The Brave and the Bold # 1

The Brave and the Bold # 1: Roulette (The Lords of Luck Chapter 1)

Mark Waid/George Perez/Bob Wiacek/Tom Smith/Rob Leigh/Joey Cavalieri
Cover: George Perez/Tom Smith
April, 2007 (released February 21, 2007)
DC
$2.99

Plot Highlights: Green Lantern and Batman stumble into an intriguing murder mystery and join forces to find out more, which they eventually do.

I have looked from afar with a certain longing at comics drawn by George Perez over the years. He mostly draws projects for DC. Projects that are deeply ensconced in the history and details of their super-hero universe sometimes using scores of characters per issue. Projects that a more casual DC reader, like myself, might not necessarily find all that entertaining. I have not read much by Mark Waid, but lately I am interested in his current Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes issues. As far as dedicated hero team-up books go, generally, I have not read much of those either. Of the most recent 25 issue run of Marvel Team-Up I only recall buying two issues. Team-ups are fairly common in solo hero titles though, so I have read plenty.

Summing all those factors, this new title feels very promising. With Green Lantern as a favorite of mine, Batman, and creators with good reputations in the first issue my expectations are high. With just a pair of headliners, I can be more sure of the kind of character interaction I will get. Green Lantern and Batman could conceivably go several issues in a comic with a larger cast, like JLA, without talking to each other or getting to show their skills either individually or in combination.

The two covers for this issue are similar enough that I am unsure as to why they bothered to produce more than one. Aside from the one I have (see above), you may view the other version here. I suppose the good part about it is that even if one is unavailable for purchase, there aren't serious differences. Both show the hero characters in a classic pose or action moment with Green Lantern's ring shining. The cover design itself is interesting as logos of the two lead heroes in the issue are essentially given slightly greater prominence, through size and coloring, than the title of the book itself, surely in an effort to draw in those with specific interest in those characters. I wonder if this will continue on future covers, especially if there are more than a couple of featured characters at a time.

Since Batman and Superman already have a monthly book together, replacing at least one of them here seems like an obvious decision to give the book something unique. Given beginning with a murder mystery, keeping Batman's detective skills available for story purposes makes leaving out Superman easy enough. Enter Green Lantern for any brute force and quick flights needed. The perfect addition for me, because I was in the mood for an extra Green Lantern story. Looking ahead, it seems Supergirl and Blue Beetle will show up in the first few issues to help out Green Lantern and Batman.

The story so far though is with Batman and Green Lantern, who are challenged with a mystery investigation and fierce enemy attacks in varied and unexpected locales. Aside from a few less than perfectly clear sequences, this is a solid, if not quite sensational effort, and I look forward to more. It is nice to finally have a chance to collect some issues with Perez art.

As an old Sandman reader I am intrigued to see that an item from that series appears as a principal artifact of interest in the story. With a theme of money and gambling running through the issue, the knowledge granted by this object could allow someone to wager perfectly on future outcomes.

Blade of the Immortal # 122

Blade of the Immortal # 122: Barefoot Part 1 (of 5)

Hiroaki Samura/Dana Lewis/Tomoko Saito/Scott Cook/Ryan Jorgensen/Philip Simon
Cover: Hiroaki Samura/Dan Jackson
February, 2007 (released February 14, 2007)
Dark Horse
B&W, 32 pages (no ads)
$2.99

Plot Highlights: Rin's nightmare. Rin and Doa look for Isaku and Manji, spying. A visit with Burando shows changes.

Having collected Blade of the Immortal since # 81, and supplemented that with reading the first 11 issues in book form, I can only describe it as one of my favorites at this point. The consistent output by one creator helps too. Despite the periodic scenes of brutal sickening violence, this is a beautifully illustrated comic series. I think many readers just buy the collections at this point, but I cannot resist the little extra trappings of the regular issues like color covers, larger pages, and I also want to know what happens with the story every once in a while rather than in large doses.

This is not one of my favorite covers, but it is appropriate to the contents and makes for a change of pace.

