sci-fi week

Sci-Fi Week is ending on ComicsAlliance, but I couldn't resist doing one more special Cast Party. This time I'm focusing on one of DC's all-time greatest sci-fi comics, Jack Kirby's OMAC.

Q: Remember Hex, where Jonah Hex was DC's Mad Max, and where Batman lives in the Statue of Liberty? What are your thoughts on that? -- @jomomma75 A: Hex is legitimately one of the most interesting comics of all time, largely because it's one of the greatest examples of how weird comics can get when they're built on the laws of the superhero genre. It's also not very good.

Imagine waking up in a body that is your body, but isn't, 16 years after your death. The world has changed, partly through your own inventions. Another version of you exists, but she's not really you. Your old lover is still around, but maybe he doesn't need you anymore. Maybe this new world doesn't have a place for you at all. This is O Human Star.

Superhero comic books and shared universes are full of fantastical technology that enable people to fly in suits of armor or even walk down the street on hydraulic stilts. However, the superhero universes still struggle to reconcile the advanced technology of their worlds with the day to day reality of people living with disabilities.

We may be far removed from the original days of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Darth Vader, but those stories are nonetheless timeless. If anything, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was proof enough that almost four decades later, the world is still ready to have intergalactic larger than life heroes and villains that tell a fantastic story. Perhaps most importantly, the Star Wars universe, both core and expanded, is an incredibly rich tapestry of characters that provide endless opportunity for cosplay. In celebration of the characters we are quite familiar with and those that are a little more obscure, we’ve gathered a grand array of cosplay here in one place.

2015's The Omega Men tells the story of a group of freedom fighters (or terrorists, depending on who you’re talking to) in a section of deep space called the Vega System who have taken White Lantern Kyle Rayner as prisoner. This is all part of their big plan to once and for all tear down the oppressive government that controls their star system. Over the course of 12 issues, the book by writer Tom King, artist Barnaby Bagenda, and colorist Romulo Fajardo Jr, brings hard looks on corruption, how the very things that should be enriching or protecting people can rot from the inside, and the assumption that anyone fighting against an evil is then inherently good themselves. Now out in trade paperback, the collection also happens to be one of the more fascinating sci-fi graphic novels of the 2010s.

Angel Catbird Vol. 1 tackles one of life’s most pressing dilemmas, one we must all grapple with in spirit if not necessarily in flesh: what do you do when an accident turns you into a half-man, half-owl, half-human, and the co-worker you’re sweet on is really into it? The result is a colorful, old-school, pulpy, and none-too-serious comic from writer Margaret Atwood, artist Johnnie Christmas, colorist Tamra Bonvillain, and letterer Nate Piekos, with a lot of jokes and a pleasing number of facts about cats.

It's Sci-Fi Week on ComicsAlliance, and I'm celebrating with more Cast Party than usual, with a science fiction theme. For this one, I'm focusing on Kim & Kim, the Black Mask sci-fi comic written by Magdalene Visaggio, with art by Eva Cabrera and colors by Claudia Aguirre.

Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire’s Injection is a comic that I was incredibly excited for, based on the same creative team's groundbreaking reinvention of Moon Knight at Marvel --- yet I felt underwhelmed after reading the first issue. Injection is now ten issues in, so I recently caught up and discovered that it the series is nothing like I expected it to be from that first impression. It’s a series with bold ideas, stunning art, and a twist that’ll send your head spinning. Most importantly, it’s one of the most exciting and cutting edge science fiction stories on the stands today.

If you’d told me a few years ago that outstanding science fiction could be spun out of a reboot of an old Rob Liefeld comic with that one guy with the swords who grimaces a lot and has padding glued to his face, the first question I’d have to ask is, "Which one guy with the swords was that? There were a couple." The answer would be Prophet, one of the most fruitful experiments to come out of the 2012 retooling of the defunct Extreme Studios line, and one of the most genuinely enthralling sci-fi comics of the past decade.