New week, new comics. However, it seems like the majority of the regular weekly comics will be overshadowed by the release of Scott Pilgrim Vol 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
. With the movie and final book, Scott Pilgrim is definitely having his finest hour. Rick Chung did a great introductory guest post on Scott Pilgrim a while back for us and Matt recently had something to say on the series as well.
. With the movie and final book, Scott Pilgrim is definitely having his finest hour. Rick Chung did a great introductory guest post on Scott Pilgrim a while back for us and Matt recently had something to say on the series as well. We'll hopefully have a review out for the final volume by next week in a trade waiting column, but our regular weekly comics demand attention and Ryan and my Post-Crisis Previews are here to tackle that. Hit the jump to find out what we'll be buying and what we expect from each issue!
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #638Written by Stan Lee & Joe Quesada
Art by Marcos Martin, Paolo Manuel Rivera & Joe Quesada
ONE MOMENT IN TIME Part 1 & 2 The questions have been haunting readers throughout Spider-Man’s Brand New Day and now the answers are here in four double-sized issues! What really happened at the wedding of Spider-Man and Mary Jane? What does Mary Jane know about Spider-Man today? How did ONE MORE DAY affect the Marvel U? Joe Quesada and Paolo Rivera are here to pull back the curtain and fill in every blank…but the answers may come at a cost to all that Peter Parker loves. This 4-part arc will hold answers, resolutions, and set up the course of Spider-Man's life for years to come… …and all will be revealed with a whisper. And in Part 2, it's Mary Jane's turn to come clean. What secrets has she been keeping? And who REALLY saved Aunt May? You may think you know the answer, but you're about to find out the truth!
Kirk: I'm kind of dreading this issue. Amazing Spider-Man has been quite good lately and I'm confident it's primarily because they aren't dancing around the One More Day stuff or making "cute" jokes at the reader's expense about deals with the devil and other jabs. OMIT is pretty much going back into the murky waters of OMD/BND continuity garbage and I, and I assume many others, have moved on and don't care anymore. Don't really want to see them go back and throw away all the goodwill they've built up with the new direction, especially since I don't think any explanation will satisfy people.
ATLAS #3Written by Jeff Parker
Art by Gabriel Hardman and Ramon Rosanas
The 3D Man has been found, and if ATLAS stands with him they die with him- and even the Hidden City isn't safe from the unstoppable beings known as THE ECHO PEOPLE. The one agent who can help the most is hit the hardest! AND turn back half a century for a strange insight, the dreams of a killer robot!
Ryan: I’m really torn on this series. With the announcement that Atlas will be ending after 5 issues, I’m not so sure it is worth sticking around for a story focusing on a character I don’t care for that much (3D Man), knowing that there won’t be any other stories down the road to justify my investment. Granted, I’ve enjoyed the first two issues more than I thought I would, but I’m still questioning if it would be worth it or if I’m better off waiting for trade.
AVENGERS #3Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by John Romita Jr.
The time space continuum is broken! And the Avengers must travel to the far flung future to see exactly what terrible mess their children have made of the world. But maybe, just maybe, Kang didn't tell our heroes the truth about what has gone wrong. Guest starring the Next Avengers, the Future Imperfect Hulk and the Amazing Spider-Girl! Yeah, you heard us!
Ryan: I really hope that we finally get to see the Next Avengers in action in this issue after they were only hinted at in the previous issues. That was a cool draw of the debut, but seemed to be side-stepped last issue. I’m also hoping we find out why Wonder Man was acting so crazy and, hopefully, when he will get a new ongoing series (a guy can dream, right?).
BATMAN BEYOND #2Written by Adam Beechen
Art by John Stanisci
A mysterious new threat targets the original Batman's villains, and only Terry McGinnis – the Batman of the future – has a chance of finding and stopping him. But of a Catwoman stalks into the picture, Terry is torn between the lady she appears to be and the deadly tiger she might turn out to be!
Kirk: First issue was surprisingly good. I had doubts about Beechen at first, but I'm confident I'll enjoy the rest of this series now. The Hush angle is an odd choice, but I'm willing to see where he goes with it.
BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM #14Written by Paul Dini and Ivan Brandon
Art by Dustin Nguyen and Ramon Bachs
The anticipated sequel to HEART OF HUSH is here! Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen deliver an exciting continuation of the saga of Tommy Elliot and Bruce Wayne! Cracking under the strain of living as ""Bruce Wayne,"" Elliot plans his final, murderous revenge on Dick Grayson, Selina Kyle and other members of Wayne's extended network of friends and allies. Will Dick and Damian be enough to thwart Tommy's plans – or will the end of Hush require the return of Bruce Wayne?
And in the new Two-Face co-feature, writer Ivan Brandon picks up where the trial of Two-Face left off in the Manhunter co-feature! Despite his innocence, Two-Face is a man on the run, and discovers that even when he thinks he has nothing left to lose, he hasn't quite hit rock bottom!
Ryan: The Heart of Hush was a simply amazing story and I’m glad to see Dini and Nguyen following-up on it. Hush has always been a compelling character, but they really took that to a higher level with some great twists and turns. It’ll be interesting to see how Dick deals with Hush in this story and just what the villain has in store for Catwoman. I cannot wait to see how this plays out.
DYNAMO 5: SINS OF THE FATHER #2Written by Jay Faerber
Art by Julio Brilha
GUEST-STARRING INVINCIBLE! Maddie sends Dynamo 5 up against an alien menace with a serious grudge against Captain Dynamo. But is she sending them on a suicide mission? Not if a certain special guest-star has anything to say about it. Plus, the exclusive back-up series, NOTORIOUS, continues!
Ryan: Dynamo 5 came back with a vengeance last issue with Julio Brilha doing an amazing job of picking up the reigns from Mahmud Asrar and Jay Faerber showing no signs of rust with his signature super team. I expect more of the same with this issue, though I’m hoping for an improvement in the back-up series, as the first installment of Notorious did nothing for me!
GI JOE: COBRA #6Written by Mike Costa and Christos Gage
Art by Sergio Carrera and JK Woodward
Arise, Serpentor...ARISE! In our last issue, you met the charismatic, fearsome, magnetic cult leader known as Serpentor. Now learn how he came to be what he is today...both the fantastic story his followers subscribe to, and the not-quite-as-godlike, yet no less terrifying, truth. The critically acclaimed series delivers its boldest, most shocking story yet!
Ryan: The bits and pieces of Serpentor that we saw last issue was intriguing, so I’m looking forward to getting some more background on the character in this issue. There hasn’t been a single major misstep in this franchise since IDW took over, so I’ve got high hopes that this reimagining will be quite awesome. I’m also hoping that the art improves over last issue, as that was a total mess compared to the first arc in this series.
HEROIC AGE: PRINCE OF POWER #3Written by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente
Art by Reilly Brown
It's a race against time -- and eternity! -- as the Mighty Thor and Amadeus Cho try to beat the nefarious PANTHEON to all the pieces of The Ultimate Boon! The next stop on their mythological mystery tour is the realm of the ancient Egyptian gods -- and a no holds barred slugfest with SEKHMET, Goddess of Destruction! But once the sand settles, will the Prince of Power continue to side with the God of Thunder -- or with humanity? Join the New York Time Bestselling authors of INCREDIBLE HERCULES as they continue the tale of Herc’s former protégé!
Kirk: The first issue was alright, but didn't really strike the same chords that Incredible Hercules did. The second one, though, was excellent. I loved the back and forth between Thor and Amadeus and Thor's, "I hate you.", line was the best thing ever. Really looking forward to more of the same this month.
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #3Written by Paul Levitz
Art by Yildray Cinar
The xenophobic Earth-Man was once the Legion's most despised foe, but now he's forced to join their ranks! But can his Legion teammates – particularly his one-time torture victim Sun Boy – let bygones be bygones so quickly?
Ryan: I still cannot believe how quickly this series has won me over after years of never being able to get into the various incarnations of the Legion. There is just something about this creative team and their approach that is a major improvement over every previous team I’ve sampled. It looks like Earth-Man will have to prove his worth to the Legion in this issue. Now the big question is if he’ll do so using his regular powers or will he unveil that he is the newest member of the Green Lantern Corps?
