Coming Soon! (October)
Since we’re rolling into pumpkin spice and Halloween season with the start of October, I wanted to take this week to start one of my new planned segments for Graphic Reviews. With the changes to the structure of Graphic Reviews, the first article of each month will be a Coming Soon segment where I’ll talk about some of the upcoming comics being released this month that I’m excited about and even some comics related news. Last month I talked a bit about Comicsgate, which was not exactly one of the most fun topics in the world. This week, I’ll be leaving behind that sort of news in favor of talking about two comics that I’ve been looking forward to for months: Shuri #1 and Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #1! This week will be a bit Marvel heavy but in the future, I’ll also be looking at comics coming out from some of the independent, non-superhero publishers as well. So without further ado, on to the new releases!
Shuri #1 – October 17th
As someone who fell in love with Shuri while watching the Black Panther movie, I’ve been looking forward to this story ever since they first announced earlier this year. While others may have seen Shuri in previous Black Panther comics, my first introduction to the character was the portrayal by Letitia Wright. The sassy, smart and extremely capable younger sister of T’Challa was so delightful that she was hands down my favorite character in the movie. And I know I wasn’t alone in that. Thankfully, Marvel decided to capitalize on it by giving Shuri her own story. In Shuri #1, T’Challa has become lost in space and it’s up to Shuri to try to lead Wakanda in his absence. Unsurprisingly, Shuri struggles with this sudden need to leave her beloved lab and gadgets behind and will have to try to make the right choices both for herself and for Wakanda.
Shuri looks to be a very interesting take on the character and I’m particularly excited to see it being written by a celebrated science fiction author, Nnedi Okorafor. Nnedi is probably best known for her series Binti in which a young woman from an Afrofuturist society is awarded a scholarship to a prestigious university and has to balance both her home culture and the opportunities now being presented to her to fit in with the larger galactic civilization. If anyone is the right pick for Shuri, it’s Nnedi Okorafor. Writers who shift from more traditional print media to graphic novels don’t always adapt to it well so I’m both curious and excited to see how Okorafor pulls it off. She’s joined by Leonardo Romero and Jordie Bellaire for art, with Sam Spratt’s absolutely stunning covers. Even if I was patient enough to wait for the trade paperback (which I’m obviously not), there’s no way I could turn down a chance to have that art for myself. If you’re intrigued by the Shuri you saw in the Black Panther movie, make sure you check out Shuri #1 when it hits stores on October 17th!
Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #1 – October 24th
While I’ll admit that I wasn’t a hardcore Marvel fan until they started coming out with the movies, I’ve largely grown up with Spider-Man because he was always one of my brother’s favorites. And he’s easy to like, with all the snarky comments and fallible teenaged boy problems. The trouble for me with Spider-Man is that I’ve never completely kept up with his stories because there’s always so much to catch up on. So I end up catching bits here and there. And the one that’s always fascinated me is Spider-Gwen. I love the idea that Gwen Stacey has become a hero in her own right and in Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #1, she joins the other Spider-Men being banded together in the new event, Spider-Geddon. It involves the multiverse and more than I can really get into at the moment but that covers the gist of it.
I’ve been curious about Spider-Gwen since first hearing about her from friends who read the comics that introduced her as an alternate version of Spider-Man from a different universe. But it wasn’t until Seanan McGuire was tapped to write the Ghost Spider series that I really got interested. McGuire is another celebrated speculative fiction (a term which will encompass both her fantasy and science fiction stories) author who is now making the transition to the comic medium. McGuire is an extremely talented world builder and her work has tended towards darker speculative fiction so I’m immensely curious to see what she does with Gwen Stacey. Like with Okorafor, it will also be interesting to see how she handles the transition in medium. For the art, McGuire will be joined by Rosi Kampe and the cover art will be done by Bengal. A very solid team! If you’re as curious as I am about the new adventures of Gwen Stacey, make sure you pick up Spider-Gween: Ghost Spider #1 when it’s released in stores on October 24th!
That’s it for my most intriguing upcoming titles for this month! Are there any I missed and need to know about? Let me know in the comments!
– Cait