Comic Shop Comics: July 15

Black Canary #2 (DC Comics) The second issue of the very promising new Black Canary series by Brenden Fletcher and Annie Wu seemed like a too-quick read, and it's really no wonder. There are only about 14-pages of comics content in it, with a two-page spread devoted to a recap of sorts (presented as clippings from an article about the band Black Canary, with some drawings in the background), two more pages devoted to pull-out poster, and then two pages of illustrated prose on the back of the mini-poster. The poster makes for some fun content, but it really seems like the sort of thing one should get as a bonus, rather than in lieu of the comics one might reasonably expect.

What little is actually here is pretty good, of course. Apparently more than one mysterious force is after Black Canary (the band), either because of mysterious, meta-human band-member Ditto and/or other mysterious, meta-human bandmember D.D. (who readers now is the superhero Black Canary, but the members of the band Black Canary apparently don't). In this issue, D.D. tries to train her bandmates in various forms of self-defense (including killing people with guns?), while they are again ambushed by something that would seem to be way out of most rock band's league.

I like the art, and I love the coloring (by Lee Loughridge) and, as much as I love the comic book format, I wonder if maybe this isn't one that will be a more pleasant reading experience in collected form? At the very least, I wouldn't then find myself counting pages after reading a chapter of it.

Dr. Fate #2 (DC) Not much plot advancement here. Young Khalid is still trying to come to terms with the fact that he has a magic, talking helmet that gives him powers, as he struggles to save his dad and the city from a flood and possessed dogs, both threats that have been unleashed by Anubis.

As superhero plots go, writer Paul Levitz's is simple, accessible and effective, if unremarkable, but with Sonny Liew's idiosyncratic artwork, the book is easily and instantly set apart from every other DC comic (and most of the Marvel ones) on the stand. Liew's lines going all wiggily during trippy scenes is particularly striking, as is that wonderful cover.

The very last panel includes a little next issue box, featuring the Helm of Fate with a manga-style sweat drop and that's something I've never seen before, and things I've never seen before? That's exactly what I want to see in superhero comics.

Godzilla In Hell #1 (IDW Publishing) The cover says absolutely everything you need to know to make an informed purchasing decision on this one. It stars Godzilla, it's set in Hell, and it's by Stokoe, as in James Stokoe, the man responsible for Godzilla: The Half-Century War.

It's not exactly the Godzilla in Hell comic I would have written–which would have basically been The Divine Comedy, only swapping out the protagonist for Godzilla, and the historical figures with various characters and monsters from Toho movies*–but then, this is going to be a rather weird anthology series, wherein each issue will have a different creator or creative team tell a story of Godzilla in Hell. I'm not sure what #2-#5 will be like, but this one is a standalone, done-in-one issue, with a pretty perfect story by Stokoe presenting what Hell might be like for Godzilla.

If you've read Half-Century War, than you already know of Stokoe's considerable virtues in the realm of Godzilla comics, and you'll be happy to know that many of them are on display here. If you haven't read Half-Century War, then do pick this up: It's a nice sample of what you'll find in that series, which is now available in two differently formated collections.

Lumberjanes #16 (Boom Studios) Okay, that's a pretty awesome cover there, Brooke Allen, telling a complete and compelling story that gives a would-be reader a pretty good idea about what the series is all about in a single image, but man, there are no mer-people in this issue!

Instead, it continues the plotline in which several 'janes from a previous generation–Rosie, Bear Lady and big game hunter Abigail–attempt to resolve some unresolved issues, which mainly entails slaying a big, dumb-looking monster with a dumb-sounding name, or stopping the slaying of said monster, depending on the character. Told to keep out of it, our Lumberjanes naturally do no such thing.



*Godzilla would naturally Godzilla his way through the nine circles of the Inferno, stomping Dis like it was Tokyo, and battling the various monsters native to Hell: Cerebus, Geryon, the centaurs, harpies, giants, devils and, ultimately, the three-faced, six-winged Satan, imprisoned from the waist down by ice. This Godzilla melts with his atomic breath, freeing Satan, in order to kick his ass in the greatest battle of Godzilla's career. With Satan destroyed, Godzilla thus emerges from hell. It could then go one of three ways ways. Either Godzilla returns to Earth alive, having been just too powerful and stubborn for hell to hold him for long–with the implication being that this is how Godzilla has seemed to return from death in the past, or he could find himself as Dante did at Mount Purgatory which he would attempt to ascend, but, finding no monsters left to battle, he grows bored, and returns to Earth seeking more battle, or the story could end with Godzilla beginning his ascent towards heaven, and facing the celestial armies, cutting off before actually showing whether Godzilla could take God or not. Obviously Godzilla couldn't–he's King of The Monsters, not King of The Universe–but it would certainly be in Godzilla's nature to pick that fight.

Marvel's October previews reviewed

One of only two of the hip-hop variants I recognized the inspiration for.

If you visit any of the comics sites I visit, then chances are you heard some conversation regarding one of Marvel's planned variant programs for the month of October. Here's a hint: It wasn't the "KIRBY MONSTER VARIANTS"* or the "COSPLY VARIANTS" the "INHUMAN 50th ANNIVERSARY VARIANTS," nor any of the various sketch, design or blank variants.

No, it was about the planned "HIP-HOP VARIANTS," which actually do sound kind of fun, as they will apparently entail posing various Marvel heroes in recreations of classic hip hop album covers (like the Ms. Marvel cover-as-The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill album cover above), in much the same way DC and Marvel have done with movie posters and works of fine art in the past.

Please see this article on Comics Alliance for an overview of the program and the conversation regarding it, including relevant links to a piece by David Brothers, which explains cultural appropriation and why hip-hop variants from Marvel Comics may not be that cool an idea, and why it might irritate a hell of a lot of fans of Marvel comics and/or hip-hop.

As a straight white man, I hesitate to say anything at all about any of this (and, like Abhay Khosla, I don't want to sound like I'm defending Marvel for not having more black writers and artists or anything–"That’s just some dumb guy in a dumb hat dancing around institutional racism," as Khosla worte), but I will say that I was kind of surprised by the anonymous poster who asked Tom Brevoort about the lack of black writers and artists involved in their post-Secret Wars books. Because that seems kind of shocking, in 2015, doesn't it?

I only buy Marvel comics in trade, because I am not Jay-Z and can't afford to pay $4 for 20-pages of comics, and the last two I trades I bought were All-New Ghost Rider Vol. 2 and Ms. Marvel Vol. 3, the former (mostly) drawn by a black artist and the latter (mostly) by a guy with a Japanese name who I therefore assume is either Japanese or Japanese-American, and...I honestly have no idea what race or nationality or cultural identification to assign the other artists who drew parts of those books, Elmo Bondoc, Kris Anka and Felipe Smith. (I know it's been said by others before, but comics are a medium where one knows creators by their work and name, but may not have any idea what they look like, and thus what their race, nationality or, in some cases, even their gender might be. Unless I've seen a photo of a creator in the back of a book, or I've seen them at a convention or during a personal appearance of some kind, or in a photo accompanying a mainstream media interview, then there's a pretty good chance I will have no idea what they look like. Like, two of my favorite artists are Richard Sala and Kelley Jones. I've never seen a picture of either one of them, and when I imagine them, I see a creepy guy in a trenchcoat and wide-brimmed hat and an hulking, over-muscled Batman with three-foot-long ears and a 45-foot-long cape, respectively.)

But if it's true Marvel doesn't have any writers or artists who are black working on any of their books post-September....? That's pretty weird. Marvel publishes a lot of comics. Like, 52,000 different titles a month. (Hey, this is a good argument for relaunching All-New Ghost Rider though, and keeping Damion Scott on as artist!)

I find the idea of cultural appropriation regarding hip-hop and Marvel kind of funny though, because hip-hop had so much in the way of appropriation of other music throughout its history, via beats and samples. And, as the Comics Alliance article pointed out, there are several rappers who have to varying degrees based aspects of their music and personas on Marvel Comics IP (created almost exclusively by middle-aged Jewish men), rappers like MF Doom and the Wu Tang Clan (whose work also borrowed heavily from Hong Kong action movies for inspiration). So hip-hop borrows from other cultures and recontextualizes stuff to make something new, like, all the time. That's a large part of what hip-hop is, isn't it?

