Indies Preview Review for October Part 2 of 3

Humanoids Inc
Metal HC by (W) Jerrold E. Brown, Paul Alexander (A) Butch Guice, Roman Surzhenko
Elias, Ruler of the Huron Dynasty, is determined to unite his Empire and defeat the ominous alien forces known as Prime. Elias is betrayed and murdered. His life force is stuck inside his combat robot, giving it life. Can he unite his people, despite his metal form, and destroy Prime? $29.95
Lee: Where did this come from? I think it's older work by Guice but I can't be sure. Humanoids is still trying to rebuild their brand so I'm betting they are picking only the best books publish for awhile. So even though the story sounds generic, strength of art and faith in publisher is making me take the chance.
Jim: Maybe this was done when Guice disappeared from American comics. I agree with Lee on this one the art and publisher make this a buy.
Gwen: This looks like it has a lot of potential - sometimes it's hard to tell all that much about a story from the solicitations.

Mcclelland & Stewart
Two Generals GN by (W/A) Scott Chantler
In March of 1943, Law Chantler shipped out across the Atlantic for service with the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, along with his best friend, Jack, a fellow officer. Soon, they would find themselves making a rocky crossing of the English Channel as part of one of the most pivotal and treacherous military operations of World War II: the Allied invasion of Normandy. Two Generals recounts what happened there through the eyes of these two young men, everyday heroes who risked their lives for the Allied cause. $24.95 Visit Chandler here.
Lee: This is an easy buy. Chantler wrote the book “Northwest Passage” for Oni Press a couple of years ago, and it was great. This book, like “Passage,” is historical, graphic fiction and should be excellent. This will be well worth the investment.
Jim: I've become a sucker for this type of book lately and I will also be signing up for this title. As much as I hate to say it since I have been listening to Lee's picks for a long time I know when Lee likes a certain type of title it makes it a no-brainer for me.
Gwen: I'm not much into the war stories but I like the perspective it's being told from. It sounds like it could be an interesting take on this battle.

Monsterverse LLC
Bela Lugosi: Tales from the Grave by (W/A) Various
An anthology of stories in the classic horror comics tradition, presented by horror film icon Bela Lugosi with the help of his assistant, Hugo, and his sexy vampire groupie, Nosferina. Also featuring Lugosi portraits by various artists, a short claymation-style photo strip starting the aging Lugosi and his Ed Wood film co-star, Tor Johnson and a text piece by eminent Lugosi scholar and author Gary D. Rhodes. Creators include Kerry Gammill, John Cassaday, Terry Beatty, Bruce Timm, and many more. $4.99
Lee: The names associated with this are too good for me not to try it. I just hope it's good.
Jim: Of course knowing how Lee's picks books also makes it easy to skip a pick of his. This holds no interest whatsoever for me.
Gwen: I think this would make a great Christmas or birthday present for my friends who are into horror films so I may end up getting at least one copy for that reason. I think if you enjoy going to horror conventions you'd probably enjoy this.

NBM
Miss Don’t Touch Me Vol. 02 GN by (W) Hubert (A) Kerascoet
Blanche tries to leave the Pompadour, the high class house of call-girls, but their hooks are in deep. Nevertheless, she encounters what could be her ticket out: a very handsome and very respectful young rich man, Antoine. She also reunites with her long-lost mother. It all seems rather idyllic but Antoine may be a little too respectful and why has her mother suddenly reappeared? $14.99
Lee: This month really is like old home week in Indies because so many established creators have books coming out. The first “Don’t Touch Me” was an excellent murder mystery. It had a neat little conclusion so I’m wondering where the story can go. Another easy win.
Jim: I really want to borrow the first volume of this story before jumping into this book. Of course it is harder to borrow books from Lee now that he is in France.
Gwen: It's okay Jim, maybe we'll see him in May when we're in Europe and can steal his comic books.

