I don’t remember seeing any sign of All-Star Section Eight in September’s solicits, which would have been issue 4, but here’s issue 5 for October. Is it a meta-joke? There’s no issue 4 because Six-Pack was blackout drunk the entire month? DC is starting up another weekly Batman series, Batman and Robin Eternal, which will supposedly prominently feature Cassandra Cain. Which is good, but I’m not buying a weekly series just for an occasional bit of Cass. Give her an ongoing series, and you can easily have my money, DC. It’s there for the taking.
Something I wasn’t expecting: Marvel isn’t rolling out all
those brand-new first issues the same month. That is almost a form of restraint,
though more likely they just enjoy the idea of inundating the shelves with
first issues for two months, rather than one. Ms. Marvel will still be on her
old numbering (issue 19), and some of the Secret Wars mini-series will still be
going (including the main one, but at least it’ll finally be finishing). Marvel
Zombies returns after an unexplained one-month absence. There’s an Agents of Atlas
one-shot. On the one hand, it’d be nice to see those characters, as I haven’t
since their last attempt at an ongoing died back in 2010. On the other hand,
it’s not Jeff Parker writing them, and it’s an alternate universe version.
Also, it’s a $5 book.
The thing about this relaunch, or whatever Marvel’s going to
call it is, there isn’t much new I’m interested in. It’s mostly things I was
already buying. Ms. Marvel? Yes, I will continue to buy that book, as it’s
still being written by Wilson, and drawn by Alphona and Miyazawa. Unbeatable
Squirrel Girl? Absolutely still buying that, even if the idea Squirrel Girl
couldn’t have prevented all this Incursion nonsense is absurd. Deadpool (which
hasn’t shown up yet, but is supposed to be Gerry Duggan and Mike Hawthorne)?
Yes, most likely. Scott Lang’s new series? Yeah, probably.
Beyond that, there’s not much, certainly not in what I saw
this month. I might have considered that A.I.M. book with Hawkeye, Songbird,
and Squirrel Girl, but I’m not wild about the art. Why couldn’t Doreen have landed on the same team as Kamala, the
current Thor, and Miles Morales? Although I find it hard to get fired up for
team books in general these days, and I'll go on at length about that some other time.
I might consider the Dr. Strange book, but the idea they’re
touting that sometimes he’ll take a mystic axe to the problem now is perhaps a
sign this isn’t quite what I’m looking for. I enjoy Dr. Strange occasionally
popping a problem in the jaw as much as the next person, but an axe seems a bit
much. I’m neutral on Jason Aaron as a writer, and while I generally like Chris
Bachalo’s artwork, it can be a real muddled mess sometimes, and you’re never
sure which you’re getting. Also, the first issue is $5 bucks. I know, it’s
supposed to have more pages, but I still tend to balk at that.
Outside those companies, the Atomic Robo mini-series reaches
its second issue, and I see IDW is going to produce a Back to the Future
mini-series. I’m not sure if that will work. The strengths of some films can be
translated to a comic page, but not so with others. There have been some decent
Ghostbusters comics as I understand it, but there was an attempt at a Man with
No Name book a couple of years ago (Christos Gage wrote it), and it didn’t pan
out, because you can’t recreate a Leone film on a silent page. Back to the
Future is much closer to the former than the latter, so I guess it has a chance,
but I have my doubts.
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