Comic Shop Comics: October 12

All-Star Batman #3 (DC Comics) The cover for this issue features Batman fighting The KGBeast atop a flaming semi, which begs the question: What did Chris Sims use the other two issues the genie apparently offered him when he freed it from the lamp? Scott Snyder and John Romita Jr. have slowed down in terms of throwing redesigned Bat-villains at the reader as their action movie of a Two-Face arc begins to settle into answering the questions and providing pay-offs for what occurred in the previous issues–The Royal Flush Gang gets a brief, awesome appearance here though, with their gradual arrival being even better than their immediate dismissal. I was pretty damn surprised to see the reappearance of Harold Allnut, the mute, hunchbacked inventor that Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle introduced, and who kinda sorta lived in the fringes of Batman comics with a version of Ace the Bathound until he was dismissed in maybe the most confusing way possible in Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee's nonsensical "Hush" conclusion.

At this rate, I fully expect Pagan, The Human Flea and maybe even Metalhead to show up before this story ends.

High-fives go to letterer Steve Wands too, for the way he renders death metal: A series of musical notes occasionally interrupted by skull and crossbones icons. The Snyder/Romita lead story "My Own Worst Enemy" is still not only the best Batman comic of the moment, but also the most awesome (Nice to see The Penguin being a real, hands-on, umbrella weapon-wielding supervillain again, too!). I'm already starting to worry about a time when JRJR isn't working with Snyder on the title.

The back-up, starring codename-less not-Robin Duke Thomas and drawn by Declan Shalvey, is fine, but obviously its events can't compete with those of the lead story.

Gotham Academy: Second Semester #2 (DC) I like how this issue's story reflects that of a manga/anime trope, that of the club rivalry. Here it's a little on the subtle side, I suppose, as the members of the unofficial Detective Club realize something strange is up and one of their number falls prey to the rival Witch Club, but the club vs. club dynamic certainly seems appropriate in the one Batman-affiliated book from a creative team that has apparently most thoroughly absorbed manga.

Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy #5 (Boom Studios) So it took the penultimate issue, but I've finally gotten to the point where I had to keep reminding myself that the kids from Gotham Academy aren't regular characters in the Lumberjanes comics. I suppose that can be seen as a strength of writer Chynna Clugston Flores' writing here, given how well she's integrated the two casts from the two disparate comics, or a weakness, given the fact that this has become a Lumberjanes story more than a Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy story. But then, I'm not sure how you keep such a crossover from inevitably becoming a Lumberjanes comic, given that the 'janes are married to their setting in a way the GA kids aren't (That is, I can't imagine the 'janes ever leaving in order to visit Gotham City; that would seem to break one of the core rules of the Lumberjanes comics).

In this issue, the mystery is more-or-less solved and the trickery more-or-less exhausted, so our heroes must resort to violence. Which, of course, means lots and lots of awesome violence against characters that are mostly cloak (a subject near and dear to my heart). It's definitely the most action-packed issue of the series so far, and there are some inspired scary visuals, as the lodge itself comes to life to attack our heros.

Oh hey, remember Olive Silverlock is pyrokinetic? I keep forgetting that. Gotham Academy should really address that, instead of occasionally raising and then forgetting it for months.

SpongeBob Comics #61 (United Plankton Pictures) The lead story in this year's Halloween issue, in which a witch curses the Krabby Petty for Mister Krabs' stinginess and blesses Patrick for his kindness, is a little weak, at least in terms of a spooky content, but the other stories make up for it. These include a Graham Annable silent story in which SpongeBob chases a jellyfish into a haunted house of sorts (and there's a Texas Chainsaw Massacre homage, of all things) and an elaborate Jim Campbell-drawn, Bob Flynn-written and layout-ed poster of a comic that you'd kind of have to see to appreciate, but its size prevents me from sharing here. Just make sure you turn to the third-to-the-last and second-to-the-last page of this month's issue when you're in the shop. If your local shop pre-bags and boards all their books, just tear it open, take it out and get your grimy fingerprints all over it. It's okay. I give you my permission, for whatever that's worth (Not much!).

Suicide Squad #4 (DC) Twelve-pages of Jim Lee-drawn Squad vs. Zod fighting (the "Die, Graphic Designer!" panel was pretty funny), followed by an eight-page Gary Frank-drawn Harley Quinn story. Can you believe they saved the Harley solo-ish story until the fourth issue? In this, writer Rob Williams has Rick Flag test Harley by taking her with him and a bunch of soldiers on a mission, wherein everyone gets exposed to Joker gas, and Harley talks to a hallucinatory Joker.

Captain Boomerang remains dead. :(

Wonder Woman #8 (DC) Uh-oh.

So it seemed inevitable that DC's accelerated publishing schedule would eventually cause problems for some of the books–I know Green Lanterns shipped late once, and there have obviously been some deadline-pushing books that required extra artists to get them out on time–but this one seems kind of drastic.

Greg Rucka's Wonder Woman, which is basically two different books shipping under the same title and numbering system, gets a kinda sorta fill-in here that breaks the "Year One" story by Nicola Scott, current story by Liam Sharp, "Year One," current rhythm.

It's still by Rucka, and it is drawn by the excellent Bilquis Evely, but it belongs to neither narrative. It's a kinda sorta origin story of Barbara Minerva–not of how she became a The Cheetah, but how she channeled her childhood interest in mythology into discovering The Amazons–and given that Barbara is a character in both narratives, it fits with both.

In other words, this is maybe an ideal issue for the serially-published Wonder Woman, as it fits with both, but it's not clear where (if?) it gets collected. I've been assuming that DC will eventually publish Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Year One and Wonder Woman Vol. 2: The Lies, but, if that's the case, where will they stick this one? (Me? I wouldn't collect it at all; I think publishers should occasionally not collect comics so as to encourage serial consumption, but that's just me, armchair publisher).

I'm just speculating, of course. I honestly have no idea how DC plans to collect Wonder Woman, nor how they will proceed once these first two story arcs are completed. Will alternating, Nicola Scott-drawn issues continue to be set in the past?

Anyway, no Wonder Woman in this issue of Wonder Woman. But plenty of Bilquis Evely art, and that's just as good!

...

And hey, up there where I mentioned The Human Flea? I wasn't just joking. I love The Human Flea. I used to want him to be a recurring Robin villain, maybe of the Anarky sort, where he was a sometimes-enemy, sometimes-ally type of character. I'd make that guy a Teen Titan, or part of the new Teenage Crimefighters Club that's starring in Detective Comics (he makes more sense than Clayface!). Hooray for the Human Flea!

Afterbirth: DC's "Rebirth" initiative, week 18

Batman Beyond: Rebirth #1 by Dan Jurgens, Ryan Sook, Jeremy Lawson and Tony Avina

This is one of the "Rebirth" launches I was most perplexed by. Not because it's such an unusual concept or unlikely character, but simply because it seems like DC has already given the book plenty of time to run its course. That, and it just strikes me as odd that of all the excellent DC cartoons to keep trying to make into an ongoing series, they keep pushing Batman Beyond, which whatever its original charms seem fairly limited to something like, I don't know, Justice League Unlimited (Hey, what if all of DC's superheroes were on one big, All-Star Squadron-sized super-team?), or Batman: The Brave and The Bold (Hey, what if Batman hung out with Aquaman and Plastic Man all the time, and oh yeah, Aquaman was Marvel's Hercules?).

