Leave Your spandex @t the Door 04.12.2004

Welcome to the 42nd installment of Leave Your Spandex @t the Door!

It’s the first week December, which means it’s time to look through the thick volume of solicited goodness that is the Diamond PREVIEWS catalog and give you the product highlights that you sould be on the lookout for, in our monthly edition of PREVIEWSCOPE. The focus will be less on the big publishers and more on the independent and creator-owned comics, since that section of the catalog is the bulkiest and the most difficult to wade through. Every month I’m joined by a different Nexus crew member who will give a separate viewpoint on the upcoming books and recommendations on the mainstream companies.

Joining me for Previewscope February is Ben Nagy!! Much like his name, right now, everything Ben says in the column will be in bold, while all my comments will be in the regular boring font. You can check out a list of Ben’s recent reviews right here!

Yeah, it’s a short month but that just means more comics to buy in less time, right? Start saving now kiddies.

Dark Horse is becoming the House that Busiek re-built. Long known for its craptacular and groundbreaking 1990s Alien-related series, including Aliens vs. Pig, Aliens vs. Dan Quayle and, of course, Aliens vs. A Cheese Sandwich With Mayo Bisected in a Triangular Manner, Dark Horse picked up the rights to Conan and let a guy (Busiek) who probably has the complete Roy Thomas-scribed series in his collection at home take charge. Hell, I’m willing to wager that Busiek had some LETTERS published in that old series. The Barbarian’s in good hands. If you have some spare cheddar, sell it and spend the money you get on Conan (I never said I had street cred).

Dark Horse hasn’t been doing bad at all the last few years, it’s not just Conan. FREAKS OF THE HEARTLAND and THE MILKMAN MURDERS were both amongst the best mini-series of 2004, and they’re still publishing must-reads like GOON and B.P.R.D. How’s that for compressed hyping!

DAMN NATION

Looks neat. The start of a three-issue mini-series that feels like a combo of the movies “Escape From New York” and “the Omega Man” with vampires attacking a U.S. closed off from the rest of the world. I’m a sucker for alpacas (and Apocalypses), so I’ll probably give this a whirl.

Actually, the plot isn’t about vampires attacking the U.S., it’s about the American president launching an attack from England on the vampires who have taken over America! The vampire featured on the cover has a very striking appearance. If it’s any indication of the mood inside the book, I’m intrigued enough to pick this up.

THE NAIL TPB

Another book I’m getting in toe-first. Get a TPB and see if I like.

If anyone got me this trade for Christmas, I’d promptly hit them on the head with it! The only thing I despise more than Michael Turner’s art style is the annoying Superman – Batman yip yap cross-narration in this book. Plus, call me a PAD fanboy all you like, but there’s only one Supergirl in the DCU that I care to read about, and she’s been long cancelled…

FALLEN ANGEL #19

I’m not a huge DC guy, but Marvel lately has been doing its best to turn me over to the distinguished side. Couple that with the fact that I picked up the first issue of this series out of the dollar bin, was intrigued by it and then ordered the first TPB, well, that’s the first step on the road to addiction (Peter David’s writing helps, too). David himself said that issues 19 and 20 are “make or break” for the series. Issue 19 comes out in March.

Now you’re talking, Ben! Fallen Angel is PAD at the top of his game, writing the most interesting and original female character to come out of the proper DC universe, ever. I’m picking up two copies of the next issues, along with the trade for Christmas present for friends. I can’t bear to see this title go too.

BATMAN: THE MAN WHO LAUGHS

The Joker is certainly DC’s darling villain, and especially the past yearshad seen an overabundance of joker appearances, culminating in the forgettable Joker’s Last Laugh crossover. Similarly to Wolverine over at Marvel, though, few writers really “get” the Joker. Grant Morrison was one, with ARKHAM ASYLUM, and Alan Moore also, with THE KILLING JOKE. The only other instance that comes to mind was the recent GOTHAM CENTRAL storyline, where the Joker had taken on the role of mad snipe and raised mayhem in Gotham. Ed Brubaker was the co-writer of that story, and now he is joined with artist Doug Mahnke to tell the story of Batman’s first meeting with his arch-foe. I know Mahnke can draw a very sinister looking Batman, and the cover image of the Joker is very eerily creepy.

BIRDS OF PREY #79

No, no, don’t get misdirected by the cover, this is NOT a Top Cow book, it’s actually the book with the best-written action heroines in comics. Ed Benes just often gets carried away with the gratuitous cheesecake shots on the covers! This issue, the Birds meet with the recently revamped (also under Gail Simone’s pen) vigilante, Rose/Thorn. With Simone writing both titles, this crossover makes perfect sense, and I’m expecting sparks to fly when these volatile personalities mix!

