New Comics Reviews 6/18/25: Krypto the Last Dog of Krypton, Emma Frost the White Queen, Copra & Benjamin!
New Comics Reviews for Wednesday 6/18!
Hello! Here are our new comics reviews for the week of 6/18/25, featuring Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton, Emma Frost: The White Queen, Copra & Benjamin!
Be sure to check out the review show if you want to hear our full discussions!
Joe’s Reviews:
Cover by Jae Lee
Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton #1
DC Comics
Written by Ryan North
Art by Mike Norton
Colors by Ian Herring
Letters by Lucas Gattoni
32 pages for $3.99
Solicit: ALL-STAR WRITER RYAN NORTH CRASH-LANDS KRYPTO ON EARTH! There will come a day when Krypto stands beside Superman, helping him fight off monsters, aliens, and supervillains — a day when this dog will save his adoptive world thanks to the incredible powers granted him by Earth’s strange yellow sun. But he’s not there yet. Today, Krypto is a normal puppy on Krypton, spending each happy, snoozy, endless day alongside his family: Jor-El, Lara, and baby Kal-El. But when a rocket test goes wrong, Krypto finds himself lost in space — and soon crash-landing, all alone, on a strange and alien world called Earth.
Review: I’ll tell you one thing for free: this comic is absolutely NOT something you want to read while your own dog is undergoing intensive dental surgery. My dog, Penny Patrick, was under sedation and I had just gotten a call from my vet telling me that the procedure was going to be a lot more intensive than originally planned just before I started reading Krypto #1. Did that color my opinion of the book? MAYBE. Would you have to be a heartless monster if this comic didn’t make you hold onto your pet for dear life and shower them with affection? ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY.
Ryan North has proven once again that he’s one of the absolute best in the business when it comes to writing family dynamics. This first issue takes place in the lead up to Krypto’s unexpected departure for Earth, so we see a lot of the El family – Baby Kal included. North, assisted by Lucas Gattoni’s excellent lettering, employs this device where any dialogue not directed directly at Krypto is less bold and in proper sentence case, while dialogue directed to him or about him is traditionally lettered. It’s a brilliantly subtle way to indicate how much Krypto understands of what he’s hearing. But beyond that, North fills the issue with heartwarming and hilarious moments that will ring true to any pet owner, all while the humans go on about how the planet is about to die.
Mike Norton is no stranger to drawing animals. He’s been producing his long-running comic Battlepug since 2011, with an all-new graphic novel currently in the process of being Kickstarted. His interpretation of Krypto is joyful and silly and loving and loyal. His version of Krypton is very cool as well; certainly very alien, but with plenty of humanity that makes it a relatable place. As a well-established superhero artist, Norton is no slouch at drawing human characters either. He makes Jor-El and Lara into characters worthy of being mourned and missed, instead of just faces on a screen.
North and Norton throw readers a curve ball after Krypto makes it to Earth, and it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. But so far, Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton is an absolute joy to read. Unless you’re a heartless monster.
Rating: BUY IT
Cover by Michel Fiffe
Copra #50
Image Comics
By Michel Fiffe
32 pages for $3.99
Solicit: SERIES FINALE! The DEATH OF COPRA standalone epilogue marks a comic book milestone for the one-man comics juggernaut MICHEL FIFFE. Flipping the revenge genre on its head, COPRA proves its creative dominance once again as it rides off into the sunset for its 50th and landmark final issue.
Review: Copra #50 is the final issue of the series, but it’s not where you’ll find the end of Copra’s story. Instead, it serves as an epilogue to the series’ explosive climax last issue, wrapping up some loose ends in a very satisfying way. The fate of Boomer Harkness, Sonia Stone’s recap of the series to an unlikely audience, and the end of Lloyd and Zoe’s quest to avenge Castillo are all told in Fiffe’s constantly changing, expressionist style.
This issue is actually a little subdued compared to previous ones, serving as a much-needed opportunity for readers to catch their breath and consider the saga they just completed. It’s the perfect coda to the white-knuckle intensity of the Death of Copra arc, and the series as a whole, masterfully illustrated by Fiffe.
What began as a love letter to John Ostrander, Kim Yale, and Luke McDonnell’s Suicide Squad, and grew to include homages of everything from the X-Men’s Reavers to Jack Kirby’s Fourth World (with a healthy dose of Steve Ditko for added flavor), has become the epitome of indie comics and unmatched creative drive. This issue probably isn’t going to make any new Copra fans, but I hope the discourse surrounding it drives curious readers to check out the series from the beginning. I don’t know what Michel has planned next, other than maybe a well-deserved vacation, but you can bet I’ll be there from Page One.
