Shipping This Week! - 04.10.13

I got My Faith in Frankie at GenCon a couple weeks ago, and I'm not sure if I recommend the trade or not; it's good, it's fun, but it's a very small story compared to Carey's Lucifer -- not just small in overall scope, but issue by issue, too. "Slight" might be a better word, but it sounds dismissive.

I'm not saying it's bad, mind you. There's just not much there there. (Oh, but it's only $6.95? See, that's worth it -- that's barely over the price of a squarebound one-shot these days.)

Man, I can't believe True Brit is a hardcover! Good Lord.

Up for me this week -- Fables, Powers, Secret War, Ultimate Nightmare, GI Joe vs Transformers 2. Huh, that's a bulkier week than I was thinking at first. I may repeat last week's sneaky trick of "go on a Friday before they open, and there's parking cause nothing's opened for beer, get some biscuits and gravy, then get comics."

Actually, in all fairness, the new Action Comics is a Silver Banshee story w/ some snazzy art from the artist of the upcoming Vigilante mini-series, Carlos D'Anda. Don't expect much of anything in these preview pages in terms of, like, meaty plot stuff, though.

For G00glers: arthur adams silver banshee boobies

That's a great cover on Born. Is it new?

Cheap MFIF: Yay! I'm missing issue 4, but I can stop looking now, I hope (cut to Andrew finding out that the trade sells for €20 in Ireland).

Expensive True Brit: That would be due to comics reimagineering it's relationship with casual readers to that of a pickpocket.

The Born TPB cover? I don't think so - looks like the cover to #1 of the mini-series to me. The covers to Born were great, BTW (I'm assuming they were included in the TPB), slowly revealing that skull over the course of the 4 issues (IIRC).

I really, really liked My Faith in Frankie. I'm glad I read the full-size color issues as opposed to the B&W digest that's coming out, though.

I'm getting Ex Machina, Fables, Hard Time (think I missed the last few issues though), Bullseye, District X, Powers, and, um, the last two weeks of comics.

Okay, I went out for lunch across the street from the comic book shop today and stopped over to get the last few weeks of comics. Notably:

--I skipped Monolith and Swamp Thing (the former because it's just not that fun and the latter because I'm not into this fill-in)

--I had 'The Beast' French-translation dingus in my stack, but realized I still hadn't gotten the latest Queen & Country trade and instead made that my trade-of-the-week

--I ordered Uzumaki, the first volume of which is apparently "between printings", but my comics guy found a copy nonetheless.

I'm thinking tonight will be devoted to reading what I bought and bagging the giant stack of comics that has grown in my closet.

Hush Vol. 2 comes out this week. I got Vol. 1, and wasn't too impressed. I mean, the art was cool, but, um, it didn't feel like a big cliffhanger or anything.
Should I get Vol. 2 just to be a completist moron?

You should flip through it before you do, or just read it at a bookstore. FWIW, I enjoyed it for the big dopey extra-special-guest-star extravaganza it was.

Hottness!

I've been buying books (REAL books) recently, but have yet to dive in; perhaps I need this Q&C novel to bridge the gap.

Yeah, the guest-star power was what I was looking forward to. I guess it seemed like all the stuff I'd heard about the Hush story probably happens in Vol. 2. So of course I'm gonna buy it, I just wish it had been ONE trade. That's all.
My two G books come out this week, Gotham Central and Green Arrow.

From the helping friendly updated shipping list (assuming I have a blank check & a fully stocked store available), I will have:

AUG040448 100 BULLETS #54 (MR) $2.50
AUG040440 ASTRO CITY A VISITORS GUIDE $5.95
AUG040437 EX MACHINA #5 (MR) $2.95
AUG040452 FABLES #30 (MR) $2.50
AUG040361 GOTHAM CENTRAL #24 $2.50
AUG040458 MY FAITH IN FRANKIE TP (MR) $6.95
AUG040446 TOM STRONG #29 $2.95
AUG041833 CAPTAIN AMERICA #32 $2.99
AUG041808 DISTRICT X #6 $2.99
AUG041835 IRON MAN #89 $2.99
AUG041806 MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #7 $2.99
AUG041850 POWERS #5 (MR) $2.95
JUN041582 SECRET WAR BOOK THREE (OF FIVE) $3.99
AUG041843 SHE HULK #8 $2.99
AUG041800 ULTIMATE NIGHTMARE #3 (Of 5) $2.25
AUG041803 ULTIMATE X-MEN #52 $2.25
AUG041842 WARLOCK #2 $2.99

Has anyone out there with any interest in FUNNY books (and either a fair amount of Marvel Universe knowledge OR a willingness to go w/ the flow) given She-Hulk a chance? For the luvva god, she's temporarily adjudicating for THE LIVING TRIBUNAL! And the Mad Thinker's android is a gopher in Shulkie's law firm! He's called Awesome Andy! And they use a shape shifter as a Process Server! Show some love, geekatrons!

