August comics preview: an Alien/Marvel crossover and a gorgeous Batman artist's edition
Also, a new Image Comics series from Kieron Gillen and a new graphic novel from Dash Shaw
Welcome to The A.V. Club’s monthly comics preview, where we recommend new books to check out over the next few weeks. This month, we’ve got five exciting picks, including an exciting Artist’s Edition of an all-time great comic from IDW, an Avengers/Alien mashup, and a new Kieron Gillen series that redefines what it means to be a superhero.
Aliens Vs. Avengers #1 – Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribić (August 28)
Aliens Vs. Avengers #1 (Marvel Comics)
Marvel has been publishing miniseries featuring 20th Century Studios properties like Predator, Aliens, and Planet Of The Apes since last year, but none have carried the prestige of Aliens Vs. Avengers #1 (Marvel Comics, on sale August 28). The publisher reunites writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribić, the team behind 2015’s epic Secret Wars, for Aliens’ first crossover with the Marvel Universe, and it’s a creative pair that knows how to deliver on a blockbuster premise. In Secret Wars, Hickman and Ribić showed that they can blend big superhero spectacle with chilling cosmic horror. The Aliens aesthetic pushes them into even darker territory. Taking place in an alternate future, the miniseries features grizzled older versions of the Avengers, and because it’s not in continuity, odds are very high that many heroes won’t make it out of this close encounter alive. Fingers crossed that one of them goes out with a gnarly chestburster death.
Blurry – Dash Shaw (August 6)
Blurry (New York Review Comics)
Dash Shaw has established himself as one of this generation’s most distinguished cartoonists by creating a library of work that pairs ambitious formal experimentation with thoughtful examination of how people interact with each other and the world around them. In just the last five years, he’s produced a modern classic of licensed comics in Clue: Candlestick, and his last graphic novel, Discipline, told the story of a young Indiana Quaker soldier in the Civil War by combining real-life journal entries with illustrations evoking the battlefield drawings of the time. The two works couldn’t be more different, and he’s doing another hard pivot with Blurry (New York Review Comics, on sale August 6), a contemporary ensemble drama featuring 10 different characters. Told almost entirely with a set four-panel grid, Blurry is visually restrained but narratively sprawling. As characters are faced with decisions — ranging from buying clothes to quitting jobs — the focus shifts entirely to a new protagonist, framing personal choices as cliffhangers while steadily expanding the story outward. It all builds to a grand finale that reveals just how much careful consideration Shaw has put into weaving these character threads together to create a fully realized community.
David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One Artist’s Edition – Ed. Scott Dunbier (August 13)
David Mazzucchelli’s Batman Year One Artist’s Edition (IDW)
The greatest legacy of Scott Dunbier’s 16 years as Special Products Editor at IDW is the Artist’s Edition line, showcasing legendary comic-book artists by reprinting high-definition scans of their original pages at their original size. The Artist’s Edition of David Mazzucchelli’s Daredevil: Born Again was an Eisner Award-winning triumph collecting the entire story, so it’s fitting that one of the Dunbier’s last projects is David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One Artist’s Edition (IDW, on sale August 13), presenting the hugely influential 1987 retelling of the Dark Knight’s origin. Dunbier has once again obtained all the pages, as well as the original layouts so readers can see how pages evolved from original conception to final execution. Mazzuchelli’s virtuosic understanding of shadow and light makes his raw inks a wonder to behold, and the opportunity to see the original artwork for some of the most iconic pages in superhero comics makes this a treasure trove for connoisseurs of comic-book craft. The future of the Artist’s Edition line is uncertain now that Dunbier has left IDW and is starting his own publisher, Act 4, but hopefully Dunbier continues to find ways to spotlight the greatest voices and works in comic-book history.
Pearl – Sherri L. Smith, Christine Norrie (August 20)
Pearl (Scholastic Graphix)
How do you reckon with atrocities committed by your government? This already difficult question is complicated even further for the young Japanese-American girl at the center of Pearl (Scholastic Graphix, on sale August 20), a historical fiction YA graphic novel from writer Sherri L. Smith and artist Christine Norrie. Amy is separated from her family in Hawaii when she visits relatives in Japan shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and her ability to speak English lands her in the Japanese army as a radio transmission translator. She is forced to betray her loyalty to the U.S., but as she learns of the Japanese-American internment camps back home, her guilt is replaced by a mix of disenchantment, anger, and grief. It’s heavy material executed with a deft touch, particularly in the ways it illustrates Amy’s internal conflict. The creative team uses symbolic imagery to boil down complex emotions into visuals that invite the reader to project their own feelings, providing a deeply personal entryway into World War II history for readers of all ages.
The Power Fantasy #1 – Kieron Gillen, Caspar Wijngaard (August 7)
The Power Fantasy (Image Comics)
Kieron Gillen has written some of the most forward-thinking superhero comics of the past decade, challenging the genre’s narrative and formal conventions by working with artists that are equally as eager to push boundaries. His previous collaboration with Caspar Wijngaard, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, examined the lasting influence of Watchmen with ingenious manipulation of the nine-panel grid, but for their latest project, they are removing the shackles of established IP to create something completely new. The Power Fantasy #1 (Image Comics, on sale August 7) is a new ongoing series that defines “superpowered” as “any individual with the destructive capacity of the nuclear arsenal of the USA,” and there are exactly six of them in the world. The fate of mankind rests in them not coming into conflict, a concept at odds with the fisticuffs at the core of superhero stories. Wijngaard has significantly grown as an artist since Peter Cannon, and the most exciting aspect of this series is seeing him apply his distinct design sensibility, crisp linework, and vibrant coloring to an original concept. He levels up with each project, and his unique vision immediately sets The Power Fantasy apart from other superhero books.