Graphic Novel Roundup: Evil Wytches, Giant Fishes, and a Fantastic Ending

Wytches, Volume 1, by Jock and Scott Snyder
From Bat-guy Scott Snyder, Wytches is smart about horror in an unusual way: it’s not just that there’s scary stuff in the woods, it’s the ways in which the scary stuff affects relatable characters. It’s about the choices we make when faced with the horrific. In Snyder’s vision (with creepy, indispensable art from Jock), witches are an inhuman, covetous power that will grant you a reprieve, and possibly even your fondest desire, with the promise that you will pledge them the life of another living soul. Escaping a trauma, the members of the Rooks family move to insular Litchfield, New Hampshire to find that the past is never far behind. The past, and the hungry witch-things that live in the woods. Well worth checking out, especially for horror fans.

Aquaman Vol. 5: Sea of Storms (The New 52), by Jeff Parker, Paul Pelletier, and Sean Parsons
Since the dawn of D.C.’s New 52, there’s been a push  to plant Aquaman solidly among the A-list, an effort that’s only going to intensify during the run-up to the character’s appearance in the forthcoming Batman vs. Superman movie. A big (and smart) part of the comics’ plan has been to put big-name creators on the book, first Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis, and now veterans Parker and Pelletier. This is the fifth volume in Aqua-guy’s ongoing series, but the refreshed creative team means that it’s not a bad jumping-on point for new readers. Sea of Storms (out this week in paperback) has lots of stuff about Atlantean politics, and plants seeds for a future conflict with the surface world, but there are also (especially) big fights with giant sea monsters and ancient evils from the depths. The sixth volume, Maelstrom, is out in hardcover this week too.

Star Trek: New Visions, Volume 2, by John Byrne
The legendary John Byrne has been devoting much of his time to Trek over the last few years, and he’s done some really cool, unique work. In the New Visions series, he’s put a modern spin on an old-timey idea: back in the day,  publishers would sometimes adapt movies or shows for print by taking stills and adding captions. Byrne’s taken the notion a step further by digitally manipulating and animating images from the original Star Trek series to create original adventures for Kirk and crew with new text and dialogue. It’s fun as a novelty, but the stories are actually pretty good too, with a real lost-episode feel. Highlights include an origin story for the legendary “Doomsday Machine,” a visit from the Enterprise’s original first officer, and a poignant visit to Vulcan by a movie-era Spock that carries a bit of extra weight given Leonard Nimoy’s recent passing.

Fantastic Four Volume 4: The End is Fourever, by James Robinson, Leonard Kirk
The end is, probably, not actually fo(u)rever, but this is the wrap-up of the current iteration of the team, with nothing on-deck in the “All-New, All-Different” Marvel reboot. The kids of the Future Foundation have gone missing, and long-simmering powers kick off a catastrophe as twisted versions of the heroes escape from the Franklinverse, an alternate reality created out of Franklin Richards’ imagination. Several high-profile guest heroes show up to help repel the invasion and conclude, for now, the adventures of the world’s greatest team.

Junior Braves of the Apocalypse, Volume 1: A Brave is Brave, by Zach Lerner, Greg Smith, Michael Tanner
What if you came back from a camping trip to find that your town had been overrun by zombies? That’s the premise of this new young adult-friendly graphic novel, which sees the Junior Braves of Tribe 65 trying to survive the end of the world while searching for their missing families. The tone is lighter than the subject matter suggests, as the resourceful teens at the heart of this particular apocalypse band together to survive using all their wits. Turns out, all that stuff that you should’ve been paying attention to as a scout comes in super handy against ravenous hordes of undead.
What’s on your pull list?