FYI - Previews Review, after months of inactivity, is back on the ball w/ a run down of their (small-press-&-manga-centric) picks for the upcoming week right over here.

The She Hulk book is really, really good. I just put it on my pull list, because I'm the only one at my comic shop that gets it.

Was #4 the final Mary Jane? I can't remember which one it got cancelled at.

Who's writing She-Hulk? Humor is so incredibly hard to get right that I don't really give anyone the benefit of the doubt anymore unless someone recommends it (like Plastic Man, which it turns out I do like, and crap, I forgot to put that on the pull list).

A Visitor's Guide to Astro City? Has a new issue of AC even come out in the last year?

..yes? Maybe. Was the second half of the the Ghost Cop the last of Local Heroes, or was the "city girl goes to the country" one the last?

Re: Astro City - there was that Busiek one-shot (a crossover between the Astro City world & the Arrowsmith world) from a while back; it might've been six months, I dunno. I think this one-shot (purely a sucker bet for anyone looking for an actual STORY, I imagine) is a precursor to more Astro City shenanigans.

Re: She-Hulk - Dan Slott is the writer. The only thing I know him from is a 6-issue Batman mini (Arkham Asylum) that I avoided on the grounds that most Batstuff is tedious butass. According to this interview, he's also done work on the DC comix based on the animated shows.

I think I've posted this before, but here, for your reading pleather, is a "preview" of She-Hulk #5, courtesy of MILE! HIGH! COMICS!

I missed the one-shot, I guess, but if both these things are whetting the palate for more AC, I'm totally okay with that. I've still got to pick up the Tarnished Angel tpb.

Reading the Shulkster now.

That's really good!

AND! The artist there in #5 working the Byrne / Keown angle (Paul Pelletier) is the new permanent artist; the guy he's replacing (Juan Bobillo) did a great job, though, which is (of course) why he's getting taken off the title - check out these preview pages for #8. And lord how I love that cover.

It's interesting, I was expecting She-Hulk to be goofier, closer to the Byrne run (which was pretty successful as Marvel humor books go, wasn't it? It went for a fairly long time, anyway, fwir) -- but this is a much more natural kind of humor. I dig that. And the "consequences of the Marvel U being what it is" angle (Pym particles to shrink inmates, etc) reminds me of Damage Control (which was a goofy book itself, granted).

I think Byrne did two tours of duty w/ Shulkie - the first 8 issues of the title, and then a return trip circa #50. I don't know if it was that successful, though - the title did exist @ a time when The New Adventures of H.E.R.B.I.E. would've sold half a mil, and the one post-Byrne-MkI issue I bought was DIRE. Not that Byrne's 4th-wall wink-wink "look these villains are LAME" approach was all that great either.

Yeah, success is all relative especially when you're talking about that period, I guess -- that's something that struck me about Fortress of Solitude, he talks about rushing to buy and bag issue #1 of anything, even if turns out to be lame, and that was in the early 70s.

Just out of curiosity ...

This is, to the best of my ability to recollect, my pull list (including stuff I'm adding next time I go, and stuff I actually subscribe to by mail):

Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultimate Fantastic Four
Ultimate Nightmare
Powers
Fables
Y
Lucifer
Secret War
Plastic Man
She-Hulk
Outsiders
Supreme Power
Dr Spectrum (I'm taking this off if #3 doesn't knock my socks off)
Strange
ElfQuest
We3

Stuff that'll need to prove itself: Black Widow, Tomb of Dracula, and that Young Avengers thing when it starts up, I'm kind of curious about that.

Does anyone want to recommend me anything? I'm not specifically aching for more comics to read, as such, but hey.

Clearly you're just forgetting Astonishing X-Men.

I don't know, I love Daredevil and Human Target, and the first issue of that new Bullseye series w/Steve Dillon art is good.

Recapitude (in order of which they R reading):

*FEAR THE INTERMITTANT SPOILERS*

MK SPIDER-MAN #7: Mark Millar PLEASE get out of your own damn way! He's so set on painting PP as this grown-up uber-nerd outcast that he's seemingly throwing ANY previous ties PP had to supporting characters to the wind, so it's just the wallflower & his hot wife standing strong against a bunch of bastard villains. Also, his thought-captions for Spidey (and the dialogue!) are smelling like they came from the Claremont Repeat-a-Tron 9000. "Here is a balloon so Liz Allen can explain how messed up her character's history is." "Here is a caption box where Spidey can explain what happened last issue." "Here's where I prove uncontrovertably that I'm getting paid on a per-word basis." The fact that there's a somewhat interesting barn-burner happening under all this crap is steadily becoming obscured by the seeming need to give people something to READ. Also, the Dodson Boobage was overwhelming. Dare I say I'm looking forward to Frank Cho's relative restraint next issue? Oh, yeah - there's a new Venom. He's a chatty Mafia kid. Zzzzzzzonk.

