New comics are released Wednesday in the States and guess what, in the UK too! Here's a brief look at our expectations for the books we're picking up this week.
Stewart R: With all of the preparations for September’s month of sheer joy and madness at DC it seems that maybe they’ve forgotten to update the solicitations on their own site which could now be incorrect! Bleeding Cool - ever ahead of the curve it would seem - pointed out back in July that it was going to be a tough period for readers of any of the Green Lantern titles as writer and artist re-jigs were on the cards to ensure that the deadlines were kept. The War of the Green Lanterns event, under the able hands of the regular creative teams (and that frustratingly large mountain of inkers) succumbed to the tight schedule and issues were pushed back. As a result it’s understandable with a cold, unmovable start date for the new #1s that quick fire substitutions may be in order. With Green Lantern Corps #63 hitting shops tomorrow the DC site would have you believe that Tony Bedard is writing and Tyler Kirkham and Batt are picking up pencil and ink respectively. What we’ll actually get is four stories written by Scott Kollins who also offers up his art skills on one of them along with Joe Prado, Daniel HDR and Freddie E. Williams II covering the rest.
Now I don’t know about you guys but while I can commend DC for their guts in relaunching the vast majority of their comic universe in one hit I certainly don’t think that they had the logistics of doing such a thing fully planned and understood. There are four new Lantern-related titles heading our way next month but DC haven’t necessarily been keeping the current, dedicated readership the happiest of shoppers in recent months and I have doubts that their keen schedule for the months leading up to 2012 will remain intact with the creative teams that they have signed up. Won’t stop me buying and reading to begin with though...
Okay, so that’s DC out of the way for another week - apologies to all of you Flashpoint followers out there, I’m just not picking up any of it yet! - and so it’s time to get my Marvel hat on and go through the handful of titles rolling their way out of the planes and trucks this week. I’d given Brian Michael Bendis’ a bit of a wide berth for a good few months save for his Icon title, Scarlet, but have found myself drawn back in thanks to Fear Itself’s vines of influence and the artistic hands of Chris Bachalo and John Romita Jr. So here I am picking up Avengers #16 where just over a year ago I was shaking my head and cursing ever having spent any money on Bendis’ superhero work and likewise criticizing Romita Jr’s evident drop in quality at the time. Their last Avenger’s outing together however was really entertaining as the Red Hulk took on the transformed Thing in New York and I’ll admit that Bendis’ writing on the tie-in
with Fear Itself has been pretty solid and given him chance to focus on some of the growing relationships within the team. It could all fall apart at any second but I’m willing to keep on picking this up while the quality remains consistently high even without Bachalo providing any further internal art for the foreseeable future.
Delving a little further into the details of this week’s releases I see that Daredevil #2 only features the art of Paolo Rivera this time around and a price tag of $2.99 where I was kinda hoping that we were going to be getting the larger, more expensive double dose of Matt Murdock fun with Marcos Martin adding an additional story. Alas, it is not meant to be, but to be honest the first issue would have been damn strong with just the main story alone and #2 should be interesting with a Captain America appearance pretty much guaranteed. And speaking of the shield-wielding son of liberty, the talented pairing of Ed Bruabaker and Steve McNiven are back with Captain America #2 as well this week so it’ll be intriguing to see which of these follow-up issues I prefer. I, like a few people out there, thought that the first issue of this new era was just a touch flat with the continued reliance on waking up old friends and foes last seen back to World War II. I understand that Marvel and Brubaker may be keen to tie in to the whole ‘man out of time’ point considering that the live-action movie has been filling cinemas this summer but arguably we have Captain America & Bucky for the tales of yesteryear and I’d like to see Steve Rogers having to deal with threats of today and the future without it being some kind of strange reunion all the time.
Over in Jeff Parker’s Hulk #39 there’s unlikely to be much in the way of reunions but you can guarantee that when the Red Hulk and the mighty Omegex are introduced to each other that things are likely to get explosive! The strange weapon of destruction has been seeking out the Rulk since his energy was inadvertently passed on by a rather pissed off Uatu, The Watcher, who’d been punched out by the gruff, crimson hero, and I can’t wait to see what surprises Parker has up his sleeve when these two powerhouses finally get to throw down.
Surprises will also no doubt be in store for readers of Thunderbolts #162 this fine Wednesday as Juggernaut’s unstoppable rampage looks set to bring the winds of change blowing through this team of repenting villains. A sign of a good team book in my opinion is when I become concerned about any change, large or small, being made to the roster and understanding amongst the characters but I still know that to keep things fresh and intriguing things MUST change at some point. With Thunderbolts you can never tell whether good guys will turn bad, bad turn good, people will die or the dead will rise from the ashes and that suspense is definitely what sets it apart from the competition. By this time tomorrow knowledge of such changes will be mine, oh yes!
