Interesting week. I wonder if my shop will give out the Free Comic Book Day books early or make me come in on the weekend for them? I know some people were taking them home last week, so it should be interesting to see if I can score a Blackest Night #0 or other books this week. Big books this week include a second helping of Green Lantern for the month from DC in an attempt to get that title's shipping schedule back on track and some Nova goodness from Marvel. Random pick this week is Ms Marvel, which sees Moonstone taking over the book. I'm a big fan of Moonstone from her Thunderbolts days, so I'm grabbing the issue to see what they do with her now that she has a solo book, even if only for a short time.
In the trades department, Thor: Ages Of Thunder (my reviews of the series can be found here)is finally getting some loving from Marvel. Fraction and Zircher did an amazing job on that series of books. Easily one of my favourite series from last year and I'm tempted to pick up the hardcover myself, despite having the singles of it already, just for some oversized eye candy and to have the book on my shelf for easy access.
DARK AVENGERS #4Written by Brian Bendis
Art by Mike Deodato
The Dark Avengers’ first mission shows Norman Osborn all the plusses and minuses of the choices he has made for his team. So changes must be made. Some come, some go, and not everyone is happy about it. Also, the Cabal reunites for the first time since the Dark Reign began, and they are REALLY not happy.
Kirk: Didn't the Cabal just reunite in last week's Mighty Avengers?
DARK REIGN: DARK CABAL #1Written by Jonathan Hickman, Matt Fraction & Peter Milligan
Art by Adi Granov & Kyle Hotz
Doctor Doom! Emma Frost! The Hood! Namor the Sub-Mariner! Loki! They’re the members of Norman Osborn’s secret Cabal of villainy, united in common cause as they move to change the very landscape of the Marvel Universe! Now, in five all-new stories, learn how each member of this sinister syndicate intends to capitalize on the situation—and perhaps how they intend to deal with each other should it prove necessary!
Kirk: I generally liked all of the Illuminati specials that came out over the past few years and expect this Cabal one-shot to be in much the same vein.
FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF THREE WORLDS #4 (OF 5)Written by Geoff Johns
Art by George Pérez and Scott Koblish
Don't miss this issue as lightning strikes again in the DC Universe! The Crisis of the 31st century continues as a great hero falls and another returns to help Superman and the Legion combat the murderous Superboy-Prime! Meanwhile, the Time Trapper makes his move against the three Legion founders, Polar Boy's bizarre mission comes to an end and Superman makes a shocking discovery that will redefine the terms of this war.
Kirk: I've pretty much lost all interest in this series to the point it doesn't really matter what even happens here. I just don't care anymore. It's sad to say, but I'm only picking it up for the sake of completeness.
GREEN LANTERN #40Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Philip Tan and Jonathan Glapion
"Agent Orange" part 2! The prelude to "The Blackest Night" continues as the war of light explodes across the Vega System. It's the Green Lantern Corps vs. the bizarre Orange Lantern Corps led by the most disgusting, filthiest, vilest being in the universe. But now that Agent Orange has been disturbed, what does that mean to the rest of the universe? Plus, John Stewart battles alongside his newest ally...Fatality?
Kirk: More Orange Lanterns, less Hal Jordan mary sue hero worship please.
MS. MARVEL #38Written by Brian Reed
Art by Rebekkrah Isaacs
FROM THE PAGES OF DARK AVENGERS! Now it can be revealed. After the fall of Carol Danvers, the villainous Moonstone has now taken up the mantle of the world’s greatest super-heroine. And don’t worry…she’s gonna save the hell out of you.
Kirk: I'm a fan of Moonstone from way back when she first started masquerading as Meteorite with the Thunderbolts. This interest in her character is prompting me to check out her new "solo title" as she takes over Ms Marvel's book and builds towards their War of the Marvels later this year. I'm hoping she gets more character development and face time here than over in Dark Avengers or the previous Ellis Thunderbolts, where she is a bit player and only really shows up to get thrown at someone or for making random snide comments.
NOVA #24Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art by Andrea Di Vito
A WAR OF KINGS tie-in! As the Shi’Ar and the Kree’s cataclysmic battle explodes across the cosmos, Richard Rider is forced to fight the one opponent he never wanted to: the ancient power that made him Nova in the first place! Yes, it’s time for another of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s trademark jaw-dropping plot swerves! Plus: Please welcome new series artist Andrea DiVito (ANNIHILATION) to the book that Aint It Cool News says is packed with “twists and turns, thrills and scares, cool stuff and awesomely jaw-droppingly cool stuff!”
Kirk: Can't see anything dethroning this as my book of the week. Watching a bunch of green Nova Corps rookies getting ripped a new one by Gladiator and the Imperial Guard? Count me in.
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14 comments:
*yawn* Is this Final Crapsis thing still going? Doesn't DC yet realize we're all trying to forget that ever happened?
I also am looking to get the Thor Ages of Thunder HC.
@duckface - I wouldn't go that far. It's mostly the delays and general lack of interest in the story so far that has me down on Legion of 3 Worlds. The actual Final Crisis event was a good Morrison story; just not what most people expected or wanted from a line wide event with a 52 issue weekly build up that had nothing to do with it.