Rating: BUY IT
Matt’s Reviews:
Cover by Christian Ward
Benjamin #1 of 3
Oni Press
Written by Ben H. Winters
Art by Leomacs (Massimiliano Leomacs Leonardo)
Colors by Luca Bertele
Letters by Becca Carey
40 pages for $5.99
Solicit: IN ONE L.A. MOTEL ROOM, A COSMIC QUEST IS ABOUT BEGIN. . . . Edgar Award nominee and Philip K. Dick Award-winner Ben H. Winters (EC’s Cruel Universe, The Last Policeman Trilogy) and rising star Leomacs (EC’s Epitaphs from the Abyss, Refrigerator Full of Heads) unravel a three-part, prestige format series exploring the hallucinatory second life of a brilliant author who imagined our desperate future but never imagined he’d become part of it . . . More than just a writer, more than just a science-fiction icon, Benjamin J. Carp was a cultural revolutionary. Across 44 novels and hundreds of short stories-including the counterculture classic The Man They Couldn’t Erase-Carp pushed the boundaries of literary respectability for the sci-fi genre and his readers’ perception of reality itself . . . until decades of amphetamine abuse and Southern California excess finally ended a mind-bending career that always just escaped mainstream success. He died in 1982. Until 2025 . . . when Benjamin J. Carp awakens, alive, in a burned-out motel on the fringes of Los Angeles. He remembers dying. He knows he shouldn’t exist. Is he a dream? A robot? A ghost? A clone? A simulation? In his own time, Carp pondered all of these scenarios intensely through his fiction-and, now, as he treks from Studio City to Venice Beach and onward into the paranoid sprawl of 21st-century Los Angeles, he will be called to investigate his greatest mystery yet: himself. In the tradition of Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly and Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice comes a uniquely fascinating and hilariously deranged excursion into the metatextual nexus where existence and oblivion, past and future, genius and madness, and glitter and grim reality all meet just beyond Hollywood Boulevard . . .
Review: When you choose to name-drop Philip K. Dick in your comic’s solicitation, it sends a clear message to sci-fi fans: “This is going to be weird. Cosmically and existentially weird.” The good news is, the first issue of Benjamin is weird in the best way.
Leomacs has been a favorite artist of mine since his work on Refrigerator Full of Heads at the now defunct Hill House at DC. Once again, his detailed style—developed while working on Dylan Dog under fellow Italian comics master Sergio Bonelli—proves to be perfect for the time displaced story Winter is setting up. Luca Bertelé’s colors amplify the cosmic weirdness in some stunning panels as Ben grapples with how and why he woke up in the future and there’s some wonderful use of focus to open the story. Did I mention the art is amazing?
Winter pens Benjamin as a brilliant but pompous lunatic, just egotistical enough to believe he was brought to the future for matters of universal importance. However, the script is nicely balanced by Ben’s benefactor, who only recognized him because his father was a massive fan.
Benjamin promises to be a wild ride for fans of mind-bending sci-fi, elevated by an exceptional art team.
Rating: BUY IT
Cover by David Nakayama
Emma Frost: The White Queen #1
Marvel Comics
Written by Amy Chu
Art by Andrea Di Vito
Colors by Antonio Fabela
Letters by VC’s Ariana Maher
32 pages for $4.99
Solicit: IN THE DARKEST DAYS OF THE HELLFIRE CLUB! Before she became a mainstay of the heroic X-Men, Emma Frost had another role: White Queen of the Hellfire Club! As she grapples for power with the rest of the Inner Circle, witness Emma’s ruthless ascent to the top! And when she discovers there is a mole within the Hellfire Club leaking secrets to their sworn enemies, the X-Men, Emma will stop at nothing to uncover the truth! Take a deep dive into Emma’s past, learn shocking secrets and be prepared to bow down to the White Queen!
Review: I loved the Hellfire Club back in Chris Claremont’s heyday. No one threw high-class, creepy sex parties like the Hellfire Club, and Emma was always a knockout in lingerie, plotting greater things. That said, Emma’s Hellfire Club days are also the least interesting part of who she’s become, so this flashback story really needs to bring something new to the table.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t give Emma much to do beyond managing club meetings and psychically spying on guests the Club is exploiting during a party in Buenos Aires for their South American contingent. As usual, the Inner Circle is jockeying for power and more than willing to betray each other in the process. There’s a mystery set up around someone sabotaging Emma’s plans, but if my guess is right, it may be painfully obvious. I suppose that’s reason enough to keep reading. Ultimately, Emma takes a back seat to an inevitable X-Men appearance, which overshadows the story and makes the rest of the plot feel fairly dull.
Di Vito’s art is great, but it’s really the X-Men who steal the spotlight. Storm looks fantastic slinging lightning bolts, Nightcrawler is doing his patented bamfing around, and we even get a Fastball Special from Colossus and Wolverine (I can’t remember the last time we saw one). Emma looks great too, but as mentioned, the X-Men scene—being the only real action in the comic—completely overshadows her.
There might be a good story here, but Emma Frost: The White Queen #1 focuses on the same Hellfire Club themes we always get, which are then pushed aside by a big X-Men fight scene. Like most of Marvel’s recent flashback comics, it’s fine, but certainly not required reading for Emma fans hoping to learn something new about her past.
Rating: BUY IT
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