On this week’s comic book review podcast:

Magic #1

BOOM! Studios

Written by Jed MacKay

Illustrated by Ig Guara

Green Lantern #1

DC Comics

Written by Geoffrey Thorne

Art by Dexter Soy and Marco Santucci

The Silver Coin #1

Image Comics

Written by Chip Zdarsky

Art by Michael Walsh

Beasts of Burden: Occupied Territory #1

Dark Horse Comics

Written by Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer

Art by Benjamin Dewey

King in Black #5

Marvel

Written by Donny Cates

Art by Ryan Stegman

Venom #34

Marvel

Written by Donny Cates

Art by Ivan Coello

Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters #2

Oni Press

By Chris and Laura Samnee

The Swamp Thing #2

DC Comics

Written by Ram V

Art by Mike Perkins

Seven Secrets #7

BOOM! Studios

Written by Tom Taylor

Art by Daniele Di Nicuolo

The Immortal Hulk #45

Marvel

Written by Al Ewing

Art by Joe Bennett

Dead Dog’s Bite #2

Dark Horse Comics

By Tyler Boss

Batman #107

DC Comics

Written by James Tynion IV

Art by Jorge Jimenez and Ricardo Lopez Ortiz

The Last Witch #4

BOOM! Box

Written by Conor McCreery

Illustrated by V.V. Glass

America Chavez: Made In The USA #2

Marvel

Written by Kalinda Vazquez

Art by Carlos Gómez

Fear Case #3

Dark Horse Comics

Written by Matt Kindt

Art by Tyler Jenkins

Suicide Squad #2

DC Comics

Written by Robbie Thompson

Art by Eduardo Pansica

Nocterra #2

Image Comics

Written by Scott Snyder

Art by Tony S. Daniel

Geiger #1

Image Comics

Written by Geoff Johns

Art by Gary Frank

Far Sector #11

DC Comics

Written by N.K. Jemisin

Art by Jamal Campbell

Crime Syndicate #2

DC Comics

Written by Andy Schmidt

Art by Kieran McKeown and Bryan Hitch

Bliss #6

Image Comics

Written by Sean Lewis

Art by Caitlin Yarsky

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Full Episode Transcript

ThanAlex:         What is up, everybody? Welcome to The Stack. I’m Alex.

Pete:                I’m Pete.

Alex:                 And on The Stack, we talk about a bunch of books that have come out this week. Tons of books out this week. Lots of number ones to get through.

Pete:                Tons. Tons.

Alex:                 So let’s jump into it talking about Magic. Number one from BOOM! Studios written by Jed MacKay, art illustrated by Ig Guara. This is a bit of a reinvention of the classic universe people probably know from Magic: The Gathering and the card games. It takes a bunch of Planeswalkers, essentially magic folks and otherwise, has them attacked, spoiler over the course of the issue, and they end up having to band together. I got to tell you, I obsessively collected Magic: The Gathering cards as a kid, but I don’t think I ever paid attention to the mythology. So I didn’t know a lot going into this, but I still, as usual with the Jed MacKay book, enjoyed it quite a bit. What did you think, Pete?

Pete:                Yeah, I thought it was cool. It definitely seemed like I was like, “Oh, there’s a lot more going on than I know about.” But I wasn’t sure. But, man, loved the Medusa character for sure.

Alex:                 Well, the thing that I really liked about this, and again, this is a spoiler for the issue, but it sets it up as this very typical fantasy world and then wrecks everything about halfway through the issue. And I thought that was-

Pete:                That was really hard.

Alex:                 Yeah. I thought that was a really bold, fun move. It’s basically saying, “Oh, this fantasy world that maybe you know from card games, from books, I assume, and otherwise, don’t worry about that. We’re going into our own story. We’re doing our own thing.” So just kind of just follow it from there.

Pete:                Why did you say, “I assume.” Are you worried that people do magic for real. I’m thinking are you talking about them?

Alex:                 No. I assume there are magic novels, but I don’t know.

Pete:                Oh, okay. I see what you’re saying. Okay. Okay.

