Amazing Spider-Man #650: Spider-Man gets another new suit in this issue by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos (Haven’t seen it yet? Really? Well, you can take a look here). It looks like it’s basically his black suit, only the white parts glow red. What for? You’ll have to read the issue—which also features the new Hobgoblin, Mach 5 and the Black Cat—to find out. I’m going to guess either built-in bug zapper or simply that it looks cooler at raves.
Birds of Prey #7: Writer Gail Simone and artists Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes kick off a storyline entitled “The Death of Oracle,” which features Batman on the cover and may prove particularly interesting given that weird panel in Batman: The Return where Bruce Wayne gave Barbara Gordon a picture of herself wearing Alicia Silverstone’s Batgirl costume. Is there a big change in the near future of the character? For plenty of stories featuring a younger, cape-wearing Barbara Gordon, this week also sees the release of Batgirl: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, a $20, 160-page trade featuring short stories from her 1967 debut to a 1998 Kelley Puckett/Terry Dodson/Kevin Nowlan two-parter.
Black Panther: Man Without Fear #513: Hey, this series by writer David Liss and artist Francesco Francavilla about Marvel’s jungle hero The Black Panther returning to a big U.S. city to try to be an urban vigilante again sounds kind of neat. Too bad I missed the first 512 issues…I’ll never catch up now. Preview here.
Conan: The Road of Kings #1: Classic Conan comic scribe Roy Thomas returns to the character for this six-issue series from Dark Horse. He’s working with pencil artist Mike Hawthorne and inker John Lucas. Thomas is; not Conan. You can check out a preview here.
Green Lantern/Plastic Man: Weapons of Mass Deception: This is a $5, over-sized one-shot by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Brent Anderson teaming Plas up with Green Lantern Hal Jordan. It seems rather…random to me, but I’m going to guess it was originally intended to be a Brave and the Bold story arc (Wolfman was one of the writers contributing during that long stretch between the announcement of J. Michael Straczynksi and when JMS issues actually started appearing) that’s being repackaged as a one-shot because a) the title quietly disappeared and b) people sure seem to buy the hell out of Green Lantern comics these days. That’s just a guess though. I’m totally buying this regardless; I love Plastic Man, and don’t dislike the work of Wolfman or Anderson at all.
Iron Siege #1: This three-issue series boasts to be about “WWII with a horror twist!” Given all the WWII comics that have been done, with and without horror twists, creators James Abraham, Andrew Hong and Trevor Goring are going to need some twist to stand out. The big, “Golden Age,” seven-and-a-half-by-10-and-change-inch format (for publisher IDW’s regular $4 price point) means that at least the format will be different. IDW’s other big horror release is the week is a new collaboration between Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson entitled Doc Macabre. It’s about…oh, who cares? Bernie Wrightson!
Mighty Crusaders #6: This is the sixth issue of the six-part limited series in which DC’s reimagined versions of some of the Red Circle characters all team-up into a sort of Justice League/Avengers arrangement. I believe this also marks the end of DC’s short-lived Red Circle revival, which started with a series of one-shots written by J. Michael Straczynski a little over a year ago. This issue is by Eric Trautmann, Brandon Jerwa, Julian Lopez and John Lucas, and it will cost you $4 for 22-pages of story (which, come to think of it, might have had something to do with the quick death of the Red Circle revival; while the books offered more pages for their $4 price tag, it’s hard to see readers on trying out new lines of super-comics when they’re paying so much for their favorite Marvel and DC ones already).
The Mighty Samson #1: Writer and industry legend Jim Shooter’s next old-school super-comic property revival is The Mighty Samson, originally from the pages of the post-apocalyptic 1964 Gold Key comic, not the guy from the Bible who killed all those Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. Patrick Olliffe draws, and this over-sized, 48-page issue throws in a reprint of the original Silver Age Mighty Samson story at no extra cost. Preview here.
Mouse Guard: Black Axe #1: After letting a bunch of other cartoonists and creators play in his Mouse Guard sandbox in the recently completed and collected Legends of The Guard, David Petersen returns with a new six-issue series.
Not Love But Delicious Foods: This $11, 160-page manga from Fumi Yoshinaga (Antique Bakery, Ooku) follows a manga-ka and her friends as they talk and visit restaurants. Sounds good to me.
The Occultist #1: Writer Tim Seeley and the art team of Victor Drujinui and Jason Gorder collaborate on this one-shot featuring a young man whose mundane problems seem only more mundane after he’s magically bonded to a book of spells. You can take a look here.
Proof Vol. 5: Blue Fairies: Reading the solicitation for this $17, 130-page trade, I realize that I hardly understand a word of it (I got “the,” “in,” “for” and “Dover Demon”), and as intriguing as the subject matter seems, Alex Grecian and Riley Rossmo’s series hardly sounds all that new reader friendly. Of course, just as this collection of the last five issues of the series sees release, so to does Proof: Endangered #1, the creative teams new series starring John “Proof” Prufrock, the Bigfoot who hunts for other cryptids or whatever. If that #1 is any indication, this $4 book should offer a pretty good jumping on point.
What If? Spider-Man #1: What if the recent “Grim Hunt” storyline, which apparently resurrected Kraven the Hunter, ended differently, and Spidey killed this back-from-the-dead foe? That’s the question writer Mark Sable tackles in this one shot, while Paul Azaceta draws it. The oversized, $4 book will also include another chapter of the Venom/Deadpool back-up by Rick Remender and Shawn Moll.
Wynonna Earp: The Yeti Wars: They had me at “Yeti Wars.” Beau Smith writes and Enrique Villigran draws most of this $18, 100+-page trade paperback, which also includes the story “Blood is the Harvest” by artist Manuel Vidal.
Yotsuba&! Vol. 9: Hey, Christmas is a couple of weeks early!
December 15th, 2010 at 6:42 am
The Might Samson is also co-written by JC Vaughn! Scorchio!
December 15th, 2010 at 6:43 am
Also great point about the Red Circle characters.
December 15th, 2010 at 7:59 am
I agree about the Red Circle characters. I also think they got almost no support or push from DC.
Where’s the cartoon this week? I always love those!
December 15th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Where’s the cartoon? There wasn’t even a mention this week!
December 15th, 2010 at 10:44 am
The new Spidey suit designs have just been god-awful. And I say this as someone who didn’t mind the Iron Spider costume (though it should have left out the gold ankle and wrist bracelets and had a fourth appendage at the back instead of three)…I will have to read the story but man, definitely NOT feeling those new costumes…Just..BAD.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Sorry fans of not-very-good art and/or not-very-funny, extremely-specific-in-audience gags…I just plum ran out of time this week. Next week for sure. Er, unless I run out of time again.
December 15th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Spider-tron, right?
July 14th, 2011 at 11:10 pm
Unbelievable how well-written and inofarmtvie this was.