Shipping This Week! -- 05.06.01 (or 02)

CONCRETE HUMAN DILEMMA #6 (OF 6) [this mini has DEFINITELY improved since the first two issues; Concrete gave birth, BTW]

DETECTIVE COMICS #807
INTIMATES #8
MATADOR #2 (OF 6)
SEVEN SOLDIERS ZATANNA #2 (OF 4)
SUPERMAN BATMAN #20 [McGuinness? Please?]
Y THE LAST MAN #34 (MR)

BURGLAR BILL #3 (OF 6)

HOUSE OF M #1 (OF 8)
INCREDIBLE HULK #82
MARVEL TEAM-UP #9
SHANNA THE SHE DEVIL #5 (OF 7) [yay for zaftig bikini-clad superwomen killing dinosaurs; yes, it's one note, but it's a "nice" note]

ATOMIKA #3 [meh; the GOD IS REDness of this is starting to wear me down]
SUPER F$$$$$S #1 [YOU FORGOT SOME LETTERS]

[xpost]

YES IT DID TOM!!!!

APR050305D BATMAN WAR GAMES ACT TWO TP $14.99 (someday, but not now, or maybe never since...)
APR050301D DETECTIVE COMICS #807 $2.99 (they're interrupting Lapham's fucking amazing arc to run a War Games follow up...isn't that what Gotham Knights is for?)
APR050344D JSA #74 $2.50 (...I don't know if I actually care anymore, damn Geoff Johns reeled me in with Time Travel stories, and now I've gotta deal with Billy & Mary Batson)
APR050346D NEW TEEN TITANS WHO IS DONNA TROY TP $19.99 (I don't even know who that is)
FEB050262 SUPERMAN BATMAN #20 $2.99 (wheee, return of Ed McG for mega-goofiness tempered by stoic int. mono's)

SWEET.

Does it have footnotes?

Yesterday, I bought the Thunderbolts TPB, it's quite okay really.

I may also be tempted to pick up the first House Of Hmmmmmmm.

What's Matador?

With House of M, though, even the spinniest spin makes it sound terrible. And their "we promise the MU will be different!" stuff? I don't know if this was mentioned here, so here's the list from Wizard -- Marvel swears one of the following things will be true when House of M is done:

1: The number of mutants living on Earth will be reduced from over 60,000 to 300 maximum, returning the X-Men to their familiar perch on the edge of extinction.

2: The Ultimate and regular Marvel universes will merge and become one.

3: Thor will make his triumphant return to the land of the living after kicking Magneto's tyrannical ass.

4: Dr Strange saves the day but pays the ultimate price: he'll be replaced by Wanda, the new Sorceress Supreme.

5: Peter Parker is no longer married to Mary Jane.

6: Daredevil's secret identity becomes secret again.

None of these make me want to buy a comic book. Most of them would suck, in aftermath and/or execution.

I fear Bendis is Fat Elvising on me.

#4 would crap on JMS's Strange series, and seems pointless and arbitrary. #5 isn't the kind of thing that should happen in a crossover. #6 looks like a ringer: a change to a Bendis book during a Bendis crossover seems the most probable, because he's stepping on the fewest toes, but the public identity thing has been Bendis's baby -- why build up the buttercup just to let it down? And so help me, if Wanda changes the world so everyone forgets who Matt Murdock is (turn his initials upside down!), I will give Geoff Johns a stick to beat Bendis with, and then borrow it back to beat him for introducing Marvel Hypertime.

2: Awful idea.

3: So?

4: Reversed within 2 years.

5: Just cos the crappy retcon happens in a miniseries doesnt make it less crappy.

6: Meh.

I still think it's not the IDEAS that are at fault, but the execution of the ideas. And it's not even the execution so much as the unwillingness to follow through - yeah, it's tough to ask for a serial story to upset the apple cart for the sake of a good story and then follow through with the upset to its logical conclusion instead of hitting RESET when the creative team gets bored or sales falter, but that's how I'm wired.

Hitching the Marvel wagon to Bendis's star when he's at his best might work -- but I think he's been spread too thin since Avengers Disassembled, and at some point the Bendis butter is just gonna run out.

Or he'll have to milk something, I don't know, that metaphor got away from me a little bit.

A crossover series where scheduling matters, involving multiple creators, half of whom are going to be busy playing video games, scheduled during con season ... that's not the ideal petri dish for ANY idea, so if it's a harder one to execute, my skepticism rises.

FWIW - I forget if this was mentioned here, but JMS claims that the decision to have Gwen father evil Osborn babies was EDITORIALLY MANDATED. JMS wanted them to be Peter's kids. Not that that's a better idea, but WTF you're an EDITOR for a REASON please STOP with the WRITING unless you KNOW what the FONCLBRISCH you're DOING.

And, yeah, Tep, you're a copper Abe Lincoln profile on all your points, except maybe the "Spidey in Avengers Towers" thing, as I am liking the Aunt May / Jarvis stuff. OLD PEOPLE IN LUV!

