MARVEL COMICS

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #549

According to the teaser at the Marvel website this issue debuts the villain of the FIFTH Spider-Man movie, Menace! How that’s possible I don’t know but I have seen some of the art for this book and I have to say Salvador Larroca’s art has never looked better. This story arc involves the brand new hero Jackpot, New York’s official Initiative super person who has some familiar looking red hair and very tight pants. For more on the Brand new Day look below for our review of the first three issues of this bold new direction.

CLANDESTINE #1 (OF 5)

Alan Davis returns to the Marvel Universe with his freaky family of super people. One of the most imitated artists of our time, Davis combines clean lines and dynamic action with a real sense of story to an industry overflowing with artists who think page after page of pinups and cheesecake shots can make up for a lack of narrative flow in the art.

LORDS OF AVALON SWORD OF DARKNESS #1 (OF 6)

This long delayed series is one of those the Dabel brothers brought to Marvel before the inevitable falling out between the truculent siblings and Marvel comics. The medieval setting in this book explores a Camelot not reigned over by King Arthur but rather Lord Kerrigan. This story follows a peasant named Seren and her kidnapping by the brutal Lord. Adapted from the works of historical romance novelist Kinley MacGregor who is the pen name of best-selling and award-winning American author Sherrilyn Kenyon best known for her supernatural romance and vampire novels.

UNCANNY X-MEN #495

The X-Men are no more. Team leader and current Xavier school headmaster Cyclops has given up on the dream and gone on vacation. How will the world cope without the X-Men? Who will be the champions of mutant rights and mutant causes? Is Cyclops such an interesting and well rounded character now because he’s actually a Skrull? I don’t know if all those questions will be answered anytime soon but what I do know is Ed Brubaker has made me care about the X-Books in a way I haven’t for the better part of a decade. Divided We Stand begins here!

DC COMICS

DETECTIVE COMICS #841

Scareface returns and the hand up his… back… is far prettier than the old had up his… well you get the idea. Paul Dini continues his fan favorite run on Detective with solid storylines and fantastic character development. Zatanna guest stars in this special issue that DC promises will surprise readers. Ok, seriously. Where is her hand?

FABLES #69

What do you do if you’re charged with an impossible destiny? Do you deny it and just stay at your day job sweeping the floor and cleaning the toilets or do you grab some weapons and jump down the witching well? In Flycather’s case he goes for it and it ends as he knew it would, reunited with his lost love. The hard way. Rarely does a book maintain its excellence for thirty issues let alone 69 of them but Fables has yet to disappoint me. I’m almost reluctant to read this as I already know what’s in store for one of my favorite characters but it feels like a betrayal of his epic quest not to follow him into that good night.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #12

Finally we see the return of Jakeem Thunder! Conspicuously absent from the JSA since he appeared on the cover of issue #1, Jakeem is joined by others seeking membership in the Justice Society like the new Mr. America and Amazing Man. Kingdom Come is once more revisited as we meet another familiar face from Superman’s past and our future.

NIGHTWING #141

What should you do if you need a new base of operations to work out of as you track down grave robbers? If you’re Dick Grayson/Nightwing, you make a few calls and have people with super powers help you build it. And then you make sandwiches because that’s what you do when friends help you move Mr. Adopted By A Billionaire But Too Cheap To Buy His Friends A Six Foot Party Hogie. That’s the last time I lug a Bat-Computer up three flights of stairs!

INDY COMICS

ABE SAPIEN THE DROWNING #1 (OF 5)

Over a century ago paranormal investigator Edward Grey fought and killed a powerful warlock off the island of Saint Sebastian. On his first solo mission for the B.P.R.D. Abe Sapien is sent to recover the body in the early 1980’s.

BOYS #15

Everybody’s favorite member of the Boys Wee Hughie goes to see the Legend to find out more about the Boys, their history, possible agenda’s, personality quirks and possibly why the Frenchman keeps looking at him like a freshly baked baguette with marmalade on it. In other news, Starlight is learning that being a member of the world’s greatest super team may not be worth the trouble and possible lockjaw. Mature readers ONLY! To clarify we mean mature in a chronological way. If you act like a juvenile and are actually an adult we WILL sell you this book and honestly, it will probably help you enjoy the book more. Off color jokes work better on those of us who remember Redd Foxx.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #11

Joss Whedon writes this stand alone issue where Buffy, ill prepared, must fight the newest big bad in her life. If you enjoy watching the main character of a book get the ever lovin’ stuffing beat out of her this is the issue for you!

SPAWN #175

The Hellspawn known as the Gunslinger hits town and it falls to one man to save the day, if the town doesn’t lynch him first. Don’t confuse this gunslinger with the one from Marvel. This one has a MUCH bigger hat.

TRADES/GN

BAKERS BABIES & KITTENS HC

Most people I know would yell and scream and possibly throw things if they found out their family adopted two cats against their wishes and his them in the home but not kyle Baker. This enormously talented cartoonist and storyteller tells the tale of his family’s subterfuge in this all new hardcover graphic novel. A twenty year veteran of the industry Baker has had a hand in projects ranging from the political satire Birth of a Nation to Captain America: Truth and Loony Tunes: Back In Action.

DIANA PRINCE WONDER WOMAN TP VOL 01

This collection includes a grouping of stories never before reprinted in one volume from Wonder Woman #178-184 and Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #93. In this collection Wonder Woman battles Mars, God of War, the murderous Dr. Cyber and more.

