Marvel's March previews reviewed

February's Amazing Spider-Man variant showing Disney characters reenacting a Fantastic Four cover  wasn't just a, um, goof, apparently, as this months Amazing Spider-Man #21 puts Goofy at the center for the classic Hulk cover. 

I like the title of Clobberin' Time, a new five-issue miniseries beginning in March, but it seems like some of the covers do a better job with the logo than others, huh? 

When Gurihiru draws something, you don't ask, you just buy. In this case, you buy It's Jeff!, written by Kelly Thompson and starring the adorable little four-legged land-shark. 

Looks like Marvel is finally set to do something with the Predator license, aside from reprint Dark Horse comics. Predator #1 is by Ed Brisson and Netho Diaz.

 

Have I mentioned how much I hate the new Punisher skull logo lately? Or that Disney/Marvel gave up the original so easily without a fight? 

DC's March previews reviewed

The first collected volume of Batgirls is still languishing atop my to-read pile, but I do like this portrait-style cover for Batgirls #16. 

Here's this month's Brian Bolland portrait of a Batman rogue, courtesy of a variant for Batman—One Bad Day: Ra's al Ghul #1 by Tom Taylor and Ivan Reis. 

I was going to buy DC's DC's Legion of Bloom #1 anyway, because I buy all their 80-page giants, but man, putting Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man on the cover ain't exactly going to discourage me. 

I don't know what's going on with Ram V's Tec run, but the covers have been to die for. This one, atop Detective Comics #1070, is especially awesome.

Big Frank Miller energy on this cover for Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods #2, by the great Guillem March. Sadly, March is just doing covers on the series, not interiors. 

Multiversity: Harley Screws Up the DCU #1 by Frank Tieri and Logan Faeber is of interest mostly because DC felt the need to put the word "Multiversity" in the title, presumably indicating that this takes place...somewhere out in the multiverse, as opposed to the DCU. It's therefore not the DCU she's screwing up, so don't worry about that. I like this cover. 

Electric Superman powers, like in the comics from 1998! Val-Zod from the New 52  Earth-2 series Earth 2, from 2012-2015! Ultraman, from Earth-3! You know, based on the solicit for Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #1, the book doesn't sound too terribly new-reader friendly for a new #1. 

I mean, I might personally be okay—there's a bit about Jon Kent's backstory from the Bendis years which I missed mentioned in the solicit too—but this sure doesn't sound like it was designed for brand-new readers, or even readers of Jon's recent appearances in Superman: Son of Kal-El. That said, it's written by Tom Taylor, and that guy generally knows what he's doing when it comes to comics-writing, so I'm going to assume pains are being taken to make this a first issue that reads like an actual first issue. Art is by Clayton Henry, whose work I generally like. 

There's a pretty nice Captain Marvel image by Michael Cho—I mean, the costume is trash, but it retains enough of the original design to be recognizable, at least—on the cover of Superman: Lost #1 for some reason (Well, the some reason is there's a new Captain Marvel movie coming out next year that looks...well, it looks like the sequel to the first one, anyway, and a bunch of DC Comics have Shazam: Fury of the Gods variants on them). 

Superman: Lost is a new maxiseries written by the great Christopher Priest with art by his Deathstroke partner Carlo Pagulayan. That should be worth keeping an eye out for. In collected form. Next year. But hey, that's just me now; if  you read the single issues and dig 'em, do let me know. 

Marvel's February previews reviewed

This is a variant cover for Amazing Spider-Man #19, not an issue of the Fantastic Four, for some reason. Like all the Planet of the Apes-related images in this month's variant covers, it appears to be a crossover that exists in variant cover image only. And maybe that's for the best. 

I've gotta say, Donald looks weird wearing shorts with no shirt...I'm so used to him wearing a shirt and no bottoms that the opposite looks downright bizarre to me. 

Speaking of Planet of the Apes variants....

There's a lot of them. At least one seems to suggest a potentially interesting story (the Silver Surfer one), some put characters in iconic moments from the film series (Iron Man), and some just throw some apes into a picture with the stars. As with all of Marvel's non-Conan licensed comics of late, it doesn't look like they will be doing an actual crossover with the Marvel Universe and Planet of the Apes any time soon, they are just variants. That's fine, I guess; I'm not really enough a fan of PotA to find the idea of  Marvel heroes visiting that setting to be all that appealing. I'm much more interested in Predator stalking Spider-Man or Daredevil, though Marvel doesn't seem to be making that happen, either. 

I don't know their strategy with their licensed comics, but it seems to me to be more about depriving publishers like Dark Horse a lucrative license than it is for any grand financial investment on their part.

Interesting to note that the other licensed comics don't feature PotA variants, so there's no image of  an Alien popping out of Dr. Zaius' chest or Darth Vader chopping down apes on horseback. Even Marvel variants have their limits, I suppose. 

Nice, simple idea for a variant cover, executed nicely by Jan Bazaldua for Amazing Spider-Man #20. 

Should I recognize the people on this cover to Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #9 that aren't Cap, Fury or The Destroyer...? Like that guy who looks like a flying starfish, is that a classic Marvel character I'm just not hip to...?

