Swamp Thing has some incredible art. Marco Rudy and Yanick Paquette have done some wonderful things on this book. The unique panel layouts remind me Batwoman.
I’m excited to see Pixie appear in X-Men. Anytime a New X-Men member pops up it is a good thing. If she is taking the place of Jubilee I am definitely okay with that.
Summer is upon us…if you’re in the northern hemisphere it is. Anyway that usually means big summer comic book events and movies. Marvel has Avengers vs. X-Men which better have tons of awesome fights and good drama. DC has been rather quiet as far was summer events. Batman has Night of Owls of course. They did tease something with that Pandora character a few weeks ago though.
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Avengers vs. X-Men Let the beat downs commence! Anyone have any guesses on potential deaths? Or rebirths?
Wolverine And X-Men Wolverine’s legs got all mangled and I thought it was hilarious. It was a nice cliffhanger and I can’t wait to see how the X-Men fix this.
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Swamp Thing now features the big green monster in earnest. Except he looks different from past versions. Apparently he has wings now and looks much more fearsome. This book is a lot of fun.
Justice League International I’m still unhappy about what happened to the original roster, especially Vixen. I may drop this book depending what happens with the team. To have half the team killed or crippled so soon is lame, especially if it is to make room for new faces.
Batwing is in Gotham to face off with Massacre. This has been a long story and I’m glad it’s getting a conclusion. It was a dynamite start for Batwing, but I’m ready to read more stories. Specifically stories taking place in Africa.
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Fairest number 1 looked amazing. The story was a bit confusing to be a first issue. But first issue usually are scant on details. I’m sticking with the book though. Ever since 1,001 Nights I’ve been diving deeper and deeper into the Fables universe. It has been lots of fun.
American Vampire is one of the best Vertigo comics available and one of the best comic books available. I think this book will be a classic people talk about years from now.
comments?
After this week’s issue of Swamp Thing I figured it was worth sharing how great the art has been in this book. It’s really something to behold. Snyder is writing an extremely engaging story, but the art has really brought the story to life. It’s so graphic, detailed, gory, and even beautiful sometimes.
The panel layouts in some issues is so dynamic as well. It reminds me of J.H. Williams and his Batwoman panel work. There’s a lot more than the usual rectangular or square shaped panels. The book has life. On some pages the panels and images flow like water. It’s all seems very organic which is fitting I suppose since this is Swamp Thing.
Swamp Thing is one of DC’s gems.
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X-Men Vampires+Mutants+a bunch of bounty hunters= one hell of a fight. I’m really enjoying this book. It’s not your usual X-Men adventures but that is what’s fun about it.
Avengers: Children’s Crusade For the longest time I wanted Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung back on a Young Avengers title. This series answered my prayers and at was great. This is the final issue to this story and I hope another ongoing is in the works.
Uncanny X-Men Some crazy sci-fi action in this one. This story has been pretty good. Not my favorite X-book at the moment though. Then there’s Greg Land…
Wolverine From the preview Jason Aaron may have pulled a major fast one on readers. If it turns out to be true it could be pretty awesome. Ya see Wolverine recently escaped from Hell and this issue starts with him back there and possibly never left. Wild!
-DC-
Huntress Helena Bertinelli is now Helena Wayne. This was a great mini, but I’m still not sure about this whole Earth-2 stuff. The concept sketches and the Power Girl/Huntress comic look cool and all, but I’m still iffy.
Action Comics More adventures of Young Superman. The last issue was quite weird in that classic Morrison style. Hopefully this issue will be a bit easier to follow and enjoy.
Batwing Batwing in Gotham! This ought to be a fun issue. Looking forward to another showdown between David and Massacre and more back story on the Kingdom.
Justice League International I really like this title for it’s unique cast. The team dynamic really makes this book fun. They have been written well and it makes for entertaining stories. Vixen being on the team is a big draw for me too. Hoping she gets more of the spotlight.
