’90s Punk Culture Meets Haunted House Sentai Fiction in Image’s Home Sick Pilots #1

In the summer of 1994, a haunted house walks across California. Inside is Ami, lead singer of a high school punk band who’s been missing for weeks. How did she get there, and what do these ghosts want? Expect three-chord songs and big bloody action that’s Power Rangers meets The Shining. It’s Home Sick Pilots…

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S.W.O.R.D. Returns to Orbit, a Haunted House Walks and More Staff Picks for 12/9

Each week, Xavier Files staff offer their recommendations for what to read. New DC comics come out Tuesdays, everything else Wednesdays. Forrest’s Pick S.W.O.R.D. #1: Mutants! In! Spaaaaaaaaace! Krakoa gets its own Space Force in once and future SWORD Director Abigail Brand, frequent space-dwelling mutant leader Magneto, former Acolytes Fabian Cortez and Frenzy, current Galadorian…

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The Adventures of the Young, Hot Ex-Presidents Continue in ‘Commanders in Crisis’ #2

The Crisis Command, last survivors of the multiverse, are faced with an impossible task: avenging the death…of an idea! DOA is empathy itself, and while empathy withers and dies across the world, Originator uses her abilities to bring the John Doe back for 24 hours to reveal the name of his killer. It’s Image’s “Commanders…

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Why, Will: How Did Donny Do It? ‘Crossover’ and the Magic of Fair Use

Beyond this point lie spoilers for “Crossover” #1. Ye be warned… The Splash “Crossover,” the meta comic-book-about-comic-books from the mind of writer Donny Cates and artist Geoff Shaw, has a heap of stuff to talk about — the merits of which have already been ably discussed by Big Boss Zack and Dan “the Man” McMahon….

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Swords Keep a-Stabbin’, New Donny Cates and More Staff Picks for Nov. 4

Each week, Xavier Files staff offer their recommendations for what to read. New DC comics come out Tuesdays, everything else Wednesdays. Chris’ Pick X-Men #14: Presumably we get more Apocalypse: Mutantdom’s first Wife Guy in this “X of Swords” tie-in by writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Mahmud Asrar. ($3.99) Previously, in “X-Men” … Zack’s Pick…

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Review: ‘Blue in Green’ Embodies the Spirit of the Jazz It Portrays

Jazz, good jazz, is a conversation in a language you don’t quite read. A collaboration between a motley band of discrete artists, pushing and pulling each other into new and unforeseen directions. Tight, syncopated beats laid under velvety woodwinds, while twinkling piano keys dance up and down the staff, sliding between thunderous rapture from the…

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At Long Last, the Crocodile Monster. ‘X of Swords: Stasis,’ ‘Giga’ and the Rest of Our 10/28 Staff Picks

Each week, Xavier Files staff offer their recommendations for what to read. New DC comics come out Tuesdays, everything else Wednesdays. Chris’ Pick X of Swords: Stasis: First of all, on behalf of XF nation: Fuck a Brett Booth. Now that that’s out of the way, GIVE US THE CROCODILE MONSTER. Jonathan Hickman, Tini Howard,…

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Image’s ‘Commanders in Crisis’ Tells Big Superhero Story Away from Big Two

Commanders in Crisis #1 is the first issue in a new superhero epic from writer Steve Orlando, artist Davide Tinto, colorist Francesca Carotenuto and letterer Fabio Amelia. Told via a dramatic murder mystery, five survivors of doomed multiverses live as heroes in another, and together, they can save this multiverse before it falls, too. The…

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