Boom! Studios was nice enough to give us an advanced look at three of their releases for 5/13/09 (a.k.a., this Wednesday), so I’m being nice enough to give you spoiler free reviews, right here, right now. What a nice guy I am!

The Unknown #1 – Mark Waid is such a veteran writer that he sometimes forgets we don’t have all the story experience he does, and as such a lot of his first issues recently feel, for the first half, like we the readers are playing catch-up. There’s something to be said for just throwing people into the mix, but between this and Irredeemable, I don’t think Waid is doing a casual reader any favors. By which I mean, someone who picks up this issue in the store and flips through the first half of the book will find themselves understandably confused; there’s almost no introduction of the characters, and it isn’t until the second half that things really start churning. But once they do… Oh man. I hesitate to say anything even remotely spoilery about this, but I’m a complete sucker for locked room mysteries. Add in a scifi element, and a strong female protagonist with plenty of secrets of her own, and I’m pretty much sold. I hesitate to say “only pick up the second half of this issue,” because that’s, you know, impossible. But for those who stick it out through the first half, you’ll be rewarded with a great, fun mystery, solid characters, and a story that’s like what would happen if a female Sherlock Holmes ran smack dab into an Issac Asimov novel. Oh, and that’s not even bringing into account the killer last page twist.

Unthinkable #1 – Mark Sable is a perfect fit for Boom, which makes its bread and butter on pitchable comic book ideas. Sable’s previous books could all be boiled down to easily translatable-to-movie-script ideas, and this is probably the strongest idea he’s had so far. I’m being purposely vague here, because saying almost anything could ruin the twists of the book, but essentially it’s like Basic Instinct, but for Tom Clancy, and from the author’s perspective. This will make more sense after you read the issue. Probably. What I’ve occasionally found lacking (and when I say lacking, I don’t mean “bad,” I just mean “not his strong suit”) in Sable’s writing is his dialogue/pacing, and follow-through. And while I can’t say anything about the follow-through quite yet, I will say that this issue is probably the best thing he’s written so far. There’s a ton of exposition to get through in this issue (almost a decade’s worth of character development), but it never feels like a chore to read, because the characters and scenarios are all very engagingly drawn. With all the set-up out of the way, and a last page reveal reminiscent of the end of the first issue of Ex Machina, this could turn into a fun thrill ride of a book. I’m looking forward to the second issue.

Potter’s Field Hardcover – I don’t have much to say about this, other than, if you’ve never read Potter’s Field, you’re missing out on one of the best noir comics of the past… Well, ever. This collection is well worth your $25.