On the other hand, when the situation has been reversed in the past, and a hip-hop artist or rapper has borrowed a name or image from Marvel Comics, it's not as if Marvel has exactly been cool with it, you know? In that regard then, it's kind of funny to see Marvel put in the position of having to explain why MF Doom has to watch his step when it comes to using images of Doctor Doom, but it's totally cool for them to repurpose rap iconography to sell their comics.

But enough about cultural and corporate appropriation, let's talk about something we can all agree on: Marvel Entertainment will be publishing a bunch of comics in October.

Here's what jumped out at me...

ALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT MARVEL POINT ONE #1
AL EWING, CHARLES SOULE, SKOTTIE YOUNG, GERRY CONWAY, MARC GUGGENHEIM (W)
FELIPE ANDRADE, RON GARNEY, PACO MEDINA, GERMAN PERALTA, MIKE PERKINS, STEFANO CASELLI (A)
Cover by MIKE DEL MUNDO
VARIANT COVER A BY DAVID MARQUEZ
VARIANT COVER B BY DAVID MARQUEZ
KIRBY MONSTER VARIANT COVER BY PAUL POPE
In the aftermath of SECRET WARS, it's an All-New, All-Different Marvel Universe, and this is your one-stop entry point to the changes and mysteries that have developed during the eight months that have passed! Featuring new stories of DAREDEVIL, CARNAGE, CLASSFIED, CLASSIFIED, AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. and CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS!
56 PGS./ One-Shot/Rated T+ …$5.99

I have to confess I find this find this title pretty hilarious. The dumb ".1" numbering was a way of publishing important comics between issues (or before issues, in the case of new titles), so I don't know why on Earth you'd use one on a one-shot. I guess Marvel realized that too, so they didn't use ".1", but they still spelled out "POINT ONE" before the "#1." Sometimes the Big Two are just too adorable when it comes to numbering their comics, you know?

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 & 2
DAN SLOTT (w) • GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI (a)
CoverS by ALEX ROSS
ISSUE #1 – DESIGN VARIANT BY ALEX ROSS
COSPLAY VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
INHUMAN 50TH ANNIVERSARY VARIANT COVER BY TBA
SKETCH VARIANT COVER BY ALEX ROSS
VARIANT COVER BY MARK BAGLEY
VARIANT COVER BY GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI
BLANK COVER VARIANT ALSO AVAILABLE
VARIANT COVER BY J. SCOTT CAMPBELL
VARIANT COVER BY HUMBERTO RAMOS
HIP-HOP VARIANT COVER BY MIKE DEL MUNDO
SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED GAME VARIANT COVER BY TBA
ISSUE #2 – KIRBY MONSTER VARIANT COVER BY PAOLO RIVERA
VARIANT COVER BY TBA
THE WORLD'S GREATEST SUPER HERO!
Spider-Man has gone global! Parker Industries is more successful than ever, with offices in New York, Shanghai, London and San Francisco and Peter Parker is racking up the frequent flyer miles with his “bodyguard” Spider-Man in tow, of course. But success breeds enemies and a reinvigorated Zodiac have also widened their scope to threaten the whole world. Join Dan Slott and Giuseppe Camuncoli as they take Spider-Man to the next level! This huge first issue also includes stories featuring Silk, Spidey 2099, Spider-Woman and much more!
ISSUE #1 - 72 PGS./Rated T…$5.99
Issue #2 - 32 PGS/RATED T...$3.99

"THE WORDLD'S GREATEST SUPER HERO," huh? Third best, maybe. But definitely in the top six.

It looks like post-Secret Wars, Spider-Man, who will be one of only about a half-dozen or so various spider-people running around, will get a new costume design. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, and I will probably need to see it drawn by different artists in a few comics before I can make up my mind. It seems to keep the essential elements, though, and adding glowing-eyes isn't much a big deal, but the other lights I'm not so sure about.

Oh, and is that Spidey's Spider-Mobile 2.0 in the second image? Nice.


ANGELA: QUEEN OF HEL #1
MARGUERITE BENNETT (w)
KIM JACINTO and STEPHANIE HANS (a)
COVER BY JULIAN TOTINO TEDESCO
VARIANT COVER BY STEPHANIE HANS
Hip-Hop Variant by Annie Wu
HEL HATH A NEW FURY.
Stolen from ASGARD, exiled from HEVEN, and robbed of SERA, her greatest companion – ANGELA plunges into the depths of blackest HEL to save her friend...and once there, the lost princess of Asgard will carve out a realm of her very own. All hail ANGELA, THE NEW QUEEN OF HEL!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

So I guess Marvel really did make a deal with Neil Gaiman to get Angela just to annoy Todd McFarlane, then? Because they don't seem to have any idea what to do with the character. This is like her third or fourth direction in the–two years? Three?–that she's been around.

BLADE #1
TIM SEELEY (W) • Logan Faerber (a)
ACTION FIGURE VARIANT COVER BY JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
BLANK VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
VARIANT COVER BY TIM SEELEY
Hip-Hop Variant by TBA
VARIANT COVER BY TBA
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

Hey, that doesn't look like Blade; that looks like a lady! I thought I read somewhere–like, in a headline I scanned–that Marvel would be publishing a new book starring Blade's daughter. If Blade's deal was that he was half-vampire, I wonder what his daughter is? Is she 1/4 vampire? Is there something that could be made out of this regarding racial identity? Maybe.

I always liked the idea of Blade, even if I never stuck with any of his comics too terrible long. I'm not familiar with this artist either, so while this seems intriguing, I'm not sure if it will be for me or not. If I'm trade-waiting though, I should have plenty of time to make up my mind.

DOCTOR STRANGE #1
JASON AARON (w)
CHRIS BACHALO (a/C)
HIP-HOP VARIANT COVER BY JUAN DOE
COSPLAY VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
YOUNG VARIANT COVER BY SKOTTIE YOUNG
ACTION FIGURE VARIANT COVER BY JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
BLANK VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
VARIANT COVER BY KEVIN NOWLAN
VARIANT COVER BY TOM PALMER
VARIANT COVER BY JOE QUESADA
SKETCH VARIANT COVER BY JOE QUESADA
KIRBY MONSTER VARIANT COVER BY ERICA HENDERSON
Who do you call when things are coming out of your dreams and trying to kill you? Or when your daughter is cursing in Latin and walking like a spider? Or when your dog keeps screaming at you to strangle your neighbors? Doctor Strange, of course. He's the only person standing between us and the forces of darkness, but has he been paying his tab? Every act of magic has a cost and Jason Aaron (THOR, ORIGINAL SIN) and Chris Bachalo (UNCANNY X-MEN) are going to put Stephen Strange through hell to even the scales.
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99

Okay, re-casting Doctor Strange as Dr. Dre on the hip-hop variant cover is pretty awesome. The only one that would possibly be better would be doing a Doggystyle homage on the cover of the Inhumans book, with Lockjaw in the Snoop role.

I can't imagine this book won't be good, and the fact that Marvel put such a high-profile creative team (and are making sure it has a million variant covers, like Amazing Spider-Man and Iron Man, seems to indicate that they want it to be a big deal ahead of the eventual Doctor Strange movie, too.

Still curious about that axe, though...

Based on the fact that I hate all of these costume so much, Extraordinary X-Men can go straight to hell. Maybe if they had called it X-traodinary X-Men I would be more forgiving. But no, go to hell Extraordinary X-Men! And take Old Man Logan and all those dumb costumes with you! (But I guess Colossus can keep his metal beard; that's alright).

I suppose it's possible that they will announce more mutant titles in the near future, but none of the X-books solicited for October look the least bit interesting to me.

GROOT #5
JEFF LOVENESS (w)
BRIAN KESINGER (a)
Cover by DECLAN SHALVEY
KIRBY MONSTER VARIANT COVER BY CHRISTIAN WARD
• You didn't think we were going to tell the story of one of Groot's adventures without bringing BABY GROOT into the fray, did you?
• With his goal of reuniting with his best friend (and interpreter) Rocket Raccoon within reach, Groot's only got a ship full of mercenaries to contend with. Should be a piece of cake, right?
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

Wait, Groot has a "KIRBY MONSTER" variant cover? Groot is a Kirby monster; every cover of Groot is a Kirby monster cover!


GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS(w)
VALERIO SCHITI (a)
Cover by ARTHUR ADAMS
HIP HOP VARIANT is by SHAWN CRYSTAL
COSPLAY VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
YOUNG VARIANT COVER BY SKOTTIE YOUNG
BLANK VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
ACTION FIGURE VARIANT COVER BY JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
VARIANT COVER BY VALERIO SCHITTI
SKETCH VARIANT COVER BY ARTHUR ADAMS
VARIANT COVER BY JASON LATOUR
KIRBY MONSTER VARIANT COVER BY MIKE ALLRED
THE RACCOON'S IN CHARGE!
Peter Quill has abandoned the Guardians and his role as Star-Lord to be Emperor of the Spartax. Rocket didn't wait a single minute to take the reins and become team leader of Drax, Venom, Groot, Kitty Pryde (A.K.A. Star-Lady ?!?!) and new Guardian BEN GRIMM, the everloving THING! 32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

Oh good, a new Guardians of The Galaxy #1. Because that series hasn't been hard enough to follow and/or make sense of in collected form already (I've complained about this before in individual reviews of individual collections, but the large number of #1's and #0's and specials and "#.1's" and so on have given the collections an odd, start-and-stop feeling that makes them almost incoherent, narratively...and I suppose it doesn't help that at least two storylines have appeared not in Guardians of the Galaxy collections, but under the title Guardians of The Galaxy/All-New X-Men–"The Trial of Jean Grey" and "Black Votex." Maybe instead of trade-waiting, everyone should just wait 3-5 years, until Marvel publishes something like a Complete Guardians of The Galaxy By Brian Michael Bendis series of omnibuses or something).

Please note that this has a "KIRBY MONSTER VARIANT" and it will be of Kirby monster-turned-Guardian of the Galaxy, Groot. So that would seem to indicate that the Kirby monster variant on Groot will not be Groot. Huh.

HOWLING COMMANDOS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. #1
FRANK BARBIERE (w) • BRENT SCHOONOVER (a/C)
VARIANT COVER BY DECLAN SHALVEY
YOUNG VARIANT BY SKOTTIE YOUNG
KIRBY MONSTER VARIANT COVER BY MIKE DEL MUNDO
Hip-Hop variant cover by TBA
DESIGN VARIANT BY TBA
Hidden deep beneath AREA 13 lies the clandestine headquarters of S.T.A.K.E.--a top secret division of S.H.I.E.L.D. housing aliens, mythical beasts, and all manner of extra-normal entities. Under the command of legendary soldier DUM DUM DUGAN, these monsters step out of the shadows and defend the world against supernatural threats too dangerous for normal men as THE ALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT HOWLING COMMANDOS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

I'm always all in for more Man-Thing, and I always enjoy it when Marvel writers find new acronyms kinda sorta related to SHIELD (SWORD, ARMOR, HAMMER). STAKE is a good one for this team, and it seems inevitable they will have to team up with HAMMER at some point; I mean, you need a HAMMER to drive in a STAKE, right?

My friend pointed this picture out to me and I thought she just wanted me to note the presence of Man-Thing, but that wasn't it. "Look closer," she said. Do you guys see it? How one of those things is not like the others? Hint, it has to do with the one character who is definitely not male is posed, in contrast to the others.


INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #1 & 2
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (w) • DAVID MARQUEZ (a)
WRAPAROUND COVER BY DAVID MARQUEZ (JUL150696)
VARIANT COVER BY ADI GRANOV (JUL150702)
CLASSIC VARIANT COVER BY BRUCE TIMM (JUL150700)
DESIGN VARIANT COVER BY DAVID MARQUEZ (JUL150701)
YOUNG VARIANT COVER BY SKOTTIE YOUNG (JUL150703)
6 YOUNG GUNS VARIANT COVER SET (JUL150705)
BY MAHMUD ASRAR, NICK BRADSHAW, DAVID MARQUEZ,
SARA PICHELLI, VALERIO SCHITI, RYAN STEGMAN
BLANK VARIANT COVER VARIANT ALSO AVAILABLE (JUL150697)
ACTION FIGURE VARIANT COVER BY JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER (JUL150704)
COSPLAY VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE (JUL150698)
HIP-HOP VARIANT COVER BY BRIAN STELFREEZE (JUL150699)
PARTY VARIANT COVER BY YASMINE PUTRI (JUL150710)
PARTY SKETCH VARIANT COVER BY YASMINE PUTRI
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #2 - KIRBY MONSTER VARIANT COVER BY MARK BROOKS
VARIANT COVER BY Alex Garner
Exploding out of the pages of SECRET WARS, one of the most popular super heroes in the world gets a gigantic new series. From the creators that brought you ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN comes new armor, new supporting cast, new villains and a new purpose that is going to tear itself across the entire Marvel Universe and beyond. With a shocker of a last page that will have everyone talking and the return of one of Tony's biggest nemeses, you will not want to miss this!! Also, who are Tony's biological parents? The quest begins here!
32 PGS. (each)/Rated T+ …$3.99 (each)

God, does this book have enough variants? It's not like it's Star Wars or anything...

NEW AVENGERS #1 & 2
AL EWING (w) • GERARDO SANDOVAL (a/C)
ISSUE #1 – CHO VARIANT COVER BY FRANK CHO
Hip-Hop variant cover by TBA
BLANK VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
ISSUE #2 – KIRBY MONSTER VARIANT COVER BY SIMON BISLEY
VARIANT COVER BY TBA
EVERYTHING IS NEW. In the wake of SECRET WARS, the old order changeth - and Bobby DaCosta, Sunspot, is just the man to changeth it. Welcome to AVENGERS IDEA MECHANICS - a super-scientific global rescue squad of tomorrow's heroes... today! America doesn't want them! S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't know what to do with them! But Earth might not survive without... the NEW AVENGERS!
32 PGS. (each)/Rated T+ …$3.99 (each)

Is it weird how damn different the concept for every book that uses the title "New Avengers" is...? This is apparently spinning out of a plot point near the end of Hickman's Avengers run, in which Sunspot bought-out AIM and changed it to a force for good, one of several players in the Illuminati vs. SHIELD war. That's an...interestingly weird-ass line-up, one that makes Cap's kooky quartet look a hell of a lot less kooky when compared to Sunspots kooky quintet.

Say, what's Elekra's costume made out of that a sai capable of ripping through its front and entire body can never quit seem to pierce the back of it, but rather just makes a tent out of it? Did Mr. Fantastic make that for her out of unstable molecules or what?


SECRET WARS HC
Written by JONATHAN HICKMAN
Penciled by ESAD RIBIC & PAUL RENAUD
Cover by ALEX ROSS
The Marvel Universe is no more! The interdimensional Incursions have eliminated each and every alternate universe one by one. And now — despite the best efforts of the scientists, sages and superhumans — the Marvel Universe and Ultimate Universe have collided…and been destroyed! All that exists in the vast empty cosmos is a single, titanic patchwork planet made of the fragmented remains of hundreds of devastated dimensions: Battleworld! And the survivors of this multiversal catastrophe all bend their knee to Battleworld's master: Doctor Doom! What strange creatures inhabit this world? Which familiar faces will return? And what happens when Battleworld's various domains go to war? The Marvel Universe is dead — and the victors of the Secret Wars will determine what comes next! Collecting SECRET WARS (2015) #1-8 and material from FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2015: SECRET WARS #0.
224 PGS./Rated T+ …$49.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9884-0
Trim size: oversized

Huh. The collection of Secret Wars is solicited for the very same month that the last issue ships.


SECRET WARS: AGENTS OF ATLAS #1
TOM TAYLOR (w) • STEVE PUGH (a)
Cover by LEONARD KIRK
VARIANT COVER BY TBA
SON OF ANARCHY!
• An oppressive domain run by BARON ZEMO!
• The peoples' only hope? An underground group of rebels… GORILLA-MAN! M-11! NAMORA! VENUS! MARVEL BOY!
• But their leader JIMMY WOO…captured!
Can AGENT COULSON help save the resistance or will he lead them to their doom?
40 PGS./ One-Shot/Rated T+ …$4.99

Ask and you shall receive, sorta, I guess. I have a brief interview with writer Tom Taylor and editor Mark Paniccia here, if you're interested.