Pantheon Books
Charles Burns’ X’ed Out GN by (W/A) Charles Burns
From the creator of Black Hole, the first volume of an epic masterpiece of graphic fiction in brilliant color! Doug is having a strange night. A weird buzzing noise on the other side of the wall has woken him up, and there, across the room, next to a huge hole torn out of the bricks, sits his beloved cat, Inky, who died years ago. What's going on? Drawing inspiration from such diverse influences as Hergé and William Burroughs, Charles Burns has given us a dazzling spectral fever-dream - and a comic-book masterpiece. $19.95
Lee: New Charles Burns! Need I say more? How about Charles Burns in COLOR? I am gonna go broke this month.
Jim: I'm not familiar with Charles Burns, but I will be this is another book I want to check out it sounds pretty cool.
Gwen: That solicitation tells me nothing about the actual premise of the story... and yet I really want to read this. I don't think I can resist a book with a cat named Inky. I am intrigued.

Rebellion / 2000AD
Fiends of the Eastern Front SC by (W) Gerry Finley-Day, David Bishop (A) Carlos Ezquerra, Colin McNeil
It was autumn 1980, and workmen excavating West Berlin make a ghoulish discovery - the skeleton of a German soldier, holding a diary, but little do they know that the diary's contents are far more terrifying! The diary belongs to Hans Schmitt, posted to the Eastern Front. His first entries record a unit of Romanian soldiers, experts in night-fighting, but it isn't too long before Schmitt realises the true nature of his comrades - blood-sucking vampires! $14.99
Lee: Yeah, there's a glut of vampiers on the market but I still like them. Correction, I like my vampires mean, vicious, and not involved with superheroes. Since this appears to meet my criteria I'll give it a whirl.
Jim: I like the vampire stuff I'm following, but I'm not looking to add anything new into the mix.
Gwen: Vampire/war story? Not really a combo I'd care to read.

Zombo: Can I Eat You Please? SC by (W) Al Ewing (A) Henry Flint
When Flight 303 en route to Epsilon-6 orbital station crash lands on the lethal deathworld of Chronos, all is not looking well for the thirty-three surviving passengers. Enter ZOMBO; a top secret government experiment - part zombie, part human ghoul, with a taste for living flesh. Will our friendly (yet crude) hero be able to save the passengers from a hideously painful death? $17.99
Lee: Normally I would pass but Flint’s art makes this an easy buy. He’s an awesome artist with an over the top style that fits this material perfectly. Don’t know how it will read but the visuals will be stunning.
Jim: As the guy who loves art, you can go for this, but I need to know the writer on this premise before taking a flyer on a book.
Gwen: I was sold at the awesome hilarious title. I am still laughing.

Superman Secret Origin – A Commentary

As regular readers of this blog know my daughter Jamie is getting married this weekend and I’m rather busy. Still I managed to get to the comic store today and snuck in reading Superman Secret Origin #6. This was a great Superman story and unfortunately I believe shows the inherent flaws in the Superman walking tour.

In this issue we see Superman fighting Metallo, the army, Lex Luthor. We see fantastic battles, Superman fighting and trying to save the public, Superman flying into space, inspiring people, facing down Lex Luthor. We get moments with Clark Kent, some cute, yet hokey moments between Superman and Lois that just fit the character to a “T”. Superman is the boy scout.

I swear the art is bigger, but losing the borders often helped and of course Gary Frank and Jon Sibal delivered a stellar art job. If it wasn’t for All Star Superman this could easily be the top Superman story every.

Why this is a problem, is the current Superman book looks pedestrian (pun intended) next to it.
If I had more time I would go on and on, bottom line this book is Superman done right.

Indies Preview Review for October Part 1 of 3

Lee: October is always a good comic month because everyone is releasing horror stories for Halloween. Since I love horror comics, this is like Christmas coming early.
Jim: I think horror comics is one of the hardest category to do right, becasue it is tough to make a printed page scary.
Gwen: I have infiltrated the world of Indy solicitations, mwhahaha!

Amulet Books
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword HC by (W/A) Barry Deutch
Spunky eleven-year-old Mirka Herschberg isn't interested in knitting lessons from her stepmother or how-to-find-a-husband advice from her sister. There's only one thing she does want - to fight dragons! Granted, no dragons have been breathing fire around Hereville, the Orthodox Jewish community where she lives, but that doesn't stop her from honing her skills. She battles a very large, very menacing pig. And she boldly accepts a challenge from a mysterious witch, a challenge that could bring Mirka her heart's desire: a dragon-slaying sword! 139 pgs. $15.95 Visit the Hereville page… well, here and the webcomic here.
Lee:That’s what I love about comics, just when I think that every story has been done, we get one about a Orthodox Jewish girl fighting dragons. Gotta say, I would never have thought of that. Overall, this sounds like a fun tween type book.
Jim: Great for a tween, but not for me.
Gwen: Tween? I'd be interested in reading this! Seems like it could be a really cool story and seeing how I know at least Jim enjoyed I Kill Giants and Stuff of Legend this doesn't seem like too far of a stretch.

