this week’s comics

According to the sketchbook material in Justice League #1, the costumes could have been even more unnecessarily complicated.

filed under Categories justice league, retailing, this week's comics 18 Comments

So yes, we sold out of the first issue of Justice League, the vanguard title for DC’s rebootalaunch, and orders have already been placed for the second printing. Had a few new faces come into the shop looking for it, had plenty of our regulars pick it up, and have been receiving calls from out-of-towners trying to track it down as their local suppliers ran dry. That kind of momentum isn’t going to keep up, of course, as media coverage dwindles and first-issue fatigue starts to set in as wave after wave of debuts hit the racks…but at least it shows some interest is there, and that DC’s new publishing initiative isn’t falling flat on its face saleswise from the get-go.

An interesting thing I’ve noted is the number of people asking when those next #1s were due to come out, and how surprised they were when I told them DC would be releasing several #1s every week for the next month. So apparently DC was successful in getting the word out there that there was a new Justice League #1, that there would be more #1s to follow, but not when they were coming? Or perhaps I just had a string of folks who happened to miss that bit of info. Or even more likely, people were still in denial that they have 51 more first issues headed their way. “Tell me it’s not true…it can’t be true!”

About the Justice League itself…well, yeah, as our intro to this new DC Universe continuity, it’s a little underwhelming. Superheroes meet, they fight, we get teased with the supervillain threat, oh hey there’s Superman, and suddenly “to be continued.” All very by-the-numbers, with nothing to intrigue or inspire the imagination. I mean, it looks okay, with Jim Lee turning in a respectable art job on this issue, even if Superman’s new costume continues to appear unnecessarily rejiggered. And I’m calling “no way” on Batman being able to yank Green Lantern’s ring off his hand without GL noticing. I mean, come on.

DC’s other release this week was Flashpoint #5, the conclusion of the whole crossover event hoohar that introduced this new DC Universe. I hadn’t read any of the previous issues of the mini, and the only tie-in minis I read were the Frankenstein series (which seemed to have very little to do with it) and Project Superman (the reasons for which I explained previously). However, having read plenty of superhero comics in my life, I don’t feel like I missed anything by not reading the first four issues of the series. I can pretty safely extrapolate how they got to this point, I think. But anyway, the only reason I did pick up Flashpoint #5 was for the Swamp Thing cameos. …Yeah, I know.

I was discussing DC’s new publishing strategy yesterday with a longtime customer of mine, and he was wondering when DC would switch everything back to the way things were, including continuity, issue numbering, etc. My response was that if things went badly enough that this new strategy clearly wasn’t working, this wouldn’t be the kind of problem that would be solved by reverting to the old issue numbers and the old DCU. As I said on this site before, this whole thing smacks of a “nothing left to lose” decision, that is was either this or “might as well shutter the publishing arm and give our characters to the movie and TV studios so they can make real money with them.” No idea if that’s actually the case, though this article [EDIT: link dead] makes it seem like it is.

At the very least, DC’s efforts are generating some activity and discussion among our customers, and that certainly doesn’t hurt. Whether it helps in the long run…well, let’s hope so.

Revised March 2021

The Department of Redundancy Department.

filed under Categories swamp thing, this week's comics 3 Comments

So here’s the thing about that Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing series:

The end of Brightest Day was about the Swamp Thing “elemental spirit,” bereft of the personality template of Alec Holland and running amok, being brought back under control by “reinfecting” that elemental spirit with the personality of Holland.

The Search for Swamp Thing is about…the Swamp Thing elemental spirit, bereft of the personality template of Alec Holland and running amok, needing to be reunited with Holland’s mind to be brought under control. It’s repeating a conflict and, presumably, a resolution that we already saw at the end of the Brightest Day event (which, admittedly, was undone almost immediately as seen in one of the cliffhanger epilogues at the end of Brightest Day #24). Of course, we haven’t seen the last part of the story yet, but it seems like a done deal, judging by solicits for the upcoming Swamp Thing series, that Holland will once again become Swamp Thing. (SPOILER ALERT, I guess.)

