1: Superman Red & Blue 2025 Special - DC

            Superman: Red & Blue was a six issue 2021 anthology series in which different creators gave their takes on different aspects of Superman as a character. If this sounds like your kind of thing, then you’re in luck because there’s also more than a few volumes of Batman: Black & White, the same concept, but with the Caped Crusader instead of the Man of Steel. The 2025 Special has stories written by Paul Dini, Michael Walsh, Dan Abnett and Rainbow Rowell. 

            Like most comic fans, I’m a huge fan of Batman: The Animated Series, so I was most excited for the Paul Dini story going into this issue but I found myself pleasantly surprised by Michael Walsh’s contribution. The common thread between most of the stories in this anthology seem to be about family in different aspects.

 

When it comes to anthologies I almost always warn that they can be a mixed bag as far as quality and enjoyment go, but I found Superman Red & Blue 2025 Special to be consistent to an impressive degree.

 

2: Universal Monsters: Dracula Black & White Special - Image

            Another week, another James Tynion IV Universal Monsters book. I don’t want to be too predictable but it’s a fifth week and my options are limited. While this is technically just a reprint of the 2023 Universal Monsters: Dracula, it’s worth picking up regardless of whether you’ve read it before or not.

 

            Rather than just a standard reprint though, Martin Simmonds art is in black and white rather than the original full color. For some artists this could be considered a downgrade or a lateral move but his art looks gorgeous in black and white here. It adds to some of the atmosphere of the story and is tonally fitting for a Universal Monsters comic adaptation. The issue is double sized, so if you missed out on buying the original series, this is a more cost effective way to get the story than the hardcover edition and the second and final issue comes out next month so you won’t have to wait too long either.

 

            I promise that I’ll do my best not to be so predictable but if you haven’t read this yet, do yourself a favor and pick it up in this format or the hardcover, for me, it’s the best of the Image Universal Monster books so far.

 

3: Frankenstein Alive, Alive: The Complete Collection - IDW

            This is the follow up to Wrightson and Niles adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. If you haven’t read it, you should stop everything you’re doing right now and go find a copy of it. All four issues of Frankenstein Alive, Alive are collected here, along with some preliminary sketch art in the back.

 

             Bernie Wrightson is one of the first artists whose style I could recognize and drew me in as a kid reading Swamp Thing and as much as I love his work with Len Wein, I don’t think that anyone would push back when I say that Frankenstein is his true magnum opus. Part of that comes from the fact that it was a passion project that he didn’t get paid to do but rather worked on in between paying projects when he could afford it. Although Wrightson passed away before he could finish his work in Frankenstein Alive, Alive, Kelley Jones does some of his best work filling in and using Wrightson’s layouts and preliminary sketches in order to see it to its end.

 

I feel very similarly about Frankenstein Alive, Alive and Frankenstein as I do Watchmen and the 2019 HBO Watchmen show in that neither demanded a sequel, but both are about as good as sequels to their respective masterpieces can be.