Aw Jimmy Woo (Oh, that guy on the far left is supposed to be Jimmy Woo, by the way), why do you have to spoil Ken “Gorilla Man” Hale’s fun? If Marvel Boy doesn’t mind having a miniseries with the word “Uranus” in the title, why not let him? Anyway, it looks like everyone finally agreed to Marvel Boy: The Uranian as the title of Grayson’s miniseries, even though it is far less hilarious than anything that sounds like “your anus.” It’s written by Agents of Atlas mastermind Jeff Parker, penciled by Felix Ruiz and weighs in at 48-pages for to justify it’s $3.99 price tag. Some of those pages will be reprints of classic, 1950s stories featuring the character, drawn by Bill Everett and Russ Heath! I think that officially makes this the biggest, most exciting Marvel Comics release of the week, right? What could possibly be bigger or more exiciting?
Let’s see if Marvel (or anyone else) can top Heath and Everett-drawn Marvel Boy stories, after the jump.
Batman Confidential #40: Sam Kieth begins a four-part story arc as both writer and artist.
Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #2: It’s the Black Lantern Wonder Woman vs. Cosplaying Denise Richards battle that Greg Horn demanded!
BPRD: King of Fear #1: The first chapter of the next chapter of BPRD, written by Mike Migonla and John Arcudi and drawn by the great Guy Davis. Preview here.
The Chill: Next up in the Vertigo Crime series is this story of a serial killer and an Irish cop with a long and secret past, from crime novelist writer Jason Starr (making his comics debut) and artist Mick Bertilorenzi. Starr must be kinda sorta a big deal in some circles, given the cover design, in which his name is featured more prominently than even the title. You can see a couple of pages worth of art here.
Conan The Cimmerian #17: It’s too bad they didn’t have basketball back in the Hyperborean Age, as I bet that dude with the axe could dunk, and would have had a decent career in the NBA:
Instead, he’s just going to get his ass killed by Conan. You can see five pages of Conan killing dudes here.
Copper: Flight creator and Amulet writer/artist Kazu Kibuishi’s latest is an all-ages adventure featuring a boy and his dog. It’s available simultaneously as a hardcover and a softcover; $22 for the former, and $13 for the latter. Preview here.
The Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck Vol. 1: Don Rosa’s classic biography of one of comics’ most eminent ducks gets a new hardcover edition from the current comics home of the Disney Ducks, Boom studios. This 145-page hardcover will cost you $25. Boom has another appealing all-ages offering this week, The Muppet Show: The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson, a $10, 110-page trade collection of Roger Langridge’s second Muppet mini.
The Mighty #12: This is the final issue of the short-lived superhero title published on the DC Comics imprint (like all the DCU books), but set outside the confines of the DCU, which always seemed like a recipe for quick cancellation.
Orc Stain #1: James Stokoe, the creator responsible for the quite excellent space trucker/cooking series Wonton Soup, launches a new ongoing for Image Comics. It’s a fantasy starring One Eye, a member of perhaps the least-liked race in any given sword and sorcery, Dungeons & Dragons-type of setting.
Siege #1: It’s hard to know what to make of Marvel’s next big event series, as the things they say about it are the exact same things they’ve said about the last three or four, only this time there’s an implied “But this time we really mean it!” at the end of all the years-in-the-making, rock-the-foundations-of-the-Marvel Universe hypesterism. (For example, if this was seven years in the making, then Secret Invasion was about six years in the making, and that wasn’t very good at all). As you’re no doubt already aware, it’s being written by Brian Michael Bendis, who wrote almost all of the big events that were apparently leading up to this, and it’s being penciled by Oliver Coipel. It’s $4 for 40 pages and a cardstock cover, but who knows how many of those pages are comics vs. ads? I’m pretty leery of Marvel’s $4 books these days.
Siege: Embedded #1: But wait, there’s more! Brian Reed and Chris Samnee handle this comic, which, if the past pattern holds up, will deal with the street-level, civilian view of the super-events in the main series. It features the Dark Avengers, and this is your standard $4, 22-page Marvel book. You can check out a preview of it—and its parent title—here.
Suicide Squad #67: This is the week that DC launches their Black Lantern comic books, the ones that not only tie-in to the Blackest Night story, but are themselves kinda sorta Black Lanterns, as they’ve returned from the dead (i.e. cancellation). Whoever it was at DC that thought of that idea deserves a high five. This week’s offerings include Suicide Squad #67, co-written by original Suicide Squad writer John Ostrander and Gail Simone, who writes long-time Squad member Deadshot in her Secret Six. J. Calafiore provides the art, as he will for the story’s continuation into Secret Six. Also returning is Weird Western Tales #71, which will feature what should be some of the more interesting Black Lanterns—Jonah Hex, Bat Lash, Scalphunter and Firehair. It’s going to be written by the apparently far less busy than one would expect Dan DiDio and drawn by Renato Arlem.
Troublemakers: The latest of Gilbert Hernandez’s comics adaptations of movies featuring his character Luba’s half-sister Fritz from Love and Rockets, this one movie sounds less artsy than Chance in Hell, and, well, just look at the cover:
Girls! Guns! And Gilbert Hernandez! It’s a $20, 130-page black and white hardcover, and you can download a 12-page preview here.




January 5th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Glad I caught this! I was not aware of THE TROUBLEMAKERS, and it’s totally something I’m interested in!
January 5th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
¨For example, if this was seven years in the making, then Secret Invasion was about six years in the making, and that wasn’t very good at all¨
i think thats the most perfect and honest description of the Marvel events
January 5th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
The Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck is teh awesome! Glad to see BOOM! is re-printing it. As it was near impossible to find.
January 6th, 2010 at 3:05 am
Axe-wielder’s jump is even more impressive when you consider that he appears to be getting that kind of elevation when jumping uphill.