Previews for Monkeys #1
Let's take a peek at this big, stupid, inky book, shall we? This is stuff scheduled to ship in September:
Dark Horse
Well... nothing much. The second issue of Jim Krueger's
Galactic is offered. I added it to my pull list last month, 'cause I trust Krueger to tell a good story, and after
Foot Soldiers I've come to enjoy the way he writes stories featuring young folks. This is one about a kid who gets yanked out of his shitty life and thrust into some sort of school for a team called
Galactic. Not sure what that means, but this intrigues me: "His first test is to scrounge up a weapon and survive on a planet made from the junk of a thousand cultures[.]" Sounds like The City from
Transmetropolitan mixed with Junkion from Transformers: The Movie. Plus Jim Krueger. Good 'nuff.
Despite names like Tom Peyer, Stuart Moore, and Brian Augustyn involved on these "Rocket Comics" books, the only other series I'm planning to get is Keith Giffen's
Syn, because... well... Keith Giffen. Keith Giffen and robots, no less.
DC Comics
To commemorate the release of
JLA/Avengers, finally, after 20 years, DC is publishing
JLA-Z, a stupid title and a stupid method of publication. Three 32-page issues for $2.50 apiece. I have to wonder why they're not doing a nice 96-page volume with a card-stock cover for 7 bucks. It'd go on a shelf. I bet it'd look nice next to a full run of Giffen and JM DeMatteis's
Justice League trades — oh, wait, there's no such thing. I guess it'd look okay next to Grant Morrison's
JLA collections.
I'm vaguely interested in
Superman: Blood of My Ancestors, a tale by Gil Kane and Steven Grant, drawn by Gil Kane, who died, and finished by John Buscema who... also died. Uh-oh, Grant better watch himself. It's an Elseworlds thing about ancient enemies of the House of El that eat memories, Superman in the past, blah blah blah. I'm sure it'll be pretty.
Fables: The Last Castle by
Bill Willingham and Craig Hamilton covers the tale of the Great War that forced the Fables into the real world, where Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream sticks his fingers into their peanut butter. What a scamp, that Puck.
Image Comics
Todd Nauck's
Wildguard, despite its sorta-lame title (sorry, Todd; feels too early-1990s Image), seems like a fun little concept. A few dozen super-types audition for a chance to be on a superhero team, Nauck picks some of them, and the readers get to fill the last slot. I hope there are a lot of readers. Nauck's art is fun, and no one really talked about his work on
Young Justice. He drew that for years and years, you know. I read 'em all. I'm gonna read this, too.
Marvel Comics
Kurt Busiek. George Perez.
JLA/Avengers. I don't think there's any way I could possibly
not pick this up. Some things still turn me into a drooling fanboy, and this is one of them.
And, sadly, twice in one month, a drooly fanboy am I; Brian Bendis's "Ultimate Marvel" take on the Sinister Six in
The Six, is six issues of Spider-Man and The Ultimates vs. Spidey's worst villains: Green Goblin, Electro, Doctor Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, Sandman, and a "mysterious sixth member." I hope to god it's not the Scorpion. And hey, did I miss the introduction of an "Ultimate" Sandman?
Agent X #14 is the middle issue of Gail Simone's three-issue return to the title. I'd guess next issue is the last, which is too bad, but I can still get her action-comedy stylings on
Birds of Prey. But that won't be nearly as madcap and stupid as her work here, which is a shame. I hope she finds an outlet for madcap and stupid somewhere.
And All the Rest
Bongo Comics presents
Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #9, by a bunch of folks whose names I vaguely recognize doing Simpsony Halloween stories. Gary Spencer Millidge is redoing
From Hell with Simpsons characters. I'm not sure I want to think about that any more than I have to. I'm just going to order it and move on...
Rick Veitch (through his King Hell Press) is reissuing
The One, a mini-series originally published under Marvel's Epic imprint in the mid-1980s. It's a fun tale about paranoia, superhumans, the bomb, nuclear annihilation, and finding peace. It ain't bad. I bought a tattered copy of the original printing from eBay, and it gets a bit hippy-dippy here and there, but being barely conscious during the era of its publication made for a fun read. I had no idea people were that scared. Me, I had He-Man figures to play with.
Well, that's the most I've written in a while. It ain't Shakespeare, but Shakespeare didn't have homosexuals whining about peanut butter. At least not in any of his plays I've read.
