Vertigo Raises The Bar With Four New Series

If you're one to gravitate towards comic fare that can potentially set your hair on fire, then you're first in line to see what DC's Vertigo line has to tout every month. In September, prepare to be overwhelmed by four new titles, starting with writer Eric Kripke and artist John Higgins' Jacked #1 (SEP150316). The first issue sports a cover by Preacher veteran Glenn Fabry, and it begins a tale in which a middle-aged man decides his mid-life crisis sucks, and he wants to do something about it. Nothing crazy like starting an affair online. Just purchasing pills that promise to deliver a punch. You know: turning one into a superhero. Not that this was done by design, though. Our hero in the book, Josh, was just looking to get a "jolt." A kick in the pants to get out of a rut. Now he'll have to contend with new powers, and learn what life is like for a super type: both its highs and its lows.

Red Thorn #1 (SEP150317) is next up for you to peruse, and it's a story written by David Baillie and illustrated by Meghan Hetrick. This is a book we're told that will appeal to fans of narratives like Fables and The Sandman. Don't expect to find characters like middle-aged men who were cool in the 80s. That's the previous story we just mentioned. This story takes place on the rain-soaked streets of Glasgow, and a young girl's drawings somehow come to life. Cute, right? But this isn't something out of Mary Poppins (although the young lass believes she may have found her one true love). The truth is that this miracle is somehow connected to an ancient demi-god that is thousands of miles below the streets where the young female is swooning. The demi-god is plotting his escape from the subterranean prison. And the odds are that since he's been trapped for nearly two thousand years, he won't be in the best of moods.

Always one to enjoy making people look twice and scratch their heads in disbelief, Si Spencer pops up for the third new title with Slash And Burn #1 (SEP150318). Anytime you see a cover where a somber woman holds up a flickering butane lighter pretty much guarantees things are about to get hotter than Hell. Firefighter Rosheen Hayes is the center of attention in this new book with art by Max Dundbar and Ande Parks. Rosheen is an enigma because her personal relationships are tricky. It's hard to know which end is up in Rosheen's life, mostly because she's prone to having dark impulses, and we aren't quite sure if she's dealing with a full deck. Is her life really that much like everyone else? Is life just about another day, and another hot date? Or is the super-sleuth fire-whisperer instead a twisted firestarter? Maybe the memories of flames engulfing an orphanage mean more that she originally speculated. Maybe.

But before you set aside the day's events to ponder Rosheen's situation, you'll have to make sure you don't miss out on reading writer Rob Williams' Unfollow #1 (SEP150319).

It's an uplifting tale, full of rainbows and unicorns and cotton candy. Well, no. Not really. It's about a dying social media mogul that's left his billion dollar fortune to be picked apart by 140 random people — or however many of them are still alive at the moment of his death. It's the kind of scenario that makes people ponder just how prudent murder can be when there's money involved. What can make the game of foul play even more fun (or difficult, depending on how you look at it), is when the people you must compete with are from completely different walks of life. People you'd pass on the street, and never give a second thought.

Question: what do a young black man, an Iranian reporter, a special forces soldier, and a thrill-seeking heiress have in common? They're all a part of the same food chain. And that's why you'll be hungry to find out who gets the short end of the stick in this topsy-turvy thrill kill.

Look for all four of these new titles from DC Comics' Vertigo in the September PREVIEWS catalog!