"Did it matter where you lay once you were dead? On a dirty beach in California, or in a gleaming metal tomb on Cybertron?"

My weeks long quest to find the good Transformers comics—assuming that there must be some good Transformers comics based solely on the longevity of the franchise—has finally bore some fruit.

Among the titles the Columbus Metropolitan Library system carries is Transformers: Perchance To Dream, a 2006 black and white digest collection of old Marvel UK Transformers material from Titan Books.

Once again Simon Furman is doing the writing, and he works with seven different artists, including Staz Johnson (a familiar name form the late-nineties Bat-books), John Stokes (some Vertigo work) and several others I’m less familiar with (Jeff Anderson, Pete Knifton, Geoff Senior, Lee Sullivan and Andrew Wildman).

In a cast consisting of giant robots, the black and white art could be something of a drawback I suppose (I mentioned before that some Transformers look the exactly the same and are only distinguished by their coloring), but I think it works quite nicely here. In general, I prefer black and white reprints to older comics, as it’s a way around either straight reprinting the shoddier coloring of the era or having to recolor the work and thus changing it in a somewhat unwelcome manner.

And this black-and-white is true black-and-white; no grading or shading or gray tones, just black ink on white space.
I can only guess what function these stories played in the original comics, but I’m guessing by their super-short, five-page length that they must have been back-ups that ran with reprints of the American material…? (One of you will correct me if I’m totally wrong, right?)

That short length, and the fact that Furman’s stories are all surprisingly character-focused little vignettes, reminded me quite a bit of the back-ups that Chris Claremont wrote as back-ups for the old Classic X-Men reprints, the ones collected as X-Men: Vignettes (These, by the way, are about the only Chris Claremont X-Men comics I’ve really ever been able to enjoy, a results, I suspect, of not even attempting to read any of his X-Men work until I was at much too old an age to really identify with it).

Even the storylines that continue through multiple strips here tend to be stand-a-lone character pieces that somehow connect.

For example, the title story, which quotes Shakespeare extensively in the narration (my, but Marvel UK was classy!), consists of six, five-page chapters, but the first five each have a framing sequence wrapped around an individual Autobot’s dream of some adventure.

Each of those dreams characterizes the robot in question, and while that characterization isn’t anything too terribly deep, it is characterization. For example, Silverbolt, who turns into a plane, is afraid of heights, and is afraid his fellow Autobot planes will discover this secret shame of his when they all combine to form the giant robot Superion.

The truncated space makes that focus seem even sharper, as Furman never has the opportunity to waste much time or space in these stories, so they’re remarkably character-driven.

They also boast a sort of admirable try-anything approach, which gives this little collection an enjoyable unpredictability.

The title story, for example, features five Autobots having their dreams scanned by a time-traveling Galvatron in an attempt to control their minds, and also quotes Shakespeare and has a punchline-style, last-panel twist ending.

That’s followed by a Raymond Chandler parody called “The Big Shutdown” (see, robots don’t sleep, but they do get shutdown) narrated by Nightbeat, who transforms into a police car and is thus a detective, some more traditional robot space-war stories, and finally a two-parter about a newspaper reporter that both the Autobots and Decepticons are trying to spin for positive PR (the Autobots try granting him access and an interview; the Decepticons try shooting a mind-control thingee into his brain).

Like the other licensed comics featuring the Transformer characters I’ve read so far, I wouldn’t call this high literature or anything, and, end of the day, it’s still just an advertisement for a toy line, but damned if it isn’t a very good advertisement for a toy line, and one that features a more admirable level of craft in both the writing and the art than a lot of the other Transformers comics I’ve read thus far.

But then, I’ve still got some more to read yet…

Six reasons why Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman Vol. 3 is going to be the best thing DC publishes in November of 2009

When going over DC Comics' November solicitations earlier in the week, I somehow completely overlooked this particular item...

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: WONDER WOMAN VOL. 3 TP
Written by Robert Kanigher
Art and cover by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito
Wonder Woman’s Silver Age adventures continue in this value-priced collection of issues #138-156. Don’t miss the amazing Amazon’s battles with The Angle Man, The Phantom Sea-Beast, The Brain Pirate and so many more.

Now I realize this may seem like a bold statement given I won't be able to read a single one of their books for months yet, but I'm pretty sure Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman Vol. 3 going to be the single best comic book DC publishes in November.

How can I be so sure? Well, do you know which Silver Age Wonder Woman comics are found between issues #138 and #156?

These ones:







You have no idea how long I've waited to read the issue where Wonder Woman rides a surfboard at a giant fish man while holding her mother on her shoulders and juggling two versions of herself from her past and/or the one where she escalator jousts with a dinosaur in a department store during "The Olympics of Doom."

Why the only thing that could possibly be better than Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman Vol. 3 would be Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman Vol. 4, as that one will include two issues with Egg Fu on their covers.

PSA: This is the last week to see This is a Comic Book

Just a reminder that if you were planning on checking out the This is a Comic Book show at Mahan Gallery but haven't gotten around to it yet, it's only hanging through August 28, which means you only have about a week left. More info here.

A few words about every single story in MySpace Dark Horse Presents Vol. 3

"7 True Tales of Internet Horror" by Keith Knight

This apparently isn’t actually a story per se, but an introduction to the rest of the volume, although I did not discover that until I got to the final panel, in which Knight lists his seventh tale of Internet horror as “Finding out the intro you were asked to do for MySpace Dark Horse Presents was due last week!!

So, poor job of introducing the introduction as an introduction, although it is a decent introduction of what follows in that it is a typical Keith Knight cartoon, and an anthology that contains a typical Keith Knight cartoon is one that’s probably going to include a great deal of variety, since no one has such a disciplined loose style as Knight, nor the ability to rely heavily on verbal wit without seeming to be trying to overcompensate at all (A word-less Knight strip would still be pretty hilarious, so adept is he at drawing funny faces, and moving from image to image).


“Murderous Intent” by Mike Mignola and Ben Stenbeck

Your typical Mike Mignola story, which is either a good or bad thing, depending on the degree of affection you have for Mignola’s writing and the patience you have with the endless variations of a government agent guy versus the supernatural, presented with enough historical detail that the supernatural aspects can feel genuine, or at least based on real historical facts.

This one stars Edward Grey, star of Mignola’s Witchfinder series. Stenbeck is credited with art, but many of the panels looks so Mignola-esque that I would not call you a liar if you told me he penciled or inked it.

That’s not necessarily a criticism of Stenbeck, by the way. Being able to do a very convincing Mignola impression is probably a virtue in drawing a Mignola-verse story.


"I See The Devil in my Sleep" by Becky Cloonan

This is a very effective eight-page supernatural mystery type of story, in which an unreliable narrator walks us through a day in his life, letting us share enough of his thoughts that the events of that day and night are open to interpretation. Is he a psycho killer? Is the devil out to get him, coming at him in various disguises? No way of knowing for sure.

Cloonan fills the dark of the protagonists room with swirling, skeletal monsters that aren’t really there in an incredibly effective, creepy way. I can’t recall a better depiction of what it felt like to be afraid of the dark and imagining scary things all around you.


"Creepy: Meet the Creepys" by Dan Braun and Jeff Preston

I did not care for this short story, in which the creators introduce us to a Addams Family-like family of ghouls who apparently serve as horror hosts (as we’ll see in a later story).

