Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities The Solicits Thread: Now covering December 2011

So Birds of Prey and Titans are no longer under the Brightest Day banner.

I'm looking at this newly-announced Chaos War stuff and thinking... wait, did no-one talk to DnA about this, since they're telling a suspiciously-similar story in many respects in Thanos Imperative right now?

They're trying to make out something really bad is going to happen to the New Mutants. At least it looks like Dani and Illyana survive, but will they still be on the team?

Wonder Woman is dealing with the Morrigan. Neat. Has she fought Celtic gods before?

Not that I know of.

Just saw Francesco Francavilla is doing the artwork for the Jim Gordon co-feature in Detective. All I can say is AWESOME! I've been praising his Zorro stuff so much in the last year that I'm like a broken record. Even more excited to see him team-up with Scott Snyder from American Vampire.

Other random thoughts:

- Daredevil ending at the close of Shadowland? Sounds lame.

- I notice Keith Giffen is doing a lot of pencils this month! Doom Patrol *and* Outsiders. Of course, the chances of me picking up Outsiders are less than me winning Power Ball that month (in which case, I will pay comic book stores to not order it because Dan Didio is writing).

- Dave Johnson is doing the cover to Freedom Fighters; I recently noticed his stand-out cover art on Gorilla Man. Does he ever do monthly interiors? I find his art very appealing.

- One of my favorites, Jordi Bernet (from Jonah Hex) is teaming with Walt Simonson for what looks like another outstanding Spirit back-up. Meanwhile in Hex, he's doing a story on Mai Ling, Jonah's rarely mentioned wife.

- DC joins Marvel in publishing random one-shots by doing a Nightmaster one-shot. Marvel still is king of this though.

- It SUCKS that Madame Xanadu is ending. If this is only because DC wants to rope it back into the main universe, then I hope whoever made that decision gets <strike>herpes</strike> a common cold (especially if the relaunch doesn't include Wagner).

They are doing a Ragman one-shot the month before. I wonder if this is a Shadowpact thing or maybe testing the waters on the mystical heroes leading up to something (Swamp Thing return maybe)?

^About Madame Xanadu, didn't I read somewhere that Wagner was originally pnly going to do the opening ten-issue arc but was inspired by Reeder's art to stay on? Obviously, he nearly tripled that, but maybe he was going to leave anyway since Reeder was segueing over to Batwoman and other projects.

Dynamite\'s solicitations are out. LOVE that Dark Knight Returns homage on Boys (the best book Cobalt's not reading) #48! HILARIOUS!

"Lone Ranger & Tonto #4"? Did the series get relaunched? There's no issue of the ongoing solicited, and the creative team looks the same. WTF? (I've only bought and read the first trade so far but look forward to more!)

Also, again...TWO MANY DAMN GREEN HORNET BOOKS! All this overkill for a character who's appeal is so fairly obscure that saying he has a "cult" following seems an exagerration? I know there's the upcoming movie, but scuttlebutt has it more than likely being a sucktastic flop a la Jonah Hex when it eventually gets released! I know Year One and Kevin Smith's version get excellent-to-decent reviews, but 8 different floppies (plus a trade) in November alone?!?! Are people REALLY buying all this filler from Dynamite?!?!

Lone Ranger & Tonto is the title for the specials and one-offs they've done while the main book trundles along. Lone Ranger #23 came out last week.

Cobie, Cramer, and I (and I'm sure others here) have all questioned the wisdom of pumping out so much Green Hornet stuff at once. I only get the Year One and Kevin Smith books. The glut of product hurt the last version that Now (IIRC) put out, and I can't believe it's helping now.

Ah. I take it LR has an irregular shipping schedule? Can't blame 'em if that's what it takes to get as much Cariello art as possible!

"Irregular" is putting it lightly.

But the book is good enough that I'm sticking with it.

It's fine with me as trades will be the way to go for me. I'm glad they're accomodating Cariello for this series. Odd that they wouldn't do the same for Darick Robertson on The Boys.

Yeah, in the Green Hornet thread you'll see me continually try to hide my complaints of the sheer amount of Green Hornet titles in the form of speculation (as I'm apt to do ). The Dynamite threads, based on the Vampirella and John Carter, Warlord of Mars variants feel like they're mainly "tits & Green Hornet". I am glad to see a Lone Ranger & Tonto comic in there--I actually did not know about previous ones though! I'll have to hunt for them.

I actually will probably sample the John Carter series, but I've never been a fan of Vampirella before. "Bullet to the Head" looks interesting and I've heard good things about Matz, the French writer, who has had a lot of work published by Archaia.