The main purpose of the series is, I guess, to reemphasize the return from the Vertigo imprint of Swamp and John Constantine, having Constantine interact with Batman, Superman, etc. (And just to keep Swamp Thing in the public’s eye, of course.) But really, if it weren’t for that Brightest Day epilogue re-setting up the Berserk Swamp Thing hoohar to be resolved, we could have skipped right from BD #24 to that new Swamp Thing #1 in September.

I don’t know. I’m too much of a Swampy fanboy to argue that there should be fewer Swamp Thing comics, and all things considered, I still find this comic to be inept but amusing. But it certainly feels…redundant in its goals, both in reestablishing the status quo for the character and reintroducing the character to the DC Universe, tasks already accomplished a couple of months prior.

Also picked up this week: the seventh volume of the Smurfs albums, The Astro Smurf. This is the Smurf story I’ve most recently read prior to this new publishing effort, having borrowed an older English album edition from pal Dorian about a decade ago. Haven’t read this new edition yet, but I liked it the last time I read it, and suspect I’ll still like it now, even if it’s in this smaller digest format.

Another new item this week I haven’t had a chance to read yet: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Century: 1969. Any new League comic from Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill is most welcome, even though Kevin’s response has me intrigued.

I expect plenty of agreement with at least part of the last sentence.

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So I generally like Daredevil, though I haven’t been much interested in what’s been done with the character over the last, oh, decade or so. When this new Daredevil #1 came out this week, I didn’t have any intention of picking it up, but 1) just look at this gorgeous cover:


…and 2) Mark Waid was writing it, so I thought I’d peek inside at a page. Or two. Then three. Then four. Then…ah hell, fine, I’ll buy it. It does a great job of giving a fresh, non-angsty start to the character without forgetting everything that’s gone before, with the vast majority of the past decade’s storylines basically summed up by Daredevil with (paraphrasing) “yeah, things have been pretty crap for me recently.”

The one recent plot development that does carry over into this new series is the public exposure of Daredevil’s secret identity, and the problems that Matt Murdock has trying to deny everything while that particular genie slowly crawls back into the bottle. It makes for an entertaining read, as this way of dealing with the identity-outing is quite a bit more down-to-earth and (please pardon the expression) “realistic”-seeming than, I don’t know, amnesia spells or deals with the devil or the thousand different ways Superman protected his identity in the Silver Age. No Daredevil robots here!

Anyway, it’s a fun book, with more of a classic House of Ideas feel with its appealing combination of melodrama, exciting superheroics, humor and charm. Here’s hoping it can avoid any intrusive crossover company events and be left to develop on its own, without interruption.

• • •

Also of note: Sergio Aragonés Funnies, filled with single-page gags, autobiographical stories, and funny shorts, all from Sergio’s masterful pen. The only thing wrong with this comic is that it only started now, and hasn’t been running for decades.

Rocketeer Adventures #3 – each issue’s been a mixed bag, though that makes it sound worse than I mean. It’s all fine and entertaining, with some standouts and other stories just simply “pretty good,” which mostly only suffer in comparison to Dave Stevens’ original Rocketeer stories. So, you know, there’s no shame in coming in second to those. I liked Ryan Sook’s lead story in this new issue the most, and while I think I would have preferred Joe Lansdale and Bruce Timm’s story to be an actual comic story and not just prose-with-pictures, I’m not going to complain about a new Joe Lansdale short story that happens to be illustrated by Timm. I mean, honestly.

Also, each issue has featured the “main” cover by Alex Ross, and a more limited cover reusing Stevens’ art from previous Rocketeer-related publications. I’ve been sticking with the Stevens covers…nothing wrong with the Ross covers, but it feels more…”right” to get the Stevens ones, I guess. Or maybe I’m just being a sentimental ol’ dope.

