SHIP: The Strange World Of Men (10/08/08)

SAVAGELY CRITICAL!

B.P.R.D: THE WARNING #4 - Amazing adult fantasy.
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #6 - With all these superlatives preceding titles, there's gotta be an inferiority complex somewhere!

WTF -- only one FC & SI book this week?!?!? Whither the glut?

BPRD THE WARNING #4 (OF 5)
CROSSED #1 (OF 9) -- Garth Ennis religious / zombie (I think -- it made quite the impression!) mini on Avatar; zero-issue preview the opposite of promising, but I'll give it a go.
DETECTIVE COMICS #849 RIP -- this issue: Poison Ivy loses her pancreas!
FINAL CRISIS REVELATIONS #3 (OF 5)
GOON #29 -- plz improve on the LOLs / drama ratio, Mr. Powell
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #6 -- note to Hollywood: give Fraction some points on IM2
MARVEL ZOMBIES 3 #1 (OF 4) -- was gonna pass on this, but the C-list massacre that was previewed @ 'Rama wasn't bad!
SECRET INVASION INHUMANS #3 (OF 4) SI -- see final comment below for some ironic LOLs
SECRET SIX #2 -- I missed thee BoP team more than I realized!
WALKING DEAD #53
WONDER WOMAN #25
X-MEN MAGNETO TESTAMENT #2 (OF 5)
X-MEN MANIFEST DESTINY #2 (OF 5) MD -- x-over cash-in filler bullshit FUCK YOU (I need to take this off my list)

Will also be snagging the first 2 issues of the new SHAZAM and the Love & Rockets TPB from a while back, so as to make me feel less jerky.

The L&R: NEW STORIES #1? I suspect you'll be very pleased.

Action Comics, Green Lantern, Invincible Iron Man, and X-Men: Manifest Destiny.

ACTION COMICS #870: An early predictor of my inevitable switch from majority Marvel to majority DC.
DETECTIVE COMICS #849 RIP: Shush Hush.
ENDERS GAME BATTLE SCHOOL #1 (OF 5): Could this be cool? I hope so!
SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE SEASON 2 #3 (OF 5): I'll take my beatings for reading this.
STAND CAPTAIN TRIPS #2 (OF 5): This is pretty good!
TWELVE #8 (OF 12): More revelationz about teh Jew plz. Thx.
X-MEN MAGNETO TESTAMENT #2 (OF 5): Early frontrunner for best limited series this year?
YOUNG LIARS #8: It's CRAZZZZZZZy.

Also maybe other X-One-Shots.

X-MEN MAGNETO TESTAMENT #2 (OF 5): Early frontrunner for best limited series this year?

It's not even the best Marvel mini of the year, sez me -- OMEGA '08!

BPRD, 'Tec, Fungal Crisis: Tinactin Lotions

nothing! i did stop by and pick up the final issues of ASS and speak of the devil, though.

just Final Crisis Revelations, Invincible Iron Man, and last week's stuff. My pull list is dropping faster than the Dow.

So Jordan, you're saying you stopped off and got some ASS?

David, you read the first issue of Testament? I thought it was amazing.

I did! I liked it! Though I'm partial to Zeb Wells' Venom mini that's vaguely similar and better than it has any right to be! Still! OMEGA '08!

wish I could see the SUGGEST BAN link right now to give Dan das boot recommendation -- TRY HARDER

Q: Considering that DC is, in general, ignoring Final Crisis in its non-crossover books, why did Morrison skip a month?

I think the art was the problem - Pacheco is assisting Jones on future issues.

For me:

ACTION COMICS #870--Pa Kent bites it for the second time in two years
FINAL CRISIS: REVELATIONS #3--nobody gets turned into a candle!
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #6--more Fractionation
LOVE AND CAPES #8--guess it's not on hiatus after all

Plus all the stuff I missed last week while I was traipsing around the continent.

Ha, at the rate Final Crisis is going it'll be more like "why did Morrison skip three months, and then two more later?"

