Pick Of The Week: Comics For Your Consideration From The Past Week

Another week gone by and another set of new comics on the shelves and online. If you do find yourself at your local comic book store this weekend – if it’s dafe. that is – or want to buy some comics online to support your local store, then you can’t do too far wrong by picking up these titles too:

Empyre: X-Men #1 (Marvel)

The X-writers have a lot of fun with this series, playing with the event tie-in in a round robin format. Up first is Jonathan Hickman and Tini Howard, with art by Matteo Buffagni and Nolan Woodard and letters and design by Clayton Cowles and Tom Muller… I went into this issue expecting a tie-in that might be a little better than average. I was pleasantly surprised to find a really entertaining adventure, with some key pieces of Dawn of X mythology. – Tony Thornley

Folklords trade paperback (Image Comics)
Folklords  is an incredibly fun book. Cheeky and irreverent, with an ominous undertone. Those Librarians, man. All kinds of nasty. Leaning into a whole lot of tropes, while flipping the perspective makes the whole thing fresh and interesting… by Matt Kindt, Matt Smith, and Chris O’Halloran. – Brendan M Allen

Vlad Dracul #1 (Scout Comics)
Writer: Matteo Strukul
Artist: Andrea Mutti
Vlad Dracul does a great job of investing energy in tone and texture. In 60 pages, I felt the start of a great, terrible war. I did wish for more of an emotional connection with Vlad to humanize him before he becomes the Great Beast. There’s an unspoken reason for his brutality. Yes, he takes great pride in his country, yes, he’s given thousands of children to Constantinople as tribute, and restricted his country’s wealth in their honor. Yet, I would like to dive deeper into Strukul’s vision of Vlad beyond his myth. What sort of rage drives a man to mount the head of their enemies?
Those looking for grim, beautiful art and legends of the world’s most famous monster will highly enjoy this series. – Malissa White

Power Rangers: Ranger Slayer #1 (IDW)

Writer: Ryan Parrott
Artist: Dan Mora
This book is packed with great character development and some emotional moments between key players. It’s mixed with some jaw-dropping action sequences that will leave you begging for more. I sincerely hope we get more from this world soon as this one-shot is proof of the sheer potential stories set here have. – James Ferguson

The Resistance #3 (AWA Upshots)
Writer: J Michael Straczynski
Arists: Mike Deodato Jr.
The Resistance #3is a comic book that echoes real world politics and real-world problems, but done with style and with a mask on. The spirit of Action Comics #1 – a superhero fighting for the downtrodden, powerless  working class against a ruthless, merciless free market economy and its bourgeoise owners only too happy to exploit their underpaid workforces – is very much alive and well in this book. Whoever said there’s no room for politics on modern comics hasn’t read this yet. – Olly MacNamee

Chu #1 (Image Comics)
Writer: John Layman
Artist: Dan Boultwood
Chu #1  is a great first issue, that offers up the odd mystery and a pace fitting of a heist. With the promise of revealing why Saffron was never mentioned by her brother – or any of their immediate family either – and a story seemingly set before the Chew seres even began, this will be enough for most long-term fans of Chew to stick around for over this 5 issue run. For others, like me coming late to Chew through the trades, it will be the humour, the cool characters and the art. – Olly MacNamee