Article originally written by Ryan Closs
Welcome back to Multiversity’s look at this week’s digital releases. It’s kind of a watershed week for digital comics with DC kicking off their relaunch, part of their relaunch philosophy is releasing everything the same day in stores as online. I liked Justice League #1 more than the rest of the guys seem to here at Multiversity but it definitely wasn’t great comics. I’m not going to be including DC in the list of same-day releases since it’s always going to be their entire catalogue. Without any more preamble here’s the list of same-day comics this week. Invincible #82, Amazing Spider-Man #668, Ultimate Comics: Hawkeye #1, Savage Dragon #173, Spider-Island: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1. Nothing terribly exciting in the same day lists so let’s dig into the good stuff.
Echoes #1 (Free/Image, Comixology): I always try all the free books released in a given week usually they aren’t fantastic but who knows when you’ll find that diamond in the rough. I’d been hearing good things about both Josh Fialkov and Echoes from back when it came out in print so I jumped about the opportunity and I’m glad I did. The story revolves around a guy with some clear mental issues (maybe Schizophrenia) but who’s medicated and also dealing with the death of his father. His father makes an interesting (to say the least) death-bed confession which sends the story spiraling off. I loved this first issue and can’t wait to read more. Issues 2 & 3 (of 5) are also available at $1.99 a piece.
Legion Lost #1 ($1.99/DC, Comixology): All 12 issues of this mini-series were released on Comixology this week and at $1.99 a pop, that’s cheaper than you can get it on Amazon (unlike Secret Wars, also released in full this week). Did I mention this was early work from current stars Abnett, Lanning and the one and only Olivier Coipel? I read the first issue and am fully hooked. Coipel is noticeably less polished than he is now but still amazing. I’ve never really been a Legion fan but so far it seems to be a smaller, more manageable subset of the Legion thrown to some far-flung unknown part of the universe. I really enjoyed it and even if you want the print version $1.99 is a reasonable way to sample it first.
Star Wars : Dark Empire 1 ($8.99 bundle/Dark Horse): I don’t usually read licensed books but I’d heard great things about Dark Empire and I heard it built on the General Thrawn book series which I loved. I haven’t seen any tie-ins to that yet, but I’ve read the first issue so far and I enjoyed it even though the writing is definitely a throw back to the early 90s. The art is interesting, all the colours seem to be water colour and it uses a really interesting palette. I initially thought there was a glitch in the download but once I got into it I really liked it.
The Li’l Depressed Boy #5 ($1.99/Image, Comixology): This issue kicks off a new arc of this Image book that seems to have been flying under the radar. The artist took a really interesting look at LDB, drawing him as an almost featureless puppet while everyone else looks fully realized people. The first arc covers LDB falling for a girl and this arc seems to be the aftermath of that. You can definitely jump on with #5 and read from there without issue but I can’t imagine not wanting to go back and read the first 4.
That looks like a light week but if you’ve been following along there’s 2 more issues of Echoes, 11 more of Legion Lost, 4 more of LDB and Dark Empire is 6 issues. That’s oodles of comics just from this week’s suggestions and that doesn’t include stuff like new issues of Resurrection Man, Starman, Scalped, Hitman, Rocketeer and more.
Continued belowHere’s the full lists of what’s came out so you can see for yourself:
Comixology: http://www.comixology.com/digital
Dark Horse: http://digital.darkhorse.com/blog/2011/new-releases-digital-store-8-31-11/