It’s just two-pages long, so it’s not like it ruins the collection or anything. There’s nothing to the verbal side of other things other than cheesy puns, which might be fun if they weren’t being sold by hyper-realistic art


"The Cleaners: The Body Colony" by Mark Wheaton, Joshua Hale Fialkov and Rahsan Ekedal

This is a short story featuring a character and/or concept from a Dark Horse-published miniseries, although it’s not a very good introduction to whatever that concept is exactly.

There’s a grisly murder scene, and the guy who shows up to clean the floor ends up encountering the murderer, someone infected with some kind of killer plant, and I guess he’s maybe actually not just a cleaner but some kind of scientist or doctor as well?

It reads more like a scene from a story than a complete story, and thus may work better for readers of The Cleaners than someone coming at it cold.

I wasn’t impressed enough to seek out The Cleaners, but then, there’s a lot of this sort of material out there these days, and it takes something pretty exceptional to stand out from the crowd.


"The Stain" by Josh Dysart and Ron Wimberly

Wait, Ohio University? Athens, Ohio? Why, that’s just a short drive from where I live!

Despite my geographic proximity, and the number of people I know who have gone to school there, I’ve never heard of the story that creators Dysart, Wimberly and editor Scott Allie hear in the story, and decide to investigate. Weird.

I assume it’s true though, but, if not, Dysart sure does a great job of selling it (Five-second Internet search says it’s true).

He and his fellow comic book people, visiting the campus for a comics-related event, check out a campus building that’s supposedly one of the most haunted places in the world. Specifically, they want to see a stain that’s shaped like a woman and was supposedly created by a woman dying and her body rotting into the floor.

Later, Dysart has a much scarier experience.

It’s a neat little essay about horror and mystery not always being where you expect to find them. This is my favorite piece so far, but I’m only one-fifth into the book at this point.


"Emily The Strange: She Moves in the Dark" by Kitty Remingon

I don’t understand Emily The Strange. This is a terrible two-page poem accompanied by nice art that sort of flirts with being a comic, but is probably closer to illustrated poetry.


"Creepy: Om Nom Nom!" by Andrew Mayer and Lukas Ketner

Apparently we were introduced to The Creepys earlier so we wouldn’t be surprised to find Uncle Creepy playing horror host in this short story.

He doesn’t add anything, and it seems a bit odd to have a character hosting a comic book story that will be told partially in first-person narration by one of the characters.

It’s a solid, eight-page horror story though, one with a predictable twist ending, but then, that’s part of the fun of such stories. Lukas Ketner’s art is appropriately creepy, and will likely re-instill your childhood fear of old people, if it’s something you’ve managed to grow out of.


"Previously Possessed" by Sarah Oleksyk

A very cute story about a young woman who buys a cool flapper dress from a vintage clothing store, only to discover it’s possessed by the woman who died in it, and it’s up to her to help the restless ghost find peace in the afterlife.

Of course, doing so sounds awfully hard, so she thinks of a rather clever solution to put an end to the haunting without having to inconvenience herself.

One fun thing about this anthology series is discovering new artists, and I’m glad to have been introduced to Olkesyk’s work. If you’re unfamiliar with her, do check out her website.


"The Nightmare of the Wine Hobo”"by Jamaica Dyer

A hobo discovers what happens if you love a bottle of wine too much…or perhaps not enough?…in this funny little silent story of absurd humor.


"Hunger For Knowledge" by Colleen Frakes

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again—bears are the new monkeys. And this story has a great many bears in it, all depicted by Frakes in a style that has more in common with fine art painting than pen-and-ink cartooning. It’s beautiful stuff, with an amusing punchline ending.


"Usagi Yojimbo: Saya" by Stan Sakai

Man, it is hard out there for a ronin…


"Beanworld in '? and !'" by Larry Marder

While horror seems to be the default setting for most of the contributors here, there’s something to be said for any anthology that can go from a samurai rabbit to a completely original world full of sentient bean-shapes and it’s own completely unique cosmology.

This is…well it’s Beanworld, and a sort of day-in-the-life look at it. Unlike some of the other contributions here that spin-out of pre-existing works, Marder’s short eight-page story does a pretty fine job of selling what it spins out of.

Although that may simply be a function of Beanworld being so damn unique that it’s extremely difficult to explain, and one needs to read it to get it, so that any Beanworld story is more or less as user-friendly as any other.


"The Famous Mysterious Actor in 'The Couch Fort'" by Famous Mysterious Actor and Todd Herman

I’m afraid I just didn’t get this one at all.


"Achewood: One-Dollar Genius" by Chris Onstad

Ray, Roast Beef and Teodor are doing bong hits at Ray’s mansion and decided to go on a completely spontaneous road trip. Passing a Taco Bell, they decide to order one of everything on the menu—“It could be a thing!”—and then have Teodor blog about it all fancy-like, in the manner of British food writer A.A. Gill, whom Beef assures Ray has “sentences better than any sentence in the land…He is to sentence technology what Hell is to places where the damned dwell.”

It turns out that there’s a reason no one orders one of everything off of Taco Bell’s menu and then tries to write about it all fancy-like though, as Teodor unfortunately discovers.

So you know, pretty much your average Achewood story—not one of the weird ones—only on paper and in color.


"President Carter and Kenny in 'The Best Job in the Whole World'" by Brian Sendelbach

Hmm, is it just me or is there more work from comic strippers in this volume than the previous ones? This is a two-page strip by Brian Sendelbach, creator of Smell of Steve (the only place you can find the adventures of Black Aquaman!), featuring his reoccurring characters President Carter and Kenny, a demon that is friends with President Carter.

In this adventure, President Carter realizes “presidenting just isn’t paying the bills anymore” and that he might not be able to make rent, so he decides to get a job and, after some difficulty, he lands the best job in the world!

That means President Carter now has both the best job in the world and the worst job in the world on his resume.


"Nothing Nice to say: Getting Hip!" by Mitch Clem

I have to remember to try asking "What's shakin', Hairstyle?" to a pretty girl while pointing at her with finger guns next time at a bar.

It doesn’t work for one of the protagonists in this short, two-page strip, but it is funny.


The K Chronicles by Keith Knight

Hey, Keith Knight again! This one’s twice as long, at two pages, as the cartoonist talks about the similarities between having a child and launching a daily newspaper strip.


"Steak & Kidney Punch" by Liz Greenfield

I do believe Greenfield wins the honor of best title in this volume.


"Applegeeks: RoBro" By Amanth Panagariya and Mohammad F. Haque

Oh hey, this reminds me I still need to read Dark Horse’s recent-ish Applegeeks collection.

So there are about a half-dozen cute-looking college students who share a home, and one of them is named Hawk, and he’s an inventor. He finds his fifth-grade science project, a robot built out of a bucket, cardboard box and alarm clock named RoBro. It falls in love with Eve, a more human-looking robot/android, also of Hawk’s invention, and begins stalking her.

Cutely-drawn hilarity ensues.


"Mister X in Slumberland" by Dean Motter

This is an eight-page introduction to Motter’s Mister X, with a punchline panel homage to Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo.


"Serenity: The Other Half" by Jim Krueger and Will Conrad

And here begins a suite of Joss Whedon-related comics based on pre-existing franchises from other media that I have extremely limited experience with/exposure to.

