Company’s payroll?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Great art and story, lots of bloodshed, lots of keen ’60s flavor. And it’s even left open at the end for a sequel…

Today’s Cool Links:

• The trailer for the new “Supergirl” TV series looks pretty good.
• The men’s rights goons are really freaking out about the new “Mad Max” movie — because it’s got (terrified whisper) girls.
• G. Willow Wilson has a great response to a weirdly shallow op-ed in the New Yorker slut-shaming the heroines from “A-Force.”
• Here’s a cool little animation explaining Fermi’s Paradox and why we never actually see any aliens on Earth.

Spider-Gwen #3

While Gwen’s dad is trying to talk her out of being Spider-Woman, the Vulture makes a surprise attack. He thinks Captain Stacy can tell him where Spider-Woman is — and lo and behold, she quickly shows up, and the only thing that makes it a close fight is that Toomes hit her with a ton of tear gas. Even then, she eventually trashes him — but then she has to face Captain Frank Castle, armed with a gas mask, a skull t-shirt, and some high-powered weaponry.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Nice art, nice storytelling. Quite a lot of well-done action, too. Next issue should be interesting — we’ll get to meet the late Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben and Aunt May…

Lady Killer #4

Josie has been targeted for assassination by her own organization. She manages to get away from her handler — and then she manages to shadow him back to meet with another of his operatives. They have the obligatory fight, then come to an agreement — they both want out of the assassin biz, but to do so, they’re going to need assistance from another unusual hitman.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Wonderful action, great characters (I love Josie’s daughters, who always talk a mile a minute), and some great ’60s period detail. Just one issue left of this one…

All-New Hawkeye #1

Did the previous series ever get an ending? I could’ve sworn it still had one more issue to go…

At any rate, here’s the new Hawkeye series, this time by Jeff Lemire and Ramon Perez. We get a couple criss-crossing stories — one set when Clint and Barney Barton were kids getting shuffled from one foster home to the next, amusing themselves by catching frogs and goofing off during the day and getting beaten by their abusive foster parents at night, and the other in the present as Clint and Kate Bishop are raiding a HYDRA base, fighting their way through an army of HYDRA goons, and eventually discovering something terribly unexpected.

Verdict: Thumbs up. We can’t really tell much of where we’re going with the plot yet, but the art is whooo-doggy amazing. You’ll want to pick this up for that reason alone.

Lady Killer #2

This is a whole month old, but the local shop’s shipment of this issue were all damaged, and then Diamond never bothered to ship replacements. (Diamond is kinda a dick to the folks running my local shop.)

So here’s Josie, 1960s housewife and professional assassin. She’s been ordered to dress up as a Playboy bunny to kill her latest target, and Peck, her handler, is treating her like he thinks she’s his own personal plaything. After she eliminates the bloke in the bunny bar, Josie is ordered to a meeting with the head of the agency. He clearly doesn’t like her, partly because she’s a woman, partly because she has a family. And he gives her the next assignment — a target it’d be hard for anyone to agree to.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Wonderful ’60s style, nice action, scarier politicking than you’d expect for an espionage comic.

Lady Killer #3

Josie learns that her resentful mother-in-law suspects her of wrongdoing, though she only thinks she’s carrying on an affair. The head of the agency thinks Josie is a liability and wants Peck to eliminate her. Meanwhile, Josie goes to take down her latest target — a 10-year-old boy whose parents had already been killed by another assassin. Can Josie bring herself to kill the kid? And is she prepared for her own employers to turn on her?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Again, a really wonderfully stylish story. Joelle Jones’ art is entirely to die for.

Today’s Cool Links:

• What if Wes Anderson directed an X-Men movie?
• Warner Bros. wants their DC Comics movies to be edgy, mainly because they don’t understand comics, superheroes, movies, or edginess.
• Ladies and gentlemen, meet Arkansas state Rep. Justin Harris, the worst person in America.

Lady Killer #1

It’s a fairly straightforward concept — a stereotypical 1950s housewife who lives a double life as an assassin for a secretive organization. She takes out a fellow housewife with her own secret past, cooks dinner for her family, tries to avoid her suspicious mother-in-law, and gets pressured into taking on another difficult hit by her superior in the organization.

Verdict: Thumbs up. The art by Joelle Jones is fantastic — rooted in the ’50s but wonderfully kinetic and fun. The seemingly docile but secretly murderous housewife is a trope that’s been used before, but this one looks like it’ll be pretty enjoyable.

Trees #8

It’s a major shakeup for this series, as various crises suddenly come to a head, and a lot of people we thought were main characters turn out to be a lot more expendable than anticipated. Yeah, not saying more — I don’t mind spoiling surprises sometimes, but these are so perfectly, breathtakingly unexpected that I don’t want to do much to reduce the shocks.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s a gloriously shocking issue, and though I was genuinely sad to see some of these characters leave the stage, I’m eagerly anticipating what’s to come. Ellis raised the bar in very interesting ways in this issue.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Political cartoonists are a dying breed in America, and it may already be too late to save them.
• A nice analysis on why action/superhero/horror/comedy movies rarely win the big awards.
• Gotta love this libertarian crybaby who renounced his citizenship and is now whining that he can’t get back into the country.