ON THE SHELF THIS WEEK
by Craig Reade

DARK HORSE
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USAGI YOJIMBO #102, $2.99, 24 Pages. By Stan Sakai. Issue #100 was great, but I must admit it is nice to be right back to business. When you have one writer/artist writing the same character for so many years, and maintaining this level of consistency, it is tough to write blurbs without repeating yourself a dozen times over. Sometimes, though, I wish Sakai would do another comics book. Not that I would ever want to see Usagi come to an end, but he has such a gift, it would be kind of nice to see what else he could do.

DC COMICS
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52 WEEK #51, $2.50, 32 Pages. Written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid; Breakdowns by Keith Giffen; Art by various; Backup features by Waid and various. So last week was the 52 bulge – issue #50 along with 4 World War III tie in issues. Was it good? Of course – the Black Adam storyline was arguably the best of the bunch, and last week’s issue was the climax. Was it worth it? Not really. Issue #50 was worth it – it was an excellent chapter of 52, but the World War III mini was largely frivolous and essentially a waste. Not every event needs to be awesome, but DC gambled a lot of reader goodwill with what amounted to an effort to increase sales.

ACTION COMICS #848, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Fabian Nicieza; Art by Allan Goldman. A new team on Action Comics – hopefully Nicieza will manage to please the fans until the Last Son story picks up again in June with issue #851. A lot of fans have been really critical of these fill-in issues on titles like this one and Wonder Woman – they should be more upset with the marketing gimmicks like World War III solely intended to boost sales than this. The publishing line-wide shake up at the start of One Year Later ended up being a pretty huge mistake, and DC suffered a hit in sales. To compound the backlash from the mistake, the “big-name talent” they got to put together certain marquee titles just didn’t turn in their work on time. You can’t just expect DC to hold of on Action Comics, one of their biggest sellers, for an indefinite amount of time, just because the people they hired to turn in a monthly book didn’t get the job done. You just can’t run a business that way. Nicieza should be well up to the task of telling a fill in story. In the meantime, direct your anger at the interruption towards the deserving party – the creative team.

AMAZONS ATTACK #1 (OF 6), $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Will Pfeifer; Art and Cover by Pete Woods. The tide shifts so rapidly these days. A “major event” just isn’t going to be well received right now from any publishing company, but it seems like DC has really done the most to foul the water of late. So seeing DC release the first “major comics event of 2007!” doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Will Pfiefer does, however. If anyone can make the premise of the Amazons attacking America work, it is him. Curious to see what he plans to do with this one.

BLUE BEETLE #14, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by John Rogers; Art by Rafael Albuquerque. So Rogers is off to a decent start, but there are worse ways to start off a book than solving one of the major mysteries of the title right off the bat. He hasn’t done much to improve the book, but it is still sitting pretty comfortably in that “Solid, fun read” range. New story arc this week – could be worth checking out. Especially for fans of Guy Gardner.

CATWOMAN #66, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Will Pfeifer; Art by David Lopez and Alvaro Lopez. This is the longest that Catwoman has been this interesting – well, ever. And thinking about it, Holly has basically become Selina’s sidekick, which is just weird. Interesting, but weird! Pfeifer has taken everything the DC Editors have thrown at him in terms of major events and gimmicks, and kept this title fresh and interesting. It is always a good month to try this book out.

CONNOR HAWKE DRAGONS BLOOD #6 (OF 6), $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Chuck Dixon; Art and Cover by Derec Donovan. And this series quickly comes to an end. Dixon has a way with these “street level” heroes – his stint on Nightwing was outstanding and I am still missing Way of the Rat. In any case, it looks like he managed to work his majic on Connor Hawke as well, and turned in a great story. This one should make a decent trade purchase if you happened to miss the issues.

JSA CLASSIFIED #25, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Tony Bedard; Art by Dennis Calero. A stand-alone issue this month focusing on Alan Scott. This title is right back on track with what made it so good in the first place – short arcs highlighting a member of the Justice Society. After this Green Lantern issue, we will be treated to a Wildcat two-parter, followed by another one-shot featuring Jakeem Thunder. A great resource if you are a newer reader and aren’t quite up-to-date on some of these lesser-known characters.

JUSTICE #11 (OF 12), $3.50, 32 Pages. Written by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross; Art by Doug Braithwaite and Ross. A classic example of a book that just isn’t aimed at me. Personally, I can’t see what is so exciting about it. Alex Ross’s art really isn’t all that special to me (in terms of comic art is it unique, but as a painter he isn’t particularly amazing). And the first couple issues of this series in particular bored me to tears. The few I have flipped through since I dropped this one haven’t really done anything to improve my opinion. It continues to be reviewed extremely well, however, so chances are you are already reading it. To each their own, I suppose!

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #5, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Geoff Johns; Art by Fernando Pasarin; Cover by Alex Ross. Barely four issues to establish itself, and we are already getting a crossover? Talk about compounding one mistake with another. Thankfully, it will be a short setback that Johns will have no difficulty recovering from, but it does seem like DC forgot what spiked its sales in the first place. It wasn’t crossovers, or big names, or mega events, it was quality storytelling. Marvel is the undisputed king of the marketing game in comics – why DC is trying to take them on that way when they were doing so well just putting out consistently good comics is beyond me. Hopefully after next issue, this title will have a nice long unmolested run, and finally establish itself.

SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #29, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Mark Waid; Art by Barry Kitson and Mick Gray. Waid has been on this title for so long, through a couple relaunches, if memory serves. Like this title or no, you have to give this team credit for consistency. This issue will be exactly as exciting or as boring as the very first issue you read. Well worth trying out – and if you do happen to enjoy the issue, you can bet that this title will serve you well for years to come. Never been a fan of this title, but Waid and Kitson do deserve credit for at least that. And, there is a trade available this week if you find you like it and are curious to see more. [i]Also Available: SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES VOL 4, $14.99, 192 Pages[/b]. Written by Mark Waid and Tony Bedard; Art by Barry Kitson. Collecting issues #20-25.

TEEN TITANS GO #42, $2.25, 32 Pages. Written by J. Torres; Art by Mike Norton and Lary Stucker. This is the first time I have ever looked at an issue of Go! with any skepticism – Raven’s fractured emotional “beings” never seemed like a concept that was good for more than one story – not something that ever seemed like an idea that could make a comeback. Well, they are trying it anyway. Hope Torres has a good idea with this one.

WONDER WOMAN #8, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Jodi Picoult; Art and Cover by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson. Picoult’s story seems to be getting more interesting – though still not quite there. You can tell she is a novelist by reading this story – it has been pointed out time and time again, but you can’t just take a successful novelist and stick them on a comic and expect an outstanding story. As you can already see with this arc, the story has a build – and while that is great when you have the entire story right in front of you, serial stories require punch with each and every chapter. You don’t have throwaway chapters – you need something to hook the reader right off the bat. It also seems like Picoult has only a cursory familiarity with the character, almost as if she is writing based on a short Wonder Woman profile, and not from a well-researched knowledge base. Ah well, not to worry. Gail Simone is up to bat soon enough. That is something well worth waiting for.

VERTIGO

CROSSING MIDNIGHT #6, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Mike Carey; Art by Jim Fern and Mark Pennington. This title has earned some decent reviews so far, but are they genuine? Carey no doubt has a lot of fans who crossed over to this title from Lucifer, and usually when a writer has a devout fanbase like that it is tough to tell whether raves on a book are genuine or not. Some of the less positive reviews indicate that Crossing Midnight is slow, boring even. In his defense, Carey does weave a pretty intricate story when writing an ongoing, and designs his stories so that you do need to read for the long term to really appreciate it. That doesn’t always work in the serial format, but he has done ok with it in the past. This is a rare case of “stick with it” – knowing Carey, it won’t be long before you can’t put it down.

EXTERMINATORS #16, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Simon Oliver; Art by Tony Moore and John Lucas. This four issue arc comes to an end this month. It is kind of strange, but Vertigo quietly beefed up their line. For a while it seemed like they had one miss after another, and with long-standing books like Y and Lucifer coming to an end, it looked like Fables was the only thing they had going. Now they have two Fables books, this title, DMZ, Testament seems to be turning around, Crossing Midnight is working for a lot of readers. And Hellblazer looks to be on track for the long-term with the new creative team. Looks like Vertigo’s mojo is the last thing we need to worry about right now.

WILDSTORM

ASTRO CITY THE DARK AGE BOOK TWO #3, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Kurt Busiek; Art by Brent Anderson. This book is just impossible to get excited about anymore. Sure, it is a fantastic piece of work. But we are lucky if it comes out every three months. That is just way too long between issues to maintain an appeal. If you aren’t specifically looking for it, how are you supposed to know when it hits? Busiek has a great story here, and only the fraction of the audience it could have if this team sucked it up and put this book out monthly. A real shame.

RED MENACE #6 (OF 6), $2.99, 32 Pages.Written by Danny Bilson, Paul DeMeo and Adam Brody; Art by Jerry Ordway and Al Vey. This title started to take a turn into some fresh ground, but it may have been too little too late to turn this into something really special. For what it was, though, it hasn’t been bad – depending on how it ends, of course.

MARVEL COMICS
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CABLE DEADPOOL VOL 6 PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS TP, $14.99, 168 Pages. Written by Fabian Nicieza, Art by Staz Johnson and Reilly Brown. Civil War has just ended, so it seems like the time for all the arcs that crossed into Civil War to come out in trade. This is one such arc – focusing a lot on Deadpool and his efforts to gain a little notoriety by helping to hunt down heroes who refuse to register. As you might expect with Deadpool, the journey itself is hilarious. A very strong arc.

CIVIL WAR FANTASTIC FOUR TP, $17.99, 184 Pages. Written by J. Michael Straczynski and Dwayne McDuffie, Art by Mike McKone. While it doesn’t look like there are going to be any permanent, long-lasting changes to the Fantastic Four based on the events of this arc (but really, did you honestly think there would be?), this did turn out to be a pretty strong read. Reed’s motivations seemed totally irrational in the event itself, but Straczynski did a good job of making some sense out of them. A good read if you are a Fantastic Four fan who is baffled by the Richards’ portrayal in that event.