This is based on the short-lived sci-fi western TV Firefly I watched one episode of, which spawned a movie I kind of liked.

Nathan Fillion, drawn rather Nathan Fillion-y, and a bunch of other actor likenesses that look passingly familiar swear in Chinese while fighting zombies on a hover stagecoach. I guess. Eh.


"Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Harmony Bites" by Jane Epenson, Karl Moline and Andy Owens

A vampire named Harmony, drawn to resemble Buffy Summers as much if not more than the TV show version of Harmony, maybe has a reality TV show of some kind…? Is it still cool to do comics premised on a reality TV show? I thought that was played out when DC launched Blood Pack in the mid-90s.


"Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Vampy Cat Play Friend" by Steven S. DeKnight and Camilla d’Errico

I would have even known this had anything to do with Buffy if I didn’t notice the executive producer credit for Whedon at the bottom of the first page, and then double-check the table of contents.

It’s a cute, two-page commercial for a cute doll that rips the heads off of those who make fun of you.


"Moist: Humidity Rising" by Zack Whedon and Farel Dalrymple

Dalrymple draws the hell out of a weird, paranoid story about a very weird individual with unusual problems that suddenly veers into being a superhero parody before ending up being a Dr. Horrible tie-in of some kind.

I’m vaguely aware of Dr. Horrible, mostly through previous volumes in this series, but no matter how good the art is, they don’t really do anything for me.


And that’s a few words about every single story in MySpace Dark Horse Presents Vol. 3.


********************

Note: This review appeared at Blog@Newsarama earlier today. I'm cross-posting it here on Every Day Is Like Wednesday since my reviews of the previous two volumes in this series appear on this blog.

Weekly Haul: August 19th

Justice League of America #36 (DC) Someone at the shop today mentioned that Len Wein’s fill-in arc between the end of Dwayne McDuffie’s run and the beginning of James Robinson’s read a bit like he volunteered, “Well, I have this old script lying around…”

That makes sense. It explains the focus on an old group of JLA villains—this issue is almost half devoted to the origin story of Amos Fortune and the Royal Flush Gang, which I could have sworn Steven Englehart included in his JLA Classified arc from a few years back—as well as the fact that the specific heroes involved could be any heroes, really.

It also explains why #35 had six artists (two pencillers and four inkers), and why this issue still has four (although now it’s down to just one penciller and three inkers). I guess editor Eddie Berganza rounded up the first eight artists he could find with some room in their schedule and gave them a week to pound out a three-issue arc?

This issue certainly looks rushed as hell (The credits on the front cover of the book are different from those on the inside of the book too; and the credits on DC’s website are way off). Tom Derenick is the penciller, and while I normally like his work well enough, it is incredibly rough this issue. Check out Dr. Light II on page five, for example, or Wonder Woman’s shifting anatomy on page six.

With so many people contributing to the pages, it’s hard to tell who’s to blame for the sub-par work—maybe Derenick was simply providing super-rough pencils, and some inkers did a better job finishing his work than others?—but no one should be proud of this comic.

The story is, well it’s the origin story of Amos fucking Fortune, sandwiched some action scenes involving a few Justice Leaguers found laying around fighting the Royal Flush Gang.

The fact that 75% of the Justice League quit just because, and that no one else in the DCU has stepped up is pretty unconvincing, and Wein doesn’t do a great job of selling any of these actions. Nor are the Royal Flush Gang depicted as much of a threat. Any one of these super-characters should be able to mop the floor with 52 people dressed like cards in the space of ten pages, and yet Wein has to try and keep this thing going for 66 pages.

I suppose that explains the space given to Fortune’s origin.


Marvel Adventures Avengers #39 (Marvel Comics) Writer Paul Tobin seems a bit off his game on this particular script, as it isn’t up to his usual tight, nothing-wasted standards, and it seems cobbled together from at least three different plots.

The Leader, The Abomination and The Rhino have teamed up to take over a military satellite array to shoot a city-destroying laser, and a couple of the team stop them. But Rhino’s heart isn’t really into it, and wants to quit being a villain. And there’s a strange sub-plot involving Wolverine and hotdogs, which seems there simply to set-up a couple of gags later.

It’s not bad by any definition, it’s just not as good as it usually is.

The art by penciler and Horacio Dominues and inker Craig Yeung are pretty top-notch though. I was particularly impressed with some of Domingues’design work, like giving the leader a big old-school flight helmet and goggles in the opening battle-sequence, and his depictions of Tigra, Cage and Wolverine.

Pay no attention to that cover though; nothing remotely like that occurs within, and Cap and Thor aren’t even in it. It’s Example #983,210 of why you can’t judge a book by its cover—especially a comic book.


Super Friends #18 (DC) This by far my favorite issue of this particular series, and if you’re a fan of DC’s Bizarro-related humor, I’d heartily recommend it.

It’s written by Sholly Fisch and drawn by cover artist J. Bone, and focuses on the Bizarro Justice League, a cooler, cuter, funnier version of the League that appeared in Geoff Johns, James Robinson and Eric Powell’s “Escape from Bizarro World” arc in Action Comics.

They meet the Super Friends in a two-page sequence that is all solid superhero comedy gold. The story opens on Bizarro World, wherein Fisch and Bone introduces us to riffs on the familiar arbitrary opposite nature of the square planet. When the Bizarro Super Friends run out of things to do there, they decide to come to Earth, where the Super Friends are embroiled in a battle with Amazo and Professor Ivo.

Having a team of well-meaning opposite versions of themselves trying to help them complicates the task, at least until Superman and Wonder Woman figure out how to make the Bizarros’ ways work for them.

That’s all I want to say at this point, because I’m so tempted to simply repeat jokes you can find for yourself inside.

Buy it! Read it! Love it!

Among the activities in this issue is this page,
on which Bizarro Batman explains, “us Bizarros never buld things. So here am how you can not make your own Bizarrow World. It am easy. Just don’t follow these directions!

And man, it am not easy at all. I did follow the directions, but had some trouble getting the little flaps to stay glued to the edges of the square globe. Maybe tape would have worked better than glue stick.

Anyway, it’s pretty neat. Hopefully kids ask their parents to help out, because at 32, I had a hell of a time getting even this far with it.


Tiny Titans #19 (DC) I’m kinda glad all of the ultra-conservative cuckoo birds in the country are currently busy freaking out about the prospect of all Americans getting health insurance somehow leading to concentration camps and our invasion of Poland, as it means it’s even less likely that someone who might object to a Monsieur Mallah and The Brain going on a date in one of the half dozen or so comic books DC still publishes for kids will even notice.


Wednesday Comics #7 (DC) God bless you Wednesday Comics! It’s weeks like these—weeks when there are only a couple of superhero comic books I’m interested in on the shelves—that I appreciate a decent-to-excellent weekly super-comic.

Wednesday Comics qualifies, falling closer to “excellent” than “decent.”

Batman: Note to criminals in Gotham City. If you happen to be smoking when Batman grabs you by the collar, for God’s sake, spit your cigarette out immediately!

Kamandi: Dr. Canis looked cuter with his flight goggles on, I think.

Superman: Hey, fighting! Still pretty boring, though.

