December's solicits went up earlier this week and, with Image's solicits released today, we've finally got them all dissected and discussed in our monthly Thoughts on Solicitations post. Of note, December has a 'no comics week' during Christmas this year due to the holiday and Diamond shipping. Most of the books that fall on the last week of the month, such as Batman and Robin, don't show up in the solicits due to this. From what I understand, you can look for those comics the first week of January and they should double ship that month with their regular end of month release date. Hit the jump for our thoughts on the December solicits.
DARK HORSE
Empowered
Eric: As a huge fan of the series, I am definitely picking this up. I was kind of hoping it would be colored but Adam Warren's art is enjoyable whether it is colored or not and I am definitely looking forward to seeing his art on a bigger page.
Conan the Cimmerian: The Weight of the Crown
Ryan: I can’t say that I’ve ever read anything written by Darick Robertson, but if his writing is anything nearly as brutal as his art, a Conan story may be the perfect place to start. Why do I have a feeling this one is going to get violent?
Hellboy: The Bride of Hell
Ryan: This solicitation promises, and I quote, “strange tale of ghosts, demonic revenge, lost love, and King Solomon.” One of these things is not like the others, but all of these things have me excited about this one-shot.
DC ENTERTAINMENT
BLACKEST NIGHT
Blackest Night: The Flash #1
Matt: Now, I haven't been reading Flash: Rebirth, but didn't the Reverse Flash just come back out of nowhere in it recently? Or am I getting my Reverse Flashes confused?
Kirk: Not feeling Johns's Flash: Rebirth and have actually dropped the title. However, Johns and Kollins blew me away with their Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge, so I'm torn on whether I want to pick up what I imagine will be a relatively unimportant to Blackest Night tie-in. Also, isn't it a bit early to be 'homaging' a cover to Flash: Rebirth #1?
Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #1
Ryan: Black Lantern Maxwell Lord looking for revenge against Wonder Woman could be one of the most intriguing stories in all of the Blackest Night tie-ins. It’s certainly one I’m looking forward to, though I wish DC wouldn’t have taken Nicola Scott away from Secret Six to do so.
Green Lantern #49Matt: Woah, woah, woah! Someone other than Hal Jordan gets the spotlight in the Green Lantern title?! Colour me (pun not intended) surprised. I guess Hal is going to be too busy in the events of Blackest Night, so John Stewart gets this issue all for himself.
Kirk: God, I hate that sniper backstory Johns is shoehorning in for John Stewart. I swear, it's only added in so they can have him whip out that ridiculous sniper rifle construct. If you have a magic ring that instantly creates or does anything you want, why do you need to make a gun that you have to physically hold and bring to your face and aim instead of just firing the damn ring beam? Serenity now, Jerry!
Ryan: With Hal Jordan clearly taking center stage in the main Blackest Night story, I’m glad to see this title being used to spotlight a different individual Lantern—I just wish it was someone more interesting than John Stewart.
Green Lantern Corps #43
Matt: Black Lantern Corphans? Are they talking about the children that Kryb stole? Is that a dead baby joke? Because that's kind of tasteless, DC.
Kirk: We touched on this earlier in the week when the previews first started showing up. Anything Guy Gardner related is going to be good, so I'm all for this Red Lantern version for whatever duration it lasts. As for the Black Lantern Corphans, I assume it's either Kryb's babies or the Children of the White Lobe.
Ryan: It’s an interesting choice to make Guy a Red Lantern and I hope it is something they stick with for more than one issue. Having one of their own go rogue—and potentially be a leader of the Red Lanterns—would make for some great stories with the Green Lantern Corps.
DC UNIVERSE
Batman: 80 Page Giant #1
Matt: I have a bunch of these old 80 page giants that DC used to put out, and they are still a pretty good value. Might pick this up.
Ryan: It’s about time that Chris Samnee has been called-up by DC for a Batman story—if you’ve seen his daily blog sketches at www.chrissamnee.com, you know how great his take on the character is. Plus, Ivory Madison finally returns to comics. The $5.99 price tag is a bit high, but it’ll be worth it to see those creators alone take on the Dark Knight.
Booster Gold #27
Ryan: Ever since Blue Beetle became the co-feature in Booster Gold, I’ve been looking forward to the inevitable Blue & Gold 2.0 team-up. I never thought it would be a team-up to battle Blue Beetle Ted Kord, but I can’t think of any foe for them to face that would be more exciting.
