Doesn’t listen to Hal Jordan, Green Hornet. The Green Hornet franchise seem to be doing okay so far with only the one color. This week, for example, sees the launch of another new Green Hornet comic, Green Hornet: Parallel Lives #1. That one is the official prequel to the upcoming film, which is currently scheduled to open in January. Jai Nitz writes, Nigel Raynor draws, and it will cost you $4. Meanwhile, Hal can be seen palling around with otherly colored Lanterns in this week’s Green Lantern #55, in which Lobo fights Red Lantern Atrocitus (and hopefully Lobo’s dog fights Atrocitus’ cat). It’s by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy.
Action Comics #890: Now that the long-running New Krypton vs. Lois Lane’s dad storyline is wrapped up and Superman is no longer exiled from Earth, that means he’ll be returning to star in his own comics after a too-long absence, right? Well, he’ll be in Superman, anyway. With this issue, Lex Luthor becomes the star of Action Comics, and while that might sound a little too much like more of the same for fans weary of the Superman-free Action, it’s worth noting that Action does have a new writer, the newly exclusive Paul Cornell, and with Pete Woods handling the art, at least readers can rest assured that this is going to be a pretty good Action Comics arc, whether Superman is in it or not. This is a $4, oversized issue.
Batman Beyond #1: Batman #700 seems to have made it official…or official-ish, and the future in which an elderly Bruce Wayne guides young Terry McGinnis on his journey to become the Batman of the future is apparently canon…or canon-esque. This six-issue miniseries by writer Adam Beechen and artist Ryan Benjamin will be the first full-length return to the setting and characters from the 1999-2001 animated series since the Batman Beyond ongoing was canceled with its 24th issue in 2001.
Batwoman: Elegy: This 190-page, $25 hardcover collects Detective Comics #854-#860, the Greg Rucka written, J.H. Williams III-illustrated Barwoman arc. Everyone seemed to love this at the time, and while the story never seemed more than so-so to me, the art certainly elevated the entire endeavor—these were some seriously beautiful superhero comics.
Battle Smash Vs. The Saucer-Men From Venus: Okay, the Saucer-Men From Venus sound pretty self-explanatory, but who or what is Battle Smash? According to publisher Viper Comics, they’re “the world’s greatest team of Lucha-based, non-super-powered, implausibly muscled and ALWAYS masked heroes.” Okay, that’s a high concept that at least deserves a flip-through. Dale Mettam writes, Armando Zanker draws and Viper has more info.
BB Wolf & The 3 LPs: This 95-page, $13 hardcover by writer J.D. Arnold and artist Rich Koslowski used the story of the three little pigs as a skeleton on which to hang a classic story of racism, murder, revenge, and music. Check out a seven-page preview here, and find much more info here.
Betty & Veronica Double Digest #182: Tonight the part of Betty Cooper will be played by…
…Laura Dern…?!
Deadpool Team-Up #892: I’m all Deadpool-ed out, but I appreciate the off-the-wall characters this title keeps digging up for the popular character to join forces with in this title. This time it’s Satana, The Son of Satan’s sister, and Dave Lapham and Shawn Crystal are the team-up behind the team-up.
Disney’s Alice in Wonderland: This 110-page, $20 hardcover is a graphic novel adaptation of this past spring’s Tim Burton-directed, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland-inspired film. Alessandro Ferrari adapted the script, while Massimiliano Narciso and Marieke Ferrari handled the painted art. I wasn’t terribly enamored with the film itself—although the production design was pretty amazing—but the graphic novel has some gorgeous art, and Narciso has an expressive, playful line that’s a pleasure to look at and see move across the page. The book includes about 30 pages of sketches, a timeline of the Alice story and notes on the production of the book.
Invincible Iron Man Annual #1: The regular Invincible Iron Man writer Matt Fraction and artist Carmine di Giandomenico tell an oversized, $5 story featuring Tony Stark’s archenemy The Mandarin. I love that guy’s oranges.
Joker’s Asylum: Clayface #1: The fifth and final issue of the Joker-hosted series of one-shots starring Bat-villains ships this week, and it’s the one I was most excited about, given that it’s illustrated by Kelley Jones, one of my all-time favorite comics artists. The writer is Kevin Shinick and the villain is Clayface and, I’m almost ashamed to admit, I’ve completely lost track of the Clayfaces over the years. I thought the one in the asylum was the one with melty-hands who was in love with a mannequin, not the shape-shifting Clayface II but there have been so many absorptions of Clayfaces and reboots of DCU continuity in recent years that I’m lost in matters Clayface. I’m a terrible, terrible Batman fan, I know. Anyway! Kelley Jones! Drawing Clayface! The last time he did that, Steve Niles turned Clayface into a giant, living graveyard absorbing people and Batman had to pilot a gigantic robot punching machine to fight him!
Last Zombie #1: Promise?
Predators #4: Dark Horse wraps up it’s four-issue weekly miniseries serving as a prequel to the upcoming Predators film this week, just as Marvel wraps up it’s weekly five-issue Heralds mini and DC wraps up their aforementioned weekly Joker’s Asylum series. Any retailers in the reading audience? How did these books do for you guys? Does the weekly shipping schedule help or hurt sales on these books, do you think, or do they have no impact at all? I’m pretty curious about how successful the strategy is, because, as a reader, I’m really enamored of the format.