Deadman: Pretty inventive lay-out this week. It’s essentially a huge splash page of a demon upon a tall, bloody throne, with scantily clad, whipped female victims kneeling before him, but a few floating talking heads and scenes drawn behind the back of the throne and the arrangement of dialogue forms implied panels down the page. I have no idea how DC will ultimately collect Wednesday Comics (part of me thinks they shouldn’t collect it), but if they collect all of the stories, I bet Deadman is going to end up being one of the more interesting looking ones in terms of page-to-page design.

Green Lantern: Hey Hal, this salad dressing I made just doesn’t quite taste right, like it’s missing something. Any suggestions?
All right, all right, calm down man.

Metamorpho: This would be one of the good weeks of this particular strip, which always looks nice but is paced very strangely.

Teen Titans: This week’s strip refers to the events of Final Crisis: Revelations and Countdown. It’s weird the script attempts to hew closely to DCU continuity, while the art is so divorced from it, with Sean Galloway providing some pretty dramatic redesigns of some of the characters. I like his style, and this particular installment is a lot better than previous ones in terms of establishing place and so on, but it remains the strip that seems most out of place in this line-up of features.

Apropos of nothing, check out Wonder Girl, hanging all over Nightwing in this panel:


And Nightwing, power-walking into action alongside his teammates:


Strange Adventures: Adam Strange has a strange dream in which he meets Dr. Fate (wow, what a great design!), beholds his own “black dog of fear,” and remembers where he left that darn Zeta-Map. You know if I opened this up next week to find six pages of Paul Pope’s Strange Adventures and six pages of Kyle Baker’s Hawkman, you would not hear me complaining about it. And I love to complain!

Supergirl: Aquaman tells off Supergirl and makes her cry. Hooray! DC should cancel Power Girl immediately and put Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner on a new book entitled Aquaman, Asshole CEO of the Ocean.

Metal Men: Why are you so worried about Tin getting bathed in corrosive acids Platinum? If at least half of you guys don’t get destroyed in an adventure, than it’s just not a very good Metal Men adventure.

Wonder Woman: Huzzah! Ben Caldwell sticks with the vertical columns page-design he used last week, and, again, the page is much easier to read. This is the exact story that should have ran in the relaunched Wonder Woman after Infinite Crisis.

Sgt. Rock and Easy Co.: Rock is a poet: “Y’know, you’re puttin’ your neck in a noose for cuttin’ me loose.”

The Flash: Still appropriately Flash-y, a nice blend of Silver Age zaniness with more modern sophisticated story-telling, and fun with the format.

The Demon and Catwoman: The latter vanishes, the former appears.

Hawkman: In this installment, our hero asks, “Of all the islands in all the oceans on Planet Earth-- --why did we have to crash-land on DINOSAUR ISLAND?”

Because Hawkman, then we get to watch you fight dinosaurs for about five weeks, and that’s going to be awesome!

On the subject of The Lost World...

Last week I wrote a brief post comparing and contrasting aspects of Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World with various other media works sharing its name and people-meeting-dinosaurs premise. Today ace comics blogger Dirk Deppey the fine Golden Age Comic Book Stories blog, which posted Joseph Clement Coll's original illustrations for Doyle's Lost World, and, as you can see from the single image I swiped and posted above, it's fine, fine work.

I've been reading some turn-of-the-century adventure novels recently, and I find myself fascinated with the ways dinosaurs are depicted in them, reflecting popular understanding of their appearance and likeness at the time, versus what we now know (or think we know about them).

There are several sections of The Lost World describing large predators with faces like toads that sometimes stood on all fours, sometimes on their hind legs, and could jump like kangaroos. I think that's what Coll is drawing in these images. I have no idea what species Doyle had in mind for those passages. I thought he was referring to an allosaurus or a similar predator (the silent movie adaptation, made in Doyle's life time, was lousy with allosaurs), but Coll draws a more familiar-looking, bipedal dinosaur later.

Anyway, go take a look, and dig that line-work. It's gorgeous, gorgeous stuff.

Marvel's November previews reviewed

Full solicits here, my reactions here....


AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #612
Written by MARK WAID
Penciled by PAUL AZACETA
Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
50/50 Cover by ADI GRANOV (see Previews cover)
Variant Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
"POWER TO THE PEOPLE, PART 1"
They’re Hunting Spiders...THE GAUNTLET begins here
The event that redefines Spider-Man's classic arch-enemies one by one starts with one of his deadliest – Electro! Destitute and desperate, conned out of his life's meaning and worth—Max Dillon becomes the voice of the common man against the brutal injustice of a system overloaded by greed. With Spider-Man already looking over his shoulder. Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta bring you the story of a hero with everything to lose against a man with nothing left to gain. Prepare for death’s short, sharp shock. Prepare for Electro.
40 PGS./Rated A ...$3.99

Hey, I thought Mark Millar's Marvel Knights Spider-Man story arc redefined Spider-Man's classic arch-enemies one by one...


AMAZING SPIDER-MAN PRESENTS: ANTI-VENOM - NEW WAYS TO LIVE #3 (of 3)
Written by ZEB WELLS
Penciled by PAULO SIQUEIRA
Cover by MIRCO PIERFEDERICI
DUCK AND COVER! It’s Anti-Venom and Punisher vs. one of the largest, most powerful and most ruthless drug cartels on the planet. Our money’s on the guys with the biggest guns...and the skulls on their chests. Zeb Wells & Paulo Siqueira deliver the senses-shattering conclusion to NEW WAYS TO LIVE!
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$3.99

Oh-- Oh wow. Let's see here...three phrase title, with two forms of punctuation and the word "presents," the Punisher possessed not just by Venom, but by Anti-Venom...man, this book is like a perfect storm.



ASSAULT ON NEW OLYMPUS
Written by GREG PAK & FRED VAN LENTE
Penciled by RODNEY BUCHEMI
Cover by ADI GRANOV
Hercules! Spider-Man! Ares! New Avengers! Wolverine! Mighty Avengers! The Agents of Atlas! If there's a bigger event this fall, we don't know what it could be! At long last, the Prince of Power takes the fight to his villainous stepmother Hera and the forces of the Olympus Group -- just as she unleashes the most terrifying threat the Marvel Universe has ever seen! But first Herc has to gather together a star-studded strike force from the ranks of the New and the Mighty Avengers! First on the list: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN! But why is Everyone's Friendly Neighborhood fighting against Hercules? Has he joined the side of the dark gods? It's webs and wisecracks versus Olympian power in this super-sized one-shot! (There will be major property damage, we guarantee.) Plus: The iHerc team proudly welcomes our new INCREDIBLE HERCULES on-going back-up feature... THE AGENTS OF ATLAS, written by fan favorite scribe Jeff Parker! When the forces of New Olympus target Venus, will Jimmy Woo lead his team into the fray for or against Hercules' forces?
48 PGS./One-Shot/Rated T+ ...$3.99

Neat, a crossover series I'm actually super-interested in! That doesn't happen too often. Pretty gross Hercules there on that cover though. I'm not sure Adi Granov should be allowed to do covers featuring characters who are not Iron Man.


THE BLACK KNIGHT #1
Written by TOM DEFALCO
Pencils & Cover by RON FRENZ
The secret origin of the original Black Knight is finally revealed as Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves and Demons from the darkest realms confront Sir Percy of Scandia and his twin brother on their desperate quest to find Chaos, the dreaded Doombringer--the only weapon capable of defeating Excalibur, the legendary battle sword of King Arthur!
40 PGS./One-Shot/Rated A ...$3.99

Like the Kid Colt one-shot Marvel put out a couple of weeks ago, which was also written by Tom DeFalco, this looks pretty random.


