May 2017 Chapterhouse Publishing Solicitations

As always, these are Captain-centric. And that Captain is back in late May!

CAPTAIN CANUCK 2017 ONGOING #1(W) Kalman Andrasofszky
(A) Leonard Kirk
(CA) John Gallagher 

The Chapterverse continues! Captain Canuck returns with a brand new first issue!

Tom Evans has walked away from Equilibrium, his brother Michael, and the mantle of Captain Canuck, choosing to return instead to a simple life on the reservation near Flin Flon where he grew up. What a terrible time for an extraterrestrial incursion! 

In Shops: May 31, 2017
SRP: $3.99

But then, is there ever a GOOD time for an extraterrestrial incursion?

If you have yet to give it a good look, blow up that cover, children. It's fantastic.

So this book is specified as being the 2017 ongoing. Could just be a wording thing, but I take that to mean that the type of hiatus we've had will become the norm. If so, so be it, so long as other books take its place and continue the Chapterverse stories and the break enables regular a regular publishing schedule, that sounds like a solid structure to me.

What else can we look forward to...

FANTOMAH #1(W) Ray Fawkes
(A) Soo Lee
(CA) Djibril Morrisette 

The Chapterverse continues with this brand new series!

24-year old Paz Gallegos has been holding her family together for years. But when her two sisters go missing and her life begins to unravel, Paz finds herself thrown into a world of gangs, guns… and ghosts. Because something spectral is lurking just below the surface of Paz’s nightmares. Something not afraid to leave a trail of bodies in its wake.

Fantomah’s story begins here, in a pulse-pounding first issue brought to you by Ray Fawkes and Soo Lee. 

In Shops: May 31, 2017
SRP: $3.99

Another amazing cover. Said to be a Chapterverse book, yet doesn't seem to have a significant connection to Captain Canuck, PACT, etc. At least not on the surface. Easy creative team to put your faith behind, mind you.

That would leave a Northguard return and Northern Light for late September, perhaps October if delays set in (Agents of PACT and Freelance were already a couple of weeks late, so those seem inevitable). First Comics News' Martin Boruta shared an advertisement for the Northern Light in a recent article and I include it below.

You might recognize the gigantic creature in the background from some of the Captain Canuck material that's already been shown so this series seems to be more connected to the Captain's book than the other Chapterverse titles. And almost, if not fully, completely removed from the original book to bear its name, on the other hand. We'll see, but in the meantime, let's check out some Fantomah. 

April 2017: "Freelance and Agents of PACT each come to an explosive conclusion!"

Chapterhouse released their April solicitations and, not particularly surprisingly, they remain Captain-free as Agents of P.A.C.T. shines a spotlight on some of his supporting cast.

AGENTS OF P.A.C.T. #4
Kebec makes the ultimate sacrifice to give her allies a shot at taking down their alien enemy once and for all, leaving Marla Ritchie to face the extraterrestrial monster alone. Does she have what it takes to stand alongside legends like Redcoat, Kebec, and Fleur De Lys?

Written by Kalman Andrasofszky & Blake Northcott
Illustrated by Federica Manfredi | Cover by Bella Rachlin 

$3.99 | 32 pages | Full Color
Diamond Order# FEB171453

FREELANCE #4
This is it! Witness the final showdown between Lance and Apollyon as they battle for control of not only the world, but Lance's very humanity! Learn the terrible secrets of Lance's origin! Trust us, you do not want to miss the final issue of our first season!

Pulse-pounding action, wit, intrigue and globe-trotting romance - One of Canada's original heroes is reborn for the Chapterhouse era by writers Andrew Wheeler (Another Castle) and Jim Zub (Thunderbolts), and artist Vaneda Vireak (51Hundred)!

Written by Jim Zub and Andrew Wheeler
Illustrated by Vaneda Vireak | Cover by Alex Perkins

$3.99 | 32 pages | Full Color
Diamond Order# FEB171456

I kind of dig Steeltown Hammer. He's a good addition to the cast that is not a re-imagined version of a character from the original series. He's nowhere near as principled as the good Captain by any stretch but loyal and he's obedient and therefore the perfect right hand man to Michael Evans (pun intended, if you know Michael Evans at all). Mike Evans has a tendency to strain the bonds of loyalty though so we'll see how long that lasts.

We should now be starting to see signs of the next batch of Chapterverse books that had been promised this past summer, probably also in the form of 4-issue mini-series. I'm particularly eager to see a book about The Northern Light character from the 70s though at this point I don't know for certain if he's part of the upcoming bunch of releases. Last I saw him, he was meant to appear in a much-delayed anthology book called One Tribe.