{[['
']]}
']]}
Oh, good Lord, what a disaster of an order this is going to be.
You see, there's a notice in Diamond Distribution's Previews catalog that says the Future's End editions of regular titles from DC Comics were advance solicited in May. Yeah, I knew that, but the notice goes on to say that retailers had to order those books by May 29 and that any orders placed after that date "cannot be guaranteed."
I get that DC is trying to avoid the cluster caused by last year's crop of 3-D covers (which were pretty cool, if not necessarily worth the extra dollar), but I did not think to place my order for September books back in May, assuming at the time that they would be solicited again in this month's catalog. Well, no dice. In fact, the books are not listed at all. So, what's a poor fanboy to do? Well, I scrounged up the solicitations online, but have decided to largely skip the books, since I am not buying the Future's End weekly series anyway. Instead, this month will be largely dedicated to experimenting with books from other companies that I have never been able to fit into my budget. How that will that affect my pull list next month, and in months to come, remains to be seen.
DC COMICS
Astro City #15, $3.99
Bodies #3, $3.99
Booster Gold: Future's End #1, $3.99
Justice League: Future's End #1, $3.99
Justice League United: Future's End #1, $3.99
Multiversity: The Society of Super-Heroes... #1, $4.99
Scooby-Doo Team-Up #6, $2.99
Notes: I drop all of my regular titles, keeping only Justice League for the event month, and that only because Wildfire is on the cover. I also add Justice League United, even though I've recently dropped the regular title, because of the Dawnstar appearance. Even when pushing back against event month foolishness, I love me some Legion! I also decide to try the Booster Gold one-shot, since time travel is his milieu, and rumors are this issue will lead into a new regular series, which I'd likely buy anyway. I was going to try the Earth-2 special, on the assumption that it will feature story beats likely to play out in the upcoming weekly series that has been rumored to be in the works. However, I have no clue who the listed writer might be and the solicitation is all about Mr. Terrific while the cover features Lois Tornado. So, I back off, fearing a FUBAR of other-wordly proportions.
I also add in the Scooby-Doo book, which I buy when the budget allows, depending on who the gang teams up with. This Super Friends cross-over is getting tantalizingly close to the team-up I REALLY want to see: Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog!
Still, I'm pre-ordering just seven DC titles this month, down from 13 last month and the fewest DC Comics I will have purchased in any one month in more than 40 years of collecting.
MARVEL COMICS
Amazing Spider-Man #1.5, $3.99
Amazing Spider-Man #5, $3.99
Daredevil #8, $3.99
Fantastic Four #10, $3.99
Fantastic Four Annual #1, $4.99
Ms Marvel #8, $2.99
Rocket Racoon #3, $3.99
Savage Hulk #4, $3.99
Silver Surfer #7, $3.99
Thor: God of Thunder #25, $4.99
Notes: Unfortunately, Marvel does not benefit from my own personal DC Implosion, as my net number of titles from them drops from 12 to 10. Despite having room in my monthly budget due to the DC cuts and the end of Original Sin, I just can't seem to find any Marvel's I'm interested in, other than the ones I'm already buying. The company's solicitation magazine is such a jumbled fudge factory of X-Men and Avengers that it makes me nauseous just to look at it. It's a shame, too. Marvel really should have seen what was coming from DC and counter-programmed a ton on first-issue launches this month to lure dissatisfied fans from the Distinguished Competition. I suppose that's maybe what The Death of Wolverine is supposed to be, but I'm so super-saturated on Wolverine I have a hard time caring. Plus, I don't for a second think Marvel is going to let Logan stay dead for long. For that reason, the solicitation really just reads like I'm being sold a bill of goods. Pass.
That said, I do stick with Fantastic Four, which I had been thinking of dropping, and even add in the annual, against my better judgement. I have to admit, I'm really only sticking with the book because I expect to see it canceled soon (if rumors of the fight over movie rights pan out) and I kinda want to see how it all plays out. I almost re-add All-New Invaders, which I recently dropped, because the last issue I pre-ordered was pretty decent. However, I decide to leave the title on month-to-month status, reviewing each issue on the stands before purchase rather than committing to it in advance.