Admittedly, I've also kind of lost track of what's what with the publisher's Batman Beyond efforts. There were a few books set in the original cartoon's continuity, and then after the year-long New 52: Future's End series (the second-to-last hurrah for WildStorm character's in the DC Universe), a near-future version of Tim Drake traveled to a further-future where he assumed the mantle of Batman from Terry McGinnis and...I lost track after a couple of issues, because I was pretty sick of Batman Beyond after Future's End. (Double-checking, it looks like that 2015-launched series lasted just 16 issues, but, given the timing, it was likely to have been canceled as part of "Rebirth" rather than for any other reasons.

So I was a little surprised at how straightforward this book was.

Still written by Dan Jurgens, who is also writing Action Comics for DC, he's joined by artist Ryan Sook for a rehash of Batman Terry McGinnis' origin story, which may or may not vary too much from that of the original cartoon, which I only saw in fits and starts in Cartoon Network repeats. It seems like pretty much the same story, although there seem to be more Jokerz around. They are, in fact, the major threat, and what Terry busies himself fighting when not flashing-back to his origin. The big cliffhanger ending? The Jokerz are trying to resurrect the original Joker...I want to say "again," as there was a direct-to-DVD Batman Beyond movie entitled The Return of The Joker.

I suppose if this particular milieu is of interest to you, then this comic will be as well. What I've found most appealing about it in the past is the aesthetics, and while Sook is an unquestionably great artist and his work here is great, it doesn't really look or feel like Batman Beyond, either the cartoon or the pre-Future's End comics.

I'm afraid this is one I'm just not interested in at all. The first official issue of the series will debut at the end of the month, with Jurgens remaining on as writer and Bernard Chang, who drew the previous volume of Batman Beyond, taking over the artwork. Sook will still be around though, providing covers.

Teen Titans: Rebirth #1 Ben Percy, Jonboy Meyers and Jim Charalampidis

As I've mentioned in this feature repeatedly, 2011's Flashpoint/New 52 reboot of the DC Universe had some pretty harsh consequences for the characters of the previous iteration's first, third and fourth generation of superheroes (That would be the Golden Age heroes, the first crop of sidekicks and the 1990s-era second crop of sidekicks). Collapsing the fictional timeline from decades down to just five years had the effect of wiping out entire generations of characters, and those that did remain did so in forms that were somewhere between tinkered with and hideously mangled, and often in ways that didn't make sense if you stop to think about them for any length of time (i.e. Batman's four Robins, two of whom had grown to adulthood, in just five years).

While the Justice Society's generation was simply wiped out (with versions of those characters appearing in a series alternate reality series all sharing the title Earth 2), the Teen Titans franchise was apparently marketable enough to keep around, even if it meant they would be hideously mangled. Of the original Teen Titans, only Robin Dick Grayson and Speedy Roy Harper were still extant at the point of reboot, but new versions of Aqualad, Donna Troy and Kid Flash would eventually be introduced.

Of the Marv Wolfman/George Perez era Titans, the ones who have anchored Cartoon Networks' Teen Titans Teen Titans Go cartoons, Cyborg and Starfire were aged up to young adults, with the former being snatched up by Geoff Johns to be a founding member of the Justice League and the latter relegated to Red Hood and The Outlaws for some reason. Raven and Beast Boy, meanwhile, were introduced as teens, and would eventually find their way into the pages of the ever-troubled Teen Titans book.

As launched, that book was sort of picking up where Johns' run on Teen Titans had ended, with the core of the Young Justice team now the Teen Titans. September 2011's first issue was written by Scott Lobdell and penciled by Brett Booth, and featured on the cover Red Robin Tim Drake, Kid Flash Bart Allen, Wonder Girl Cassandra Sandsmark, Superboy, Solstice, Skitter and Bunker–you know, the Teen Titans.

That series lasted 30 issues (including #0, #23.1 and #23.2, because comics), with Lobdell, a veteran of 1990s X-Men comics, writing until the very end, getting assists from Fabian Niceiza on a trio of issues. Booth was the primary artist for much of those issues, while Eddy Barrows had a short six-issue run and Tyler Kikham a slightly shorter five-issue run (Ig Guara, Ale Garza, Angel Unzeta and Robson Rocha each drew one or two issues as well). While 30 issues seems like a relatively short run for a book starring that franchise in the second decade of the 21st century, it managed to survive several cullings of the the moribund New 52 line...and would be immediately relaunched anyway (as was done with Suicide Squad).

The second, post-Flashpoint volume of Teen Titans lasted just 24 issues, but it was canceled in order to make way for the third volume, which I will get to in a moment here I swear. This second New 52 volume launched under the new creative team of Will Pfeifer and pencil artist Kenneth Rocafort, and started with a more recognizable team: Red Robin, Wonder Girl, Beast Boy, Raven and Bunker. Pfeiffer wrote the first sixteen issues, and was then followed by Greg Pak for three issues and Tony Bedard for four issues. Rocafort drew seven issues, but the art was pretty inconsistent; Ian Churchill drew eight issues, and at least eight other pencil artists drew between three and one issues a piece. The book grew increasingly messy as it went on.

And that, finally, brings us to the third and (hopefully) final relaunch of the Teen Titans, in this one-shot special by writer Ben Percy and artist Jonboy Meyers. As I mentioned when writing about this issue for Good Comics For Kids, the great thing about this book is you don't really have to have read or even know anything about the previous 50+ issues of New 52 Teen Titans comics. Red Robin Tim Drake is pretend dead, which is why the old team has scattered and why there isn't currently a Teen Titans, and that's all you really need to know–maybe it would also help to be aware of the fact that current Robin Damian Wayne has a big red bat-monster...?

For the line-up, the creators have chosen a pretty instantly recognizable team, one that could certainly pass for the Teen Titans if you're only familiar with them from mass media adaptations: Robin, Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire and Kid Flash (Wally West...no, the other Wally West). As I mentioned at GC4K, that's the team from the cartoons, if you swap out Cyborg for Kid Flash, or the team from Justice League Vs. Teen Titans, if you swap out Blue Beetle for Kid Flash.

At first glance at the cover, it might be hard to wrap one's head around this particular team–Damian's never met these guys, Starfire's not a teen, etc.–but Percy cleverly uses Damian as his proxy. Why this particular team, exactly? Because Damian wants them, so he rounds them up and forces them into the same place at the same time against their will. This is going to be the Teen Titans now because Damian says so, apparently.

This is loosely one of the "bridge" format Rebirth specials, but it's less concerned with wrapping up old business from the previous Teen Titans than it is collecting a few of those characters from where they ended up (Starfire's own solo book was also canceled at about the same time as Teen Titans).

Percy and Meyers show us the four non-Damian Titans going about their business, and then each being captured by an mysterious hooded figure via elaborate traps (Spoiler: It's Damian).

In LA, Beat Boy is trying to party his troubles away and restart his acting career. In the Caribbean, Starfire is trying to break up a slavery ring. In New York City, Raven's trying to find some peace and quiet (I'm not sure how this fits with her own miniseries, which has her attending high school in San Francisco, but I didn't like the first issue of that and have no interest in the rest of it, so personally I think I'll just ignore it, if that's okay with you guys). And in Central City, this universe's Wally West (not to be confused with the pre-Flashpoint Wally West, currently appearing in Titans) is fighting crime and getting used to his new powers while wearing the classic red and yellow Kid Flash costume.

