Digitally Speaking...#21 "7th Sword, Anti-Hero, Armarauders, Arrival, Astronaut Dad"

7th Sword #1 (IDW)
From 2014.

via Comic Vine

I liked this comic a lot, actually.  Evocative with familiar themes and a guy who carries a sword.  The best part is that this is one of the many comics I have in my comiXology backlog that was only launched this year, and so if and when I so choose to read more, there won't be too many issues to have to catch up on.  Right now I'm feeling pretty confident about it.  Writer John Raffo ordinarily writes for Hollywood, but he seems to have gotten too ambitious for the movies, and so he's turned to comic.  It's a win for us, trust me.  The art is solid if not hugely exceptional, so that's another plus.  There are four more issues since released.

**** (out of five stars)

Anti-Hero #1 (Monkeybrain)

From 2013.

via Nate Stockman

I know Jay Faerber from Noble Causes, a comic he created over at Image and worked on from 2001-09, a sort of Fantastic Four variation.  He's one of those writers who deserves a wider audience not only what he's capable of, but for what he's done.  This project is kind like Daredevil without the blindness gimmick, insofar it's hardluck hero with family issues whose secret identity has been compromised and now he's being exploited by the mob.  It's refreshing, actually.  Most superhero comics these days are being done at DC and Marvel.  The rest of the comics landscape has conceded the point and started working on other genres.  So it's always refreshing when someone tries superheroes outside of them, and all the better when they not only do it competently but have something worthwhile to do with them.  This is one of them.

****

Armarauders #1 (Mecha Workshop)

From 2012.

via comiXology

Pretty generic military science fiction, from the looks of the debut issue, so I don't know what else to say.  "Pretty generic" in that the storytelling is straightforward maneuvering, completely devoid of any personality.  Fine if you like that sort of thing.  The art is kind of like Michael Bay meets anime (I know, they're manga in print form but rhymes will be rhymes...) and is itself a hook if you want your comic like that, too.

***

Arrival #1 (Mystery Box)

From 2013.

via comiXology

Okay, I love this one.  It falls in the same category as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Prometheus, and even one of my personal favorite short-lived TV series, Defying Gravity.  It could turn into something else.  But hopefully you get the point.  Thomas Kovach has a great ear for dialogue and a great eye for his indie-style black and white visuals.  It's the future and the space program has the advantage of being relevant because there's a mystery that parked itself in orbit of the moon.  The lead character was part of a previous expedition, and the riddle of what happened to him then unfolds during the follow-up.  Where 2001 and Prometheus never adequately explained where exactly their journeys were headed, Arrival plunges onward.  It could turn out to be another V, where the helpful alien beings turn out to be a menace.  I don't know.  But I'd love to find out.  Kovach's blog seems to suggest this was a standalone affair, and hasn't been updated since March.  We'll see.

*****

Astronaut Dad (Silent Devil)

From 2011.

via Comic Vine

Combine The Right Stuff with Apollo 13, add in some liberal amounts of fictitious spying and sprinkle with family drama and you've got the ingredients for a pretty good graphic novel.  The art is cartoonish, which probably makes it ideal to help younger readers familiarize themselves with an earlier, more hopeful and perhaps more troubled age.

****