Collider Entertainment, the new imprint, apepars to be somethinge will be publishing (I initially thought it was it's own publisher, but I see it's more like 'Man of Action', as its own imprint through Image). Their first comic, "Utopian", may be something good; Guggenheim is very hit or miss with me.

Steven Seagle & Kelly Jones' 'The Crusades' (originally published by Vertigo) is given the trade treatment by Image. Did anyone ever collect this? I know several LWers were fans of Seagle's Vertigo stuff.

I tried "The Crusades". It had its charms, but I ultimately dropped it 5-10 issues in. Basically, it was about a mysterious, powerful killer knight in armor appearing in San Francisco and terrorizing San Francisco's criminal element. The main character was a radio shock-jock who used the knight to story to further his own career.

It moved very slowly, and Kelly really abused his tendency to distort faces and figures with no apparent purpose. IMO, it's a definite skip.

Seagle's later projects really lacked the luster his Sandman Mystery Theatre and House of Secrets series had. (Those two were frickin' TERRIFIC!) He may have disappeared for a while due to burnout, judging by such projects as Crusades and that crappy Superman run.

Apparently, though, his OGN "It's a Bird" was a big exception to the decline in the quality of his books. Never read it, however.

Nothing really jumping at me in Image\'s solicitations (though that Walking Dead cover has me a little worried). It appears that Chew, Invincible and Turf are taking the month off. Nothing new really jumps out either. So November will be a slow Image month for me.

The December 2010 solicitations are out from the various companies right now. What has really jumped out at me from all the various companies is Dark Horse's continued reluanch of the Gold Key series will now include one that has never been relaunched: Otto Binder's Mighty Samson. Binder created this after his legendary Legion/Superman run at DC Comics and it's premise is just really groovy.

Jim Shooter is reviving the franchise with the awesome Pat Ollife, who is best known for his incredible Untold Tales of Spider-Man run, as well as recent work on Spider-Man, Booster Gold and 52.

My first thoughts are that there are a lot of Batman titles coming out in December.

It's sad (to me at least) that the Bat-titles have now become akin to the X-titles in there are so many I don't care about and will never even bother to try.

Something else else else I noticed in Marvel's solicits: are Black Widow and Hawkeye & Mockingbird both on hiatus in December for that crossover comic? Are they cancelled?

Another question: is Warriors Three an ongoing series? I assumed it was a mini. Considering they rank among my favorite supporting characters in all of fiction, I'll be getting either way.

Their sales were in the toilet, and I believe "Widowmaker" was first announced as a crossover between the ongoings rather than a mini.

I'd be shocked if either resumed.

Mini

Image's "Who is Jake Ellis?" looks pretty awesome! I'll definitely be getting that in January. The premise is really cool, and I really dug Tonci Zonjic's artwork on Heralds.

Image has several really great solicits for January 2011 for both new series & miniseries and OGN's. "Infinite Vacation" by Nick Spencer (Morning Glories, upcoming THUNDER Agents) looks groovy, as does the OGN "Term Life".

Plus, Haunt is $1.99 for the start of a new story-arc--this is the comic with the guts to print a letter from the legendary Cobalt Kid!

Infinite Vacation is on my list (only noticed it in the February solicits). Multidimensional selves!

There's also a trade coming out for Fish Police, which looks kind of funny and weird. Has anyone read that series? It was also a (quickly cancelled) cartoon.

Interestingly enough, Cobalt Kid himself is appearing in an April 2011 comic!

FEAR ITSELF: THE HOME FRONT #1 (of 7)
Written by CHRISTOS GAGE, PeTER milligan & More!
Penciled by MIKE MAYHEW, ELIA BONETTI & More!
Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
Terror has gripped the globe and now all the world is the front line for the next superhuman conflict! America blamed Speedball for the deaths of six hundred people in Stamford, Connecticut - the event that sparked the super hero Civil War. And while some have forgiven him, he hasn't forgiven himself. But a new crisis has arisen…fear is spreading throughout the populace…and, while doing charity work in disguise, Robbie Baldwin's true identity is exposed to the people of Stamford. With the world falling apart around him, can Speedball rally the population against the new danger…or will this survivor of an old war be the casualty of a new one? PLUS: Marvel’s super agent Jimmy Woo confronts his deepest fears in an all-new, all-action adventure! Join the fight as Marvel’s top talents take you on a series of globe-spanning adventures that will test the mettle of hero, citizen and villain alike!