NEW #1's

 DAREDEVIL #1: The same creative team a month later on the same book. What's the difference? Marvel may try to tell you that the location is different so it's new and bold and more exciting! No, the difference is the same exact book is $3.99 instead of $2.99. It's twenty-pages (what? no bonus pages for the premiere?). I will admit that this issue is a lot better than the last arc that featured the dull Serpent organization. The final page is a strange cliffhanger of sorts. Matt Murdock is now in San Francisco. The book looks great (Chris Samnee on art). I miss the dark days of Daredevil, though. **1/2

 AMERICAN VAMPIRE: SECOND CYCLE #1: Writer Scott Snyder promises that there will not be a third cycle in the afterward, so if you're a fan of this title, enjoy it while it lasts. I remember years ago when I bought the first issue and the clerk mentioned that he couldn't wait to read it since it was Stephen King's first comic book that he's written (he wrote half of it, Snyder wrote the other half). I was letdown, not sure about the clerk, but this book was a little too silly and too dull to interest me. During it's run I would read ecstatic reviews and think I was missing out and then read an issue (Pacific battles during WWII but with vampires! A James Dean-esque vamp hunter in the 1950's!) or two and realize that it just wasn't all that great and I was indeed not missing out. This issue, set in the 1960's U.S. and Mexico, is good but as usual nothing special nor exceptional. The art, by Rafael Albuquerque, is better than the story. We have Pearl, the female vamp, on a farm in the midwest that's a sort of orphanage for vampires. Meanwhile, Skinner Sweet ends up running into the new big bad, The Gray Trader (dumb name), who whips people up into the sky in a tornado (or something). I still don't know why people rave about this.  **1/2

 STARLIGHT #1: Mark Millar is back with a new book about an old, ex-superhero that is grieving his dead wife and living the dull, regular life of a senior citizen. The catch is that he was magically transported one night to a far away planet and ended up saving the day there. He came back to Earth and no one believed his adventures. Now he finds himself alone when a spaceship appears in his backyard. A new adventure in space is about to begin. What a great, old-fashioned adventure. Certainly it's a rip-off of the John Carter books and Flash Gordon and probably a ton of others...but it works. It's sublime. The artwork, by Goran Porlov, is awesome stuff. A delightful first issue. ***1/2

VEIL #1: Writer Greg Rucka's newest is an odd one. It's akin to the girl-raised-by-wolves plot but also the popular "amnesia" story. A girl wakes up in the NYC subway surrounded by rats. She has no idea who she is or where she is and she's naked and can barely speak. A young, black dude helps her out a bit but the catch is that she can make people do things against their will. When some thugs show up at this black dude's apartment, the girl makes them shoot and kill each other. Uh...okay. It's strange, sure, but what helps it out is the beautiful, lush, painterly quality of the artwork by Toni Fezjula. I am curious to see where it goes, but so far it's more weird than compelling. *1/2

STRAY BULLETS: KILLERS #1: What a glorious return for David Lapham. If you remember, he wrote and drew forty issues of Stray Bullets and then had to support his family so he left to work for the big companies, doing various work on things like Crossed, Detective Comics, and Deadpool MAX. Well he's back working on his baby, finishing the storyline in Stray Bullets #41 and starting a new series with Stray Bullets: Killers. I admit that I only ever read the first issue of his old run. This new issue is incredibly good, though, and he's apparently lost nothing. This book is weird as hell, very sadistic and very funny. The thing Lapham does best though is get kids right. The way they talk, act, bully. So spot-on. It's a one-in-done story about a boy that follows his father to a strip club. His old babysitter just happens to be a new stripper there and this babysitter's brother is friends with the kid. It just gets more violent from there. Terrific black and white art and a what-the-fuck ending that could provide more answers perhaps but it doesn't matter too much. Awesome stuff. ***1/2