Beacon Press
Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: Personal History of Violence GN by (W) Geoffrey Canada (A) Jamar Nicholas
Geoffrey Canada was a small and scared boy growing up in the South Bronx. His childhood world was one where sidewalk boys learned the codes of the block and were ranked through the rituals of fist, stick, knife, and, finally, gun. Acclaimed comics creator Jamar Nicholas transforms Canada's raw and riveting memoir as his fresh and edgy art connects with one of the most authentic and important true stories of urban violence ever told. 144 pgs. $14.00 The book that inspired the gn here. Visit Nicholas here.
Lee: Now this looks interesting. Nicholas has adapted the book of the same name for comics. An edgy look at urban life, I can’t wait to read this.
Jim: I don't know about this book, it could be good or could be very bad.
Gwen: I have yet to read a comic that was well adapted from a novel. The closest I've seen have been new stories about already existing novel characters written for comic books specifically. Or loose adaptations - the Logan's Run stuff was kind of fun. But I think it's hard to cross from a novel to a comic because there's a lot that ends up being left out.

Disney Press
Phineas & Ferb Early Comic Reader #3 (Hey Where's Perry) by (W) John Green
Spend some time with best friends and stepbrothers Phineas and Ferb and see just how outrageous a summer's day can really be! Thrill as Perry the Platypus faces his most dangerous nemesis yet - the rogue rabbit known only as Dennis! As Phineas and Ferb create their own X-Ray glasses, Agent P must bring the bad bunny to justice. And what happens when the boys wake up to find that Perry is gone forever? $4.99
Lee: Recently, we received a question about books for young readers. Well, if you are looking for comics for kids then this is the one you want. Kudos to Disney for putting out quality material.
Jim: I have not worried about this type of material since I was a retailer. Kudos for companies producing a lot more then they used to do.
Gwen: It does seem a lot easier to find kid friendly books outside of the big two.

D. E./Dynamite Entertainment
Warlord of Mars #1 by (W) Arvid Nelson (A) Stephen Sadowski
The original warrior of Mars returns from Dynamite! Warlord of Mars, an enhancement of the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs story, Princess of Mars! If you thought you knew the story, think again! This series will capture the grit and action of the original while expanding on it with new elements. The story is about John Carter, an ex-cavalry officer in the Confederate Army who finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars! Joining him in his adventures there are Tars Tarkas, his Martian comrade, and Dejah Thoris, a Martin Princess. This series is written by Arvid Nelson and is illustrated by Stephen (Avengers/Invaders) Sadowski and Lui Antonio, and features covers by Alex Ross, Joe Jusko, J. Scott Campbell and Lucio Parrillo! 32 pgs, FC, $1.00
Lee: I’m surprised it’s taken this long for JC to get back into print. I don’t think there has been a series since Marvel’s in 1970. Sadwski is a good artist, the story is a favourite of mine, and it’s only $1. I’m good for the first issue.
Jim: I'm more then good for the first issue. I love John Carter of Mars and just recently re-read the first triology. I have always loved this character and think he is far more interesting then Tarzan. I'm very happy to see a new comic series.
Gwen: YAY! I've been crying inside ever since the same group that made 'Mega Piranha' for the Sci-fi channel made a travesty of A Princess of Mars so it'd be great to see some hopefully better work from these stories. John Carter has always been one of my all time favorite characters :) Also, because of the amount of action in these stories it's a bit easier to cross medias with this material.