Oh, and I drop All-New X-Men. I don't hate Miles Morales. I just don't really know him, having never read the Ultimate book beyond the first few issues. However, his appearance signals that All-New is venturing further and further away from what I bought into the title for, which was the adventures of the original X-Men. I wasn't wild about X-23 joining, and I'm less enamored of non-mutant ( I assume) Miles on the roster. His membership feels like a stunt just to cross-promote his new book. Also, this title has always had kind of a plodding plot and I buy it mostly for Stuart Immonen's art, and since he's not on this issue . . .
IMAGE COMICS
Black Science #9, $3.50
Copperhead #1, $3.50
Fade Out #2, $3.50
Jupiter's Legacy #5, $4.99
Manifest Destinty #9, $2.99
Stray Bullets: Killers #7, $3.50
Notes: I add Copperhead even though there are some layout problems with the sample pages as previewed in Previews. But the art is otherwise generally okay, and since before Firefly I was a sucker for sci-fi cowboys. Of the other #1s, and Image lately has had 4-5 every month, Roche Limit looks to be a paean to "rich people suck," Larfleeze Hates Astronauts looks too weird and The Further Adventures of Tabitha Stevens just does't seem to be something that's aimed at me.
I considered adding books that have been praised online by fans which I missed out on, such as Chew, Saga, and The Manhattan Project, as well as the various Mark Miller titles, but decide each is too deep into serialized stories for me to ever catch up.
Of my other regular Image buys, there appears to be no Real Heroes this month. I'm still waiting to get a copy of #3 as all issues sent to my local shop arrived damaged. Meanwhile, I'm overjoyed to see a new issue of Jupiter's Legacy solicited, although I don't expect to see it actually released until sometime next March.
DARK HORSE COMICS
One for $1: Ghost #1. $1
The Goon: Occasion for Revenge #3, $3.50
Groo vs. Conan #3, $3.50
Prometheus: Fire and Stone #1, $3.50
Notes: Not a ton that appeals to me among the Dark Horse solicits, I'm afraid. However, the preview of Prometheus looks interesting, so I bite. I missed the movie, so I'll have to seek that out before this issue arrives. I figured, what the heck, at $1 I'll give Ghost a try. I assume that like previous titles in the One for $1 line, this will reprint the debut issue of Ghost's current regular series, now up to #8, but the solicit makes it seems as if this will be original material. We'll see. I considered re-adding Captain Midnight, which I recently cut, but decide to keep it on month-to-month status off the stands, if my shop has any copies left over when I get there. They only order a couple of issues beyond pre-orders, and I think I was the only customer who had it on a pull list.
DYNAMITE
Flash Gordon #5, $3.99
Flash Gordon Annual 2014, $7.99
Note: As much as I love, Love LOVE, Dynamite's Flash Gordon series, $7.99 for a 48-page comic is a really, Really, REALLY bad deal. If I was not so enamored of the regular title, and if this was any other month, I would not even consider giving this the green light. Here's a suggestion guys, try selling some advertising.
I had ordered Bob's Burger's last month, but that was mostly on a lark and I don't expect much from the book, so I don't bother to pre-order #2. If the debut issue is great, I may re-add the title and/or pick up later issues off the stands.
ARCHIE
Sabrina #1, $3.99
Afterlife with Archie #7, $3.99
Note: You'll notice that all of Archie's regular 32-page books, even the ones aimed at kids, go up to $3.99 this month. Had Afterlife with Archie launched at that price point, I would not have taken a chance on it. And it's only because it's so good that I continue with it at this price. Sabrina gets on the pull list solely on the strength of Afterlife, and because of this month's DC purge.
