It was another amazing year for the Sistas in science fiction and super hero attire, The independent publishers were definitely the breakouts, Marvel and DC had bright offerings, now on to the good, the bad and the clueless
Independent Publishers (The Best)
Amarosa, FIGHT LIKE A GIRL
FIGHT LIKE A GIRL # 1(of 4) Writer(s): David Pinckney Artist Name(s): Soo Lee Cover Artist(s): Soo Lee Standing before a jury of nine gods, Amarosa pleads for a chance to risk her life and gain entry to the Wishing Well where she will attempt to fight her way through and survive nine trials to claim her prize: a single wish that will save her terminally-ill brother. Another Action Lab hit in the making!
Tesla Strong TOM STRONG & THE PLANET OF PERIL
TOM STRONG AND THE PLANET OF PERIL by Kevin Hogan and Chris Sprouse At last, it’s the return of Tom Strong—too bad he’s powerless! The lives of his daughter Tesla and her unborn child both hang in the balance, and there’s nothing Tom can do to save them…until he remembers the one thing that just might. To find it, he and Val Var Garm must journey to the far side of the galaxy, and the mysterious world known as…TERRA OBSCURA! A 6 book series
Nola, NOLA
After cheating death, Nola Thomas wakes up alone in a deserted New Orleans hospital. Bruised, broken, and badly burned, she emerges from the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina with one thing on her mind…revenge. “NOLA takes the revenge/crime story to a complex setting, amongst a national disaster, where crime, and poverty reached a fever pitch,” says Managing Editor Matt Gagnon. “Combine one of the most culturally rich environments on the planet with a tragedy of biblical proportions, and a passionate anti-hero with a righteous mission and you get NOLA.”
Gwendolyn & Sophie
SAGA
Gwendolyn
Marko’s former fiancée.Gwendolyn is a civilian whose father is a vice minister,is first introduced in issue 8. She and Marko got engaged when they were in what the Landfallians would call high school, and planned to marry after Marko got back from the war. However, they grew apart, on account of the misgivings that Marko developed after he saw battle, and he realized it would never work between them. Gwendolyn carries a staff with a tassel on its upper half, with which she is skilled in battle
Sophie
is six years old in the first story arc, and has grown considerably by the fourth story arc, Vaughan revealed that Sophie, whose first appearance Staples initially refused to draw, was created to illustrate the horrific effects of war, and as a critique of the sexualized portrayal of Princess Leia as Jabba the Hutt’s slave in the film Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, explaining, “That’s that character at her least sexy. There are slave girls in the world and they don’t look like Princess Leia in a bikini.”
Michone THE WALKING DEAD
Armed with a katana and harboring a mysterious past, Michonne is introduced clothed under a hood pulling the shackles of two reanimated corpses for protection and camouflage, which are soon revealed to once be her boyfriend and his best friend. In both mediums, she has a prominent role in the conflict between Woodbury and the Prison.
Over the course of the series, Michonne grows into a more open, welcoming and compassionate person, while still retaining her ferocity and strength, eventually being valued as a core group member. She is slowly recovering from the losses of her loved ones as well as people she’s grown close to in the apocalypse
Dee, RAT QUEENS
by Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch and Stjepan Šejić Who are the Rat Queens? A pack of booze-guzzling, death-dealing battle maidens-for-hire, and they’re in the business of killing all gods’ creatures for profit. It’s also a darkly comedic fantasy series This modern spin on an old school genre is a violent monster-killing epic that is like Buffy meets Tank Girl in a Lord of the Rings world on crack!
Luca & Lena CONCETE PARK RESPECT
Concrete Park was created by Tony Puryear, Erika Alexander and Robert Alexander. The book is co-written, drawn and colored by Tony Puryear and co-written by Erika Alexander.
When an overcrowded near-future Earth runs out of water and other resources, it transports its underclass youth to a distant desert planet to mine for ice. These young exiles are never going home, and here in the harshest of circumstances, they must make a new world. Will they reproduce the violence and tribalism they left behind, or will they make something beautiful.
Katya Walker THE NAMES
The 8-issue miniseries (described as “The Wolf of Wall Street” meets “Kill Bill”) centers on Katya Walker, a widow who seeks to take on the world of high-end finance run by a cabal of the 1% to discover who killed her husband and why.
“Her search becomes her journey into this secret organization called The Names,” he continued. “The Names is a financial organization that pretty much controls a huge chunk of the financial world.”
Laura THE WICKED + THE DIVINE
Story By: Kieron Gillen Art By: Jamie McKelvie Every ninety years, twelve gods incarnate as humans. They are loved. They are hated. In two years, they are dead. The team behind critically thermonuclear floor-fillers Young Avengers and PHONOGRAM reunite to start a new ongoing superhero fantasy with a beautiful oversized issue. Welcome to THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, where gods are the ultimate pop stars. But remember: just because you’re immortal, doesn’t mean you’re going to live forever.
A. J. Harper 