One by one they all get shocked or drugged into unconsciousness, only to awake in their costumes (I guess Damian undressed and re-dressed a few of them?) in a big super-villain trap. And out steps everyone's favorite arrogant little bastard:

What next? Well, Teen Titans #1, naturally. Where's it going? I don't know. But credit where credit's due, this is an inspired line-up in that it both looks like what one might expect the Titans to look like, while simultaneously introducing brand-new characters to the franchise (the Damian version of Robin, this new version of Wally West) and characters who haven't had an in-current-continuity association with the team or with one another.

It's a pretty great jumping-on point, introducing all five characters quickly and efficiently and spending the minimum amount of effort wrestling the team into place so the storytelling can start. Whether that story will be interesting or not remains to be seen, of course, but Damian is such a strong character that generally just putting him in a scene goes a long way towards filling it with conflict.

Additionally, the more out-there redesigns the characters suffered have been abandoned, and while they're not exactly in their most familiar costumes, either from the comics or the cartoons, Raven, for example, looks like Raven, Kid Flash looks like Kid Flash, despite the color of his skin being darker than Wally or Bart's (gone is the silver costume he debuted in).

This is only the second issue of a Teen Titans comic I've been able to read cover to cover since 2011 (the other was the last issue of the previous series), so from design, to rendering to storytelling, this is maybe the best the book's been in for pretty much ever.

I'm excited for Teen Titans #1, which will launch the last week of October and be by the same creative team as this issue.

Blue Beetle #1 by Keith Giffen, Scott Kolins and Romulo Fajardo Jr.

I don't really have anything to say about the first issue of this series that I didn't have to say about the Rebirth special; this very much reads like #2 of an already in-progress series.

Keith Giffen's bickering characters are all inherently unlikable, to the point that I can't wait to get away from them all. Jaime's indulging Ted doesn't really seem logical, if his only motivation is to get the brilliant billionaire to remove the alien artifact from his back. The superheroes-fighting part is pretty dull, as Blue Beetle takes on a member of a metahuman street gang, only to have the rest of the gang appear on the last page to presumably fight him some more next issue. Something more interesting is going on in Jaime's dreams, in which a Doctor Fate battles a giant version of the scarab.

I continue to love co-plotter Kolins' art, and particularly his version of Blue Beetle, the scarab and the bug, but there's not much here that's much fun, beyond Kolins' rendering of the title character. That's probably enough of this series for me.

Comic Shop Comics: October 5th

Betty Boop #1 (Dynamite Entertainment) I am usually quite loathe to spend $4 on 20 pages of comics, but I thought I would at least try the first issue, as this is written by Roger Langridge, and he did a pretty dynamite (get it?) job on unlikely, licensed titles like Popeye for IDW and The Muppets for Boom. I will write about this at greater length elsewhere, for money, so I'll just say here that it is unfortunately not also drawn by Langridge, whose style is all but ideal for the subject matter (although artist Gisele Lagace is a pretty great artist), that I was surprised to find it rated "Teen+" despite the content being perfectly all-ages) and that Howard Chaykin's variant cover is so weird looking, and makes Koko fairly horrifying looking.

Anyway, more later and elsewhere.

DC Comics Bombshells #18 (DC Comics) Props to writer Marguerite Bennett for Batwoman's exclamation of "Oh sweet Dorothy Kamenshek," which sounded extremely Lumberjanes, and which I had to look up: That's Dottie from A League of Their Own, the movie that popularized the era's female baseball players, whose uniforms inspired Batwoman's Bombshells redesign. Bravo.

This issue, entitled "Uprising Part 2" and drawn by Laura Braga and Mirka Andolfo, concludes the the Mera vs. Siren battle for the fate of Atlantis, seemingly brings some closure to The Joker's Daughter vs. Zatanna sub-plot and introduces the next storyline, which will involve an African kingdom and the Queen Mari of Zambesi, aka Bombshell Vixen.

Also, this universe's Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, whose romantic relationship is as explicit as it can get in a DC comic, totally do it, but in a way that's more cute than titillating. After suggestive talks of bondage and undressing, they kiss, and then disappear under the covers, little cartoon hearts floating above the sheet.

I just saw this morning that Bennett will be writing the next volume of a Batwoman comic, which surprised me in that DC had seemed to take some pains to retool Detective Comics into a Bat-team book in which Batwoman was the central character. I can't think of a better writer for the series than Bennett though (maybe Devin K. Grayson?), who has been writing a pretty great Batwoman for 18 issues of this series so far. I might personally prefer any of the great artists who have worked on Bombshells join her on the Batwoman ongoing, but then, I would only miss the likes of Braga and Andolfo drawing the scantily-clad 'ships of World War II battling the Nazis.

Paper Girls #10 (Image Comics) The first page made me curious about what a Cliff Chiang-drawn comic based on the old arcade game Joust might look like (awesome, I decided). The last page, like just about every last page of Brian K. Vaughan's recent comics, was awesome and made me look forward to the next issue. In between? I got nothing. It's still a big, complicated time travel story that is a little like Y: The Last Man in the way it draws a central mystery out, but it lacks the plotting immediacy and character dynamics of Y. It's good, I like it okay, the art's great, Vaughan knows his way around a cliffhanger, but, ah, it's never a terribly satisfying, engaging 20 pages of comics. I should have waited for the trade. Why oh why didn't I just wait for the trade?

Cool Halloween-colored cover, though.

Superf*ckers #3 (IDW) Perhaps tiring of saying "Jack Krak is the motherfucker," Jack decides on a new catch-phrase: "I'm going to say the N-word!" The N-word here is "Noodles," which still seems to irritate Ultra Richard. That's the first page of the James Kochalka main story, in which some stuff happens, but what isn't that important really, is it? The back-up is by Box Brown, and involves a sexy malfunction of Computer Fist's computer fists, and Grotus getting into shenanigans with them.

I still haven't gotten #1 yet–IDW? Local comic shop? Diamond? Whose fault is this?–but Grotus was the focus of last issue's back-up as well, making me wonder if perhaps Grotus is going to star in all the back-ups.

James Robinson and Greg Hinkle's Airboy collection addresses the criticism of Airboy #2

You may recall that James Robinson and Greg Hinkle's extremely off-beat, kinda sorta-but-not really reboot of the Golden Age Airboy character for Image Comics received some pretty negative attention upon the release of its second issue, which repeatedly used the word "tranny" and had other problematic content that some found offensive. Here's a pretty decent summary of that problematic content that ran on Comics Alliance, which also links to James Robinson's own apology about the scene in question.

I originally read the series as it was serially published, but the other day I noticed a hardcover collection of the series on the shelf of my local library. Given that Robinson himself had expressed some regret over the scenes in Airboy #2, I was curious if Robinson and Image would take the opportunity that the publication of the collection offered to correct those scenes.

Some of the fixes would obviously be pretty easy, as they would only involve a bit of re-lettering of a few panels. The other concern that Charlotte Finn (and others) raised were more key to the story, and to address those concerns, an entire scene would need to be re-written and re-drawn. I don't really want to wade too deeply into the issue, as I found the use of the word "tranny" to be more problematic than the issues involved in the sex acts, but that is largely because of my reading of the story that the Robinson, Hinkle and Airboy characters are supposed to be somewhat repugnant (And, for better or worse, a Golden Age superhero would probably be bewildered, freaked out and disgusted to find himself in the type of "trap" Finn explained; maybe it's wrong to make excuses for the elderly, but I know I hold my sister and nieces to different standards of societal enlightenment than I hold my 91-and-a-half-year-old grandfather, who was born about the same time as Airboy).

