News for the Week of May 13, 2009
Rick’s Writin’s
Off to the ball game today and it looks like I've got a great day for
it. It's a shame that our weather is so gray and rainy much of the time
because I don't think you can beat living in this area on a nice sunny
spring day. I'm looking forward to getting some rays today. Hopefully,
I get a good ball game too. Not much going on otherwise.
Ollie caught a bunny yesterday
(Unfortunately not a rabbit, just a little bunny, who is now no more).
I felt bad for the bunny, but Ollie was proud when he brought it to me
and dropped it about at my feet, like he did good. Not his fault, he's
a dog and that's what he's supposed to do. Still, the bunny was just minding
his own business when all of a sudden Godzilla strikes. He did that a
while back to a mouse, which was just sitting in it's nest watching TV
when BAM!, eaten by Godzilla (Ollie actually ate the mouse, and puked
him up an hour later).Truly, not much else is going on, so let's get to
comics...
Is this the week we finally get to find out for sure who the new Batman
will be? The last piece of the Batman: Battle for the Cowl (#3 of 3) arrives
and I'm all antsy pants to find out once an for all. I have my theories,
which I'll gladly flap about in detail at the shop, but I don't want to
ruin anything here for readers that are behind. Let's just say, if it
works out the way I think it will, I'm OK with it. Just watched an episode
of CBS TV's The Big Bang Theory where the guys go to a comic shop. I was
surprised that it was very realistic and the story discussions current,
including who will be the new Batman. Check it on Hulu or Comcast on Demand
, or where ever you folks watch your shows. I thought it was worthwhile
and fun. Superman/Batman (#60) starts a two issue story that sounds like
a classic "Elseworlds" premise. The story "Mash-Up"
takes place in Gothamopolis where Superman and Batman need the help of
the Justice Titans to fend off the evil menace. I always like the "Elseworlds".
I hope eventually DC will go back to doing some of those. Captain America
(#50) has Cap Bucky Barnes on his birthday. He's had lots of birthdays
in many eras, giving him pause to consider his man out of time situation.
That's not all he has to worry about either. Thunderbolts (#132) has the
new nasty Mr. X joining the T-Bolts. They've got to convince him to join
first though. Perhaps easier said than done. Uncanny X-Men (#510) features
the return of Psylocke and a battle with the Sisterhood, beautifully drawn
by Greg Land. Spidey is finishing off his "24/7" story in Amazing
Spider-Man (#594). Next issue of Amazing (#595) will tie into the Dark
Reign story and start the run up to the big issue #600. Lastly, Wolverine
Weapon X (#2) as Logan tracking down military contractor Blackguard and
stolen Weapon X files in Columbia.
Since I commented on the Wolverine
movie, I felt I should also comment on the new Star Trek movie I saw this
past week. I thought it was great!! The new actors nailed the characters,
particularly Zackery Quinto as Spock and Chris Pine as Kirk. Simon Pegg
as Scotty was excellent too, as was the kid that played Chekov. I was
worried about new actors playing roles we were so used to seeing familiar
faces in, but everybody did well. It was fresh, not at all 90210 Star
Trek as I feared it might be, and the story was action packed. Couldn't
have been more pleased! I give it an "A". Go see it NOW!
Paula’s Picks
Lots of good stuff coming in this week!
Batman Mad Love & Other Stories hardcover reprints Harley Quinn’s
1st appearance in comics. She was the first Batman Animated character
to appear on the TV show first, then in comics. This book also includes
some other stories from Paul Dini and Bruce Timm.
Jack of Fables #34 ships this week as well. Last week’s Fables focused so much on Jack that I thought we were getting it 2 weeks in a row. I feel really bad for Rose and I hope she snaps out of it soon. This crossover has been really interesting and exciting. I’m glad they kept it to 3 books instead of 50 like some other publishers like to do.
Heroes volume 2 soft cover comes in this week. This book collects and prints the online comics for Heroes. I had a mini marathon yesterday and caught up on my Heroes. I can’t believe that Nathan…..and then Sylar….and wow! I can’t wait for next season. I saw ads for their online feature “Nowhere Man.” I really don’t like the puppeteer guy, so I don’t know if I want to watch it. But, it could be like Jack of Fables: fascinating because bad things happen to the jerk.
I’m surprised that Rick didn’t talk about this one. Johnny Hiro volume 1 will be coming out this week. This one collects Johnny Hiro 1-3 as well as 2 new stories. This is a book that Rick has bought because it looked interesting, but somehow we only got issue 3. I read about ½ of it when we got it and it was really good. It had an interesting story style. I’m looking forward to reading the complete story.
Boys is coming out with a spin-off mini series called Boys: Herogasm. It’s written by Garth Ennis with art by John McCrea. It’s the same team that did Hitman a while back.
A little note about our new series list. We seemed to have missed some books. There’s a Dethklok vs the Goon one shot that didn’t show up. There is also a Ultimatum Spider-Man book that was offered before we started this list. If you’d like to have these added to your list, please let us know!