Early Panels: Three Comics To Look Forward To Tomorrow

Here are three books we’re looking forward to tomorrow: A great pulp hero who never was, a bloodthirsty superteam, and by far the oddest revival of a Golden Age comic strip we’ve ever seen.

Joe Palooka #1
Let’s start with this one, since we’re a bit surprised this book even exists in the first place.

Joe Palooka was a popular comic strip that wrapped up in the ’80s after a sixty-year run. It was a fairly straightforward strip about a gentle boxer getting into and out of scrapes.

This one is about an MMA fighter who gets framed for murder and takes the alias “Joe Palooka” while fighting in Tijuana tough-man contests.

So it’s a little different! And, by far, one of the more unusual attempts by IDW to bring classic comic strips to the comic book format. If nothing else, it’ll be interesting to see what actually happens with this miniseries.

The Black Beetle: Night Shift
You might remember Francesco Francavilla from his work on Swamp Thing or Detective Comics, but he’s also a talented writer, and the Black Beetle is his pulp hero.

This collects the comics Francavilla put together in Dark Horse Presents as a preview and promotion for the first full Black Beetle mini, No Way Out, coming next year. And, honestly, this collection is worth picking up: Francavilla knows his way around the pulps and the art is every bit as gorgeous as you’d expect.

Thunderbolts #2

Let’s see here: Red Hulk, The Punisher, Venom, Deadpool, and Elektra as part of a semi-military anti-hero black ops team. Written by Daniel Way. And drawn by Steve Dillon.

Can you find any bad in that summary? Because we can’t. The first issue was pretty much all set-up as Ross goes on the road and puts the band back together, but we’re pretty eager to see just what Way and Dillon get up to with an all-star cast of anti-heroes.

Here’s the full list for tomorrow: Tell us the book you can’t wait to read.