STAR WARS #11
JASON AARON (W) • STUART IMMONEN (A/C)
ACTION FIGURE VARIANT COVER BY JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
SKETCH VARIANT COVER BY STUART IMMONEN
• Chewbacca Unleashed!
• Skywalker in chains!
• Han Solo...with a ball and chain?!?
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99
Star Wars © Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved. Used under authorization. Text and illustrations for Star Wars are © 2015 Lucasfilm Ltd.

Attention, Tumblr! Marvel's solicitation copy writer/s just referred to a wife as "a ball and chain." I mean, I know this comic is set "a long time ago," but that's still pretty retrograde language, isn't it?

"You're under arrest?" Really? Not, "Thou art under arrest"...?



*This is one of those times that I wish the big two would just collect all the variants into "gallery" style comics of pin-ups, so I could just buy that. There aren't many examples shown here–one by Mike Allred, I noticed–but those are some cool subjects, and those are some great creators announced for some of them. For example, All-New, All-Different Marvel Point One #1 has one by Paul Pope. Paul Pope drawing a Kirby monster? That's pretty much exactly what I want from a Marvel comic book.

DC's October previews reviewed

Francis Manapul's cover for Justice League: Gods and Men–Batman #1, in which Batman becomes a god that knows everything. Wait, Batman always knows everything, doesn't he?

October looks like it could be a fairly good month for DC Comics. In addition to launching the sequel weekly series Batman and Robin Eternal, they'll be publishing a suite of six one-shot tie-ins to writer Geoff Johns' "Darkseid War" storyline in Justice League, which apparently involves many of the Leaguers ascending to New God-hood.

More quixotically, there are a trio of kinda sorta Convergence spin-offs launching, which strikes me as odd, as I don't recall any signs that Convergence was a massive hit (I certainly didn't hear anyone crying for more Telos comics).

The theme for October's variants–remember, there are always variants and they always have a theme now–is "Monsters," as it was last October (Or was it the October before?). For a complete run-down of what DC plans to publish in October of this year, you can check in at Comic Book Resources, and for what grabbed my attention, you can stay right here at Every Day Is Like Wednesday.

ART OPS #1
Written by SHAUN SIMON
Art and cover by MICHAEL ALLRED
On sale OCTOBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • MATURE READERS
In this new series by Shaun Simon, co-writer (with Gerard Way) of The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, and legendary artist Michael Allred (iZOMBIE), art not only imitates life, it becomes it! When rogue figures from famous works of art come to life and escape their frames, it’s up to Reggie Riot and the agents of Art Operatives to track them down before they wreak havoc on the unsuspecting public. But Reggie has secrets of his own that may affect his ability to interact with these living works of art--—and he wants no part in the agency his mother ran before him. Pop culture will never be the same.

One of the 52 new Vertigo series announced at Comic-Con last week, this one has a strong premise, an excellent artist and a "Cancel Me Immediately, Please!" price-point of $3.99. Like a lot of the series announced, this one sounds very much like a mini-series of substantial length that can be collected in a trade or two or three, rather than something of an ongoing. And that seems reasonable, as I get the impression that the Vertigo series do much better as trade in the bookstore market, rather than as single issues in the direct market. Image seems to have fulfilled the niche Vertigo used to in comic shops very well.


BATMAN AND ROBIN VOL. 6: THE HUNT FOR ROBIN TP
Written by PETER J. TOMASI
Art by ANDY KUBERT, PATRICK GLEASON and MICK GRAY
Cover by ANDY KUBERT
On sale NOVEMBER 18 • 192 pg, FC, $16.99 US
Batman has finally accepted the death of his son—but Damian’s grandfather, Ra’s al Ghul, has not! In order to resurrect Robin, he’s stolen the body—and now Batman will stop at nothing to reclaim him! Collects BATMAN AND ROBIN #29-34 and ROBIN RISES: OMEGA #1!

I just read the hardcover version of this collection, which includes the handful of issues where the title was changed to Batman and Aquaman and Batman and Wonder Woman and so on, as he traveled the world, teaming up with various other heroes as he travels the world trying to recover the corpse of his then-dead son Damian from Ra's al Ghul. It climaxes in an Everybody vs. Glorious Godfrey battle, followed immediately by a Batman vs. Justice League battle.

The very best part, however, is the scene at the end, where Batman calls together Batgirl, Red Hood and Red Robin to clear the air after all the ish that went down during "Death of The Family" in the pages of Batman. Batman promises to be completely honest with the three of them from now on, and the second they leave, Dick Grayson--whose death Batman helped fake and whose survival he's been keeping secret from all of them for months--appears to chat with him.

Oh man Batman, you are just the worst...!

BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL #1
Story and script by JAMES TYNION IV and SCOTT SNYDER
Art and cover by TONY S. DANIEL
1:50 Variant cover by MIKEL JANIN
Blank variant cover
On sale OCTOBER 7 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for details
It’s here at last—the sequel to the blockbuster weekly series BATMAN ETERNAL!
Five years ago, Batman and Robin worked the most disturbing case of their crimefighting careers—bringing down the organization of the ultimate human trafficker, the mysterious woman known only as Mother. At the time, Dick Grayson never quite understood the scope of that case, but now its darkest secrets are coming back to haunt him and everyone else who ever worked with Batman! With Bruce Wayne now lost to them, Dick and all his allies are out in the cold! Who can they trust? Is someone among them not who they say they are? And who is the deadly, silent young woman in black who’s come to Gotham City looking for Batman?

Prepare yourself for six months of international intrigue, twists and turns, and new additions to the world of Batman and Robin, from showrunners James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder, and writers Tim Seeley, Steve Orlando, Genevieve Valentine, Ed Brisson, and Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly!

So this is the awaited sequel to the weekly series Batman Eternal, with the perhaps obvious title of Batman AND ROBIN Eternal. The most notable changes here are that it looks like it will be half as long as the previous series--six months rather than a year--and that James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder (the billing reversed!) will be joined by an almost all-new writing team, with only Tim Seeley sticking around. That worries me a bit, as the writing team of the last weekly was so solid. I'm always leery of fixing things that aren't necessarily broken.

I'm not crazy about Tony Daniel either, but it looks like he'll just be drawing that first issue, and then other artists will take over, starting with Paul Pelletier (who I do like). I expect the art teams to change constantly, as was the case with the prior series, although it would be nice if they could assemble a team of art teams, maybe divvying up particular storylines between them.

Most exciting of all, of course, is the question "And who is the deadly, silent young woman in black who’s come to Gotham City looking for Batman?" Hopefully post-Flashpoint Cassandra Cain, who will become Black Bat in short order. DC reintroduced her one-time friend Stephanie Brown/Spoiler via a weekly Batman series, and that seemed to make a lot of Stephanie Brown fans happy, although they haven't done much with her since, with only an appearance in Catwoman to her name since.

Anyway, I'm excited about this, and hope that it's at least as good as Batman Eternal was.

BATMAN ‘66 #28
Written by JEFF PARKER
Art by LUKAS KETNER and DEAN HASPIEL
Cover by MICHAEL ALLRED
On sale OCTOBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED E • DIGITAL FIRST
Two new additions to the ’66 Rogues Gallery are introduced in two stories. The Scarecrow is here to say “boo” to the good citizens of Gotham City, and to chase off the Caped Crusader. Then, a former henchman of King Tut has taken on a green, scaly look and roams the sewers under the city streets!

I'm always excited to see new and different versions of The Scarecrow, and am glad to see Michael Allred's on the cover, although I suppose that's not necessarily Allred's Scarecow, as much as it is Allred's version of Kener or Haspiel's version of Scarecrow '66.

