13 Feb 2008

Ten Forward: April 2008

Every month we spend an evening scouring the pages of the latest issue of Previews and pick the ten titles we are looking forward to the most. This month it's the February issue of Previews which includes comics scheduled to ship in April 2008.


TITANS #1
Writer: Judd Winick
Art: Ian Churchill
DC $2.99


Andy H: Green Arrow & Black Canary reminded me how good Winick’s writing is. He really knows how to get the best from his characters, so I’m hoping for good things come from this book. Former Titans including Nightwing, Starfire and Raven are being attacked and a new team is formed to get to the bottom of it.


IRON MAN: LEGACY OF DOOM #1
Writer: David Michelinie
Art: Ron Lim
Marvel $2.99


James R: “Tony Stark must form an uneasy alliance with Doctor Doom!” says the blurb, but dammit is there any other kind? You couldn’t loan Doom your Dyson – he’d turn it into a dimension warper that turns oxygen into cyanide… either that or he won’t return it for ages! But still, two of Marvel’s most interesting character’s face off in this mini-series, and whereas it can sometimes be very dull to watch two clever people argue, this isn’t going to be a comics version of Newsnight. Expect big science, an apocalyptic punch up and more shining armour than you can shake a can of Brasso at! Bring it on!


THOR: AGES OF THUNDER
Writer: Matt Fraction
Art: Patrick Zircher
Marvel $3.99


Matt C: I love that Thor’s back in action again and I’m intrigued by the prospect of Matt Fraction on scripting duties. From what I’ve seen of the guy’s work so far he excels at writing more ‘realistic’ characters, so I’m keen to see his take on a more fantastical creation in the shape of the Norse God Of Thunder.


HELEN KILLER #1
Writer: Andrew Kreisberg
Art: Matthew JLD Rice
Arcana $2.99


Matt T: I know what you’re thinking and , scarily enough, you’re right! This is the tale of Helen Keller with her senses of sight and hearing returned to her, working for the government as an assassin. It sounds completely bonkers, looks superb and with the right combination of black humour and action this could be a winner.


BATMAN #676
Writer: Grant Morrison
Art: Tony Daniel
DC $2.99


James R: Mysterious. Unpredictable. Borderline psychotic. Yes, Grant Morrison could be described as all of those things…. but as for Batman? Your guess is as good as mine. Morrison has moved form the ridiculous to the sublime and back again with alarming regularity since he took over this book, and now with #676 we come to Batman RIP, which is the culmination of his Batman run. But which Morrison will we get? The genius behind Doom Patrol or the loon behind New X-Men? Either way, RIP be worth a look, being either a last hurrah or a new beginning. Like I said before, your guess is as good as mine….


SECRET INVASION #1
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Lenil Francis Yu
Marvel $3.99


Matt C: Marvel’s big event for 2008. It’s a great idea - who can you trust when anyone could be a Skrull? - but based on the way Bendis has been building the story up in New Avengers and The Illuminati I’ve got the overwhelming feeling that it’ll wind me up so much I’ll want to smash stuff in a Hulk-like rampage! I’d love to be proven wrong, but then again I’d also love to own a 10-bedroom country mansion, hit the waves in a big-ass speedboat and have so much money I’d need to open my own bank! And like that’s ever going to happen! I do, of course, reserve the right to fall head-over-heels for this book and deny I wrote any of the above!


YOUNG X-MEN#1
Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Art: Yanick Paquette
Marvel $2.99


Matt T: With X-books soon to be an endangered species, a lot of pressure rests on the team made up of members of the New X-Men and a few new faces. Guggenheim has been solid of late, and Rockslide is a great character, so hopefully there’ll be some fun adventures to be had.


ANNA MERCURY #1
Writer: Warren Ellis
Art: Facundo Percio
Avatar $2.99


Andy H: Not content with writing more comics than I can keep up with, Ellis adds another title to his output. Anna Mercury has one hour to save the city of Ataraxia from itself! She's able to cloud men’s minds, leap across buildings and unerringly fire twin automatic pistols in the most insane conditions! Anything by Ellis must be tried - it may not always work but you really know when it does! Read Fell if you don’t believe me! Sign me up for this one and let’s see where it goes.


ZOMBIE TALES #1
Writer: Various
Art: Various
Boom! Studios $3.99


Matt T: With the likes of Steve Niles amongst the list of writers who spin their yarns of the undead, this looks set to be an interesting read. As a sucker for all things Niles – and horror in general - I’m hoping this will be good, and not just a retread of old zombie ground.


CREEPY ARCHIVES
Writer: Various
Art: Various
Dark Horse $49.95


Matt C: I’ve recently been investigating and thoroughly enjoying various EC reprint collections. With these fresh in my mind this hardcover caught my eye - a compendium of stories from Creepy Magazine from 1964-66. I have no prior knowledge of Creepy (Google here I come!) but with names like Neal Adams, Alex Toth and Frank Frazetta listed in the credits, this looks like a worthy investment.

3 comments:

Ian said...

Helen Keller as a government assassin - absolute genius! This is why I love comics!!

Matt Clark said...

And remember to let your local comics shop owner know if you spot anything unusual you'd like in Previews. He's not a mind reader so he won't always know who wants what in advance!

(You're not a mind reader, are you Andy?!)

Andy H said...

I knew you were going to say that!