This week’s comics are all about nostalgia, from a new Speed Racer comic to some reprints of the strangest Silver Age comics. One major highlight is the One Man Army Corps, Jack Kirby’s 1970s vision of the world of tomorrow. Are you ready for “THE WORLD THAT’S COMING?” Find out, after the jump.
It’s a good week for fans of 1960s manga, as IDW launches a new series called Speed Racer: Chronicles of the Racer ahead of this summer’s big budget Wachowski siblings remake. Written by Mad Magazine’s Arie Kaplan, the new four-issue miniseries promises thrills, spills and wide-eyed characters who just want to go go go. Absent from the series, thankfully, is any sign of Matthew Fox (sadly, the same can be said for Christina Ricci).
If your nostalgia runs to something slightly more recent, then perhaps the 464-page hardcover collection of four separate GI Joe Versus The Transformers series (none of them the original Marvel comic series from the ’80s, unfortunately) may be your thing. You played the scenario out plenty of times in your bedroom, of course, so why not read the way it happened in someone else’s imagination? Heavy Metal carnage from another country can also be found this week in ABC Warriors: Hellbringer, a collection of 2000AD’s chaos magic-influenced robot strip that has to be seen to be believed.
Meanwhile, as Marvel spends this week recovering from the recent mainstream media coverage of single sexy Spidey and brand new gun-slingin’ Captain America, DC Comics steals the week with two well-chosen reprint books. First up, Diana Prince: Wonder Woman, Volume 1 reprints, for the first time ever, that strange period in Wonder Woman’s career where — trying to make the character “relevant” to the 1960s — she renounced her Amazon heritage to become an Emma Peel-esque secret agent crime-fighting Mod, complete with zen mentor I-Ching. It’s actually weirder than it sounds, both in terms of dated visuals and anything-goes plots, but surprisingly kept going until Gloria Steinem stepped in to complain. Worth reading, and for more than just rubbernecking, however.
Even stranger is the first story collected in the Countdown Special: OMAC , the latest in DC’s long line of cheap reprint books tying in with their latest big event. Ignore the second and third stories in this $4.99, 80-page comic; the real meat of the issue is in Jack Kirby’s first story, introducing the world to the One Man Army Corps and a version of the future that transcends its initial goofiness, to become one of the strangest, most wonderful sci-fi comics ever made. Consider it a taster for the full-length collection of Kirby’s entire run on the series that’s coming later this year.
A full list of the week’s releases can be found here and, as always, you can find out just where to buy each and every one of those releases by entering your zip code here.