DC Holiday Special 2009 #1
Kirk: I usually like these types of specials. The Dustin Ngyuen cover and announcement of Lil' Gotham in the upcoming Batman/Detective annuals has me hoping a Lil' Gotham Christmas special will show up in these pages come December. Even if it doesn't, with the talent involved and light hearted nature of this, I'm sure I'll enjoy this on some level.
Green Arrow & Black Canary #27
Ryan: I understand that for the sake of variety DC would want to take Mike Norton off of one of the stories in this title, but I’m not cool with him being replaced by Renato Guedes. Let’s hope the addition of a second Green Arrow can make it all better.
Jonah Hex #50Eric: I do love Darwyn Cooke's art, so I will be picking this up and the other issue of the series I own, #34 with JH Williams art, was decent enough, so it will definitely be worth the money.
Titans #20
Matt: Donna Troy kind of looks like a blow up doll in that cover.
Ryan: Seriously? You’d think that DC would just cancel this title rather than use it to tell stories like “Donna Troy puts on a cocktail dress and decides to reclaim her twenties.” Anyone else get a Marvel Divas or Models Inc vibe out of this one? Poor choice, DC.
Kirk: Oi, this is the original Marvel Divas announcement all over again.
WILDSTORM/VERTIGO
Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love #2
Ryan: Last month, Chrissie Zullo shocked everyone with her brilliant first cover for this series. This month, we get to see yet another amazing cover. I’ve got a feeling that it won’t be long before Zullo is the next James Jean and we all start wanting to see her work on every cover possible.
Daytripper #1Eric: Gabriel Ba is definitely an artist who is slowly becoming one of my favorites and I've enjoyed what little art that I've seen from Fabio Moon so I am always looking for new projects by them. A while ago, I read a short story by them at MySpace Presents Dark Horse and was impressed by it so I'm really looking forward to this series from them.
Ryan: My biggest problem with Daytripper has nothing to do with the cool story premise or with the amazing creative team, it has to do with the fact that its something I definitely want in trade, but at 10 issues, I’m going to have to wait over a year to get my hands on it.
The Authority #17
Matt: Um... who are those people following up DnA in The Authority? Am I supposed to know who they are?
The Mighty #11
Matt: Uh oh, this solicit makes it sound like it is about to get canceled. Or I wonder if it was planned as a 12 issue series?
Wildstorm Comics in General
Ryan: It looks like a lot of the Wildstorm books are either concluding or beginning to conclude their current storylines in December. Could it be that we’ve got yet ANOTHER shake-up in the mix for the Wildstorm characters? Seems to me it might just be time to hang up the characters for a while, wait a year or two and THEN relaunch everything.
IMAGE COMICS
God Complex #1
Ryan: I’ve always felt that Michael Avon Oeming has been underrated for his writing skills despite the acclaim for his art. The plot on this (an “everyday” guy is actually Apollo and is being hunted by Zeus) is a bit loose, but I think this could be Image’s next sleeper hit.
Image United #1 Collector’s Edition
Ryan: Why am I not surprised that there is a gold-foil embossed version of this? As excited as I am for Image United, this gimmick “edition” is a bit of a ridiculous throwback, don’t you think?
Forgetless #1
Ryan: I made the mistake of looking at the preview art for this series before I read the solicitation. I was excited at first, but as soon as I saw the phrase “struggling models turned professional killers,” I lost interest.
Elephantmen, Vol. 2: Fatal Diseases TP
Ryan: It makes me sad that Elephantmen #24 isn’t solicited for December. A month without Elephantmen is simply tragic.
MARVEL COMICS
CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHO WILL WIELD THE SHIELD?
Matt: Hey, thanks for totally spoiling that both Bucky and Steve make it out of Captain America: Reborn alive and well. I know that with a title like "Reborn", Steve was sure to come back, but I though I could at least do my "suspension of disbelief" trick for a couple more months.
Kirk: And this is why I dropped Captain America: Reborn. Not only is Steve Roger's return officially spoiled (well, with a title like Captain America: Reborn, I guess it was inevitable anyways), but it looks like Bucky is getting kicked to the curb as well. Maybe they can split duties and one can be a Republican and the other a Democrat Captain America or, even better, split the costume and one be Captain America Red and the other Captain America Blue. They can battle against a mysterious Captain America White before all teaming up to fight the Rainbow Hulk Gang. Not bitter. Not. At. All.
Ryan: Well, I can’t say that we didn’t see this one coming, but it is a bit disappointing that Marvel would so blatantly spoil the end of Captain America: Reborn with this solicit.
MARVEL UNIVERSE
Amazing Spider-Man #614-616
Ryan: The Gauntlet storyline really seems to pick up steam in December with this trio of issues. I especially look forward to Sandman solidifying himself as a villain. Sure he’s a sympathetic character at times, but I’ve always felt that he worked best when he presented dastardly.