Well, having checked out the collection, my curiosity has been satisfied: Lines of offending dialogue have been changed, but nothing has been redrawn. If you yourself are curious, below are the three changes I noticed in Airboy #2, the third of which I was surprised by, because it meant that Robinson realized that it wasn't just the word "tranny" that offended some readers.

I don't know if the changes will necessarily satisfy those who were offended, but they are interesting to see nonetheless.

Airboy #2

Airboy collection

Airboy #2

Airboy collection

Airboy #2

Airboy collection

Comic Shop Comics: September 28th

Deadman: Love After Death #1-#2 (DC Comics) I read this Mike Baron-written, Kelley Jones-drawn prestige format miniseries from 1989 once a long time ago, but I don't actually own it. So when I noticed both issues bagged and boarded and selling for just $4.99 in a back-issue bin right next to the cash register at my local comic shop today, well, how could I not buy it? That's $7.90 worth of Kelley Jones-drawn comics for just $4.99! It's a savings $2.91 cents!

I did not re-read it tonight, but, if memory serves, it was awesome, and I imagine it remains so. The title character is maybe the only character who looks even more radically different under Kelley Jones' pen than any other artist's than even Batman. Wait, does that sentence make sense? I've read it like three times and keep tweaking it, and it still seems like a bad sentence. Let me try again: If you think Jones' Batman looks radically different from every other artist's version of that iconic character, wait until you see his Deadman! (Better? Eh, whatever. No one's paying for these sentences).

Josie and the Pussycats #1 (Archie Comics) I have always had a special place in my heart for Dan DeCarlo's Josie and the Pussycats characters for a variety of reasons tied to nostalgia both personal and as related to media consumption, and so I was particularly looking forward to what seemed like Archie's inevitable launch of a new look Josie series to go along with their Archie, Jughead and Betty and Veronica.

There was a fair amount of suspense involved as well, as while co-writer Marguerite Bennett was a known quantity to me, her co-writer Cameron Deordio and artistic collaborator Audrey Mok were not. In that regard, I couldn't immediately assume I would like the book in the way I did Archie or Jughead based on the knowledge that they were launching under Mark Waid and Fiona Staples and Chip Zdarksy and Erica Henderson, respectively.

Well, it turned out perfectly okay. Solo artist Josie, performing at a coffee shop before an audience consisting solely of the lady working there and Alexandra Cabot who shows just to belittle her, hears about a benefit show for an animal shelter, and convinces her boy-crazy, date-happy ditzy friend Melody and a girl who works at the shelter, Valerie, to join her.

There is some Alexandra-seeded conflict, which they resolve by the end of the show (and issue), wherein they meet Alan, who, at least as presented in his few panels of appearance, seems like he might be a combination of Alan and Alexander (Alexander doesn't show at all; hopefully we'll get to him in future issues).

Jose and Val both seem a little bland at this point, and hard to get a handle on. Bennett and Deordio do a pretty interesting version of Melody as a stereotypical dumb blonde stereotype, I thought, making it so that she doesn't necessarily lack intelligence, she's just focused on different things, or, in some cases, unfocused. She loses the musical note in her dialogue bubbles too.

Alexandra seems to be a pretty straightforward transplant, in personality as well as look.

Translating these particular characters into a 2016 narrative can be somewhat fraught, but I think Archie Comics has pulled it off okay, at least so far. It's going to take an arc or so to see how everything settles and takes shape, I think.

I should note that Sophie Campbell's spectacular art on Jem and The Holograms for IDW during two of the first three or so story arcs on that Kelly Thompson-written title have sort of spoiled the presentation of music in comics for me. That is, Campbell drew music so well that to see a more standard approach like the one here--lyrics in dialogue bubbles, musical notes hanging around them and the instruments.

Given the contested history, I would have loved to see a "created by Dan DeCarlo" credit, but there are probably legal reasons for why there isn't. The one-page prose history does acknowledge DeCarlo's creation though, and the fact that the title character is based on his wife, and their iconic cat costumes on a costume of hers.

As per usual, Archie published way too many covers, meaning that you will likely have to choose between those of some of your favorite artists. I thought the above Derek Charm one was the strongest image, even though it meant passing up covers by Colleen Coover and Marguerite Savauge (I didn't really like her Beatles homage, conceptually, but the rendering was srong). That seems to be an argument for trade-waiting, however there is a short, classic DeCarlo-drawn strip in here, that won't appear in the trade. So, there's an argument for reading this serially.

Lumberjanes #30 (Boom Studios) Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh and Carey Pietsch continue their story of a gorgon on the loose around camp, and the Lumberjanes' attempts to stop it and restore the petrified campers of Zodiac Cabin back to normal. I was relieved to find that, once again, things aren't quite what they seem–I find it kind of charming that the monsters of Lumberjanes very rarely turn out to be actually monstrous–and the bad guy we thought we were getting isn't anywhere near as bad as we thought.

Also, I liked the bit about the history of Medusa, in which Poseidon is presented as a bro, complete with a baseball cap.

Saga #38 (Image Comics) In this issue, a character dies! Maybe! Probably? I mean, it sure looked like they died! Who is it? Literally the last character I ever expected Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, this book's two rather ruthless creators, to kill off. It's a pretty sad moment, and the blow isn't necessarily cushioned by the introduction of another amazing-looking Freelancer with another awesome pet with a cool name, nor by the fact that the script has the words "taints" and "queef" within the first three pages, which would have really endeared it to a younger, even more immature Caleb than the current, middle-aged and rather immature Caleb you're used to hearing from here.

Scooby-Doo Team-Up #18 (DC Comics) Remember Scooby-Doo Team-Up #13, the issue where the cover showed ghostly heroes The Spectre, Deadman and The Phantom Stranger, but the inside was chock-full of what looked like pretty much every ghost character in DC Comics history that writer Sholly Fisch could think of a way to cram into a 20-page story for kids?

Well, this issue is just like that. Only with DC's canine superhero characters.

Scooby-Doo and Wonder Dog (from Superfriends, not to be confused with Rex, The Wonder Dog) are just wrapping up an off-page team-up on the first page, when Krypto the Superdog, Ace the Bathound and Green Lantern G'Nort swoop in to recruit Scooby-Doo's help. The five of them fly to Sirius-9, where they team up with the Space Canine Patrol (!). And why did that band of canine superheroes need the help of Earth's dog superheroes and, in particular, Scooby-Doo? Because their headquarters is being haunted by another group of superdogs: Nighthound (Nightwing's dog...no, not the Nightwing you probably thought of when I said "Nightwing," but the other one, from the bottle city of Kandor), Bulletdog (Bulletman and Bulletgirl's dog, given a more Bullet-appropriate makeover), Robbie The Robot Dog (Robotman's dog...no, not the Robotman you probably thought of when I said "Robotman," but the other Robot man, from the Golden Age), Yankee Poodle (who, okay, granted, doesn't actually belong here at all) and motherfucking Rex the motherfucking Wonder Dog (!!!!).

Those are some deep, deep cuts, guys. I have never read a story featuring Nighthound or Bulletdog before, nor have I seen them in any guidebooks or even cover images of them; I just had to spend some time online figuring out if they were really who I thought they were.