Stewart R: With all of the preparations for September’s month of sheer joy and madness at DC it seems that maybe they’ve forgotten to update the solicitations on their own site which could now be incorrect! Bleeding Cool - ever ahead of the curve it would seem - pointed out back in July that it was going to be a tough period for readers of any of the Green Lantern titles as writer and artist re-jigs were on the cards to ensure that the deadlines were kept. The War of the Green Lanterns event, under the able hands of the regular creative teams (and that frustratingly large mountain of inkers) succumbed to the tight schedule and issues were pushed back. As a result it’s understandable with a cold, unmovable start date for the new #1s that quick fire substitutions may be in order. With Green Lantern Corps #63 hitting shops tomorrow the DC site would have you believe that Tony Bedard is writing and Tyler Kirkham and Batt are picking up pencil and ink respectively. What we’ll actually get is four stories written by Scott Kollins who also offers up his art skills on one of them along with Joe Prado, Daniel HDR and Freddie E. Williams II covering the rest.
Now I don’t know about you guys but while I can commend DC for their guts in relaunching the vast majority of their comic universe in one hit I certainly don’t think that they had the logistics of doing such a thing fully planned and understood. There are four new Lantern-related titles heading our way next month but DC haven’t necessarily been keeping the current, dedicated readership the happiest of shoppers in recent months and I have doubts that their keen schedule for the months leading up to 2012 will remain intact with the creative teams that they have signed up. Won’t stop me buying and reading to begin with though...
Okay, so that’s DC out of the way for another week - apologies to all of you Flashpoint followers out there, I’m just not picking up any of it yet! - and so it’s time to get my Marvel hat on and go through the handful of titles rolling their way out of the planes and trucks this week. I’d given Brian Michael Bendis’ a bit of a wide berth for a good few months save for his Icon title, Scarlet, but have found myself drawn back in thanks to Fear Itself’s vines of influence and the artistic hands of Chris Bachalo and John Romita Jr. So here I am picking up Avengers #16 where just over a year ago I was shaking my head and cursing ever having spent any money on Bendis’ superhero work and likewise criticizing Romita Jr’s evident drop in quality at the time. Their last Avenger’s outing together however was really entertaining as the Red Hulk took on the transformed Thing in New York and I’ll admit that Bendis’ writing on the tie-in
with Fear Itself has been pretty solid and given him chance to focus on some of the growing relationships within the team. It could all fall apart at any second but I’m willing to keep on picking this up while the quality remains consistently high even without Bachalo providing any further internal art for the foreseeable future.
Delving a little further into the details of this week’s releases I see that Daredevil #2 only features the art of Paolo Rivera this time around and a price tag of $2.99 where I was kinda hoping that we were going to be getting the larger, more expensive double dose of Matt Murdock fun with Marcos Martin adding an additional story. Alas, it is not meant to be, but to be honest the first issue would have been damn strong with just the main story alone and #2 should be interesting with a Captain America appearance pretty much guaranteed. And speaking of the shield-wielding son of liberty, the talented pairing of Ed Bruabaker and Steve McNiven are back with Captain America #2 as well this week so it’ll be intriguing to see which of these follow-up issues I prefer. I, like a few people out there, thought that the first issue of this new era was just a touch flat with the continued reliance on waking up old friends and foes last seen back to World War II. I understand that Marvel and Brubaker may be keen to tie in to the whole ‘man out of time’ point considering that the live-action movie has been filling cinemas this summer but arguably we have Captain America & Bucky for the tales of yesteryear and I’d like to see Steve Rogers having to deal with threats of today and the future without it being some kind of strange reunion all the time.
Over in Jeff Parker’s Hulk #39 there’s unlikely to be much in the way of reunions but you can guarantee that when the Red Hulk and the mighty Omegex are introduced to each other that things are likely to get explosive! The strange weapon of destruction has been seeking out the Rulk since his energy was inadvertently passed on by a rather pissed off Uatu, The Watcher, who’d been punched out by the gruff, crimson hero, and I can’t wait to see what surprises Parker has up his sleeve when these two powerhouses finally get to throw down.
Surprises will also no doubt be in store for readers of Thunderbolts #162 this fine Wednesday as Juggernaut’s unstoppable rampage looks set to bring the winds of change blowing through this team of repenting villains. A sign of a good team book in my opinion is when I become concerned about any change, large or small, being made to the roster and understanding amongst the characters but I still know that to keep things fresh and intriguing things MUST change at some point. With Thunderbolts you can never tell whether good guys will turn bad, bad turn good, people will die or the dead will rise from the ashes and that suspense is definitely what sets it apart from the competition. By this time tomorrow knowledge of such changes will be mine, oh yes!
3 comments:
Without a doubt, this week I'll be getting Daredevil #2 and Captain America #2. I was going to get the latest Journey Into Mystery, but I am tempted to try out the latest Hulk instead
So what was the final decision between JIM and Hulk then Joe? Or did both win in the end? ;)
Ahh, I couldn't decide so, I did indeed go for both lol. It certainly was the right decision!
Post a Comment