Another week, another Marvel. This time though, things get Weirdworld.

Another Marvel ALL NEW ALL DIFFERENT  book, another FOC preview. But this time it’s Weirdworld by Mike Del Mundo who has become a stylist and artist to watch. Writer Sam Humphries is no slouch either. Weirdworld is based on a series created by Doug Moench and Mike Ploog, but I guess they didn’t actually have any […]

Marvel has just announced more details on the post-Secret Wars ongoing series for Weirdworld taking place in the All-New, All-Different Universe launching immediately after the publishing event. The series is switching creative teams from writer Jason Aaron to Sam Humphries of Legendary Star-Lord fame — previous Weirdworld artist Mike Del Mundo is returning to the […]

Nick Pitarra helps to kickoff the new comic John Flood this week with another one of his stellar variant covers. His intricate line work channels the work of comics legends Geoff Darrow and Seth Fisher, but at the same time Pitarra brings his own brand of mirth and mayhem to the stage!

Proving that artists should take art contests seriously, Pitarra was famously discovered from his submission to the 2007 Comic Book Idol competition. Apparently, superstar writer/artist Jonathan Hickman was so impressed by Pitarra’s work that he later offered him the job as artist on The Manhattan Projects, which would go on to be a multi-Eisner nominated fan favorite hit!

The Manhattan Projects, a satirical, mind-bending re-imagining of what happened after Albert Einstein and his team built the Atom Bomb, is still going strong today. The series just kicked off Volume 2 and Nick Pitarra’s work continues to get better and better. He’s also become one of the top cover illustrators for a slew of special variant covers for a wide range of titles including Red Skull, Weirdworld, And Then Emily Was Gone, Transformers vs. G.I. Joe, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

You can get the latest Nick Pitarra news & art on his twitter page here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

Writer:

Jason Aaron

Artist:

Mike Del Mundo

Colors:

Mike Del Mundo

Marco D’Alfonso

Letters:

VC’s Cory Petit

Welcome to the wildest, most dangerous new corner of the Marvel Universe. Welcome to Weirdworld. A world of swords and sorcery and strange, perverted science. A world where one barbarian walks alone, on a dark and savage quest though all things weird and fantastic from throughout Marvel history. His name is Arkon. A lost man in a lost world. Follow him if you dare.

“Each region is a domain unto itself!“

So says the keepers of Marvel Comics that write the credits page of each title crossing into Secret Wars. When encountering these so called ‘domains,’ the unexpected may happen. Old Marvel events and concepts are resurrected in new formats and concepts that allow for dragons, monkeys, and lava monsters to exist within the span of just one mere installment. When we first heard about Marvel’s plan to return to Weirdworld, we jumped for joy! Aaron and artist Mike Del Mundo have a lot to live up to — even in seeking the original tone of the source material.

This comic doesn’t open with Arkon, the Conan the Barbarian analogue, and King of Polemachus accidentally falling into Weirdworld, instead Arkon has already been living within the dangerous domain, attempting to piece together what or who is behind the danger. What is known about Weirdworld is sparse, yet a sprawling map hand drawn by Arkon himself starts to paint in the connections to the Marvel Universe weaved in the story. While this region is in fact a domain unto itself, it is also home to more than one familiar character from the Marvel Comics stable of heroes and villains.

Aaron has shown a certain mastery of language from his various Marvel projects, and with speech patterns and dialogue broken up into Arkon’s scatterbrained internal narration, most writers would pen something akin to a modern day cliche. Thankfully, Aaron isn’t most writers and instead takes the time to flesh out the mind and thought pattern of Arkon in a way that loops readers deeper into the narrative itself — as we enter this location through his mind.

The visuals of Mike Del Mundo are a great showcase for what the veteran Marvel artist can do. Given the free reign to dive into an abstract Marvel concept such as this really allows the artist to dig deep into his own visual language and develop a brand new way for readers to interpret the different pieces of scenery lying within. Mundo’s penchant for the weird is really allowed to flourish under these circumstances. The artist delivers beautiful painted splash pages while showing off several incredibly complex character designs. The dazzling reds, greens, and yellows depicted by Mundo and Marco D’Alfonso will burn bright in the imaginations of readers long after they close the last cover of the issue. VC’s Cory Petit delivers interesting lettering techniques that make action sequences seem even more hectic than they would have been just depicted in the stories themselves.

As for the larger aspects of Secret Wars, the narrative doesn’t intrude on anything already established in other titles. Characters used here are not present in other series, and the Weirldworld domain was always set to be a part of Battleworld long before the event began. This basically gives the creative team the license to utilize those Moench concepts to their fullest within the narrative. The few principles concepts of the Domain including things like Barons add to some of the intrigue of the issue.

This debut issue from the red hot creative team perfectly encapsulates an odd 70’s landscape reinterpreted for the modern day through Secret Wars. More importantly, if this brand new event allows Marvel old-fashioned weirdness, I say bring on the Marvel events. If it weren’t for the impeccably delightful oddities of Mundo’s art this comic would have been mere fun, but stacked next to the devilish delight of Aaron’s prose, Weirdworld #1 is a domain worth venturing into.

All week long The Beat has been covering all facets of the comic book industry and attempting to secure our own doors away from the various comics characters who attempt to breach the domain in which we all live under one roof: The Stately Beat Manor. Together, members of the Manor bolted down each window, locked every door, and secured ourselves from being distracted by members of the Circus of Crime — who had been causing damage across the City — or so we heard from our own outside sources. Due to characters from the Marvel Universe continually breaching the manor, we took all necessary precautions. Unfortunately, we locked ourselves in with the Circus, whose individual members took our Beat contributors one-by-one. Their various tricks distracted us long enough from to steal our entire supply of gold. The Gold-less contributors of the Beat Manor continued to deliver carefully curated staff picks of the best comics of the week. The following is a public service announcement to comics lovers around the world wondering what books to purchase this very week!