Swamp Thing Crazy. Creepy. Gross. Weird. Fantastic. All words I would use to describe this book. Snyder is a great writer and 2012 is gonna be a huge year for him.
Fairest I’ve been waiting for this book for some time now. I’ve read a few books from the Fables universe (1,001 Nights and the Cinderella minis). I’m hoping this will be great as well.
iZombie My favorite supernatural sci-fi book that is just a joy to read. The story has taken so many twists and turns since this book started. I hope this book never ends, although I’m kinda nervous because the current storyline seems like it’s building to something big.
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Fatale I’ll be honest. I don’t know what the hell is going on in this book. I have to read the other 2 issues over again. I do know some crazy stuff is going on. I’m going to stick with this and see if I can get into it.
I had to mention black history month some where in this post. I recall my grade school days of learning about various historically significant figures and events throughout history. In celebration of the month I think I’ll plan a post about my favorite characters of color. That sounds like it could be fun.
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Action Comics Andy Kubert is drawing this issue and Grant Morrison continues to write it. Hopefully it will be as good as I’m hoping. It’s been a fun comic so far. I don’t see why it won’t continue this month.
Batwing Woo hoo! More Batwing just in time for week 1 of Black History Month. Nice timing DC! Seriously though this book has been really strong. I can’t stress enough how much I want this book to succeed. It means a lot and the fact that it has been very good makes me want it to do well even more.
Justice League International One of the best things about team books is the dynamic and interactions you get from the variety of members. JLI has a great dynamic with a diverse roster. Its a melting pot of fun.
Swamp Thing in Scott Snyder I trust. That is all.
iZombie An absolutely blast of a book that has just about everything you’d look for in a sci-fi/fantasy book. And some how Chris Roberson has managed to hold it all together and keep it fun and clever.
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The Punisher Rucka has written such a great story and Checchetto has been such a great artist that I expect this book to be excellent every month. If Rucka stays hot like this his time on Punisher could be very tough to follow. Must read.
Uncanny X-Force Speaking of tough runs to follow Remender has been kicking ass since day 1 on this book. An X-Men classic in the making involving what I like to call “the team you never want to be on, but love to read about.”
Uncanny X-Men I like this story a lot better than the first post relaunch arc. A lot of it has to do with the fallout of events in Uncanny X-Force being dealt with here. Also I’m really excited about Psylocke and how she’ll handle working two or three teams. I think she’ll have a big year.
A lot of books being picked up this week. High expectations for Punisher, X-23, Rachel Rising, iZombie, and Swamp Thing.
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The Punisher ended on a great teaser page last month and I’m excited to see how the rest of this story continues. So many potential ideas and directions this book can go now. Rucka has been phenomenal.
Uncanny X-Men is going to be a one shot. So soon? Anyway the initial story arc did not thrill me. Sinister is back is up to sinister things (couldn’t help myself haha). I really want to know how they plan on fixing Emma’s arm.
X-23 continues towards the big finale. :( Humbug! I’m eager to see which side X-23 lands on. Probably her own considering she hasn’t been mentioned in West Coast X-Men or East Coast X-Men. Still not reading Avengers Academy by the way.
X-Men I only started picking this up because it has Storm, Psylocke, Warpath, and Domino in it. It’s been good so far. I guess this will replace X-23 on my pull list.
-DC-
Action Comics Superman begins! Okay not really but this has been a cool look back at a young Superman in the new DC Universe. If Grant continues to write this count me in.
Batwing Last issue we got back story on David and what a violent past it was. This is turning out to be a really good book with an awesome story. Still very excited about a person of color wearing the Bat symbol.
Huntress Not that I’m complaining but I wonder why this was chosen as the first mini to get released after the big change. Perhaps it says something about the popularity of the character or DC’s plans for characters like her. Of course it seems this was written before the New 52 though. Chances for a Huntress ongoing? That would be neat.
iZombie Zombies, monsters, vampires, ghosts, ghouls, were people, a talking monkey, monster hunters, and whole lot of awesome craziness in this book. A damn fun comic worth the asking price.