Avengers: The Initiative #31
Kirk: Taskmaster joins the Cabal? Matches up with him on the cover to Siege: The Cabal and he does have more cred than the Hood at this point. I guess I'd be okay with this.
Black Widow & The Marvel Girls #1Ryan: This seems like a really weird miniseries, doesn’t it? I dig Black Widow and the unlikely team-ups seem fun, but the timing seems strange on this, especially since Iron Man 2 is still a long ways away. Oh well, I guess we should just be thankful that we are getting a book focused on women kicking butt and that it isn’t another ill-fated and poorly-conceived idea to write to a “female audience” like Marvel Divas and Models, Inc.
Matt: I thought one series to push Black Widow's upcoming appearance in Iron Man was enough, but apparently I was wrong. This looks aimed at the Marvel Adventures crowd, and considering Marvel Adventures - Iron Man sold really well when the last movie was made, it sounds like a good idea.
Brian Michael Bendis: 10 Years at Marvel TPB
Kirk: "Collecting ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #13, NEW AVENGERS #22, ALIAS #10, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1, CIVIL WAR: THE CONFESSION, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN SUPER SPECIAL, ULTIMATE X-MEN #41, DAREDEVIL #65, NEW AVENGERS #15, ULTIMATE MARVEL TEAM-UP #9, DARK AVENGERS #9 and material from STAN LEE PRESENTS."
That's actually a very nice selection of comics. Not sure why anyone would want such a random, mishmash of comics, but they did a good job picking some of Bendis's best work.
Dark Avengers Annual #1
Eric: And now Marvel is charging an extra dollar for their oversized issues.
Dark Reign: Young Avengers TPB
Eric: The only $4 series I'm picking up for Marvel since I like the Young Avengers, the premise, the writer and the artist. All of the other $4 comics from them lack one or more of those, so I've been avoiding them even if I am interested in them.
Fantastic Four #574Ryan: This issue brings up something that has never made much sense to me—the kids of the Marvel Universe. Franklin Richards seems to have been hovering around 8 years old for a long time now, while the youngest X-Men and the Power Pack have all grown up (or at least Julie Power did in Runways and Loners). It’ll be interesting to see how Hickman presents the characters here.
Kirk: This issue was hinted at in this week's Fantastic Four. Franklin's party sounds like it will be a lot of fun. Hopefully we can avoid the stereotypical 'villain crashing party' cliche. Also, I think this is the first time in a long, long time that the Power Pack is being referenced in-continuity. They typically only get the odd miniseries off in its own bubble.
Fortune and Glory: A True Hollywood Comic Book Story HC
Eric: Never really tracked down any of Bendis's early work even though I've wanted to really it. Hopefully this means there will be more reprints from Marvel. Definitely picking this up.
Incredible Hercules: The Mighty Thorcules Premiere HC
Kirk: BUY THIS HARDCOVER!
Invincible Iron Man #21
Matt: Poor Brother Voodoo can't catch a break. He's the new Sorcerer Supreme, but everyone keeps going to Doctor Strange for help.
Marvel 70th Anniversary Frame Art One Shot
Ryan: This is a really cool idea, especially for people like me who didn’t want to shell out the $7-$15 per frame variant cover. What would work better, though, would be a trade containing all of Marvel’s variant covers for this year—the Wolverine art appreciations, the decade variants, etc.
Marvel Adventures - Super Heroes #18Matt: Aww, yeah Nova!
Ryan: I don’t even care what this book is about, I’ll be picking it up solely for the awesomeness of that Niko Henrichon Nova cover.
Mini Marvels Ultimate Collection TPB
Kirk: Wow, I thought Marvel was finished with Mini Marvels. Nice to see they haven't completely forgotten it in favour of their Super Hero Squad.
Nova #32
Ryan: Wow, I was not expecting Andy Lanning and Dan Abnett to reach so far back into the Nova-mythos to use an obscure villain like the Sphinx. It’s time to pull out those old Wolfman-penned Man Called Nova back issues to get up to speed. I can’t wait to see DnA breathe some new life into the character just like they have every other character in Marvel’s cosmic stable.
Punisher #12
Matt: Haven't decided yet if this sounds totally stupid or totally awesome. It is a fine line, and a dangerous one to thread.
Spider-Man & the Secret Wars #1Ryan: First we are revisiting the Clone Saga and now this? Seriously, Marvel, if you want to convince us that you aren’t just trying to cash in on us suckers, this isn’t the way to do it. Sheesh.
