Comic Bento December 2016: Mighty

Comic Bento is a blind subscription box service that provides four or five graphic novels each month. Each monthly box is tied together as part of a theme. The theme for the December 2016 box is Mighty. It is also a publisher spotlight on Marvel. This makes sense considering Marvel is the number one comics publisher and has expanded into other forms of media.

The Mighty Avengers: The Ultron Initiative (Brian Michael Bendis and Frank Cho; 2008; Marvel) is the perfect book to lead into this box. Iron Man hand picks an Avengers team, which ends up facing off against one of the iconic Marvel villains, Ultron. These are some of the top characters from the biggest publisher. This should not disappoint.

X-O Manowar: By the Sword (Robert Venditti and Cary Nord; 2012; Valiant Entertainment) is an excellent choice. This is the series that Valiant chose to launch the reboot of their universe back in 2012. The main character has drawn some comparisons to Iron Man, which isn't a bad thing. X-O is an ancient warrior that has been displaced in time with the strongest weapon Earth has seen. Check out my review here. I'm excited to see this book included in the Mighty box, but I already own a copy. My first duplicate book from Comic Bento in a year's worth of boxes isn't bad though.

Smite: The Pantheon War (Jack Banish, John Jackson Miller, and Eduardo Francisco; 2017; Dark Horse Comics) is one that I'm not familiar with. I guess it's connected to a video game franchise. That doesn't really matter though. The art is awesome. If the story is half as good, then this will be a lot of fun to read. The gods are at war, so who knows what will happen.

Last up is The Unbelievable Gwenpool, Vol. 1: Believe It (Christopher Hastings, Danillo Beyruth, and Gurihiru; 2016; Marvel). This is the second book from Marvel for the publisher spotlight. I'm not sure what kicked off the idea to use Gwen Stacy as variants of familiar characters (see Spider-Gwen), but this book looks so ridiculous that I can only imagine it will be lots of fun. The art is more cartoonish than I typically like, yet it seems to fit the concept perfectly. This book goes to show that  Marvel is willing to go out on a limb with their characters. Their willingness to be inventive and innovative is part of what keeps Marvel on top.