Face front, true believer! The third issue of The Formidables—the superhero comic that I’m involved with as editor—has reached comic shops!
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, and the first two issues hit comic shops in May.
The Formidables are a quintet of superheroes battling evil and bigotry in 1950s America, with their first challenge having come 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, with an appropriate amount of punching and explosions mixed in, of course—we are talking superhero comics, after all!
Just ignore the cover price you see here on the cover—it’s really $2.99, not $3.99. How’s that for a bargain, in an industry currently dominated by far-too-expensive superhero comics?
Also on sale from Red Anvil is the one-shot War of the Independents: Man, Out of Time. Written by Chris along with Joe Martino, with art by Chris—who’s aided by Luca Cicchitti, Jim Arden, Pat Martinez, and Oliver Hudson—it’s a crossover special in which Red Anvil’s Superman-like Mighty Titan meets Chris’s Captain America–esque Steel Patriot, from The Formidables. Much punching ensues—but not enough fisticuffs that it distracts from the main storyline: the never-before-revealed origin of the Formidables! Why, that alone should make it an instant buy! (In fact, this issue is a prequel to Formidables #1.)
So, head on down to your local comic shop right now and pick up copies of the Formidables’ latest adventures!
