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Comics: Blame It on the Rain

by Dee. 7/1/2022

Friends, Romans, lend me your ears: this month we have an excellent set of comics coming your way: from IDW comes Star Trek: The Mirror War - Sisko, from DC Aquaman and the Flash: Voidsong, and direct from Marvel is Miles Morales and Moon Girl. So let's get to it.

Star Trek: The Mirror War - Sisko (IDW Publishing): Sisko has always been my favorite Star Trek captain, apologies to the great Picard. He was always more relatable and had a kid, and preferred to cook rather than get food from the replicators. This comic is based on the Mirror War, which is the evil version of the much beloved characters.

Written by Danny Lore, known for their work on Champions, Marvel's Voices: Pride and Marvel's Voices:Legacy, they bring us an incredible story. The main artist is Hendry Prasetya, who worked on issues of Power Girl, Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace and created pieces for a few Green Lantern series.

Benjamin Sisko is ordered by Kira Nerys to assassinate or at least humiliate Keraak Tyr, a powerful enemy. Walking into a trap, Sisko manages to talk and shoot his way out, thus triumphant. He discovers something intriguing about the target's family, and his personal connection to the mission. This series of one-shots, which includes Mirror Picard as well as many of the other fan favorites, is aimed mostly at comic readers who are familiar with the Star Trek lore. With most one-shots, they are usually a good introduction to the franchise. This definitely feels like you need more context.

The art is exactly what this story needs, effectively using shadows and giving the bright palette to the fast-paced action scenes that it requires.

Aquaman and the Flash: Voidsong (DC Comics): Besides having one of the most solid covers, and a nice tribute to George Pérez (RIP), this book is a hoot. Barry Allen ranks right up there in smart-alecky glory with Peter Parker's fight commentary. For those of you not familiar with either Barry Allen nor Arthur Curry, this is an excellent introduction to these characters. You get to see the more serious sides of both heroes, their tensions and their relationships. When the Justice League is taken out of commission and aliens attack, it is up to these two to fight off the menace and restore order worldwide. Who or what is trying to invade? Tune in and find out.

The minds behind this particular story are the creative team of Collin Kelly (featured in Gotham City Garage, Grayson) and Jackson Lanzing (Gotham City Garage, Batman Beyond: Zero Year) as writers and Vasco Georgiev (can be seen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena: Warrior Princess) as the head artist. The splash pages are terrific and we get some nice color scheme related thought bubbles for both Aquaman and the Flash. This miniseries will have to move quickly as far as storytelling, so though there's a lot of internal monologuing, there's also plenty of action. I'll be interested to see what is up with the aliens, and their dastardly plans for the Earth.

Next issue of this mini-series drops on July 19.

Miles Morales and Moon Girl (Marvel Comics): This is an excellent issue by Mahole Mashigo (known for her novel The Yearning), Alitha Martinez (featured as lead artist for Iron Man in 2000-01, Black Panther: World of Wakanda) and Ig Guara (prolific artist; too many to list). Moon Girl is an Inhuman nine year old girl, superhuman genius who has an extremely intelligent pet dinosaur, aka Devil Dinosaur.

The big issue that brings Moon Girl (aka Lunella) to Miles' high school (Brooklyn Visions Academy) is that DD goes haywire, and Lunella needs a computer lab that will meet her needs to figure out how to get Devil Dinosaur back. She literally runs into Miles both as a superhero and a high school student, and they have the inevitable friction of working as individual heroes.

The color palette leans heavily into the purple backgrounds and accents, with brighter orange and reds as dynamic contrasts. The action moves quickly, and does not get bogged down in exposition. Some background to know the villains of the issue might be nice, but ultimately not necessary to enjoy this issue. My interest is piqued, as there's no resolution to the problem in this one-shot.

The mystery of what exactly is happening with Devil Dinosaur will be continued in the upcoming issue of Avengers and Moon Girl #1, which is due out July 27th.

With that in mind, stay tuned...
Dee