Well, I was under the impression that this skipped month was planned from the beginning. Since next issue takes place a month after the last issue. Or something? I remember reading something about this in early FC interviews.

The skipped month has been stretched out more than a bit. I've been keeping track of all the slipped ship dates at http://finalcrisisannotations.blogspot.com/2008/05/schedule-and-contest.html , but the short version is that the original solicitations claimed that Final Crisis #3 would come out July 30, there'd be a FC book every week thereafter except for Sep. 3, and Final Crisis #4 would come out Sep. 17.

#3 got bumped to Aug. 6--one week--and then #4 has been bumped five more weeks so far; the latest is that it's due Oct. 22. So we've had a 2 1/2-month break between issues. (#5 and 6 have each been bumped a month, domino-effect-style.) And whether it's for purposes of not spoiling the story or some other reason, no FC titles have shipped between Revelations #2 on Sep. 10 and #3 this week. The project's lost some momentum, just in terms of releases.

In the meantime, Legion of Three Worlds #2 is currently running four weeks late, Lo3W #3 is six weeks late, Rogues' Revenge #2 is four weeks late, Submit is three weeks late, Resist is a week late, Final Crisis #5 and 6 have each been bumped a month, and Superman Beyond #2 isn't even on the schedule yet.

And it appears that there will be THREE issues of Batman shipping in November, just so the Denny O'Neil issues of Batman and Detective can happen in December and the Neil Gaiman issues can happen in January.

On the bright side, Rage of the Red Lanterns seems to be coming out right on schedule.

Thanks for the info, Douglas. This week I'm planning on reading every Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps issue of the current runs. Anyone know the correct order for reading the two? Should I read Green Lantern up to the Sinestro Corps saga and then read Green Latern Corps up to the same, and then switch between the two throughout the crossover?

I think the Sinestro War stuff is labelled "Chapter 1, 2, etc" on the covers

Douglas, you mean Rogue's Revenge #3, right? Cos #2 came out.

Having read it, I think you can actually just skip Green Lantern Corps in general except for the Sinestro Corps Wars issues. That is, unless you really just want to read comics with Guy Gardner in them. Which is fair enough, that's kinda why I read them.

#3, yes.

So Jordan, you're saying you stopped off and got some ASS?

it had been a couple weeks, you know.

I sort of thought Testament was "Feed 'increasingly unlikely origin point' and 'history of Germany in the 1930s' into the scriptulator and hit 'Go'". I mean, I'm sure someone will learn a lot from it, but nothing they couldn't have got from reading a book and watching the first five minutes of X-Men.

BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #22 - New storyline starting up in this issue. I think it is supposed to start with Batman dropping off The Joker at the Gotham City PD after the first time he has caught him and how the 'masks' and Batman changed police business in Gotham. It seems that this title is not that popular, but like Legends of the Dark Knight, I think it is generally a pretty good read. These kind of Batman stories where they fit into a total storyline, but are not sequential--kind of like how Hellboy is done where they will flash back to different times and stories kind of works for me.

GREEN LANTERN #35- This is the final part of the new GL origin storyline. I don't know, I think that both of the GL titles got kind of meh after the Sinestro war story line and were not as good. It all seems like it is in a holding pattern until the next big storyline. It isn't badly done, but there have been like 35 issues and maybe five story lines. It just seems like a whole lot more has gone down in Johns' Action story line.

ACTION COMICS #870- I've liked the Brainiac storyline, but I'm a bit leary of all of Kandor getting out of the 'bottle'. That is a whole lot of super people.

SECRET SIX #2- I really liked the first issue and the other two mini-series. It is some fun comics. I guess being bad can be good. I'm kind of curious to see how Bane is going to be used in this book.

FINAL CRISIS: REVELATIONS #3-- I don't know how it is all going, but Vandal Savage with the bloody mark of Cain on his face and a bunch of people freaking out with the Anti-Life equation was pretty wicked and made me wish the next issue of the big book would come out. I'm still waiting on the next issue of Final Crisis to finally happen, but if this one comes out, that is better than nothing.