MUPPET SNOW WHITE #3
Written by Jesse Blaze Snider
Art by Shelli Paroline
Queen Piggy will stop at nothing to become ""the fairest one of all,"" so she has the Swedish Chef cook up a deliciously dastardly plan to take care of Snow White!
Ryan: Writer Jesse Blaze Snider has been super cool about shooting The Weekly Crisis crew reviews copies of this series and, for the most part, I’ve been really glad that he has. The first issue of the series was hilariously awesome with Snider showing a great amount of skill in capturing the unique magic of the Muppets. Unfortunately, the second issue took a bit of a nosedive. I’m hoping this issue will be back to form as it certainly has a lot of potential!
SCOTT PILGRIM VOL 6: SCOTT PILGRIM’S FINEST HOURWritten by Bryan Lee O’Malley
Art by Bryan Lee O’Malley
It's finally here... Six years and almost one thousand pages have all led to this epic finale! With six of Ramona's seven evil exes dispatched, it should be time for Scott Pilgrim to face Gideon Graves, the biggest and baddest of her former beaus. But didn't Ramona take off at the end of Book 5? Shouldn't that let Scott off the hook? Maybe it should, maybe it shouldn't, but one thing is for certain — all of this has been building to Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour!
Ryan: I love Scott Pilgrim. I mean it. I’m practically obsessed with these books. My wife and I even named our pet Hamster Scott Pilgrim after the title character. While I won’t be reviewing this as part of my Power Rankings this week, I needed to remind you that the final volume of this amazing series will be coming out this week and that you need to buy it. Oh? You haven’t read the other five you say? It’s okay. You can pick up those while you are at the store too. You won’t regret it.
THE SPIRIT #4Written by David Hine and Marv Wolfman
Art by Moritat and Phil Winslad
New series writer David Hine comes aboard for the first chapter of ""Frostbite!"" The ultimate high has arrived on the corners of Central City, and the ghouls who deal it aren't interested in cutting the all-controlling Octopus in on the action! It doesn't take long for hot blood to hit the icy city streets!
And in the co-feature, THE SPIRIT: BLACK & WHITE, Marv Wolfman and Phil Winslade show us what happens in Central City when the lights go out – every last one of them! It's a citywide blackout in black and white!
Ryan: I really dug Mark Schultz’s storyline that opened this series, but I’m even more excited to see that David Hine is being tapped as the new ongoing writer. Hine’s got a creative streak a mile-wide and should have a very unique spin on the Spirit that should gel well with Moritat’s moody, atmospheric art. The his series has already taken home one Book of the Week honor on the Power Rankings and this issue has a strong chance at repeating that fate.
SUPERGIRL #54Written by Sterling Gates
Art by Jamal Igle
Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle continue their bold new direction for The Girl of Steel! When a vicious new threat arrives in Metropolis, it's up to Supergirl to stop the monster. But, boy, is she in for a surprise when she finds out just who this thing is and where it's from!
Ryan: Bizarro Supergirl. Need I say more? That should be enough to convince you to give this one a shot. If you need more convincing, Jamal Igle is drawing it. If you need more convincing, you are probably just being a jerk who doesn’t like awesome comics.
THUNDERBOLTS #146Written by Jeff Parker
Art by Kev Walker
Who or what is Unit 23? Luke Cage must lead his new Thunderbolts deep below on their deadliest mission and face the horrors that mankind can become. While S.H.I.E.L.D. was shut down, a now-missing government squad was charged with guarding a cavern full of impure Terrigen crystals...and if these powerful elements morph Inhumans with wild transformations, what in the world will they do to humans? It's a volatile environment--and a bad time for a challenge to authority from The Juggernaut!
Kirk: This series has been pretty solid under Jeff Parker so far. Bummed about Zemo not being the real deal, but still liking what I see and will stick with it for the foreseeable future.
