It’s time to dig through Previews and see what goodies February will bring us.
Dark Horse
I couldn’t find a single new book to talk about in Dark Horse’s solicitations for this month. I’m buying twelve titles, but they are all continuing from months before. The break-down is kind of odd – I’m picking up three Star Wars books (Brian Wood and John Ostrander only), four Mignola-verse titles, three Brian Wood books, and the rest are DHP-related titles (except for Mind MGMT, which is awesome and in a category all its own).
DC
I guess DC is really doing everything they can to stretch out their Before Watchmen line. This month we see a book spotlighting Dollar Bill. I’ve read Watchmen a couple of times, and have seen the movie, and I swear I don’t remember this character. Let it go DC, let it go. It’s been months since I’ve heard or seen any discussion of BW; is this thing a flop?
You have to give DC some props for the way they keep trying to make certain titles work, no matter how clear it is that there is little interest in them. Jeff Lemire, one of the New 52’s ‘golden boys’ is taking over Green Arrow. I tried the book when Ann Nocenti got it, but wasn’t impressed. Lemire has a pretty good track record, what with his brilliant indie books and Sweet Tooth, his very good Animal Man, and his decent-to-middling Justice League Dark, but I don’t know if he can make me care about Ollie Queen. I’m going to wait until I see this on the stands before I decide to buy it or not.
I might have been interested in Justice League of America, the new Justice League spin-off, especially with a line-up that includes Martian Manhunter, Katana, Vibe, Street Green Lantern and Stargirl, but not with Geoff Johns and David Finch on the book. It’s going to be too tied in with the parent book, which I’ve had no interest in, and have yet to hear good things about. I guess DC’s pretty confident that this book will be popular, because they’re giving spin-off series to Katana and Vibe. Because those are characters the public has been clamoring for…
I think it’s time to put Justice League Dark on notice, like I have some of the other DC books that I like, but not enough to pre-order any more (Demon Knights, I, Vampire, and Talon are the others in that category). I want to reserve the right to drop them at a moment’s notice, and not be obligated to my favourite store. These books are all pretty inconsistent…
I’m pretty intrigued by the idea of Keith Giffen coming on to Legion of Super-Heroes, but it looks like he’s just drawing. I have not liked Paul Levitz’s return to these characters; were the book to be given to Giffen exclusively, or with a new co-writer, I’d be on it like you wouldn’t believe. As it stands, I’ll check it out when it ships.
Like many, I’m sad to see that Hellblazer is ending, but also like many, I’d given up on the book ages ago. I have enjoyed Peter Milligan’s run, but I stopped reading it shortly after John and Epiphany got married, and I haven’t found myself missing it. I don’t like what this says about the prospects for Vertigo’s continued existence (seeing as I’m only buying two comics from the line this month; the smallest number ever since the imprint began).
I think it’s crazy that I’m pre-ordering twelve Dark Horse books for February, and only thirteen DC books. Granted, there are a few more DC titles I may decide to buy at the store, but this is a historic low for me (two years prior, I was buying ten more titles than this).
IDW
I see that Kill Shakespeare is returning with a new mini-series, The Tide of Blood. The first series was really very good, but I didn’t feel like there was much more to be said about these characters or that world; I think I’ll trade-wait this, if the reviews are positive. I usually like to support local creators, but I can’t find myself getting too excited about this, even if it’s about the threat of Prospero.
Image
I loved Andy Diggle and Jock’s The Losers, so I’m going to definitely be getting Snapshot, their new four-part series at Image. I don’t even care to read the solicitation, that’s how sure I am of this team.
I’m a pretty big fan of Jim Zubkavich and Edwin Huang’s very funny Skullkickers series, so I’m going to forgive them the shameless cash grab or relaunching the book under the name The Uncanny Skullkickers, complete with X-Men homage cover. This book is great, and I’m always happy to see it return from hiatus.
Marvel
I was a huge fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy under Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, but have no interest in reading about them with Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven running the show – at least not at $4 (for a 0.1 issue – Marvel is breaking its own rules!). Pass.
Kieron Gillen is an amazing writer. His Phonogram is one of the best creator-owned comics of the 21st century. He has proven his ability to take crummy editorially-mandated cross-overs and turn them into gold (Schism led to his great Uncanny X-Men; Fear Itself led to his phenomenal Journey Into Mystery). He’s so good, that I’ve been able to look past how awful some of his X-Men artists have been (Greg Land!) and still enjoy the story. But, with his Iron Man, where he’s teamed with the aforementioned hack Land, I just can’t see it lasting. Maybe if the book wasn’t $4 and coming out every two weeks, I’d stick around with the hopes that it would improve, but I’m jumping off here, at least in terms of pre-orders. Here’s hoping that Gillen turns it around quickly, because I want to like this title…
Nova, on the other hand, falls foul of my stringent No Jeph Loeb policy, so I won’t even be flipping through it at the store.
Marvel really is more miss than hit this month. I’d love to read Uncanny X-Men, a series about Cyclops, Magneto, Emma Frost, and Magik being renegades in the wake of AvsX, which is going to be drawn (for what, 4 issues?) by Chris Bachalo. If it was written by Kieron Gillen. Instead, it’s being written by Brian Michael Bendis, whose team books exhaust me now. Pass again.
Now, The Fearless Defenders, I will give a chance to. I love Cullen Bunn’s The Sixth Gun, but have found most of his Marvel work to be sub-par. Artist Will Sliney is not a favourite really – his faces on Farscape got on my nerves, but this series stars Misty Knight and Valkyrie, so it deserves a chance, especially since Marvel are pricing it properly.
I feel like the new Secret Avengers book could be excellent, or it could be terrible. Nick Spencer’s concept – that the heroes involved have their memories wiped after each mission – is a sound one, but the book stars he stupid new Nick Fury, which I hate the very concept of. Also, artist Luke Ross has been brilliant in the past, but his recent work on Ultimates has been pretty awful. I’ll give it a couple of issues…
I’m not happy that Ed Brubaker is leaving Winter Soldier, but I’m interested in giving new creative team Jason Latour and Nic Klein a try. Both of these guys have some serious indie cred, and this character has a lot of potential.
Hey look – Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming are resoliciting Powers: Bureau again (or is that Powers: The Bureau, seeing as the solicitations for issues one and two have different titles). I used to love Powers, but the constant delays have really made me lose all interest in it. Maybe it’s time to tradewait this puppy (that way I don’t have to read the pages of Bendis congratulating himself on his good fortune in the text section).
Boom
I’m happy to see that Darryl Gregory is returning to the characters he introduced in his run on Planet of the Apes with a 32-page special (which is way over-priced at $5). His run was fantastic, but ended too abruptly for my liking.
Oni Press
The Sixth Gun, Oni’s excellent mystical Western is getting a spin-off series (mini-series? I wish Diamond would tell us things like that) co-written by the series’s regular writer and artist, and drawn by Brian Churilla, who is coming off his excellent Secret History of DB Cooper title. This series follows up on some of General Hume’s horsemen after the events of the first arc. It should be good.
Valiant
Hey Valiant, one of the reasons why I like you so much is because you aren’t falling for all the gimmicks that make me dislike the Big Two. So, having a zero issue of Harbinger in the same month that a regularly numbered issue comes out makes me unhappy. If I wanted people to rush out their books each month, I’d only buy from Marvel.
So, what would you buy Were Money No Object?