It will likely come as no surprise to you that it ends happily before the final page, and the final, most magnificent dog pun, in which the dog equivalent of a long-time DC supervillain appears. I was a little perplexed by some of artist Dario Brizuela's artistic choices–his G'Nort seemed particularly rotund to me, for example, his Rex too shaggy and Krypto had sharper features than I might have liked–but he did his usual astounding job of mixing the design sensibilities from a wide range of sources spanning decades and making them all fit together in a way that feels organic.

There are a couple of funny bits about the term "Wonder Dog," which allows Scooby to name-drop Dyno-Mutt...who I've been waiting to appear in this book since it was first announced. Hopefully Fisch and Brizuela can get to Blue Falcon and Dyno-Mutt in a future issue (and man, I am shocked they weren't included in DC's weird-ass Hanna-Barbera reboot, as they seem naturals for it...although perhaps I should be glad, as I hate two of those four books).

Sixpack and Dogwelder: Hard Travelin' Heroz #2 (DC) There are perhaps just two things I don't like about this book.

The first is that it is drawn by Russ Braun, an excellent artist whose only real fault is that he's not John McCrea, who is, any way you look at it, probably the only artist who should be drawing this series (although an argument could perhaps be made fro Doug Mahke, who drew Section Eight in 2000's Hitman/Lobo: That Suptid Bastich #1). I will try not to repeat that every month, but it's difficult to read a spin-off to writer Garth Ennis and John McCrea's Hitman comic and not notice McCrea's absence on every page (there's even a three-panel sequence in this issue featuring flashbacks to Baytor's appearances in The Demon and Hitman, in which Braun draws Etrigan and Tommy, Nat and the boys from Noonan's).

The other is the swearing. There is a lot of it, much of the most effective swearing coming from The Spectre, who shouts it in huge green text, each letter the size of one of the members of Section Eight, but it is all rendered as a series of asterisks, which I do not care for. I'd prefer they just go ahead and use the actual swear words (This is rated "T+" for older teens; not sure why it's not "M" for mature if the "M" means they can swear, since the target audience here is obviously people well over 18-years-old, and not 16 and 17-year-olds). Or, if they are going to not use real swear words, then to at least use the traditional comic book grawlix.

So, for example, if The Spectre is going to say "Okay, you are really starting to **** me off...You ************* are gonna find out I am the wrong ***** to **** with," I'd really rather see "piss," "motherfuckers," "bitch" and "fuck" in there, or just "@#$%," "mother@#$%ers", "@#$%^" and "@#$%".

By the way, I didn't know "piss" was off-limits in a "T+" book, nor can I figure out what the five-letter word is...I'm assuming "bitch," which has five letters; I guess it could e something unexpected though, like, um, "fucko"...? When I heard "the wrong (redacted) to (redacted) with," I personally thought immediately of a particular Ice Cube song from Death Certificate, but that word has six letters...unless The Spectre is quoting Cube exactly, and replacing the "-er" at the end of that particular word with an "-a" in which case it is a five-letter word and...oh yeah, that is what The Spectre is saying!

See, this book should be rated "M" for mature, because come on, the world needs a comic book in which The Spectre, the spirit of vengeance, the personification of God's anger in the universe, bellows "I am the wrong nigga to fuck with!"

So! The last issue ended with an off-model Spectre appearing in a green cloud outside of Noonan's Sleazy Bar, pointing his finger at Section Eight...or, more specifically, Baytor, who, don't forget, is an actual demon from hell. And The Spectre wants to send him back there...however, he's not quite sure what Baytor looks like.

Quoth The Spectre:

Oh, his likeness was lost in one of these ******* [fucking, I imagine, or perhaps goddam] re-shuffles... The fifty-two infinities or the resurgent crisis or something... This stuff's all very well, but it's no fun if you're the one running around re-ordering the realities afterwards.

So this leads to a character whose only real dialogue is shouting "I am Baytor!" having to restrain himself from saying "I am Baytor!" and a rather unexpected Spartacus moment, with even Gotham's most famous resident getting in on the act.

Meanwhile, John Constantine shows up, suffering the effects of being thrown from the Vertigo universe into DC's superhero universe, which here means wearing a space helmet, holding a ray gun labeled "Hellblazer" and standing atop the Silver Surfer's flying surfboard, because why not?

As with All Star Section Eight then, here we have Garth Ennis making fun of special DC Comics guest-stars–The Spectre and Constantine mainly–but he's really taking the piss out of the state of DC Comics as a whole at the moment, and it's nice that DC is letting him do so.

Now if only they'd let him swear and have waited for McCrea's schedule to be free enough to draw it all...

Snotgirl #3 (Image Comics) I kind of love that this book isn't going in any of the directions I thought it was going in at various points in the first two issues. The one I was kind of worried about at the end of the first issue is kinda sorta resolved here, but there's still a mystery about what exactly happened in that once scene, and what's been going on with some characters since.

Basically, I have no idea what to expect from the narrative, although I do know what to expect of the visuals each issue: They are going to be beautifully, effectively drawn by Leslie Hung and perfectly colored and lettered by Mickey Quinn and Mare Odomo.

I love this comic.

Suicide Squad #3 (DC) The first 12 pages of writer Rob Williams' rather uniquely-formatted Suicide Squad book, which devotes just three-fifths of each issue to an ongoing storyline and the remainder to back-up solo stories in order to accommodate pencil artist Jim Lee, takes another stutter step forward. Here, the surviving members of the Squad–I hate to say it, but the member who seemingly got killed off in the previous issue still seems to be pretty dead here–fight the completely unexpected threat they found at the end of the last chapter.

It made me rather curious about the character's previous appearances in the post-Flashpoint DCU, because Lee's conception of this character, who I will name in the next paragraph, seems pretty unusual.

The villain is General Zod (that's right, the villain for the first DC Cinematic Universe movie is battling the protagonists of the latest one!), and Lee draws him as somewhere between 10-15 feet tall, depending on the panel. He's a giant; his head about as big as the other characters' torsos. I...don't recall him being so huge in his previous post-Flashpoint appearances, and assuming this is the same Zod, I don't see why this one particular Kryptonian would be so much bigger than the rest of his species. Lee's art–I know it's futile to criticize it in any way–plays fast and loose with that scale, and he often draws Zod standing in rather bizarre, squatting stances so that he can be both gigantic and fit in the same panels as his smaller opponents. It was pretty distractingly weird, really.

This issue's 10-page back-up solo story, drawn by Philip Tan, was a real disappointment after the previous issue's awesome Captain Boomerang story. This one stars Katana, whose two defining characteristics in the four Suicide Squad issues so far (there was a Rebirth one-shot, remember) are that 1.) She barely ever speaks and 2.) She has a sword. This is a pretty straightforward recap of a story that could be told in a line or two of dialogue. Her sword is a magic one that holds the souls of its victims, and the soul of her husband is trapped inside it. And...that's all that's terribly relevant, although Williams tries to find some drama in her husband's murder by his brother and her taking vengeance upon him.

Tan's artwork is...serviceable, although he has a weird idea about the size of Katana's katana (i.e. it's point to hilt, it's as long as she is tall, and it's hilt alone is just a little shorter than her arm) and her random shoulder pad is gigantic, in the last panel more closely resembling a shield.

It's straightforward, which is in pretty sharp contrast to the funny back-up we got last issue, and it doesn't even have the sort of twists that the first issue had.