@Andrenn - It's sooooo good. I'd love to see them put Zircher on JMS's book for some fill in art. He's actually able to do monthly work and he's growns o much as an artist over the past decade. It's amazing seeing the difference between his earlier stuff and the Ages of Thunder work.
@Kirk - I admit it wasn't that bad a story, but having it promoted as a Final Crisis event really pissed me off. The only major thing to happen was Batman's death, which should have happened in RIP if at all. Morrison's and DC's putting Batman's death on hold in order to hype up his non-event has really made me dislike the company.
What's worse is the fact that nothing happened. All the on-goings seem to barely have noticed it. I thought it was going somewhere with the Lord Eye/Montoya thing, but then nothing.
Having Morrison's madness take over DC for over a year - alienating a huge number of fans in the process - just shows you how messed up things are with the company.
Sorry for the rant, I couldn't resist.
Im a little disappointed with the lack of Final Crisis followup too. It's like the event didnt even happen. No New Gods followup, no Montoya or Lord Eye stuff, allt he aftermath books dont come out until May or June, some six months after the fact, and the entire Multiverse seems to be off limits to everyone and is never mentioned.
I never even heard of Zircher until Ages of Thunder really but I must admit I was blown away with some of his stuff. The fight in Man of War between father and son was incredible. But I, being an idiot, missed for the first Ages of Thunder one-shot so I look forward to reading it.
Damn Nova is the best book of the week before it even comes out? That must be a hell of a book to be better than everything else BEFORE they've even come out. haha
Is it just me or does Braniac look really old in the Legion of 3 Worlds cover?
Also, Final Crapsis? That's damn clever, duckface.
Have to agree with getting Legion of Three Worlds just to have it complete. It takes so long between issues I forget what happened last time. I know Perez broke his hand or something but as it is I can't see how it's connected to Final Crisis anyway.
Randallw - Where did you hear that Perez broke his hand?
Getting FC: Legion thing, Green Lantern, JSA (Johns' last issue on the title, and mine), and Superman. More Mon-El please!
Nova is the only book I'm getting from Marvel.
This is the first Ms. Marvel in Reed's run that I'm hesitant about, and I don't realy have anything against Moonstone. Still, Carol was "killed" with so little ceremony and so much brevity last issue that I'm annoyed for her sake. The story feels forced. "We need to do something Dark Reign-y with Ms. Marvel. Hey! Kill off Carol for 3 months or so!" This is especially obnoxious because Reed's SI crossover in Ms. Marvel was my favorite SI story of all. By the way, that mumbling you hear is the sound of my praying that Carol WILL be back in 3 months.
@Ramon - If you read Nova regularly (or DnA), you'd know why it's the best book this week without even having to read it. ;) Right on, Kirk! Let's see how Richie does as Quasar for a time!
Kirk: As far as the dangling plotlines from FC, Morrison said in an interview with Newsarama that he put those plot points in FC for DC to run with them, or not, at their discretion. It will likely take some time for DC to do anything withm them, if at all, since their hands are full with Blackest Night.
Aaron: Carol Danvers will be back later this year, possibly as early as July. I don't think Carol's "death" is intended by Marvel to be along the lines of Batman's death; not even Marvel is trying to make that big a deal out of it, so I'm not bothered by it.
Phillyradiogeek: I saw the solicits for the "War of Marvels" or whatever it's called for this summer, and I find that treating Carol's "death" so cavalierly ruins any tension established by "killing" her in the first place. When I first saw Carol explode, I was terribly worried for a character I had grown to love. When I saw that she'll be fighting Moonstone in 3 issues, I immediately lost interest in her exploding and am impatiently waiting for this storyline to wrap up so I can go back to watching Carol kick butt. Lots of characters have had faked deaths over the years, but they only work as effective plot elements if you believe it's at least possible that the deaths are real, or that they're a necessary subterfuge for some end. Carol's "death" seems random. Of course, I could easily enough be proven wrong in the end.
I'm loving Dark Avengers, however I get the feeling it will be stricken down by the same thing that happened to Bendis' iteration of the Mighty Avengers - they'll barely do anything, get sucked into a crossover (the upcoming Dark Avengers/X-Men: Utopia, for example) then change completely, not having any time to actually set themselves up as a team.
The solicitation for this week's issue says that some stay and some go - this is a major problem I have with new team rosters these days. For some reason, writers think it's exciting to change the roster within the first arc. What's the point? If you like all of the characters, why would you be excited to see them go? The same thing happened with Avengers: The Initiative, when MVP was killed in the first issue? or the second? That did give us the pretty cool clone storyline, with Michael, Van and Patrick, but still. I would've preferred to have had the original MVP.
heck, this kind of problem goes as far back as Chris Claremont's "Second Genesis" new X-Men team, when the original Thunderbird was killed mere issues after joining the team. Why go to the trouble of creating a cool new character only to kill him off? Can you imagine if John Proudstar had survived to today, i'm thinking he would probably be one of my favourite characters. I certainly liked him when I read reprints of those early issues. [/ramble]
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