Alex’s Picks:

Weirdworld #1

Writer: Jason Aaron Artist: Mike Del Mundo

Welcome to the wildest, most dangerous new corner of the Marvel Universe. Welcome to Weirdworld.

• A world of swords and sorcery and strange, perverted science. A world where one barbarian walks alone, on a dark and savage quest though all things weird and fantastic from throughout Marvel history.

• His name is Arkon. A lost man in a lost world. Follow him if you dare.

We’ve been waiting to dive into the fabulous land of Weirdworld #1 for quite sometime here at The Beat. the story hailing from Marvel written by Jason Aaron with art from Mike Del Mundo has been one of our most anticipated tie-ins from the entire Secret Wars event. With Secret Wars providing an excuse from Marvel creators to take chances that are event more off the wall than usual comes the titular story, centered around a Conan analogue known as Arkon, a lost man in a lost world. Join the saga of Arkon as we continue to explore parts of the Marvel Universe that remained hidden until the 70’s!

Starfire #1

Writer: Amanda Conner Artist: Emanuela Lupacchino

From the writers of the outrageous smash hit HARLEY QUINN comes former Outlaw Starfire in her all-new ongoing series! She’s an alien warrior princess trying to find peace on Earth, and she’ll fight anyone and anything to get it!

The debut of the New 52 saw a lot of controversy from the character of Starfire, as the female hero initially solicited sexual acts from the male heroes in Red Hood and the Outlaws #1. Thankfully, Amanda Conner seems to have something different to say about the heroine in the upcoming Starfire solo title with pencils by Emanuela Lupacchino. While it is too soon to discover if Conner can do justice to the good will behind her name and the character, it seems that the lead is simply trying to find peace on Earth even with her more violent tendencies entrenched within the alien.

Dave’s Pick:

Savage Dragon #204

Story/Art: Erik Larsen

Malcolm Dragon vs. Angel Dragon? It comes to this-as Malcolm and Angel have it out in what may be our strangest issue yet.

On top of all that, it’s got a Captain Ultimate back up strip. If you aren’t reading the book published by Monkeybrain Comics, it’s one of the best all ages comics on the digital market.

Kyle’s Picks:

Gotham Academy #7

Writers: Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher  Art: Karl Kerschl

Special guest student Damian Wayne drops by the academy – and he is not pleased to meet his new classmates!

Of all of DC’s “new look” titles that came about towards the end of the New 52 era, Gotham Academy was definitely the most stylized. With gorgeous art from Karl Kerschl, and scripting from Brendan Fletcher and Becky Cloonan that evokes a nearly Miyazaki like tone, it’s the title that sets itself apart from the rest of the pack with charm and storybook style grace. Issue 7 sees Damian Wayne join the pack of students at this Bruce Wayne funded school, and given that he might be DC’s best new character of the past ten years, that makes Gotham Academy all the more of a must read. Jump on-board now!

Nameless #4

Writer: Grant Morrison  Artist: Chris Burnham

The world descends into chaos and the astronauts stranded in the Tunnels of Xibalba must endure unspeakable tortures when their captors finally reveal themselves.

As all human hopes, fears, doubts, and dreams are subjected to the cruel and merciless scrutiny of an inhuman, sadistic intelligence, is reality collapsing? Or sanity?

With The Multiversity, Annihilator, and Nameless; Grant Morrison has entered into a new career high-point in terms of output. Nameless can be as difficult to parse as his writing ever is, but it’s Morrison writing cosmic horror utilizing the philosophical underpinnings of Thomas Ligotti. If you can’t be convinced based on that alone, than perhaps the stunning work of Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn will pull you in instead? Given that Burnham has probably been Morrison’s best collaborator in recent years not named Frank Quitely, and Morrison is a writer who I think often thrives best under particular artists’ representation of his work, Nameless should be at the top of your radar.

Matt’s Pick:

Weirdworld #1 (AGAIN!)

Writer: Jason Aaron Artist: Mike Del Mundo

Welcome to the wildest, most dangerous new corner of the Marvel Universe. Welcome to Weirdworld.

• A world of swords and sorcery and strange, perverted science. A world where one barbarian walks alone, on a dark and savage quest though all things weird and fantastic from throughout Marvel history.

• His name is Arkon. A lost man in a lost world. Follow him if you dare.

Weirdworld: It’s the comic so awesome we picked it twice!

( I sweat Marvel isn’t paying us to endorse this comic!)

I know almost nothing about Weirdworld, but a comic penned by Jason Aaron is a pretty safe bet. Jonathan Hickman called him the most consistently good comic book writer of the past few years on an episode of Word Balloon, and I find it hard to disagree. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Mike Del Mundo art on anything but covers, but the interior pages on his portfolio are top-notch. Looking forward to this.

Zach’s Pick:

Ghost Racers #1

Writer: Felipe Smith Artist: Juan Gedeon

Robbie Reyes, Johnny Blaze, Danny Ketch, Alejandra Blaze and many, many more step into the arena for all-out, high-speed warfare. The stakes have never been higher as the most vicious Spirits of Vengeance ever do battle for they’re very souls! Buckle up for a wild ride this June for GHOST RACERS #1!

Even after Tradd Moore left Ghost Rider, I’ve loved what Smith has been able to do with the series…but this. THIS is what Ghost Rider can be about and his zaniest. The 5 flaming riders across history meeting in the “Killiseum” (can’t make this up) for a glorious death race. May they ride eternal, shiny and chrome.