HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
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AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #546, $3.99, 64 Pages
Written by Dan Slott, Art by Steve McNiven, Dexter Vines, and Morry Hollowell

Whoa boy - here we go! Brand New Day starts with this issue.

The road to this point has been fraught with turbulence. Most recently we have seen the public “flap” between J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada over the ending of One More Day (though both have publically maintained a professional overtone throughout the discussion, you know all is not perfect), and when it was all said and done, fans seemed to fall pretty well on JMS’s side. The reboot was confusing, illogical, and ultimately didn’t fit into Spider-Man’s character (a deal with the devil? Come on!).

But what is done is done. There is no denying that something had to be done with Spider-Man’s character. No matter what you may say, he was burdened with an overabundance of bad continuity (and I am not talking about the marriage per se - think more recent), and a mild reboot would have fixed a lot of that. So accepting One More Day as it is - as we really have no choice, it is up to the new creative teams to see if they can salvage some good from a fairly bad situation. With Amazing Spider-Man shipping three times a month, we should know pretty quickly if things are going to improve.

BAT LASH #2 (OF 6), $2.99, 32 Pages, DC Comics
Written by Peter Brandvold & Sergio Aragones; Art by John Severin; Cover by Walter Simonson

There has been some mixed reviews about this mini - but all easy to explain. Almost all of the bad reviews seem to be coming from people who remember the original Bat Lash, and seemed to miss the fact that this is intended to be an origin story. Of course Bat isn’t going to be as competent as he would be when he was a fully-fleshed-out gunslinger! This is the story of how he gets there.

This mini started of strong, and should finish well. It probably wouldn’t make for a good ongoing - Bat Lash just isn’t that deep a character, but the occasional story here and there isn’t a bad idea. Plus it gives Jonah Hex a little company in DC’s Western Universe.

HULK #1, $2.99, 32 Pages, Marvel Comics
Written by Jeph Loeb, Art by Ed McGuiness, Dexter Vines, and Jason Keith

Whoa boy - another hot button comic for Marvel - the brand new “red” Hulk. Coming off of an outstanding run on the Incredible Hulk from Planet Hulk and beyond, fans are scared to death. And why not? A brand new Hulk, a brand new Abomination, both with seemingly no ties to the original… what isn’t to dear?

Jeph Loeb is an outstanding writer - and with some luck he will make something out of this. It is too early to really trash this one yet… Loeb deserves more credit than that. Even still - the wait for this one is a nervous one.

JLA CLASSIFIED #50, $2.99, 32 Pages, DC Comics
Written by Roger Stern; Art by John Byrne & Mark Farmer; Covers by Joshua Middleton

This is being billed as the reunion of the Roger Stern/John Byrne team - but really the only thing most people care about is Roger Stern doing a DC story arc. The man is a comic icon, and it is always good to see his name on the byline of anything I might happen to be reading. JLA Classified arcs are definitely hit and miss, but this is a good month to pick this title up. It’s pretty well a sure thing that it is going to be worth your money.

NOVA #10, $2.99, 32 Pages, Marvel Comics
Written by Dan Abnett, Art by Wellinton Alves and Guru

Man, this is just great. I was wondering how they were going to work Nova and Gamora. I saw that they were going to be enemies - and that didn’t quite sit right. But with the Phalanx in the mix, it makes the story just sizzle. This issue should be devoted to the two of them trapped together, forced to help each other to survive. And you just know she is going to do whatever she can to weaken his resistance to the Phalanx virus, just as he is going to try and get her to fight it.

Abnett has danced around Annihilation: Conquest admirably. You know Nova is going to burst onto the scene at some point, but keeping him away for now is keeping him from stealing the show and diminishing the other great characters involved. These little personal side-quests are doing the job nicely. This is the best Marvel book on the shelves right now - and all of you should be picking it up.

SPOTLIGHT PICK OF THE WEEK

TWELVE #1 (OF 12), $2.99, 32 Pages, Marvel Comics
Written by J. Michael Straczynski, Art by Chris Weston, Gerry Leach, and Chris Chuckry

It might seem strange to dig up a bunch of old characters and call that fresh and new, but for Marvel, it actually kind of is. Long ago they sacrificed some of their older characters that might seem cheesy by today’s standards, while DC maintained a lot of them and allowed them to grow. The DCU is all the richer for it. Is the Twelve an effort to make up for that? Tough to say, but it could well do a lot to remedy that weakness in the Marvel character universe.

The preview really didn’t serve to showcase the best showings of the characters involved, but it did give us a glimpse of what to expect. It is tough to promise that this issue will be awesome, but there are high hopes for the success of these characters. Many of them sticking around would add a lot of much-needed dimension to the Marvel Universe.

DC COMICS

52 AFTERMATH THE FOUR HORSEMEN #6 (OF 6) $2.99 Now: $2.69
BAT LASH #2 (OF 6) $2.99 Now: $2.69
BATMAN STRIKES #41 $2.25 Now: $1.99
GEN 13 #16 $2.99 Now: $2.69
GREEN ARROW BLACK CANARY #4 $2.99 Now: $2.69
INFINITY INC #5 $2.99 Now: $2.69
JLA CLASSIFIED #50 $2.99 Now: $2.69
SUPERMAN #672 $2.99 Now: $2.69
WONDER GIRL #5 (OF 6) $2.99 Now: $2.69

DEVILS DUE

SHEENA #4 $3.50 Now: $2.99

IMAGE COMICS

INFINITE HORIZON #2 (OF 6) $2.99 Now: $2.69

MARVEL COMICS

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #546 $3.99 Now: $3.49
BEYOND TP $14.99 Now: $11.99
CIVIL WAR CHRONICLES #7 $4.99 Now: $4.39
ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA TP VOL 04 $16.99 Now: $13.99
HULK #1 $2.99 Now: $2.69
HULK #1 MCGUINNESS RETAILER VAR $59.99
MIGHTY AVENGERS #7 $2.99 Now: $2.74
NEW WARRIORS TP VOL 01 DEFIANT $14.99 Now: $11.99
NOVA #10 $2.99 Now: $2.69
ONSLAUGHT REBORN #5 (OF 5) $2.99 Now: $2.69
PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #15 $2.99 Now: $2.69
TWELVE #1 (OF 12) $2.99 Now: $2.69
ULTIMATE X-MEN TP VOL 17 SENTINELS $17.99 Now: $14.99
WOLVERINE #61 $2.99 Now: $2.69
X-FACTOR #27 $2.99 Now: $2.59

NOTE: Opinions here may not reflect those of X-World Comics LLC or it’s staff and are solely the opinions of the writer.

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