Flesk Publications
Xenozoic Complete Collection SC by (W/A) Mark Schultz
Forced into hiding by a global ecological cataclysm, humans emerge from their underground warrens half a millennium later to discover that the Earth has been totally transformed. The familiar flora and fauna are gone, replaced by a radically altered natural order populated by rampaging dinosaurs and strange, new creatures. It takes guts, grim determination, ingenuity and a whole lot of old-fashioned luck just to survive, much less thrive, in this alien wilderness. Xenozoic combines lush artwork with a pulp-fueled narrative to create an action-packed fantasy. 352 pgs. $39.95
Lee: I’m glad to see this in print but i have to ask who this is being published for. Seriously, Kitchen Sink did oversized hc’s in the 90’s. DH did standard size tpb’s in the 00’s. Is there anyone left who hasn’t read this? But, please note, if you haven’t read this, know that it is AWESOME and you should read it.
Jim: Never hurts to have a new compilation of solid material.
Gwen: DINOSAURS! You can never go wrong with dinosaurs!

Heavy Metal Magazine
Fluorescent Black GN by (w) MF Wilson (a) Nathan Fox, Jeromy Cox
Fluorescent Black takes readers into the hard-hitting dark future of South East Asia where gene-tech has divided the human race into two races, and both the utopian and dystopian futures exist in near proximity. Known for it provocative ideas and scientific accuracy, Fluorescent Black has been praised by biotechnology web rings and counter-culture magazines as a seminal bio-punk novel. A visceral ride through a bio-punk future where life is cheap and death is the only way out. 196 pgs. 12 3/4" x 9 1/2" $24.95 Visit Nathan Fox here.
Lee: Heavy Metal is known for extreme stories which is a plus for this type of material. Nathan Fox is an excellent artist much in the vein of Paul Pope so this is an easy sell for me. I like that it's oversized too.
Jim: I agree this sounds like a great book and the premise sounds too cool to pass up on.
Gwen: While this genre doesn't really appeal to me the cover is hypnotic.

Crossing over with John Edw- I mean, Marvel Comics

Crossovers are always a tricky beast. On the one hand, they sell extraordinarily well (For example, Civil War), so publishers are always keen on trying them out. On the other, putting together a large swath of characters that often only seem belong in the same universe if you squint hard enough brings out some of the worst excesses of superhero comics and aggravates a lot of comic book fandom (For example, Civil War). Publishers are often trying to find a new approach to crossovers so they can reap the benefits of the sales while avoiding the creative pitfalls that leave fans foaming at the mouth. Avengers Academy #3 and Thunderbolts #147 is the latest attempt in this effort and one of the most interesting in a long time.

Essentially, these books cross over by showing the same event, (the Avengers Academy students visiting the Raft, home of the Thunderbolts, as part of a Scared Straight program) from the perspective of each title’s main characters. Thematically, a cross over between these two books works. Thunderbolts is about trying to forcibly reform supervillians and Avengers Academy is about the Avengers trying to keep a bunch of abused, young superheroes from becoming supervillians. A scared straight program neither feels forced, nor convoluted.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this type of crossover. Back when he was writing Alpha Flight and Uncanny X-Men in the late 90’s, Steven Segal had Alpha Flight try to recapture Wolverine and showed the same event from two different perspectives in each book. I’m sure it’s been done other times before as well. When this works, reading both books enriches the experience, but you should be able to read either in isolation. Ideally, this has all the advantages of a crossover (showing off another book in the hope of crossover appeal) without any of the draw backs (having to read 20 books to keep it all straight). So how does this crossover do?

If we’re evaluating the books individually, they’re both excellent. Thunderbolts is doing a great job of maintaining the book’s balance between its cast of criminals and heroes. Avengers Academy continues to make its characters sympathetic while also believably portraying them as having the potential to go off the rails.

As far as a evaluating it as a crossover, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. It’s a success in that they are both standalone and you can read either in isolation. Avengers Academy works particularly well in this regard. If you weren’t aware the Thunderbolts tie in, you could easily read them as guest stars in the issue. With great scenes like Ghost’s insane rantings about Hank Pym rewiring their brains at the microscopic level and Tony Stark’s control of international finance, they’re easily interesting enough that you may go ahead and check out their own book.

Thunderbolts is a bit less successful. The story with the Avengers Academy makes up only about half the issue, the first half finishing off a story about some SHIELD agents being mutated by the terrigen mists. The Avengers Academy appearance is brief and more or less incidental. It does use the events of the crossover (Hazmat causing an EMP that blacks out the Raft), but really that could have been done with any macguffin. That said, the books’ crossover works best in an area that these things usually fall down: characterization. In both books, the Juggernaut is given a moment of characterization that is revealing for his current direction and most shockingly of all, consistently portrayed by both creative teams. Despite all this, this is a good issue of Thunderbolts. The prison riot story is very well done, especially when you consider how brief it is, and if you’re just reading this book, it hardly feels like an interruption at all.

All in all, this isn’t wildly successful, but it is interesting to read and it doesn’t feel like an intrusion in either book. Avengers Academy does a great job utilizing the Thunderbolt’s characters and settings, while Thunderbolts doesn’t really take the same advantage of this opportunity. I'd love to see two other books with similar styles give this kind of crossover a go before we get the next Shadowland or whatever.

The Week of August 18 In Review

Okay this week was a sub standard week for comics. Now I’m starting to write this column prior to reading everything, but in looking around and talking to some other fans what I have left won’t turn my opinion around. Heck I even picked up three or four extra books since it was a light week for me and still little stood out as stellar.

Brightest Day #8 was what I started with and it was an off issue to me. We start off with two pages involving Hawk, Dove and Deadman. It ends with Deadman asking the ring to take him to Hal and Dove disappears with him leaving Hawk wondering what had happened. That’s the last we see of them. So we got two pages that did almost nothing to advance any plot thread in the book. Next up is Martian Manhunter and Ms. Martian. We learn that she was attacked by a heretofore unknown Green Martian and J’onn after the Hawk segment ends up going to the magical white lantern forest in Star City. It all feels a little dragged out and feels like a forced tie in to the new Green Arrow book. Again we get six pages that moved the story forward a half step at best. Also the art for the Martian Manhunter segment was weaker then the art has even been before in this book and I worried it may be getting rushed. The rest of the issue was devoted to the Hawkworld segment and while we got some solid revelations it is further mucking up the history of Hawkman and Hawkgirl. I have no clue anymore as to who these characters are or what is the true history of these characters. I was fine when they were the eternal couple finding each other through their endless reincarnations and the nth metal came from a crashed Thanagar starship. Now we have a world that connects Thanagar to Earth, but I thought Thanagar was gone. We get Hawkgirl’s mother as a bad guy and I never even cared about her parentage. The Hawks need to be radioactive for about five years and then reintroduced to the DCU it has just gotten too convoluted again. So while it advanced the plot it just added more crap into a convoluted character. The final tally is only one plot was advanced and the other stuff was a little bit of treading water.

Since it was a lighter week I picked up Wolverine Weapon X #16, possibly the shortest lived Wolverine book ever. When Marvel adds all the numbering soon we should be up to around issue #1000 soon and they can beat DC to having an issue numbered 1,000. This issue was Wolverine handling a last request for Nightcrawler. I guess my problem with the book, besides$4 for a standard book, is that Nightcrawler has been reduced to being all about his faith. Growing up with the character during the Claremont/Byrne era and then not following the X-Men for years I do not remember Kurt being a man that had his faith on his sleeve all the time. I have no qualms with making this an element of his character, but making it the only quality of the character was annoying to me. Also I love how Wolverine is best friends with almost everyone, yet he is supposed to be this anti-hero loner, it always amuses me. All in all this issue failed to move me and was a weak lead in to the new series, AS IT HAD NOTHING REALLY TO DO WITH IT!

Okay I never got back to this review until now and I have finished everything, it was a weak week. Nothing fantastic and some books were okay, but a blah week in many ways.

Batman: Streets of Gotham #15 was an odd duck. First off I was expecting it to be more about Hush and instead the entire issue was about Two Face. On top of that it appears that Two Face is killed in this issue. Okay, granted his body was fished out of the water, but his henchmen stabbed him to death and threw his body in the water and he had to be under water for a few days. I’m not sure where Ivan Brandon is taking Two Face right now, but he is also the writer behind the Nemesis mini-series, so he seems to have long term plans for characters he is writing. It was just a totally unexpected issue and if it is the death of Two Face, it was done very quietly. Of course now I want to know what the heck is happening and probably next issue will be all about Hush.

I enjoyed Fables #97, but it seemed like the last issue came out a long time ago and it is destroying the flow of the story. I’m programmed for the monthly gaps in books, but longer than that and I have a harder time holding onto the story. To be fair this issue was so good that in the span of three pages I was captivated again and the story came back to me. This issue we get the end of Rose’s origin and she gets off her bed and decides to come back into the fray. Geppetto is trying to reestablish a power base and the Dark Man is apparently spreading out from Fabletown as we build up to issue #100, which maybe a good time to end this series, or at least give us a new group to follow.

