‘Iceman’ Comes Out In This Week’s Best New Comics


Only in comics can your time-displaced younger self come to the future, realize he’s gay, and force you out of the closet. Which is where Iceman, who gets a new solo book with its first issue today, finds himself, now facing his greatest enemy: summing himself up in 500 words for a profile on a dating website.

Sina Grace, the writer of great slice-of-life comics like Not My Bag and today’s Nothing Lasts Forever, returns to Marvel, and it’s his take on Bobby Drake, newly out and deeply confused gay man, that makes the book compelling. Bobby is literally confronted with what he could have had if he’d been more courageous as a teenager, watching his younger self date men, and that’s quickly complicated by a sick family member and the awkward relationship Bobby has with his parents. Oh, also he has to fight an insane mutant-hating nutjob in homemade power armor. That’ll put a strain on people.

Grace’s elegant, thoughtful take is complemented by Alessandro Vitti’s line-heavy, detailed art. Vitti’s figures can feel a bit bulky, but he uses it to good effect; Bobby and his parents are in a hospital room too small for them, and Vitti’s layout in this quiet scene emphasizes the cramped, awkward nature of people who love each other, but can’t understand each other. Iceman has a lot of promise as a Marvel book exploring a rare perspective in comics, let alone superheroes, and it’s off to a great start.

The Bulletproof Coffin: The Thousand Yard Stare, Image Comics

David Hine and Shaky Kane’s loving, yet acidic, satire of Silver Age comics and their odd emotional and political preoccupations returns with a rather tart send-up of comics culture and how it fetishizes creators. Artist Shaky Kane, who is in reality a bald British guy but is presented here as a sort of cross between Steve Ditko and Douglas McArthur, is forced to confront the modern economics of being a comic book creator. Which means working conventions, which is probably not the best idea for an armed, emotionally unstable person! Admittedly, this comic is more than a little inside baseball; if you have no idea who Ditko, the classic Spider-Man artist and notorious recluse, is, you won’t get half the jokes. But Kane’s gorgeous, deliberately junky art, and Hine’s sharp and loving criticism of the medium, always pair well.

Wonder Woman: Steve Trevor Special, DC Comics

Tim Seeley and Christian Duce don’t aim for “subtle,” here; consider the opening is a bunch of “meninist terrorists” getting their asses kicked by Wondy. Still, this special does a good job of popping out Steve Trevor, often very much a second banana in the comics, and explaining both his appeal and incorporating the original characters into the DC universe. Still, that raises an important question: When is Sameer getting his solo book?

Redline #4, Oni Press

Neal Holman and Clayton McCormack’s blend of SF, dark comedy, and murder mystery manages to somehow push it even further, as the noose tightens around one character and the rest seem powerless to stop it. Holman, best known for his work on Archer, once again manages to balance some very dark comedy bordering on gallows humor with both genuine emotional weight and a complex, engaging mystery. We’re not sure where the final issue will go, but we can’t wait to find out.

Game of Thrones: A Clash Of Kings #1, Dynamite

Game of Thrones jumps to yet another medium with an official comics adaptation. Truthfully, this might be the best medium for George R.R. Martin, a long-time comics fan; working with Landry Quinn Walker and artist Mel Rubi, Martin has to get to the point instead of lingering over sumptuous meals and Ned Stark meeting with the accounting department. If you want to know what the fuss is about, this does an admirable job of explaining it.

Bane: Conquest #2, DC Comics: Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan give their supervillain story a twist, as Bane is forced to team up with an unexpected fellow prisoner.

Gwar: Orgasmageddon #1, Dynamite: Metal’s most beloved comedy act gets their own comic book, and it’s pretty much their act in comic book form, namely tasteless, juvenile, and absolutely hilarious to your inner middle-schooler.

Faith #12, Valiant: Jody Houser’s smart reconstruction of superhero tropes pays off its latest take: Faith must defeat her villains, who have united to end her once and for all. But at what cost?! OK, it’s not quite that dramatic, but you get the idea.

Youngblood #2, Image Comics: This revival of one of Image’s cheesier books from back in the day is clicking surprisingly well, in part because it strikes a good balance between taking itself seriously so there’s emotional stakes, while still realizing the cheese inherent in having the President be a cyborg named Diehard.

Darth Vader #1, Marvel: Whether Charles Soule can follow up Kieron Gillen’s champion run with Vader is still an open question, but it’s off to a great start with this issue.

This Week’s Best Collections

Nothing Lasts Forever, Image Comics ($15, Softcover): Speaking of Sina Grace, this volume of autobiographical comics arrives with a heartbreaking take on what happens when your life falls apart, and you have to pick yourself up yet again.

Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: The Complete Newspaper Strips 1945-1947 Vol. 4, IDW Publishing ($40, Hardcover): Disney’s history in comics isn’t well known in the US, but this collection is a good place to start.

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