As a whole package, I'm still not sure I'd go so far as to say Suicide Squad volume 4 is good, or even necessarily entertaining, but it's definitely interesting, and that's far better than uninteresting, which is perhaps the worst thing a superhero comic book could be.

Wonder Woman #7 (DC) I really rather like Liam Sharp's artwork, and his redesign of The Cheetah is pretty bad-ass, but I can't stop thinking about her ears. They look cool, but they are very big and pointy, like  housecat ears, and, um, don't really look anything like Cheetah ears.

Sharp's drawing of The Cheetah's ears:

A real cheetah's ears:

That's not a criticism of the design choice, just an observation, and an admission that I can't stop thinking about them.

I think that may be why I prefer Justice League Unlimited's version of The Cheetah to all other were-cheetah takes on the character:

Anyway, this is a Sharp-drawn issue of Wonder Woman, meaning it is set in the present and is another chapter in Greg Rucka's "The Lies" storyline. Relatively little seems to happen: Wonder Woman fights the heavy metal album cover model you see on the front of the book to save Steve and others from an African warlord, and Barbara Minerva reverts. It takes about four minutes to read. It looks gorgeous. I bet it will be mores satisfying in trade, if you're strong and patient enough to wait for it (I am not).

Wonder Woman: The True Amazon (DC) I haven't yet read Jill Thompson's fully-painted original graphic novel, but I can't wait to do so.

Actually, they're both kinda jerks, aren't they?

Simon Baz's mom tries to sort out the various Green Lanterns in Green Lanterns #7, written by Sam Humphries and drawn by Ronan Cliquet.

Afterbirth: DC's "Rebirth" initiative, week 17

Cyborg #1 by John Semper Jr., Paul Pelletier, Tony Kordos, Scott Hanna and Guy Major

I found the first issue of the new, second volume of a Cyborg ongoing solo series to be surprisingly strong...although I must confess that was in large part because of how low I set the bar after the rather dull and predictable Cyborg: Rebirth #1, which simply ran through his origin one more time and introduced yet another iteration of the whether robots have souls or not issue (As I said at the time, it struck me that comic book writers only tell such stories about robots, cyborgs, androids, synthezoids and other artificial people, when really it's a pretty fundamental human concern. I worry about that kind of thing, and the only metal in my body is a filling where a cavity used to be).

After two pages of foreshadowing the threat that appears on the last two pages to engage Cyborg in a fight, the issue opens with Cyborg stopping some (relatively) petty crooks, then having an elaborate diagnostic run by his father and his friend Sarah at STAR Labs, and then she takes him out for ice cream and jazz music.

If this marks the end of his newfound worry whether he is a real human being with a real soul who has a bunch of robot parts, or if he is an elaborate machine that thinks it has a soul, then it would be a fairly satisfying conclusion to that conflict, even if the scene in which he rediscovers his soul could be viewed as rather trite, depending on how cynical vs. how generous a reader wants to be (It involves a blind jazz musician named Blue, who would stand out as a magical negro type if this comic weren't mostly populated with black folks).

To pencil artist Paul Pelletier's credit, he manages to sell Cyborg's discovery of his soul or humanity–or at least his realization that he can appreciate improvisational live jazz–really well with a few drawings and shifts in facial expression. He likewise handles all other aspects of the book pretty well.

As for the villain that picks the fight with Cyborg, after being awoken by the other villain, the one revealed at the end of the Rebirth special, it's yet one more instance of the Dan DiDio Era, worst-of-both-worlds approach to continuity. It's Kilg%re, a Flash villain from 1987 who played a role in the JLI-era Justice League comics and hasn't been heard from since.

Semper Jr. resurrects the character here, where so far it is simply a big scary robot, but if that name or history is at all attractive to you, then you've been reading DC comics rather voraciously for decades now, and are unlikely to be too terribly interested in the re-booted New 52 universe and this Cyborg comic, and if you're attracted to the NEw 52 universe because it's young, fresh continuity, then you're not really going to feel anything when a writer name-drops a minor 30-year-old character.

Kilg%re, it should go without saying, is a pretty bottom-of-the-barrel antagonist, so it's not like there is some core, timeless element to it that a rebooted version of it can accentuate to the degree that even a rebooted version of, say, Ultraman (evil Superman from an alternate, opposite reality) or Kite Man (guy who commits crimes, with kites!) might possess.

Nice art though and, as I said, I was actively worrying this would be much worse than it actually was.

Trinity #1 by Francis Manapul

One thing I've been curious about for a while now is where, when and with whom the term "trinity" originated in reference to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. I know Matt Wagner's awkwardly titled 2003 miniseries Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman: Trinity is the first time the three shared a book with that word in the title (a title later used for the excellent but underrated Kurt Busiek-written 2008 weekly series and now this new monthly), but I have to imagine the term pre-dates Wagner's series.

I suspect that the idea of the trio as the three greatest heroes in the DC Universe is a fannish concept, and it certainly figured in the epilogue of 1996's Kingdom Come by fans-turned-pros Mark Waid and Alex Ross. You'll recall the series ending with the three of them having lunch together, and deciding to raise Wonder Woman and Superman's child together, as a trio of parents.

It certainly seems like a rather millennial idea. In the Golden Age Batman and Superman (and Robin) shared a book, while Wonder Woman was part of the Justice Society. In the Silver Age, Batman and Superman (and Robin) continued to pal around, and were only occasional members of the Justice League, which was originally essentially all of DC's Greatest Superheroes Who Aren't Batman and Superman (and Robin)! And if by the Bronze Age Wonder Woman was seen as a peer to the World's Finest, 1985-1986's Crisis On Infinite Earths scuttled all that by re-introducing Wonder Woman into the rebooted DC Universe as a newcomer whose career was beginning something like 10 years later than the careers of the World's Finest (causing no end of problems for poor Wonder Girl, and necessitating her replacement in Justice League history with Black Canary).

Because these characters really do have a life of their own to some degree, the idea of Wonder Woman as Batman and Superman's peer rather than a sort of superhero ingenue gradually gained gravity as the years passed, so that by the time of the continuity re-shuffling of Infinite Crisis/52, she was again a Justice League founder.

As I mentioned the other day, there's something of a flaw at the foundation of the new Trinity series, though, at least on a conceptual level. In the post-Flashpoint continuity realignment, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman all began their careers around the same time, all met one another almost simultaneously and all founded the Justice League together. However the Superman that is starring in Trinity is not their Superman; he's the pre-Flashpoint one, so what we have here are The New 52 Batman and Wonder Woman, who have known one another and worked together for a good 5-8 years, teaming with an older, wiser Superman from a different reality, who they have just met.

Francis Manapul, who writes, draws and colors this issue, has chosen to embrace this peculiarity to DC
s trinity, premising this first issue on Lois Lane (also from the pre-Flashpoint DCU, her New 52 counterpart having been conveniently killed off shortly after New 52 Superman died) inviting this universe's Batman and Wonder Woman over to their Hamilton County farmhouse for a surprise dinner. Her thinking being that her husband, now going as "Clark White," needs friends. So she turned to this dimension's versions of his two best friends from their home universe.

It's all a lot more complicated than it needs to be, and is unfortunately going to be something that is more-or-less constantly being referred to, as there will always be a wedge between Superman and the other points of the trinity...probably. The mysterious Mr. Oz, who doesn't appear here, has repeatedly mentioned in other books that things aren't exactly what they seem with the Supermen.

