The Start Of The New Year Is A Mixed Bag

The first thing I noticed in the January releases was a Henchgirl trade, but it's being released through Dark Horse. Not a complaint; Dark Horse does good work on collections, and I have the issues as single issues, anyway, just surprised. I figured Scout Comics would release the trade like they did the individual issues. But maybe it's beyond their current abilities. Or Gudsnuk got a better offer from Dark Horse? I don't know how all that works.

At DC, it looks as though Blue Beetle will just be wrapping up its first arc, which is not totally encouraging. I still think more creative teams should go for shorter arcs to open books, just work them into whatever larger story they're trying to tell. But give the audience some sort of conclusion, for the sense of forward momentum if nothing else.

Also, DC is releasing a series of one-shots featuring some of the characters showing up in their current TV shows. Vixen, the Atom, although Brandon Routh plays Ray Palmer and the comic is about Ryan Choi. I like Ryan Choi so I'm OK with that, but given they gave him what seems like the TV version of the costume (which is terrible looking), it's maybe a little curious. Of more relevance to me, one of the one-shots is about the Ray. So yes, I will probably buy that. I imagine it's going to be a reintroduction, a bit of an origin story, so I'll probably be reading to see how it varies from his '90s origin. At least he appears to be keeping his yellow-and-black jacket. I really love that jacket.

And the Kamandi Challenge. I don't know what to make of that, other than Dan Didio should probably stop including himself in these things. The original DC Challenge was mess, right? I know a lot of people are fond of it for how crazy it was, but they still acknowledge it was a mess. Is that what DC's shooting for, or do they think it will come together better somehow? Are we going to find out Editorial is tipping off the next creative team as to what the current one is doing, to give them time to prep? I don't think I'm going to get it, but I imagine I'll want to at least find someone reviewing it as each issue comes out, in case it's an entertaining trainwreck.

Wait, IDW has been releasing two Wynonna Earp mini-series at the same time? They have a listing for the Doc Holliday one I knew about, but there's another one called Sisters they say is going to be on issue 3 by then.  I wasn't too interested in the first, but the other I'll at least look into.

At Marvel, Ms. Marvel is back, and has not started over with a new number 1. Imagine that. On the other hand, my theory that X-Men '92 was canceled to start up again in the new year as X-Men '93 was off-base. It's still canceled, but c'mon, you wouldn't have been surprised if they had done that, right? Monsters Unleashed, where all the heroes that were so mad at each other five minutes ago team-up to hopefully lose to a bunch of sci-fi monster characters, kicks off. While the Inhumans and X-Men are busy punching each other.

Deadpool the Duck? Sigh, pass.

Deadpool is double-shipping, not a surprise, but it's a month with two concluding storylines, as both Wade's showdown with Madcap in the present, and the 2099 storyarc are ending in issues 24 and 25, respectively. That could be promising.

As it turns out, my fears Nova was pulling a bait-and-switch were unfounded, as Richard Rider is actually back. So perhaps I'll buy that to show my support. I did shake my head at the solicit trying to pose it as some sort of problem that Sam is already Earth's Nova, and where does that leave Rich? Uh, the entire rest of the universe, which has no Nova Corps that I know of? Send Rich back to space! he didn't want any part of Earth the first time they did the Civil War dumbassery, get him away from the aftermath of the sequel!

Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat is still not canceled. Hooray!