Kirk: I don't know what to make of this. It's similar to the Clone Saga remake/retelling, but not quite as this is simply a straight up retread with the only difference being this one is from Spider-Man's perspective. I have the original Secret Wars already, so I have no interest in seeing it again. Would have been better suited to do a Marvel Adventures: Secret Wars in my opinion. Would be a 'new' story and still be able to tell it from Spider-Man's perspective if they wished.
Thor #605
Kirk: Thor confronting Dr Doom? Looks like Kieron Gillen's arc on Thor is going to pull out all the stops. Glad to see it's not just a transition arc keeping the book in holding pattern before the rumoured Mark Millar/Steve McNiven team takes over the book.
Thunderbolts #139
Matt: Agent of Atlas guesting on Thunderbolts? Yes, please!
Ultimate Comics Avengers #5
Ryan: The first two issues of this series have been fun, but I’ve been on the fence about whether or not I should continue to pick it up. However, the idea that Nick Fury’s new team of Avengers are a “death squad” going after Captain America is just intriguing enough to keep me around.
X-Men Noir: Mark of Cain #1 and Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without a Face #1
Matt: My guess? These noir titles do great in the paperback market, so we are probably going to see more titles like this. There's some good talent involved with them though, and my guess they have a blast writing these stories too.
SIEGE: THE CABAL
Matt: I don't know if I'm going to be getting into the Siege event. I mostly like Bendis-written comics, but these types of stories are not his strength.
Kirk: Interesting that David Finch did the cover to this. I thought Bendis's and Immonen's public bashing of his tardiness (especially after he apparently had time to do a Strawberry Shortcake/My Little Pony painting) of Ultimatum holding up their Ultimate Spider-Man run would preclude the two from working together, but I suppose a cover isn't that big a deal. Also interesting to see Michael Lark, who recently finished up his stint on Daredevil, making the move to a big ticket item like this. His style should add a darker tone to the Cabal than the typical super hero fare.
WHAT IF'S?
Kirk: I'm a sucker for What If? stories. While Marvel isn't putting the creative teams that made these stories famous on their respective What If?'s, I'm still interested in reading these iterations of the books. The WWH alternate ending with Thor showing up sounds great. I wonder if it will build on the original proposal for WWH by Greg Pak?
The Daredevil one-shot sounds great, too. Love the cover included with it and new Hand costume DD's wearing. Fits with the new status quo, too.
The House of M: Spider-Man issue is a bit specific, dealing with a tie-in instead of an event or story, but I loved what Mark Waid did with Spider-Man in House of M, so look forward to seeing Sean McKeever return to Spider-Man and that storyline.
Finally, the alternate endings to Secret Invasion couldn't possibly be worse than how the main story played out, so I'm looking forward to that one, too. The only What If? I'm not interested in is the Astonishing X-Men one. It's like every X-Men What If? has to roll out a Pheonix story. Not interested in retreading that played out What If? again.
WORLD WAR HULKS
Matt: Sorry Jeff Parker, I love you, but not that much to buy this tie-in to World War Hulks.
Ryan: I really loved Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, and I really want to get into the upcoming major Hulk event, but the ridiculous number of Hulk-franchise titles and poor internet reaction to all things Red Hulk are forcing me to lose all interest in this. Surely, I’m not the only one. Now, if the Hulk franchise slimmed its number of books down, dropped all this Red Hulk nonsense, and won back some of its fanbase, then I’d think it would be time for another big event. Until then, this stuff is only further alienating me from what was one of my favorite franchises.
Kirk: I feel like I should say something about this. I also feel like I should try to be constructive. But then I realize Jeph Loeb is the madness behind all of this and red rings start flying by and I'm suddenly hungering for grilled cheese sandwiches. I think I'll spare myself the bile and rage for a change and just say I'm sorry to Jeff Parker and Paul Pelletier. I would like to support them on the Fall of the Hulks Alpha issue, but there's no way I'm getting involved in this nonsense, even with two creators I enjoy working on that issue.
X-MEN TITLES
Cable #21
Matt: I want this series to answer one question: just how old is Cable by now?
Dark X-Men #2
Matt: I've heard that the last few issues of the X-Man series, written by Warren Ellis, were pretty interesting. I'm curious about what Cornell will do with Nate Grey.
Dark Wolverine #81Ryan: I’m one of the unnamed critics calling this series a “must read” in the solicitation, so you can imagine that I’m pretty pumped about this issue. This is one of the most cerebral, character-focused books on the stands right now and if you aren’t already picking it up, this looks like it could be the perfect chance to. You won’t be disappointed.
