Comic List Highlights (1/11/2012)

Planning a trip to New York?

Before you book tickets on a plane or bus, maybe you should consider another method on how to get there. Web line.

Or at least that’d work if you lived in the world of Spider-Island. Of course then you’d also have to contend with giant spider people who want to gnaw your soft bits. However, you don’t have to content with that kind of terror to pick up a copy of the new Spider-Island HC. The big Spider-Man event of the year, Spider-Island follows the webslinger and New York’s other resident superheroes as they battle off a spider plague infecting the city which is slowly giving the city’s residents spider powers. Then they start growing extra legs and pincers. Yeah, not good. With hyper expressive artwork from industry legend Humberto Ramos and brilliant story construction from Spidey veteran, Dan Slott, this is a must read for Marvel fans.

Considering it spins (Ha, spins! Get it? Web? Spins?) out of Spider-Island, now might be a good time to mention the new Scarlet Spider seris starting up this week. I won’t explain exactly how the Scarlet Spider crawls out of Spider-Island, but it’s certainly interesting. Where this new series begins, though, is with Kaine (one of the numerous Peter Parker clones) having left New York to atone for his countless wrong doings, he’s now wandering across the country solving crimes where they arise. And not in the gentle handed way the original Peter Parker would.

Speaking of characters who are coming to terms with their misdeeds, this next indie series from one of the popular Luna brothers has that kind of conflict in spades. Whispers is the first solo series from Joshua Luna, who is part of the creative team behind cult favorites such as Girls and Sword. In it, he ventures into the suspense and horror genres by weaving a tale of terror and romance focusing on a young man, afflicted with OCD, who discovers an ability to turn himself into a ghost. As he’s recently been broken up with by his girlfriend he attempts to use this power to gain her back. Or will he decided, simply, to get even?

Finally, a personal plea from your author.

Pick up the trade paperback for Mystic.

This series, one of the titles from Marvel‘s Cross Gen imprint, is a joyful read, full of vibrant artwork depicting a vivid alternate reality adventure that feels like a Disney feature release more than a traditional comic offering. Beginning with two orphaned girls (where so many Disney features start) the story follows them as they break free of the prison-like orphanage they reside in only to end up wandering two divergent paths: an Aether Magician (this worlds energy resource) and a revolutionary. Each girl must come to terms with the two vastly separate social classes dividing the city and eventually come face-to-face with each other after having be altered irrevocibly. Written by one of the few female creators in the industry, G. Willow Wilson (Air), Mystic delivers a light, bouncy narrative that most superhero books can’t match. So, please, give it a try.