May's Going in a Lot of Different Directions

May doesn't look quite as exciting as April, but there are still a few new things worth looking into, on top of what's continuing.

Image has the second issue of Michael Avon Oeming's The After Realm. I'll have a review of the first issue up on Wednesday, but long story short, I'm on the fence about picking up the next issue. Stephanie Phillips and Craig Cermak have a new series called A Man Among Ye, about a pair of women pirates. I think I find pirates more interesting in theory than practice, but it might be worth a go.

Dark Horse has the second issue of Spy Island, plus there's a collection of Juan Diaz Canales' Blacksad stories, which I think are noir with talking animal characters. I've meant to check one out from time to time, but never gotten around to it. IDW has a horror comic by Rich Douek and Alex Cormack called Sea of Sorrows. About a bunch of guys trying to salvage gold from a sunken WWI U-Boat, but bad things lurk at the bottom of the sea. Deep sea is absolutely terrifying, so that could be good, although it's really going to depend on the art and coloring I imagine.

DC has more Metal nonsense. I thought we were done with that stuff. No sign of Amethyst or The Deaths of Vic Sage, not that I expected the latter. Grant Morrison's going to have Hal Jordan team-up with the Flash against the the Golden Giants of Neo-Pangea, which certainly sounds Silver Agey as hell at first glance.

Marvel has all sorts of Empyre stuff, naturally. So many mini-series, including one for that thing that used to be Kamala's new costume, plus a one-shot called Celestial Messiah. Wait, someone other than Steve Engelhart is going to try and do something with the whole Celestial Madonna thing? Is that even allowed? The only one that might be of interest is Empyre: The Union, which is written by Jack Staff creator Paul Grist. That might be worth a glance on novelty alone. There's also a Juggernaut mini-series by Fabian Nicieza and Ron Garney, but I can't get a sense of what direction they're going with the character from the solicit.

As far as things I'm still probably buying go, the Black Cat's stolen one of Stark's armors, Else Bloodstone is ill and Wade's going to help her, the Runaways are going to high school, Taskmaster's running afoul of the Squadron Supreme, and the New Warriors are going to fight Psionex (although wouldn't their first foe be Terrax, or the Juggernaut?)

Wicked Things issue 3 will be out, along with the final issue of volume 7 of Infinity 8, the second issue of Rogue Planet, the fourth and final issue of Canopus, and issue 9 of Sera and the Royal Stars. I was hoping to get the first issue of Canopus last week, so I'd have a sense of whether I wanted to keep buying it, but no luck as yet. There's a couple of possible manga releases in volume 3 of Way of the House Husband, and volume 5 of Precarious Woman Executive etc., although I felt a bit like diminihsing returns were setting in one the previous volumes, so who knows?

There were a few brand-new things that caught my attention among the smaller publishers. Jeffrey Alan Love has an OGN through Flesk Publications called Thousand Demon Tree. About a warrior journeying through a dead landscape seeking a Thousand Demon Tree. The book is 96 pages, totally silent, and almost 25 bucks, so I don't know, but it sounds like it could be nifty. Caliber has a book by Stefano Cardoselli called Sunshine Doom 1971, about a crazed pastor meeting a Vietnam veteran who was experimented on at some sort of restaurant or grocery store or something. The solicit says 'Universal Soldier meets Deadpool!' which seems like it could go a lot of different ways. Finally, Black Mask Comics has 12 Ways to Die, a series co-written by Matthew Rosenberg, Ghostface Killah, and the RZA, with a lot of different artists. Rosenberg makes it a hard pass from me in all likelihood, but I feel like Alex might be interested in a book co-written by two members of the Wu-Tang Clan.