Another Monday, another Post-Crisis Previews. Not too much on the menu this time around, but there are a few biggies, like another round of War of Kings or the second issue of Flash: Rebirth. There's also the carry over from last week, Atomic Robo: From the Shadow Beyond Time.The big mover in trade releases for the week is The Walking Dead Compendium, which collects The Walking Dead #1-48 in one giant, 1088 page, zombie brain crushing tome. If I didn't own most of the series in singles already, I'd probably pick this bad boy up myself. Don't let the zombie theme scare you off. This is a great comic for anyone.
, which collects 
ATOMIC ROBO: SHADOW FROM BEYOND TIME #1Written by Brian Clevinger
Art by Scott Wegener
New York City, 1926. ATOMIC ROBO’s dull night of studying for a physics exam is interrupted by a duo from NIKOLA TESLA’s past with a dire message: the imminent doom of all life in the universe! Guest starring CHARLES FORT, HOWARD PHILIPS LOVECRAFT, and the TUNGUSKA INCIDENT.
Kirk: Despite scans of this book showing up in our Moments of the Week last Friday, I'm still going to be listing it for this week's previews due to the fact that Diamond didn't bother to ship the book to anyone on the east coast, among other areas, which included my shop.
If you still aren't sold on Atomic Robo, check out my reviews for the first series or take a gander at the FCBD issue, which Red 5 went and put online for everyone to read earlier today.
BATMAN: BATTLE FOR THE COWL – THE NETWORK #1Written by Fabian Nicieza
Art by Don Kramer
A wave of heroes arrive in Gotham City in this one-shot with hopes of helping stem the tide of chaos threatening to overwhelm everybody! Starring Huntress, Batgirl, Misfit, Ragman, Manhunter and many others. Will these heroes succeed – or will they be victims of Gotham City's madness? And if they do succeed, what does the future hold for them?
Kirk: Fabian Nicieza is a capable writer and this book will be starring many of my favourite 'D-list' characters, including Manhunter, Batgirl and Misfit, so should make for a solid, enjoyable read.
CABLE #14Written by Duane Swierczynski
Art by Ariel Olivetti
“X-FORCE/CABLE: MESSIAH WAR,” PART 4
The sequel to 2007’s MESSIAH COMPLEX continues here! “Messiah War,” the much-anticipated sequel to “Messiah
CompleX,” continues here! For the first time, Cable’s been separated from the girl he’s sworn to raise and protect — Hope, the so-called “Mutant Messiah” — and now she’s in the hands of his greatest enemy! Meanwhile, X-Force, sent by Cyclops on a desperate rescue mission to the deep future, scrambles to find their way out of a trap that will kill them in matter of hours. And if that’s not enough, an old — some might say ancient — enemy of the X-Men has reared his ugly head one last time…
Kirk: Messiah War has been a very uneven story so far, primarily due to the subpar quality of Swierczynski's half of the story in Cable. I end up getting excited about possibilities in a Yost & Kyle issue and then watch all that dashed in the next Cable issue and then built back up again, which brings us back to another round of Cable. I just hope this issue doesn't end up filler for this crossover like the last issue.
FLASH: REBIRTH #2 (OF 5)Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Ethan Van Sciver
What's happened to the Speed Force? One of the world's most powerful speedsters is dead, and Barry Allen must discover who – or what – is responsible! But the reborn Barry is a man haunted by a dark secret in his past. A secret that drives him to push far beyond his limits. A burden that, if he's not careful, could send him right back into oblivion! Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver's reinvention of the Scarlet Speedster picks up the pace – we dare you to keep up!
Kirk: The first issue of Flash: Rebirth left me less than impressed, but I'm not going to give up on this book just yet. Would like some reasons behind the various unneeded retcons for the Flashes that even someone with little experience with them, like myself, found odd, but I imagine Johns will glaze over them in favour of setting up whatever status quo he wants.
NEW AVENGERS: THE REUNION #3Written by Jim McCann
Art by David Lopez
“DOUBLE INDEMNITY”
After last issue’s bombshell revelation, the hits keep coming for Mockingbird and Ronin as they begin their infiltration to stop a weapon of mass destruction from destroying an entire city. Plus, the question that’s been on everyone’s mind, especially Clint’s: What happened to Mockingbird while she was held captive by the Skrulls? Find out here as the Reunion 15 years in the making continues!
Kirk: I received another advance copy of this comic and will be featuring a review of it tomorrow, so check back for that. This series has been a fun, Mr & Mrs Smith style team up between the former lovers that has done as good a job as can be expected filling in the blanks of Mockingbird's time since she was abducted by the Skrulls, including how they did it, when and what she was doing while captive and even giving us an inner look at her thought process and how her time in captivity has affected her state of mind. One of the better aftermath/follow up books from Secret Invasion.
WAR OF KINGS #3Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art by Paul Pelletier
Marvel’s next sci-fi spectacular rages on! Emperor Vulcan cuts loose, but will final victory depend less on military might and more on actions of the conscience? And how will the Inhuman known as Crystal and the Imperial Guardsman named Gladiator factor in to the escalating events? The balance of power in the Marvel Cosmos will change in the interstellar battle that IGN.com calls “the fight of the year”!
