Day: March 20, 2021

Bendis and Marquez jump-start the Justice League

A new era begins in ‘Justice League’ #59, which ‘includes a number of familiar, welcome elements, all deftly executed.’

[Note: This post contains spoilers for the lead story in Justice League #59. The issue also includes a Justice League Dark installment, which was creepy and suspenseful, but won’t be discussed here.]

Last year’s trip through the Justice League’s 60-year history got as far as the start of the “Snyder Era.” (No, not that Snyder — Scott Snyder.) Because some of us still have a slight Death Metal hangover, a post on those years is still TBA. Regardless, the “Bendis Era” began this week with May 2021’s Justice League #59. Written by Brian Michael Bendis, drawn by David Marquez and colored by Tamra Bonvillain, it includes a number of familiar, welcome elements, all deftly executed.

Chief among them is the notion that the Leaguers have lives outside this book. At the risk of being redundant, the point of an all-star team is the interaction of characters who can each carry their own features. Sure, you can craft a perfectly entertaining adventure by dropping a handful of heroes into a standalone story, but the best League runs have incorporated larger DC continuity to one degree or another. (Somewhat ironically, the Bendis Era begins just as DC has decided to have free-range continuity.)

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Bunn + Mutti’s ‘Parasomnia’ awakens in June

The four-issue miniseries from Dark Horse details one man’s journey through a nightmarish dreamscape.

Cullen Bunn and Andrea Mutti set off on a horrific adventure through the land of nightmares in the new miniseries Parasomnia.

“Parasomnia is an eerie dark fantasy adventure. Part of it is set in our world–the waking world–and part of it is set… someplace else,” Bunn said. “A land of ruthless highwaymen and forgotten gods and fierce monsters. It’s a little bit sword and sorcery, a little bit mystery, a little horror, and a whole lot of action adventure.”

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Marvel announces ‘Immortal Hulk’ spinoff ‘Gamma Flight’

Puck, Rick Jones, Titania and more join forces in the new series.

Puck, Titania, Absorbing Man, Doc Sasquatch and Rick Jones will assemble under a familiar name with a clever twist: Gamma Flight. The spinoff from Immortal Hulk will be written by Al Ewing and Crystal Frasier, who have worked together previously on Immortal Hulk, with art by Lan Medina.

“Gamma Flight is an opportunity to explore some of the concepts and plant some of the seeds from Immortal Hulk in their own space, building off the found family that came together in those pages and putting them into action against some strange and ugly doings in the unexplored corners of the gamma world,” Ewing told Marvel.com. “We’ve been ricocheting ideas off each other for a while on this one, and I suspect the result is something that’ll tickle Hulk fans old and new.”

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‘Black Hammer’ returns with a new art team in June

‘Black Hammer: Reborn’ will feature art by Caitlin Yarsky, Dave Stewart, Malachi Ward and Matt Sheean, who will work with writer/co-creator Jeff Lemire.

Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston’s Black Hammer series will return later this year with a new ongoing series, Black Hammer: Reborn, but Ormston won’t be drawing it.

Instead, artist Caitlin Yarsky will join Lemire for the first four issues of the new series, which picks up 20 years after the events of the previous story arc, Age of Doom. Dave Stewart will color it. Malachi Ward and Matt Sheean will then draw issues #5-8.

The new series will focus on Lucy Weber, who took up her father’s mantle and became the new Black Hammer. But what happened to Ormston? Don’t worry — Lemire revealed in his email newsletter that Ormston is drawing a sister title to Black Hammer: Reborn, which will focus on the character Madame Butterfly. He said it would launch later this year.

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