Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates
Penciler Butch Guice
Published by Marvel Comics

In a month where Marvel VP David Gabriel has said that diversity won’t sell comics, it makes sense to prove them wrong. This week, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates adds a third book to the Black Panther line, and it’s his best yet. Man, I hope this sells. It’s worth it.

Black Panther’s main title has been a slow burn political book about the African nation of Wakanda, and the World Of Wakanda spinoff has given more of a personal focus on a romance story. This week, Black Panther and several other notable black superheroes unite in Harlem as The Crew for a more traditional street-level book with a keen ear for social justice.

Misty Knight narrates this first issue as she navigates the charged investigation of a longtime activist who died in a cell under, of course, mysterious circumstances. It’s a perfect choice. Besides being one of the most charismatic characters in Marvel’s lineup, Misty is a black cop who can deeply sympathize with both sides of the tension between Harlem’s citizens and their police force. She can reasonably look at the issue without losing the essence of herself.

The team hasn’t come together by the end of this issue, and Black Panther isn’t even in it, but your superhero itch will be scratched by flashbacks to a morally grey super team from Harlem’s past and by a surprise reveal at the end.

Diversity is not the only selling point for this book. It’s a high-quality product, blending textual and visual storytelling at a level Coates hasn’t delivered until now. It’s an easily accessible jumping-on issue with plenty of Easter Eggs for veteran Marvel readers. And it’s got some of Marvel’s best characters. But it is also unapologetically talking about the racial tension that is killing Americans. And if Marvel thinks that we don’t need to be reading this, they’re wrong.

Prove David Gabriel wrong. Prove him wrong by putting your money toward a well-crafted example of a great comic story that initimately explores diversity. Ultimate Comics is happy to help you do that at any of our three Triangle locations, and our staff will also gladly direct you to plenty of other great comics to showcase the breadth of representation. And let’s keep this talk going in Greensboro this September.

-MATT CONNER for Ultimate Comics

Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Artist: Ardian Syaf
Publisher: Marvel

As writer Marc Guggenheim explains in the afterward of this book, X-Men: Gold is all about getting the mutants back to basics. After years of having our heroes cross alternate timelines, deal with interdimensional and intergalactic conflicts, and most recently engage in a war with the Inhumans, the folks at Marvel sought to create an X-Men comic which was more in sync with the classic Uncanny X-Men series by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.

Fortunately, the debut issue succeeds in keeping the story concise and in reminding readers why we love these characters and this universe. Some will argue that it relies too heavily on nostalgia and recycling familiar territory, but there’s enough new material to make it fresh. As expected, the focus is on Kitty Pryde, and how she juggles both her new status as team leader with her own personal struggles. Now that she and her teammates are back to Earth, they’re back to a world that still sees them as something less than human. Moreover, the fact that they’ve moved their headquarters to Central Park only puts them more in the thrust of government scrutiny.

Yet whatever your feelings are toward this book and to the new lineup of X-Men titles, it’ll be hard-pressed to find a reader who’s opposed to the roster of Gold. Joining Kitty are the best of the best: Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Prestige and Old Man Logan. For the most part, Guggenheim does a good job of giving each character something substantial to do, and there will of course be more development as the series progresses. The issue does address what the future holds for Kitty and Colossus, given their romantic history; as well as Kitty’s struggle with whether or not to stay and fill the Professor X role, or abandon the team altogether. And for good measure, there are a few memorable one-liners from Logan thrown in there.

The art is also very serviceable, with Ardian Syaf’s pencils combining the style of a classic superhero team book with a modernized aesthetic. A few splash pages stick out well, and Frank Martin’a colors in particular capture the spirit and scope of this comic. All in all, the creators have succeeded in producing a reader-friendly X-Men title which brings the essence of these characters into a modern context. Also, a feature at the end of the book which highlights all of the major events of the franchise over the last few decades is especially helpful. Whether you’re a veteran X-Men reader or a newer fan, there’s something in this book for you.

