Welcome back True Believers! You know coffee and comics are two of our favorite things—and they go together so well! Thus, each week in this space we offer the top five comics we are enjoying with a cup of our coffee. We also love our community and want to know what you are reading and what Coffee 'n' Capes coffee you are drinking. Share your reading and drinking choices with us at supers@coffeencapes.com.
And. here. we. go:
FEATURED COFFEE:
This week's featured coffee is our Cowabunga Roast. Cowabunga dude, it's some epically tasty coffee. First we took primo Columbian beans and roasted them to perfection. Then we infused them with creamy caramel, rich dark mocha, and a little sea salt to make the perfectly awesome coffee worthy of four brothers in a half shell. This medium roast will fuel all your ninja butt-kicking. Plus it pairs perfectly with this week's number one comic.
Speaking of, no more delay--on to the comics!
5. The Human Target #9 (2021)
I think this issue of The Human Target offers the very best depiction of Batman I’ve ever encountered. Yet, Batman never appears in this issue. The threat of Batman, however, is infused throughout the story. Meaning that cover is also brilliant. Batman casts a long, ominous shadow and Christopher Chance is caught in it. Perhaps it is no surprise that Tom King knows how to write Batman into a story—he famously wrote 85 issues of Batman just a few years ago. Greg Smallwood’s art brings the story to life as Chance and Ice retreat to the desert to escape Batman’s vengeance that is surely just around the next corner.
4. Omni #1 (2019)
Cecelia Cobbina is a gifted medical doctor doing good, important work with Doctors Without Borders. She is admired by patients and peers alike. But now she has powers. How and why? Who are all these other people who also suddenly have powers and call themselves The Ignited? An inspired premise that is intriguing, funny, and isn’t afraid to get a little meta along the way. It has something to do with intelligence modalities, types, like Logical-Mathematical, which also serves as the title of issue #1. Dr. Cobbina has super powers but that doesn’t keep her from admitting to feeling isolated and lonely. Omni is written by Devin Grayson with great art by Alitha Martinez.
3. We Are Robin #1 (2015)
Don’t be fooled by the title, there is not a new Robin. Teenagers all over Gotham City have taken on the ‘R’ and banded together to protect their city. So there are hundreds of new Robins now! Or, at least there will be. Here in issue #1 we meet, like, four of them. The story by Lee Bermejo with art by Khary Randolph and Rob Haynes, focuses on Duke. Duke keeps getting into fights at school and ditching his foster homes. Duke doesn’t want a foster family, he wants to find his actual family. His parents disappeared after the latest Joker attack created a bunch of Joker Zombies. (What?!) Dr. Leslie Thompkins is trying to help him (she really is the best!), but there is only so much she can do when Duke keeps jumping out of windows to continue his search. Will he find his parents? Is that Batman keeping tabs on the growing underground community threatening violence on the world above? The same underground community that quickly sniffed out Duke as an interloper and attacked him? Read We Are Robin with me and find out!
2. Wakanda #1 (2022)
How does the great nation of Wakanda protect herself after exiling King T’Challa? Evan Narcisse writes a cool tale starring Shuri, with art from Natcha Bustos. The biggest surprise for Shuri (and thus us readers) is the sudden appearance of The Rhino in Wakanda! How does that happen and who is behind the subterfuge? Pick up this book for the beginning of that answer.
Following the main story is a terrific piece on the origins of Wakanda called, “History of the Black Panthers.” Following that is a fantastic section of annotations that offer connections from the previous stories to the comics that preceded them. Some as far back as early Marvel stories of 1966, the most recent ones from 2022, and a whole bunch in-between. All together it makes for a marvelous march down Marvel memory lane.
1. Far Sector #1 (2019)
This is the first comic book in the series by award-winning author, N.K. Jemisin. She partners with artist Jamal Campbell to bring us the story new Green Lantern Sojourner “Jo” Mullein. Lantern Jo’s job is to cover Space Sector, well, ”Some Number Nobody ever Bothered to Tell Me.” But it’s far. Like, far far. So far it is the farthest of the Guardian’s sectors. So far, it may not have a number. On a world very much unlike our own, a world of 20 billion people that just experienced its first murder in 500 years. How will our still-inexperienced Lantern handle her first murder investigation among such trying circumstances? I just discovered this book so I don’t know how it turns out, but in The City Enduring Jemisin creates a compelling world that I can’t wait to explore more. Making it the perfect choice for our number one comic with coffee this week!