Hi there folks! Welcome to the second installment of a new monthly series we'll be rolling out here at Phoenix in the interest of helping folks stay up on new comic series and happenings well before they hit the shelves. So in the spirit of that, we'll be putting forth reviews and recommendations, as well as heads-up notifications about new series for popular franchises and tie-ins for big crossovers. So if you were wondering what's new and fun coming out this February, read on and find out more!

Reviews and Recommendations

Looking for a new series or two to follow? Here are a few recommendations for new series courtesy of Nick! (Normally these are courtesy of the whole team, but given how fast and furious December came at us, Nick was the one who sat down to do the reviews this month). 

New Masters (#1 of 6)

Image Comics, Writer Shobo, Artist Shof

Of all of Image's new books due out in February, this one looks the most interesting to me. Written and drawn by a pair of Nigerian brothers, New Masters tells the story of a group of outcasts caught up in a struggle for control over a powerful artifact that could be the key to freedom from alien colonizers. Set in a near-future dystopian west Africa, this book looks fantastic. There were only a couple of pages shown off in the Previews, but what I saw immediately painted a picture of a clearly fleshed out world that I want to know more about.

Step By Bloody Step

Image Comics, Writer Si Spurrier, Artist Matías Bergara & Matthew Lopes

Sooooo I am just gonna come out and say it - I will read anything Si Spurrier writes. Period. His work on Godshaper was utterly fantastic (and Boom Studios, if you're reading this - REPRINT GODSHAPER PLZ), and if you've been following the X-Line for Marvel at all, he's probably known to you as the person who finally gave David Haller (aka Legion) a fair shake. The art for this book reminds me a lot of his work on Coda too, so I am already sold on this story of an armored giant and small child forced to traverse the earth by forces beyond their control.  Think Lone Wolf and Cub if the samurai was a giant suit of armor. 

Land of the Living Gods 

Aftershock, Writer Isaac Mogajane, Artist Sanittos

This book's art got me good. The few preview pages I've gotten access to are full of some beautiful flowing artwork and fascinating panel layouts that convey a sense of motion and story. According to the ad-copy, Land of the Living Gods is the story of Naledi, a girl living in the deserted city of Johannesburg in a time where the spirits of the first people have returned to witness humanity's final days.  Driven by a dying planet, Naledi embarks on a journey to find a land hidden away from time, where gods still live. Because where there are gods, there are miracles.

So yes, I'll take a little afrofuturistic hero's journey please. I'm excited to see where this one goes.

Fox + Hare

Vault, Writer Jon Tsuei, Artist Stacey Lee

It's not a secret that most of our team here at Phoenix is all hype for the upcoming cyberpunk-magic-tech set, Kamigawa Neon Dynasty. So when I saw a comic coming out the same month about a pair of cyber-ninja mercenaries I knew I was gonna read this. It has nothing to do with Magic, but it ticks a lot of boxes I was already hype for anyways and the cover art looks very slick. Sure, sign me up! 

Noteworthy Tie-Ins

For the second half of this little post we'll be trying to help you stay up to date on any crossovers or tie-ins that might be popping up. We won't be covering things in detail as much in this section, instead our goal is to give you some cursory info on each series and let you decide for yourself how deep of a dive you want to do. For the most part, we'll limit things in this section to the big two (Marvel / DC), but if something else comes up that's noteworthy, we'll endeavor to include it here too.

Marvel

Marvel doesn't have that many tie-ins this month per se. Instead they opted to introduce more than a few 'adjacent' books this month. For example - spider-fans get a Gwenverse five issue mini-series (think What-If meets Gwen Stacy's Spider-Woman) as well as the Savage Spider-Man mini-series by Joe Kelly, along with a Carnage Forever one-shot by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Ram V, and Ty Templeton.

X-Fans get a one-shot Secret X-Men by Tiny Howard and Francesco Mobili, and a new series, X-Cellent, by Pete Milligan and Michael Allred. Fans of the X-Statix rejoice! I'm really stoked to see this team come back.

DC Comics

DC's February solicits give us a few tie-ins / parallel series too! Notable for fans of the Aquaman: the Becoming mini-series, we've got the new Aquamen series hitting the shelves towards the end of the month. Suicide Squad followers will also almost certainly enjoy a short 3-issue mini-series called Suicide Squad: Blaze (by the wonderful Si Spurrier too!).

Fun One-Shots and Nice-To-Haves

Alright, so February was a short month and I didn't see a lot of fun one-shots this time around. What I did see were some really nice "ooh that's cool to see back in print" books. 

Astro City Metrobook v.1

Image Comics, Writer Kurt Busiek, Artist Brente E Anderson, Will Blyberg, Steve Buccellato, & Alex Sinclair

Hey! Astro City is back in print! And for a pretty decent price ($29.99 for 2 volumes / 12 issues worth of content). If you're like me and haven't read Astro City, now's a great time to try it out. 

Legend of Korra: Patterns in Time

Dark Horse Comics, Writers/Artists - Various

While not a new follow-up to the most recent Legend of Korra story arch (Ruins of the Empire), this little book gives us a smattering of tales from the LoK era, similar to the Team Avatar tales book. 

Marvel Multiverse RPG Playtest Rulebook

Looks like Marvel is getting back into the RPG biz. And they're doing it in a way that feels very...comics-y. This playltest rulebook will run you $9.99, and comes with 3 different cover arts to pick from. If you've been looking for a new super-hero format RPG, maybe consider giving this one a try?

And that's it for this month's look ahead! We'll be back later this month for another look at what's in store for you comics fans in March. In the meantime, if you'd like to subscribe to any of these books, we've got you covered! Follow this link and let us know which comics you'd like to add to your pull list, or if you don't have one going yet, you can also start up a pull list in that very same link. For more details about our subscription policy, head over here.