DEFENDERS #1
Daredevil! Luke Cage! Jessica Jones! Iron Fist! Individually, these four heroes have been on the front lines of the battle to keep the streets of the city safe and secure! But now, with a deadly enemy from the dim past making a major move to unite the underworld, they will need to become more — they will need to become DEFENDERS!
Here are three comics from Marvel on comiXology Unlimited that allow you to jump into reading with a familiar character and hit the ground running.
Daredevil: Back In Black Vol. 1: Chinatown
Elektra Vol. 1: Bloodlines
Speaking of amazing art, my favorite artist working right now, Mike Del Mundo, worked on this related series, Elektra. This series pits Marvel’s deadliest femme fatale against another legendary assassin in hot pursuit of a giant bounty, but this series, written by Haden Blackman, is all about Elektra and her personal struggle with her life. She’s asking the very familiar question: do I still want to do what I’m doing? The art is dynamic, perfect for the character who has a rich tradition of ground-breaking artists. Not to mention each composition is beautiful. This was a comic that regularly made me stop to appreciate every choice in every panel.
Hawkeye Vol. 1: My Life As A Weapon
Hawkeye is the comic that all my comic-loving friends were talking about when I was thinking about getting back into comic books post-college. They were saying that Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, was similar to the wise-cracking hero introduced in the Avengers films and this comics series was about what Clint was doing during his downtime. They were raving about the dialogue, the ridiculous situations that Fraction was plotting for Clint, and Aja and Hollingsworth’s wonderfully minimalist art style that was just as fun as the story. After reading this wonderful series all I have to say is this is real futzing good. Also, pizza dog.
Josh Doyle-Elmer is comiXology’s Email Marketing Specialist.
It’s morphin’ time! (Sale ends 3/27)
Check out the Shadowland main event and the complete reading order – it’s all on sale!
Save up to 50% on Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Wonderland, and more in this linewide Zenescope sale! Use code ZENESCOPE at cart page through 3/30.
Jason for Fantagraphics titles are on sale through 3/27
Weekly Graphic Novel Round-Up!
Check out all the graphic novels out this week!
Need some recommendations? Here’s what Lou from the podcast crew is reading this weekend:
LAST GANG IN TOWN Vol. 1, by Simon Oliver, Rufus Dayglo, and Giulia Brusco
It’s 1977, and crime on the once-swinging streets of London is as soft and flabby as an overfed corgi. Nearly a decade has gone by since the brothers Kray were locked away, and it’s high time for the torch to be passed-preferably straight through a bank window. Luckily, a new generation of snot-nosed Robin Hoods filled with attitude, alcohol and anarchy are ready to burst onto the scene. Now, as Great Britain prepares to celebrate its glorious monarch’s Silver Jubilee, a rising gangland queen and her punk-rock robbers are about to pull off the heist of the century-and breaking into Buckingham Palace is only the start!
Acclaimed creators Simon Oliver (FBP: FEDERAL BUREAU OF PHYSICS) and Rufus Dayglo (TANK GIRL) proudly present the punk-noir crime saga LAST GANG IN TOWN-a brash, bold, and bloody brilliant take on the English underworld!
THE SECRET LOVES OF GEEK GIRLS, edited by Hope Nicholson
The Secret Loves of Geek Girls is a nonfiction anthology mixing prose, comics, and illustrated stories on the lives and loves of an amazing cast of female creators. Featuring work by Margaret Atwood (The Heart Goes Last), Mariko Tamaki (This One Summer), Trina Robbins (Wonder Woman), Marguerite Bennett (Marvel’s A-Force), Noelle Stevenson (Nimona), Marjorie Liu (Monstress), Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), and over fifty more creators, it’s a compilation of tales told from both sides of the tables: from the fans who love video games, comics, and sci-fi to those that work behind the scenes as creators and industry insiders. Forward by Kelly Sue DeConnick.
DAREDEVIL/PUNISHER: SEVENTH CIRCLE, by Charles Soule and Szymon Kudranski
It’s a clash between two vigilantes with very different ideas about justice! A simple change of venues for one of Matt Murdock’s cases becomes more complicated when the Punisher attempts to send the defendant away — permanently! If Daredevil and his protégé, Blindspot, want this Russian mobster to have his day in court, it will take everything they have. But all Frank Castle needs to get his job done is one bullet! And with the gangster’s associates also on his trail, getting him to the airport won’t be easy. Will the Punisher get the chance for a kill shot? Will Daredevil secure a fair trial in Texas, where the accused may still end up facing a lethal injection? Or will this matter of life and death be decided by…the Crimson Dynamo?! Collects Daredevil/Punisher: Seventh Circle Infinite Comic (2016) #1-8.