DARK AVENGERS #11
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Pencils & Cover by MIKE DEODATO
The explosive smash hit series from Brian Bendis and Mike Deodato continues!! The Dark Avengers are pitted against a foe they cannot defeat: A man with the power over every molecule in the world! Norman can't talk his way out of this one as the world gets turned upside down and no joke...someone dies. For reelz!!
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$3.99

"For reelz?" Really?


DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #899
Written by FRED VAN LENTE
Pencils by DALIBOR TALAJIC
Cover by HUMBERTO RAMOS
MERC WITH A MYTH!
Stop rubbing your eyes, fanboy, they don't deceive you! Everyone's favorite Merc with a Mouth stars in a third on-going series, hacking and wisecracking his way across the Marvel Universe with a new guest-star every month! First up: when master assassin ARCADE and NIGHTMARE, Lord of the Dream Dimension, join forces to destroy Wade Wilson and THE INCREDIBLE HERCULES, they get more than they bargain for, taking on two of the MU's most irresponsible heroes! Drunken mayhem, bad jokes, and billions of dollars of property damage ensue!
32 PGS./Parental Advisory ...$2.99

Er, are they serious about that third Deadpool ongoing series bit, or was thast just a joke? Because that seems a little excessive. I mean, three ongoings is moving Deadpool beyond Punisher territory and up into into Spider-Man and Wolverine territory.

I’m not really a Deadpool fan—I just read about twenty or so Deadpool comics I received in a friend’s cast-off comics collection, which was my first real exposure to the character—but I will probably check this out, as I am a Fred Van Lente fan, and I do so dig his Incredible Hercules series.


GHOST RIDERS: HEAVEN'S ON FIRE #4 (of 6)
Written by JASON AARON
Penciled by ROLAND BOSCHI
Cover by DUSTIN WEAVER
Hellstorm, the Son of Satan, occult terrorist Jaine Cutter, junior Anti-Christ Kid Blackheart and sword-wielding nun Sister Sara are crossing the country on motorcycles, trying to find a gateway to hell. That's bound to go smoothly, right? Not if the minions of renegade angel Zadkiel have anything to say about it. Make way for the demented return of Scarecrow and Madcap to the Ghost Rider rogues gallery. Better buy two copies of this issue because you're bound to wet one with your tears of terror.
32 PGS./Parental Advisory ...$3.99

Wow, that sounds awesome. I can't wait to--oh shit, $4? You're killing me here, Marvel! I suppose I'll trade-wait this too...


HOUSE OF M: MASTERS OF EVIL #4 (of 4)
Written by CHRISTOS N. GAGE
Penciled by MANUEL GARCIA
Cover by MIKE PERKINS
Magneto strikes in the shattering conclusion! The ruler of the House of M has targeted the Sapien homeland established by the Hood and his gang. With his wrath about to fall on their city and its helpless citizens, will the villains take the money and run? Or will they stay and fight a suicidal battle against impossible odds? Either way, there's going to be a high body count...especially when Wolverine, Rogue and the rest of the Red Guard come to town!
32 PGS./Rated T+ .$3.99


So ends another completely unnecessary House of M tie-in miniseries, created specifically to later collect into a trade, because House of M trades sell incredibly well for some unknown reason. I wonder what the next one will be. I'm hoping House of M: Midnight Sons.



HULK #17
Written by JEPH LOEB
Pencils & Cover by IAN CHURCHILL
Variant Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
Superstars JEPH LOEB and IAN CHURCHILL bring you the final chapter of CODE RED. Is RED HULK strong enough to throw down with WOLVERINE, PUNISHER, DEADPOOL, the all-new RED SHE-HULK, and more? Find out, as new secrets are revealed as the stage is set for WORLD WAR HULKS.
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$3.99

Sure, She-Rulk, why the hell not? That'll probably keep this thing going another 12 issues without needing to get to a point....


INCREDIBLE HERCULES #138
Written by GREG PAK & FRED VAN LENTE
Penciled by RODNEY BUCHEMI
Wraparound Cover by ADI GRANOV
ASSAULT ON NEW OLYMPUS: Part 1 (of 4)
A battle of god-like proportions begins...right now! For months, the signs have been all over the Marvel Universe... The tension has been rising... All pointing to a single question: "What is CONTINUUM?" The answer turns out to be so deadly, so horrifying, that it will alter the course of the MU forever -- unless Hercules and the New and Mighty Avengers can stop it in time... but standing in their way is the fighting-mad ARES, God of War! "And, in our backup tale, there's no love for Venus as Aphrodite's rain of pain continues to pour on the Agents of Atlas!"
40 PGS./Rated T+ ...$3.99

Hmmm…there’s an Agents of Atlas back-up and a $1 price increase, making this a DC-style $4 book, instead of a Marvel-style $4 book. And I don’t see a solicit for the Agents monthly. Does that mean it’s been canceled, and is being replaced here, or is it simply on hiatus while the Agents/X-Men miniseries is going on?


MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPER HEROES #17
Written by PAUL TOBIN
Penciled by IG GUARA
Cover by NIKO HENRICHON
A living legend. A divine warrior. An armored knight. A synthetic man. A cosmic woman. A spy. A rookie. Separately, they are some of the most powerful beings on the planet, but when a great tragedy brings these seven together, they will become far more than individuals, they will become something more. Join up-and-coming writer PAUL TOBIN and artist IG GUARA (LOCKJAW & THE PET AVENGERS) for this newest launch in the revamped Marvel Adventures line!
32 PGS./All Ages ...$2.99

Hmm, this makes it sound like they’re relaunching Marvel Adventures Avengers within this title, doesn’t it? Assuming the first four are Cap, Thor, Iron Man and The Vision, and “A spy” is Black Widow, who might “A cosmic woman” and “A rookie” be? Captain Marvel/Whateverhernameis (Quasar? Photon?) or Ms. Marvel and, um, hmmm…no guesses on the rookie, actually.


THE MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ #1 (of 8)
Written by ERIC SHANOWER
Pencils & Cover by SKOTTIE YOUNG
Variant Cover by ERIC SHANOWER
Variant Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
The epic continues! Fresh off their landmark run on THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF OZ, superstars ERIC SHANOWER (Age of Bronze) and SKOTTIE YOUNG (X-MEN) return with L. Frank Baum’s MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ. Join new characters Tip and Jack Pumpkinhead as they’re whisked to Oz, and meet foes and friends! You’ve NEVER seen L. Frank Baum’s masterpiece like this before...
32 PGS./All Ages ...$3.99

I still don't understand why Marvel is pricing their Oz books like their Max, Marvel Knights, and Marvel Universe miniseries, one-shots and bestsellers, instead of like their all-ages lines.

I'm curious to see what Ed McGunness' variant cover looks like. Wait, variant cover? There are three fucking covers on this thing? Jesus, Marvel. This is one of the books they publish that seems like it could legitimately appeal to people beyond the regular Marvel Comics reader base, a book that they could conceivably use to try and grow their market a bit, and yet they're treating it like it's Dark Avengers.