FABLES #30: Love love love love love. Floating babies = love. "I'm having a LITTER?" = love. Parallels between King Cole & Taylor from this week's Gilmore Girls = purely coincidental, but LOVE. Mark Buckingham needs to get chained to his desk, Marvel Bullpen style, and kept adrawrin' on this book.

DISTRICT #6: A bit of a disappointment, mostly due to the art (3 artists on one arc? the fug?) by Jackson Guice understudy Mike Perkins. There is a bit of synergistic come-around at the end, though, which is a bit heavy handed, but ehh. Also, compared to previous issues (chock full of plot and verbiage), this one read like a shopping list.

100 BULLETS #54: I need to retrench & read this entire arc as a whole. Ed Risso's art, though, regardless of my addled brain = love.

TOM STRONG #29: Duncan Fregredo manages a fine Chris Sprouse impersonation in the first half of the story (the 1st helping of an Ed Brubaker-written two-parter), one of those "I dreamt I was a super-hero" mind-game stories. Very nice - the recent run of guest folk on Tom Strong has been quite kind to this book.

ULTIMATE X-MEN #52: Fenris shenanigans. Gambit shenanigans. Rogue shenanigans. Logan as badass shenanigans. Solid. I blame BKV, though, for not hitting me with more golden moments such as the one where the Ultimate Mr. Sinister introduced the Professor to his mortal enemy - STAIRS. (Nice winky wink moment - referring to the green / yellow mini-skirt Marvel Girl ensemble as something Jean Grey wore in 3rd grade during Halloween.)

GOTHAM CENTRAL #24: It says something about me that I can go on & on about a book's shortcomings, yet find myself tongue-tied when trying to write a mini-blurb of a book I unabashedly adore. OK, here's a complaint - Montoya didn't kick enough ass. Yeah, that works.

POWERS #5: Perhaps another !!!!!!!!!!!!!! moment waiting for y'all at the end of this. The book is the best it's been since I don't know.

SECRET WAR #3: OK. Nice painting. But, um, am I actually going to find myself on the side of the fence bitching about decompressed story-telling? I certainly don't mind all the character development, but the "what WAS the Secret War?" question lingers over this issue like a pervy old guy outside of the local girl's school, and it would've been nice to at least make an attempt to push him towards the general direction of the egress.

SHE-HULK #8: Perhaps the best use of Jim Starlin's Warlock ensemble since last century. (I think they got rid of Pip's cigar - BOOOOO!) Best panel - the top-hat alien getting bopped on the head. Wait for it.

FABLES #30: I 2nd the love. I totally called Snow having a litter. The floating was a surprise, though. Who thinks the cutest is the fat, grey, furry one? So cute! And nice to be reminded about the prisoner chained in the basement, I totally kind-of forgot about her. My guess is Charming will be out of office fairly soon (can't keep his big promise), Snow will move up to the Farm, Red will come back down to the city and... Bigby will get Red pregnant (more babies!). Maybe not; he's too smitten with the cubs and Snow.

Fables was great -- there are so many things that work about this title, and so many different directions it can take without disappointing.

Powers -- good, but I don't know how I feel about the !!!!!. We'll see. And I have mixed feelings about the "interrogation two-page spread" thing they do, I'm not sure if that's been worn out or if it's just, you know, one of those things.

She-Hulk -- really great. The "exponentially!" thing almost opens up a can of worms in future treatments of the character (if Jen wears Thor's belt of strength and then turns into She-Hulk..., yadda yadda), but that's okay. The weird and wondrous ways in which "strength" is handled in the Marvel U could actually make for an interesting story, as long as it wasn't a "Strength Force" thing that actually explained anything. (One of the most interesting things about the Hulk is that he takes a dramatic device usable by any character -- "I am stronger when I am angry" -- and actually codifies it, even to the extent that his weakness is that you can kick his ass if you calm him down first!)

Anyway, Shulk. Definitely on my pull list. This is, frankly, exactly the kind of thing I imagined myself writing when I sent that inquiry to Marvel.

Secret War -- I think I liked it more than David, but I don't know. It's certainly one of those titles where my enjoyment of it is in no small part enabled by the fact that I'm giving the writer the benefit of the doubt and assuming that when the mini is complete, it will all add up; the individual issues seem a little sparse. (The artwork is really great, though, especially for Cap and Jessica.)

Ultimate Nightmare -- I keep getting this mixed up with Secret War, since they're both about hastily assembled teams (including Captain America) brought together to deal with something in another country. The fact that Bendis writes the one that isn't in the Ultimate U doesn't help keep me from mixing them up, either. Anyway, this was decent, but again, slow-moving. Is pacing the new T&A?

Screw-On Head -- not new, Mignola one-shot, fun as fuck.