INCOGNEGRO HC

Race relations in the south, especially in the first half of the 20^th century, were a horrible and dark period in our nation’s history and one that has been visited many times in all forms of the arts. This week DC comics Veritgo imprint takes another leap into those turbulent waters and tells a fictional tale based on actual events. Northern newspapers in those days would send light skinned blacks who could “pass” as white into these hot spots of hatred and violence to get a true account of what was happening there. This story takes a close look at what happened when these brave men and women risked their lives by telling the truth.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #546-548 BRAND NEW DAY PART 1-3

This has easily been the most controversial comic book story since the last time editorial completely changed the Spider universe with the clone saga. The upside here is that if this story does end up being the worst thing ever put into four colors we already know that Marvel will put everything back where they found them. Luckily (or unluckily if you are one of the many who HATE this new direction) the first three issues of Brand new Day ended up being pretty solid as far as story and art goes. Over the three issues we are introduced to the new reality of Peter Parker, unemployed nerd who lives with his aunt and hangs out with his best friend Harry Osborne who makes him feel a little inadequate especially when it comes to money. It could be that not having any money is making him feel that way and Harry really has nothing to do with it but I don’t live inside Peter’s head as he is a fictional character and they haven’t spoken to me since the great “you do NOT live at Falcon Crest” debate of 1991.

During this brand new day Peter makes out with a gold digger who saw him sitting with Harry in a club, runs away from her, gets mugged, meets a new redhead who is a forensic scientist and loses his shoes. Looks like the old Parker luck is back in full swing. There’s a new villain as well, a guy who looks like a photo negative and calls himself, not ironically mind you, Mr. Negative. I almost expect he’ll sound like Eeyore if he’s ever included in a movie or animated version of Spidey. “Oh Spider-Man… my plans never work… *sigh*…”

Subplots run rampant and actually seem cooler than the main story as Aunt May is working at a homeless shelter and the Daily Bugle is looking at a hostile takeover. The Aunt May story is touched on enough to show that May is completely in control of her life and much stronger than she’s ever been while still being the doting mother figure for Peter. The Bugle on the other hand is in a place of chaos as the whole staff is working essentially for free as Jonah does everything in his power to stop his beloved paper from being taken by hostile forces. Of course this is when Peter shows up to colloect some money that the paper owes him and gets into a shouting match with Jonah that makes Peter’s face turn an ugly shade of red and then makes Jonah’s heart say “ok, fine, I quit”. One mouth to mouth from Peter and a bypass surgery later and Jonah is alive and unemployed. Oh Marla, will you never understand your husband?

I understand the negative reaction to the One More Day storyline, to a degree I share the same anger and feeling of betrayal but I have to say this new direction isn’t so bad. Aunt May’s resurrection by editorial after the clone saga had me livid and actually made me stop reading the book for a while but that lead to the wonderful character work JMS did with her during his run on Amazing Spider-Man. I know that this brand New Day negates that in continuity but the stories are still there and years from now when this story inevitably gets undone there will be these issues to look at with the same fondness. If you gave up on Spidey after OMD give him another shot. You might be surprised that you like what you find.

UPDATE TO COUNTDOWN 14

Imagine if you will that the voice that is writing this is that of an overweight professional wrestling announcer with Bells Palsey. Ready?

RED ROBIN! RED ROBIN! BY GAWD IT’S THE RED ROBIN!

Ok, you can stop pretending that now (and if you didn’t get the reference I apologize).

Batman and Red Robin join the fight while kicks the crap out of Belthara and takes over her big bug army based on the “might makes queen of the bug people” leadership method. The monitor’s continue to take a Apollo Creed vs Big Russian Guy style beating despite the fact that each one of them is ridiculously powerful. Superman Prime is still hanging around acting like he’s the biggest kid at the lunch table and you have a pack of Twinkies he’s really wanting right now. What will happen when Supes Jr throws down with Monarch? Find out next week!

TEEN TITANS #50-55

I first came across Sean McKeever when a friend recommended Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane to me. I immediately fell in love with the way McKeever was able to make teenagers sound like teenagers. For too many comic book writers teen dialog comes across as either insipid prattle or over intellectualized robot people. It’s rare to find someone who can give these kids a proper voice, especially when there are so many of them. The Teen Titans is comprised of an eclectic group of teens who each have a distinct personality and point of view that McKeever manages to infuse in every scene. The rotating artists haven’t hurt the flow of the book at all as they all have fairly comparable styles and each seems to have a decent grasp on the way each character looks and feels.

These issues have the teens fighting against their future selves who have come back to the past to ensure that the fascist society the Titans first ran across before Infinite Crisis. The Titans of Tomorrow lead by old man Lex Luthor imprison the justice League leaving the Teen Titans to face the cosmic sized threat of Starro the Conquerer without any adult supervision. Truths are revealed about future Connor and Bart and the nature of Robin and Wonder Girl’s relationship is dissected over dinner. The characters are all wonderfully individual. I know I keep coming back to that but so many writers of not only teens but team books make the mistake of not allowing each member of the team a distinct voice that it really shines through when one does such a wonderful job.

MICE TEMPLAR #1-3

Stories of ancient sects of knighthood have flourished for hundreds of years. The idea of a lost or orphaned child being mentored by the last remaining member of some clandestine group has long been a staple of fantasy fiction and often it is done with no thought to the characters involved and rather sees them as secondary to the plot. Bryan Glass and Mike Oeming seem to be trying to avoid that fate as they weave an intricate story about secret sects, marauding rats and hordes of giant fire ants along with some fine character work. It isn’t the main plot that makes Mice Templar so interesting as it has been done to death (even with mice as characters in recent years) but the characters involved in the story. The archetypes are there, the broken old Knight, the orphan child with a mysterious connection to the order but Oeming and Glass have made the story fresh. The art sets a tone that is at once bleak and hopeful as these tiny heroes battle overwhelming odds to stay alive.