The Fox: Family Values anthology one-shot from Archie Comics will be arriving at your local comic shop on May 18th, 2022, but you can get your first look at the issue right here, today at The Beat… including the scene that officially establishes that Shinji, aka Ghost Fox, is queer:

The Fox: Family Values One-Shot

Main cover.

Here’s the description of the issue from Archie Comics:

The Fox: Family Values follows the life of the super heroic Patton family, all considered “freak magnets” who can’t help but do what they can to save the day… whether they like it or not! First, Dean Haspiel returns to writing and art duties in “Mid-Life Pisces.” Can a family of antiheroes with three different philosophical points of view break bread at the end of the day? The patriarch, investigative journalist Paul Patton, Jr. (aka THE FOX) is desperate to find another story. He tries to get his son, Shinji (aka GHOST FOX) to come along with him, but his teenage son is more interested in dating than finding exclusive stories! Meanwhile, his wife, Mae (SHE FOX) must confront some sins of her past in the form of two super-villains! Then, in “Back to Back,” written by Vito Delsante with line art by Richard Ortiz, we venture to the past, before Paul and Mae were married! The two are hours away from their wedding ceremony and are presently missing their final wedding rehearsal while they’re detained by a mad supervillain. How will they make it to their nuptials? All that PLUS a special reprint of a classic Fox story by the legendary Alex Toth! 

The issue will also feature contributions by Matt Herms and Jack Morelli, with a main cover by Haspiel and a variant cover by George Caltsoudas.

Variant cover.

Writer and artist Hapsiel had this to say about the one-shot:

“If someone pointed a weapon in your face, what would you do? If supervillains tried to mess with your romance, what would you do? If your greatest opponent was yourself, what would you do? Read the soon-to-be classic THE FOX: FAMILY VALUES one-shot and find out!”

And Archie Comics Editorial Director Jamie L. Rotante shared her insights on the characters, as well:

“One thing that’s especially wonderful about this issue is that, though The Fox is our protagonist, we get a chance to learn more about his family: his wife, Mae/She-Fox, and his son, Shinji/Ghost Fox. FAMILY VALUES explores how the delicate balance of managing civilian and superhero lives affects them each in different ways. We get a nice callback to Mae’s origin in Dean’s story, and how her own experience has led her to a life of not exacting vengeance, but instead working to rehab villains. And Shinji is a reluctant hero — he doesn’t want a life of being magnetized to villains and drama like his father, but he can’t resist helping others. Here we see how this impacts his personal life and relationships.”

Arriving at your LCS in May 2022

 

Will you be picking up a copy of The Fox: Family Values when it arrives at your local comic shop on May 18th? What do you think of the preview pages from Haspiel’s story, included below this article?

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