-Kevin Schaefer for Ultimate Comics

Written by Will Ewing and Michael Grassi
Art by Joe Eisma
Colors by Andre Szymanowicz
Published by Archie Comics

At last month’s NC Comicon Oak City, everyone was talking about Riverdale. The CW’s new show takes the Americana mythology of Archie, Betty, and the gang, but updates it to a scandalous modern teen soap. Juicy plots spin murder and sex around the bones of shows like Dawson’s Creek and Twin Peaks. It shouldn’t work. But it does. I talked to so many friends about it, and we spent a lot of my Love Is Love panel on it, and we agreed, this show has gone from guilty pleasure to just pleasure.

So it’s natural that Archie Comics will want to capitalize on the show’s popularity by putting out a companion series. This is a great idea. When a new Marvel or DC movie comes out, the comics spend a few months gradually turning their characters into what people saw on screen. It often derails the good storylines, and it’s how we got the floppy mess of Civil War II. But with Archie doing it this way, the fantastic Mark Waid rebooted versions of the kids continues in a bright, funny, wholesome-but-awesome style. People who want their Archie a little… more naked? This book is for them.

The issue this week looks at Hell Week in two parallel short stories. In the first, Archie inherits poor Jason Bloom’s football jersey and has to prove himself to the team by going through the Varsity initiation with Reggie and Moose in tow. When a stunt threatens Moose’s life, Archie has to decide what’s more important: popularity or friendship? (Or, I’d argue, throwing a ball around and maybe killing somebody or focusing on guitar and being a decent human being. But I never played Varsity football. So maybe I’m off.)

The second story has the wicked Cheryl Blossom making her own Hell Week to get Betty kicked out of the cheerleaders, but she’s clearly underestimating our favorite blonde… and her best friend.

This book is a treat. The teen characters feel realistic and on-brand with the show we love, and Joe Eisma manages to make them all look sexy without making me, as a reader above the age of seventeen, feel gross. His characters aren’t photocopies of the actors, but they’re clearly recognizable and walk a sharp line between the video screen and the comic page. The book lacks the humor of Mark Waid and Ryan North’s stuff, but it’s not a humor comic, and the drama is absolutely what fans of the Riverdale TV adventures are here for.

Pick this up, watch Riverdale on the CW Thursday nights, and flag me down at NC Comicon Greensboro in September – we’ll talk!

-MATT CONNER for Ultimate Comics

Writers: Marc Guggenheim, Greg Pak, Cullen Bunn
Artists: Ken Lashley, Ibraim Roberson, Leonard Kirk, Guillermo Ortego
Publisher: Marvel

It’s a period of resurgence and reimagining for the X-Men universe. Whether you want to call the new lineup of books a reboot, crossover event or something else, it’s clear that X-Men Prime #1 signifies the start of something new. This one-shot is comparable to the beginning of DC’s Rebirth last year, in that it’s a story that brings together new and classic characters for an event that will likely span across multiple storylines.

On the one hand the book is an easy jumping on point for newer readers, as the main story revolves around Storm re-recruiting Kitty Pryde and asking her to lead the X-Men. Kitty has been away from the team for a while, joining up with the Guardians of the Galaxy, and later returning to Earth with the hopes of living a more simple, quiet life. That’s not to say that the creators don’t incorporate major events from the X-Men and Marvel universe continuity into this book, and use them as the launchpad for a larger narrative. Prime sets the stage for two new X-Men books in April: X-Men Gold and X-Men Blue. Gold is set to focus on a team of classic characters like Nightcrawler, Storm and Old Man Logan, all lead by Kitty; while Blue is comprised of the original five X-Men (Cyclops, Angel, Beast, Jean and Iceman), who have been time-displaced to the present.

All in all, the creators do a fantastic job of keeping the story here both self-contained, as well as a prelude to the aforementioned new titles. When Marc Guggenheim isn’t busy with his showrunning duties on Arrow, he crosses over from DC to write books for Marvel. He’ll be scripting X-Men Gold, while Uncanny X-Men writer Cullen Bunn will take on Blue. Meanwhile, the other writer on Prime Greg Pak is writing a new Weapon X series. Pak does a particularly good bit with Lady Deathstrike in this issue which is easily one of its highlights.