This site does not condone the concussing of ponies.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, retailing, this week's comics 8 Comments

So now that I finally started using my Tumblr site, I believe I finally found a purpose for it (aside from using it to comment on friends’ posts and reblogging awesome things, like this unused Superman versus Titano cover by Curt Swan). I think I may be using it as a “commentary track” or “greatest hits” supplement for this site, revisiting old posts and images and providing some additional info, background material, or just reminding folks of some of the older, sillier stuff. Okay, I did just repost that recent Klarion pic but c’mon, that pic is fantastic.

In other news…I’m sure most of you are aware by now of the Diamond street dates thing, in which retailers can get their comics on Tuesday in order to prep them for Wednesday sale, and woe betide you if you sell them early. I hear tell that Diamond has “secret shoppers” out there in the wild, enforcing the Wednesday street dates. Well, considering I yell even at Employee Aaron if he even looks at the books as I’m breaking down the order, I think I’m pretty safe there.

But anyway, this Tuesday, we had a large order of gaming product come in from Diamond, along with our usual comics order. I mean, a very large order. It was all prepaid for by a customer, so we had the coin of the realm on hand to take care of it, but still, it’s a bit imposing when you check the status of your UPS shipment and discover sixty boxes waiting for you. There’s always that fear that maybe your finger slipped while placing your orders three months ago and you accidentally ordered 15,000 copies of Green Hornet: Aftermath #4 and they all turned up today and OH GOD. But no, it was just the games stuff, and it was about fifty boxes all of approximately the same size and shape and while Aaron and I were tempted to build a fort with them, alas, we were too busy.

It was also a fairly sizable comics ship week as well, with a handful of notable items, like Superman #713, the next issue after the surprise Krypto fill-in for the scheduled Muslim superhero story. Some folks claimed the fill-in had something to do with the powers-that-be not liking the originally-planned story showing Superman rescuing a kitten, as it undermined the strength of the character or something. Well…guess what happens in this new issue? Go on, guess. Okay, it involves a roof, not a tree, but if anyone’s really going to split hairs over that, they are welcome to jump up my hinder.

Oh, and Superman #713 has this awesome Jeff Smith variant, and they should totally give Smith his own Superman series to do. (And speaking of Smith, the new issue of Rasl is out this week, too.)

The next issue of the Flashpoint: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown mini is also released this week, which turned out to be the only Flashpoint book I’m reading. I wasn’t going to be reading any of them, but those cats over at the War Rocket Ajax podcast convinced me to give it a try via their discussion of it on the show, and they were right: this is the stuff.

And this action figure is out this week. This is a gargantuan hunk of plastic. You could probably concuss a pony with this thing. I am praying this is how Tom Hardy looks in The Dark Knight Rises.

Don’t reveal the shocking ending of “Death of Spider-Man” to your friends.

filed under Categories swamp thing, this week's comics 9 Comments

So anyway, that Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing #1 that came out this week…

…Well, I can certainly say that, as I was reading it, I was getting the vaguest shadow of an impression that the writer was perhaps trying to convince me that John Constantine may have something resembling a British accent. …It just felt laid on a bit thick, is what I’m saying.

And by the way, the Zatanna on the cover that was replaced by Hawkman on the cover is now back to Zatanna again.

None of that tells you if the comic is any good, and…well, remember when I mentioned that Tim O’Neil had asked me if I’d rather have no Swamp Thing comic than a bad Swamp Thing comic? I think I have my answer, since I’m apparently glad to have this comic.

Well, okay, it’s not as terrible as all that. It’s not all that good, really…I mean, God bless ’em, they try hard, and given the editorially mandated goal of squeezing John Constantine and his big swampy buddy back into the superheroic DC Universe…well, that’s certainly John Constantine interacting with superheroes, here. It’s kinda sloppy and rough-hewn, but I’m not going to say I didn’t enjoy seeing Constantine reuniting with Zatanna and getting into Batman’s face a bit. (And there’s even a reference to the last time John ‘n’ Bats met.)

