Pull:

Mara #3: We knew this was coming, but still…yeek! I get the feeling things are going to get quite nasty come next issue. Another strong installment.

Age of Apocalypse #13: Picked this up solely for the X-Terminaton lead-in. That was a poor decision. There are some stories where I just can’t get past the premise, and AOA’s “Let’s travel to a dimension where the bigots were right!” is one of ‘em. Four pages of fake Nightcrawler won’t change that.

Impulse:

Lost Vegas #1 - My brain is humming and my eyes are salivating. This one’s going on the pull. If you like a side of sci-fi caper/heist with your visual feasts, this is a book well worth checking out.

Fairy Quest: Outlaws #2 - I got the first issue free, so I figured I might as well see where the second one was going. Meh. Given that the premise is that Fairy Tale characters are rebelling against their set-in-stone roles, I was hoping that there would be some more self-awareness regarding how far these saccharine-sanitized depictions of the characters deviate from some of their oft-gruesome cautionary roots. But it looks like they’re playing it straight, so no thanks. This is some of Ramos’ strongest art in a long time, though, IMO.

Helheim #1 - …well, that’s a novel way to treat your male lead. I’ll try not to get attached to anyone. Looks like we may be staring down the barrel of a witch vs viking vs witch vs zombie throw-down. I think that’s worth showing up for next month, yes.

So I picked up the first two issues of Mara by Brian Wood and Ming Doyle.

It’s a story about a queer, internationally famous athlete whose career is likely to be destroyed when the public learns that she has super-powers.

Gosh, you think I might be predisposed toward liking this series?

But seriously, even without the Beaubier-goggles on, this is a good book. It’s a surprisingly tense story considering that the main character is a universally adored volleyball player, there’s a very nice flow of art and some powerful single panels by Doyle, and Wood paces the parceling out of the world-building very well…just enough strange to unsettle, not enough to leave the readers behind.

Definitely worth a look if you’re in the market for a new read.