ZATANNA #3Written by Paul Dini
Art by Stephane Roux
Until now, Zatanna and Brother Night have sparred from a distance – but that all changes when Night targets Zatanna's closest friends, provoking a magical brawl like nothing you've seen before! San Francisco might never be the same!
Ryan: It has only taken two issues for this series to rise up the ranks to be amongst the finest comics that DC is currently producing. Paul Dini is writing some of his strongest work in a style decidedly different from his other superhero comics, while Stephane Roux has made great strides as an interior artist. I really cannot recommend this title enough!
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13 comments:
Short week for me - Walking Dead looks to be a HUGE issue though. Ottley with a color backup should be interesting.
Also looking at Muppet Snow White, Legion, GI Joe (the Hama continuation) and the Jurgens Time Vanisher mini.
Bear with me this is gonna be long. I was never opposed to MJ and Peter breaking up if it happened organically. Say for example MJ can't handle being on the run anymore and divorces Peter so she can live her own life. OMD was like using a sledgehammer when all you needed was a screwdriver.
There's been some pretty good stories that have happened in the last few years. Shed, Grim Hunt, New Ways To Die, the Rhino two parter are great, but it hasn't been all grade a material the moment OMD ended. BND started off pretty rough and there have been some stinkers, like the handling of Jackpot, the Ben Reily story by Guggenheim, and the Vulture issue where Peter committed career suicide.
That said the only way I'm gonna consider picking up OMIT is if this gets really, really good reviews. With the rumors going around that ASM won't be 3x a month anymore and that Spidey and MJ will be back together in some way by the end of this story it might be worth looking into. Otherwise, I'm not gonna pay to be disappointed again like I was with OMD.
I really hope Dini gets back to his Detective Comics level of writing with this next arc. One of the problems I've been having with Streets and Sirens so far is that it doesn't feel like he has a plan/direction for what he wants to do.
Your feelings about Atlas are exactly why it's being canceled at five issues. Agents of Atlas and Atlas are outstanding books and it's a shame more people wouldn't pick them up on a monthly basis. Trade Waiting has definitely killed this one off.
@Frank - Trade waiting doesnt kill books. Atlas was cancelled before anyone read a single issue of it. Orders were in and below Marvel's threshold before the book hit the stands and, like SWORD and others before it, it was doomed before anyone read the issue.
You also overestimate the effect of trade sales. The biggest books sell a fair amount of trades, it's true, but even they have trouble cracking 10,000 on Diamond's lists and only the select view get 20,000 and 30,000 or higher sales. X Necrosha just came out in June and had 2,000 copies sold on the list. For a major event with good creative teams and from the X-titles, that's not really too significant and won't affect their monthly sales. Lower selling books, like Atlas or SWORD, only sell few hundred and lifetime might crack the 1000s on Diamond data (Amazon, etc add more, but again, not significant and the trade waiters wont save the book from its already cancelled status due to under ordering from retailers).
If anything, trade waiters save books more than anyone. Fables, Walking Dead, etc all sustained themselves on trades before their single issues gained any traction in sales.
Trade waiters dont kill books - retailers and poor marketing do.
@Kirk- word
Part 1 and 2 are both on Amazing Spider-man #638? That's kinda weird. So we are getting two stories in one issue?
Wait a minute. The thing is also written by Stan Lee?
I wonder what device they are going to use to tell the story. This is looking like a straight-up flashback with no setup.
Looking forward to Thunderbolts #146. I'm guessing they are doing a two-issue storyline before the 'bolts get dragged into Shadowland.
Oh, and trust me, a lot of Spider-man fans are not over OMD/BND.
@twobit - Stan Lee and Marcos Martin are doing a backup short story.
You need to post previews of at least one X book for those of us sticking to that corner of Marvel.
@Anonymous #10 - I've been reading the X-books for the last few months, but there aren't any that I'm picking up this week. Sorry dude! I'm just not interested in New Mutants or X-Force and I never read the handbooks.
didn't know anything about Zatanna before but the comic looked interesting. it is a good comic.
forgot to mention Alan Moore's Neonomicon - i took a pass through it and it looks awesome
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