As I said when I originally addressed Tim’s question: when it comes to Swamp Thing, the filters tend to go down. There’s “appreciating the efforts of a writer and artist in telling their story,” and then there’s “oh boy, I wonder what’s going to happen to my favorite character next?” Swamp Thing is probably one of the very few characters that still trigger that latter fanboy response in me, where what is happening with the character is more important to me than how what is happening to the character is presented. I can recognize that perhaps this isn’t the best comic book in the world, but I didn’t loathe it like some reviewers I saw out there, and I still enjoyed it more for furthering the continuing adventures of Swamp Thing than for its artistic or literary merit. So, you know, I guess it was a success, at least for me.

“Too long/didn’t read” version: Your pal Mike loses his critical faculties when it comes to Swamp Thing, so don’t count on him for an unbiased review of this Search for Swamp Thing mini-series.

However, when I tell you that the Return of Swamp Thing movie is a piece of cinematic genius, that’s not just crazy old man Mike talkin’…that’s indisputable fact.

A couple of other funnybooks from this week:

  • The regular edition of Ultimate Spider-Man #160 (the final, I guess, chapter of the Death of Spider-Man storyline) comes in the Death of Superman-esque black bag:


    The variant cover, available in 1 in 25 or 40 or whatever, comes in a red bag:


    The “blank sketch” cover, which you can presumably take to a comic artist at a convention or something and have ’em draw their own Dead Spideys, comes with no bag:


    …And seriously, they should have put this in a clear cellophane wrapper. Not to protect the contents of the story from lookie-loos or anything, but, you know…blank cover, “blank” bag? As opposed to the black or red bags? No? Well, I was amused by the idea.

    We may be pretty much at the end of the run for media-driven non-comic readers coming into stores to get the latest Big Death Issue. When the Human Torch allegedly “died,” I noted at the time that even the media coverage gave a slightly cynical spin on the matter, and that I didn’t see that much of a bump in sales to many people beyond regular customers.

    This time around…well, we ordered equal numbers of The Search for Swamp Thing #1 and Ultimate Spider-Man #160. By the end of Wednesday, the first day of sale for both, we were nearly out of the Swamp Thing comic, and we’d barely moved any copies of Ultimate Spider-Man. …I know what you’re thinking, and I promise, I had nothing to do with it. It wasn’t until late Thursday afternoon, when I started having a string of people I’d never seen before show up asking about “that Spider-Man comic,” so I’m guessing it turned up in the local paper or on the news or something.

    Of course, most of the coverage I have seen (primarily online) has emphasized that it’s not the real (ahem) Spider-Man, but from the alternate Ultimate line, which may have dampened the media-driven investor interest somewhat.

    I will say that sales have come up slightly on Ultimate Spider-Man as this storyline has progressed, given the moribund state the Ultimate line has been in for quite a while. That’s what was so surprising about this new issue just kind of sitting there on the shelf, untouched and unloved, for New Comics Day.

  • And then there’s Superman #712, which was supposed to be a story guest-starring a Muslim superhero, but was pulled at the last second and replaced by a long-shelved Krypto issue that ties into Infinite Crisis, of all things. As you might suspect, there’s a big Internet hoohar over this, but I’ll just let pal Dave summarize the silliness with his comprehensive Metafilter post.

    As for the Krypto story itself…when it was first announced, years ago, that a Krypto solo issue was prepared but pulled from publication, with no explanation forthcoming, for some reason I kept picturing, like, really over-the-top dramatic reasons for DC shelving the story. “THE DEATH OF KRYPTO!” or “KRYPTO COMES OUT!” or “KRYPTO MEETS JESUS!” or some other kind of earth-shatttering story where things will never again be the same.

    Of course, it’s nothing like that…just a quiet follow-up to Infinite Crisis that kind of loses its impact this far along from the event (and not helped by art that, unfortunately, really did nothing for me). But I’m all for Krypto stories, and I suspect we’d better enjoy this one while we can, since there may be no room for flyin’ superdogs in the new post-September DC publishing regime. Except maybe in Tiny Titans, of course.

    Then again, Grant Morrison will be writing Superman….