JLI Has had a solid although somewhat stereotypical team comic book start. I’ve enjoyed it though. I’m really eager to see where this book goes from her. I like the team a lot, but a really dynamite story could cement keeping this title.
Red Lanterns The big red book. It’s been interesting. Atrocitus does a lot of inward thinking, he talks to a corpse, and worries a lot about just what the hell he’s going to do.
Swamp Thing One of the creepiest books I’ve ever read. Snyder has thought up some wild stuff here. It’s a really unique look at dead things and living things. I predict this book will make someone lose their lunch one day. Great sci-fi, paranormal, gory stuff.
-Indy and Etc-
Rachel Rising I reblogged some covers from this book and this is another creepy book I love. Terry Moore has proven to me that horror comics can make me uneasy. This might be the first book that gets read and then read again.
G.I. Joe has been at risk of getting dropped. The Cobra Civil War event just finished and it seemed to be overshadowed by other books. The idea behind the event was kind of cool. Maybe I’ll see where stories go from here.
This is one of the strongest books to emerge from the New 52 and I’m not surprised. Scott Snyder is a talented writer. He captures the perfect amount of creepiness, horror, and sci-fi for this book. I’m not familiar with the past of Swamp Thing but it would seem he’s staying true to the characters history and at the same time blazing his own trail.
Scott has created basically two opposing elements within the Swamp Thing universe. There is the green and the red. The green of course represents life and growth. While the red represents decay and death. Within the past couple issues Scott has introduced a character that has some connection and control over the red. It makes for some creepy and down right gross stuff. But damn it is awesome stuff.
So there’s a conflict brewing and by the look of the last couple of pages things are bound to get a lot creepier and nastier. There’s also that weird skeleton roaming around from the first issue. This book is a one to check out if you dig horror and the weird.
I was really impressed by X-23, Swamp Thing, Batwing, Justice League International, and American Vampire yesterday. I think all those are worth checking out. I’m going to do a longer post on X-23 because the character has come a long way and I think Marvel and the writers have developed her perfectly.
I’m also debating dropping some titles. So far I’m thinking about is G.I. Joe and Thor. Out of the new 52 books I think I will drop Demon Knights for financial reasons though. That book is actually pretty good. I did not continue reading issues of Red Hood and the Outlaws, Men of War, and Nightwing.
More awesome creepiness! Snyder gives us the background and history on Swamp Thing and this f’d up enemy that is turning people’s heads backwards. Stuff straight out of a horror movie I tell ya! This thing apparently has been plaguing earth for a very long time and killing lots of people while doing. Snyder ties in epidemics like the Black Plague as the cause of The Red which I guess you can consider the anti-Swamp Thing since Swamp Thing represents the Green.
I was confident Swamp Thing would be good because I think Snyder will become one of the best writers DC has. He’s really making a name for himself with Batman, American Vampire, and now Swamp Thing. This was an excellent example of explaining the history of the Swamp Thing character and still moving the plot forward and doing it will keeping the story interesting.
I officially added this to my pull list.
I thought Batwing #1 was a solid start and figured #2 would be just as good. I mean issue 1 ended on a crazy cliffhanger and left the door open for all sorts of stuff. Well overall issue 2 was okay. Judd is still keeping a lot of the details close to his chest. We do know this character Massacre has some ties to the first big super hero team in Africa. Beyond that we don’t know much except that he also wants them dead for some reason. My guess is this African team ruined this guy’s life at some point. At least that’s what I guess his motivation is.
Batwing starts the issue off with a bad wound of course and does his best Batman impression and goes into battle with a bad handicap. You could say it’s a character moment as we see how tough he is, especially in a book that is proving to be very violent and bloody.