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #6-- I don't read much Marvel, but I ended up picking up this title one issue at a time. I finally sat down and read the storyline up to 6 and thought it was pretty good. I'll probably check out after the storyline is done, mostly as the 'macro' Marvel Universe storyline of the big series and current Avengers titles does not appeal to me at all and I know that funkiness will most likely end up tainting this series. If they keep this book somewhat 'firewalled' off from the rest of the Marvel never ending story, I might be game to hang around, as I always liked Iron Man as a character. It was one of my favorites when I was a kid.

TWO FACE YEAR ONE #2-- I liked the first issue and it fits in the Harvey Dent Year One story lines somewhat. It took awhile to get the second issue out. All I know is I like Year One early period Batman stories in general a heck of a lot more than most of the regular books (although Morrison and Dini have been better than ususal-- and have made Batman/Detective less like a team book).

DETECTIVE COMICS #849-- Having Hush rip Catwoman's heart out (literally) is a bit harsh, but I do like some of the back story Dini has added to Hush with the weird kind of 'antebellum' momma. Whether or not it works all depends on how Dini ties up the storyline. The artwork on this book is pretty good.

<a href="http://youdontknowfromhurt.blogspot.com/2008/10/comics-for-week-of-october-8-2008-my.html";>What I'm getting this week</a>

Dammit.

yr blog is pretty awesome.

Thanks!

Shite, I keep forgetting to mention the new comics blog I edit:

Four Colour Words

Great interview with Seth, articles on Chester Brown, Shary Boyle, Berni Wrightson...

I read all of Johns' Green Lantern line. It's REALLY REALLY GOOD.

Question: Is Johns' Justice Society of America thing worth reading?

Only if you care that there was a previous Liberty Belle before this one or that Wildcat's son mystically turns into a wild cat, whereas Wildcat merely wears a wild cat costume. Same thing for Red Tornado (the original) and her granddaughter. Also, plot input from A.Ross.

Yeah, I think JSA has become sort of the weak link of Johns' current work--one long homage to Kingdom Come. Oh well: maybe he'll take over Legion one of these years...

That's a shame. Since I'm reading the rest of his stuff, I figured this might be worth jumping on, too.

I don't think it's too bad, myself. Probably not as consistent as his previous JSA run was, though - I think now that there's a much more prominent role is the big JLA crossovers and such it's hurt the series a bit. The new generation characters are kind of strange at times, but even that seems to have been overshadowed by all other stuff (though I've only read through Lightning Saga) But yeah, it's probably around a C+ as it is.

So what other DC stuff should I be reading? Final Crisis stuff has gotten me more interested in their titles than I've been in years. I'm now reading Morrison's Final Crisis, and Batman. Dini's Detective Comics. Johns Green Lantern + Action Comics. Simone's Wonder Woman. Something Green Lantern Corps. The Spirit, and Billy Batson. Any others?

Mordy, did you read All Star Superman? I loved that. Of the Final Crisis spinoffs, I'm probably most enthusiastic about Rogues' Revenge, Legion of 3 Worlds and Superman Beyond...

Yeah. I read ASS, and I'm reading all the spinoffs.

If you're liking Simone's WW, you should check out both her current work on Secret Six, and her run on Birds of Prey (which is all collected, I think).

Geoff Johns' Titans run was pretty fun on the whole. It kinda goes off the rails a bit once Infinite Crisis gets going.

I am crossing my fingers that Johns will get a Legion title sometime after Final Crisis is through. The fact that they canceled Jim Shooter's Legion book is a good sign.

Hey Douglas, I was reading your chronology and wondered what your theory was for how RIP fits into FC.

Mordy, I have no idea--I'm waiting until the FC tie-in issues to get them in there.

Haven't added Revelations 3 to the chronology yet, in part because once again there's a radical disconnect between the time elapsed in the Renee/Cris scenes and the time elapsed in the rest of the story...

Morrison says all of RIP takes place before FC, and he's got two issues after RIP that bridge them.