So perhaps you’ve heard that Swamp Thing is in Brightest Day.

filed under Categories swamp thing, this week's comics 12 Comments

So here’s the regular cover for this week’s Brightest Day #24, featuring Swamp Thing as drawn by Gary Frank:


I like the detail of the scarlet snake (I think it’s supposed to be, anyway…I don’t see any red-on-yellow-kill-a-fellow of the coral snake) entwined in Swampy’s shoulder:


And yes, the variant cover, available to retailers in a 1/10 ratio to the regular cover, also featured Swamp Thing (as drawn by Ivan Reis):


Yes, I’m picking up this cover too. I’m buying two copies of the same comic just for the covers, you bastards. Also, is Swamp Thing coughing up the White Lantern rings, or opening his plant-hole wide to receive them? Or maybe they’re just hovering around his face and he’s agape in astonishment. Who knows.

And then there’s the 1/10 variant for the final issue of the Justice League: Generation Lost series, which I swear is mocking me personally:


I mean, just look at this:


Dicks.

…

Yes, I’m getting this cover too. Jerks.

But apparently we needed to bring that Trouble mini-series back into print.

filed under Categories retailing, secret wars, this week's comics 14 Comments

  • So it’s a good thing DC Comics has knocked the majority of their funnybooks down to the $2.99 price point, because you’re gonna need that money you’ve saved to buy their books this week. We have one $5.99 book being released (Action Comics #900), and for $4.99 each, the last issues of DC’s two year-long mini-series (Justice League: Generation Lost #24 and Brightest Day #24) and issue #50 of Justice Society of America. I gave up on JSA a while back, but I read the rest of these, and I may be double-tapped on Brightest Day #24 if the variant cover also features that big green swampy fella. Because, you know, I’m a sad completist.

  • So Secret Avengers #12 and Secret Defenders #12.1 in the same week? Seriously?

  • Here’s something I get asked for at the shop a lot: a trade paperback collection of Secret Wars. Oh, sure, there’s a hundred buck hardcover omnibus edition, but that’s bit of a harder sell than a theoretical $24.99 paperback containing the 12-issue series. But I bet we could sell a bunch if such a trade paperback were to be brought back into print.

    Funny, I have a lot of Civil War trades here.

  • Speaking of Secret Wars, I was speaking of Secret Wars the other day on the Twitter, and I had someone ask me if it was any good. My response was that it read like a transcript of a kid playing with his action figures (fitting, considering the Secret Wars toy tie-in line), and that it was, in a way, a form of naïve art. Like, all the basics of superhero comics distilled down to its very essence, without concern for subtlety or style.

    I’m not saying this to be critical…I like the Secret Wars series just for what it is. It’s…well, I was going to say it’s “not pretentious” but of course it is, at least in conception, if not in execution. But it’s a dumb superhero comic and sometimes you just want to read a dumb superhero comic where superheroes fight supervillains and Secret Wars fits that bill and it’s just fine.

    Anyway, Secret Wars: let’s have a trade of that, Marvel. I mean, c’mon.

  • And a trade for Infinity Gauntlet, too, for God’s sake. I get asked for that all the time. EDIT: Forgot there’s a hardcover edition coming out soon. Well, that won’t be as easy to sell as a paperback, but at least it’s something.

  • Also, it would be nice if Batman: The Dark Knight Returns were available for reorder, which it hasn’t been for the last couple of weeks. I know, I know, it happens, but still, this is one book that I hate to be without for the shop. This is, like, one of the very basic foundations for a graphic novel selection at a comic shop. You’d think everyone would have a copy by now, but no, I’m still selling plenty of them.

  • So we opened the store for Easter, which we never do, but I had to be at the shop anyway to get some work done, and, you know, what was I going to do with my Easter, anyway? Yardwork? Clean house? Hang out with family? Pfffft.

    Anyway, it’s a good thing I did, because a couple of regulars dropped by to pick up a lot of books they’d special-ordered, to the tune of several hundred dollars…okay, they were going to buy the books eventually anyway, even if they had to come on a day other than Easter, but still, better to get that money sooner than later. And I had another customer I hadn’t seen in about a decade pop in and drop some mad cash on back issues. And we were just generally busy the entire day, ultimately doing better business than we usually do on Sundays. (Also, Awesome Hospital‘s Matt Digges stopped by, because he took pity on me.)

