March is here and April's just around the bend! It's time for some new comic reviews and recommendations! This month, we've got a cake-based murder mystery, some supernatural and science fiction horror, and a smattering of other fun stories for you. 

Reviews and Recommendations

Looking for new series to try out or add to your subscription? We've got you covered with reviews from Sloane, Selena, and Nick! If you do see something you want, you can always head over to our Subscription Page and start or modify your subscription. You can also ask us to order the first of any of these just to try out!

W0rldtr33

Image Comics

By James Tynion IV (writer) & Fernando Blanco (artist)

Back in November last year, in Image! #8, James Tynion shared with us a glimpse of “a horror epic that’s been festering in the back of my brain for the better part of five years.” The beginning of his first new original horror ongoing since Nice House on the Lake, the story follows a group of friends who in 1999 discovered something they dub the Undernet – a secret architecture to the internet that they discussed on an underground messageboard called W0rldtr33. When a rogue user broke into W0rldtr33 and the Undernet began to exert an unhealthy influence on them, the friends were forced to seal it away. 

They thought it would stay shut for good. 

It didn’t.

As always, I’m here for pretty much any original comics by James Tynion, and I’m doubly excited to read passion projects authors have had brewing for a long time. The ‘90s retro-futurist vibes you expect for a comic set partially pre-Y2K are really giving in the previews, and the plot reminds me both of Tynion’s other works and recent classics like Kieron Gillen’s Die with its group of friends revisiting childhood trauma. I’m excited to see where this cyberpunk horror book takes us in its first few issues. 

–Sloane

Green Arrow 

DC Comics

By Joshua Williamson (writer) & Sean Izaakse (artist)

Did you read the Superman relaunch this February? If you didn’t (go do it now), here’s what you missed - beautiful Clark / Lex banter, a Lois Lane as Editor In Chief of the Daily Planet, and a solid story hook that got me excited for issue two. And this is why I’m excited for Williamson’s run on Green Arrow. Ollie’s got a long and tumultuous history in the DCU, and it’s clear from the preview pictures that all of that is going to get leveraged in this book as his whole family works to find him after the events of Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths. 

- Nick

Gryffen #1 (of 6)

Whatnot Publishing

By Ben Kahn (writer) & Bruno Hidalgo (artist)

In a distant future, mankind has taken to the stars and spread out across the entirety of the Milky Way, discovering a plethora of alien lifeforms and bizarre planets along the way. Unfortunately for the Milky Way and its many diverse inhabitants, humans kinda suck. They now reign over the entire galaxy as a fascist empire known as the Sovereign Reach, and their most feared captain is a soldier named Lyla Gryffen. However, after going missing for six months, Lyla has returned as a changed woman. Mysteriously radicalized, Lyla’s new mission is to bring the empire down by any means necessary, and she wastes no time recruiting a crew of rogue soldiers and mad scientists to help her end things once and for all. 

This gives me serious Star Trek meets Saga vibes and I’m hoping they can deliver a punchy story in the 6 issues that they posit. So far the art looks engaging and the cover gallery has piqued my interest. 

- Selena

The Giant Kokju #1 (of 3)

Image Comics

By Gerry Duggan (writer) and Scott Koblish (artist)

Only Image would let these two put this story into print. They’ve taken the Kaiju genre and applied their particular brand of mature readers comedy to it. Behold Pacific Rim meets a giant monster who @#%^s. It’s up to the men and women of SCIENCE to come up with solutions for this critter’s biological needs. Yup, that one, and that other one too. Also that one. So uhm…if you’ve ever wondered about any of that, yeah this book is for you!

-Nick

The Seasons Have Teeth

Boom! Studios

By Dan Watters (writer) and Sebastian Cabrol (artist)

There was a lot to love about Dan Watters’ most recent comic, Homesick Pilots, but what I always appreciated most about the book was the atmosphere. The messy world of the Los Angeles skate-punks and the eerie realm of spirits in the haunted house were both vibrant and fully realized. They both had distinct feelings, and you could tell that there was so much more going on behind the scenes that Watters didn’t show you. Honestly the action scenes were hit or miss for me – as well-drawn and punchy as they were – because what I really wanted was to durdle around and explore the setting indefinitely.

There’s not a lot revealed yet about Watter’s upcoming book,The Season’s Have Teeth, but it looks like it’s going to be exactly the kind of atmospheric book I was after. It follows a former conflict photographer who seeks atonement for an unthinkable tragedy by capturing the perfect picture of each season. Sounds straightforward enough, until you realize that each of the seasons in this world exists as a giant, kaiju-like monster, and they’re causing a supernatural apocalypse.

 - Sloane

The Great British Bump Off

Dark Horse Comics

By John Allison (writer and cover artist) and Max Sarin (internal art)

This one’s for all of you out there who made it through the last several years with the help of the big white tent. You’ve got your favorite season and your favorite contestants (I am a series nine fan - Rahul is the best softboy and Kim Joy is amazing), and you remember well the scandals like the binned baked alaska or the microwaved bread dough (gasp!). 

Now imagine if one of those beloved contestants poisoned one of their fellows and it’s up to yet another contestant to solve the murder before they’re forced to leave the tent behind…along with their life! This delightful four part romp is brought to you by the same team that gave us Giant Days and Steeple, which should tell you exactly what to expect here.

- Nick

One-Shots, OGNs, and Nice-to-Haves

This month we've got a few fun trades for you with reviews courtesy of Sloane and Nick! And for you Krakoa fans, a short PSA for a title you won't want to miss if you've been following recent books.

Us

Dark Horse Publishing

By Sara Soler (writer/artist) & Silvia Perea Labayen (Translator)

From Spanish artist Sara Soler (Season of the Bruja) comes a graphic memoir about her and her wife Diana, Diana’s gender transition, and how even through major life events, some things don’t change as much as you might think. The book seems to follow in the tradition of something like Julia Kaye’s Super Late Bloomer, pairing the often serious issues that come with transition with a light, cartoony art style. As someone who reads lots of queer comics, at some point all of the fraught autobiographical comics about coming out start to blend together. It’s nice to see a book from a slightly different perspective, especially one that seems so supportive, positive, and full of queer joy.

 – Sloane

Coda Deluxe Edition

Boom Studios

By Simon Spurrier (writer) and Matias 

Coda is one of those books that really got short-changed when it was coming out as trades back in 2018. Volume one went out of print super fast and it’s been kept that way for…reasons I don’t fully understand. That said - Boom seems to have finally wised up about how good this series was and is putting the entire thing out in one nice solid hardcover, and if you like fantasy settings and vibrant well built worlds you need this in your life.

Coda follows the life of one anti-social bard who’s been driven to save the soul of his wife in a fantasy world that’s been through a devastating apocalypse. The hardcover treatment really suits this book - the landscapes are beautiful and haunting all at once, and as an extra bonus they’re including a brand new comic epilogue at the very end! 

-Nick

Sins of Sinister: Dominion

Marvel Comics

By Kieron Gillen (writer), Lucas Werneck, Paco Medina (artists)

This isn't so much a review as it is a heads up for all you X-Fans out there! If you've been following Immoral X-Men, Nightcrawlers, and Storm and the Brotherhood for the past few months, you'll probably want this book in your box. It serves as a nice epilogue to the book and sets the stage for the next big era in the age of Krakoa - the Fall of X. 

- Nick

And that’s it for this month! Tune in soon for a look at May's books, and as always if you saw something here you wanted to add to your subscription, we’ve got a form for that! Just follow the link here to update your subscription, remove titles, or start a new one!