If you're here in the Panel Discussion programming block, you might be a lapsed comics reader, trying to find a way back to the JLA Satellite. Or you might someone killing time until you pick up your weekly Wednesday pull list. Or maybe you've said goodbye to dozens of longboxes to embrace the promise of digital comics. Whichever it is, you're still interested in the good stuff.
Welcome, then, to the Panel Discussion Dozen Quartet, where I pick out just-released or out-soon comics that I think are worth paying attention to. Ready? Then, let's meet the sequential art that'll be draining your wallet this week. Be sure to chime in with the books you'll be picking up or that you think everybody should be ready in the comments.
The Massive #3
The eco-activist crew of the Massive have pledged to uphold pacifist ideals on an Earth by ruined natural disasters. That's been easy while they've been at sea, but this issue. I'm loving how writer Brian Wood is giving his audience characters that have to consider their beliefs under great duress, all against a backdrop that's a disturbing possible future for our planet.
Grendel Omnibus, Vol. 1: Hunter Rose
For some weird reason, Matt Wagner has been deeply under-appreciated over the decades, despite turning out two magnum opuses that deliver strong meditations on heroism and villainy. His masterwork Grendel takes on the latter and this volume centers on master criminal Hunter Rose. For all the flair that the lead character evinces, the reader never gets to ignore the horrible acts he commits out of ego. The Grendel saga is a hypnotic read and it's great that Dark Horse is collecting it in beautiful new editions.
Batgirl #12
I've been waiting for this match-up ever since Batwoman debuted as a character way back when. The creative teams of both Bat-tiles have presented two female crimefighters who look the same but have very different emotional cores. Hopefully, the clash will offer some insight on how these redheads see each other. Knowing writer Gail Simone, the dialogue will probably sing.
Spider-Men #4
Brian Bendis has been doing what he does best in this series: spooling out the all-too-believable emotional repercussions of superhero life amongst a cast of characters. Watching Miles Morales stumble through his first steps as a crime-fighter and fight an alternate version of the man who inspired him has been great so far, but the highlights have really come from been watching Bendis script a Peter Parker facing the worst outcome of visiting an alternate universe.