An Unexpected Reversal of Trends

So, the most recent batch of solicits. Quite a surprise. I used almost two full lines of my spiral notebook to write everything down, which hadn't happened since the solicits for October. Of course, a bunch of the stuff I wrote down for October I either didn't buy - all that Age of Revelation stuff - or it never showed up - Tuatha. So who knows what things will look like when February actually arrives.

What's new? Marvel's still spitting out more X-related books, and setting aside the terrible mistake handing Deadpool to Benjamin Percy is likely to be, this includes Generation X-23, written by Jody Houser, with Jacopo Camagni as artist. At least Houser is going to use Gabby as part of the cast right from the start, but the last time I bought a book with Laura Kinney, it didn't go great (see my dropping Laura Kinney: Wolverine after 3 issues.) I have better success when I wait until the book ends and I hear positive word of mouth. Still, my luck's got to turn eventually, right? Right?

Besides that, Jed MacKay's latest Moon Knight reboot is here, Marc Spector: Moon Knight. Is MacKay just determined to run through all historical Moon Knight titles before he calls it quits? At least Devmalya Pramanik is listed as artist. Hopefully he'll draw more issues this time around. And Kelly Thompson and Gurihiru are bringing another Jeff adventure with It's Jeff Meets Daredevil. Unless Matt Murdock's gotten real kinky, Jeff is safe from the Daredevil girlfriend curse.

IDW's releasing another Rocketeer mini-series, Rocketeer: The Island. The solicitation said it was from Dave Stevens, which quite confused me, since he's been dead for 15 years. But apparently the script idea - Cliff rescues Amelia Earhart - was from an outline of Stevens', but John Layman and Jacob Edgar are the writer/artist team bringing it to life. I don't know that I'll buy it, but it, along with Muppets Noir by Roger Langridge and Declan Shalvey (from Dynamite) seemed worth mentioning regardless.

Image has Brett Bean's D'Orc, about a half-orc, half-dwarf and some weird shield, that are somehow going to destroy the world, if the world doesn't destroy them first. It sounds like kind of dark comedy, but maybe not? Mad Cave has Is Ted OK? about an extremely neurotic and isolated guy who starts to have a breakdown, but a woman's attempt to help makes things worse. The description didn't really light my world on fire, but it's supposedly by Dave Chisholm, who wrote and drew Canopus, which I really liked, so, again, maybe?

What's ending? Nothing, unless I want to be a smart ass and list It's Jeff Meets Daredevil, since that's a one-shot.

Everything else: Batgirl appears to finally, after 16 issues, be wrapping up this War of Shadows. Thank Shiva, or whoever is responsible for that. Fantastic Four is still on the story about the Invisible Woman being some dire threat. Nova got his ship stolen. It'll probably be returned when the thief gets annoyed with Pip's constant calls. In Black Cat, Felicia is teaming up with Mary Jane. Who is Venom, if you were luckier than me and unaware of that particularly stupid development.

I saw someone in the House to Astonish comments section months ago refer to Kamala Khan as Poochie, because Marvel keeps trying to make her a big deal in the X-books. While I won't disagree with the wrongheadedness of making Kamala a mutant, rather than leaving her as the One Cool Inhuman, I would argue symbiotes are Poochie because Marvel is pushing those fucking things everywhere. They are in way more books, and seem to be a constant focus in one damn event or another. This is all Donny Cates' fault.

Babs: The Long Road South, and Spirit of the Shadows are both on issue 2, the latter now listed as a 5-issue mini-series. I wasn't sure what it was last month, so I appreciate knowing the potential commitment. It won't come out until March, but it was in this round of solicits so, Touched by a Demon will be at issue 2 then as well.