Alex:                 Yeah. I just don’t know enough about this world, but [crosstalk 00:02:02 ]

Pete:                I thought you were throwing shade to magicians for a second.

Alex:                 Oh my God. I never would. They would come after me. Green Lantern, number one from DC Comics written by Geoffrey Thorne, art by Dexter Soy and Marco Santucci. In this, we are getting the Oa’s on the Green Lanterns, dealing with the new status quo of the universe. There is a new United Planets, as we’ve seen over the Superman books and otherwise, and that is affecting things here where they’re trying to decide, “Hey. If we’re the United Planets, if we have our own police force, what do we need the Green Lanterns for?” Of course, things go a little wrong over the course of this issue. Pete, now you’re not the biggest fan of Green Lantern other than a book we’re going to talk about it a little later at The Stack. But what did you think of this one?

Pete:                Well, first off, I want to just say a couple of nice things about the book. Really love the start, very crazy heavy action, kind of love this kind of who done it. And then, a spoiler, fun killing one of the floating large shirt tail peep know-it-alls. I’ve always wanted to do that. So I’m glad it finally happened in this book.

Alex:                 Can I just interrupt? It’s weird to me that you don’t like the guardians given you love short people and they are very short.

Pete:                Yes I do. I love short people very much. Know-it-alls, I have a problem with. Also, the whole flowing large shirt thing bothers me. And I also hate how they look like you with the giant heads and always talking about how smart they are.

Alex:                 What the fuck. How dare you? Also, thank you. I would love to look like [inaudible 00:03:46 ]

Pete:                I’m sure you would. Also, you would look amazing in a flowing gown. I mean, how are you going to have a Green Lantern number one and not have Far Sector in your shit? It’s the best Green Lantern of all time and you’re going to have a Green Lantern number one and-

Alex:                 Here’s the thing, she is in, and this is a little bit of a spoiler from the title, a Far Sector. So there’s no reason for her to come back to the main planet for this. I will say I kept going back and forth in this issue where I thought based on the cover, “Okay. This is going to focus on the new teen Lantern character and what’s going on with her.” It doesn’t completely. She plays into it, but there’s so much going on here that there were things that I felt like, “All right. I don’t quite get this or why this is here or what’s going on.” But by the end, so much was set up that I felt like, “Okay. We have a solid. This is just throwing everything at the wall. Let’s see what sticks going into the second issue.”

Pete:                All right.

Alex:                 Next up. Let’s talk about one of my favorite issues of the week, which I know Pete probably didn’t like, as well. We’re starting off so well here, the Silver Coin number one from Image Comics, written by Chip Zdarsky, art by Michael Walsh. It’s creepy, but it’s supposed to be creepy. I love this book. This is a new horror anthology from a bunch of folks like Chip Zdarsky and, I think, well, I should probably look up who else is on it. But there’s a bunch of folks that are contributing and they’re each, I think, going to write a different issue as it follows this evil cursed silver coin through different situations.

Alex:                 Here, we get a rock and roll tale that ends in a very Tales from the Crypt style way. Love the art by Michael Walsh. Like you said, creepy and terrifying in exactly the right way and viewers just dread into it. Chip Zdarsky writes a good rock and roll tale. I enjoyed this quite a bit. I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I like this. I was always a sucker back in the day for Tales from the Crypt and shows like that, and this channels those very well.

Pete:                I agree. I definitely agree. It does have a fun Tales from the Crypt feel. It’s also going to be cool to see how this moves forward, but this first story is just kind of the classic band selling their soul to the devil to kind of make it big. But it’s got a very kind of interesting, it’s not that in all the right ways. And, I think, it’s the way they kind of leave it with the coin is very cool to see how this is going to keep moving forward. So as creeped out as I was and how much I knew Zalben enjoyed it, I still enjoyed this. And, I think, not only did I enjoy it, but I’m looking forward to see how the next one goes.

Alex:                 They call them comics, but they’re not very funny.

Pete:                I don’t know what you’re doing, but please, stop.

Alex: