What I’m Getting Wednesday Feb 10

This year has been the year of Vertigo for me. It feels to me that very few big titles have come out from most publishers, but no matter what Vertigo continues to deliver the goods. With title like Northlanders, Scalped, Madame Xanadu, Daytrippers, Sweet Tooth, Fables, Hellblazer, Joe the Barbarian and others Vertigo appears to be setting the bar for the rest of the industry.

This week we have three offerings from Vertigo with Daytrippers #3 (of 10), Hellblazer Pandemonium HC and Preacher HC Volume 2. If you have not been getting Daytrippers, start to get it now, don’t wait for the trade. There is an overall story arc going on, but so far the first two issues stood on their own very well. The Hellblzer hard cover is an OGN by the first writer on the series Jamie Delano with Jock as the artist. This is listed as a celebration of the 25th anniversary of John Constantine’s first appearance. Hard to believe he has outlived Swamp Thing many times over.

The rest of the DC offerings are rather light with. Action Comics #886, Adventure Comics with Black Lantern Superboy #7, Batgirl #7, Batman and Robin #8, Booster Gold #29, Green Arrow Black Canary #29, Human Target #1 (of 6), JSA All Stars #3, Rebels #13, Secret Six #18 and Shield #6. That is not to say that there are not some very good books in here, but outside of Batman and Robin, which is a perennial favorite of mine, nothing else is jumping out as a book that is a can’t miss. Batman and Robin with Batman versus Batman should be a good follow up to last issue, Rebels is always a god read, Secret Six is another very good series, but none of these are hitting a critical point in their story lines that has me hanging on the edge of my seat. I’m picking up Human Target, but since it is a comic mirrored on the TV series my hopes are limited and it may be a one and done.

Marvel is also light this week with just Marvel Boy The Uranian #2 (of 3), PunisherMax #4, Realm of Kings Imperial Guard #4 (of 5), Strange #4 (of 4) and Vengeance of Moon Knight #5. What I find most interesting about this list of books is that three are mini-series and neither of the other two is past even issue #10. If the Heroic Age material does not pull me back into Marvel comics I can see myself only following a very few books from Marvel, which is always a little disappointing to me as Marvel was the company that fostered my lifelong love affair with comic books. Finally although not on my official list I think it will be impossible for me to not pick up Hit Monkey #1, I mean who can resist a monkey assassin.

The other category went from zero to six this week. Image brings us Choker #1 and Atom Eve and Rex Splode #3 (of 3). Choker was a definite buy when I saw Ben Templsmith as the artist. Any book with Ben’s name as the artist I will try the first issue and hope the writing is good enough to keep me around.

Dark Horse has BPRD King of Fear #2 (of 5) and Solomon Kane Death’s Black Riders #2 (of 4). BPRD I love and Solomon Kane was entertaining with the first mini-series and issue one for this newest series has me wondering just what the heck is he fighting in the woods of the Black Forest. The creatures Solomon went up against were really bizarre and must have been born of a really bad dream.

Rounding out the other category is Escape from Wonderland #4 (of 6) and Farscape Dargo’s Quest #3 of 4). The Wonderland stuff has run its course for me and this is supposed to be the end of the series, if it is not, it is for me.

So February has been a relatively calm month for me and so far I have to admit that I’m enjoying it. Since I try to read and ship out my new comics every week it can be a little demanding on my schedule, so smaller weeks are a nice respite.