BAT-MITE #5
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art and cover by CORIN HOWELL
On sale OCTOBER 7 • 32 pg, FC, 5 of 6, $2.99 US • RATED E
Bat-Mite faces his greatest makeover challenge yet when he comes up against those dolorous denizens of the DC Universe, The Inferior Five! The Light Mite wants them to go from Inferior to Superior, but the half-witted heroes are not quite ready for prime time.

Huh. When the Inferior Five appeared on the cover of Bat-Mite #1, I assumed they were only on it as a gag--I didn't expect that cover to actually presage things to come in the pages of Bat-Mite.


BLACK CANARY #5
Written by BRENDEN FLETCHER
Art by PIA GUERRA
Cover by ANNIE WU
...
On sale OCTOBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
...
The secrets of Ditto’s bizarre abilities come to light—and Dinah and her newfound nemesis Bo Maeve come face to face! It’s not gonna be pretty…

Oh, I don't know. Pia Guerra art, and a cover by Annie Wu or Michael Allred? I'm pretty sure this comic is gonna be pretty...

DETECTIVE COMICS #45
Written by PETER J. TOMASI
Art by MARCIO TAKARA
Cover by ANDREW ROBINSON
...
On sale OCTOBER 7 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
...
A brand-new epic begins as the superstar team of writer Peter J. Tomasi and artist Marcio Takara takes the new Batman on his first mission with the Justice League! When Jim Gordon is approached by the Justice League to solve a series of mysterious mass murders, he must turn his focus away from Gotham City and test his mettle with the World’s Greatest Heroes!

1.) Why is Batman so little? Or why is everyone else so big, I guess?

2.) Flash and Cyborg are the only ones from the original, post-Flashpoint Justice League line-up to not undergo a radical costume/design change this year? Huh. Superman's t shirts are starting to bug me, too. Why are they different than the t shirts he wore during his "Year One" phase? How does he keep finding the exact same design to buy off the rack, if he is buying 'em off the rack? (In the pages of Action Comics, Grant Morrison revealed that he was having his own Superman t shirts printed, in blue, red and white, although he usually wore the blue ones).

Jenny Frison's "Monsters Variant" for Grayson is just weird. What if if the Creature from The Black Lagoon had a really cute face, and a hot, human torso, but was otherwise a fish monster everywhere else? Gah!

Props to Frison, though; this is the one monster variant that is honestly terrifying, and may actually give me nightmares.

Here's Kelley Jones' Green Arrow monster variant...although all three of those facts were probably immediately apparent the moment you looked at that image, huh? You know, they probably coulda just had Jones draw all their variants this month, and it would have turned out pretty alright...

That's Guillem March's cover for Green Lantern: The Lost Army, which I'm posting here for no other reason than to point out once again that I really like Guillem March's art. Why doesn't he have a monthly, at the moment...?

Strange that the magical mummification ceremony did such a good job of preserving Harley's breasts, but the flesh on her right arm is decomposing into non-existence....


JUSTICE LEAGUE: GODS AND MEN – SHAZAM! #1
Written by STEVE ORLANDO
Art by SCOTT KOLINS
Cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
Advance solicit • ONE-SHOT • On sale NOVEMBER 11 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
A boy becomes an army of Gods! No longer does Billy Batson have access to the powers of the Old Gods. Now, he commands the combined might of Highfather, Mantis and other New Gods. But these Gods are not passive. And they will sooner destroy Billy than give up control of their power.

So who will be Billy's new patron gods? Seagrin, Highfather, Astorr, Atinai, Mantis and...Wait, is there a New God character whose name starts with a "Z"...? Shazam may have to change his name to "Sha'am" here...

I kind of love this "Monsters Variant" for Justice League of America by While Potacio, because it's so obvious that he started trying to match Justice Leaguers to Universal Studios-style monsters, and just gradually ran out of monsters, so that by the time he gets to Flash, he's just like, "Eh, werewolves are kinda fast, I guess; I'll make Flash a werewolf. And as for Cyborg, um...well, I guess I'll make him a, um, horse...man? A horseman would be a monster right? Whatever. Cyborg's a horseman."


JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED #14
Written by JEFF PARKER
Art by PAUL PELLETIER and ROB HUNTER
Cover by TONY HARRIS
On sale OCTOBER 14 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
“Warzone” continues as more long-lost DC heroes join the fray! What bizarre force is causing Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace and the Creature Commandos to fight the same, insane war over and over again, and how can the team of Stargirl, Batgirl, Steel, Robotman, and Vandal Savage set things right?

I honestly couldn't read the first issue of Parker's run on this book--which really should have been re-titled Justice League Task Force or Justice League Unlimited and given a new #1, given the change in creative team, change of line-up, change of direction and even change of logo--because the art was so off-putting. I like Pelletier's art a lot, and I like all of these characters (Stargirl the least, although I don't mind her), and I love Enemy Ace so, um, I don't know, I guess we'll see...

LOONEY TUNES #227
Written by SHOLLY FISCH
Art and cover by DAVE ALVAREZ and SCOTT McRAE
On sale OCTOBER 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED E
When IRS investigator Egghead appears on Daffy’s doorstep, Daffy panics and tries everything he can to get rid of him. Let’s see if Daffy can get through all the red tape—or will the red tape (literally!) get to him?

Egghead? Damn, that's a deep Looney Tunes cut. By the way, check out that issue number–is Looney Tunes now DC's longest-running ongoing to not be rebooted?


PREZ #5
Written by MARK RUSSELL
Art and cover by BEN CALDWELL
On sale OCTOBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, 5 of 6, $2.99 US • RATED T
President Ross extricates herself from a civil war via the creative use of kitchen appliances! Meanwhile, a self-aware killer robot goes to church, and a couple of hippies escape Boss Smiley’s gerbil cage.

Retailers: This title now will run six issues.

Apparently Prez #1 didn't do so hot. I could have sworn I read somewhere that Dc was committed to keeping all of the new ongoings ongoing for at least a year, but I can't remember where I read that now, or who the source was. Nor can I remember if Prez was meant to be an ongoing series, or just a longer-than-six-issue miniseries that is being cut short.

Sadly this is not the cover to The Mystery Inc Swimsuit Special, which still doesn't exist, but is just the cover of October's issue of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?.

I'm not exactly sure how this qualifies as a "Monsters" variant, aside from the fact that the image if fucking horrifying, but I imagine if sales for October's Sinestro #16 skyrocket, we can expect some sort of all LOL Cats variants month in the future.

I like both Amanda Conner's regular cover and Guillem March's monster variant cover for October's issue of Starfire.


SUPERMAN ADVENTURES VOL. 1 TP
Written by PAUL DINI and SCOTT McCLOUD
Art by RICK BURCHETT, BRET BLEVINS, MIKE MANLEY and TERRY AUSTIN
Cover by BRUCE TIMM
On sale NOVEMBER 11 • 240 pg, FC, $19.99 US
In these all-ages tales from SUPERMAN ADVENTURES #1-10, the Man of Steel must convince the citizens of Metropolis that he really is a force for good when Lex Luthor unleashes a terrifying robot look-alike on the city. Plus, Superman faces off with Metallo, Brainiac, Live Wire, Mr. Mxyzptlk, General Zod, and more!

I don't think I've read all of these, but I've read some of them, and the Superman Adventures title was a pretty great Superman comic. Actually, if you just scan that list of creators, you can tell it was written by two pretty damn solid writers of comics, and drawn by a handful of really great artists, all of whom are slightly constrained by sticking to the animated style established by Bruce Timm, who provides the cover.

If you haven't read these, I highly recommend this book for all-ages, high-quality Superman comics.

SUPERMAN: LOIS & CLARK #1
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art and cover by LEE WEEKS
...
On sale OCTOBER 14 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
...
Following the epic events of CONVERGENCE, here are the adventures of the last sons and daughter of the Krypton and Earth as they try to survive in a world not their own. But can they keep this world from suffering the same fate as their own? Can this Superman stop the villains he once fought before they are created on this world? What is Intergang, and why does Lois’s discovery of it place everyone she loves in jeopardy? What will happen when their nine-year-old son learns the true identity of his parents? Make way for the original power couple, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health, until death do them part!