JLA: CLASSIFIED #4

The aborted “I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Justice League” miniseries by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire, the sequel to last year’s best limited series “FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE”, finally makes it to print, as part of the rotating team JLA book. This is the last hurrah to the brightest and most enjoyable JLA era, as the writers have announced they’re not returning to the Super-Buddies after this mini, but are instead starting their own creator-owned property: HERO SQUARED, due to be released this month.

The Super-Buddies are the washout superheroes that comprised the “Giffen Justice League”, back when it was a solid humour book. They’re now reuinited as a super-team for hire, complete with TV ads and theme songs, and their own next door super-villain. As the events of the mini predate Identity Crisis, it means we’re also getting to see Sue Dibny one last time!

SEVEN SOLDIERS #0

How epic is epic? Is Homer epic (we’re talking blind Greek poets here, not Simpsons)? Do you want it all but you can’t have it epic (4,000 trivia points for all you all who recognize that reference)? Seven Soldiers 0 is the first part of a 30-part series (a prologue and epilogue and seven series of four issues a piece). Unfortunately, I’m a patient guy (I’m waiting until I have every issue of Identity Crisis before I read it), so I might not want to put myself through the wringer of having to get all 30 individual books and read it issue-by-issue. Still, the sheer scope of this is absolutely astounding and it has one of the longest preview solicitations I’ve ever seen. We’ll see what the finished project looks like, but wow.

Whoa there, let’s back down a bit! You’re buying IDENTITY CRISIS but not reading it till you have them all? Half the fun in this title is the gnawing pain of anticipation between issues as you’re trying to piece together the murderer’s identity and the insane theories that fans come up with on message boards.

Back to SEVEN SOLDIERS: This is as big a vanity project as Grant Morrison is ever going to attempt, I think. The puzzle plan looks ludicrously pompous and ambitious, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Morrison. The only other example of this kind in recent memory is Marvel’s last great crossover: the Age of Apocalypse. The difference here is that the AOA was co-plotted and written by a set of different writers, under the head-plotting of Scott Lobdell, and featured tight inter-title continuity. With SEVEN SOLDIERS, Grant writes everything, and promises that not only each of the seven series, but also each of the 4 issues of every series will be self-contained, but will fit in the ma
ster-puzzle when read together. I’m waiting with baited breath for it.

SOLO #3

In every issue of SOLO, one creator is spotlighted where he writes and draws any story he likes, set in the DC universe or not. PAUL POPE is the next creator to take up the reins of the title, with stories featuring ancient Greek myth (yay!), OMAC’s origin, Robin versus Joker and more…

TOE TAGS #5

Anyone read Romero’s script for Land of the Dead yet? Looks good. Toe Tags promises zombie attacks. I can’t resist zombie attacks. Watch yer necks!

THE INTIMATES #4

The Intimates face their first big school dance!

THE TWILIGHT EXPERIMENT #1

Eight years ago the heroes sacrificed themselves to protect the earth from a future threat, and failed. The superheroine Twilight lost her life then, but left her son hidden in a space shuttle orbiting Earth. Now the future threat is about to become present and her son returns to Earth. The series is written by Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, with art by Juan Santacruz.

PROMETHEA #32 and VARIANT EDITION

Alan Moore and J.H. Williams III conclude their epic series with this issue. I became “disenchanted” with Promethea around the end of the first year, as it moved from being a fantasy/magic title to being Alan Moore’s guide to magic, for the already initiated. This final issue comes in two formats. The Variant Edition is the first comic in double-sided poster form. All the pages of the regular comic unite to form two giant posters, and they reveal two secret images, not normally visible in the book. It’s innovative, but also absurdly expensive, costing $50, including a 48-page poster-book, and signatures from the creators. I would have preferred the option of buying just the variant poster edition at a reduced price than having to pay so much for the package.

VIMANARAMA #1

What is it with Grant Morrison solicits this month? They each have more words than the average Warren Ellis comic! Vimanarama’s plot boils down to Ali, a Brit-asian son of grocer, accidentally unleashing a demon army on the world and an ancient Indian super-man arriving on the scene to save the day, and fall in love with Ali’s intended wife! The art is by Philip Bond, whose work I had last seen in the X-STATIX Edie tribute issue and in last year’s VERTIGO POP: LONDON. This comic seems to combine action with Bollywood romance trappings, and Bond is one of the few artist who I could think are capable of pulling it off with style to spare!

Y THE LAST MAN #31

Seems like this is the issue where we finally learn, once and for all, the truth behind Yorrick’s survival after all the men on Earth perished. This has been the greatest mystery in the series, with a lot of red herrings tossed to the readers during the last 3 years.