    So, for future Easters I suspect we may remain open. I’m still closing on Christmas Day, though. And on Lefthanders Day, because I can only take the cruel oppression from you fascist righthanders for so long.

Okay, I’ll stop talking about Zero Hour after this.

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Well, without overly belaboring the topic again, thanks to you folks for responding to my query yesterday about Zero Hour sales. I’m going with It’s Just One of Those Things in regards to why it’s experiencing a sales bump at our shop, a possible combination of my throwing it on the featured book rack, and the Dan Jurgens/possible implications for future events factor. As pal Andres noted, just by my putting the trade on display I obviously contributed to its increased sales, but that alone wouldn’t explain the sudden demand for the actual back issues, except for, as mentioned, possible ties to current DC shenanigans.

In response to commenter Joe, who suggests I put other books on the Featured Graphic Novels shelf and see what happens…that’s pretty much what we do. Right now, we’re using that space for the Walking Dead hardcovers (which have slowed down in sales since Christmas, but still move occasionally), Chew (one of the current Hot Things), Ex Machina (which had bit of a sales spurt up until we put it on the Featured Shelf rack, go figure), and Zero Hour, plus what new books get released each week. Joe suggested that I throw Dark Knight Strikes Again up there, but frankly, that and its predecessor, Dark Knight Returns, already sell pretty regularly from the Batman shelf as it is. Anyway, it’s not working with Ex Machina, as noted, but maybe I’ll try another DC “event” book and see what happens. (Shame Final Night seems to be out of print.)

Commenter Nimbus wonders if maybe, given the involvement of Green Lantern and Parallax in the Zero Hour storyline, that maybe interest in the forthcoming Green Lantern film might have had something to do with it. I actually haven’t seen a GL movie sales bump just yet, aside from some very infrequent requests for “early Green Lantern stories” (which the Green Lantern Chronicles and Showcase Presents Green Lantern books satisfy quite nicely). The GL franchise comics are still selling quite well, having dipped only very slightly since the height of the Blackest Night hoohar, but if there is usual pre-movie release uptick in interest from the general public, they probably couldn’t have picked a worse time to sample a GL comic, what with all the event tie-ins and multitudes of characters who aren’t Hal Jordan and the Red Lanterns vomiting blood or whatever it is they’re doing. But hopefully any of these theoretical new customers will go for the paperback collections, where the worst that’ll happen is that I’ll have to explain/apologize for the whole calling-his-sidekick-“Pieface” thing.

Did I say “without overly belaboring the topic” at the beginning of this? Why, yes, I suppose I did. Um…sorry about that.

Let’s see, what else is going on…ah, I know: folks seem generally pleased that most of DC’s comics have dipped to $2.99 across the board. Too early to tell yet if this is going to have any kind of significant increase in sales…mostly it seems that people who were already buying the $3.99 series are glad to be only paying $2.99 for them now. Haven’t heard any complaints or even many comments about the story page count dipping down to 20, but most of the DCs I’ve read in the last couple of weeks have been pretty heavy on plot and dialogue and the two extra pages weren’t missed. Of course, that may simply be the result of 22-page scripts being squeezed into 20 pages (which I’ve heard at least one comic writer confirm was the case with his script), but we’ll see what happens once we’re sure everyone’s writing for 20 pages. So long as we’re not getting half of those pages as splashes, everything should be fine.

Speaking of new comics, here’s some stuff coming out this week:

  • Smurfs Vol. 4: Smurfette – I sincerely hope that, when the movie comes out and crashes in the box office, that it doesn’t kill this reprint program. The Smurfs comics are fantastic.

  • Wolverine & Jubilee #1 – Wolverine should just regularly team up with teenage girl superheroes who then become ninjas over the course of the story.

  • Steampunk Palin – well, that’s certainly some timing.