Hey, a bunch of Comics Alliance contributors were just asking DC for a Lois Lane series, and here we have one...kinda. I wonder, if this is one of those cases where DC is giving readers exactly what the readers want, but in a way that the readers do not want it? Kinda like Convergence itself, which this is apparently spinning out of (Jurgens and Lee Weeks collaborated on Convergence: Superman #1).

Wait, speaking of Convergence, let me go check something...

Huh. Yeah, the world that Convergence: Superman was set on was the planet Telos, of course, but the city was Gotham City from the pre-Flashpoint DC Universe. In the last issue of Convergence, that Earth (New Earth/Earth-O) was transformed into that of the New 52.

When we last saw Superman, Lois and their baby, they were joining Parallax, The Flash Barry Allen and the original Supergirl in their attempts to alter the events of Crisis On Infinite Earths, and they succeeded off-panel. So, I have no idea what world Superman, Lois and their kid landed on.

But as appealing as a Superman/Lois comic is, one set on an alternate future on an alternate Earth sounds...much less so, doesn't it?

And Clark, lose the beard. Especially if you're gonna wear black like that; it makes you look a little too...Zoddy.

J.P. Leon's redesign of Wonder Woman for this "Monsters Variant" of Superman/Wonder Woman? Better than David Finch's recent redesign of the character.


SURVIVORS CLUB #1
Written by LAUREN BEUKES and DALE HALVORSEN
Art by RYAN KELLY
Cover by BILL SIENKIEWICZ
On sale OCTOBER 7 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • MATURE READERS
One was possessed by a poltergeist. Another was trapped in a haunted house. A third had a killer doll. Ever wonder what happened to these children of the 1980s? Find out in SURVIVORS CLUB, a new series cowritten by renowned horror novelist Lauren Beukes and videogame journalist Dave Halverson, with art by Ryan Kelly (NORTHLANDERS).

Having found each other over the internet, six grown-up survivors are drawn together by the horrors they experienced in 1987 when a rash of occult events occurred around the world—with fatal results. Now, there are indications that it may be happening all over again. Is it possible that these six aren’t just survivors—but were chosen for their fates?

So, a bunch of analogues for kid characters in various '80s horror movies get League of Extraordinary Gentleman-ized...? That's definitely a good pitch for a comic, but I wonder if that's not one of those comics that I'd rather read about than actually read...?

Also, no offense to Dave Halverson, but I really wish they would have just referred to him as "Dave Halverson" rather than "videogame journalist Dave Halverson," which doesn't exactly make him sound like a guy who can write comics well. Why, the only thing that would be less likely to make me read a comic book co-written by a "videogame journalist" would be if it were co-written by a "comics journalist"...


SWAMP THING: DARKER GENESIS TP
Written by MARK MILLAR
Art by PHIL HESTER, CHRIS WESTON, PHIL JIMENEZ and JILL THOMPSON
Cover by JOHN TOTLEBEN
On sale NOVEMBER 18 • 256 pg, FC, $19.99 US • MATURE READERS
In these tales from issues #151-160, Swamp Thing meets the spirit of a dead writer who is trapped in her own unpublished short story collection. Swamp Thing can free her only by working his way through the reality of each of her stories. Along the way, Swamp Thing visits the occult side of New Orleans, becomes a golem in a world ruled by Nazis, inhabits the form of the villainous Solomon Grundy, and more.

Wait, did DC not have all their Mark Millar comics in print before? Weird. I honestly can't remember if I read these or not, which doesn't speak too highly of them or Millar's Swamp Thing comics in general if I did, but those are four really great artists, and these scripts would have been long, long before Millar looked at comics writing as a way to pitch movies.


TELOS #1
Written by JEFF KING
Art by CARLO PAGULAYAN and JASON PAZ
Cover by CARLO PAGULAYAN
...
On sale OCTOBER 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
...
The villain of the world-shattering CONVERGENCE event stars in his own new series! Set loose from his planetary tether at the end of the best-selling CONVERGENCE, Telos finds himself free and able to traverse space and time via a sliver of Brainiac’s powers. As this epic begins, he embarks on an odyssey, journeying across time and space in search of his past.

Here's your guaranteed-to-be-cancelled-in-eight-issues-or-less new series, starring the maguffin character from Convergence, in a title no one asked for. I suspect this will end up being akin to the monthly series awarded to Flashpoint cameo character Pandora, only when the short-lived Pandora monthly was launched, it was done so as a tie-in to a Geoff Johns-written Justice League crossover story.

TITANS HUNT #1
Written by DAN ABNETT
Art and cover by PAULO SIQUEIRA
...
On sale OCTOBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 12, $3.99 US • RATED T
....
CONVERGENCE is over, but the ripples are still being felt, especially by a young precog named Lilith. What are these visions she’s having of a Teen Titans team the world never knew? And why does she feel compelled to seek out Dick Grayson, Roy Harper, Donna Troy and an Atlantean named Garth and warn them that something dark and sinister is coming after them? Who are Mal, Gnarrk, Hank Hall and Dawn Granger, and what is their connection to the others—and to the fate of every soul on Earth? This is the Secret History of the TEEN TITANS!

Huh. I honestly can't make heads or tails of this one. The Titans, like the Justice Society characters, were all screwed-over pretty hard by the reboot, to the point that many them no longer existed, or couldn't exist in forms anything like their earlier forms (i.e. the ones fans liked). Actually, the Justice League characters didn't do so hot either–stripping history away from the DC Universe really hurt the teams, and the characters who only really existed within the teams, or who had the majority of their adventures play out in the team books.

I like an awful lot of these characters, but I don't know if I understand what the hell this is, or how it might work. I don't have a ton of confidence in that particular creative team either. I guess we'll see; the best I can say about this one is that I'm really curious about it.

THE TWILIGHT CHILDREN #1
Written by GILBERT HERNANDEZ
Art and cover by DARWYN COOKE
On sale OCTOBER 14 • 40 pg, FC, 1 of 4, $4.99 US • MATURE READERS.
For the first time ever, legendary comics creators Gilbert Hernandez (Love and Rockets) and Darwyn Cooke (DC: THE NEW FRONTIER) have joined forces for a surreal project unlike anything you’ve ever read before!

When a white orb washes up on the shore of a remote Latin American village, a group of children naturally poke at the strange object to see what it is. The orb explodes, leaving the children completely blind. And when a beautiful young woman who may be an alien is found wandering the seafront, she’s taken in by the townspeople, but soon becomes a person of interest to a quirky pair of undercover CIA agents, and the target of affection for a young scientist. Can they come together to prevent an all-out alien invasion and save the souls in this sleepy, seaside town?

Well, creative teams don't really get any stronger than that, do they? I like the work of the pair as individuals, and am curious to see how they work together. I might simply be spacing at the moment, but off the top of my head I can't recall every reading something that Hernandez wrote but didn't draw.

This is the best part of Batman: Arkham Knight Vol. 1:

And this is the worst part of Batman: Arkham Knight Vol. 1:

Peter J. Tomasi wrote both parts, but I can't figure out who drew them; they were penciled by either Viktor Bogdanovic, Ig Guara or Robson Rocha, and inked by one of three different inkers.

Review: All-New Ghost Rider Vol. 2: Legend

There was a lot to like about the first story arc of All-New Ghost Rider, which actually introduced an all-new Ghost Rider. There was the new character, Robbie Reyes, who tried to balance taking care of his mentally and physically-challenged younger brother while going to high school, working nights as a mechanic and trying to win extra money via illegal street-racing. There was the design of the new Ghost Rider, who had a metallic head that looked more like a skull-shaped engine that spouted flames, rather than the traditional skeleton on fire design. And there was the fact that this Ghost Rider drove a car rather than a motorcycle, further differentiating him from his predecessors.

But as solid as Felipe Smith's scripting and various acts of franchise re-tooling was, the thing that really made the first five issues of All-New Ghost Rider–collected as All-New Ghost Rider Vol. 1: Engines of Vengeance–sing was Tradd Moore's art. All dramatic angles, dynamic lay-outs and in-your-face, off-kilter action scenes, Moore's Ghost Rider looked like almost nothing else that either Marvel or DC were publishing at the time. Maybe more than any other aspect of the new series, which, when stripped to its essentials, looks an awful lot like a pretty compelling 21st century re-creation of Ghost Rider as Peter Parker, it was Moore's art that brought the "all-new" to All-New Ghost Rider.