–bites fingernails in anticipation-

IMAGE COMICS

Looks interesting enough that Marvel’s, um, modifying this concept for its new New Warriors series.

WILDGUARD features the first ever superhero reality show, in the vein of American Idol and Last Comic Standing! Hundreds of super-powered hopefuls apply for the contest that will select five of them to become the world’s hottest new super-team sensation. The series featured the added innovation: the fifth member of the team was selected by the fans, through an online poll that ran for many month’s on Todd Nauck’s website.

MARVEL COMICS

These two books look intriguing. Runaways does because it’s one of those critical-darling books that everyone likes because it’s smartly written and of good quality. However, not a lot of people buy it (hence the whole “Season 2” thing). I’ve made a vow to support quality books from now on (heroic music begins playing in the background). Books where the writers exercise our minds with unique concepts and aren’t afraid to try new things. Books where the creators create and are concerned about entertaining their audience and do not substitute shock for story. These two may be such books.

I agree with you on RUNAWAYS, it’s all you described and more. But YOUNG AVENGERS just doesn’t seem so innovative to me. Granted, we don’t know much about it, but isn’t that largely Marvel’s PR’s fault? The book is slated to star the teenage version of the Avengers. Right now, it looks like Marvel’s take on the TEEN TITANS. It features the talents of long-time Marvel artist Jim Cheung (recently retconned into a “Young Gun”) and TV writer Alan Heinberg.

Marvel Heroes

The end of She Hulk’s first “season,” whatever that means.

Hopefully, it will spell much-need extra spotlight on this underappreciated title, and a nice boost in sales that will help it survive all the way to Season 3 and so on… For more on the Season discussion, feel free to check out today’s Roundtable installment.

CABLE/DEADPOOL #12

The best X-book you’re not reading. Humor, action, angst. It’s all there. Get on board.

I’d rather drown, really! I prefer to keep my hands clean of all things Liefield/X-Force related these days. Keeps me sane.

Oh, but wait! Is that Agent-X on the cover? I hope Fabe does his justice, or I’m letting keychain-Rhino loose on his ass!

ALPHA FLIGHT #12

The twelfth book of any Alpha Flight series always has a momentous moment. In Vol. 1, Guardian died. In Vol. 2, Sasquatch died. So is it going to be an X-Statix slaughterfest or a memorable coda to one of the Flighters’ lives? Pick it up and see, ’cause this is the last in the series.

Talk about stopping a title on its prime. I talked about ALPHA FLIGHT’s cancellation in last week’s column too, and how you can help the title by signing up the online petition.

And my choice for best friggin’ cover of the month:

For moderny stuff, I’ll be getting the X-MEN: THE END VOL.1 and the WHAT IF? TPBs. Why? Because $14.99 is cheaper than $18 and because $19.99 is cheaper than $21.

Taking 3 dollars off the price tag doesn’t make X-MEN: THE END any less a waste of money in my mind. Go buy two copies of the MARVEL AGE RUNAWAYS VOL. 3: THE GOOD DIE YOUNG DIGEST instead, with the same money! Much better value for your bucks, and you may actually enjoy your read. ;)

Boo-hoo

The solicits make it sound like a cross between the Micronauts and SHIELD. Remember kids, nanotechnology is our friend.

The Adam Warren cover and designs are exquisite, and he’s shown he can write riveting teen hero books with his run on GEN 13. The downside of this title for me is the inside art, by Rick Mays. His linework has no cohesiveness, and I just find it to be sketchy and sloppy, especially in the figures and faces. I think I’ll pass this one by.

Ultimate stuff

I don’t read any Ultimate titles. Call me Captain Curmudgeon if ya want. However, if I did, I’d be complaining about it this month because the solicit states that the Ultimate Hobgoblin arc is starting and that Harry Osborn is involved. And if Harry is going to be the Hobgoblin, then Roderick Kingsley isn’t going to be too pleased about this in the 616. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, the Ultimate Universe needs more demented fashion designers descending into a life of crime to interest me. Man, weren’t the 1980s cool?

You mean to say that Gypsy Moth and the Needle weren’t the only supervillainous fashion designers during the 80s? I concur, those WERE cool times! As for Ultimate Hobgoblin, if he’s anything like the rest of the Ultimate Spidey villains, I’ll just pass, thankyouverymuch… It’s incredible how Bendis can take any interesting villain concept from Spidey’s rich history and just suck all the fun out of them!

Other heroes

Another reboot. The first six issues is a re-telling of T’challa’s origin. If I get onboard at all, it would be on issue 7, when some newer ground is covered.

