Variant Covers: Happy Endings, Big Questions, and More.
Comic books. I need them. They’re an antidote to my weekly stressors that neither my therapist nor pharmaceutically-engineered happiness could touch. So I hope Grant Morrison isn’t right. I hope comic books aren’t dying. ‘Cause they’re the salve on the chapped ass of my perpetual existential crisis. Tomorrow is Wednesday, when the batch of momentary reality-ejection drops. What are you buying? What are you interested interested in?
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DC. Week Before The Storm.
This is the week before the DC universe gets all done over like Inside Out Boy or some shit. The week prior to the storm. DC is shoveling out an armada of titles that will never see the light of day again in their current incarnation. I’m particularly excited for Batman Incorporated #8. If Grant Morrison is penning a sinking ship, in a sinking medium, at least he’s doing it as he fucking sees fit. The final issue of Batman INC for a good amount of time has Batman and the Oracle (who is about to get de-paralyzed in the relaunch) running around in a “simulated environment that’s slowly collapsing into post-apocalyptic zombie-haunted chaos.” Oh Morrison, I fucking love you. Then there’s Action Comics #904, where the Doomsdays are on the cusp of defeating the entire pantheon of Super People. Will he win? Answer: it doesn’t matter! DC ‘New 52’ baby! Hootie hoo! This week also sees the final issue of Xombi, a title that’s dying with the DC reboot because we’re too busy pre-ordering 200,000 copies of the new JLA to buy quirky titles with gorgeous art and off-kilter themes. Don’t be a pig, buy the trade of this when it comes out.
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Potential To Be Fantastic.
Douglas Wok recommended Big Questions by Anders Nilsen this week. A graphic novel of 600 pages that’s been accrued over a decade. As an ignorant douche, I hadn’t heard of it until his recommendation. Curiosity may be my strongest virtue though, so I went over to TFAW and read the description. It’s “beautiful minimalist story, collected here for the first time, is the culmination of ten years and more than six hundred pages of work that details the metaphysical quandaries of the occupants of an endless plain, existing somewhere between a dream and a Russian steppe. A downed plane is thought to be a bird and the unexploded bomb that came from it is mistaken for a giant egg by the group of birds whose lives the story follows.”
At $35 on TFAW, it’s an expensive investment on something that I haven’t digested, but I’m intrigued. Verdict: blind buy-a-go-go!
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Comic I’m Really Sweatin’.
If you follow the column, you know that I’m a huge fan of Jonathan Hickman. His ability to weave metaphysics, ethics, and other floaty college campus concepts that make my fucking groin yearn for the days when I was a dawdling English/Philosophy seventh-year senior. This week Hickman is taking his talents to the Ultimate Universe, helming that universe’s equivalent of the Avengers. Oh yeah dude, it’s on. Ultimate Comics Ultimates #1. Awful title, agreed. Hickman is joined by Esad Ribic, who introduced himself to me via his glorious artwork on Uncanny X-Force. I love me a well-written superteam comic. The stakes are always higher, you get to see your favorite supers high-fiving and playing grab ass. It’s all good. God knows I don’t enjoy main continuity Avenger titles (Brian Boring Bendis), so I’m hoping this will fill my need.
I predict yes.
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Vikings, Boobs, Snack Time.
With this month’s Northlanders #43, the title continues its glorious death match. Oh Northlanders, soon you will be gone from me. Gone into the winds. Along with Wood’s other title DMZ. Empty Wood syndrome. I’m going to walk around the house swinging an empty paper-towel cardboard roll like a viking sword, while yelling about the goddamn military state we live in. Chew #20 comes out this week as well. I snagged the first issue of this comic back in the day, and I enjoyed it. It was lost amidst the density of my comics list, but it’s enjoyable. It reminded me of this by the short story in Hero Comics 2011. Speaking of titles I need to get on, American Vampire #18 hits shelves tomorrow. I need to get on that title. Then there’s Avengelyne #2. Let me ask you something: what is the point of a comic written by Rob Liefeld by not drawn by him? Nothing!
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Super Marvel Time.
Interesting title flying under the radar alert! Have you heard of Iron Age: Omega #1? I sure hadn’t until perusing the release lists for this week. It wasn’t the writer that caught my eyes, but rather the artist. Rebekah Isaacs. I dug her work on the DV8 miniseries last year, and I’m willing to get anything she’s working on a try. FF #8 is coming out, and I’m glad Steve Epting is finally back on the title. He compliment’s Mr. Hick-Man’s writing so well. Uncanny X-Force #13 is dropping, and the sooner they end the Age of Apocalypse storyline the jazzier it’ll be. And since I’m a complete slut for the X-titles, Jason Aaron and Renato Guedes conclude the current arc on Wolverine with issue #14 Which could have been titled (and I would have approved of it) “Wolverine Kills A lot. A lot! Of People.”
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What are you guys interested in this week?