Another New Comic Book Day is upon us! It’s time to plan a trip to your local comic shop and take a look at this week’s new comics! Hit the jump to check out 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.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #46 (BOOM! Studios)
Ryan Parrott, Daniele Di Nicuolo, Walter Baiamonte
We’re past the midpoint of Necessary Evil and things are heating up and there’s quite a lot going on this month. Maybe too much.
Our titular team - or rather Kim and Tommy as we don’t spend much time with the others - are stuck in a flux after the defeat of Lord Zedd at the hands of the Omega Rangers. Kim thinks they should keep training, but Tommy thinks it’s time to relax.
Meanwhile, Kiya’s betrayal sends ripples though the Omega Rangers. The Blue Emissary is dead and Xi isn’t in good shape either.
Uhm… I don’t know. There’s just a lot going on here and we keep cutting from one subplot to the next without much development in any of them. It feels like an in-between story. Last issue, a lot of shit went down and a good guy turned bad and let all the other bad guys out. We get to see the Omega’s reactions to that but WE don’t really learn anything new.
There’s a cute scene where Squatt tries to make a a monster with Zedd’s staff. That was hilarious but it was only one page.
I’m over the confusion I had with both books telling halves of the same story, but this book is still covering two separate teams so there’s just a lot going on. Hopefully now that the true villains have emerged and the two teams will inevitable become one the rest of the arc will get a bit tighter.
Middlewest # 3 (Image Comics) Skottie Young, Jean-Francois Beaulieu, Jorge Corona
Abel knows hard work and cruel adults, and on the Raider Farms he’ll find no shortage of either. Elsewhere, Maggie and Jeb struggle to rally a crew to rescue the kids, and they need to be quick—the weather is starting to turn.
The second arc of Skottie Young’s latest series begins as Abel and Bobby find themselves trapped on a slave farm, harvesting the mysterious pink orbs that power the entire Middlewest.
Abel takes the back seat for the first time in a while. Instead, focus is put on the farmers as we get some exposition about the pink goo that has appeared in every issue without explanation. While Bobby seems to be making the best of a shitty situation, while Abel has shut down.
And who can blame him? He ran away from the carnival and got so close to finding his mom before getting snatched up and enslaved on a farm. He’s given up and it looks like Bobby may be stealing the show for a bit.
I dig this issue a lot. I never thought we needed an “explanation” behind the pink liquid before but I’ve seen a lot of tweets about how it’s a lot of readers’ biggest unanswered questions. The farm setting is a nice change of pace and Maggie and Jeb’s rising revolution smells of a big battle on the horizon.
Folklords #2 (BOOM! Studios) Matt Kindt, Matt Smith, Chris O'Halloran, Jim Campbell
The reverse portal fantasy continues as Ansel and Archer head into the enchanted forest to start their quest for the Folklords. Instead of finding all kinds of cute woodland creatures or dungeons full of treasure, the duo find horrors.
First, we get some backstory about Archer. The only elf in Ansel’s villain was apparently abandoned by his original family and adopted by an older couple. While Archer is the one telling the story of his wondrous rescue, the reader is presented with the truth: his parents were seemingly cursed by his arrival and had their very lives destroyed.
This grim look at Archer’s childhood was deeply upsetting, especially after the previous issue told a more fun and colorful story. Sure, one with a mysterious secret buried beneath the surface, but this issue took the series straight into the realm of horror.
The bulk of the issue takes place in the Enchanted Forest. But this common fairytale setting takes a more grimm approach as the duo experience one mysterious and downright creepy encounter after another. And it all leads up to a horrifying twist on a classic tale.
Folklords took a sharp too, one I wasn’t expecting. I was all in on this series after the first issue but I’m not a fan of horror so I’m not sure if this is heading too far away from my comfort zone.
Money Shot #3 (Vault Comics)
Tim Seeley, Sarah Beattie, Rebekah Isaacs, Kurt Michael Russell, Crank!
Money Shot has done a great job at subverting expectations by being about pornstars rather than an actual porno comic. Until now. While previous issues mostly dealt with characters and worldbuilding, this issue is all about sex.
Firstly, we get to see some penis, boobs, and bush. While sex with aliens has mostly been just slightly out of frame so far, this issue brings us a full page tentacle threesome. I’m not sure if I’m trying to give you guys some hot selling points or some trigger warnings, but do with this info what you will.
One sequence that I absoluelty adored was the XXXplorer’s “dates.” In the flashbacks from last issue we saw team leader Chris Ocampo assigning each member a date to have sex with each other to increase their onscreen chemistry for their videos. We see five pairings, each given a single page, before and/or after sex. This really helps paint each of them as their own unique characters, which has been a slight issue with the series so far.
The rest of the issue goes straight sci-fi as we learn more about the fish-people planet. Maybe it’s because I did a big rewatch between this issue and the last, but Money Shot kinda feels like a Futurama story. A goofy Star Trek premise with some kinda dumb and goofy characters.
Money Shot is nerdier than you’d expect porn to be and sexier than you’d expect sci-fi to be. And hey, it just got announced that it'll get a second arc! Click here to pre-order the first volume.
What comics are you picking up this week? Let me know down in the comments below!
