The Malaise Ignores Calendars

I already know there's one book I'm buying in January, Touched by a Demon, courtesy of last month's Dark Horse solicits. Two, if you count volume 16 of Yotsuba! Now that everyone else is showing off what they'll have to kick off the year, is there anything else?

What's new? DC has a bunch more of the K.O. stuff, but even featuring Batgirl in one isn't going to get me interested. Especially since the solicit describes Jon Kent needing to teach a bunch of rookie heroes how to do things. Since it doesn't mention as Batgirl helping him, it reads like she's being treated as a rookie. Boo, DC, boo.

Marvel has a bunch of new X-books, including a Rogue ongoing. But it's written by Erica Schultz, who didn't impress me on Laura Kinney: Wolverine. That's a "No." There was also a book I initially read as "Indigenous X-Men," which seemed like Marvel showing their hand more than usual in terms of marketing. It's actually Inglorious X-Men, and is basically X-Force, so I'm not buying it either way, but it's telling, the assumptions my brain makes about Marvel.

OK, so none of that's getting my money. Is there anything that is? Well, Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows are doing another Babs book, The Blood Road South, so I'm in. Daniel Ziegler and Nick Cagnetti have Spirit of the Shadows, about a guy who is back after being dead, and forced to fight crime and whatnot. That one is from Oni Press, and it was more I found the cover striking than the concept seeming so original I couldn't pass it up.

Via Titan Manga, there's Susano Hara and Shino Sakamoto's 3-Minute Bodyguard Yoko-Chan, which is basically what it sounds like, in that the bullied kid can only afford this super-tough lady protecting him for 3 minutes a day.

What's ending? I didn't see a solicit for Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu, and a quick search led to a comment the series is ending at the conclusion of 2025, so they can restart it, again, in February, possibly still with MacKay writing it.

And the rest: Invisible Woman is being targeted by aliens for some reason in Fantastic Four, and Felicia is teaming up with Daredevil in Black Cat. Nova: Centurion has got Rich either trying to arrest or fight Ravenous, but more importantly, the solicitation mentions Cammi! She was a character I really enjoyed back during Annihilation, who never popped up during all the Abnett/Lanning cosmic Marvel stuff, but excelled in Avengers Arena.

Then Dennis Hopeless killed her in a Cosmic Ghost Rider mini-series, of all the fucking stupid bullshit things to waste a character on. So if MacKay's brought her back, I'm super-pumped. Or as super-pumped as I get these days, which is really more like moderately hype, at best.

Batgirl reveals Nyssa can't be trusted. An al'Ghul, being duplicitous? *shocked Pikachu face* And, on the off-chance I do buy that Black Label series Gabriel Hardman is writing, Batman may not believe Green Arrow and Question's claims. Which hopefully means they'll whup his ass. Probably not, but it's not in continuity, Hardman can downplay Batman's competence as he does the same to his intelligence if he wants. Always here for Batman having bad days.