The Punisher's new logo makes him look like a loser and a dork, but I'm not going to say it to his face. 

DC's February previews reviewed

I'm glad to see the name "John Henry Irons" appearing in the solicitation for Action Comics #1052 rather than just "Steel"; the thing I dislike about Natasha Irons-as-a-Steel is that it has a tendency to pull focus away from her uncle, and there have been time where it might have been nice to see John Henry appearing in a comic that he didn't because his niece was there instead. Ideally, creators like Action's Philip Kennedy Johnson, Dan Jurgens and Leah Williams can find ways for both heroes to be active as heroes. (I'm still not digging the jackets, although Nat can use one more than the others, as she doesn't usually rock a cape, and her design has thus always looked a little naked.)

The Killing Joke-inspired Batman — One Bad Day: Clayface #1 by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing and Xermanico looks like it will feature the Basil Karlo version of the character with the Matt Hagen  version's powers...The Newe 52 Clayface, then, rather than the pre-New 52 version of either character  (Karlo did get shape-changing powers during "The Mud Pack" storyline, but he also got Clayface III's burning touch, with the recent Clayface seems to lack). Anyway, here's  Brian Bolland's portrait-style image of the character which will serve as one of the variants. In Bolland's version at least, Clayface is one of Batman's most terrifying-looking villains. 

Collecting all three Batman/Spawn crossovers—the new one by Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo plus the two 1994 one-shots by Frank Miller and McFarlane and Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant and Klaus Janson—the  $29.99, 280-page hardcover Batman/Spawn: The Deluxe Edition seems like a pretty good way to collect all three crossovers. 

It's sort of odd they are all so short, though, isn't it? I understand why they did two publisher-specific one-shots in 1994, but I'm unsure why the latest one is just another one-shot as opposed to something more substantial. Surely the creative team and the pairing of the heroes would generate enough sales that one would think DC would want to sustain them for an entire miniseries, right...? 

I'm not sure what inspired the re-release of 2000's Mike Mignola-spearheaded Gotham x Lovecraft Elseworlds series Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham, but I remembered liking it an awful lot as it was originally released in a series of three prestige format issues.  I'd recommend it. 

Kelley Jones draws one of the covers for Batman Vs. Robin #5, featuring Batman and...Alfred....?  

Hopefully this means Alfred is coming back to life. I don't know exactly how he died other than Bane, but I've been patiently awaiting his return. Surely this Lazarus Planet business with resurrection juice spitting from the ground in volcanoes and touching down on land in storms would be a good-enough way to bring him back, right...? 

Although I know the creators involved—writer Marguerite Bennett, artist Meghan Hetrick—DC/RWBY #1 just makes me feel old and tired. 

The solicitation copy for Nightwing #101 says Dick gathers a group of friends to be the premier league in the DC Universe and moves their base of operations to Bludhaven: "Meet the new Titans!" Are they the guys on this variant cover? Because if so the New Titans look an awful lot like the old Titans, and seem to just be missing Tempest/Aqualad and Arsenal/Speedy...

Sandman Mystery Theatre Compendium One gives me exactly what I want in a format I don't want it: Matt Wagner and company's masterpiece back in easily accessible print, but in the form of one of those too-big-to-actually read books. This first of two collections will weigh in at 984 pages and include the first 36 issues of the series, plus an annual. I've never read the whole series in order, something I'd like to do in, say, a series of trade paperback collections, but, based on what I have read of it, I would highly recommend it. I'm just not sure the doorstop collection is the way to go. 

DC may have gotten a little carried away with variant covers for Joshua Williamson and Jamal Campbell's Superman #1, seeing as they solicited 10 regular variants, plus a one-in-25, a one-in-50, a one-in-75, a one-in-100, a one-in-200 and a special $7.99 "Phantom Zone foil variant", but I do kinda like the Nick Dragotta variant, shown above. Simple, but effective. 

Someone please talk me out of buying Whiz Comics #2 Facsimile Edition.

Marvel's January previews reviewed

Think Jason Aaron's Avengers book has drifted too far from the core concept of the franchise, what with its prehistoric Avengers and multiversal Masters of Evil and infinite versions of Mephisto? If so, Marvel's got a tonic for you in the form of Avengers: War Across Time #1, the first issue of a five-part series featuring the original Avengers line-up vs. The Hulk (and Kang), by Paul Levitz (wait, Paul Levitz? At Marvel?!) and Alan Davis. Yes, Alan Davis, so you know it's gonna be something to look at).

How classic-feelling is it going to be? Well, they're using the old time-y Avengers font on the logo, so I'm assuming it's going to be pretty classic-feeling. 

Just out of curiosity, when you hear Captain America: SOL, what do you think of first? Captain America: Shit Out of Luck? Captain America: Satellite Of Love? Or Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty? It's that last one, if you couldn't tell, which is the official title of one of Marvel's two ongoing Captain America titles. 

In Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #8, they introduce a new MODOC-with-a-C, a Mental Organism Designed Only for Control. I think it's hard to be the original acronym of MODOK, the Mental Organism Designed Only For Killing, but I think the gentler MODOC, Mental Organism Designed Only for Conquest worked well too for the all-ages Avengers comics Jeff Parker wrote for a time, but I don't know, maybe "Conquest" is considered too super villainous for today's more realistic Marvel comics, so they're going with "Control" instead...

Tradd Moore's Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise #3 deserves credit for looking so different from everything else Marvel is publishing in  January. Scrolling through all the covers, it's one of the only times I stopped to think, "Wait, what's this?"

Wait, they really haven't done this cover homage with Miles Morales just yet? January's Miles Morales: Spider-Man #2 will really be the very first time? Huh. Weird.

How common is this particular homage? So common that Savage Avengers #9 isn't the only Marvel comic doing it in January. So too is Marauders #10:

One of the themes for this month's variants is "Classic Homage", which is why there are so many homage covers in the solicits, but still, you'd think they could all at least do different homages, wouldn't  you...?

Gene Luen Yang's Shang-Chi comic gets yet another new #1 with this month's Shang-Chi: Master of The Ten Rings #1. Despite reading the first trade paperback collection or two, I have completely lost track of the series, which has had way too many relaunches than a healthy series should need. This is actually the end of the series though, not another new start, at least according to the solicitation copy, which reads "Gene Luen Yang's Shang-Chi saga comes to its shocking conclusion!" It's an oversized one-shot, which one imagines will eventually make it's way into a big, fat hardcover titled "Shang-Chi by Gene Luen Yang," which is the way to read the story, I suppose, rather than trying to keep up as Marvel published it, in fits and starts. 

DC's January previews reviewed

I confess that I'm not really feeling the matching jackets that the Superman family seems to be adopting on the cover of Action Comics #1051, although it is a nicely rendered cover. 

Also, should I recognize those two little kids behind Superman..?.

What kind of maniac eats with gloves on...? 

That's one of the covers for Batgirls #14. I prefer this one, as it doesn't include anything as crazy as people eating hamburgers and french fries while wearing gloves:

That's nice. 

Brian Bolland draws Bane, for the cover of Batman—One Bad Day: Bane #1, part of a series that is one of DC's stealthier attempts to wring blood out of Alan Moore's brief career writing for them decades ago. 

DC's doing another season of their book set within the continuity of the old Batman: The Animated Series cartoon, written by B:TAS alumni Paul Dini and Alan Burnett, and they got Kelley Jones to draw, well, everybody for the cover of Batman: The Adventures Continue Season Three #1. It's interesting to see the show's Bruce Timm designs in Jones' style; look how small Batman's ears are!

There's also a variant cover in which Kevin Nowlan draws not everybody, but a lot of folks, that allows for the same sort of pleasure:

Neat. Interiors will be drawn by Jordan Gibson. 

After one-shot specials devoted to heroes of Asian descent and LGBTQ+ heroes, DC's finally getting around to a special focused on their black heroes, DC Power: A Celebration #1. 

This particular cover shows the difficulty of creating diversity among characters in the superhero market, as the easiest strategy is to just give a black character someone else's laundry, as David Brothers wrote so memorably years ago. Thus we have a Black Superman, a Black Batman, a Back Wonder Woman, a Black Aqualad and Kid Flash and not one but two Black Green Lanterns.

Far harder is to come up with original characters with their own names, power-sets and stories that aren't related to one of the handful of successful franchises like, on this cover, Black Lightning, Vixen and Cyborg. 

According to the solicitation copy, we can expect stories featuring Cyborg, John Stewart, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Batwing, Vixen, Amazing-Man "and more." I'll be curious to see how many of those within the book are legacy characters vs. original ones, and I'll be curious to see which version of Amazing-Man shows up; I always liked that character, and while his costume colors aren't the greatest, he's an interesting enough hero with plenty of potential and, again, isn't just a lieutenant version of a white hero. 

This is one of the few books I'll be pre-ordering (Along with, if you're keeping score at home, Harley Quinn Romances, Batman: Dark Knight Detective Vol. 7 and mmmmaaaybe Batgirls Vol. 2. Everything else I can trade-wait at the library). 

Kind of amazing that DC has done so many Valentine's Day-themed romance specials over the years and they're just now getting to one with the obvious-in-retrospect name of Harley Quinn Romances #1. All of the covers are pretty great, but I liked this one the best, as it feels the most like a romance paperback...albeit with Brainac's ship in the background.

It sounds like it will start the predictable usual suspects (Harley and Ivy, Apollo and Midnighter, John Constantine), but there will be some unexpected characters appearing, like Fire and Ice (are they a couple now?) and Power Girl. 

What's this on the cover of Nightwing #100? Is Nightwing...taking off Batgirl's costume...? I see bare shoulder! I know we're all adults here, and obviously this is a Babs Tarr image, but I have to ask: Is it too sexy? 

It's one of several great variants for the issue, which also include these:

See? Nice.

I really like this cover for Tim Drake: Robin #5. I hope the series is really good.