  • Hellblazer #275 – two things come to mind about this comic. One…good gravy, I’ve been buying this on a monthly basis since #1. This is about 30 issues longer than the Silver Age Flash’s original comic book run. Two…$4.99, for this “special oversized anniversary issue?” Urgh. Good thing the other DCs I’m buying are $2.99.

  • Not a comic, but horror film mag Fangoria is releasing its issue #300 this week. We’re usually good for selling at least one copy of this to somebody every month. Mostly, I’m just amazed it’s still hanging in there during a time when this kind of showbiz publication is barely surviving in competition with free online sources. Good on ’em. Wouldn’t be the same without something horrible and bloody staring back at me from the magazine racks. I mean, aside from any comics featuring the Red Lanterns.

In which I link to a couple of my old posts while talking about a few of this week’s comics.

filed under Categories this week's comics 8 Comments

There may be a few SPOILERS ahead…check with a doctor before proceeding:

  • Dungeons & Dragons #2 – I haven’t checked…any beholders in this issue? Anyone? …Anyone?

  • Oh, hello there, three Green Lantern comics in one week. The main title, Green Lantern, reintroduces one of my favorite GL villains…one that I initially encountered when I first got into the character, decades ago, so it’s good to see him back. Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #5 has that wonderful blood-spewing cover I End-of-Civilizationed a few months back, and you can’t say the interior doesn’t deliver on the promise of that image. I haven’t read the Green Lantern/Plastic Man team-up comic yet, but it’s by Marv Wolfman and Brent Anderson, and it teams up Green Lantern and Plastic Man…unless it actually explodes into flames in my hands, I expect I’ll probably enjoy this.

  • Time Masters: Vanishing Point #5 – And hello there, surprise end-of-story villain reveal right there on the cover! I don’t know if it’s more annoying that his appearance is spoiled on the cover, or that despite being on the cover, he doesn’t do much more than show up in time for a “to be CONCLUDED” at the comic’s end.

    Okay, it’s not really a spoiler for anyone who read the original solicitation, announcing his presence in the comic, but that solicit kinda implies more than a meet ‘n’ greet, y’know?

    (Still not as bad a spoiler cover as this.)

  • Green Hornet #11 – Don’t really have anything to say about the comic, but have I mentioned that I seem to be the only person on the planet who thinks this forthcoming Green Hornet movie looks like it might be kind of fun? I mean, that’s okay if I think that, right?

  • Strange Tales 2 #3 – The story written by the late Harvey Pekar made me sad. Sorta caught me by surprise…I’d forgotten he was going to have anything in this issue. Totally picked the perfect character to write about, too. And it was nice that they dedicated the issue to him. Also, Ivan Brunetti’s cover, featuring all your favorite Marvel characters, is pretty great.

  • So I’m gonna pull Black Panther: Man Without Fear #513 for all our comic saver customers who get Daredevil, and hope they don’t decide to drop the book now that Daredevil isn’t in it. …Or is he in it? He’s on the cover, sorta. But his name’s not in the title, so I’m expecting numbers on this book to dip down to where Black Panther usually sells. Not that Daredevil was doing all that great in the first place…#512 kinda gathered dust, for some reason.

  • John Byrne’s Next Men #1 – Man, that was a lotta recap. Well, it has been, what, fifteen years at least since it’s been on the stands? Anyway, wasn’t bad, but will likely just sell to the few remaining people in the comics marketplace who remember reading the series the first time around.

    Is there anyone out there reading this post for whom this new issue was their first exposure to John Byrne’s Next Men? Let me know…I’m curious what you thought of it.

  • Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 3 TPB – Oh, man, they’re reprinting those post-Crisis issues of GL by Englehart and Staton, with the introduction of Kilowog and the arrival of Ch’p and Arisia and the rest of the GL Get-Along Gang on Earth. I hope they end up reprinting the entire run, because it’s awesomely bonkers (and the post at that link doesn’t even start to get into the crazy stuff).