PUNISHER #11
Written by RICK REMENDER
Penciled by TONY MOORE
Cover by DAVE WILKINS
“FRANKEN-CASTLE” PART 1
In the belly of New York, skulking and forgotten creatures of the night uncover the remains of a man in a familiar outfit. Frank Castle is dead. What exactly IS Frankencastle? Long time collaborators Rick Remender and Tony Moore (GHOST RIDER, Fear Agent, The Walking Dead) are reunited for what will be the greatest struggle in the afterlife of the Punisher. Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster...
32 PGS./Parental Advisory ...$2.99

If this is what it sounds like—a dead Frank Castle being brought back to life using the Frankenstein method—then it looks like something I may want to read. If it's not what it sounds like, then I probably don't. Hmm...


THOR #604
Written by KIERON GILLEN
Pencils & Cover by BILLY TAN
Gatefold VariantCover by OLIVIER COIPEL (see pg. 118 for full cover image)
Has Doctor Doom crossed a line...? And what role did Loki play in Doom’s sinister plans? What did Loki know...and when...? Now, as Thor heads to Latveria to settle the score, only one thing can happen: Thor sitting Doom down and having a serious chat about their feelings. By which we mean, STATE-OF-THE-ART SLEDGHAMMER SKY-SCRAPING SUIT-SMASHING SUPERHEROICS! Billy Tan (NEW AVENGERS) draws the action-packed escapades while Kieron Gillen (NEW UNIVERSAL: 1959, DARK REIGN: ARES, Phonogram) starts his six issue run. Hold onto your runestones, True Believers – things get hectic quick!
32 PGS./Rated T+...$2.99

Gatefold…?


THUNDERBOLTS #138
Written by JEFF PARKER
Penciled by MIGUEL SEPULVEDA
Cover by FRANCESCO MATTINA
The blood hits the fan in the first issue by new writer Jeff Parker (AGENTS OF ATLAS)! It's been too long since Mr. X has killed, and he needs his next fix! Ghost has taken notice, and sees an opportunity...while Scourge is seeing things that no one should! Add in the selfish intentions of Paladin and Ant-Man, stir with a stick of dynamite and...BOOM! You’ve heard raves about Parker’s ATLAS (heroes pretending to be villains)...but now it’s time to let him loose on some real fiends!
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$2.99

Wow, Jeff Parker is everywhere this month! (He’s also writing a 1602 spin-off series that…well, that looks like a 1602 spin-off). Since the “Dark Reign” mega-story launched out of Secret Invasion, a lot of the special has been sucked out of this book, since the premise of bad guys-posing-as-good is now the default status of the entire Marvel Universe.

I haven’t heard of half these guys—Mr. X? Ghost? Scourge?—but it's Jeff Parker, so I’ll happily give it a try. Nice to see it’s priced at the “give it a try” price of $2.99 too.

The Melancholic Spider-Man

All the original Marvel characters had their own adjectives—the Fantastic Four was, obviously, fantastic. Thor was mighty, the Hulk was incredible, Iron Man was invincible, the X-Men uncanny and Spider-Man was, at first, amazing. He would later be sensational and friendly neighborhood, as well.

But he was never depressing. At least, he never starred in a comic book called The Depressing Spider-Man, but that's only because someone thought Peter Parker: Spider-Man had a better ring to it. Last night I sat down with three issues of the book from 2001, and by the time I finished the third one I had almost completely lost my will to live.

Now, I don't know if Peter Parker: Spider-Man #33-#35 are representative of writer Paul Jenkins' run on the title or not, but they are some incredibly downbeat comic books. Like, so downbeat I'm not even sure why they exist. Well, I can sort of almost kind of see the logic that since this was the title with Spidey's secret identity's name right there in the title that they'd want to focus on his inner, emotional life over his superheroic exploits but, my God, not like this, not like this!

Issue #33 bears a cover of young Peter Parker and not-dead-yet Uncle Ben at a ball game. It's drawn by Humberto Ramos, and it's a kinda funny image. You see Pete got konked on the head by a flyball and is seeing stars, while various game-goers react to that and other events in exaggerated, cartoonish ways.

Kinda looks like it might be a fun comic, right?

Then you turn the cover and, on the first page, Spider Man is clinging to the spire of a skyscraper, thinking about how fast time is moving now that he's getting older, and, in th elast panel on the page, we see his unmasked face, his eyes filling with tears, and his narration box reads: "This is the day my Uncle Ben died."

Uh-oh.

Page two, Aunt May visits Ben's grave. The next twenty? Peter goes to a Mets game by himself, all the while flashing back to ones he attended with Ben as a kid and the life lessons he learned at those games, including the last one they attended together—just three days before Ben died!

Okay, well, that was a bit of a downer, I thought, but not a bad piece of super-melodrama, really.

On to #34. This one's got Spider-Man on the cover, doing something Spider-Man-ish, plus a guy with glowing blue laser eyes. This one's gotta be a more standard superhero book, right? (And by "standard superhero book" I mean not completely focused on the brevity of human life).

The first three pages deal with a couple of monks freaking out about another of their order having escaped the monastery. Apparently, he's a mutant of some kind with the Cyclops-like problem of laser blasting and killing whoever he looks at. And he's on the loose!

Meanwhile, in the city, Aunt May gives Peter a used set of salt and pepper shakers shaped like an angel and a devil, which Jenkins writes into the story specifically to set up a sight gag referencing the angel on one shoulder, devil on the other cartoon staple. For some reason, artist Mark Buckingham draws the shakers huge though. Like, they're the size of jars.

Peter is at this point still married to Mary Jane, but they're separated (geographically but not legally, if I remember millennial Spider-marriage status quo correctly), and he's not sure if he should go on a date-like outting with his sexy neighbor, although he eventually decides to go to a neighborhood fun fair with her.

That's where the laser-eyed monk is heading. He kills a whole bunch of people by looking at them, he fights Spider-Man a bit, but, in the end, he gets aboard one of those, tilting, spinning amusement park rides that's a bit like a giant cup you stand in and while it spins around (here called "The Wall of Death").

The specifics of his eye whammy are that a) it only goes off if he's standing upright as opposed to laying down and b) the longer he keeps his eyes open, the more life-energy he expends and the closer he gets to death.

He wants to ride this ride simply because it allows him to see the stars as he expends all his energy in looking at them, and dies. Spider-Man, hero that he is, fails to save the suicidal laser-eyed monk.

So this is essentially a done-in-one story about a mutant monk committing suicide right in front of Spider-Man. William (that's the monk's name) sees the stars, but also sees God (William switches pronouns from I see "them" to I see "Him" as he dies). Spider-Man looks down at the dead monk, and then up at the night sky, and envies him: "All I see are little points of light against a big black blanket. A vast shroud of nothing, infinitely far away. Somes I wish I could be as lucky as William."

Presumably Jenkins means Spidey's an atheist and wishes he could believe like William could believe. Or perhaps he wishes he were dead, and put out of the misery that is his life? After 40 pages of vicariously living it, I can understand where he's coming from.

Sheesh. Well surely Jenkins will lighten things up next issue, right? He can't keep providing emotionally punishing stories month in and month out. No one reads Spider-Man comics to be bummed right the hell out, after all.

So that brings us to #35, on which Ramos draws Spider-Man sitting with his chin on his knee (uh-oh) talking to a little boy about something. Fuck. I bet it's something sad, isn't it?