I also really commend the art team on this book for making the transitions so seamless. Prime brings together multiple pencilers and colorists, all of whom work well together to create a cohesive and engaging narrative. Whether or not you’ve read the recent Inhumans vs X-Men crossover event or are just looking for a solid jumping on point, Prime has a lot to offer for both new and old readers. In many ways it’s a solid love-letter to the X-Men universe, and it definitely has me excited for the new titles in the coming weeks. If nothing else, it puts Kitty Pryde at the forefront of the book, and the prospect of her leading her own team is pretty exciting.

-Kevin Schaefer for Ultimate Comics

Script by Frank Tieri
Art by Michael Walsh
Published by Archie Comics

Archie’s Horror line has been putting out some of the best comics on the stands, be that the zombie epic Afterlife With Archie or the 70s-style occult Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina. This week, Frank Tieri gets a turn at making good kids go bad with a little werewolf adventure starring the lovable Jughead Jones.

The Riverdale Ripper has claimed four victims, including poor Miss Grundy, and everyone is freaking out. As the gang tries to drown their fears at an all-you-can-eat buffet, they notice Jughead is even hungrier than normal… and maybe a little feral. This leads to a night of vicious murder, shocking secret identities, and impossible moral decisions. Who would ever want to shoot good old Jughead full of silver bullets?

God, Michael Walsh’s art is tremendous. He had a killer run on Secret Avengers, and his superhero style translates well to the Americana-Horror mashup of this book. Some of the Archie stunts, like Archie Meets The Ramones, squeak by on good-hearted parody, but what makes the Horror line books so impressive is their ability to tell scary stories without stopping to wink at the camera. Betty facing down a werewolf isn’t funny; we connect to Betty as an American legend, and we fear for her because she could be the girl next door. And Walsh nails that, the realism only bending to stylization enough to connect this woman to the classic Betty Cooper look.

Frank Tieri also turns in some of the best work of his career, tossing out gruesome scenes but emphasizing how awful this is in the context of usually innocent children, not getting caught up in the provocative joke. When Jughead stands up for himself against Reggie’s bullying, it’s a subtle buildup toward the animal transformation, not a cheeky fanboy wish-fulfillment.

I can see why this is a one-shot instead of its own series, but man, it holds its own against the best issues of Sabrina and Afterlife With Archie. Pick up a copy for the Horror fan in your life at any of the three Ultimate Comics locations.

-Matt Conner

Written by Fabian Rangel, Jr.
Art by Warwick Johnson Cadwell
Published by IDW

I don’t know about you, but I could really use a cup of coffee. After the intensity of last weekend’s NC Comicon Oak City, with all that IDW and the other indie folks brought in, I have been exhausted. So today’s new series could not have come at a better time.

In the future, the environment is so bad that growing coffee has become impossible, and possession of this rare bean is now illegal. Helena Crash is the toughest courier in town, and for a price, she’ll pick you up a little bag of the good stuff. But this job has run her afoul of masked street gang, Los Fantasmas, and she’s going to get sucked into a gang war if she’s not careful. And no, Helena is NOT careful.

This is the perfect little book to pick up after a con. The art is kinetic and vibrant and weird, just like those books you got from the self-publishers on Artist’s Alley, but it keeps an internal logic that makes it more readable than most. The writer lets the setting get weird, with mutants all over the place and a Blade Runner tone, but Helena herself stays grounded and relatable. I love when creators push envelopes, but I’m buying a comic to read it, and this book doesn’t lose that in the celebratory cacophony of its first issue.

The backmatter suggests a playlist for reading this issue (while, of course, sneaking a cup of coffee), and yes, Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good” is an eery, wonderful fit to the tough, self-aware aesthetic of this book. I wish I’d seen that before reading it, and now you can be prepared.

Okay, rest up however you need to after whatever your Con experience was. You’ve earned it. But when you crawl back into the real world, let Helena smooth that transition out for you. And hey, we’ll see you in September for the Greensboro edition of NC Comicon. Be prepared.

-MATT CONNER for Ultimate Comics

Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Tyler Jenkins
Publisher: BOOM! Studios

With its beautifully rendered pastel images and rich world-building, Grass Kings is the kind of comic that hooks readers from the beginning. Though the plot is fairly limited in this first issue, creators Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins still kick their rural mystery series off on a high note.

