It's Post-Crisis Previews time, and boy do I have some comics to tell you about! There's lots to love this week, including the conclusion to Heart, the excellent surprise series from Blair Butler and Kevin Mellon, the beginning of a new storyline in Amazing Spider-Man, Mark Millar's latest offer, Supercrooks, and much, much more. So hit the jump to give it all the looking that it deserves!
HEART #4
SUPERCROOKS #1
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #5
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #682
Written by Dan Slott
Art by Stefano Caselli
• Part One Of “Ends Of The Earth”, The Next Big Spider-Man Event!
• The Doc Ock Story You’ve Waited 50 Years For! Doctor Otto Octavius Holds The Entire Earth Hostage With His Dying Breath. What Price Will Spider-Man Have To Pay To Buy The Whole World One More Day?
• Special Appearance By The Avengers!
Grant: When will the horribleness that is Marvel solicitations stop?! Seriously, capitalizing every single word is the dumbest, most obnoxious thing they could possibly do, short of throwing on the all-caps, of course. Anyways, despite the untold damage this monstrosity has done to my eyes, this really looks like the shot in the arm that Amazing Spider-Man has been in desperate need of lately. Hopefully it can live up to expectations.
BATMAN #7
Written by Scott Snyder
Art by Greg Capullo & Jonathan Glapion
Batman may have survived the Court of Owls’ first strike (barely), but even as he recuperates, the Court is preparing to launch its most deadly and sweeping attack yet. Plus: The secrets revealed in this issue will change Batman’s world forever! You won’t want to miss the issue everyone will be talking about!
Grant: You should all know my feelings on the Court of Owls storyline by this point. But in case you've somehow missed it, I'm just not feeling it. However, while I've made my dissatisfaction with the Court of Owls storyline abundantly clear, as long as Scott Snyder, Greg Capuloo, and Jonathan Glapion keeping putting out amazing Batman titles, I'll be there for each and every issue.
HEART #4Written by Blair Butler
Art by Kevin Mellon
MINISERIES CONCLUSION!
It all comes down to this. The shocking outcome of a pivotal fight forces M.M.A. brawler Oren "Rooster" Redmond to reconsider his future inside – and outside – the cage. Don't miss the conclusion to this violent tale from artist KEVIN MELLON (LOVESTRUCK) and writer BLAIR BUTLER (G4's "Attack of the Show").
Grant: Ryan put it best when I talked about this title last time. Heart has been a solid comic. It isn't necessarily great, but it is reliably good. And that is fine by me. The only downside about this issue is that it means this enjoyable jaunt through the mind of an up and coming mixed martial arts fighter will be coming to an end. I don't know what Blair Butler will be up to next, but I'll be looking forward to it.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #7
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Gene Ha & Gary Franks
Now that the team’s origin story is complete, starting with this issue we shift to the present-day Justice League! What has changed? Who has joined the team since? Featuring artwork by Gene Ha, the story also reintroduces the team’s greatest champion: Steve Trevor!
Also starting in this issue: “The Curse of Shazam!” featuring a story by Geoff Johns and art by Gary Frank! Discover Billy Batson’s place in DC Comics – The New 52 as we reveal his all-new origin story!
Grant: The first arc of this book was far from great, but sometimes I can be a glutton for punishment, so I'll give this series another go around. It's especially hard for me to resist when this is the only place for me to get my Billy Batson / Captain Marvel fix (I don't care what DC thinks, there's no way I'm switching to calling him Shazam. That's hella dumb).
SUPERCROOKS #1Written by Mark Millar
Art by Leinil Yu
When The Market Is Flooded With Competition And The Authorities Are Always On Your Tail, What’s An All-American Supervillain To Do? Go To Spain, Of Course! From The Writer Who Brought You Kick-Ass And The Artist Of Secret Invasion Comes A New Series About A Team Of Superpowered Ne’er-Do-Wells Looking To Pull Off One Last Heist In The Land Of Bullfighting And Delicious Churros.
