October's Looking Like A Promising Month

So the last several months haven't brought much to discuss in the solicitations. Maybe a new mini-series to consider trying, or the usual wavering about whether to drop a Marvel title or not. Incremental changes. Well, October has said to hell with that minimalist bullshit, many things to discuss.

First order of business, I made the decision last week to start buying Giant Days in single issues, starting in August. Granted I've only bought the first trade so far, and even counting the trades I've flipped though in bookstores - which I will purchase eventually, I'm deliberate about trade buying -

Deadpool: [When he says, "deliberate", he means cheap.]

Shut up Wade, you ruined the surprise. As I was saying, I'm a dozen issues behind even going by trades, but I really enjoy the wacky adventures of those college ladies. And the book sticks to its monthly schedule, so there will be a new issue to purchase in October.

In other good news, Copperhead is returning with a new story arc, and even better, new Atomic Robo mini-series! I said this last year, but Atomic Robo is one of the relatively few things I get excited for every time it comes out (even if I wasn't thrilled by The Temple of Od).

On DC's side of things, Cave Carson is absent from the solicitations. Maybe it was 12 issues and out, or maybe they're taking a break to let Oeming get ahead on art again. Yeah, it's probably done, but you never know. In other news, Ray Fawkes and Inaki Miranda are releasing a Ragman mini-series. I'm not familiar with either of their work, and it's updating the origin, but it could still be worth a look. There's also another Deadman mini-series, but it's by Neal Adams. Which means it's probably as nuts as Batman: Odyssey and those other, similar projects he's done the last few years. I don't think I'm up for that. Blue Beetle has a new creative team. Again, I'm not familiar with Christopher Sebela or Thony Silas' work, but if the Giffen/Kolins team wasn't doin' for ya, maybe these two will. Bernard Chang is handling writing and art chores on Batman Beyond in October, for a fight-focused issue. I didn't pick this volume up, and I bailed on the previous volume after two issues, but Chang's art wasn't the problem. Dan Jurgens' writing has never done anything for me. It isn't like nothing happens in his stories, but something about his writing keeps it from connecting with me.

And then there's Marvel, now hopefully safely past Secret Empire and into their Legacy thing, which at least got them to drastically reduce the number of books they were releasing. Granting the total is still over 60, but it was over 80 previously. Baby steps. Remarkably, none of the books I was buying got it in the neck, either.

The renumbering thing is being done in Marvel's usual half-assed manner. Mighty Captain Marvel gets to count all Carol Danvers' previous series, but Hulk doesn't do the same with Jennifer Walters'. And she should be almost to 160 issues by now. Venom (with Mark Bagley taking over as artist, meaning he isn't coming back to Scarlet Spider. Boooo, booooooooo, boo) and Despicable Deadpool are both going to new numbering, as is Cable,

Deadpool: [Well, it looks better if Nate's series ends on issue #154 because I killed him, than if it ends at #7 because nobody's buying a Cable book in 2017.]

That's true. I had forgot they were even giving him another ongoing. Oh yeah, and I'm picking up Deadpool again for the time being. Surprise.

Where was I? Right, so those books are doing the cumulative numbering, but Champions, Defenders, and Daredevil aren't. On and on. Does any of it matter? Probably not. It's mostly the same books, by the same creative team, just jumbling around the numbers and confusing everyone again.

As for the books I would be buying, or was buying, Gwenpool is going to try and take on Dr. Doom, which is stupid. You'd think her near death at Deadpool's hands would have taught her a lesson about messing with characters higher up the pecking order. Squirrel Girl is still tangling with Ultron, Ms. Marvel has a new hero showing up in Jersey City. I think it's Red Dagger, the local hero Kamala ran into when she went back to Karachi in issue #12. Iron Fist is teaming up with Sabretooth so I don't think I'll be buying that. Is Sabretooth still doing that sort of good he's been doing since Axis, or did he finally slip back into his old self? And Ben Reilly is going to have some trouble with this new version of the Hornet (I'm not ruling out the possibility Wil Sliney's art has improved or changed sufficiently I decide to stick around on the book).