I don’t think anyone will ever be able to write a better Black Panther than Christopher Priest, he left his undeniable mark on that character. JRJR seems like a perfect fit for artist here, though, I wish they had brought him on board in the previous run.

SHANNA #1

What coulda been an eye-poppingly impressive, um, display of Shanna’s jungular, um, scenery (yeah…scenery…that’s the word) that woulda gotten some fanboy blood pumping was delayed (and sanitized) by Marvel brass just like Essential Tomb of Dracula Vol. 3 because the highly sought-after young readers Marvel is targeting are interested in 1970s vampire comics and modern-day jungle stories.

I think Shanna would have been more popular with the early teen demographic I they had kept the nipplage intact. Like I had said in an earlier Roundtable, they could have just polybagged the title and marked it “mature readers”. This is another one for the Marvel Censorship file, to keep Diana company.

THE INDIES

PROJECT SUPERIOR (Adhouse Books, pg. 200)

This project reminds me of the time when Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas first took the reins of Marvel comics and invited their indy and alternative comics creator friends to take over the superhero titles. Back then we got Mike Allred, Brian Bendis, Mark Millar, Jim Mahfood and Judd Winick who breathed new life into the superhero concept. Now Chris Pitzer invites another group of indy superstars to create stories in the superhero (=”superior”) genre. The names that drew my attention were Jeffrey Brown, Dean Haspiel, Scott Morse, Brian Wood and James Jean. Jean in particular, as I’ve been an avid fan of his coverwork, but never seen him work interiors before.

MURDER FAMILY T-SHIRT (SLG publishing, pg. 216)

These DORK t-shirts that SLG keeps soliciting are always too hard to resist! No need for words, just admire:

TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD \13 (Crib’s Boy Comics, pg. 240)

TTSTG (hell of an acronym!) is Tom Beland’s autobiographical romance comic about how he met and fell in love with his wife. In this issue Tom has already made the move to Puerto Rico to be close to the woman he loves, and is now desperately trying to find work as a cartoonist.

ARMY OF DARKNESS: SHOP ‘TIL YOU DROP (DEAD) #3 (DEVIL’S DUE)

In this new limited series, our hero Ash faces unemployment. Sounds good as long as the writer does something more than the first issue of the first AoD series, which basically repackaged all of the Bruce Campbell quotes from the movie script and called it a “story.”

BONE VOL.1 TPB: OUT OF BONEVILLE – COLOR EDITION- (Graphix, pg. 287)

The classic can’t-miss indy comics BONE, which wrapped up its long run a few months ago, is finally going to be released in colour, in tpb form! Although the one-volume phonebook collection is very attractive, owning the series in full colour is also a great temptation. The first colour trade is released simultaneously in hardcover and softcover format.

STAN LEE’S ALEXA (Ibooks, pg. 290)

Stan Lee makes another attempt at a comeback, this time through an indy publisher, but still joined by big name artists like Dave Gibbons and Dan Jurgens. The new character is a superheroic female comics artist, a much more interesting concept than Stan’s other recent output, like the “DC imagine…” line and Striperella. The concept recap from the solicits reads:

Alexa Moran is the popular artist of The Ex-Wives, the hit comic book title published by The Fantasy Factory. When New York City is visited by a pair of twenty-foot-tall giants, only one person knows how they got here: Alexa.

LITTLE STAR #1 (ONIPRESS, pg. 305)

Andi Watson returns to Oni after the entertaining and critically acclaimed LOVE FIGHTS maxi-series, with a new bi-monthly limited series focusing on parenthood, and specifically the relationship between a father nad his baby child.

You can read OniPress’ solicits for new product in last week’s LYS@D column.

TAROT CAFE VOL.1 (Tokyo Pop, pg. 321)

TAROT CAFE is a new manga series of self-contained stories set around Pamela, a tarot card reader who helps out supernatural beings which live in the human world. The art and the concept/format of the book brought to mind my current favourite manga series, PETSHOP OF HORRORS, also available from TokyoPop.

The first volume features four stories, with Pamela helping a love-strick
en cat, a vampire who runs away from his love, an unpretty waitress looking for mr. Right and a magician who conjures a humanoid doll aide for his lover.

BIGHEAD (Top Shelf, pg. 340)

Jeffrey Brown’s original and hilarious superhero parody, Bighead is still available for reorder. You can check out preview pages from the book in an older LYS@D column.

So that’s what we’re looking at for February!

Of course, there’s that whole Valentine’s Day thing we all have to work around. Be flexible, folks, and above all, enjoy.

Coming up in the next weeks: A special interview with Joe Casey about everything and a fond farewell to X-STATIX… As always, I’m waiting for your comments through email or in the new official LYS@D discussion thread.

Manolis Vamvounis a.k.a. Doc Dooplove