A Late of Summer of Possibilities

The August solicitations actually had a lot of new books, from a variety of publishers. Which is nice, except I can't say any of them filled me with an urgent desire to buy them. More like, "Ehhh, well, maybe." Also, Marvel seems to be celebrating a crapload of anniversary issues. Amazing Spider-Man 1000, Thor 800, 65 years of the FF, 60 years of Mary Jane Watson, and so on.

What's new? Let's see, DC has a Deadshot one-shot titled Next Level: One Shot. Do I trust Gerry Duggan to write a Deadshot I find acceptable, following in the footsteps of Ostrander or Simone? Absolutely not, moving on!

Dark Horse has The Big Shakedown, by Jordan Blum, Tim Seeley and Scott Koblish, about a P.I. trying to find a missing person to earn enough to get out of an earthquake ravaged and abandoned Los Angeles. The idea has some potential, but I haven't found that Seeley's writing works for me. Iman Vellani is writing a mini-series called Chachu under Image, with Marianna Ignazzi and Jordie Bellaire on the art, set in California in the late '70s, who wants to help her retired P.I. uncle find his missing wife, who was a missing person he once found.

In post-apocalyptic veins, Image has Sean Murphy's The Last Driver, about a guy who has to make some kind of road trip in a world where human-driven cars are outlawed. The art looks good, but I don't know about Murphy's writing. And Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray are writing a book called Denver, where it's one of the few stable cities to survive rising sea levels, but it may be about fall from within.

In collected edition news, Abrams has the 2nd volume of something called The Undertaker, by Xavier Dorison and Ralph Meyer, about a Civil War mortician and his escapades. I'd have to get the first volume, but I might be willing to do that. Raptura Comics has a collection of Diego Agrimbau and Juan Manuel Tumburus' Nadia and the Nomobots, about one of the last humans trying to continue living in a world of robots that take pills to feel things. Marvel is releasing 2 volume deluxe hardcovers of all their Indiana Jones comics. Would you pay $75 for each volume? Congrats, you're freer with your money than I am.

And in manga news, Viz has the first volume of Boichi's The Marshal King, which is some sort of Western manga, except the Wild West has continued for thousands of years, and one marshal is trying to find some MacGuffin that will help him bring law and order to the land. 

What's ending? Nothing.

And the rest: As mentioned, August's issue of Fantastic Four marks the 65th anniversary. Batgirl may have gotten the memories she needs to solve the murders, but apparently they're memories she was better off losing. Does Cass need more angst in her backstory?

D'Orc, Generation X-23, and Marc Spector: Moon Knight are all on their 7th issues. They're dealing with, respectively, a swamp monster, a guest appearance by Wolverine, and Moon Knight is trying to form a new Midnight Suns. Midnight Sons? Whichever. None of those light my world on fire.

The Deadman and Junk Punch are on issue 3. The former's solicit suggests Boston Brand is on some perilous journey through the underworld, and the latter, I'm not sure, actually. The cops are trying to shoot the protagonist for some reason. I'd imagine because she keeps punching them in the junk. And Vampyrates is on issue 2.

Ahoy resolicited the fifth issue of Babs: Black Road South, which means both of the Babs mini-series have had trouble staying on a monthly schedule. I don't know if it's Ennis, Burrows, or Ahoy having printing problems, but maybe they should just stop soliciting it as monthly. I think they can ship every other month, so if they just promised that, it would be fine.

So maybe 9 continuing books, although half those titles are on shaky ground with me, and maybe 4 other books, although I doubt even half of those will actually get purchased when the time comes. I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm just in the wrong state of mind these days.