On this week’s Stack podcast:

Alien #1

Marvel

Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson

Art by Salvador Larroca

Harley Quinn #1

DC Comics

Written by Stephanie Phillips

Art by Riley Rossmo

Firefly: Brand New ‘Verse #1

BOOM! Studios

Written by Josh Lee Gordon

Art by Fabiana Mascolo

Teen Titans Academy #1

DC Comics

Written by Tim Sheridan

Art by Rafa Sandoval

Once & Future #17

BOOM! Studios

Written by Kieron Gillen

Art by Dan Mora

Action Comics #1029

DC Comics

Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad

Art by Phil Hester, Michael Avon Oeming

HAHA #3

Image Comics

Written by W. Maxwell Prince

Art and Cover by Roger Langridge

Batman/Superman #16

DC Comics

Written by Gene Luen Yang

Art by Ivan Reis

Crimson Flower #3

Dark Horse Comics

Written by Matt Kindt

Art by Matt Lesniewski

Detective Comics #1034

DC Comics

Written by Mariko Tamaki, Joshua Williamson

Art by Dan Mora, Gleb Melnikov

The Scumbag #6

Image Comics

Written by Rick Remender

Art by Bengal

Barbalien: Red Planet #5

Dark Horse Comics

Script by Tate Brombal

Story by Jeff Lemire and Tate Brombal

Art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta

Stray Dogs #2

Image Comics

Written by Tony Fleecs

Art by Trish Forstner

Post Americana #4

Image Comics

Story and Art by Steve Skroce

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Full Episode Transcript

Alex:                 What is up, y’all? Welcome to The Stack. I’m Alex.

Justin:              I’m Justin.

Pete:                I’m Pete.

Alex:                 On The Stack, we talk about a bunch of books that have come out this week, kicking it off with a very scary book called Alien #1 from Marvel, written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, art by Salvador Larroca. This is a big deal because this is the first of the Fox properties that is coming to Marvel. We have Predator coming down the pike. Alien is here now, and we had Phillip Kennedy Johnson on the live show talking about this book a couple of months back now when he first got on it. So he teased that, if you want to go and listen to it, but all of the teasing aside, what’d you think of this one?

Justin:              I thought this was great. Really captures the vibe of the Alien movies while being a compelling new story where you really feel alongside the characters. Mistakes are made. Classic Alien thing where somebody really fucks up with these things. You don’t get a lot of mistakes with the alien people.

Alex:                 The thing that I thought was really fascinating about this as a fan of the Alien franchise, and to get into spoilers for the book a little bit … It’s about a military guy. He ended up getting captured by aliens, escaped. We don’t know exactly how yet, but this is years later. He’s retiring, trying to reconnect with his son. Definitely a theme Phillip Kennedy Johnson is playing with with his books right now with fathers and sons and connecting through this and through Superman.

Alex:                 So that’s interesting, I think, just from a reading perspective, but here, the son is a civilian, and for fans of the Alien movies, it’s such a big deal when they go to Earth in this book. When they go to Earth, you see very little of it, but you see people on Earth. You see what’s going on with society. You see civilians involved, and just from that fan perspective, I kind of geeked out about that beyond the fact that it seems like they’re doing really interesting, weird stuff with the mythology in this comic book. Salvador Larroca’s aliens in particular are terrifying. The pacing of it is alarming and upsetting in the right way. I really dug this book a lot as well. Pete, what did you think?

Pete:                Yeah. I agree with you. I thought the aliens looks amazing. There’s a lot of great kind of splash page shots that are really powerful. The Bishop. I’m always creeped out by Bishop, and so it was creepy to see Bishop back. Yeah, and it was a very interesting story that we got to kind of see the son’s side of why he doesn’t care about what his father’s been doing, and then we know the father’s side. So it was very interesting perspective, and I think that’s a cool way to, as Justin said, to put kind of a fresh spin on something that we’ve seen a lot of. So yeah. I thought this, as far as the first issue is concerned, does a great job of giving you something that you know and love with a little bit of newness to it. So I think well done.

