This round of indy superheroes brings us a vigilante out for revenge, retro comic code approved action, the first ever Kung Fu Noir graphic novel, a useless Cold War super soldier, and a new Valiant relaunch.
PURSUER TP
(W/A) Villal Pando
Villal Pando has crafted a stunningly beautiful tale of love, loss, and betrayal. Set against the backdrop of the big city during the first half of the 20th century, fans of vintage comics, and noir aesthetics will be drinking up Pando's elegant illustrations in this original graphic novel.
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Why this caught my eye:
I like the noir vigilante tone this has to it, plus Pando put out a fun trailer for it that caught my eye.
BLUE BARON #1 EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN
(W) Darin Henry (A) Ron Frenz (A/CA) Sal Buscema
Exploding from the pages of The Heroes Union, Binge Books proudly presents the sensational solo adventures of The Unbeatable Blue Baron! Since 1776, The Blue Baron has battled alien invaders, super-powered psychopaths and megalomaniacal mutants, but his greatest challenge awaits him inside this groundbreaking, extra-length, standalone epic from Darin Henry, Ron Frenz, and Sal Buscema and featuring a jaw-dropping jumping on point over 200 years in the making!
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Why this caught my eye:
The Heroes Union material has some potential as an odd experiment, plus It's been a while since I've checked out what Ron Frenz was up to so this scratches a little nostalgic itch.
INTERTWINED ULT ED TP
(W) Fabrice Sapolsky (A/CA) Fred Pham Chuong, Veronica Lopez
A murder. A mysterious league of protectors operating in the shadows. A young Kung Fu student lost in a concrete jungle he never chose to live in. A Chinese girl who has to pose as a man to protect herself and her Jewish heritage. A secret LGBTQ+ love story. Welcome to the world of Intertwined. It's 1971 and for Juan Jin, life is about to become hell. He didn't ask to be a hero. He didn't ask to go to Chinatown. He only wanted to follow the way of Wing Chun, the Kung Fu style he masters brilliantly... but destiny had other plans for him!
The first ever Kung Fu Noir graphic novel, Intertwined is a creator-owned tale from Fabrice Sapolsky (Spider-Man: Noir) and hot new French sensation and Kung Fu practitioner Fred Pham Chuong (Scare City)! Additional art by Olivier Coipel, Gerald Parel, Karibu, Roland Boschi, Geoffo, Mateus Santolouco and Fabrice Sapolsky! This new and improved ULTIMATE EDITION includes never-published-before material! AUG211760
Why this caught my eye:
I feel like there's been a grave oversight in this entire medium if there's never been a Kung Fu Noir story before, but I am hard pressed to think of one now. I am very much here for the Fred Pham Chuong artwork though as he's been killing it with a lot of his mecha mash up artwork.
COMRADE KILL GN
(W) Patrick Sparrow (A/CA) Patrick Sparrow
A Cold War super soldier accidentally wakes from a cryogenic freeze long after the war has ended to find out his existence is now meaningless. Being too dumb to reconcile this he goes out into the wild to satisfy a pointless mission objective that no one asked him to do.
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Why this caught my eye:
I greatly enjoy 'A man out of time, but useless' as a pitch. Also, the choice of the fishnet stockings for the outfit? Perfection.
HARBINGER (2021) #1
(W) Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly (A/CA) Robbi Rodriguez
Can you make the world better if you can't be better?
A telepath with no memory. A city of superpowered teenagers suppressed.
Redemption. Destruction. Rebirth. A new era of HARBINGER begins here.
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Why this caught my eye:
While I'm not terribly familiar with the writers, I do really enjoy Robbi Rodriguez's kinetic art style and it feels like a good fit for the current range of Valiant relaunches.
That's it for this batch, we'll hit some LGBTQ+ material on the next round!