nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E vol 1: This Is What They Want

Writer: Warren Ellis
Penciller: Stuart Immonen
Colourist: Dave McCaig
Inker: Wade von Grawbadger
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos and Joe Caramagna
Publisher: Marvel 

What's it about?
nextwave is a collection of five superpowered (and odd) people working for H.A.T.E - the Highest Anti Terrorism Effort.  From the blurb:
Monica is gonna microwave your shit!
Tabby is gonna steal your stuff!
Aaron is gonna organise your sock drawer!
Elsa is gonna speak with an accent!
The Captain! His name is the Captain!

Transmetropolitan volume 1: Back on the street

Writer: Warren Ellis
Penciller: Darick Robertson
Inks: Keith Aiken, Jerome K.Moore, Ray Kryssing, Dick Giordano
Colour and separations: Nathan Eyring
Letters: Clem Robins
Publisher: Vertigo

What's it about?
Welcome to the future.  Here we have makers and base blocks to create anything you require, designer drugs that have no adverse side effects, newsfeeds a thousand times more pervasive than twitter, facebook or linkedin, and genome treatments to give you lizard skin or eagle feathers for a month.

This is no utopia of peace, sun and dreams.  There's also machines high on hallucinogens and Ebola cola to rot your face and quench your thirst.  You can measure the wealth of a neighbourhood by the absence of litter - rich folks have makers, poor folks have garbage scavengers, really poor folks have litter.

In short, it's just like today, minus the pretence of respectability and with a lot more tech.

Addition to an earlier review

We have added an extra link into the Questionable Content review.  It takes you through to a post at Deeply Problematic discussing the representation of disability within the webcomic, and is well worth a read.

The next couple of posts are likely to be a Warren Ellis extravaganza, stay tuned!

Laika

Writer and artist: Nick Abadzis
Publisher: First Second
 
What's it about?
This is the story of the Russian fight to win the space race and the little dog they sent into orbit, Laika.  All events are centred around Laika, but it is not told from the perspective of Laika, or Kudryavka as she is named by various carers.  It's part fiction, part fact.

The story is narrated chiefly by three people, Korolev, Chief Designer of the space rockets, Yelena, dog handler for the programme, and fictionalised families that have cared for Kudryavka in her early years.

By using these different viewpoints Abadzis walks us through many aspects of Soviet life and we bear witness to the diffiuclties and contradictions facing everyday people, as well as the joys.  We learn about the cruelty of the ruling party, the ambition of your average Soviet citizen, the transition from Stalin's regime to Khruschev's, and we get an inkling of the effect that life in the gulags had on those poor souls sent there.

The Flash: Terminal Velocity

Writer: Mark Waid
Penciller: Salvadore Larocca, Carlos Pachecos and Oscar Jiminez
Layouts: Carlos Pachecos
Inker: Jose Marzan and Sergio Borgas
Colourer: Gina Going and Tom McCraw
Letterer: gaspar and Kevin Cunningham
Publisher: DC Comics

What's it about?
Wally West (seen previously in Teen Titans: Year One) is a speedster.  Dressed in scarlet and gold he is the second man to take the title of the Flash.  This book opens with his return from a previous adventure where he became stranded in time.  On his way back to the present day he sees a terrible vision of the future and, with the aid of all other speedsters, Wally decides to do all he can to prevent his vision occurring.

Supergirl: Many Happy Returns

Writer: Peter David
Pencils: Ed Benes
Inks: Alex Lei
Colours: Brad Anderson
Letters: Comicraft 
Publisher: DC Comics


What's it about?
In short, two Supergirls collide, potentially causing the end of all existence.
In long, it's a bit more complicated.

We have one Supergirl, Linda Danvers (in the white top).  She is not Kryptonian, or Superman's cousin or anything like that.  She does have invulnerability, super strength, the ability to fly and a form of psychic telekinesis.  Linda is brash, has a dirty mind, is straight talking and cynical.  She got her powers through some sort of miracle and earned the right to wear the Superman colours.

The Complete Peanuts series

Written and drawn by Charles M. Schulz
Publisher: Canongate Books

What’s It About?
Peanuts was a four-panel American newspaper comic strip that ran from 1950 to 2000. It starred a large cast of children as they enjoyed both the innocence and cruelties of childhood. Central to the cast were luckless, wishy-washy Charlie Brown, fussy Lucy, naïve Linus, Beethoven obsessed Schroeder and Charlie Brown’s frankly bizarre dog Snoopy alongside an eclectic supporting cast of other boys and girls. In the world of Peanuts, adults were conspicuous by their absence.

One of the longest running and most widely read “funny strips” in the world, the complete canon is currently being collected in a mammoth twenty-five book hardcover series by Fantagraphics, each volume containing two years worth of the daily strips.