That little boy is excitedly running home from school on the first page to tell his mom that he got invited to a classmate's birthday party, but inside he finds her laying face down on the couch of their filthy apartment, beer cans and an empty bottle of gin piled around her.

"Momma. I got home from school," he tells her sadly, awakening her. When he asks where dinner is, she says she has a headache and it's in the fridge before shes passes out again. He goes to the fridge, but all he finds are two cans of beer in it.

Jesus. Spider-Man doesn't appear until page five, and man, even Spider-Man's not gonna help any here. The boy goes to his room and fishes a collectable Spider-Man card out of a box under his bed, and suddenly Spider-Man appears with a, "Heya, Secret Sidekick!"

The boy, Lafronce, tells Spider-Man all about his day, and Spidey tells him about the villains he fought. But it's not really Spider-Man! No, it's the imaginary Spider-Man that Lafronce summons to hang out with him as a way of coping with his miserable life.

We wallow in Lafronce's terrible life for a few more scenes. Here he is at school drawing his hero Spider-Man hanging out with he and his mom, there are his aunt and uncle arguing with the principal that he should have Lafronce taken away from his mother, here he is coming home from school again this time finding a mean man beating on his mom, here's imaginary friend Spider-Man again, and there's a social worker talking about how he's doing everything he can for Lafronce over the phone, while we see him at a golf course.

Then one day Lafronce goes home and finds his mom's body being removed from their apartment. Apparently she's been dead for three months, and Lafronce was living with her the whole time?(!?!)

At the end of the story, he has another conversation with imaginary Spider-Man who is apparently going to quit being his imaginary friend now, and when he's ready to leave Lafronce, imaginary Spider-Man says "Big men don't hug each other when they part ways..they shake hands."

Ready for the last page surprise ending? Spider-Man has removed his glove and mask to shake hands with Lafronce and...Spidey's a black man!
It's a neat image to be sure, and certainly a surprise ending. Perhaps Jenkins is trying to say something about how we project ourselves into our heroes, or want them to be like us, all I could really think was Jesus, if Lafronce actually got to meet his hero like that, would that be just one more disappointment to learn that Spidey is actually just an ineffectual, whiny white kid?

Part of me wouldn't mind reading more of Jenkins' run on this title just to see if it's all like this, and part of me hopes I never come across any more. I don't think I can stand to read any more about the human misery and suffering in Spider-Man's world. After all, isn't that what all the comics set in our world are for?

DC's November previews reviewed

Remember how Blackest Night was supposed to be a relatively self-contained Event story, playing out in a miniseries with that title, the Green Lantern books, and a trio of miniseries focusing on Batman, Superman and the Teen Titans?

Well forget it. DC’s got a hit on their hands, and they’re apparently going to try and exploit it for all it’s worth. That’s always a pretty big risk, but, as I learned from Fired Up, you’ve got to risk it to get the biscuit, and so Black Lanterns will be showing up all over the DCU in November, particularly in the company’s lower-selling DCU books.

You can read all about those and other DC comics and toys here, and you can read all about my thoughts on a few of them here…


BATGIRL #4
Written by Bryan Q. Miller
Art by Lee Garbett and Trevor Scott
Cover by Phil Noto
It’s Batgirl’s first night on the job, and as she’ll soon learn, it takes a lot more to wear the mantle of the Bat than she originally thought – especially when she has to juggle patrol, the police and a frat party!
On sale November 11 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Wait, her first night on the job is in the fourth issue? I wonder what happens in the first three issues of the series then? (Or is this a flashback?)

It looks like they’re going with one of those blacked-out covers, showing Batgirl in what must be a new, secret identity-spoiling costume fighting some Dark Knight Returns extras. Take special note of her thighs, particularly the left one. Is she wearing utility belts around her legs…? (?!) Oh man, I hope that new costume isn’t as bad as the presence of thigh-bandoliers would indicate….


BATMAN: THE WRATH TP
Written by Tony Bedard and Mike W. Barr
Art by Rags Morales, Michael Golden and others
Cover by Rags Morales
The Wrath returns from the shadows of the past in this new collection featuring BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #13-16 and 1984’s BATMAN SPECIAL #1, which introduced The Wrath! But how does this mysterious foe know so much about Batman’s past?
On sale December 23 • 144 pg, FC, $17.99 US

I enjoyed the four-part Batman Confidential series collected herein, a sequel of sorts to a story in an early ‘80s Batman special, in large part because it was extremely well-drawn by Rags Morales. It looks like they’ll be collecting that arc with the original, 25-year-old special it followed.

Damn, now I kinda wish I would have waited for the trade…


BLACKEST NIGHT #5
Written by Geoff Johns
Art and cover by Ivan Reis & Oclair Albert
Variant cover by Rodolfo Migliari
Sketch variant cover by Ivan Reis & Oclair Albert
The moment you’ve hungered for finally arrives! Who controls death in the DC Universe? NEKRON - Lord of the Undead! The dark being behind the undead Black Lanterns makes his presence and purpose known, and our heroes discover they’re not only fighting for their lives, but their after-lives as well. Don’t miss this game-changing issue from superstar writer Geoff Johns and stellar artist Ivan Reis!

Aw, I was kinda hoping for cute, goth girl Death of the Endless, not an obscure Green Lantern character from before I was even reading comic books.

And hey look, Nekron’s Lantern is part of a grim reaper-like scythe. That’s stupid/awesome.


THE BRAVE & THE BOLD #29
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Art and cover by Jesus Saiz
A thing that lives... and fights for its soul! The shambling walking doll that is Brother Power, the Geek has been reborn in Gotham City without a home or purpose! Could destiny have something in store for this seemingly lost relic? And why does his appearance cut into Batman’s heart like none of Gotham’s strange monsters ever has before? Find out in this new issue from best-selling writer J. Michael Straczynski (Amazing Spider-Man) and artist Jesus Saiz (OMAC PROJECT)!
On sale November 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Oh fuck yes. Don’t fuck this one up, Straczynski!


THE GREAT TEN #1
Written by Tony Bedard
Art by Scott McDaniel & Andy Owens
Cover by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau
Part 1 of a 10-part miniseries! Join writer Tony Bedard (R.E.B.E.L.S.) and artist Scott McDaniel (NIGHTWING, GREEN ARROW) for an adventure exploring the extraordinary characters from the pages of 52 and CHECKMATE!
At the dawn of the Chinese Century, the 10 official "super-functionaries" of the People's Republic face their greatest challenge as the gods of Ancient China return to destroy communist rule! Will the most populous nation on Earth drag the rest of the world down with it? Do its heroes even want to save a government that treats them like pawns? Don't miss this tale that redraws the map of the DCU and fleshes out the most exciting and mysterious new characters from the mind of Grant Morrison! Featuring a gorgeous cover by rising artist Stanley “Artgerm” Lau (FINAL CRISIS AFTERMATH: DANCE).
On sale November 4 • 1 of 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Poor Tony Bedard and Scott McDaniel. It seems like they would each be much better off finding some steady work on a monthly rather than bouncing around as they have, as the recent resume of each make them look like the guys DC turns to when no one else wants the gig.

