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: It’s a week like this that reminds me what my pull list used to be like before the madness that was/is the DC relaunch as I find myself looking at an order incredibly heavy on the Marvel titles and limited on the works by other publishers.
The most talked about book on the shelves today is more than likely going to be Fantastic Four #600 by Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting thanks to a big media push by Marvel and a lot of spoilerific attention from various websites and media outlets. I tried my very hardest to avoid the spoilers for #587 earlier this year - I couldn’t evidently as I had the outcome arrive in a work email which I was none-too-pleased about - but so far I’ve managed to keep my ears and eyes away from any hints, tips or reveals as to what might happen. While I will be picking this issue up I have a decision to make moving forward as to whether I continue with the return of the Fantastic Four book, or whether I stick with the Future Foundation (or FF as it will be continue to be known) for my does of the family Reed fun. I’m resolved to only get one of these moving forward and at this point I’m leaning more towards the Foundation as I find the dynamic amongst the various powered, brainiac children more interesting that Reed Richards’ constant battle with his own genius. We’ll see if this milestone issue - which curiously isn’t coming polybagged for once, presumably due to the large media focus that will generally spoil everything - can change my mind.
Wolverine and the X-Men #2 is my most anticipated book of the week, primarily down to Chris Bachalo’s artwork but also because Jason Aaron did such a damn fine job with the first issue last month. While Uncanny X-Men remains something of a high-brow, ideals and politics X-book (with a good amount of destruction and fun still to be found within it) Wolverine’s title had that feeling of a high-school comedy with some serious undertones and adept character work. With the cast he has at his fingertips, Aaron is in a position to make this a very fun book indeed as Logan struggles to steer the ship that he has set adrift upon the tides of the uncertain mutant future. Certainly the crew are an incredibly mixed bunch and I like the fact that some alien students have found their way to the Jean Grey School as that adds an extra dimension to proceedings. The fact that Bachalo isn’t getting to do the first ‘7-10 issues’ as he had hoped back in May is a little kick in the teeth but understandable considering the couple of years that he's had and I’ll certainly enjoy whatever the maestro manages to provide.
Matt Fraction finally leaves Fear Itself behind and cracks on with his two ongoing titles in the form of Invincible Iron Man #510 and The Mighty Thor #8 today. Having involved Invincible so heavily with Fear Itself - something that none of the other main ongoing Marvel titles seemed to suffer from much - it’s going to be good to get back to Tony Stark’s continued battle to make the world a better place from his current position as the business underdog. Certainly events over the past year, including the magic lamp of drunken disaster he once again had to rub during FI, have made his job even harder. Pepper doesn’t seem to have come away from her fight with the Hammers and the transformed Grey Gargoyle in Paris without some psychological wounds and I’m guessing we might see new tensions ahead for the Stark/Potts partnership. Whatever happens I really have to commend Fraction and Larroca for sticking with this title for the length of time that they have as it’s been consistently brilliant over the course of their tenure so far!
The Mighty Thor #8 on the other hand may have to up its game a touch to maintain the interest that was to be found when Olivier Coipel pencilled those initial 6 issues. Pasqual Ferry, while a competent artist in his own right, is not quite in the same league as Coipel and with the titular character currently in a deceased state, I’m not sure that people will be so enthused to continue adding this to their pull list each month. Admittedly the mystery surrounding Tanarus’ appearance and the fact that his presence seems to have overwritten that of Thor in the annals of history is an interesting concept, especially with Loki being the only individual so far to think that something is amiss, but will it be enough? I’ll more than likely see this arc through to its conclusion but I’ll be keeping my ear to the ground to see who’ll be picking up the pencil on the next arc before possibly placing Mighty Thor on the chopping block.
And the chopping block is where one DC title might end up finding itself in a couple of issues time! Batman: The Dark Knight has been a reasonable read so far but when I’m thinking back over the DC relaunch and the comics that I have stuck with so far, I don’t remember being ‘wowed’ by Jenkins and Finch’s effort - I’m also having a mental blank after reading each issue of Superboy but that’s a problem for another time - and it’s up in the air as to how long I will stick with it. #3 hits the shelves today and I’m really hoping that the Batman vs the Venom-enhanced Joker will be a humdinger and that we might get a little more insight into just who the alluring White Rabbit is and what her motives may be. Finch rarely disappoints the reader’s eye so there is also that to look forward to as well!
Heck, what’s not to look forward to when we have dozens of fresh comics hitting the shelves of our local comic book stores each and Wednesday? Happy reading folks and happy holidays to our friends in the US this weekend!