SUPERMAN: AMERICAN ALIEN, written by Max Lands
THIS IS NOT A SUPERMAN COMIC.
This is the story of Clark Kent, a Kansas farm boy who happens to be from another planet. It’s the story of a scared young kid with impossible powers, of a teenage delinquent with a lot to learn, of a reporter with a nose for the truth who’s keeping the biggest secret the world has ever known.
This is not the Superman you know. Not yet.
Illustrated by some of the greatest artists in comics today-including Jock (BATMAN: THE BLACK MIRROR), Francis Manapul (DETECTIVE COMICS), Jae Lee (BATMAN/SUPERMAN), Joëlle Jones (LADY KILLER), Nick Dragotta (EAST OF WEST) and more with covers by Ryan Sook (ACTION COMICS)-SUPERMAN: AMERICAN ALIEN tells the very human story of the Last Son of Krypton.
HELLBOY IN HELL VOL. 2: THE DEATH CARD, by Mike Mignola and Dave Stewart
The final chapter!
After facing off for a second time against the Vampire of Prague, Hellboy, dead and in Hell, comes down with a fatal illness and seeks the help of an incompetent team of doctors. As he explores the geography of Hell, learning little from a confused pair of mapmakers, Hellboy gets a glimpse of the new World Tree that he helped to create, stands accused by his own sister of a terrible murder, and causes the destruction of Pandemonium itself in the climactic chapter of the series that the LA Times calls “the best work of [Mike Mignola’s] career.” Collects issues #6–#10.
Some classic Marvel covers by Bill Sienkiewicz
Get Marvel Comics buy-one-get-one-free with the checkout code MARVEL. Sale ends tonight!
A comiXologist Recommends
The Accused #1
Art by Ramon Bachs and Garry Brown
Not
even Ulysses could have predicted this
The Marvel comics universe is vast, so it’s pretty difficult for one person to be really invested in every part of it. Three parts of it that I have typically not much cared about are: events, Tony Stark, Matt Murdock.
Three things that Civil War II has made me inexplicably care about, even appreciate, are: Civil War, Tony Stark, Matt Murdock.
Who even am I anymore?
Here’s the spoiler-free summary – In the main event storyline, Bruce Banner asks Clint Barton to do something for him, something that lands Barton in no small amount of trouble (to say nothing of the personal trauma it must have caused him). And Matt Murdock is called up to prosecute Barton in “the trial of the millennium.” Murdock is gunning for Barton in a way that made me hate him at first. But then Murdock discovers something that causes him to change his mind about the right way to handle the case, about what the best outcome for it would be.
I adore Clint Barton and if I needed someone to do a really awful thing for me, despite the fact that Barton is every inch the human tire fire Matt Fraction once described him as, I would trust Barton to help me out. I understand why Banner turned to him. Barton is a good person, and he has no agenda beyond wanting a nap and possibly a sandwich. He is the kind of guy who would do the wrong thing for himself if it was the right thing for his friend.
Part of my ambivalence toward Matt Murdock comes from my
disinterest in his more dogmatic worldview.
I would never trust Murdock to break his moral code for me, even if it
were life and death. And in this case, he
definitely doesn’t do it for Barton. He
does it because it’s objectively the right thing to do, because he understands
that a foregone conclusion is not a fair trial, even if he believes that
outcome is correct. Sometimes understanding history is more important than
seeing the future. Otherwise, we are
doomed to repeat our mistakes. This
point makes Civil War II feel more organic inside the Marvel comics universe
and less event-y. Rather than re-setting
the order of things, it builds on the foundation set up by the first Civil War
event.
At the end of the day, all superheroes want is to do good. But do-gooding is a verb, not a noun. It isn’t enough for an outcome to occur; it also matters how you achieved it. And all of a sudden, I appreciate where Matt Murdock is coming from. Geez, next thing you know I’m going to be crying over Spider-Man or something!
Tia Vasiliou (aka “Lou”) is a Digital Editor at comiXology and occasional podcast host on The ComiXologist. Her preferred corner of the Marvel comics universe is wherever the Asgardians hang out.