Batwing is still getting off to a good start but I’m eager to see him break out into other areas of Africa. This story is contained within Tinasha and I feel like a whole continent with a rich and diverse history is just waiting to be tapped in this book. I think this book has great potential and lots of room to grow. I hope it gets better as of right now it’s a good comic. I’m sticking with it though and keeping it on my pull list.
I posted yesterday the books I got and which one’s I’ll be keeping. So I figured I’d share which ones were my top 10 favorites.
The wait for Batwoman has been very long and her debut was worth it. Finally glad to see Wonder Woman get a well deserved start. All Star Western, Frankenstein, and Supergirl both started off strong. Justice League Dark and Swamp Thing offered some nice creepiness and variety. Batwing, Batman, and Action were all very strong.
These are also books I’d also recommend to anyone looking to jump into the new DC Universe. Of course there are others that I didn’t pick up that had equally good debuts so I’d also suggest doing a bit of browsing on what DC is offering.
This was another book that I originally did not plan on picking up, but I am a fan of Scott and Yanick so I decided to give it a shot.
Weird, creepy, and scary are words I would use to describe this first issue of Swamp Thing. I am not familiar with the past Swamp Thing stories, but I’ve heard they are quite good. I assume that the adjectives I used to describe the book fit the tone of Swamp Thing. As a first timer to the Swamp Thing world I was intrigued.
Snyder introduces us to Dr. Alec Holland the former Swamp Thing who is now working construction to forget his past as a botanist and as Swamp Thing. Well as much as he wants to forget it appears the plants still need him, as do some other heroes. Honestly it’s hard to talk much more about Alec and Swamp Thing because I just don’t have the past information others may have. I really don’t know what type of character he was before this issue or what exactly the Swamp Thing stories were about.
So I’ll just look at this issue from a new fan’s point of view. Snyder does a good job of giving the very basics about Alec and all the info a new reader would want to know. We know who he was/is. We know what he does. We know what motivates him to do what he does. Snyder lays a solid foundation on which to expand from. I did find interesting the explanation about the violent nature of plant life. I had never looked at vegetation that way before, but it makes sense once you think about. Plants on their own can be just as destructive as humans or animals.
Now for the fun creepy stuff! At one point in the comic something frankly unexplainable happens at an archaeologist dig site. I’ve looked at the page numerous times and the best way I can describe it is some weird tornado that somehow brought to life something that should not be able to live. Obviously it’s some crazy supernatural mojo going on. Like something out of a horror movie this thing did some sort possession on some scientists that was pretty grim. I can tell this book is going to be dark and perhaps very violent.
Yanick Paquette is a good fit for this book. In the past I’ve seen his work on Batman Inc. and Wolverine. The story arcs he did for those 2 books are very different, which is probably why he works so well on Swamp Thing. He can draw quieter moments and also do the eerie stuff just as good if not better. He really captures the bizarre scenes well. His Swamp Thing looks very cool and I think he can really go wild with this book. Snyder and Paquette will make an excellent team. I can see Snyder writing up some awesome scenes and Paquette knocking them out of the park.
I’m going to stick around for the first arc and see how it goes from there. Considered my interest piqued. Oh and I think Swamp Thing is down right cool looking! All those plants and vines all over him. He’s like a walking plant based bigfoot.I feel my blog has been DC biased as most of my posts have been about their new comics. It’s hard not to post about DC though, they are generating a lot of news since they announced the big changes. This is week 2 of the new comics and I thought I’d list them and what books I’m getting. I will be doing reviews of them later in the week as well. As this is the first week with multiple books let’s see what DC is offering. The links below also conveniently go to the DC comics website solicitation for each book!
Action Comics seems like a great one to launch early. A lot of people probably will be looking to get into the Superman books. Grant Morrison and Rags Morales should be providing a really strong book that readers ought to enjoy. I’ve never been a huge Superman fan and never read Action Comics, but I am a fan of Morrision. After Grant’s All-Star Superman story I have to see what he does with the book. The preview pages that were released seemed pretty good.
