Comics of May 28, 2018

In addition to working 48 hours a week (plus 1:40 or so of driving each day) and my regular weekly comic posts, I just wrote 10 movie reviews in the span of two weeks. I’m kind of mentally exhausted. I’m not sure if I have the energy to write any full reviews for comics this week. Unless that changes in the next couple of hours, I’ll just stick to my usual first impressions post, and I might instead look back on a trade paperback over the Easter weekend. Maybe I’ll take a look at All-Star Superman, The Killing Joke, or something along that line.

But until then, the comics I picked up this week include Star Wars: Doctor Aphra 18, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 80 and Detective Comics 977.

Doctor Aphra 18 is fun. Aphra’s strange team of mercenaries infiltrates an Imperial archive of abandoned research projects and the deceased Tarkin’s own personal stash of intel. Without saying too much else, let’s just say that a lot of their abandoned weapons projects are activated in the middle of Aphra’s search, and things get really weird. I have no idea how else to describe this comic beyond what I usually say; that this series is kind of like Indiana Jones, but in the Star Wars Universe and with morally questionable characters. If that sounds like fun, you’ll probably enjoy this.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 80 concludes the invasion of the mutant triceratopses in a satisfying manner. This issue pits the four turtles against Splinter, who is now in charge of the foot clan and seems to be getting more and more harsh all the time. It’s an interesting look at how more optimistic and honorable the ninja turtles are, while also hinting that Splinter knows something they don’t. The solution is a bit of a surprise, but one that also uses previously established storylines and locations. At this point this is a complex enough series that it’s hard to just jump in. In fact I would probably benefit from re-reading this series from the start. But if you’re a Ninja Turtles fan, then you should be reading this whether you usually read comics or not. This series turned me into a fan, and 80 issues later it’s still impressing me.

Detective Comics 977 is good. It glimpses at the rough future that the time traveling Tim Drake experienced before essentially turning into a Batman Terminator. Although there is that rough moment, there’s also a nice moment where Batman and Red Robin team up again, just the two of them. Well … until the unexpected happens. Like with Ninja Turtles, this story is complex enough now that it’s very hard to describe in a single paragraph. As a whole, this is a Batman team book and you should be reading it, even if this isn’t the best issue.