Shipping This Week! -- 05.02.02

GRIT:
Deadshot
Detective (yes, I'm so eager for this!)
The Question (likewise!)

Goofiness:
Superman/Batman (the goofiness of this title alone counters the combined grittiness of the three above)

Why Do We Always Come Here?:
Justice League Elite (Mahnke and Nguyen, that's why!)

Hooray for more Adam Strange/Omega Men goodness!

CONCRETE HUMAN DILEMMA #2 (OF 6)

ADAM STRANGE #5 (OF 8)
BIZARRO WORLD HC
DETECTIVE COMICS #803
INTIMATES #4
QUESTION #4 (OF 6)
SUPERMAN #213
SUPERMAN BATMAN #17

BLACK PANTHER #1
DAREDEVIL REDEMPTION #1 (OF 6)
MARVEL TEAM-UP #5
NEW AVENGERS #3
SHANNA THE SHE DEVIL #1 (OF 7)
SUPREME POWER #15 (MR)
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #72
X-MEN PHOENIX ENDSONG #2 (OF 5)

(some small press stuff I'll have to research)

2004 RED SOX WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS COIN (not really, but WOOOOO!)

According to Previews (& my spotty memory), the next S/B artist is Ian Churchill. Coincidentally enough, it's also a SUPERGIRL arc. (Or maybe it's a one-issue thing.) That's 2 nu-Supergirl stories, drawn by two artistes I'm not so fond of. I phear the concave midriff. (Ed McGuinness is coming back, though!)

Or, you know, THE FOUNDING MEMBERS! (It was the founding 3, right?)

You are kidding me. That is the greatest, silliest thing ever. Why the hell are their evil counterparts royalty? & is there a Matter-Eater PRINCE running about?

So I have no idea how well it's serving LOSH fans, or whether it's just rehashing stuff that was already cool, or what -- but other folks in my boat might like it as much as I do. (Although I may very well be the only DC fan on the board who's a LOSH newbie.)

And why does the green guy look like the green guy from L.E.G.I.O.N '90?

x-post!

I really enjoyed LOSH #2, as well. I like that they're making them teens again, but not so much like Teens of Today (like the last one seemed to be), OR ARE THEY???

Zero Hour left virtually all DC continuity intact, but wiped Legion continuity altogether; the subsequent Legion series was totally rebooted from the formation of the group, with no active history.

The new Adam Strange has L.E.G.I.O.N. in it.

No wonder we're beginning to talk about this book leading into Crisis II.

Nightwing #102 (actually last week's) - a big fat wind-up to satisfy all the pre-Crisis mouth-breathers who slaver over the fact that Nightwing got his name from the costumed vigilante Supes sometimes became when he visited the Bottled City of Kandor. The real awesomeness was in the last few pages, which set up that Nightwing's original high-collar was inspired by...(wait for it)...DEADMAN (who I love)!

Deadshot #3 - The best issue of the series so far, as Deadshot and Green Arrow go toe-to-toe, and then go for a beer. Steven Cummings does a great GA.

Justice Leage Elite #8 - Love the art, couldn't give a rat's ass about the story.

Superman/Batman #17 - the least flashy issue of this arc so far (and considering there's a a guest appearance by the Haunted Tank AND a two-page spread showing half the JLA emerging from Lazarus Pit, that's saying something!), really asks readers not to question too much, but it's enough fun that you don't. SPOILER: More Legion of Super-Villains!

The Question #4 - Oooooooooh yeeeeeeeeaaaaaah. Though did they need to remind us why the badguys do their business in the bathroom, after talking it to death last issue? Still, there were enough fan-fucking-tastic scenes here to make up for it (and compared to JL Elite, it was nice to have a little tiny recap).

Detective Comics #803 - I have a feeling that from here on in, until the resolution, that is, Lapham's arc is just going to leave me frustrated. Which is a good thing. The first page is beautiful, and so's the rest.

This could be the most confusing thing I've ever read.

We're breaking up next week.

I don't mind a little occasional "oops" from a mom-&-pop (or dude-&-friend) operation, but this is chronic, & the way the guy said it - "It's Bill's fault" - inferred that this is the way things are & the way they will be forever & ever, & the door's right over there if you can't roll w/ dat, son. Especially if Bill is who I think it is - the middle-aged guy that looks (& sorta acts) like a scruffier & friendlier version of the J. Peterman blurb-writing Vietnam vet from Seinfeld, w/ a dog and a loud, off-kilter voice. And an odd earthy aroma, too. He's really nice, but there's a "please wait, operators are standing by" vibe to his conversations and how he handles himself.

Anyway, what I'm saying is I'm either switching to an online retailer, or I'm searching for a nice comic joint run by asexual Eurotrash yuppies doing lines on an enclosed CGC 9.6 copy of Superman / Darkness #1 while listening to Miss Kittin & LCD Soundsystem, and I can't afford to drive to NYC every week, so online I will go.

Crisis did make LSH reboot a few times over, really, apart from the Pocket Universe fiasco (didn't it only account for Superboy? what about every other time they went back in time? I've never read the whole thing because that Death of Superboy issue costs 25x what everything else does thanks to the Sienkiewicz cover) (and Millennium fucked shit too, with Laurel Kent turning out to be thousands of years old and made of metal when her most recent story had been all about her getting SHOT and BLEEDING and being under MEDICAL EXAMINATION) (plus the whole Crisis takes them by surprise but afterwards Brainiac 5 had always known Supergirl would die in the Crisis boo hoo made no sense) when the Super-office that had insisted on the Pocket Universe now insisted it couldn't exist, so they reboot to the Glorith universe then reboot again to the Valor/Laurel Gand/Kid Quantum universe, in which the whole Adventure 247-onwards history COULDN'T REALLY FIT...

Imagine how great those first 20 issues of v4 would have been if they hadn't had to spend half of them rebooting and then doing flashback issues to explain the new history. (And hadn't done that lame space war story with Giffen AWOL.)

.

I didn't buy anything new this week, but did go looking for the first issue of that Dan Slott/Ty Templeton Spidey/Human Torch miniseries (it's great fun! though I may enjoy the future issues less because they won't be set in the early '60s and I won't appreciate how they fit into the continuity/style of the time)(also/although Templeton cartooning always reads much better with his own lettering, and the computer typesetting here is extra-jarring) and picked up a bunch of 80s and 90s things from the dollar bins in a shop I only go into once a year.

I'm a little hesitant about future issues too. The 60s style is mega-fun.