Ragman #1, by Ray Fawkes (writer), Inaki Miranda (artist), Eva De La Cruz (colorist), Josh Reed (letterer) - I don't know if I'd call it a great cover - little too grey - but March drawing the moment right before the grenade explodes is pretty cool.In this new version of Ragman's origin, Rory Regan was a soldier, part of a squad that decided to try and ransack an old tomb. That was a mistake, and now Rory is back in the States, the only survivor, with scattered memories of what happened. When he opens a box with a few things left over from it, a bunch of rags cover him and carry him out over the city, where he finds some odd creature attacking a person. His suit absorbs the creature, and he learns all the members of his squad are within the suit as well, and they seem to know more about what he is than he does, and about the creatures that are after him.
The way Miranda draws the suit, it looks very similar to the symbionts like Venom or Carnage. The sending rags out like tendrils to help him move across the city is not unusual from what I've seen of some of the earlier series he had. But the cape and hood the costume's traditionally had are gone, so one of the more distinctive elements is missing. There is a glowing symbol in the center of the chest, a feature shared by the two enemies that appear at the end of the issue. I'm guessing each is some sort of letter of word in ancient Hebrew, maybe it's a mistake to assume they're maintaining Rory's Jewish heritage.
So I don't know where Fawkes plans to go with this. What the nature of the threat Rory's up against is, what it's going to tell us about him. Rory seems to have been the explosives expert on the squad, but also the one the others kind of protected. It was because one of his charges didn't work they couldn't escape (or so it appears), so I don't know if this is going to be part of some larger thing about survivor's guilt, or him trying to prove he can stand alone when he has a suit that would let him draw on the strength of others. Could be any of that, or none of it. Hard to tell at this point.
Copperhead #15, by Jay Faerber (writer), Drew Moss (artist), Ron Riley (colorist), Thomas Mauer (letterer) - Well I hope those dragon things can eat metal, or they're circling that thing for no good reason.Clara had a fight with Clay and his lady friend. It's not clear how it turned out, other than everybody did some bleeding. Interim Mayor Boo is left with a bunch of bigwigs yelling at him and no law enforcement. So Ford steps into that role, dragging the local schoolteacher along with him (who is colored blue on one page, and purple the next, the art is really inconsistent this issue). And Mr. Hickory and some of his associates have something brewing down in the mine.
The issue ends on a big reveal, which I suppose shouldn't have been much of a surprise. The book has been hinting about something not being totally kosher about Clare and Zeke being there. I had been thinking it would turn out Clara had been Clay's partner, and the best they could manage for witness protection was as a sheriff. Which is overly complicated, but I dunno, it seemed like the sort of surprise I thought Faerber would try.
The art is not Moss' best work. It varies quite a bit from panel-to-panel. On one page he goes much more basic than normal for one panel of Ishmael and Boo talking, then shifts back to a more detailed style right after. It's enough of a shift I thought someone else had taken over art duties for a moment. There's one panel of Zeke where his upper body is twice as tall as his legs, which looks really strange. There are a couple of panels of Mr. Hickory where body parts just look entirely out of proportion to each other. On the plus side, some of the aliens he draws look suitably weird. But I really feel like the art is starting to drag this book down.
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