Buying off the comic-book rack – Nov. 7, 2012
You’ve voted and need something else entertaining now that all the endless commercials touting one candidate over another have ended so now’s the perfect time to catch up on all the great comics you’ve been missing as you’ve been reading up on the best candidate. Time for some relaxing reading and the highlights, as usual, are brought to you by my pal Steve from Third Eye Comics:
Marvel NOW brings us DEADPOOL #1!
It was hard to choose what was going to be our top pick this week, but after seeing the amazing custom cover that STRANGE TALENT OF LUTHER STRODE artist TRADD MOORE did for us in collaboration with Marvel… we had to go with DEADPOOL. Plus: it’s a fantastic read!
What’d you get when you take some of the most talented, genuinely funny writers in the business and pair them up with one of the most talented artists in the biz? Wait, wait, hold on.. what happens when you pair these titans up, and then put them on one of the most instinctively cool characters in comics?
Seriously, this book lives up to the hype and then some, as it kicks off the new ongoing DEADPOOL series that’s under the MARVEL NOW banner. This is a fresh new direction for Deadpool, and a perfect new jumping on point for those of you who’ve been dying to find a good DEADPOOL series to read.
MARVEL NOW: IRON MAN #1 BRINGS A BRAND NEW IRON MAN SERIES!
The new IRON MAN series that’s spinning from MARVEL NOW looks freakin’ amazing, and folks, if you’ve yet to discover Kieron Gillen through his incredible work on sleeper hit JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY, then this is your chance to see why Gillen is climbing fast as one of the most talented writers in Marvel’s arsenal.
Gillen captures the technical visionary, the unparalleled engineer, the devil-may-care playboy, and more with his portrayal of Tony Stark, and I gotta tell you: if you thought Iron Man was cool in the movies and the Avengers flick, then you haven’t seen anything yet.
This really does truly capture the essence of Robert Downey Jr’s IRON MAN portrayal, and bring that to the Marvel Universe in a very organic, and natural way. I can’t stress enough: GET IRON MAN this week, it’s amazing stuff!
SHADOWMAN #1 DEBUTS THIS WEDNESDAY
The VALIANT Comics revival has been pretty awesome, and by far, one of the bigger highlights of 2012, but I gotta tell you: SHADOWMAN is the title we’ve been looking forward to the most!
This new ongoing series starts out with one concept: there’s a million dreams in the Big Easy. But now, it’s worst nightmare is about to come true. As the forces of darkness prepare to claim New Orleans as their own, Jack Boniface must embrace the legacy he was born to uphold. As Shadowman, Jack is about to become the only thing that stands between his city and an army of unspeakable otherworldly monstrosities from beyond the night. But is the mantle of Shadowman a blessing or a curse? And, what cost does his otherworldly power come at?
SHADOWMAN is loaded with cool monsters, a bad-a$$ plot, great dialogue, and some fantastic artwork by Patrick Zircher. It may be our favorite of the VALIANT line-up so far, and this debut issue was a freakin’ great start for the series!
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO ARRIVES IN GRAPHIC NOVEL
Stieg Larsson’s ‘Millenium Trilogy’ is getting the graphic novel treatment, and we’re pretty darn stoked with how it’s turned out. Leonado Manco’s artwork is PERFECT for this story, and the graphic novel format in general works so well with Larrson’s story.
Harriest Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth of her disappearance. He hires on Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate, and who’s helping his investigation? A computer prodigy covered in tattoos and piercings named Lisbeth Salander.
Together, they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and corruption in this stunning graphic novel adaptation of the GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO book.
AVENGERS VS. X-MEN HARDCOVER — The entire series collected!
We know there’s a lot of you folks who’ve been on the edge of your seats waiting for this to come out, and we’re pretty happy to tell you: Wednesday, it’s ON. The entirety of AVENGERS VS. X-MEN collected into one massive slab of awesome, and trust us, folks: this one is definitely worth it’s spot on your bookshelf.
The biggest and the best of the AVENGERS and the X-MEN go to war in this game-changing storyline that paved the way for the current MARVEL NOW direction. As the Phoenix Force returns to Earth, Cyclops finds himself growing increasingly paranoid, and protective of the X-Men and their position in the world. But, what begins as good intentions ends in a fiery road to Hell itself.
Featuring the biggest throwdowns in the Marvel Universe between IRON MAN and MAGNETO, Spider-Man and Colossus, Captain America and Gambit, and so many more, AVENGERS VS. X-MEN will go down in history as one of the best marquee event stories that Marvel has done.
This hardcover is amazing, as it collects the entire 13-issue (#0-#12) AVX series into one volume, while also including the totally killer AVX: VS series which features the fights, the AVX INFINITE one-shots that were not originally published in print, and much more!
Best of all: everything is reprinted inside in the correct reading sequence and order, making for a seemless, satisfying reading experience!
We have been totally digging the RISE OF THE THIRD ARMY arc that’s been running through the GREEN LANTERN titles, and the introduction of new GL, Simon Baz, has been off-the-chain good.
The saga continues, as the Third Army continues their quest to exterminate ALL of the GREEN LANTERNS, and replace them, meanwhile, Baz finds himself having to throw down with the Justice League, as they demand to know where Hal Jordan has disappeared to.
Geoff Johns, writer of AQUAMAN, JUSTICE LEAGUE and more, continues to hit homeruns with this one, and Doug Mahnke’s art just gets better and better.