So In this issue, Manapul introduces us to the trinity in double-page splash lay-outs, as Wonder Woman and Batman converge on the White farmhouse to have dinner with Clark, Lois and their son Jonathan (who accidentally blasts the visitors with heat-vision). Their basic relationships are established pretty quickly, and Manapul writes off a further New 52 complication to the idea of these three as best superfriends (the fact that New 52 Wonder Woman and New 52 Superman were an item).

There are some cute moments, including Batman being forced to wear plaid after Jon accidentally heat-visions his shirt off, and Wonder Woman bringing a wild boar to dinner (Jesus Diana, just bring a bottle of wine; you expect Lois to clean, cure and cook that thing in order to feed her family of three? You better hope they have a meat cooler somewhere on the farm). As to where it's all going, there's some coy allusions to Jack and the Beanstalk, and it ends with the three heroes looking into a mirror where a young Clark Kent is looking back at them, his father behind him.

It's a pretty classic, pretty effective "What the heck is going on? Find out next issue!" ending, really. While there's nothing wrong with the writing, the book's great strength is Manapul's artwork. He's one of the best artists DC has working for them these days, his design style looks like a compromise between that of Cliff Chiang and Time Sale, and his coloring is particularly effective at the sunset, bucolic world of the rural parts of the DC Universe (as he ably demonstrated during his too-short run on Adventure Comics with Geoff Johns (I'd heartily recommend their Superboy: The Boy of Steel collection, if you haven't read it yet).

I'm not entirely sure of where the book is going, and what might keep it going after this initial outing. With a small, focused Justice League team–just these three and five other characters–it seems somewhat odd to have a comic book starring half the Justice League (I'd kind of like to see Aquaman force Flash, Cyborg and the Green Lanterns to hang out with him once a month or so, and they can all get together and kvetch about the "Trinity" who are too cool to hang out with them unless the world is ending and they need their help).

Given Manapul's artwork though, this should be a particularly easy "Rebirth" book to keep an eye on.

Marvel's December previews reviewed

These are all of the comics Marvel plans on publishing in December of this year. And here is some commentary on said comics...


CIVIL WAR II HC
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Penciled by DAVID MARQUEZ, OLIVIER COIPEL & JIM CHEUNG
Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
When a new Inhuman emerges with the ability to profile the future, the Marvel Universe will be rocked to its core! While Captain Marvel harnesses Ulysses’ powers to prevent crime, Iron Man is violently opposed to the implications. As Tony Stark takes matters (and the law) into his own hands and declares war on the Inhumans, others are willing to fight — and even die — to stop him. And when one of the biggest heroes of all falls, the resulting trial of the century stokes the fire. Friendships crumble, teams are torn apart and the conflict goes galactic — but when the truth about Ulysses’ visions is revealed, all bets are off in one of the biggest battles in Marvel history! Collecting CIVIL WAR II #0-8 and material from FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2016 (CIVIL WAR II) #1.
296 PGS./Rated T+ …$50.00
ISBN: 978-1-302-90156-1

I imagine I will read this story in this particular format sometime after December...provided Marvel quits adding and/or delaying issues. Are any of you guys keeping up with it? Word on the street is that it is, as I suspected and feared it might be, garbage, but I'd be interested in hearing your opinion.

DOCTOR STRANGE/PUNISHER: MAGIC BULLETS #1 (of 4)
JOHN BARBER (W) • ANDREA BROCCARDO & JASON MUHR (A)
Cover by MICHAEL WALSH
Variant Cover by TBA
The team-up to end all team-ups is here, as two of the most different Marvel characters worlds’ collide! What new mafia threat is so great that the Punisher needs Doctor Strange’s help? Find out as the Sorcerer Supreme teams with the One Man War on Crime!
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99

If I put on my thinking cap and really tried, I don't know that I would be able to come up with two Marvel characters who have less in common than these two, and seem less likely to co-star in a team-up series...certainly not any two characters of their relative stature within the Marvel catalog.

That fact alone makes this series sound kind of exciting, doesn't it...?

GHOST RIDER #2
FELIPE SMITH (W) • DANILO BEYRUTH (A)
Cover by FELIPE SMITH
...
MONSTER SQUAD!
• The all-new fanfare following the Ghost Rider heats up!
• Robbie Reyes isn’t exactly a team player, so what’s he supposed to do with Amadeus Cho, a.k.a. the HULK, following him around?
• And who’s that hot on their heels? None other than the WOLVERINE!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

Ooh, the all-new, teenage Hulk and the all-new, teenage Wolverine are hanging around the all-new, teenage Ghost Rider? I hope they're all going to get Miles Morales, Spider-Man and form an all-new, teenage Fantastic Four!

HAWKEYE #1
KELLY THOMPSON (W) • LEONARDO ROMERO (A)
Cover by JULIAN TOTINO TEDESCO
...
Remember Hawkeye? No not that Hawkeye, our favorite Hawkeye, the chick who puts the hawk in Hawkeye, the butt-kicking hero who had to save the other Hawkeye’s butt all the time. Yup, you know her, it’s the dazzling Kate Bishop making her solo comics debut! Kate is heading west and returning to Los Angeles, with her bow and arrow and P.I. badge in tow. There are crimes to solve and she’s the best archer to handle ‘em! The City of Angels has a new guardian angel.
The talented duo of Kelly Thompson (A-Force, Jem) and Leonardo Romero (Squadron Supreme, Doctor Strange) bring you a Kate Bishop like you’ve never seen her before, in a brand-new ongoing series that really hits the mark!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

If it were up to me, I'd call this book West Coast Hawkeye, given its setting and Hawkguy's history with that adjective, but I imagine this will be good no matter what it's called (But West Coast Hawkeye or Lady Hawkguy would be better, obviously).

HULK #1
MARIKO TAMAKI (W) • NICO LEON (A) • Cover by JEFF DEKAL
...
JENNIFER WALTERS has survived the Civil War…barely…and having risen from the rubble, she re-enters the world a different kind of hero. Fueled by a quiet rage, she is determined to move forward, to go on with her life, but the pain of the past and all she’s lost is always there – an undercurrent, a pulse, waiting to quicken and trigger Jen’s transformation into the one thing she doesn’t have control over…
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

Well, I sure do hate the idea of a She-Hulk title called Hulk instead of She-Hulk, but more distressing is how...serious this title sounds. I'm sure it's quite possible to do a serious She-Hulk comic, but I think it would be awfully hard at this point to do so in-continuity (Hulks and lawyers-who-are-also-Hulks being every day and all) and I think it sounds awfully unappealing to me personally. The reason I've always liked She-Hulk better than He-Hulk is that she has been, for the longest time, the fun one.

Mariko Tamaki is a damn good get for Marvel though, so hopefully she can pull it off well enough to generate a solid trade collection or three.

IVX #1 (of 6)
CHARLES SOULE & JEFF LEMIRE (W) • LEINIL FRANCIS YU (A/C)
...
THIS IS IT!
The X-Men and Inhumans have been on a collision course since the link was proven between the Inhumans’ precious Terrigen Mist and the sickness and death of many mutants. When Beast discovers that the mutants have only two weeks before the planet is uninhabitable for them, an Inhuman/mutant war is unavoidable. Co-written by Charles Soule (Uncanny Inhumans, Daredevil) and Jeff Lemire (Extraordinary X-Men, Moon Knight), IVX delivers sensational set pieces, gargantuan grudge matches, all drawn by the sensational Leinil Francis Yu! Whether you’re for the X-MEN or the INHUMANS, IVX promises to shatter the Marvel Universe as you know it!
48 PGS./Rated T+ …$5.99

Huh. The Inhumans are no X-Men, despite Marvel trying to make them into the X-Men, so they're definitely no Avengers, so I imagine this will not be as fun as AVX was.