And this series just looks dead on arrival. You've got some minor, C-List superheroes introduced in a very popular limited series…let's see…three years ago, now? (Might have been a good idea to launch this early on during 52's run, no?)You've got a writer whose specialty seems to be fill-in arcs, paired with an artist who is ubiquitous in low-selling and/or awful comics (I kinda like McDaniel, but his recent work includes Countdown tie-ins, Trinity, and various Classified and Confidential stories...he's just not packing much heat these days, you know?). Factor in the fact that hardly anyone ever manages to make Grant Morrison creations sing and the fact that comics shelves are already over-crowded with super-comics and, well, I can't imagine anyone at DC thinks this is going to be selling 18,000 copies by the tenth issue.

Maybe they'll break even, and that's enough these days...? The cover looks nice, anyway.


JLA YEAR ONE TP NEW PRINTING
Written by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn
Art by Barry Kitson & Michael Bair
Cover by Barry Kitson
The definitive tale of the JLA’s formation is back in a new printing of the massive book starring The Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter and Aquaman. Collecting the entire, original twelve-issue miniseries!
Advance-solicited; on sale December 9 • 320 pg, FC, $19.99 US

No longer in continuity!


JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE #5
Written by James Robinson
Art and cover by Mauro Cascioli
Supergirl and Shazam join the team as Prometheus is finally captured! His evil machinations are revealed, but even so, the League may be unable to stop the villain’s disturbing plans as he cuts down one of the members! Don’t miss this shocking new issue that’ll have everybody talking.
On sale November 18 • 5 of 7 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US

Okay, can you spot the problem with this series that the solicitation copy itself reveals? That's right! The phrase "join the team" is in the solicitation for the fifth issue of a seven-part miniseries. I like th promise that the issue will have everybody talking, too. The first two issues of the series certainly had everybody talking, but they weren't saying anything nice.

Ah well, no such thing as bad publicity, right?


JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #33
Written by Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges
Art and cover by Jesus Merino
The traitor stands revealed, and his part in the destruction of the Justice Society of America is complete. While the team’s headquarters lies in ruin, the same fate has befallen the team itself! Hold on to your seats, because the JSA as we’ve known it is torn asunder!
On sale November 25 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Aw, but Dale Eaglesham and company just built that nice, new headquarters, with the cool table and chairs and everything!


JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA 80-PAGE GIANT #1
Written by Zander Cannon, Kevin Grevioux, Felicia D. Henderson, Jen Van Meter, Jerry Ordway, James Robinson and Matthew Sturges
Art by Roberto Castro & John Floyd, Neil Edwards & Wayne Faucher, Renato Guedes & José Wilson Magalhães, Jesus Merino, Jerry Ordway, Freddie Williams II and others
Cover by Jerry Ordway
The newer members of the JSA explore the team’s mansion headquarters and learn a thing or two about themselves in 7 exciting stories from today’s top creators in this oversized special! But who directs the group through the deep, dark halls of building? Is it a friend, or a very dangerous foe?
On sale November 18 • 80 pg, FC, $5.99 US

I love, love, love 80-page giants, particularly of the novel-length adventure variety. The creative roster here looks a little mixed--people I know I like, people I don't really like, people I don't know at all--but I'll likely pick this up, despite having dropped the parent title.

Quick question: Who's that new guy that looks like Kid Shade?


SUPERMAN/BATMAN #66
Written by Scott Kolins
Art and cover by Scott Kolins
The Blackest Night blankets the world of Superman and Batman yet again! But this time it’s not what you think! Get ready for a team-up of epic proportions as Bizarro and Man-Bat face down the undead power of Black Lantern Solomon Grundy!
On sale November 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Here’s one of those Wait, why the hell is this book featuring a Blackest Night tie-in? comics I mentioned up top.

Now, I can’t actually recall reading anything Scott Kollins has written before, nor have I read anyone say anything at all about the eight-part Solomon Grundy limited series he’s been doing (aside from Mike Sterling noting that he reads and likes it), but a Man-Bat/Bizarro team-up is one of those concepts that sounds so crazy it just might work.


SUPERMAN: WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #9
Written by James Robinson & Greg Rucka
Art by Pete Woods
Cover by Gary Frank
Variant cover by Mark Buckingham
Humans and Kryptonians are the only two races in our solar system, right? Wrong! Jemm, Son of Saturn, ruler of the super-powered Saturnian race, arrives in Kandor demanding answers to New Krypton’s recent actions – answers he intends to get even if he has to fight his way through Commander Kal-El and the entire Kryptonian army!
Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. For every 25 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Gary Frank), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Mark Buckingham). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.

Ever since that one Martian Manhunter arc, "The Rings of Saturn," I thought it was kinda weird that Saturn was inhabited and had some Martian-like, super-type people, but they hardly ever have anything to do with the rest of the DCU.

So maybe this will be neat. I found the first issue of this series pretty dull and thought I'd just wait for a trade on it. Now I wonder how they'll collect it, in two six-issue trades or a big huge 12-issue trade? I'm so new at this waiting-for-the-trade game!


WORLD’S FINEST #2
Written by Sterling Gates
Art by Ramon Bachs
Covers by Phil Noto
Following a trail of experimental equipment that was stolen from WayneTech, the new Robin finds himself in Metropolis and face-to-face with the straight-laced Guardian. But when Parasite and Mr. Freeze appear, the two heroes will have to band together to capture the villains and retrieve the missing tech. What are the villains really after, though, and who is pulling their strings?

This looks like it will be an ideal series to buy out of $1 bins at the Mid-Ohio Comic Con some day.


Okay, I give up: Who are the two to the left of Terra…? Is that Pantha and Aquagirl I?


VIGILANTE #12
Written by Marv Wolfman
Art and cover by Rick Leonardi and John Stanisci
The Vigilante aims to settle the score with the mob by going after the big boss. But this boss just so happens to be his father-in-law! Family matters turn into grave matters, and blood will run for the Vigilante in this, the final issue of the series!
FINAL ISSUE • On sale November 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

So, here’s the “FINAL ISSUE” I’ve been waiting to read at the end of a solicitation for Vigilante ever since it was first announced. It lasted a whole year, which is honestly more than I would have expected. I wonder if the crossover with the Titans books helped give it an extra three issues or so…



AME-COMI HEROINE SERIES: WONDER GIRL PVC FIGURE
DESIGNED BY SANFORD GREEN • SCULPTED BY JONATHAN MATTHEWS

Cute and cunning Cassandra Sandsmark has her magic lasso ready to strike! Just like her idol, Donna Troy, Cassie is proud to join the ranks of the popular Ame-Comi series!

The limited-edition, non-articulated, approximately 8.25” high PVC statue comes with a base, is packaged in a 4-color window box with J-hook and is manufactured to order.

Advance-solicited; on sale April 21, 2010 * Statue * $60 US

Oh, Cassie’s “proud” to join the Ame-Comi series, is she? Why?

Quick question: Do those…things she’s wearing qualify as chaps? Or are they just denim thigh-high tights attached to a garter belt or…? Sanford Green, I do not understand your design!


The Wonder Woman one is a lot cooler, giving the heroine a Frank Frazetta/old-school paperback fantasy novel look which works with an aspect of the character.

I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that there are enough people who are willing to spend $60 a pop on these things that they are worthwhile to produce, though.

Why aren't there comics featuring these versions of the characters though, if there are enough people into them? I mean, I like manga, I like scantily clad women, and I like DC superheroes, so I'd probably read an "Ame-Comi" comic book if it were well-written and well-drawn, even if I'd never want one of these stupid statues in my house.