New Comics Reviews 2/5/25: Batman, Bronze Faces, Frankenstein & Power Man!
New Comics Reviews for Wednesday 2/5!
Hello! Here are our new comics reviews for the week of 2/5/25, featuring Batman, Bronze Faces, Frankenstein: New World & Power Man: Timeless! Be sure to check out Episode #768 if you want to hear our full discussion!
Joe’s Reviews:
Cover by Jorge Jimenez
Batman #157
DC Comics
Written by Chip Zdarsky
Art by Jorge Jimenez and Tony Daniel
Colors by Tomeu Morey
Letters by Clayton Cowles
40 pages for $4.99
Solicit: With the Court of Owls’ plan revealed and the city in chaos, Batman must find the strength to fight a war on multiple fronts and save Gotham from disaster. The fates of Jim Gordon, the Riddler, and all of Gotham rest in the hands of the Dark Knight in a climactic issue so big it takes two superstar artists to bring it to life!
Review: Chip and his artists go out with a bang, with the return of a classic villain that’s a favorite around these parts. There are lots of moving parts in the story and Chip brings most of them to a satisfying conclusion. The art by Jimenez and Daniel is incredible and the two come together seamlessly. This feels like a turning point for the character, as Batman decides to be a better kind of man and hero, but will any of it stick? Zdarsky’s run has been pretty hit and miss for me, but the hits have been big ones, and I’ve absolutely loved this final arc.
Rating: BUY IT
Cover by Shof
Bronze Faces #1
BOOM! Studios
Written by Shobo and Shof (Coker)
Art by Alexandre Tefenkgi
Colors by Lee Loughridge
Letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
32 pages for $4.99
Solicit: Soho, London. Childhood friends Timi, Sango, and Gbonka reunite on the eve of the British Museum’s historic purchase of the works of Timi’s father, the seminal Nigerian artist Adewale Balogun. Timi has been invited as a “guest of honor,” but what the Museum is heralding as a triumphant acquisition, the trio see as nothing short of brazen cultural theft. Emboldened by a night of drinking and shared outrage, they concoct a bold scheme… to steal back the artwork themselves! But when they come into possession of a document called “the Register,” outlining dozens of colonial-era stolen artifacts, their sights turn even higher to the Benin Bronzes – the British Museum’s cache of nearly 1,500 works of art stolen from the Kingdom of Benin. Celebrated authors Shobo & Shof Coker (New Masters) draw from their Nigerian heritage for the heist of a lifetime, joined by acclaimed artist Alexandre Tefenkgi (Once Upon a Time at the End of the World, The Good Asian). Prepare for a story that’s at once an exhilarating adventure and simultaneously a breathtaking descent into mythology, history, and the horrors of colonialism, perfect for celebrating the start Black History Month.
Review: I love a heist story and the bronze mask imagery really caught my eye and drew me to this one. I had a tough time parsing certain details at first, but once I got it all straight in my mind I was really drawn into the story. This is a challenging, but rewarding read that doesn’t talk down to its audience, so you’d better keep up. The art is beautiful. Tefenkgi reminds me so much of Guy Davis, but much less slimy and grotesque. Hassan crushes it again on the lettering. I see something new from him with every new project. The issue ends with the revelation of the Register, promising bigger and more daring heists to come. Bonze Faces #1 was the best comic I read this week!
Rating: BUY IT
Matt’s Reviews:
Cover by Peter Bergting
Frankenstein: New World – The Sea of Forever #1
Dark Horse Comics
Written by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, and Tom Sniegoski
Art by Peter Bergting
Colors by Michelle Madson
Letters by Clem Robins
40 pages for $3.99
Solicit: Frankenstein and the young Lilja navigate the world above ground to follow Lilja’s vision, but an ancient and familiar evil follows them wherever they go. Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski, and Peter Bergting return to the New World that Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. gave their lives to save.
Review: Mignola’s Frankenstein has to be one of the bravest spinoffs of a beloved series. In this case, Frank is wandering the same Earth the BPRD and Hellboy used to protect from monsters but now the world is completely alien, packed with mysterious creatures and some familiar things that go bump in the night. Peter Bergting’s designs on the bizarre creatures in this book are wonderful and right out of the Mignola school of monster design. This world is much brighter than the BPRD’s Earth but Madson knows when to bring the heavy black’s to Bergting’s art when it needs to get creepy. This Frankenstein book is wild Sci-Fi fantasy set thousands of years in the Mignola-verse future and unlike anything else you’d expect from this creative team.
Rating: BUY IT
Cover by Andrei Bressan
Power Man: Timeless #1
Marvel Comics
Written by Jackson Lanzig and Colin Kelly
Art by Bernard Chang
Colors by Marcelo Maiolo
Letters by VC’s Travis Lanham
32 pages for $4.99
Solicit: He is unstoppable. Indestructible. Incorruptible. Immortal. And utterly alone. He is POWER MAN. Ripped from the breakout story in TIMELESS, the god-slaying, Gamma-powered, Iron-Fisted, Sentry from the future Luke Cage arrives in the modern Marvel Universe, only to discover a foe, and a mystery, that will challenge even his incredible abilities! From TIMELESS scribes Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing and artist Bernard Chang, POWER MAN is a guided tour of the solar system that only Marvel Comics could provide!
Review: Stories of overpowered characters crackling with energy encountering even more powerful villains (also crackling with power) can quickly become uninteresting. The good news is that Lanzig and Kelly never take their foot off the gas and even hit the readers with some violent surprises amazingly illustrated by Chang. I recommend checking out last year’s Iron Fist 50th anniversary issue and Timeslide #1 or you could be a little lost. This isn’t required reading and the comic is exploding with macho, mega-powered insanity with an art team that understands the assignment so there is still plenty to love. I’ll even forgive them for the sideways pages but how are you going to do that digitally, Marvel?
Rating: BUY IT
NEED MORE THN?
Join us for the THN Gang Hang on Saturdays at 11:00AM Central. Check out our Discord for details. Head over to the THN Facebook Fan Page and check out our YouTube channel for extra content you can’t find in the show!
WANT TO BE A PART OF THE SHOW?
If you’re looking for a new read from the Comic Pushers, have a Hot Take or Ask a Nerd question, or just want to share your thoughts, send us an MP3 and we might use it for a segment!
KEEP THE SHOW ALIVE!
If you like what you heard, please consider donating! THN is a listener-supported podcast that we aim to keep ad-free; without your support, we don’t have a show. You can become a Patron where you’ll hear all kinds of Patreon-exclusive content, or just make a one-time donation via Paypal because you’re a comic nerd of the highest quality!
Excelsior!
