What I’m Getting Wednesday August 25

Have I complained lately about how the catch up hard cover weeks are always killers? If I haven’t I am now. This week three hard covers and two are Marvel Masterworks. Add to that I had decided to buy all the Blackest Night action figures and another batch of them have hit and you can see why my wallet will be greatly lighten due to this week’s shipment of comic book goodies.

The Blackest Night figures are Black Lanterns all with Batman (not the “real” Batman), Hawkman, Deadman and the kingpin himself, Nekron. I’m sure the people I work with all marvel at my bookcase of action figures and alternatively wonder if I’m crazed. I’m going more with the latter. One day I need to pull of all these darn figures down and give them a good cleaning. How do you get the dust out of the cracks on these things?

The hard covers are two Masterworks, Sgt. Fury and Tales of Suspense. The Tales of Suspense is possibly the last Atlas Era Masterworks for me as I have hit a saturation point with that type of material. Oddly the Sgt. Fury series I want to see many more of as the book had tons of work by John Severin in it down the road, sometimes just inking Dick Ayers, but once John inked it, it was his art and Ayers layouts only. The last hard cover is DC Library Batman The AnnualsVolume #2. I think the annual collections from this time is the best way to get a flavor of the era without wading through every issue of what is arguably a bad era for Batman.

Between the action figures and hard covers, that is an expensive week, the actual comics are almost an afterthought.

Batman #702 hits the stands with the next part of the Batman story between RIP and Final Crisis. While I appreciate that we are getting this story it appears to be an odd time to fill in the blank for what happened to Bruce Wayne. In general I happy with the Bat books but I’m apprehensive with the plans in the coming months as Bruce returns.

There are a few DC books hitting this week that are getting close to being cut. Gotham City Sirens #15 is one such book as it constantly has guest writers on it and seems to have already lost its direction. I always felt it was an artificial grouping by DC and seemed to be trying to replace Birds of Prey. Superman Batman #75 is a book that has run its course also. I got into this series after Loeb stopped writing it, but it has been generic at best for some time. Justice League of America #48 is just the latest issue in a series that lacks direction and this may well be my last issue of this series until DC can fix it. You can add Legion of Super Heroes #4 to my list of books getting close to being cut. Levitz is really missing with this book and the artwork is not carrying the book. Heck Green Arrow #3 and even Justice League Generation Lost #8 are series that are not wowing me right now. I’m a huge DC fan and it is killing me to think how easy it would be to cut so many series.

The flip side of that coin is the books I’m looking forward to seeing starting with Action Comics #892. Paul Cornell has made me stand up and take notice of his work from the jump. The Luthor series is the best ongoing Superman title on the stands. Detective Comics #868 is also enjoyable as I like David Hine’s writing and although it is derivative of the Joker, it is still working. The new Wonder Woman status quo is making me actually care about the next issue of Wonder Woman #602. Forget all the stuff about her costume, just the fact that Diana has a clear direction is a godsend. Although Time Masters Vanishing Point #2 (of 6) is not a book I’m jumping up and down about the first issue was enjoyable. To wrap up the DCU stuff we get the long awaited Superman Secret Origin #6 (of 6). I have no clue why it took so long, but I’m happy to see it wrapped up as this has been a very well done resetting of the origin for Superman.

The Vertigo side of the world has two great series with issues coming out. Scalped #40 and Madame Xanadu #26 both hit the stands. I’m sorry to hear Madame Xanadu is ending soon, but it was an excellent series and a book I desperately want reprinted as a hardcover. Scalped is a series that also deserves some high class reprints, but Vertigo books seldom get that treatment early on.

Marvel is just three books this week and X-Men Legacy #239 is not even officially on my list, it is in try out status since Second Coming. Black Widow #4 is the last issue of the opening creative team of Liu and Acuna. I thought they did alright and I’m a little disappointed to see them go. Bucky is moving towards going to trial in Captain America #609. I’m not sure why but this book is missing something lately; it is not as good as it once was.

The best stuff this week is from the “everything else category”. We have a bunch of stuff hitting the stands with Guarding the Globe #1 (of 6), Invincible #74, Science Dog Special, Bullet to the Head #3, Battlefields #9 (of 9), Gravel #20, Echo #24 and Wolfskin Hundredth Dream # 4 (of 6). The biggest problem I have with most of the good books this week is it seems like it has been a long time between issues for many of them. I don’t track release dates that closely, but it seems like it has been a while since the last Echo, Gravel, Scalped and Invincible.

It is an expensive week, but one that has a few books begging to be axed from my list. Next week this column will not be here as my daughter Jamie is getting married Saturday and there is no time to get this written. Lee is in charge of the blog soon and he will have it covered with something good I’m sure.