DAREDEVIL #96, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Ed Brubaker, Art by Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano, and Matt Hollingsworth. After a year of breakneck-paced stories, reading something that is a little less tense almost seems like a let down. Almost. This arc is a much-needed breather (still good, don’t get me wrong) – hopefully it isn’t a let down to anyone who really enjoyed the stories that came before.

EXILES #93, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Chris Claremont, Art by Paul Pelletier, Rick Maygar, and Wil Quinana. With Austen gone, it does seem that Claremont has become the internet whipping boy of choice. While his run on Exiles hasn’t really been nearly as good as this title has been, it has shown a little improvement over the past few issues. Granted, it isn’t going to be wholly satisfactory to hard-core long-time Exiles fans, but it is a fairly decent, if generic, read right now. Not a ton of potential for more, but there are worse books out there.

FALLEN SON DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA AVENGERS, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Jeph Loeb, Art by Ed McGuinness. The death of Captain America is certainly worth this kind of attention (several one-shot specials and tie-in arcs), but there has been some negative backlash to this incident. But in all seriousness, Marvel hasn’t really done anything wrong here. Most of the backlash stems from the belief that Captain America will be alive and kicking 6 months down the road, and that this is all marketing and no substance. Based on Marvel’s recent history, can you blame people for this point of view? Once Bucky came back, all bets were off. It is probably a forgone conclusion that Captain America will at some point come back (all major heroes always do), but with luck it won’t turn out to be as contrived as many fans fear.

FANTASTIC FOUR #545, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Dwayne McDuffie, Art by Paul Pelletier, Rick Maygar, and Paul Mounts. So there is a new Fantastic Four – at least in the short term. A new writer as well – which isn’t sitting well with fans of J. Michael Straczynski. To McDuffie’s credit, he has managed to tell a fairly entertaining, if formulaic, Fantastic Four story. The cover of this issue features Galactus and his heralds – you knew that he would show up again at some point with the movie coming out. McDuffie is off to a promising start – hopefully he is fully up to speed once the team is officially back together.

HEROES FOR HIRE #9, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Zeb Wells, Art by Clay Mann, Terry Pallot, and Brad Anderson. Zeb Wells got off to an OK start last issue – still not great, but he had a pretty big hole to dig out of. The fact that he was starting off on the last issue of a story arc doesn’t help matters much. Even with this cast intact, if Wells drops the “edgy” attitude, and dials back on the salaciousness, this title could be a pretty good read. Though if this arc doesn’t go well, the future isn’t going to be bright for this book.

NEW EXCALIBUR #19, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Chris Claremont, Art by Scot Eaton, John dell, and Peter Pantazis. Hmmm, a Captain Britain from an alternate universe? Wow, talk about an obvious open door for the inevitable New Excalibur Exiles crossover. In all fairness, Claremont’s writing on this book has been particularly good of late. Maybe not up to modern standards for story depth, but a fairly fun casual read.

POWERS #24, $2.95, 32 Pages. Written by Brian Michael Bendis, Art by Michael Avon Oeming. It has been two years (well, counting this as a monthly book) since Powers moved to Marvel’s ICON imprint, and with each successive issue, the extreme decompression of this title shows more and more. There are interesting things happening here, but things are so stretched out that it doesn’t really seem like much more than a few issues of story has actually been told at this point. An interesting story, but it would be so much better if things weren’t so padded.

PUNISHER PRESENTS BARRACUDA MAX #3 (OF 5), $3.99, 32 Pages. Written by Garth Ennis, Art by Goran Parlov and Dan Brown. This isn’t quite as violent as expected to this point, but you can bet that won’t last long. Ennis is doing an excellent job with this character so far, and Punisher fans seem to be happy. Will be a good one to pick up if you enjoy the ongoing MAX Punisher series.

SILENT WAR #4 (OF 6), $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by David Hine, Art by Frazer Irving. This series just seems to be flying by, which is both good and bad. Good because the wait does not seem like an eternity, bad because when it is over, who knows if there will be another follow-up or not. Maybe if we are lucky, we will get a Hine penned Quicksilver and/or the Inhumans ongoing.

Craig’s Pick of the Week

FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN #35, $2.99, 32 Pages. Written by Dwayne McDuffie; Art by Pop Mhan and Rob Stull. This is a heartbreaker. This series may have never been Manhunter good, but it was up there. Jason Rusch had an uphill battle with the fans – first from those who didn’t like the way Ronnie Raymond was basically forgotten (and how his death was quickly added to Identity Crisis), and later was criticized for being and “affirmative action” character, as DC was quickly killing and replacing heroes in a fairly transparent effort to be more politically correct. The thing was – thanks in large part to the work of Stuart Moore, Jason Rusch really grew into the mantle so much more than any of the other “PC recasts” have. This was a solid book, and does deserve a much longer life than it turns out to have had. Hopefully this isn’t the last we will see of Jason Rusch’s Firestorm.

NOTE: Opinions here may not reflect those of X-World Comics LLC or it’s staff and are solely the opinions of the writer.Want to comment on this week’s newsletter? Give your feedback here!

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