3 + 2 Highlights from this Week's FOC
WHAT'S FOC'ING THIS WEEK?
Hey guys!
I was going to do a whole bit today pretending I had this Void version of myself that says bad things about the good Sentry version of myself and tries to make me insane (you get where I’m going with this).
But honestly, I respect you guys too much to drag you through a silly bit. Let’s be real, you just want to know which omnis are on FOC and get on with your day.
So yeah, just doing a normal newsletter today. Should we start?
The Sentry Omnibus
I could not hide my excitement for this one, obviously. I absolutely loved the Dark Reign era of Marvel Comics and Sentry is very much one of - if not THE characters at the center of the whole first decade in 21st century Marvel.
Created by Paul Jenkins in 2000, Bob Reynolds is a forgotten hero. Bob Reynolds is also a deeply troubled human being. Written as this homage to the Silver Age, The Sentry is a character that stood with our heroes since the beginning of the age of heroes, but one that everyone (including us the audience) since have forgotten.
The Sentrys mortal enemy is The Void, this dark entity that terrorizes his life and seemingly makes everyone forget their friend. But things are not what they seem. So the homage turns into a deep dive into what would define early century superhero media: the troubled guy.
Our heroes now are not black and white, maybe they are both at the same time. And that is what the coolness of these characters lies. Jenkins turns the homage into a manifesto and in this beautiful dichotomy, he creates one the coolest original character Marvel at the time. So It wasn't long enough until Bendis incorporated Bob in the very first arc of his New Avengers. And suddenly, every single story in the Marvel Universe had a big part for the guy.
This omnibus collects every solo material ever published for the character (including the new 2024 miniseries that was actually a Jessica Jones book, but I'm not complaining). It's a very cool complete story (and yeah, could add some issues here or there for context if we got our way) but overall, a very good collection.
Tomb Raider Colossal Collection Volume 2
Ok guys. I knew you were all gamers and such things but I didn't expect you guys to like this thing this much. By looking at some of the art, I'm sure this is one of the reasons you all bought this so fast! Even Dark Horse was a bit alarmed.
Ok ok, jokes aside, I was really surprised by how fast Volume One sold out. Kinda crazy. It simply was not on my radar (ha!) at all. They are releasing a new batch for Volume 1 as well (also available for pre-order). Omar at Near Mint Condition warned that these are probably not gonna get a lot of printings due to their literal colossal size (They are bigger than omnis!!) so you might as well not risk that again. Seriously, that was insane.
Well, I was not really a gamer, ever (I suck at thinking fast and get frustrated very easily) but my brother used to play the 2013 version a lot on the living room TV. I watched him play that whole thing like a TV show (see, I'm a gamer too right?) so I was very curious to read more about Lara. I read the first arc of the first volume and had tons of fun. I love Dan Jurgens and it was fun to see the world-building here.
People who were afraid this was not their thing because they don't know anything about the franchise, give it a try because it reads very well. Very much 2000s comics vibe in a really nice nostalgic way. I know Gail Simone and Mariko Tamaki write a few issues in the third volume so I'm excited about that as well coming up next year.
Rare Flavours Deluxe Edition HC
Rare Flavours is awesome. It's a cannibal Anthony Bourdain food road trip comic that will both make you hungry and a bit disgusted and make you cry in the end because of a serial killer. There's art in the ugliness of it all and also a touch of melancholy and why not.. some beauty in it too. It got nominated for an Eisner Award - Petar and I covered this and other nominees in our Beyond The Panels Eisner special.
So excited to meet Filipe! And everyone of you. You go try grabbing those last tickets before they are gone!
Wow! I didn't even got to mention some other cool stuff like Black Panther: Panther's Prey Omnibus (also known as Black Panther Vol.2) that fills in all the classic BP gaps, meaning we're close to getting everything Panther collected in oversized hardcover format! Isn't that awesome?
Absolute Martian Manhunter, one of my favorite Absolute titles, is also releasing in both trade paperback and hardcover. We actually got an article on everything Absolute DC on Beyond the Panels. Check that out (in our shining new cool page layout!!).
All books on FOC today
...can be found here! Wednesday is the official deadline for low pre-order prices (but we never change prices before Friday... shhhh it's a secret!)
All single issues on FOC are to be found here. Because singles are affected by a lot of last minute changes and cover additions, they have a later deadline at Saturday, 4 pm. If you need any instruction how our single issue subscription service works, watch this video and contact Heiko if you still have questions.
See you,
Matheus!