Deadpool Team-Up #898
Matt: Holy crap, the Zapata Brothers are back (having appeared in Moon Knight before). One pet peeve though, it seems that EVERY PLOT about Deadpool being offered money has the one million dollars figure thrown in. Come on, writers, change it around a bit at least.
X-Men: Legacy/X-Force/New Mutants/X-Necrosha
Ryan: I know that this isn’t any fault of Marvel’s and I really hate taking it out on books that I generally enjoy, but the oversaturation of returning dead characters in DC’s Blackest Night has killed any excitement I have for undead mutants.
X-Factor #200
Ryan: This looks to be a great jumping on point for this critically-acclaimed book. I’ve tried a few other times before, but every issue I’ve picked up (even the beginning of new storylines) hasn’t been tremendously new reader friendly. With the renumbering and what sounds to be a fresh start, this could be the perfect time for folks like me to jump on the bandwagon.
Eric: I lost interest in the title after Messiah Complex but this revamp kills what little interest I still had in the title. I find it hard to take PAD's reworking of the group into Marvel's detective agency seriously. I mean, these are basically ignored by the X-Men and I supposed to believe the rest of the Marvel Universe is supposed to turn to these guys for help? It just stretches my suspension of disbelief to far for it work for me.
Matt: X-Factor is back, with a monster sized issue! Would have been nicer if this was going to be 104 pages of new material, but this has some reprints too. Also, what is up with Strong Guy on that cover?
X-Force Annual #1
Eric: I wonder if the Robert Kirkman material is new stuff or something Marvel had from when he was working for them from earlier. Either way, I find it really weird.
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13 comments:
There's a very real possibility I'm the only one excited about the Taskmaster news. Always been a fan, no idea why.
The Titans are making money for DC why show they cancel it you stupid idiots!!
@PMMJ - I don't mind Taskmaster getting a bump, but he's not really on a Doom or Loki level and is little more than a mercenary. He's someone the Cabal should be using. Seems odd to have him given a spot (if he does indeed get one) at their table.
@Anonymous - You should proofread your one sentence remarks before calling others stupid. The point of cancelling Titans might have something to do with the entire team disbanding/moving on to the JLA, effectively ending their associations. Add to that the solicit for the December issue and it's clear DC's only gouging readers with the title's continued publication. Making money has nothing to do with quality either, as Jeph Loeb comics prove each and every month.
Anonymous does bring up an interesting point, even if it is unintentional. I haven't looked at the sales figures for Titans in a while, but if it is still making money, there is no reason that it couldn't be repackaged with a major relaunch.
The problem with the book now is that it is sitting stagnate. Most of the characters have moved on to different books, so there really isn't a team there. However, given the loads of past Teen Titans, there is no reason the book couldn't be punched up with a new cast lead by a major character. That sure would make a lot more sense than "spotlighting" different characters in stories that few seem to care about simply so that the book can continue to be published.
From what I understand, Ryan, the book is going to turn into a Deathstroke title. I'm not sure if it's renamed and renumbered or any of the specifics, though.
You know, I thought I had read that somewhere, but I couldn't remember if it was Titans or Teen Titans. Putting a team under the leadership of Deathstroke could be the kick in the pants the title needs to be good again. Then again, given the strength of the cast, I'm not sure how it ended up being so horrible in the first place.
It's DC Comics, not DC Entertainment. DC Entertainment is a go-between for DC Comics and Warner Brothers Entertainment.
For your information Titans will continue after the "Day In The Life" stories ends with a team led by Deathstroke and written by Eric Wallace.
I guess I'll be picking up my first issue of Marvel Adventures now.
I didnt realize Ivory Madison was back....awesome.
No Scalped, No Batman and Robin, No Elephantmen......plus a complete skip ship week. Going to be a tough month.
CBR did an interview with Tobin and Scherberger about Spider-Man & The Secret Wars a while back, and I think it actually sounds decent. It'll also be the first time that Scherberger is drawing a lot of Marvel's characters, which should be interesting.
Also, have the Taskmaster fans here read the character's miniseries from around 2002 or so? It interweaved with Gail Simone's run on Deadpool a bit, and I thought it was pretty decent.
"I want this series to answer one question: just how old is Cable by now?"
- So true! That guy must be ancient by now.
Mark Waid wrote Spider-Man: House of M, not Peter David.
Also, Geoff Johns, or possibly his editor, is a shameless cover-homage whore. His books have been known to have the final issue of a storyline homage the cover of the first issue of the same storyline.
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