The Weekly Crisis vs. Solicits for September 2010

The month of September looks to be a time where additions and variations are to be made. New teams, new rosters, surprises abound and delight as Matt and I go hunting through all of the solicitations for the revelations that cause us multiple titilations. This isn't a future pull list, necessarily, but more just a few newsworthy items that caught our eye and we wanted to discuss with you all. Please feel free to join us in the comments section below.

RYAN L's THOUGHTS

Swierczynski On Black Widow

I didn't pick up Black Widow on debut, I know, wrap my knuckles now. I wanted to , was intrigued to, heard only good press, but I just couldn't add another title. I couldn't, I swear. However, now I find out that one of my favourite writers, Duane Swierczynski is on the title and I have to admit, I've now got room for that extra title. Swierczynski took over the Immortal Iron Fist way back when Brubaker, Fraction and Aja left off and I liked his run, I'll admit it. The art wasn't stellar but Swierczynski's ideas were right up my alley. I have read a fair stack of his novels as well and he appeals to me. He does great hyperkinetic action set firmly in this decade and I love him unashamedly for it. He also writes a mean woman at times, and his deadly agent in Severance Package was apparently based on Black Widow so this seems like a perfect fit to me. It is a shame to lose Liu and Acuna but I'll happily pony up for Swierczynski. I just hope Manuel Garcia is up to the challenge on pencils.

Weird War Tales #1

What is this one-shot about, exactly? I know it's a set of short stories in wars and they certainly sound like zany premises but I just don't get why DC is putting this title out. However, do not take this as me complaining. I think this one-shot looks pretty awesome and I will be on the fence about picking it up because of the fantastic names I see attached to it. Ivan Brandon and Nic Klein doing anything will always get my attention. Though, I would have liked to see it be a bigger size. Overall this looks pretty intriguing.

Action Comics #893

Don't get me wrong, this title sounds pretty good with Lex Luthor versus Gorilla Grodd over the Law of the Jungle. I like the sound of a bald V hairy showdown but that isn't why I'm mentioning this title, the real reason is thus; this issue will kick off a brand new back up feature centering on Jimmy Olsen, and it'll be written by up and coming Image star Nick Spencer, as well as being drawn by R.B. Silva. This is great because it seems to me that usually these creator owned writers make a break for it and then Marvel picks them up. This time DC has been smart and they're doing a great introduction for this writer to the DCU, they're putting him on a back up to a well selling title. I like that DC will be getting some of the new flavour coming through and definitely appreciate seeing Spencer getting more work.

Icon Comics Abound

It's a big month for the Marvel Icon imprint as Incognito: Bad Influence and Kick Ass 2 launch #1's. Brubaker and Phillips back in the Incognito universe is sure to not only sell well but be creatively awesome. This duo show little signs of wavering as they bring us Criminal each story, it's not like they hit us with their A game first and are slowly dropping off in quality, I have massive hopes now as I loved Incognito the first time around. And Millar and Romita Jr are back on Kick Ass, and after the movie, so I'll be interested to see how this one sells. I'll also be interested to see how Romita Jr goes also pencilling Bendis' Avengers. Bendis and Maleev have Scarlet continue into her second issue, and at 40 pages for $4 I wouldn't feel so bad about this title. I am intrigued still, yes I am. A Kabuki HC is released and Fraction's Casanova continues to be translated in colour for the Merry Marvel Masses. It's a big month, and pretty big on quality, too.

$3 Comics

The price of comics is rising. Research enough on the internet and you'll find irrefutable proof that the price of our little stories is going from $2.99 up to $3.99, and you'll also find plenty of people that will complain about it all while enabling it with their wallets. Sure, I don't love the concept but I'll buy whatever comic looks good. However, in the interest of showing people that comics aren't completely overpriced and dead I thought I'd put together this list of great comics that still adhere to the old school price.

To show the love the Big Two have for their fans let's look at what they have for $2.99. There's a selection from Marvel; Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Secret Warriors, Invincible Iron Man, Thunderbolts, Black Widow, Deadpool, Amazing Spider-Man (x2), Avengers Academy, Atlas, Hawkeye and Mockingbird, Young Allies, Namor: The First Mutant, New Mutants, and X-Factor. And DC have; Brightest Day, Green Lantern (and Corps), Green Arrow, Birds of Prey, The Flash, Titans, Batman, Batman & Robin, Superman, Booster Gold, Jonah Hex, Power Girl, Secret Six, and Wonder Woman. I think that's pretty good.

MATT'S THOUGHTS

Deadpool Team-Up #889

Damnit, just as I dropped this title, this had to happen. I jumped on this title from the beginning and I liked the idea of it, but the execution started wearing very thin. You see, I was pretty tired of the boring guest stars, repetitive plots, and mixed bag of creative talents. The final drop was when one of the team ups was with Mr. X, and I finally decided to call my (possibly abusive) relationship with Deadpool Team-Up off. Then they go an announce that the September issue is going to be by Jeff Parker and Steven Sanders of Agents of Atlas and S.W.O.R.D. fame respectively, teaming up Deadpool with Gorilla Man, and looks like I'm back on this title, at least until I see what the following issue brings to the table.

The Flash #6

And I think this is going to be my jumping off point for this title. I like what this title has been doing, this is easily one of Geoff Johns best efforts that I've read, and the art by Francis Manapul has been great (or more than great, really), but there's a couple of factors that are influencing me on this decision. First of all, I don't want to get invested in another event, Flashpoint, because I've been trying to trim down on my pull list. Secondly (and I understand this is probably not going to win me any friends), but I just don't want to support anymore the Silver-Ageing of the DCU. From what I've read so far, Barry is an incredibly boring character by himself, and there hasn't been a single mention (again, so far) of Wally or Bart, the modern age Flashes, which disappeared without any good reason off-panel, and they haven't been seen since. We always hear about voting with our wallets, which is what I'm going to do here.

How To Understand Israel in 60 Days Or Less HC

Now here's an interesting book, if anything one to watch in the sales chart. A biographical memoir is not going to do very well in the Direct Market, it even makes me wonder why the even bothered to publish it through there, but it's a sure bet that this is going to do extremely well in bookstores and online retailers. It's also strange to see Vertigo publishing something like this, as the author and the book could have easily gone to a bigger publisher that would have put more money and effort in publicity. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I think it's wonderful that Vertigo is expanding it's horizons even more, and I do hope they continue to publish more books like this one.

Thor #615

Can it be true? Is it finally here? It seems like we have been waiting for Matt Fraction's run on Thor to begin for ages, but looks like September will finally bring in the goods. All this wait has created more expectation than any one could have predicted (well, at least for me), so it'll be good to see how much the debut by Fraction and Pasqual Ferry lives up to them.

Thunderbolts #148

Speaking of Jeff Parker, I really like the work that he has been doing with Thunderbolts, even before Luke Cage became the leader and some of the team members changed. Having said that, I really wish that the Thunderbolts would go on some of their own missions, because it feels that they are dragged into every single event that has happened in the Marvel Universe. Civil War, Initiative, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, Siege, Heroic Age, and now Shadowland, one after the other. Add in the fact that there have been quite a lot of creative team changes, and you have a title that doesn't have a lot stability. Don't get me wrong, all of their involvement with those events have been pretty logical, and this one with Shadowland as well. Jeff Parker seems to be in it for the long run, and that's good, but now I wish that the Thunderbolts had a long run without butting heads with the rest of Marvel's titles so they can develop more on their own.  Also, that's a pretty good cover right there.

Conclusion

Those are just a few of many different comics set to hit shelves in September. What else should we check out? What are you most interested about for that month? Let us know in the comments section.

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