Stewart R: It’s a week like this that reminds me what my pull list used to be like before the madness that was/is the DC relaunch as I find myself looking at an order incredibly heavy on the Marvel titles and limited on the works by other publishers.The most talked about book on the shelves today is more than likely going to be Fantastic Four #600 by Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting thanks to a big media push by Marvel and a lot of spoilerific attention from various websites and media outlets. I tried my very hardest to avoid the spoilers for #587 earlier this year - I couldn’t evidently as I had the outcome arrive in a work email which I was none-too-pleased about - but so far I’ve managed to keep my ears and eyes away from any hints, tips or reveals as to what might happen. While I will be picking this issue up I have a decision to make moving forward as to whether I continue with the return of the Fantastic Four book, or whether I stick with the Future Foundation (or FF as it will be continue to be known) for my does of the family Reed fun. I’m resolved to only get one of these moving forward and at this point I’m leaning more towards the Foundation as I find the dynamic amongst the various powered, brainiac children more interesting that Reed Richards’ constant battle with his own genius. We’ll see if this milestone issue - which curiously isn’t coming polybagged for once, presumably due to the large media focus that will generally spoil everything - can change my mind.
Wolverine and the X-Men #2 is my most anticipated book of the week, primarily down to Chris Bachalo’s artwork but also because Jason Aaron did such a damn fine job with the first issue last month. While Uncanny X-Men remains something of a high-brow, ideals and politics X-book (with a good amount of destruction and fun still to be found within it) Wolverine’s title had that feeling of a high-school comedy with some serious undertones and adept character work. With the cast he has at his fingertips, Aaron is in a position to make this a very fun book indeed as Logan struggles to steer the ship that he has set adrift upon the tides of the uncertain mutant future. Certainly the crew are an incredibly mixed bunch and I like the fact that some alien students have found their way to the Jean Grey School as that adds an extra dimension to proceedings. The fact that Bachalo isn’t getting to do the first ‘7-10 issues’ as he had hoped back in May is a little kick in the teeth but understandable considering the couple of years that he's had and I’ll certainly enjoy whatever the maestro manages to provide.
Matt Fraction finally leaves Fear Itself behind and cracks on with his two ongoing titles in the form of Invincible Iron Man #510 and The Mighty Thor #8 today. Having involved Invincible so heavily with Fear Itself - something that none of the other main ongoing Marvel titles seemed to suffer from much - it’s going to be good to get back to Tony Stark’s continued battle to make the world a better place from his current position as the business underdog. Certainly events over the past year, including the magic lamp of drunken disaster he once again had to rub during FI, have made his job even harder. Pepper doesn’t seem to have come away from her fight with the Hammers and the transformed Grey Gargoyle in Paris without some psychological wounds and I’m guessing we might see new tensions ahead for the Stark/Potts partnership. Whatever happens I really have to commend Fraction and Larroca for sticking with this title for the length of time that they have as it’s been consistently brilliant over the course of their tenure so far!The Mighty Thor #8 on the other hand may have to up its game a touch to maintain the interest that was to be found when Olivier Coipel pencilled those initial 6 issues. Pasqual Ferry, while a competent artist in his own right, is not quite in the same league as Coipel and with the titular character currently in a deceased state, I’m not sure that people will be so enthused to continue adding this to their pull list each month. Admittedly the mystery surrounding Tanarus’ appearance and the fact that his presence seems to have overwritten that of Thor in the annals of history is an interesting concept, especially with Loki being the only individual so far to think that something is amiss, but will it be enough? I’ll more than likely see this arc through to its conclusion but I’ll be keeping my ear to the ground to see who’ll be picking up the pencil on the next arc before possibly placing Mighty Thor on the chopping block.
And the chopping block is where one DC title might end up finding itself in a couple of issues time! Batman: The Dark Knight has been a reasonable read so far but when I’m thinking back over the DC relaunch and the comics that I have stuck with so far, I don’t remember being ‘wowed’ by Jenkins and Finch’s effort - I’m also having a mental blank after reading each issue of Superboy but that’s a problem for another time - and it’s up in the air as to how long I will stick with it. #3 hits the shelves today and I’m really hoping that the Batman vs the Venom-enhanced Joker will be a humdinger and that we might get a little more insight into just who the alluring White Rabbit is and what her motives may be. Finch rarely disappoints the reader’s eye so there is also that to look forward to as well!Heck, what’s not to look forward to when we have dozens of fresh comics hitting the shelves of our local comic book stores each and Wednesday? Happy reading folks and happy holidays to our friends in the US this weekend!
1 comment:
Just Fantastic Four 600, and Aquaman for me this week. I suppose this would be my lightest week since I started collecting, if it weren't for Fantastic Four being 96 pages as appose to the usual 22!
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