Animal Man I’m not very familiar with, but I think a lot of Animal Man fans and old readers will be giving this book a shot. Not familiar with Animal Man’s writer, but Travel Foreman did a great job on Immortal Iron Fist for Marvel. The book should look great.
Batgirl seems like a no brainer for a hit comic. Gail Simone is a very popular writer and has recently tweeted positive reactions for Batigrl orders. This is a book that I will be picking up. I’m happy it’s here, but also sad only because Bryan Q. Miller did a great job with Stephanie. Still this should be a fun one.
Batwing is probably one of the books I’m most looking forward too. I’ve blogged earlier about my excitement. Judd Winick is writing and he won me over as a fan with his Power Girl stories. The preview art has looked phenomenal. African Batman? Hell yes.
Detective Comics is another book that is perfect to start with. Batman fans old and new alike should be checking this book out. Tony Daniel has been working in the Bat universe for quite some time and he should provide an excellent book.
Green Arrow is another character I don’t follow closely. Again J.T. Krul is familiar with the character and I think the old Arrow fans will . Although it may be hard for new fans to get into Green Arrow, but I could be wrong.
Hawk and Dove is one book I could see struggling. I do think Sterling Gates is a great writer, but Rob Liefeld’s art is not really my cup of tea. These are 2 relatively obscure characters that I think will be hard to reach new audiences. Maybe some new fans will find something interesting here. I don’t want to predict a flop because that’s not fair, but I think this book will pull low numbers.
Justice League International could be a winner. It’s got a cast filled with a lot of fan favorites. I was debating getting this book because of Batman, Vixen, Fire, Ice, and Guy Gardner. I didn’t reserve a copy so I guess I will make a decision at the comic shop. Hopefully there are copies still available, otherwise I’m SOL. Not familiar with the writer, but I do enjoy Aaron Lopresti’s artwork.
Men of War I expect to do well. Sgt. Rock and Easy Company are quite popular. This book seems like it would also be easy to bring in new readers. There’s no real convoluted history that has been associated with the super hero books. I’m not familiar with the creative team but this is one title that should be very accessible to new comers and war comic fans alike.
OMAC I’m not sure about. Old DC readers are very familiar with OMAC, but I’m not sure how new readers will approach this book. Not many new fans will recognize this character. Dan Didio and Keith Giffen will write and Keith Giffen and Scott Koblish will handle art duties. Keith is a great writer and I’m not sure I feel about Dan’s writing. Dan hasn’t done anything recently to wow me, but working with Keith is a good thing.
Static Shock will probably be familiar to some new fans from his cartoon show a few years back. That might attract new readers. I don’t follow Static Shock closely but haven seen efforts by DC to bring him into the mix. Maybe teenagers and hardcore Static fans will be picking this up. The solicitation on the DC website sounds like it could be a good book though. Hopefully it does well. I’d like to see more prominent characters of color.
Stormwatch is a bit of a mystery to me except for the Martian Manhunter. The other characters I’m not too familiar with. Stormwatch was originally in the Wildstorm Universe, which was under Image Comics. Before this explanation gets anymore confusing just know Wildstorm was an indy company established by Jim Lee. DC has been integrating these characters into their main universe. The solicitation sounds like it could be an action packed and lots of sci fi. This should be successful among Wildstorm fans and DC fans alike. I could also see this bringing in new readers as well. It seems like something they could jump into easily.
Swamp Thing should do great under Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette, 2 very talented creators at DC. Swamp Thing is incredibly popular and I bet he brings in more old fans than new. New readers may think of the old movie and TV show and the sheer weirdness and coolness of such a title might draw in a lot. This is another title I was on the fence about. I’m a fan of both Scott and Yanick, but not very familiar with Swamp Thing. His appearance in Brightest Day was cool. This will be another in store decision. Again I hope I’m not SOL with this and JLI.
That’s it for week two! I usually get to my comic shop in the afternoon so it will be interesting to see how many copies of the titles have or haven’t been taken. I’ll try to make good mental notes and share my experience.
