Third time’s the charm? Well, that seems to be the case for the superhero comic series called The Formidables—a series that I was involved with as editor—because its first issue hits comic shops today, courtesy of Advent Comics!
A bit of history, first: Originally self-published digitally by creator/writer/artist Chris Malgrain through his Oniric Comics company, its print rights were picked up by Red Anvil Comics in 2017. However, when that arrangement didn’t work out, Chris elected to go back to self-publishing, in print this time, and so he relaunched the series with a reprint of issue 1 and continued on through last year’s series finale in issue 8 (I scripted issue 5, BTW).
But now the Formidables have returned to comic shelves via the Unbound Realms imprint of indie publishing house Advent Comics, with The Formidables #1 (version 3) on sale right now. Apparently the series is on a quarterly publishing schedule, considering issue 2 has been solicited for July 2022 release.
The Formidables are a quintet of superheroes battling evil and bigotry in 1950s America, with their first challenge coming in the form of a Communist super-villain…who’s disguised as a white supremacist! It’s a unique take on the genre, with Chris examining topics like race relations and sexual identity in a Cold War setting, but there’s also an old-school Marvel vibe to the proceedings with an appropriate amount of punching and explosions mixed in, of course—we aretalking superhero comics, after all!
So if you missed it before, then face front, true believer (again!), and head on down to your local comic shop to pick up The Formidables #1!