And for this second volume? Moore's gone.

Marvel Comics has been a writer's game more than an artist's game for a while now. I suppose if you want to get philosophical about it, I suppose one could even argue that it's baked right into the DNA of the Marvel Comics, with writer Stan Lee always gaining greater recognition and reward than artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. But it's pretty damn unfortunate, and Marvel hasn't done much to help give writer and artist equal participation and footing in their books, even accelerating the publishing schedules of many titles to the point where it's all but impossible for a single artist to keep up. It can be a real shame too, as a lot of Marvel series gradually lose any sense of visual cohesion–even limited series, like their big event/crossover comics (Age of Ultron being a particularly good example).

(It's also a bit of shame because, at the risk of offending any professional comics writers who might have accidentally found themselves reading this, writing is much, much, much easier than drawing. One might come easier or more naturally to some individuals than the other, but it's a fact that it it takes a hell of a lot longer to draw a page of comics than it does to write one.)

This is a bad news, good news situation for All-New Ghost Rider; while it's bad news that Moore left after the first story arc, the good news is that editor Mark Paniccia and Marvel managed to snag a replacement artist whose style is at least in the same aesthetic ballpark as Moore's: Damion Scott.

You may remember him from the the early issues of the Cassandra Cain Batgirl series (I almost said "the good Batgirl series," but I guess that since the current volume of Batgirl went and got itself a new creative team, there are now officially two good runs of Batgirl comics*), as well as a little Spider-Man, some Robin, a Raven miniseries, an issue of Solo and a dumb LeBron James comic. His style is something of an acquired taste, but it's one I like an awful lot–so much so that I even bought that dumb LeBron James comic, just to look at the art.

While there are some pretty big differences in Moore and Scott's styles, both have a similar sense of dynamism and predilection for extreme angles and highly expressive exaggeration. If anything, Scott boasts far more of this than Moore, although his artwork is also much rounder (the first volume of this series had more straight lines than the second) and slightly sketchier. Still, if you couldn't get Moore for the next story arc, I can't think of anyone better than Scott.

So, if you read the first volume, you know that Robbie Reyes was being shot to death when he heard a voice that made a sort of deal with him, resurrecting him and turning him into the all-new Ghost Rider. It turned out not to be the spirit of vengeance, or a spirit of vengeance of the sort that inhabited Johnny Blaze or Danny Ketch, but it gave Robbie the weird-ass powers he needed to protect his neighborhood from villain Mr. Hyde, who was giving super-steroids to local gang members and turning them into hulking monsters that only a metal-headed, flame spouting demon with a ghost car and chains could defeat. Defeat them this new Ghost Rider did, and he became a local hero.

In this volume, we learn a lot more about the spirit empowering Robbie, and it ain't good. Apparently, this is the ghost/spirit of a Satanic serial killer who had performed some sorts of crazy occult rituals with his victims in order to allow him to possess and Ghost Rider-ize another. Here, it's Robbie.

Robbie has to be very careful to keep Eli, the killer's spirit, in check, or he can lose control of his own body, as he does in some particularly scary scenes in the first four issues of this collection. As used to comics as I am, as jaded and cynical as I can be about superhero universe comics, I have to confess feeling real dread for Robbie's little brother and his teacher when Eli took control of Robbie's body, which I think is a testament to how good Smith and Scott handled these issues. I actually gave a damn about characters in a superhero comic! That doesn't happen often!

While Robbie struggles with Eli for possession of his body (and their powers), Mr. Hyde's less-monstrous half is building an army of teen Hydes with a new version of his super-steroid pill from the one used in the last volume (the remainder of which is gobbled up by some animals in this issue, giving Scott the opportunity to draw some horrible monsters) and Johnny Blaze comes into town, determined to figure out what's going on with this "All-New" Ghost Rider, who turns out not to be a Ghost Rider at all, really.

That's followed by a two-issue arc in which we get more artists, these ones who don't draw much of anything like Moore or Scott. Although both are excellent artists; one is Smith himself, who I wouldn't have minded drawing the entire series, if he could draw fast enough, and the other is the always-excellent Kris Anka, who helps Moore finish up the issue #12.

Here we jump ahead a few months, Robbie gets a girlfriend and Eli sets his sights on possessing Robbie's little brother instead of Robbie, as the kid is a bit more malleable. Here's a pretty good example of why it's no good changing art-styles too radically; Robbie's brother is said to be 13, but here looks about half the age he did during Scott and Moore's runs on the book.

This volume ends with Eli and Robbie coming to a sort of accord, one that would seemingly satiate the former's bloodlust enough to keep him from trying to take Robbie's little brother again, but it also appears to be the last issue of the series. It ended in time for Secret Wars, wherein there are at least two books that will feature Robbie Reyes, but an new All-New Ghost Rider wasn't one of those post-Secret Wars comics announced, at least not yet. So I suppose this could very well be the end of the series or just the end of the series for now.

I hope it comes back with Smith and a stable, consistent art partner for Smith to work with, because these two volumes were both pretty damn good.



*This being the Internet, I expect someone to at least be thinking "But the Stephanie Brown run was awesome!" I didn't think so. The Stephanie Brown comic may have had some strong writing here and there, but I was never able to stick with it for more than an issue here and there; that costume was as hard to look at as post-Flashpoint Barbara Gordon's first costume was, and the art was rarely more than mediocre.

Comic Shop Comics: July 8

You know, I was about to apologize for posting this so many days after Wednesday, and for having let the blog lie un-updated for so long–I was busy with my day job, my night job, re-watching all the Jurassic Parkmovies and visiting family–but then I remembered that with San Diego Comic-Con going on, it's not like there isn't so much to read about comics on the Internet now that anyone could possibly be looking for more. So I could probably even take the rest of the weekend off without posting anything and no one would notice, huh?

All-Star Section Eight #2 (DC Comics) I have a difficulty with this particular cover, aside from the obvious fact that it is drawn by the excellent Amanda Conner rather than the also excellent John McCrea, who manages to capture the ugliness of Sixpack and his Gotham City infinitely better than Conner does (her Sixpack, despite being visibly drunk and dirty, can't help but be slightly cute. Also, he's totally missing his little hat. Also, it looks like she drew pre-Flashpoint GL rather than post-Flashpoint GL. Also, shouldn't Sixpack being wearing a Green Lantern-ized version of his costume while wearing the ring? Because now I really want to know what that would look like).

My main difficulty is what is going on, exactly. Is Sixpack using the ring to lift those bottles of booze and levitate them toward him, and the fact that all the other booze around them is luminous and green simply because of the green light being cast upon the boxes and bottles? I suspect not, as Sixpack and Green Lantern aren't also colored green. So then I suppose the implication is that Sixpack is using his willpower to create all of that alcohol? And, if that's the case, it makes me wonder if a Green Lantern's ability to form matter constructs with his or her or its ring can also produce consumables. Can a GL create food to eat, water to drink or, here, booze to drink? I don't know. And now that too is bugging me.

Well, now that I've completely over-thought all of that, let's open up the second issue of Garth Ennis and John McCrea's kinda sorta spin-off of Hitman, featuring Sixpack's ongoing attempts to reconstitute the second worst DC superhero team ever (I mean, they suck, but they're no Sovereign Seven) before an undefined threat that only they can stop arrives.

He's got seven members, but needs and eighth to reach that magic number (This is why superhero teams would do well not to put a number in their name, as it means the Fantastic Four always needs four, the Seven Soldiers of Victory always need seven, etc). Last month, he tried quite unsuccessfully to recruit Batman, and this issue he sets his alcohol-addled sites on Green Lantern.

He gets the idea when he sees GL on the news (note the crawl; I guess news organizations in the DCU are pretty jaded by alien invasions by this point):

But first, we learn the secret origin of Dogwelder II, get some indication that all is not at all well with Sixpack (Um, if you needed another couple clues) and Bueno Excellente gets a...rival, I guess...?