Is Axel Alonso still the Spider-editor? Man, he should be the X-editor. Jean Grey can come back from the dead with Quentin Quire's kids! Wolverine gets re-gendered and impregnated by Sabertooth, but his healing factor keeps reabsorbing the fetus, which keeps regrowing back!

Re: Hudlin's Spidey - I think I pooped on it in another thread, but it is OK, though it'd be better if the artiste knew how to tell a dang story.

Yeah, I think you're right about that latter. I've only read the latest issue, but I really like the idea of using the Avengers almost as a setting, to tell a Spider-Man story -- and the non-intervention of the other Avengers while Spidey pounds on Logan was pretty good. (But oh, I wonder if that's some of what you mean: the art there didn't seem to fit well with what was happening.)

And so, a new generation learns never to trust Marvel. No hang on, you're the last generation back again! Shoo! Shoo!

He hadn't hit me for WEEKS!

After Inferno and Operation Galactic Storm, they hardly ever had any crossovers that veered outside of their home books (as opposed to the Spider-crossovers or X-crossovers, which might be a problem but are a different kind of problem).

He only hits me when I do something wrong!

Maximum Security was comparatively well-handled, I was hoping it meant they'd come around and learned from their mistakes.

He stole me some flowers last week.

We hump SHEEP.

Province Phearers!

and it took me about two minutes to piece it all together, and I'm still befuddled.

You spelled contempt incorrectly.

Despite all my bragging about how Canada has it's shit together re: comic shipping, I didn't have mine together enough to walk five minutes to my comic store and get mine. Today, though.

Also got the WE3 trade, Batman/Superman and House of M.. I wasn't planning to get House of M, but I broke down. I like Bendis and I haven't really been into the marvel universe at all lately except for Daredevil and New Avengers, so I thought maybe this would help be get re-introduced to what's going on in the large scale. Also, I saw Dr. Strange in there, and that rules.

No one's mentioned the great new S/B yet. Batzarro! Alternate universes! Ed McGuiness! Captain Atom gets a haircut! It's an ILC comic, basically.

Everything else I got this week was totally solid though, good issues for Y, Walking Dead, and Seven Soldiers (although Ian's right, the resolution of the threat in Zatanna is a little anticlimactic).

(j-j-jaded)

Another good, solid issue cementing the status as an Underwater Gotham Central - this is a crime book at heart and the watery stuff is firmly on the sidelines. More people should buy this, I think.

FIRESTORM #14

Bogged down a bit with NEW VILLAIN CREATION, not much happens here except CREATING A NEW VILLAIN. Jason moves out of his dad's apartment and finds he has nothing in common with his new room-mate, who doesn't even want to play GTA: San Andreas.

SEVEN SOLDIERS ZATANNA #2

Zatanna and the girl from the end of the last one get into a magic store and manage to trap the thing that's following them. This reminds me most of Hunter: Life During Wartime BEFORE I STOPPED READING IT BECAUSE IT WAS SHIT. Not the best of omens.

SWAMP THING #16

Umm... some old bloke has grown new legs and arms. I can't make much sense of this. It reads like #60 of the Alan Moore run ON DRUQS. Something like a plot had better emerge soon, I think.

Y THE LAST MAN #34

More heroin, lesbians and double-crossing! Yay! Bryan K Vaughn should ask people who know about some things before he writes them though.

BURGLAR BILL #3

A lovely little series this, continuing on its twee way. The policeman is politely told community policing is the way to go WITH HILARIOUS RESULTS. Paul Grist is one of our most overlooked assets (see also Gary Spencer Millidge).

INCREDIBLE HULK #82

I really have no idea. I read this, I know I did, but don't ask me what happened in it.

SHANNA THE SHE DEVIL #5

Aparrently I am a hero in my local comic shop, as the only guy who's buying this as issues and not just waiting for TEH BOOBIES in the trade. Which I'm going to buy, obviously. Basically our heroes can save the day with the antidote but to do so THEY MUST CROSS THE RIVER OF RAPTORS. I see some bikini ripping in the process.

House of M(eh) #1

Meh. The "Parker & Mary Jane no longer married" prediction looks to be a good one.

Ultimate Iron Man #2 (catchup from last week)

A belter, as Tony is born and appears to be the only man who can wear the armour we saw developed in the first issue. But Oh no! Soap and water! Oh no! Be here next month, washing fans!

There's a good arc where he uncovers who was behind it (including the mechanism that allows the citizens to 'breathe' underwater) and their motivation, and another covering the emergence of organised crime in the 'new' city. The last two issues were a fairly basic 'follow the clues' plot, but well written and including a visit to Arkham to take advice from The Scarecrow. Start at #15 and take it from there.

Arthur Curry is the Damp Knight Detective.

Any things in particular?

But what he gets wrong... umm... without going too much into what people might know in detail for various reasons, his knowledge of underwater warfare is a bit lacking.

;)