Opening the issue with a brief history of the town in which the story takes place, Kindt and Jenkins then shift to the present where we meet three brothers. The Grass Kings, as they call themselves, rule over a mysterious trailer park kingdom. Much like their own tragic lives, this town is filled with hopelessness and despair. Yet when a newcomer arrives, the eldest brother’s decision to take her in may prove dangerous for the kingdom he’s helped build.

I’ve mostly read Kindt’s Valiant and DC work, so it’s quite fascinating to see him take on an entirely original story. Though the text is mostly comprised of narration, with dialogue here and there, he nonetheless does a fantastic job of immersing us into this overtly grim world. Yet what really makes this such an invigorating read is Jenkins’ illustrations. Perfectly juxtaposing tight frames with gorgeously detailed splash pages, he provides an electrifying and cinematic experience. If you appreciate the brutality and neo-noir aesthetic of books like Southern Bastards and The Fade Out, this is the book for you.

– Kevin Schaefer for Ultimate Comics

Writers: Corey Kalman, Brockton McKinney
Artist: Devin Roth
Publisher: Action Lab Danger Zone

Amerikarate fuses self-deprecating comedy with B-movie action flare in a way that only this creative team can provide. It’s so far been described as a mashup between Footloose and every major action movie hero of the 80s, and rightfully so. Needless to say, it feels right at home with the plethora of other absurdist action comedies from its publisher Action Lab.

The premise of this comic is simple: Sam Kickwell is a US veteran and martial arts expert who stumbles into a town where karate is illegal. This is due to the fact that the town suffered a ninja attack years earlier, and no amount of anti-American villains who swing through town will change their minds. And accompanying Sam is his limbless brother Rick, who is without a doubt one of the book’s major highlights.

NC Comicon Creative Director Brockton McKinney is of course no stranger to the world of B-movies and absurd action comedies, having written comics like the fantastic Ehmm Theory and last year’s Gingerdead Man reboot. Bringing the same kind of kinetic energy and bizarre world-building to Amerikarate, he and co-writer Corey Kalman deliver one heck of a ride. The book is incredibly self-aware of its ridiculousness and in terms of where it draws inspiration from. 80s gurus will no doubt love its nostalgia, while readers who aren’t as well-versed in this era will still find the comic easily accessible and highly entertaining.

Likewise, Devin Roth’s pencils and colors perfectly capture the book’s absurdist feel. Roth executes a flawlessly cartoonish style, merging the aesthetic of a Rob Guillory comic with the flow and pacing of an 80s movie. Creating characters that are either abnormally large or abnormally small, and action violence that’s both unrestrained and overtly ridiculous, Roth is dynamic on all fronts here. If you like anything these creators have done before, get on over to Ultimate and pick this one up, and then get it signed in a few weeks at NC Comicon: Oak City!

-Kevin Schaefer for Ultimate Comics

Created, Written, and Illustrated by Jeff Lemire
Published by Image Comics

Something is wrong in Royal City. It’s not just that the factory is slowing down. It’s not just that Peter Pike had a stroke, right there in the middle of his potato salad. No, there’s something else, something around the edges. Something that’s not supposed to be there. Some… one. Who’s really not supposed to be there. And for the Pike family, things are about to get much, much worse.

This isn’t exactly a horror book, though there are supernatural elements so clever that I gave the book a second read (and yes, the twists all held up the second time). It’s not just a small-town soap opera. It’s… it’s nostalgia, it’s a poignant twist-up of memory and pain. This book is about going back to your home town, and Mom wants everything to stay the same and Dad’s a little clueless and your one sister is working on her stuff and your one brother is NOT working on his stuff and you don’t know if staying around would do any good at all and you sure as Hell don’t want to stay around but there’s nowhere else you can be from. It’s a debate between escaping the ghosts of your past and screwing up your courage to actually listen to those ghosts and maybe grow the Hell up a little bit. It’s that horrible choice where you have to move forward with your life but there is no right answer, not even digging in and investing in the world of your youth.

Jeff Lemire makes me cry with every collection of Descender, a wonderful emotional science fiction adventure. But this week, Lemire got to do a little Cameron Crowe by way of Tim Burton, and I didn’t cry, but I think I’ll call my dad.

-MATT CONNER for Ultimate Comics