Big week of books, boys and girls!  I had trouble not wielding the I&N Demand designation this time around.  I ain’t complaining; but I am cutting this intro short so I can get to the good stuff.  To it.

• Days of Hate #8 (Image): I&N Demand #7 was brooding, heavy for the wait of it all, and, in that, emotionally affecting enough–the result of the dramatic ménage à trois of Aleš Kot, Danijel Žeželj, and Jordie Bellaire–to demand immediately a 22 I&N 22 from me, awash in a sympathetic afterglow.  I want to feel that again.  And again.
  

• Evolution #10 (Image)
• Ice Cream Man #7 (Image)
• Eleven to Eternity #11 (Image)
• Skyward #6 (Image): I&N Demand So thrown by the sacrifice, I 22 I&N 22’d #5, another high-flying, peril-full issue from Joe Henderson, Lee Garbett, Antonio Fabela, and Simon Bowland.  Now, it’s time to see if Willa–her father’s journal in her hands and a heavy, heavy mandate in her heart–will follow through, if she will do what she needs to do–which is to, you know, fix.the.world.  #staygrounded
  

• Black Hammer: Age of Doom #5 (Dark Horse): I&N Demand Re: #4: Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston, and Dave Stewart serve up some seriously strong women with a lop-sided sack of ineffectual men as garnish.  Yeah, the bros are silly sideshows, supplementing the driving feminaction with neutered passivity.  But, in the end, the fantasy world in which they’ve been living is a meticulously-plotted perversion of reality, molded by one of their own: it’s, ironically, a phallic safe space hurtling through the heavens.  But now that the heroes are woke, that safe space is going to fill up mighty fast–if not with fists, certainly with equally as menacing questions that could blow the ship out of the fucking sky.  Man, I can’t wait for answers!
  

• Ether: The Copper Golems #5 (Dark Horse): I&N Demand I knew the end was coming, but that knowledge hasn’t made any softer the blow of the prospect of turning the final page of this inspired, imaginative, and innovative arc of the magical Ether mythos.  David Rubín’s ever-moving map of Matt Kindt’s one-of-a-kind mind has led to this; and I, for one, will eagerly yet apprehensively turn every page, and with the last, reflecting, will find satisfaction in knowing that, in having read Ether, I’ve stood atop the comic book equivalent of Everest.

• Batman #55 (DC): I&N Demand Breaking News Alert: President Trump has ordered the release of FISA documents, text messages, notes, and other goodies related to the prostate-tickling probe into Russian collusion.  And, wouldn’t you know, on the heels of that order, here comes Batman #55, featuring the undeniably Russian KGBeast.  Coincidence?  I think so.  Still, Tom King and Tony S. Daniel better be ready for a tweetstorm–one from a rapidly moving front of loyal readers celebrating what’ll probably be another undeniably brilliant issue of Batman.

• Batman: Damned #1 (DC)
• Mister Miracle #11 (DC): I&N Demand Mister Miracle is an emotional inter-dimensional teleportation device, and, boy, am I enjoying the ride–in spite of/especially because of the hitting so close to home with the thoughtfully-wrought family dynamic, fraught with effectually infinite frustration and nod-off-and-you’ll-miss-’em microscopic moments of joy.  Toss in the, you know, high stakes of the Highfather’s suicidal stratagem, and, well, it is what it is, mister: another goddamned miracle from Tom King and Mitch Gerads.  Re: #11: This cover offers up a uneasy inevitability.  I’m already feeling it weighing down my arms, my legs–and I’m not even holding the damn thing.  Ugh.  That menacing sentence: “Darkseid is.”  I mean, I know what he can be, and that’s freaking me the fuck out.  But, you know–you know what?  I am.  I am, too.  And I know what I am: I am scared.  Yeah.  I’m not sure I want to read this.

• Pearl #2 (DC/Jinxworld)
• The Wild Storm #17 (DC)
• The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (Marvel)
• The Immortal Hulk #6 (Marvel)
• Venom #6 (Marvel)
• Black Badge #2 (BOOM!): I&N Demand [Due to a quirk in my reading/writing schedule, I wrote a review for BB #1 back in my I&N Store post for books out on 8/8.  I’m reprinting it here because it reflects well my initial and my enduring reaction to the superlative first issue.]
• • I’m kind of a Kindt junkie, and, logically, following with more figurative language, Black Badge is my next fix–oh, and how satisfying #1 was.  Exploiting the same chemical formula that worked so well in the intoxicatingly agitative Grass Kings–Kindt+Jenkins^2=masterfully mature storytelling and a well-deserved Eisner nom–Black Badge bursts onto the scene like a nostalgia bomb with a perfectly-paced adventure that calls to mind the ubiquitous kidventure movies of the ’80s (Stand by Me and The Explorers were two of my faves) and mirrors those games my friends and I used to play on the farm, as we’d battle imaginary Nazis or Russians a la Where Eagles Dare or Red Dawn.  These kids, however, aren’t playing a game–and neither is the creative team: this is some dark stuff; and like good little scouts, we best be prepared for more.  See: “Nobody can do what [they] can do.  No one can go where [they] can go.”  (Hey! you say?  “They”? Doubled for your pleasure, fair reader!  OK, you got me: mostly for mine.)  For the week [of 8/8], Black Badge #1 is #1 with a bullet drone strike.
• • Re: anticipating #2, recalling the last page of #1: I’m all-in on the mission.  I’m the Fifth Badger headed for the bus.  Well, the pre-teen I–drawn out so brilliantly by Kindt and the Jenkinses–am, anyway.
• • • Scott.  Escape reader.*  Comic book in back pocket, crinkled cover hanging on by a staple.  A penchant for mud pies.

• Britannia: Lost Eagles of Rome #3 (Valiant)
• Strangers in Paradise XXV #6 (Abstract Studio)

*That’s Scott me, not Scott Free.  Just worked out that way.

What are you looking forward to this week?

Turning pages,

Scott