Kirk: My most anticipated book, just narrowly edging out the new Atomic Robo, is War of Kings #3. Last issue was a great 'talking heads' issue which saw some brief retaliation from the Inhumans, so I'm hoping this issue will escalate this war, which has, so far, amounted mostly to a brief sneak attack in the first issue. The series has been great, but let's see them put the 'war' in War of Kings.
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12 comments:
Hmm. I wonder if The Network will lead into the new Batgirl series. The preview for Batgirl #1 has many people talking about Cassie relinquishing the role :(
You probably won't get the answer to the death of Nora Allen until issue #3 of The Flash:Rebirth. At least that's what I got out of Ethan Van Scivers few words on the matter.
Killer of Demons #3 of 3 is out this week. For a short mini, this was kind of fun. That might be worth a look when it is collected.
Did you catch Irredeemable #1? I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't the best of the week but got me interested enough to pick up #2 this week.
War of Kings is also on my pull list but mostly because of the GotG connection. I still haven't worked my way back into enjoying X-Books. Although #1 and #2 were good reads, I just can't quite find myself getting excited about it. But with Nova and GotG both on my list, War of Kings makes sense.
It actually looks like a rather light week for me.
Batgirl looks quite well-endowed there. I guess maybe the weight of those things is what's making her lean forward like that? Maybe she's actually hiding some weapons or something.
All I hope is that we don't get another blinding image like we got in the last issue of Amazing Spider-Man because or else I will have to go as Daredevil for Halloween.
@ Kirk - I was wondering if, anytime before Wednesday, you head over to comicbookresources.com (or a similar such site, in my experience CBR is the best for it) and check out their 6-8 page previews of the week's comics? I do, and having seen the first couple of pages of War of Kings, I can tell you (without giving too much away) that the war definitely becomes a WAR. I'm not actually reading WoK but the preview of #3 made me want to check it out.
@Anonymous - I'm pretty sure Oracle The Cure will be the lead in to it, but not for the Barbara Gordan part. I'm going with Calculator's daughter as the new Batgirl (well, the one on the cover at least). I'm also picturing it as a take on Battle for the Cowl, with multiple Batgirls. Maybe Cassandra, Calc's daughter and Misfit running around, but Cassie will probably stay as the real one.
@Oscar - I flipped through Irreemable #1, but wasn't overly impressed. Felt like a generic 'Superman goes bad' analogue book and I left it there. Based on what other reviewers/forum posts have said, that seemed roughly the case, despite being a relatively solid read. If I hear better things about it with issue 2, I might jump on the title.
@Klep - She's a growing girl that realizes the only way she'll star in that new book in Aug is to show off the goods. =p
@Kevin - Oh god, don't remind me of that which shall not be named.
@Daniel Woburn - I usually ignore most preview pages, as they're usually like 6-8 pages. I find the ones I do read a week or so early, I end up skipping those pages or just flipping through /skimming them, which really hurts the "length" when books are only 22 pages long as it is. Just gives me the impression the book is really short or I might even forget some of the simple things from the previews. If it's a book I'm on the fence about or if I didn't really consider picking it up in the first place, I usually check some previews though.
I was a little underwhelmed by Flash: Rebirth #1 as well. Still, I think it will pick up. Johns has done great stuff for other characters and I think he was just setting up the character for what he has in store for him.
I'm pretty much the same about previews, I stay away from them or else I get a bad case of deja vu when reading the comics.
I really REALLY hope Calculator's daughter isn't Batgirl. Who the hell is she, anyway? Does DC really believe an unknown character is better able to carry a book than Cassandra? Yes, her mini's sales were terrible, but I attribute that to poor writing, which has haunted Cass since One Year Later.
I'm rooting for Misfit if it can't be Cass. I like the 'Battle for the Cowl-ette' idea, though, just not with Calculator's daughter. Cassandra and Stephanie Brown are friends so I can see them maybe pulling a Selina-Holly style multiple Batgirl thing, with Misfit thrown in for good measure. It could be a Gotham Girls-style book, a companion piece to Gotham City Sirens.
But DC would never go for anything like that, I'm sure. They're running the Batgirl name into the grave, I tell you.
I don't read any of DC, but it seems to me like Cass should be a really popular character. She's essentially a female half-asian ninja, right? With the target demographic of comics largely being young, nerdy men, I don't see how that can fail. It seems to hit all the buttons of that group. Is this just mismanagement by DC? Or is she actually really popular and it just looks like the DC mismanagement of making her not Batgirl anymore is imminent?
DC thought it would be wise to make her a villain,w hich pretty much tanked the character. They tried to redeem her by letting Beechan write her most recent miniseries. I think they just hate any characters that become popular or honestly believe that doing these bait adn switch 'good/evil' or 'dead/resurrected' back and forth stories are solid basis for character development. They've also been teasing whether or not Cassandra will be Batgirl since like 2006, so they dont really inspire much confindence in fans, despite a devoted fanfollowing to the character.
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