Grant: I'm honestly not much of a Millar guy. I've flipped through many of his books, but I don't know if I've read any of them from start to finish. On the other hand, I do have a hard time not being at least a little bit curious about all the hype he manages to build for his books, and Supercrooks in no exception, which I suppose plays right into his hands. Despite that, I'll be willing to give a gander at this book. The concept seems cool enough to warrant another flip through.
Side note: all caps when you're writing an entire paragraph is The Dumbest Thing Ever. Seriously, Marvel, get it together!
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #5Written by Nick Spencer
Backup Story Written by Michael Uslan
Art by Wes Craig & Mike Choi
The amazing Mike Choi (X-Force) contributes a sequence in the latest chapter of the miniseries that has everyone talking! The jaw-dropping twists continue, as true intentions come to light, enemies and allies thought long gone return, and the death toll continues to rise…
Plus, the start of a two-part backup story starring the all-new Undersea Agent on a deadly solo mission!
Grant: This book is actually jumping up to $3.99 an issue, along with 30 pages of content, which is a little odd to see in the middle of a miniseries' run. However, the Undersea Agent backup sounds like a lot of fun, so I won't start looking a gift horse in the mouth. Besides, considering how big of a disappointment the last issue was, I'll take anything that might spice things up a bit.
WONDER WOMAN #7
Written by Brian Azzarello
Art by Cliff Chiang
Remember the myth of Orpheus? Wonder Woman certainly does. And we hope she’s learned its lessons well, because someone she dearly loves is in Hell’s clutches – and she’s the only one who can mount a rescue mission! But Hades has no mercy, even for his own family – in fact, especially for his own family – and he doesn’t intend to let her walk out of his domain without paying a terrible price!
Grant: Riffing on the Orpheus myth is right out of Greg Rucka's excellent run on Wonder Woman, but then again, it's not like Rucka invented riffing on the Orpheus myth, so make of that what you will. For my part, as long as Wonder Woman continues to be as good as it has been, I don't mind too much if it's retreading familiar territory. Considering how great this series has been, I don't imagine it will be a big problem. Also, Cliff Chiang is back! That's pretty much the best news ever!
Wednesday is the best day of the week, and amazing hauls like this one prove why it's so darn great! I'll definitely have lots of phenomenal books to leaf through after I visit my comic book shop tomorrow - will you?
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6 comments:
They actually used the words 'One More Day' in an ASM solicit? I really don't know why you think it's going to give the book a shot in the arm. ASM has had a 'big event' every few months now for the past year or more and - minor spikes at the beginning of each aside - sales have continued their slow decline. I'd be surprised to see sales of #682 go much above 57k, and that only because it has a variant cover.
shot in the arm story-wise or sales-wise? as kelp mentioned sales have been dropping ~5% year over year for the most part.
picking up: Ragemoor, Batman, Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Jedi, Wolverine, Kick-Ass and Infinite Vacations. Checking out Rebel Blood and Dark Horse Presents as well. Good week.
Batman, Infinite Vacation and T-Bolts. are my load for the wk. I love the quality and not the quantity this wk. Looks like I save money this wk.
@Klep and brandon - I'm not terribly concerned about ASM sales - I don't think Marvel will be cancelling the series anytime soon - but I would like the actual content of the book to pick up, and if Spider-Man versus Doc Ock and the Sinister Six does that, I'll be pleased. If it doesn't, I'll have one less title in my pull list and the ability to try out something new.
The Darkness has a great jumping on point this week! David Hine's debut as regular writer. David Hine's always pretty solid and he did a great job with the recent Darkness miniseries. So this should be good!
@Grant - I'm certainly not expecting them to ever cancel ASM, but last time sales were getting in this range in the 90s they ditched the creative team. Basically I don't see any reason for this new "big event" to be anything but more of the same we've been getting from the title for several years now. I'd like to think that they'll make major changes to the book like last time, but I'm pretty sure editorial is far too committed to the current direction to admit they were wrong.
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