Spider-Ham 25th Anniversary Special #1: Hey, is Peter Porker one of the spider-powered super-characters the Kravens are hunting down in “Grim Hunt?” The title pretty much explains this one; contributing creators include Tom Defalco, Tom Peyer, Robert Campanella, Adam Dekraker, Jacob R. Chabot and others.
Velocity #1: Ron Marz and Kenneth Rocafort kick-off a four-issue, $4-per-issue miniseries starring the speedster character from Cyberforce. The main page has a preview here.
Wonder Woman #600: DC pulls a Marvel and, thanks to some voodoo mathematics, what would have been the 45th issue of the third volume of Wonder Woman is now the 600th issue. Any excuse for a party, I guess. George Perez, Phil Jimenez, Gail Simone, Geoff Johns and Joe Madureira are among the creators involved in this oversized, $5 special, which is also the official start of J. Michael Straczynski’s run on the book. DC’s Source blog has been running short essays from a variety of creators and at least one actress famous for playing Wondy on TV all this week.
Yours Truly, Jack The Ripper #1: Robert Bloch’s classic prose story gets a comics adaptation by writers Joe R. Lansdale and John L. Lansdale, with Kevin Colden handling the art. It’s a $4 book. You can check out five pages of it here…the art definitely looks pretty nice.
Zombies Vs. Cheerleaders: Geektacular #1: This 3 Geeks spin-off from Moonstone finds the Geeks at a cheerleader camp infested with zombies. Based on the title, I believe cheerleaders and zombies will find themselves in conflict at some point. Rich Koslowski, Stevn L. Frank, Jimy Kyle and David Namisato made this comic, and you can see some of it here.
June 29th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
re: batman beyond and batman #700.
maybe i’m late to the party, but is there a possibility that damian was the one guiding terry now that it’s apparently canonical that damian becomes batman at one point.
by the way, i love your cartoons and look forward to them every tuesday.
June 29th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
To hell with Damian, and to hell with oversized, overpriced comics.
June 30th, 2010 at 4:59 am
Isn’t Carmine di Giandomenico the artist of Iron Man Annual? I think he is.
And yes, your cartoons are awesome.
June 30th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
I was sick to death of the Superman books sans-Superman (especially the awful Chris Kent/whatshername in Superman proper). That said, I could not be more excited for the Action Comics Lex Luthor story. Pete Woods could draw still life and I would buy it. Plus, after hearing the writer’s interview on iFanboy’s Don’t Miss podcast this week where he mentioned the recent Adventure Comics stories by Johns as source of characterization, I am totally on board. Lex Luthor can definitely support his own series, and this is a great way to do it.
JMS on regular Supes still has to win me over. I’m hoping the story reads more upbeat and funny like the Asgard Gods in Oklahoma during his Thor run, but I’m afraid it will just be mopey…
June 30th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
by the way, i love your cartoons and look forward to them every tuesday.
You and my mom both!
Isn’t Carmine di Giandomenico the artist of Iron Man Annual? I think he is.
Marvel.com says it’s Larocca, which is what I was going by. The preview we have posted on the main page says di Giandomenico though, so we’ll go with that. Thanks for the heads-up; I’ll correct it above.
October 14th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
Well, the post is really the greatest on this notable topic. I harmonise with your conclusions and will eagerly look forward to your next updates. Saying thanks will not just be adequate, for the extraordinary clarity in your writing. I will at once grab your rss feed to stay privy of any updates. Pleasant work and much success in your business dealings!
January 17th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
Hands down, Apple’s app store wins by a mile. It’s a huge selection of all sorts of apps vs a rather sad selection of a handful for Zune. Microsoft has plans, especially in the realm of games, but I’m not sure I’d want to bet on the future if this aspect is important to you. The iPod is a much better choice in that case.
January 27th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
I together with my pals happened to be checking out the best suggestions found on your web blog then all of the sudden developed a terrible suspicion I never thanked the site owner for those secrets. These women were as a result stimulated to read through all of them and have pretty much been tapping into those things. Thank you for turning out to be indeed accommodating and then for deciding upon variety of superior issues most people are really wanting to learn about. My very own sincere regret for not saying thanks to sooner.
January 27th, 2011 at 4:43 pm
I truly wanted to compose a note in order to appreciate you for all of the magnificent points you are giving at this website. My extended internet research has at the end been paid with pleasant facts and strategies to share with my relatives. I ‘d say that we site visitors actually are unequivocally blessed to live in a good place with so many marvellous people with very beneficial solutions. I feel extremely blessed to have seen your webpages and look forward to plenty of more awesome moments reading here. Thanks once again for all the details.
February 14th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
Can I simply say what a relief to search out somebody who truly is aware of what theyre speaking about on the internet. You positively know the right way to deliver a problem to mild and make it important. Extra individuals have to learn this and perceive this facet of the story. I cant believe youre no more standard because you undoubtedly have the gift.