Sunday, November 10, 2019

This Week In Comics: 11/13


Another New Comic Book Day is upon us! It’s time to plan out your next trip to your local comic shop and take a look at this week’s new comics! Hit the jump to check out mini-reviews of my favorite comics coming out this week.

Disclaimer: I received advance copies of all comics featured this week courtesy of their individual publishers.
Opinions are my own.


Folklords #1 (BOOM! Studios)
Matt Kindt, Matt Smith, Chris O'Halloran, Jim Campbell

I was so excited for this series when it was first announced! It's everything I love about fantasy comics: worldbuilding, worldbuilding, and wordbuilding!

Turning many classic portal fantasies like Narnia and Harry Potter on their heads, Folklords follows an young man named Ansel who has grown up in a fantasy world of gnomes and trolls but he has a  non-fantastical secret: each night, Ansel has dreams visions of our world.

In Ansel's land, when a child turns 18 they must declare a quest and had off into the wild unknown like saving princesses and finding ancient treasure is just something everyone does when they graduate high school. To finally uncover the meaning behind his dreams, Ansel decides to declare his quest to find the mythic Folklords.

However, this year's quests are being canceled by the Librarians, a cloaked order of that seems to have some kind of power over the land. Instead of letting youths go off into the world to follow their dreams, the Librarians pass their own assignments - work that benefits their own order - and forbids anyone from leaving the land's borders. Naturally, Ansel and his friend Archer disobey the Librarians and sneak off to have a proper quest.

The premiere issue of Folklords doesn't spend much time outside of a small village, but the creators have done an exceptional job filling each page with little touches that make the village feel like an entire fantasy universe. Trolls that run ferries, a treetop tavern, green skinned elf guy, and weird cloaked men who call themselves Librarians and act like they run the place. You can barely see protesting gnomes in one panel and they're mentioned again later - what are they protesting?! Tell me!!!

Ansel's desire to break free from a magical fantasy land and discover a world of cars and skyscrapers is so creative and the fact that the Librarians seem to know what's going on has me so intrigued. I'm all-in: I'd read a hundred issues of this. Although considering there's a $30 hardcover up for preorder that's just called "Folklords" with no "Vol. 1" I am going to assume this will just be a mini-series. Although after such a strong start it's safe to say Folklords will be taking the quality over quantity approach that made me love the five-issue RuinWorld so much.

You can pick up the first issue of Folklords this Wednesday at your local comic shop, or click here to pre-order that hardcover collection.


Go Go Power Rangers #25 (BOOM! Studios)
Ryan Parrot, Sina Grace, Francesco Mortarino, Raรบl Angulo, Ed Dukeshire

While I haven't been posting reviews the past few months, I have still been keeping up on a few series and Power Rangers has been one of them. That being said, I have no idea what is happening anymore.

At first, I couldn't quite remember which book had the "post Power Rangers" team and which one... didn't? This was never a problem before because both books had distinct art and writing styles. But now they're both written by the same guy, they both kinda look the same, and they are both telling the same story.

Usually it just takes me a few pages to reorient myself, but this issue had me all over the place. Lord Zedd showed up and I was like, "Isn't Go Go just after Tommy loses his powers... the first time? Weren't they fighting Rita a few chapters ago?" I know Go Go is supposed to be setting up the Peace Conference stuff but all of a sudden it feels like we just skipped a lot of stuff - this issue takes place during White Light! So I guess this has been after Tommy loses his powers the second time. Did I hallucinate Rita being around or did I miss a big time jump?

I usually poo-poo anyone who watches/reads things chronologically. Prequels are supposed to be prequels. But this mess feels like it might be more enjoyable if you read all of Go Go before MMPR. It'd probably be easier to understand and it's not like the story is interconnected.

Here's the thing. I actually like the idea behind Necessary Evil. I like the idea that the Peace Conference and the Power Rangers was all orchestrated for a greater purpose. And I like seeing how far back planning for it goes. There's a lot of really cool ideas here.

But telling both stories simultaneously is mind-numbingly insane. It'd be like watching Seasons 4 and 3 of a Game of Thrones, alternating back and forth after each episode. Yeah, it's some quality storytelling, but delivered in a way that makes everything more confusing than it does enjoyable.

Ben 10: Mecha Madness (BOOM! Studios)
C.B. Lee, Lidan Chen, Eleonora Bruni, Warren Montgomery

This graphic novel, based on the recent Ben 10 reboot series that I have not watched yet, sees Gwen acquiring and fixing an old robot battle suit and battling with the villainous Steam Smythe. Click here to order a copy.

Firefly: The Sting (BOOM! Studios)
Delilah S. Dawson, Pius Bak, French Carlomagno, Rodrigo Lorenzo, Serg Acuรฑa, Richard Ortiz, Hyeonjin Kim, Joana Lafuente, Doug Garbarkm Natalia Marques

This graphic novel features the return of Mal's one-time con artist wife Saffron. She's back to build a team of a big heist - but Mal's not welcome. In fact, she's leaving all the boy son the Serenity in favor of building a crack team out of the women of Firefly.

There's a really cool gimmick here where each artist tackles a different member of the crew, showing off a unique point of view of the heist from each of them. Whether you're a fan of River or Zoey, Inara or Kaylee, you're probably going to love this. You can click here pre-order a copy for yourself.

What comics are you picking up this week? Let me know down in the comments below!