If your breath mint is freshening my breath, you’re standing too close.
Yes, I did have the above thought at one point during my working week at the shop. Hey, at least the guy had a breath mint.
Anyway, I didn’t say anything about Wednesday’s new comic releases because, well, I was pretty sick of comics by the time the day was done. “What, sick of comics, can such a thing be true?” Yes, indeedy, it certainly can be, especially when you have a ton of comics and other merchandise being cranked out 1) in time for the holiday weekend, and 2) in time for the Superman Returns release, that you have to unpack and count.
DC’s big release this week is Brave New World, the $1 80-page one-shot containing prologues for a handful of forthcoming series, as well as hints from the “surprise” character at the end of the book regarding whatever the next DC Universe crossover brouhaha is going to involve. Not big hints, really, just the usual “something miserable is coming that flying men in tights will have to punch” cryptic warnings that usually come this far ahead of the crossover series in question.
As for the actual contents of the previews…well, you can see 2 Guys Buying Comics for an overview of the stories. (I don’t necessarily agree with that review, but it’s fun to read and that’s good enough for me.) Ultimately, I don’t think this comic has really changed the interest in the titles that I had prior to reading Brave New World…the comics I was looking forward to I’m still looking forward to, and the ones that I was indifferent or one the fence about…well, no change there, either.
Oh, hell, I was going to be lazy and stick 2 Guys with the burden of the BNU overview, but I guess I’m going to have to do one anyway:
- The All-New Atom – Gail Simone’s superhero funnybooks for DC have been pretty solid, and this series appears to be more of the same. Just good ol’ fashioned superhero action.
- The Trials of Shazam! – I do like the Captain Marvel comics, and read every one that comes out (I even read that godforsaken Shazam: The New Beginning mini), so I’ll be buying this, too. DC’s been ballyhooing Howard Porter’s new painted artstyle for this series, and, well, it’s okay, I guess. Doesn’t blow my skirt up or anything, but does make this Shazam! series at least visually different from previous attempts. And I am curious as to what they’re planning on doing with the Shazam family.
- The Creeper – Doesn’t do anything for me. Sorry. Went in my eyes, and apparently went right back out my ears, leaving no impact on me whatsoever.
- OMAC – As also noted in the 2 Guys review, after Infinite Crisis, I don’t think I need to see another OMAC again as long as I live. I wasn’t planning on reading this series, and the preview didn’t change my mind. I do like seeing the evolution of the OMAC concept toward Jack Kirby’s original concept.
- Martian Manhunter – Was on the fence, still mostly on the fence after reading the story. I’m probably going to get it, if only because I happen to like the Martain Manhunter character, and his visual redesign is interesting. Aside from that redesign, however, nothing in that preview really grabbed my interest. I’ll give the first issue a try, at least. Geez, I’m waffling on this.
- Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters – I was planning on buying this solely because of the character of Uncle Sam. The superheroic Sam is really one of my favorite comic book concepts. Fortunately the comic itself doesn’t look too bad…some sharp dialogue, some dark and moody art…the new Phantom Lady is perhaps a little too breastacular, but one could argue that’s in the tradition of the character. Um, not that I’m arguing that.
- And then there’s the epilogue with the “surprise” reveal…I keep putting “surprise” in quotes because the promo image for this comic featured a silhouette of the character in question, and, as Employee Nathan noted to me recently, DC has had a habit recently of using silhouettes to disguise characters that really don’t do much to disguise them. Oh, and on Wednesday at the shop, a certain Mr. McSpoiler Revealypants went and flipped to the last page of the comic, showed it to me and said “Oh, look, it’s [character name]” — good thing I’d already looked at the end and seen the exact nature of the return, which was a surprise, or I would have been pissed.
Wow, totally wasn’t planning on doing that. Let me quickly cover the remaining points I intended to address in this post:
1. Superman Returns is getting plenty of thumbs-ups from our customers…at least one has seen it three times already, and several have seen it twice. I’m getting a lot of “have you seen it yet” questions, with no explanation of what “it” is…it’s assumed that I know what they mean. And I say “Yes, I have seen The Devil Wears Prada. Meryl Streep rulz! W00t!”
Also, I’ve had a handful of folks looking for Superman comics…that’s a good sign. Let’s hope it keeps up.
2. Just noticed that Tim O’Neil‘s sidebar link to my site reads “Swamp Thing Sucks And Is Stupid.” I think he’s getting back at me for my “Silver Surfer Is Stupid” post. (And before anyone reads anything into this…I like Tim’s site, the text on that link to my site made me laugh, and I know he’s only ribbing me. So there. Besides, Tim ain’t saying anything about Swampy there that pal Dorian hasn’t already said to me.)
3. Congrats to both pal Ian and pal Tom for reaching their two year weblogging anniversaries. I made those two everything they are today…
…broke, with too many comics.