I have to give David Hine credit. I like his writing and I’m actually enjoying Azrael. Issue #11 hit the stands and I was lost for about five pages as the character does not interest me, but the whole idea behind the Shroud of Turin conspiracy was great. Guillem March does a nice job on the artwork and right now I’m surprised that I like this book. It is in no way a Batman book other than some tenuous connect to the old Azrael and the fact that some of it is based in Gotham. Stretching this book under the Bat umbrella is just that a huge stretch.

I have to mention Atlas #4, first off I love this group, but what they did to Marvel Boy this month irritated me. Bob has always been wacky and we knew he was no longer human, but this issue they turned him into a totally alien looking being who had been projecting a normal face. It just felt pointless in the context of the story. Plus Jeff Parker is working overtime to make 3D Man meaningful and it is an interesting concept, but the whole arc was a poor choice for starting a series over with a number one issue. As a hard core fan of the title I’m fine with it, but I can’t see this generating any new fans, it is very dense story and would be next to impossible to recommend to a new reader.

On a whim I picked up Power Girl #15 after dropping the series. I still didn’t like it that much, but it is a decent comic. It is just not doing what I want it to do. It also made this a book that is on the fence for me. I will not add it to my official list, but I’m not sure if I’m dropping the book anymore.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was The Last Phantom #1. Another book I picked up since it was a lighter week. The artwork is generic and the story line was telegraphed a mile away. I knew from page one that the last Phantom’s in his civilian identity was going to have his entire life destroyed, which causes him to drench himself in his family’s blood and don the belt, rings and guns and become the Phantom. I can’t help myself, I loved this newspaper strip when I was a kid and I have added this book to my list. Sometimes you have to go classic to get a book started and with the Phantom a totally generic beginning still works. The proof will be in how it works going forward. I’m not sure this character works in a modern world.

Another book that I enjoyed this week was Hellblazer #270 as we wrapped up the John going crazy story and the Shade storyline. A surprise ending as Epiphany goes off with Shade to try and fix her face after John proposed to her. I was just about to drop this book when this arc hit and I have to say I’m back on this series and anxious to see where we go next.

That’s it for this week. A lot of other books came out, but not a lot that made me want to comment. I may get a review of sorts up later next week, but the Tuesday column is taking a week off due to the wedding of my daughter Jamie. With all of my writing taking place normally on week-ends and the coming week end is very busy. I will share one personal piece of information that even a cynic and cold hearted bastard is getting a little sentimental seeing his daughter getting married. That's about as gushing emotional as I get.

One last note this site is four years old today. I'm pretty sure we never missed having a new post every day, thanks to Lee, Gwen, Thomm, Matthew and Greg for helping to make this happen and making this blog be as sucessful as we have been.

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.

In with the New

In the course of finding the utterly abysmal Dazzler: The Movie graphic novel I came upon my one other remaining Marvel Graphic Novel from the '80s. Fortunately, this one's a lot better.

So, let's take a look at the incunabulum of what would become a terrible thing indeed - Uncanny X-Men spin-offs. It all seemed so innocent in 1982 when Marvel created The New Mutants. Who would have forseen the panoply of bottom line driven iterations? Why, no one in comics had ever before copied a success ad nauseum.

But let's go back to that time of innocence in 1982 when Professor Xavier thought the X-Men were all dead. Why, that had only happened a half dozen times by then! What made this time different? Instead of finding mutants to make a new Uncanny X-Men team, the moody professor intended to withdraw into his mansion, hiding his feelings of hurt and loss from all. Throw in a break-up and we'd have had a True Romance to end all True Romances.

Fortunately, we were all saved from that by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod.

I jest, but The New Mutants were, for a time, one of my favorite Marvel books, and one of the few I still have in ye olde Comics Cabinet from that era. Marvel Graphic Novel #4 - The New Mutants wasn't much, really. It was later that things got more interesting, especially with the arrival of Bill Sienkiewcz on art for the ongoing series's issue 17.

