Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin Hardcover
Easily one of the best comics from the last 10 years is this dark future Ninja Turtles story. Kevin Eastman, one of the creators of the Ninja Turtles, joins Tom Waltz to tell a story Eastman & Peter Laird (the other creator of TMNT) outlined 25 years ago. Esau and Isaac Escorza handle the art of the book, and turn in something completely unexpected: The Last Ronin is meant to signal what’s going on in the plot, and not echo the great Frank Miller’s classic comic Ronin, but that’s what the art gives off almost immediately. This book is great for Ninja Turtles fans, great for dark future dystopia fans, and great for fans of jaw-dropping comic art.
Buy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin Hardcover Here
DC Vs. Marvel Omnibus
Thirty years ago, worlds collided. The Justice League and the Avengers had battled analogues of each other since the ‘60s, and there were minor crossovers between characters, but in 1996 we finally got a full scale companies-wide event. DC vs. Marvel was a four-issue series where the two companies’ characters battled each other for silly cosmic nonsense, accompanied by 12 one-off mash up issues where DC and Marvel characters merged for a single story. This is pure mashing-your-action-figures-together fun, with a fair bit of mixing-and-matching-limbs-of-different-action-figures thrown in. It’s extremely of its time, but it’s a riot, especially Generation Hex. This book is as pricey as omnibi usually are, but it’s worth it for a month of good reading.
Buy DC Vs. Marvel Omnibus Here
Black Hammer Library Editions
Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston, and several other super talented artists spent a few years doing a quietly moving Doom Patrol analogue at Dark Horse. Black Hammer is the story of a superhero odd couple-esque team of misfits trapped outside of reality, trying to live their lives, as the people they left behind fight to bring them home. Lemire always writes eerie, kind of sad stories that are deeply informed by classic superheroics, and that’s exactly what you get here, with an all-star lineup of artists.
Dark Horse’s Library Editions are an incredible value. They have the size, attention to detail, and printing quality of DC’s premier Absolute Editions for about 1/3 the price. This book is great, and these printings are the best, most accessible way to get into it.