Well, it's that time of year again! Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday! May 4th! That's right, Star Wars Day is also Free Comic Book Day, this year!
freecomicbookday.com
Some books that are worth highlighting:
Energon Universe-This is probably a obvious one, but one worth pointing out.
Blood Hunt/X-Men-This will probably give us the first look at what the X-Men books will be like after Krakoa is all finished up. Gail Simone is writing the X-Men story. Also...vampires, I guess?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-This will also give us a look at what the new TMNT book under Jason Aaron will be like. As well as stories from other authors.
DC Absolute Power-We get to see what Amanda Waller is planning for the DC universe in this prelude to a big event coming up.
Street Fighter vs Final Fight-It's a start of a crossover! And Udon's art is always worth checking out.
Ultimate Universe/Amazing Spider-Man-The Ultimate Universe books have been pretty solid so far. And Spider-Man is about to become...*SIGH*...the Spider-Goblin, so you know you want to be in on the ground floor of that!
Hellboy/Stranger Things-Hellboy is always a entertaining read. And Stranger Things can be fun in comic form. Why not?
Star Wars-This is all happening on May the 4th. It's kind of fitting to get a Star Wars comic on that day.
Eye Lie Popeye-Popeye the Sailor...done in a anime style. If nothing else, it should be entertaining.
Johnny Quest-The last time they tried to reintroduce these characters didn't last long (anyone else remember Future Quest?). I doubt this will last long, either. But, it'll probably be fun for as long as it lasts.
Gatchaman-They're also trying to bring this back! This FCBD is just all about bringing back old franchises, I guess.
Unico Awakening-Also, this! If you've never seen the two original Unico movies, try them out. They might surprise you!
Snoopy's Beagle Scouts-I mean, come on. If nothing else, it's bound to be nostalgic.
And I'll talk about some comics in general, why not?
X-Men-The Fall of X has been a crazy time. These books are VERY good, but this story is also VERY complex. Everything is weaving together. And I'm very much looking forward to the end in about a month. I don't know if I'll jump on the next era of X-men or not. But, the Krakoa era has been a experience....or X-perience, you might say (...I'm sorry).
The New Ultimate Universe-This really shouldn't have been called the "Ultimate" universe, because it has almost NO connection to that original universe. It's just confusing for people. But, the books themselves have been interesting. Ultimate Spider-Man is far more talky and slow than I expected, but it does feel very thoughtful and mature at times. Ultimate X-Men is basically a horror manga in disguise. And Ultimate Black Panther has some interesting world-building ideas going on. I'm not quite sure what's going to happen once the Maker comes back into the story, but for right now, it's a solid little universe. Ultimate Spider-Man is probably the best of the three books, in my opinion.
Spider-Boy-I have...questions with how this is supposed to work? If Spider-Man's sidekick was just erased from everyone's minds, why are all these villains he fought in the past just showing up now? Did the villains get erased from time, too? Dan Slott needs to explain, already.
Superman/Batman World's Finest-I've actually really enjoyed the sequels to Kingdom Come we've gotten in this book. They went interesting places with Magog/Kid Thunder.
Jay Garrick the Flash-This was just a fun, cute little miniseries. I like Jay learning how to be a dad. It's just a pleasant experience.
Si Spurrier's Flash-I feel like Si is trying VERY hard to channel Grant Morrison at times. And this is weird and dark at times. I am curious where he's going with all this.
Outsiders-Another book that feels like it's trying to channel Grant Morrison or Warren Ellis at times. Because, this is a stealth sequel to Planetary! Check it out if you like something a little meta and trippy!
Dungeons and Dragons Saturday Morning Adventures II-The kids from the cartoon get to cross over with Drizzt! And Minsc and Boo! If you know who those characters are, it's fun to see them interact.
Elvira Meets HP Lovecraft-I've actually been enjoying a lot of the Elvira comics, lately. They're tongue and cheek, with a lot of that "classic" "classy" humor. They're better than you'd expect. Try out some of them sometime.
I Heart Skull Crusher-This just started, but I really like the vibe. A girl is trying to get a team together so she can compete in a brutal sport in a post-apocalyptic world.
Gargoyles Quest-I can't blame you if you aren't following the Gargoyles comics. Greg Weisman seems to have problems pacing his writing for the comic book medium. But, this is the start of Demona trying to gather the new Three Keys to Power. It should be more exciting than the court trial we got last volume.
The Last Mermaid-A mermaid tries to survive a post-apocalyptic world in a mech suit. This is mostly recommended for the art, but it's VERY nice art. It also reads VERY quickly.
Radiant Black-Deciding to release two versions of every issue where the main character is different is sure...a choice. I don't know if it's paying off or not. But, it's been VERY interesting to see how the timelines diverged from each other. I still like Rogue Sun better, but the Catalyst War has been interesting, I can't deny that.