Author: Vasil Duka

Killers #1 Valiant Entertainment Writer: B. Clay Moore Artist: Fernando Dagnino One relatively recent aspect of Valiant’s continuity that really resonated with me was the advent of the Ninja Programme. Basically, it’s a division of British intelligence agency MI6 created for the sole purpose of creating super-spies. Based on the teachings of a corrupt ninja warrior called The Jonin, the Ninja Programme’s been producing these super-spies from the first World Wars to the modern-day. Each one is codenamed alphabetically, and premier Valiant hero Colin King AKA Ninjak (Ninja-K, har har) is the Programme’s latest such assassin. With the help…

Fallen World (2019-) #2 Valiant Entertainment Writer: Dan Abnett Artist: Adam Pollina And so the second part of a burgeoning new epic from Valiant rolls in. Our long-suffering guardian of the future, Rai, is in a prickly place. In the middle of his self-imposed pacifism in the wake of his satellite home, New Japan, crashing to Earth, he’s forced to take up arms again when Father—the domineering AI who created him—regains a physical body with some familiar and nasty new abilities. He has help, though, in the form of the immortal warrior Gilad and geomancer Karana, who had once been…

X-O Manowar #23 Valiant Entertainment Writer: Matt Kindt Artist: Tomas Giorello Okay, I get it, I do; it can be hard to manage a “new jumping-on point”. Somehow, you as a writer have to find that sweet spot where you can bring new readers up to speed without alienating an older audience with what is, to them, needless exposition. X-O Manowar #23,though, fails to deliver. Which really sucks because I’ve grown to love X-O and all his Guyver-y, Visigoth-y mojo, due in no small part to Kindt’s current run. This issue’s supposed to be a jumping-on point for a new…

The Spider King: Frostbite IDW Publishing Writer: Josh Vann Artist: Simone D’Armini First I want to set the record straight: whoever you are, you need to read The Spider King. It was a four issue miniseries that came out around March 2018, has pretty much the same creative team as this one, and it was fantastic. I’m sorry I almost missed it, and you will be, too. The premise goes like this. In the middle of an ongoing conflict, a fleet of damaged alien warships crash-land in Northern Europe during the Viking ages. Armed with an array of strange but…

Marvel Comics Presents (2019-) #1 Marvel Comics Writers: Ann Nocenti, Greg Pak, Charles Soule Artists: Various Who doesn’t love anthology stories? In this one, we’re given a look into the lives of three major Marvel heroes: Wolverine, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. Since different creative teams were responsible for all three, I’ll analyze them separately. In the first story, “Wolverine: The Vigil Pt 1”, we’re given a glimpse into Wolverine’s time in the army during World War II, where he and his team spy on a clandestine meeting between Nazi officers and a mysterious sorceress. It’s serviceable. There…

Invaders #1 Marvel Comics Writer: Chip Zdarsky Artist: Butch Guice This week, we see an odd reunion of one of Marvel’s oldest superhero teams: The Invaders! Originally composed of Captain America, Bucky, Prince Namor, and Jim Hammond AKA the original Human Torch, the Invaders invariably fought the Nazis and other members of the Axis powers back in the second World War. But that, of course, was then. Now, Bucky is a reformed cyborg assassin, Namor’s responsible for crimes against humanity, and Cap is still shaking off the stigma of the fact that an alternate version of himself almost led…

Atomic Robo And The Dawn Of A New Era #1 IDW Publishing Writer: Brian Clevinger Artist: Scott Wegner If you aren’t familiar with Atomic Robo by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener, the basics are this: the titular robot, invented by Nikola Tesla, investigates all manner of threats too strange for conventional science to handle throughout history (giant ants, cyborg noblemen, super-intelligent dinosaurs, dealing with budgetary sponsors, etc) with the help of an elite team of “Action Scientists”. Basically, it’s Hellboy with more humor and less emotional baggage. This latest arc opens with Robo personally seeing to the reeducation of an…

Conan the Barbarian (2019-) #1 Marvel Comics Writer: Jason Aaron Artist: Mahmud Asrar “Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars . . .” I think we’ve all become aware of Conan at some point. Whether you read the original novels by Robert E. Howard or saw the Schwarzenegger movies, the image of the barbarian of Cimmeria with long black…