  • Superman #706 – It’s Perry White Vs. That Newfangled Internet News Blogging All The Kids Are Into, in a comic that probably works better than it really should. The art’s a bit awkward, the resolution a bit pat, but it does touch upon something a little ethically untenable regarding the Superman milieu. The plot revolves around a popular blogger questioning the Planet’s relationship with Superman, and where it’s a bit inappropriate and…unprofessionally intimate, especially where Lois Lane’s concerned. And we watch Perry try to resolve this mess, while we, the reader, realize…uh, that blogger’s kinda onto something, with, um, that whole “Clark Kent works for the Planet, is married to Lois, writes stories about Superman, and, oh, right, is also Superman” kind of thing.

    Of course, this will go the way of the whole Clark Kent’s unused passport boondoggle and that’ll be that. Phew, close one, Clark!

I’m so right about the Jonah Hex movie, don’t you even deny it.

filed under Categories this week's comics 15 Comments

So this week’s comic shipment is thankfully a little lighter of a load than in the previous weeks, what with those new comics days with six simultaneously-released Batman comics and three Deadpool comics and such. And that’s a good thing, since we have a shorter “new this week” window due to comics showing up on Thursday (at least in the U.S.).

Some new items of interest:

  • Achewood Vol. 3: Home for Scared People is the latest print collection of the long-running and popular webcomic. The hardcovers for this series (and other Dark Horse web-to-print comic reprints) have all been quite handsome-looking and packed with content…lots of value for the price.

  • Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers #1 – Pal Ian expands his Disney comic empire with this, a second Disney cartoon comic featuring his sharp scripting. Ian’s probably feeling what I’d be feeling if I’d been given the scripting chores on a Land of the Lost comic.

  • Marvelman Family’s Finest #6 – sold a bunch of the first issue, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be the only person at the shop buying this last issue. The lettering may be a tragedy, but I’ve been enjoying the unpretentious, simplistic fun of the stories…but it seems that while there’s still interest in the character, reprints of the original stories are not what the people want. (Yeah, I know, “no duh.”) I get the feeling we’ll be seeing a new Marvel Universe version of Marvelman before we get the reissues and continuation of the Moore/Gaiman storylines from the ’80s / ’90s.

  • Lady Death #0 – When the Crossgen version of Lady Death came out, the primary complaint about it was that she was wearing too many clothes. …And this was coming from the female fans of the character. Well, if those readers are still around, I suspect this’ll be more to their taste.

  • Rasl #9 – Latest installment of Jeff Smith’s sci-fi adventure/crime/mystery series…took an issue or two to get into it, and now each issue doesn’t come out quickly enough for me! Nice work, quite a switch from Smith’s previous project Bone.

  • Shadowhawk #5 – I suspect this series must sell for somebody somewhere. We’re getting a copy for the rack, which will end up going in the back issue bin at the end of the month. I don’t want to cut the order entirely, because you never know when someone might come in looking for it, and it’s just one comic, after all, so it’s not that much of a burden to carry it. But, man, poor ol’ Shadowhawk.

  • Boys #49 – While I generally enjoy this violent and dark-humored anti-superhero comic, I think maybe I’m about ready for this freaks-and-bastards parade to wrap up. Especially with the series getting stretched a bit thin with a couple of additional concurrently-running mini-series in the last year or two. Still sells relatively well, though, so why am I complaining?

  • Classic Marvel Figurine Collection #134: Son of Satan and Classic DC Figurine Collection #69: Detective Chimp – at last, they can fight!

  • Gumby’s Gang #1 – The return of Gumby to the comic stands, though without creators Bob Burden and Rick Geary from the previous series. I do love Gumby, so I’ll give it a look, but the new guys have big shoes to fill.

  • Wolverine: Best There Is #1 – sigh.

  • She-Hulks #2 and Ant-Man & The Wasp #2 – the first issues of both of these sold out pretty quickly for us. Here’s hoping everyone comes back for the next installments!

  • Jonah Hex #62 – Well, the movie didn’t kill the comic, but it sure gave it its best shot. By the way, I finally watched the movie the other day via the Netflix, and…man, instead of rolling the end credits at the one hour, 12 minute mark, this film totally should have gone another forty-five minutes with some full-on sci-fi Hex action. …You know I’m right.