HARROW COUNTY #23
The death of one of Harrow County’s most powerful magical forces leaves a void in Mason Hollow. Bernice is forced to choose between her oldest friend and her own future when she’s offered powers beyond her wildest dreams … and the chance to save her home from destruction!
Featuring special backup stories exclusive to the single issues!
A comiXologist recommends…
Revolution #1
Written by John Barber & Cullen Bunn
Art by Fico Ossio
IDW’s explosive Revolution event is all about action cartoons at war. If you ever sat around as a kid pitting your GI Joes against your Transformers and all your other toys, this event is just that! There are explosions, violence, and misunderstandings leading to even greater violence!
Revolution #1 opens right into the thick of things with IDW’s resident secret agent Action Man skydiving onto Mount Olympus. Action Man and his pilot partner Salmons find a cave of glowing purple crystal formations. Impaled on one of these formations is former GI-Joe and mercenary Big Ben. Big Ben uses his final moments to warn Action Man of some serious business coming down on everyone’s heads. Then Mount Olympus blows up, setting every faction on the planet on edge and poised for a fight.
Things pick up pretty fast and before you can say, “Roll out,” or “Yo Joe,” people are bursting into flames and Transformers are losing limbs. It gets pretty visceral and it is just fantastic. It would be at this point that I would insert clapping Emojis in between every syllable of “fantastic” if we were texting.
Revolution #1 is exactly what I like in an event opener. A page of exposition per faction is given and then everybody gets to work By the end of the issue there’s a really big problem and more fighting to come! It is also very encouraging to see in the first issue that this event isn’t as cumbersome as events can and have been. If you’re an avid reader then you know how big and unwieldy these events can be, but this creative team keeps everything moving, fresh, and at a manageable size.
John Barber is most known around this office for his work on Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise. With Cullen Bunn of Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe the two create an action work that carries the right balance of fights and attention to character logic. As far as interior artists go, Fico Ossio is a fantastic storyteller. Fico’s character acting for all human and humanoid aliens is flawless and well-paced.
This creative team has put forth some hard choices to come for the Transformers and G.I. Joes. And who knows what became of Action Man up there on Mount Olympus? I sure don’t, but I can’t wait to find out.
Matthew Burbridge is a Digital Editor at ComiXology and he is super digging that new look of yours. It’s really working for you. <3.
Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, Marvel Comics, 2012.
A bunch of Deadpool-centric comics are on sale all weekend long!
Weekend Sale: The Sixth Gun by cullenbunn & brihurtt
During the darkest days of the Civil War, wicked cutthroats came into possession of six pistols of otherworldly power. In time, the Sixth Gun. the most dangerous of the weapons, vanished. When the gun surfaces in the hands of an innocent girl, dark forces reawaken. Vile men thought long dead set their sights on retrieving the gun and killing the girl. Only Drake Sinclair, a gunfighter with a shadowy past, stands in their way.
A comiXologist Recommends:
Kara Szamborki recommends Lobo #1
Sorry, not sorry: this Lobo book is everything I wanted from an ongoing when I first finished reading Justice League 23.2 last year AND MORE. First off, there’s action, because what else are you expecting from a Lobo book? But let’s talk about what’s REALLY important: tantalizing flashbacks and seamless plot setup. So many books try to be complicated right off the bat, but the storytelling in Lobo mirrors the character: You know what you’re signing up for, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be surprises at every turn. The genius of the new Lobo concept is that instead of retconning the Lobo we know and love from the pre-New 52 universe, the twist is that he was lying to us the whole time, the thief of another Czarnian’s identity, one we’re only meeting now—and let me tell you, I’m glad we know more, because holy bastiches this backstory is the last thing I expected.
Let’s be real here: you need to read this book. If you’ve never followed Lobo to the crazy corners of the DCU, this is the perfect time to jump in, and if you’re a long time Lobo fan you’re going to be curious, if only to know more about that flashback and what happened to Czarnia.
If you want more old-school Lobo to tide you over until the next issue, check out Lobo: Portrait of a Bastich or that time he tried to kill Santa Claus or one of his many cameos, from Justice League International to Reign in Hell to the DCU-spanning epic 52. He shows up everywhere and always when you least expect it, because you can’t keep a bad Czarnian down.
Kara Szamborski supervises the International Production Team at comiXology and has started reading the original TMNT comics thanks to the latest movie.
A comiXologist Recommends:
Jen Keith recommends Magneto #9
The Marvel universe approaches its next big event in the “March to AXIS” with the dreaded Red Skull’s crimes against mutantkind in Magneto #9. Cullen Bunn’s (cullenbunn) intense writing and Gabriel Hernandez Walta with art as gritty and brooding as the title character provide a series not to be missed.
Following the aftermath of the Avengers vs. X-Men event, Magneto lost much of his ability as “Master of Magnetism” upon being hit by the Phoenix force possessing Cyclops. With only a shadow of his immense power remaining, Magneto sets out to discover and conquer the widespread injustices plaguing his fellow mutants. This series is a great jumping off point for newcomers, fans of the movie universe’s X-Men: First Class, or seasoned readers looking for a great insight into a fascinating character.
When faced with intolerable cruelty and the blind eye of S.H.I.E.L.D., do the violent ends justify the means? We see much of the story through Magneto’s gray area point of view with near constant inner monologue; the ofttimes villain and enraged hero of his story waxes poetic without illusions as to his own failures. In this issue, Magneto’s self-loathing guides us through intermittent and hauntingly blue-washed flashbacks of his horrific experience in the Holocaust’s concentration camps (see his origin story in the excellent Magneto: Testament that parallel the hideous prison in Genosha of the Red Skull’s making. Red Skull’s horrors know no bounds when he reveals his use for (part of) Magneto’s deceased friend, Professor Charles Xavier.
While there is plenty of action, I really appreciate Magneto’s struggle to overcome his opponents through subterfuge, strategy, and the infamy of his reputation. This combined with the introspection and quiet moments balancing the dark and gruesome tone make this one of my favorite ongoing Marvel series right now, and I couldn’t recommend it more.
Jen Keith is a Digital Editor at comiXology, comic artist, music addict, and held herself back from a lot of magnet puns while writing this.