This graphic novel was the jumping off point for the group, with all but Karma being introduced for the first time. In fact, I didn't start reading about the group with this story. In 1982 I wasn't anywhere near a store that sold graphic novels, so it was some years later that I hunted this down. I started with the first issue of the ongoing series.

It was a good set up story. Dani Moonstar, Xian Manh, Sam Guthrie, Rahne Sinclair, and Roberto Da Costa are gathered together by a somewhat reluctant Professor Xavier. They're all just beginning to exhibit their powers. Xian (Karma) showed up in an issue of Fantastic Four and is already at the mansion when Moira MacTaggert brings Rahne (Wolfsbane) to be examined and trained. Dani (Psyche) is the daughter of a friend of Xavier. Her grandfather contacts him about her emerging powers. Da Costa (Sunspot) is the scion of a wealthy Brazilian whose powers manifest during a championship soccer game, while Guthrie (Cannonball) is a Kentuckian with dreams of college, relegated to coal mining by the death of his miner father.

The villain of our set piece is the cyborg Donald Pierce, who had previously been seen as the only non-mutant in the leadership of the Hellfire Club, nemeses of the Uncanny X-Men whose insidious plotting had eventually led to the "death" of Jean Grey. Ah, those halcyon days when it seemed like a character might actually stay dead. Not like our set up here where Xavier thinks the rest of the X-Men are dead. Readers already knew they weren't because they could be seen in their own book off in space, fighting the Brood.

But I digress. Pierce's mercenaries include the guards at the Hellfire Club who were sliced and diced by Wolverine during their confrontation, and who are now cyborgs as a result. So, it's the cyborgs versus the kiddie mutants. Pierce has an unrelenting hate of mutants now, I don't recall why. He seemed perfectly happy to work with mutants when he was a member of the Hellfire Club, but now he just wants to kill them all, including his former allies (who don't appear in this story, except for the Black Queen, Tessa, who's sole purpose is to be a sanitation engineer to get rid of the defeated Pierce). Pierce has an unexplained ability to tap into Xavier's efforts to locate these new young mutants and decides to just let Xavier gather them all together in one place to save Pierce some time in killing them all.

First stop is to get Dani, who has some amusingly '70s racial biases. There's no explanation of why she doesn't like white people, or anyone who's not a Cheyenne, I suppose, but it's a lot of anger without direction. Next stop is Da Costa, who has his own anger issues after his girlfriend is killed by Pierce's mercenaries. Naturally, she's heroically trying to save him when she's killed, so he can blame himself for her death, too. This was one too many misplaced anger heroes in the group, but fortunately, Dani's anger issues didn't last long. That may be why I've always had an affection for her character but rather less for Da Costa.

Once the first four were together they went to Kentucky to find Sam, but his mining company employer was owned by Pierce. Pierce deceived Sam into working for him as a guard alongside the mercenaries, so Sam fights the others when they arrive both to get him and engage in a ruction with Pierce.

After Pierece is defeated, and Sam realizes the deception, Professor Xavier is disturbingly willing to just leave Sam behind when Da Costa goes off on Sam for having helped Pierce. Of course, Sam shows up at the mansion not long after and is welcomed by the three female members of the new team, Da Costa sulking off to the side. And that's it until the regular series got off the ground in 1983.

McLeod's art is nothing overly memorable. It gets the job done. Clearly, though, Claremont and McLeod were serious about this being a student training group, not intended to replace the X-Men, because they're majorly subscribing to the ugly school uniform as bonding methodology. Those black and yellow uniforms go back to the original team's founding in the '60s, but by 1982 one would have thought the school would have moved ahead more than Xavier just allowing Dani to add some Cheyenne touches to her otherwise hideous uniform. I suppose Wolfsbane and Sunspot were the lucky ones, considering no one could see their uniforms when they used their powers.

The book did a nice job of establishing the founding group, the character's personalities, and the overall direction of the series (training group, not combat force) that would be the basis of the ongoing series for years to come. Mostly, though, it's an object of historical keeping for me. It's not so much the quality of the work as the fact that it was the start of something that got a lot better. Kind of like having the early issues of Swamp Thing, just before Alan Moore came on and turned the whole thing upside down. Nothing so radical ever happened with The New Mutants, but better things did happen later in the series. Of course, the real mystery from that era, and all the time that had gone before, is why was Xavier's lap always cold?