BONGO
SpongeBob Comics #36, $2.99
Note: A couple of week's ago was a short one for me. Not many items off my pull list shipped that week and a few I was supposed to get were either shorted by Diamond or arrived damaged. So, with money in my pocket I had planned to spend anyway, I searched the stands for an impulse buy, eventually settling on a SpongeBob comic (#33) released the previous week. Jerry Ordway on a SpongeBob story?! SO much fun. So, I decided to pre-order the last chapter of Ordway's five-part tale. Now I just need to find #32, and make sure I don't miss #34-35!
BOOM!
George Perez' Sirens #1, $3.99
Note: It's George Perez. 'Nuff said.
Extended errata: I really wanted to order something from IDW, but just could not find anything that pushed my buttons. Sadly, most of the company's licensed titles are of properties that reached their peak popularity when I was either an adult, or into my later teens, so there's little of the nostalgia factor to lure me in. So, here's a hint IDW, go out and work a deal with Sid and Marty Krofft. Imagine Electra-Woman and Dynagirl by Kevin Maguire, Land of the Lost by Frank Cho, H.R. Pufntuf by Scottie Young, The Bugaloos by Mike Allred, or Sigmund and the Sea Monsters by Eric Powell. YES! YES!, YES! YES! and YES!
On another note, I only WISH I could afford some IDW offerings, such as Superman: The Golden Age Sundays, Will Eisner's The Sprit Artist Edition, and Puck: What Fools These Mortals Be.
Out of the rest of what's in this month's Previews, DC continues to make missteps, IMHO, with its Earth One line. The Teen Titans all grew up together in Oregon now?! I get that it's hard to reboot a team all at once that originally formed over a period of time, and it's especially hard to re-imagine the Titans sans Robin, who doesn't exist yet on this particular Elseworld, I believe. But really, this solicitation reads more like, Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating the Teen Titans. I like Jeff Lemire, and I adore the Dodson's, but this one's not for me.
Of the independent publishers, some things that caught my attention, but just missed making the cut for my $100 monthly budget — I actually went a little over, at $103.40, post discount, which will come to $110.51 with Maine state sales tax — include the following:
- Number One #1, $3.99, from Aazurn Publising
- Kevin Keller #15, $3.99, from Archie (just for the awesome Days of Future Past cover)
- The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror #20, $4.99, from Bongo
- Wild's End #1, $3.99, from BOOM
- Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor #6, $3.99 from Titan (Weeping Angels!)
- Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor #1, $3.99, also from Titan
- The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage #1, $4.99, from Valiant.
I should also mention that I took a hard look at former Valiant/Acclaim properties published by the new Valiant, as well as the one's owned by Dell (Dreamworks now?) published by Dynamite. But while some look interesting, I just couldn't find the dollars to work them into my pre-order. The same goes for Dark Horse's "final" Elfquest title, although that one catches my eye based on the original WaRP issues from years and years ago and is only hobbled by subsequent Elfquest books put out over the past couple of decades.
I'll also mention that two of Robert Kirkman's books were on the first draft of this month's order, but (common refrain) had to be cut to make budget. I almost ordered my first issue of The Walking Dead ever, having been all but ignorant of the comic until the TV show. Issue #131 promises that, "A journey begins," and that seemed a good jumping-on point. I also was going to go ahead and add Outcast, which I had previously passed on, simply because of recent sales reports -- I can't resist lemminging in with the crowd, I guess. Probably just as well that I did not order it, however. My local shop got shorted on #1, so who knows when or if I'll ever see that. The same thing happened with Manifest Destiny #1, which I did pre-order. By the time Diamond got around to fulfilling the order from my shop the series was on #6 and what I got of #1 was a fourth print!
Finally, let me mention that I thought about filling in the jettisoned DC titles with a graphic novel, before ultimately deciding to stick with "floppies." Among the books I considered were:
- The Rise of Aurora West, $9.99, from First Second Books
- The Wrenchies, $19.99, also from First Second
- Shoplifter, $19.95, from Pantheon
- Sugar Skull, $23, from Pantheon
- The Chimera Birgade, $9.99, from Titan
- The New York Four, $19.99, from Dark Horse
Okay, that's it for Septemeber comics. Now to await what wonders will come our way in October!
Post a Comment