After Section Seven's failed attempt to draw GL out, Sixpack argues with a t shirt salesman, oblivious to the fact that GL is fighting a red T-Rex in a space helmet with a light saber right outside the window for a few pages. (The dinosaur villain's name, by the way, is "Tyranno****er Prime," which really sound like a villain that would be in the world of Empowered, not the DCU).

When Sixpack tries to talk to Hal, the hero pointedly refuses to even make eye contact with him, turning his head away and cutting off everything he says. He then points directly at the reader–"You should be ashamed of yourselves!"–apparently making reference to the Hitman arc "Local Hero" (starring then-Green Lantern Kyle Rayner) and, more likely, the JLA/Hitman crossover from JLA Classified, in which Kyle indicates that he was apparently roofied and sexually assaulted by Bueno Excellente, something I'm still surprised got by the editors of the book, of course there is more than one interpretation, and while they're all unsavory, I suppose their are degrees to how unsavory.

Anyway, this scene ends with the most amazing thing I've ever seen a Green Lantern do...

...hail a taxi and ride away instead of, you know, flying away.

The nature of the scene is in somewhat sharp contrast to that of the Batman one in the first issue, as Hal directly addresses Sixpack, even if he refuses to look at or listen to anything he has to say, and there appears to be another witness present who deals with the fallout of Sixpacks arrival, in a way that no one in the Batman scene did. That doesn't mean this isn't all in Sixpack's head, but it's definitely different in the way it's portrayed.

McCrea's art is as excellent as always, and the scene of GL's battle with Tryanno****er Prime playing out in the background is pretty excellent. He also sneaks some ads for his own Image comic Mythic into the backgrounds, although the best detail may the fact that when the team dons GL shirts to try and trick Hal into thinking their members of the Corps, Dogwelder's dead dog has a little dog-sized GL shirt on too.

Archie #1 (Archie Comics) Twenty-one covers, Archie? Really? I know rebooting after a 666-issue run and landing Mark Waid and Fiona Staples (!) as your new creative team are both pretty big deals, but 21 covers? I don't think my shop received all of those covers, but they sure had a lot of them, and I spent too long looking at them, my eyes racing from stack to stack while the guy behind the register stood, waiting for me to choose one. I thought about getting the J. Scott Campbell one, just to annoy my friend who hates J. Scott Campbell, but ultimately chose the Mike Norton one, simply because it appeared to have Josie and The Pussycats on it in poster form. I would have got the Staples one, had I seen it; they either didn't carry it, were all sold out by the time I got to the shop, or I just couldn't see it among the other 12-21 covers.

And hey, where was the Peter Bagge variant cover I saw online? That's a real one, right? It's not among the 21 on the two-page cover gallery in the back. Does that mean there are actually more than 21 covers for this comic? Jesus. (Yes, there are! The Bagge variant is a retailer exclusive variant, which is too bad, because I think it's my favorite of them all. That Kate Leth one which also has a Josie poster in the background is pretty swell too, though. I'm not a fan of this many variants, for several reasons, but one of those reasons is that I think it pushes readers like me into eschewing serially published comics for trades. Like, if I were just patient, wouldn't I get a gallery of all these in the back of the first Archie trade paperback collection?).

Anyway, it's really, really good, and I will talk about the ways in which it is good elsewhere. Here I'll just point its goodness out, and recommend that you give the first issue a shot, regardless of your previous interest in Archie.

And because this is something I always harp on, let me note that while the book is $3.99 (boo!), for that price you at least get a 22-page original comics story, a six-page reprint of the very first Archie story, one page of prose, the aforementioned two pages of covers and no ads (save one for next issue, and one for Jughead #1, both of which come at the end of the book). If Archie Comics can give away so much content for $4, why can't Marvel and DC? Easy. They can, but they hate you, so they don't.

Seriously though–Archie is good comics.

Gotham Academy #8 (DC) Unfortunately this remains a comic book that I want to like more than I actually like. I dig the art and character designs, I like most of the characters themselves (particularly Maps), and I like the overall premise of a private school in Gotham City full of weird secrets and supernatural mysteries, but the storytelling rarely seems to work in a way that connects all of these things and connects with me. I often find myself slightly confused by the goings-on (particularly since the close of the first story arc), and the way the book jumps around. It seems to have pulled its focus away a bit too much from Olive's secrets regarding her mom and their apparent shared powers (although this issue jumps around in time...I think...? Or else her mom just died off-panel recently and I didn't notice) and the ghost haunting the school (which was seemingly resolved), to focus instead on Maps and her brother's concern for Olive and the creepy guy she's hanging around, who turns out to be a Man-Bat, created by Kirk Langstrom, who somehow got a job on faculty, despite the post-Flashpoint Langstrom being a much more evil villain than the original, anti-hero version was.

Also, another ghost shows up...?

Maybe this is all easier to follow in trade, as I see no obvious problems in the individual construction of each issue, they just don't seem to cohere in my brain as I'm reading them, and I too-often forget what happened between issues because of it. This is one of those relatively rare cases where I don't all-the-way like a comic series, but am willing to confess that maybe it's not the comic, maybe it's me.

That's a pretty swell cover, though.

Providence #2 (Avatar) The second chapter in Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows' return exploration of H.P. Lovecraft and early 20th-century weird literature finds our reporter protagonist Robert Black heads to New York, particularly the area of Red Hook, where he's greeted by Tom Malone, a character from Lovecraft's "The Horror at Red Hook." After a long talk, Malone sets Black on the trail of Robert Suydam (a character from the same short story), and essentially revisiting aspects of that plot.

I guess I'm a little slow to catch on, but so far this seems to have the makings of a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen-esque super-remix of Lovecraft's weird fiction, albeit with a more realistic, slightly more sympathetic and pschologically-complex take on it all, ala Moore and Burrows' Neonomicon. I'm fairly inexpert at Lovecraft's writings, having read 'em all over the course of one summer in college and never really revisited them, and then as now I've generally found them more funny than scary or compelling.

This issue seemed to delve more deeply into supernatural goings-ons though; there's a lot of talk about the occult, as in the first issue, but there's also a horror scene, in which our protagonist encounters a mysterious underworld that maybe shouldn't be there, and a bizarre creature.

It's good in the same highly-mannered way that all Moore-scripted works after a certain point seem to be, and I like the period-piece setting, but this is definitely a case where I'm aware I'm not getting as much out of the book as the creators put into it, or that readers with greater affection for and familiarity with the source material will get out of it. (Is this how readers who like Grant Morrison but don't know much about the DC Universe felt while reading The Multiversity...?).

Also, like Archie, this series just had way too many covers, all of them too similar to make choosing one over the others an easy decision.

Saga #30 (Image Comics) Two characters die violently, The Will wakes up, the R-word and the C-word both get dropped and, most shocking of all, someone starts school. This issue initiates another hiatus for the book, and it appears from the last page that another time jump forward will be involved. I can't wait for the next issue...which is a silly thing to say, given that I have to wait for the next issue, and if I should happen to die before it comes out, it won't be because I was unable to wait for it. Nevermind.

...

Say, how weird is it to get two Fiona Staples comics on the same Wednesday...?

SpongeBob Comics #46 (United Plankton Pictures) Speaking of values, it's hard to beat SpongeBob Comics, as your $2.99 goes a damn long way: 33-pages of original, ad-free comics with the only ad being an inside back-cover one for the next issue. And what comics! There's usually a who's who of cartoonists involved in these anthology gag comics, and this particular issue includes a who among whos: Charise Mericle Harper of Fashion Kitty kids comics, the Just Graceprose series, some of my favorite picture books (The Power of Cute, Cupcake, Go! Go! Go! Stop!) and a few dozen other damn things.

Here she writes and draws a four-page story about SpongeBob and Gary trying to talk Patrick out of getting a pet. The main event is a 24-page adventure by Bob Flynn, maybe my second favorite SpongeBob artist after Stephen DeStefano, in which SpongeBob must take a fantastic voyage inside the monstrous, weird-ass fish that's blocking out the sun, a Mola Mola. It's immediately followed by one of Maris Wicks' cute edutainment comics, explaining that yes indeed, Mola Mola are real, and telling us more about 'em. Also included are another page of James Kochalka's monthly contribution, Nate Neal's regular title page pirate comic and a weird two-pager by Jed Alexander.