Digiversity: Digital Spotlight (Week of 9/16/11)

Article originally written by Ryan Closs

It’s that time again; it’s time to take a look at the best of what the digital comics providers have to offer. With the caveat that I won’t be talking about the DC52 and stick to stuff that either just completed or is a good jumping on point, this week those caveats have bitten me in the ass, as there’s a ton of new digital releases but it’s mostly middles of runs. Despite being a lighter week as far as jumping on points, there’s still some great books out there. First off, let’s take a look at the same-day stuff. As usual, all of the DC52 and Ultimate comics are out, but aside from that we’ve got Amazing Spider-Man #669, Severed #2, The Infinite #2, Fear Itself: Monkey King, Super Dinosaur #4, Herc #7, John Carter: A Princess of Mars #1, American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #4 and Moon Girl #4. We also seem to have one book that’s out a week early, Cobra #5 from IDW, available from the IDW app. All other same-day books are out on Comixology as usual. Time to dive in.

DC One Million ($1.99*4/DC, Comixology): I was a huge fan of Grant Morrison’s JLA run and after reading the first issue this seems like a continuation of that. The first issue introduces the JLA of the 853rd century which contains analogues of most of the current JLA, including the Hourman we’d seen earlier in the JLA run. Apparently there’s some celebration about the return of Superman Prime (“our” Superman) and heroes from all over the time stream are heading to the 853rd century to celebrate. The 20th century heroes are all going to be competing in some sort of power demonstrations, I’m really excited to see that. There’s also some bad guys involved, Solaris and Vandal Savage seem to have sabotaged the time travel for reasons as yet unknown. Not only is the main 4 issue mini available but the majority of 1000000 issues are as well, the only one I know for sure that is missing is the Resurrection Man #1000000 but there might be others as well.

GI Joe Cobra #5 ($3.99/IDW, Comics+/IDW apps): These issues are essentially one-and-dones but #5 seems to be as close to the start of a new arc as we’ll get in this series. The first 4 issues (HIGHLY recommended) focus on the 4 contenders to be the new Cobra Commander: Major Bludd, Baronness, Serpentor and Tomax. This, now ongoing, series is by the fantastic team of Costa and Fuso who were on the best stuff of the previous GI Joe Cobra series. Mike Costa is also going to be writing the new Blackhawks series for DC and if it’s half as good as these Cobra series’ have been it’s going to be amazing. I don’t normally like spending $3.99 on a book but when it’s this good and you’re getting it a week early? I’m down. Every other issue of GI Joe Cobra from the assorted series’ are also available and are all absolutely worth getting.

Ultimate Spider-Man #1 ($3.99/Marvel, Comixology): Everyone buy me seems to have loved this issue. This is the origin of Miles Morales the controversial “new” Spider-Man. So far he seems like an interesting new character and were it $2.99 an issue I would definitely be continuing. Sara Pichelli is the new artist on USM and she’s absolutely amazing, possibly my favourite artist so far and that’s saying something when previous artists are Stuart Immonen, Mark Bagley and David Lafuente. While the art was stunning, the writing isn’t my cup of tea at all. This could have easily been compressed into half as many pages, this is far far too decompressed for my taste but that’s a hallmark of Bendis and lots and lots of people love it so your mileage may vary.

Continued below

John Carter: A Princess of Mars #1 ($2.99/Marvel, Comixology): I’ve never read a John Carter story before, I don’t really know anything beyond that he’s a human on Mars. I LOVED this issue. It was fun, absolutely gorgeous and does a great job introducing the world of Barsoom (what we call Mars). The issue mostly involves John trying to figure out his surrounding and plan an escape, by the end he passes a chance to flee in order to save his “dog”, see, he’s all noble and stuff. Anyway, like I said, loved it. I was already a big fan of Roger Langridge’s writing from his run on Thor: TMA but I’ve never seen Felipe Andrade and I’m definitely going to be looking out for him in the future.

Pherone ($6.99/Image, Comixology): I’ve been really enjoying Viktor Kalvachev’s Blue Estate so when he talked this up at Fanexpo I got really excited, and this week it’s out digitally for $6.99. Apparently this story was originally in video games and Heavy Metal, and this is all of that collected in one convenient place. It tells the story of a beautiful female spy/assassin who is having blackouts. Sure it sounds a bit like Bourne, and it is, but it’s still really good. Kalvachev’s art is absolutely fantastic, and what story I’ve read so far is compelling. It’s also 100+ pages at only $7 which is a bargain. If you’re fan of spy or crime thrillers, this should be right up your alley.