Trouble

Striking world design and imaginative scripting make “Toil and Trouble” #1 an intriguing, if occasionally inconsistent, read. This retelling of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” paints the famous three witches — here named Smertae, Riata and Cait — as victims as well as executors of the Fates’ will. Artists Kelly and Nichole Matthews have created a beautiful Celtic-inspired world for Mairghread Scott’s complex, compelling script. Though some tonal confusion and a few odd structural choices take away from the issue, these are small quibbles that should quickly be sorted out. “Toil and Trouble” #1 promises a great miniseries. As the issue opens, Smertae returns from a nine-year exile, imposed for an as-yet-undisclosed transgression. She serves as narrator, offering up exposition such as “No king has ever ruled this land without our consent,” alongside more opinionated backstory and commentary like “My whispers ripped away his happiness” and “There are no words but horror now.” She and her sister

The half-life on a “Big Trouble In Little China” comic book series should have expired several years ago. With nostalgia pushing well into the ’90s at this point, this is an odd choice to release in 2014. I want to stress odd, and not bad, because this book is really fun. BOOM! Studios hired Eric Powell, a man who knows all about grifters, wanderers, weird monsters and tank tops, to develop this story with John Carpenter, creator of the franchise, and what we wind up with is exactly the type of fun and adventure that might not have translated well to celluloid. Hard-drivin’ Jack Burton is back on the open road after the Big Trouble of the film and immediately finds himself drawn back into machinations set in motion by Lo Pan. After returning to town with a new friend in a hilarious t-shirt, Burton creeps out everyone at Wang’s wedding and then gets tossed back in to the fire, taking up the mission to save Wang’s life from yet another supernatural threat. Powell’s dialogue has a lot