Now maybe if the "I" in "IVX" stood for "Invaders," they might be on to something here...

The first issue will have at least one great variant cover though; this "BLACK PANTHER 50th ANNIVERSARY VARIANT" by Michael del Mundo.

MONSTERS UNLEASHED PRELUDE TPB
Written by STAN LEE, LARRY LIEBER, CULLEN BUNN, SIMON SPURRIER, AMY REEDER,
BRANDON MONTCLARE & GREG PAK
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, WILL SLINEY, KEV WALKER, NATACHA BUSTOS & FRANK CHO
Cover by GREG LAND
Years before Jack Kirby introduced the world to a new age of heroic Marvels, the King of comics terrorized it with incredible creations — many of which are poised to rock the Marvel Universe once again! In this collection of strange tales to astonish, meet a menacing menagerie from Kirby’s boundless imagination, all with unforgettable names. Gorgilla! Blip! Monstrom! Grottu! Moomba! Orrgo! Bruttu! Rommbu! Vandoom’s Monster! Goom and Googam! And don’t forget Groot! Plus: Catch up with Jack’s legendary creations Devil Dinosaur and Fin Fang Foom, and meet monster hunters Elsa Bloodstone, Lady Hellbender and Moon Girl! Collecting FEARLESS DEFENDERS #8, MARVEL ZOMBIES (2015) #1, MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR #1, TOTALLY AWESOME HULK #2-3, and material from STRANGE TALES (1951) #73 and #90, TALES TO ASTONISH (1959) #11-13, 15, #17, #19 and #23; and TALES OF SUSPENSE #15, #17, 19 and #22.
264 PGS./Rated T+ …$34.99
ISBN: 978-1-302-90089-2

A very curious mix of classic pre-Marvel Kirby monster comics and extremely new-ish material, like issues of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur and Totally Awesome Hulk. What I can't get over, though, is the fact that Marvel decided to slap a cover by Greg Land on a collection mostly drawn by Jack fucking Kirby.

I can't even think of a proper metaphor to describe the work of perhaps the best artist the superhero genre has to offer covered by the work of perhaps the worst. Krysten Ritter wearing a suit made of a living scorpions? A baby goat in a pair of pajamas that secretes extremely corrosive acid from its pajamas? Seriously, I can't think of a good one. But a Land cover on a Kirby comic sounds like some kind of cosmic crime.

OLD MAN LOGAN #15
JEFF LEMIRE (W) • FILIPE ANDRADE (A)
Cover by ANDREA SORRENTINO
WHEN IN ROMANIA, DO AS THE ROMANIANS DO – STAKE VAMPIRES!
• It’s up to LOGAN and the greatest supernatural hero squad the world has ever seen, the HOWLING COMMANDOS, to stop DRACULA from a dastardly plot that endangers the whole world.
• But when JUBILEE is in trouble, can the Commandos trust Logan to make the tough calls?
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99

Is it weird that the solicitation for this issue of Old Man Logan reads more like the solicitation for an issue of the Chris Sims co-written X-Men '92...?

POWER MAN AND IRON FIST:
SWEET CHRISTMAS ANNUAL #1
DAVID F. WALKER (W) • SCOTT HEPBURN (A)
COVER BY JAMAL CAMPBELL
...
YOU BETTER NOT POUT, YOU BETTER NOT CRY!
• ’Cause you’re getting an extra helping of POWER MAN AND IRON FIST! This Christmas will be sweet, indeed!
• But not for Luke Cage, who is feeling neither holly nor jolly.
• Surely Danny can change that! Or maybe these demonic toys will! Wait, demonic toys?! OH, NO!
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99

How on earth has this title never been used for a Luke Cage-related Christmas special before...?

POWERS #9
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W) • MICHAEL AVON OEMING (A/C)
VARIANT COVER BY DAVID MACK
If you love Marvel’s Jessica Jones, you will love POWERS! The secrets of Walker’s past keep pouring into the present. Find out his deepest, darkest secret right here! All on the road to the quadruple-sized POWERS 100th-issue spectacular. Miss the show? Read the comic!
32 pgs./Mature $3.99

So my first thought when reading this solicitation was, "No you won't," in response to the the first sentence. I mean, they have a few similarities--Bendis' writing, crime-solving in a world of superheroes-but those are two very different comics.

My next thought was the joke I should maybe have made instead. Ahem. "Wait, Powers is only on #9? I knew it was on an infrequent schedule, and only published new issues occasionally, but I would have expected it to be on a much higher issue number than #9 after its 16 years of publication."

THE PUNISHER #8
BECKY CLOONAN (W) • STEVE DILLON (A)
Cover by DECLAN SHALVEY
OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS…
• Frank gets help from an unlikely source.
• But trouble’s not far behind!
• If you go out in the woods today, you’re sure for a big surprise…
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99

Given the fact that this solicitation ends with a lyric from "The Teddy Bears' Picnic," and that the star of this book became a mass-murdering vigilante after his entire family was gunned down during a picnic in the park, I can only assume that in this issue a teddy bear loses his whole family in the crossfire of a gang war, swears vengeance and adopts the name "The Punishbear" and begins his own murderous campaign of vengeance against organized crime. So the part where it says "Frank gets help from an unlikely source"...? That unlikely source is totally gonna prove to be The Punishbear.

STAR WARS: CLASSIFIED #1 & 2
KIERON GILLEN (W) • KEV WALKER (A/C)
Issue #1 – Cover by KAMOME SHIRAHAMA
Issue #1 – Variant Cover by Jamie McKelvie
Issue #1 – Variant Cover by Elsa Charretier
Issue #1 – Droids Variant Cover by Rod Reis
Issue #1 – CLASSIFIED STORY THUS FAR VARIANT COVER BY SALVADORE Larroca
Issue #1 – Action Figure Variant Cover by JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
Issue #1 – Blank Variant Cover also available
Issue #2 – VARIANT COVER BY Annie Wu
Issue #2 – Droids Variant Cover by Declan Shalvey
Issue #2 – VARIANT COVER BY DAVE DORMAN
An all-new, TOP-SECRET ongoing Star Wars series begins this December…
ISSUE #1 – 40 PGS./Rated T …$4.99
ISSUE #2 – 32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99
Star Wars © Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved. Used under authorization. Text and illustrations for Star Wars are © 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd.

This is this month's example of why I think running a comic shop must be a hell of a difficult job. Given the number of variants and the fact that they are classifying the star or stars or subject matter implies that it will a bigger Star Wars book, but I technically this could be Kylo Ren or Lives of the Dewbacks or Watto or Admiral Thrawn or A Pivotal Character Who Will Be Appearing in Rogue One or Twi'lek Swimsuit Special or Wookie Swimsuit Special or Sinjir Rath Velus' Galaxy of Cocktail Recipes, and I imagine the precise ordering for any of those hypothetical titles will vary pretty widely. Fingers crossed for a Sinjir book!