After a whole bunch of doozies, this week’s release slate finds my buys, recommendations, and curiosities to be pretty slim overall. That’s not to say there aren’t some gems to pick from. It’s just not a massive week, at least for yours truly.

Comic of the Week: Doom #1

I wrote about this release extensively in the previous edition of Comics Disassembled, so instead of trying to find a new way to say the same thing, how about we just run back what I said there, albeit in an abbreviated way? That sounds good to me.

“I was a big fan of this comic. More specifically, I’m a big fan of the very idea of it, in that it’s the type of story that just doesn’t typically happen at Marvel. It’s a one and done release that exists outside of time, a story that was told simply as a study of the characters within its pages and the headliner in its title, and one that doesn’t ‘matter’ or ‘fit within continuity’ or anything that Marvel fans are often looking for.

And it is so much better than it could have been for those reasons.

Doom is sort of like Marvel’s The End comics from the early 2000s, stories that tell the final tale for varying characters from that larger universe, and like the best of those — namely Peter David and Dale Keown’s Hulk: The End — it’s a big idea that is actually a character study in disguise. It’s as much an exploration of Doom as an individual and his relationship with Valeria Richards as it is about massive fights against an unstoppable force in Galactus (although it’s that too, and boy does Greene go off on those pages). It’s also quite the collaboration between two South Carolina guys in Greene and Hickman, with the former telling me in next week’s episode that the latter really did everything he could to make this a highlight reel for Greene as both an artist and a first-time writer. That’s great. Plus, who isn’t down with more Doom and Valeria from Hickman? I know I’m a sucker for it.

Consider this my recommendation: This is a very good comic, and one that — as much as I disagreed with it at the time of its announcement — really fits as a one-shot. I just wish it was being released as a one-shot graphic novella with higher production value rather than a typical single issue. This is an unusual release for Marvel and it should be highlighted as such, in my opinion!”

Trade/Graphic Novel of the Week: Hexagon Bridge TP

This will come as no surprise to those who read The SKTCHD AWRDS for my Comics of 2023, as Richard Blake’s excellently, thoughtful, and unique sci-fi series at Image – Hexagon Bridge – won an award. Deservedly so. I can assure you that you won’t read many comics like this in single issue format, as its pacing and approach gave it a feel unlike pretty much anything else out there on the stands. This is a great comic, and one that may not conclude in a way some might be satisfied by, but it’s about the journey as much as the destination in this story. It’s very accomplished comic making by Blake, who, remarkably, was working on his first project when he crafted this series.