A lot of comics come out every week. Some fall neatly in the the categories “DC” or “Secret Wars” — these comics don’t! Today, we’re discussing Groot 4, Jupiter’s Circle 6, Plutona 1,  The Woods 16 and Mockingbird: S.H.I.E.L.D. 50th Anniversary 1.

Groot 4

Spencer: Jeff Loveness and Brian Kesinger’s Groot has always highlighted the qualities that not only make Groot so special, but that separate him from the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy: namely, his empathy, compassion, and extroverted nature. All those qualities are front and center in Groot 4, which finds Groot befriending various intergalactic misfits and recruiting them into his mission to rescue Rocket Raccoon. It’s all about as charming and heartwarming as humanly possible, especially the following panel, where Groot helps the embodiment of chance rekindle her faith in the universe — and, in the process, champions the future of the Marvel universe as a better, more inclusive place.

Unfortunately, don’t look so bright once Groot breaks into Eris’ ship. Groot’s troops are simply no match for hers; their good intentions quickly lose to her superior firepower. It’s a crushing bit of realism injected into the shiny veneer of Groot, but it may also be a necessary blow; not even Groot can win his battles with good intentions alone. There are some people who only understand violence and power and nothing else — if Groot represents the best and brightest of the Marvel Universe, than Eris no doubts represents the worst it has to offer. In a book this sweet I can’t imagine Groot changing all that much (nor would I want him to), so I’m eager to see how he responds to the threat of Eris without losing what makes him Groot in the first place.

Jupiter’s Circle 6

Drew: Approaching superheroes with some level of realism is always difficult for the obvious reason that superheroes aren’t real. The problems they face are inherently fictional, involving death rays and sentient planets — so how do you make that feel real? In some cases, like in the first four issues of Jupiter’s Circle, you might relegate the superheroing to a kind of set-dressing — an interesting enough occupation for the characters, but not ultimately integral to the story. Of course, as a veritable authority on combining superheroes with real-world scenarios, that wasn’t Mark Millar’s only trick. Indeed, issue 6 brings the superpowers front-and-center, hanging a giant question mark over the events of the issue.

That question is whether Sunny is truly acting of her own free will. The previous issue gave us more than enough to understand why Sunny would want to leave George, but George offers a different take on things, saying that they intended to get married and have kids. That Sunny would run directly into Walter’s arms is just convenient enough to make it seem like Walter might be up to something — a layer of doubt that wouldn’t exist if this were an episode of Mad Men. More importantly, it adds a great deal of context to George’s modern-day relationship to the rest of the team, and may foreshadow Walter’s own eventual betrayal. There’s obviously a big difference between this falling out and George’s eventual rise as a supervillain, but I now can’t help but wonder if Walter’s abilities played some role there, as well.

Plutona 1

Spencer: The most impressive thing about Jeff Lemire and Emi Lenox’s Plutona 1 may just be how quickly and efficiently it establishes its world and characters. This is probably most evident in the back-up, which digs into the life of Plutona with a Silver Age-esque gusto (and pacing), yet still manages to imply as much about the character as it outright states (such as the legacy aspect of her persona), but the main story is no slouch in this area either. This isn’t to say that the issue is rushed, cause nothing could be further from the truth — pages 2 and 3 are devoted to a spread of the vast, expansive forest the story is set around, and the issue’s leisurely tone matches this small town setting — but even taking their time, Lemire and Lenox still manage to dole out information at a dazzling rate. Just check out the four pages that introduce the four lead characters:

With just those brief introductions Lemire and Lenox create surprisingly effective portraits of each character, but what’s even more surprising is how quickly the creative team starts to tear down those first impressions. Besides Mie, who’s just as abrasive as the above page paints her to be, each character unveils new layers as the issue progresses: Teddy has quite a bit of backbone and confidence for a “nerd”; Ray, of course, puts on a tough mask to hide his abuse, but nobody buys his act for a minute; Diane’s seemingly perfect life, with a sweet mother, new puppy, and especially that “cool” jacket, is a startling contrast to the insecurity she seems to feel at school about her weight and her somewhat one-sided friendship with Mie. Over the course of just one issue Lemire and Lenox have gifted their readers with deceptively complex characters and a gorgeous, inviting world that I can’t wait to throw myself into. Seriously, Plutona is right up my alley, and it’s one of the most self-assured debuts I’ve seen in ages. If you haven’t already, be sure to check this one out.

The Woods 16

Spencer: With the characters of James Tynion IV and Michael Dialynas’ The Woods having settled into new lives and routines over the last few issues, it can sometimes be easy to forget that they’re living on a hostile alien moon, and that they still have family and lives on Earth they’ve left behind. Yet, the conflict over whether to keep looking for a way to get home or to make the best of their new lives is always on the minds of the Bay Point kids.

It turns out that this conflict is also one that’s defined the entire history of this moon. The New London colony represents Calder’s choice, settling in for a new life, while the Empire of the Sun longs to return to Earth like Karen. That doesn’t seem too bad, until you realize that the Empire also wants to bring the power of the Woods back with them and take Earth as their own. It clearly paints the Empire as the bad guys and puts our protagonists in opposition to them, but the general student population of Bay Point doesn’t know any of this. All they can see is the choice between the life they’ve been living and the glamorous life Casey and the Empire offers them, and that might be too tempting for kids who’ve been robbed of everything they once held dear. Fighting the Empire is an easy choice for Calder and the others, but fighting their friends could be a much trickier decision. Things are about the get much more complicated, and I have a feeling that the routines these kids’ve built over the last few issues won’t stay stable much longer. Maybe they never really had a choice at all.

Mockingbird: S.H.I.E.L.D. 50th Anniversary 1

Patrick: There is an absurd amount of story and character work packed into the Mockingbird story in this issue. Writer Chelsea Cain and artist Joëlle Jones craft a story that starts as a slice-of-life for a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent before morphing that into a moment-of-crisis character drama, which in turn morphs into suspense thriller, and then a revenge-y action piece, followed by an exploration of lives not lived and a return to slice-of-life. It’s a wonderfully efficient story, and takes Bobbi Morse from “oh yeah, she’s one of Hawkeye’s girlfriends, right?” to fully formed Secret Agent in 20 pages flat.

And for as much as I really enjoyed Bobbi’s emotional reunion with her mentor’s son (and — spoiler — murderer), the truly revolutionary part of this comic is in Cain and Jones’ take on Morse’s James Bond-esque relationship with sex. She’s using men in a way we’re used to seeing male spies use women – which is to say that she’s enjoying their company, but not relying on them emotionally. It’s so rare to see that kind of emotional independence from female characters in anything let alone a comic so deeply enmeshed in spy-genre trappings. Usually, this distance would be treated and some kind of psychological damage — a woman incapable of love (oh no!) — but Jones is quick to show us that we should really be having fun here.

Though, that beer bottle could have belonged on either side of this chart, right?

The conversation doesn’t stop there, because you certainly read something that we didn’t. What do you wanna talk about from this week?