Justin:              What I think they capture well here is the sins of the corporation in Alien are always what keeps making people act poorly, and that’s what gets everyone in trouble. In this, it’s all about human mistakes, and it’s just the aliens are there as the force of nature that makes them pay for their mistakes, and it’s just really great.

Alex:                 Absolutely. Really bowled over by this book. Next up, Harley Quinn #1 from DC Comics, written by Stephanie Phillips, art by Riley Rossmo. This is a great team for this book, Riley Rossmo in particular on a Harley Quinn book. So much fun. Really like the tone here. Very different from the past couple of runs of Harley Quinn. I thought this was very enjoyable. What was your guys’ take?

Pete:                Yeah. I agree. I thought the art was amazing. Really great story as far as the first issue goes. Does such a great job of grabbing the reader and getting kind of this take on Harley, and I think it’s a nice take. I’m a huge fan of the animated series, but I don’t want every comic to be like that. So this is, I feel like, a different enough take where it still feels like Harley Quinn, and I love the art and the storytelling. I think this is a fantastic first issue.

Justin:              Yeah. I think what this book … I mean, the art is so cool. It’s fun how Batman is such a presence in it, and it’s a little bit more of a Batman that is likable and sort of like just “Look. I’m just trying to keep an eye on you, Harley. So don’t screw around.”

Pete:                He’s like a dad. Batman’s like a dad of Gotham.

Justin:              Yeah. Uncle Batman, and I really like this Harley because it’s not like it’s a huge change where she’s like “I’m good now.” It’s the same character who’s just like “I’m trying this out. I don’t know. Let’s just see,” and she’s sort of having fun with it, and I feel like that preserves the original spirit of the character. We talked about this on the live show this week about how Harley Quinn spun out of Batman: The Animated Series and how wild it is that a character like that can just explode and have so many iterations in all these different mediums, and now to see her back here sort of having that spirit of the original while also being the new character is great.

Alex:                 Totally agree. Next up, Firefly Brand New Verse #1 from BOOM! Studios, written by Josh Lee Gordon, art by Fabiana Mascolo. We’ve had effusive praise for Greg Pak’s run on the main title. This is a different artist, a different team, and it’s jumping forward, I believe, 25 years in time to showing us the descendants of the original Serenity crew, what’s going on with them now. So what’d you think about this? Does this hold up to the high quality of the other Firefly books?

Justin:              Well, I think, what I like about it is that they’re taking a lot of swings. They keep moving with the Firefly story, just like “Hey. Let’s tell the most interesting story no matter what the continuity really is. Let’s just keep moving,” and for them to move from the past to the present into the future, or I guess, not in that order, but it’s great to see, like “Oh, yeah. I’m so curious about this. What’s going to happen where? What are these characters like?” They feel spiritually like the old Serenity crew, but they’re all new people.

Alex:                 Pete?

Justin:              It’s like meeting your friends’ friends, and they’re nice.

Pete:                Yeah. I thought-

Alex:                 Pete, I know you’re probably put off by the fact that Greg Pak wasn’t on this, who you love, but go ahead.

Pete:                Yeah. I was kind of like “Wait a second. What’s going on here?” The Pak was killing this, but yeah. I like the way it kind of starts. I think it’s a great kind of story, a good take, but it’s one of those things where it’s like when you have a to-do list and you just sleep instead of doing what you’re supposed to be doing, you’re putting everybody on the ship in jeopardy. That was just kind of crazy, but yeah. I enjoyed it. I thought the art was good. I thought it was fun.

Justin:              So you’re bothered by the chores, that no one’s doing their chores.

Pete:                Well, I’m just bothered by how casually they woke up, and they were like “Hey. Did you fix the engine?” and they were like “Well, I thought you were going to fix the engine.” Then it’s like