Variant Covers: Death In The Family!
And a good afternoon to you all. Provided, of course, you’re reading this when I post it. This is Variant Covers, the column where I give the rundown on this week’s comic book releases. As all the women who have seen me disrobe have muttered, let’s get this over with.
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King Of The Flies Vol. 2: The Origin Of The World.
Did you miss out on the first volume of King Of The Flies, or am I the only dumb one? While perusing (far superior) columns today on what’s dropping tomorrow, Douglas Wolk recommended this son of a bitch. Intrigued, I followed the various hypertextual references until I found a preview of the new volume. In short? It’s weird, man. Real weird. Wolk had me at “its look owes rather a lot to Charles Burns’ Black Hole, but it’s also got a sick, surreal vibe of its own.”
Sold.
(And if you haven’t checked out Burns’ latest, X’ed Out, get on it. My favorite graphic novel of last year.)
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Action Comics #897.
Don’t let the cover fool you, Action Comics is some of the most fun I get in my funny books diet today. Quick editorializing: Fuck misleading covers. I understand that some angsty David Finch cover probably grabs the nuts of the average fanboy, but it may also dissuade others. Action Comics is funny, intelligent, and relatively XTREME free. You wouldn’t know it by the cover, though.
This month’s issue has Lex Luthor rolling up into Arkham Asylum and soliciting the help of the Joker. I don’t know where it’s going to go from there, but I’ll find myself rooting for the bastard. A megalomaniacal sociopath on a quest for the Black Lantern energy, penciled by Pete Woods?
Pick it up.
Also In DC:
Detective Comics #837 is dropping, and as I said in my recommendation of #836, the artwork alone may be worth it. It’s Jock, yo!
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Fantastic Four #587.
WORTH MENTIONING: This comic book features a death of a member of the Fantastic Four, and its OUT NOW. But like all people with psychological problems, I have myself on a set schedule. My excel spreadsheet drawn up by a legion of doctors and psychotherapists demands that I enter the hallowed halls of geekdom tomorrow. Tomorrow! So I wait. The internet is soaked in the spoiler of who dies, but I’m not there. Not yet.
God I want to spoil it for myself.
Stay strong, Caffeine, stay strong.
Fantastic Four is my favorite Marvel title, bar none. Its impressive, since there’s a good amount of titles from the home of Steve Rogers and Peter Parker that I get down with. But the extraordinary family of space-jetters and dimension-travelers have wormed their way into my heart. The countdown to Casualty is finished, and someone is going to get themselves a dirt nap. Can’t wait to find out who it is.
Also In Marvel:
It seems like every single Avengers title is coming out this week; Jesus Christ can you say oversaturation? Regular Avengers, New Avengers, and Secret Avengers, oh my! Don’t forget Ultimate Comics Avengers! C’mon Marvel. At least spread out the releases of your whored out and stretched thin franchises. Some of us are on a weekly budget. There’s also Age of X Alpha #1 which poses the question “What if the X-Men were never formed or something blah blah Mutantkind fights their greatest fight. Again.” Sounds a lot like Age of Apocalypse to me.
But side-stepping snark for a moment, I’m excited for Captain America #614, which continues the Trial of Captain America storyline. Brubaker has Bucky on the stand, as he has to answer for his crimes as the Winter Soldier. The storyline is pitting Bucky against Sin, the daughter of Captain America. The next generation of the Cap and Red Skull foil continues as both Jimmy and Sin try to bear the weight of wearing the mantle.
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Comics I Should But Reading, But I’m Not:
There’s a good list of comic books that I’ve fallen behind on, or haven’t gotten to. Fuck me, aye! I know, right? But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that almost everything I’ve read about them suggests that I should be reading them, and so should you. Fables fits into that category, and issue #101 comes out this week. Also, Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly’s The New York Five comes out this week. I missed out on the original (The New York Four), and I’m currently wondering if I should be able to get this one without prior knowledge. And finally, in a perfect world, I’d be caught up on Scalped, so I could pick up issue #45 this week. But as I said previously in this post, that’s why god created Amazon and trade paperbacks.
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What are you guys picking up? Hit me.
