Hey, Vibe’s right! There is only one more day until Blackest Night #1. It might seem like this storyline has been in the works forever, but there’s a good reason for that—writer Geoff Johns has been setting it up ever since his first Green Lantern story, 2005′s Green Lantern: Rebirth. Will the climax of “The War of Light,” which kicked off in earnest during 2007′s Sinestro Corps War storyline, justify all that build-up? We’ll find out tomorrow. Expect zombies, gore, death, vomiting and cannibalism. Or greater quantities than usual, anyway. Johns’ GL collaborators Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert are the art team, and the book is 48-pages for $3.99. It should be gross, decadent fun.
What else is coming out this week? Let’s take a look, after the jump.
All Select Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1: I know it probably seems like I mention every single one of these that comes out, but what can I say, every single one of these that comes out looks so promising, and not a one of them have proven to be a complete dud yet. This one features a Blond Phantom lead story by writer Marc Guggenheim and artist Javier Pulido, a back-up story featuring Marvex, The Super-Robot by Michael “The Guy Who Does Tales Designed To Thrizzle” Kupperman. And will there be Golden Age reprints? Hopefully! It’s all wrapped up in a cover by Russ Heath and goes for $3.99.
Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader: Were you interested in Neil Gaiman’s two-part send-off to Batman a few months back, but thought you’d wait for the trade? Ha ha, you fool! The two single issues would have only run you $8, but this hard cover collection will cost you twenty-five damn dollars. Wow. To be fair, the 128-page collection includes all of Gaiman’s other Batman stories, but that’s really just a handful of short stories (most of which I detailed here).
Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1: If Blackest Night #1 doesn’t give you enough not enough Lantern-on-Lantern, jewelry-generated action, this week also sees the launch of a three-part miniseries written by Johns and Green Lantern Corps writer Peter J. Tomasi focusing on individual characters from the various Corps..es…es. Don’t let the Ed Benes cover fool you! The interior art comes from an impressive array of contributors, including Rags Morales, Chris Sprouse, Ivan Reis and Doug Mahnke. This one’s $3.99 for 32 pages, according to the solicit; not sure if ten of those are ads or not though.
Captain America #601: Ed Brubaker keeps doing that Ed Brubaker thing here, but this time it’s double-sized…and it’s drawn by Gene Colan!
Creepy Comics #1: Dark Horse is bringing Creepy back, with this 48-page, black and white, $4.99 anthology featuring work from Neil Kleid, Joe Harris, Dan Braun, Mike Woods, Angelo Torres, Bernie Wrightson, Jason Shawn Alexander, and others. Preview here.
Dead At 17: Afterbirth #2: This is the second time I’ve seen this title in Diamond’s shipping list and laughed and laughed. Will I still think it’s funny when the third and fourth issue of the series are released?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep #1: I never read the Philip K. Dick book this new Boom series is adapting into serial comic book form, so I don’t know—do androids dream of electric sheep or not? The series should run 24-issues, which I believe makes it a maxiseries instead of a miniseries. Do people still use the word maxiseries? I hope so; I like that word. Steven Dupre provides the art, and it will be selling for $3.99. I like the logo a whole lot.
Madame Xanadu Vol. 1: Disenchanted: Wow, now that’s an attractive price point! The first ten—count ‘em, ten—issues of Matt Wagner and Amy Reader Hadley’s Vertigo ongoing are collected into a 240-page, $13 trade paperback.
Marvel Adventures Avengers #38: Artist Jacopo Camagni joins regular writer Paul Tobin for a tale of the team watching a class of thrid-graders for the day. For another all-ages adventure with the word “Avengers” in the title, the third issue of Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers is also due this week. There are two Marvel Universe-based Avengers books due out this week as well, Mighty Avengers #27 by Dan Slott and Khoi Pham, and Dark Avengers #7 by Matt Fraction and Simone Bianchi. I think that’s pretty much a textbook definition of “something for everybody.” (Provided everybody’s an Avengers fan). Those first three are $2.99 a piece; the last one’s a $3.99-er.
Rasl #5: Another issue of Jeff Smith’s not-Bone book.
Swallowing The Earth: Hey, a new Osamu Tezuka book! This one is about a strange, long-lived seductress named Zephyrus whom two WWII veterans encounter in modern day Japan (Well, the modern day Japan of the 1960s). It’s 520 pages, it’s $25 and it’s Tezuka, so I imagine that even if it’s much worse than all his other work, it’s still going to be well worth a read.
July 14th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I really hope that the Detroit Leaguers make it in to Blackest Night. Even though this version of the League was not well received, I really did like the characters of Vibe and Steel.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
I concur, I hope that Vibe and Steel also return as Black Lanterns. In a strange way, they were brought back briefly in a run of JLA.
July 14th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Looking forward to Cap #601… The title’s going on hiatus after this one while Reborn has its run, correct? Perfect time for me to drop the book and go the trade route after that, just like I’m doing with Reborn. I love Bru’s Cap, but it’s time to cut back and it seems like a great series to read in trades.
OTOH, I don’t feel bad about having passed on Gaiman’s Caped Crusader… It just didn’t seem of any consequence to me. Even if I were interested, no way I’d splurge on an overpriced hardcover. Even the softcover version, whenever that hits, will be overpriced.
Then there’s Blackest Night… I’m sticking with GL/GLC for now, but I think I’ll trade wait for Blackest Night itself too. Again, I gotta cut back.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:03 am
That adapted Philip K. Dick comic is going to be 24 issues? I’ve read and own the original short story. Either this comic is going to set a new standard for double splash pages with nothing happening or they’re actually doing Bladerunner: The Comic…
July 15th, 2009 at 6:24 am
I highly recommend the Madame Xanadu trade; like the man says, great value for content! An enjoyable read, pretty pictures, and a very interesting take on a character’s origin, especially one who never really had one.
The Cap 601 also has a B&W version, which I really am interested in. It’s Colan, for Heaven’s sake!
Shaun: Gaiman’s Caped Crusader was good, but I agree it’s of no consequence. It was just really fun to read. You can probably find the two issues pretty easily, and I should think cheap. I’m glad I picked up the individual issues, though. The TPB holds NO interest whatsoever.
Cheers,
B
July 15th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Shaun:
If you are gonna trade-wait BN, but still get GL/GLC, are you just gonna put those copies aside until the BN trades come out, before reading them? I can’t imagine reading the Core titles of GL, but missing the Main story in BN.
July 15th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Good question, blankwave, and I really hadn’t considered it. For me, it was just a question of sticking with two of the few DC books I enjoy anymore and waiting to see if BN turns out to be a satisfying, worthwhile read or not.
My theory, and I could be totally wrong about this, is that GL/GLC would continue along with the stories as they’ve unfolded to this point, but perhaps that’s all been lead-in to BN proper only? I just figured if I’m going to read/care about anything, it’s those books. Then again, I’m a couple of issues behind in both GL & GLC, so I might find myself wanting to dive into BN also when I finally read those (soon!).
Or perhaps I’ll just stick with my original plan and see what happens… As someone who really doesn’t like Batman being “dead,” for example, I’m not sure how much appeal the main BN title will have for me. Anyhow, I thought Bruce was thrown into the past or something and not really dead? So how does he become a Black Lantern?
July 16th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Shaun. After reading BN 1, I gotta say you have a tough choice on your hands. GN 43 leads straight up into BN #1. I felt like I was definitely reading the next GL issue, on an even more epic scope. Good luck on your decision.