A striking moment in this issue points to just how rash Doa can act in all aspects of her life. It doesn't require a tense life threatening situation. When Rin unveils a delicate telescope, Doa grapples and whines in order to use it herself immediately. In fairness it shows she is curious as well. It is a wonder she has the patience to search with Rin's methods for four days before going off on her own.

This issue gives me hope that Rin may soon figure out where Manji is and possibly find a way to help him. The terrible experiments of recent issues were getting a little repetitive, and it is nice to have a break from that.

Because this title has such a long history, and I have not yet read all of it, I sometimes don't know or remember a particular character, or maybe some confusion comes from converting the series for English speaking audiences. That only diminishes my enjoyment slightly, so I still recommend it.


Possibly of interest:
CBR Pipeline Blade of the Immortal Book Club Thus Far (Vol. 1-14)

New Avengers # 27

New Avengers # 27: Revolution Part One

Brain Michael Bendis/Leinil Yu/Dave McCaig/Albert Deschesne/Brad Johansen/Molly Lazer & Aubrey Sitterson/Tom Brevoort
April, 2007 (released: February 7, 2007)
Marvel
$2.99

Plot Highlights: The latest New Avengers team to the rescue. What? More specific? Ronin talks about her life/work in Japan, asks for trouble with Elektra and The Hand (or is she really in trouble?), and The Avengers answer her note for assistance.


Although I have enjoyed Bendis' stories on Daredevil and Powers, I have only read issues # 7 and 8 of this particular series so far. Nevertheless, I have been anticipating this issue since I saw the cover art. I expected Yu to do a wonderful job on art based on this, and potential story coverage of Elektra and her ninja forces had its appeal as well. I admit to abandoning David Mack's abstract expressionistic Daredevil issues featuring Echo partway through. Still, this appeared like a good chance to follow some characters with strong Daredevil ties.

It does not disappoint on that level, though I'm not yet sure whether Elektra has the same good intentions that I last encountered with her. She does not treat Ronin well, but only, in my estimation, because she does not know who she is at first. Not ideal, I agree, but this is Elektra. I like her earrings though. Of course, Iron Fist, who helped DD out lately, is here too.

I love the cover for this issue. I'm glad the contents looked good too, so that I could justify buying it.

Inside, the updates Ronin provides are fine. The events between her and Elektra are pretty interesting. The visuals are cool. At this point, I look forward to more from this creative team.

Civil War # 7 provides an additional piece of context that might prove important to this arc. In the wind up Reed Richards mentions that "a small band of Cap's followers remain radicalized in the underground movement." This is that group, and perhaps Elektra is aware of their status. I'm not sure how that could come into play yet.

newuniversal # 3

newuniversal # 3: Mathematics

Warren Ellis/Salvador Larroca/Jason Keith/Ron Wooton/Daniel Ketchum/Alex Alonso
April, 2007 (released February 7, 2007)
Marvel
$2.99

Plot Highlights: An interesting conversation about the nature of the newly emerged super-powered person(s). Some brutal revenge/justice. Discoveries of ancient city and artifacts, what they might mean, and how to handle them.


Despite my unfamiliarity with the previous iteration(s) of the New Universe, I started picking up this series from # 1 a couple of weeks ago. I have enjoyed Larroca's art in the past, so this was a natural draw. I have not read anything by Ellis (that I can recall at the moment), but he has been well regarded. There was the danger that after at least some exposure in recent years to things like Rising Stars, Supreme Power, the X-Men films and Heroes, that another setting newly injected with individuals with extraordinary powers would fall flat in terms of freshness at this point. However, the first two issues were interesting and enjoyable.

The covers of this series are essentially just remixes of interior imagery. The title design eschews typical capitalization, size and spacing. The issue number is larger than normal. The monochromatic coloring washes out the details on an initial viewing and comes across as easy to throw together. A cynical (or grateful) person might feel this last item saves some time and gets the series out faster. While that might be a side effect, the overall design does give the book a distinctive, if not quite totally compelling, look.

The conversation between Voight and Swann early in the issue is nearly worth the price of admission. I am impressed with the way that they are both fierce and intelligent advocates for their respective positions. Ultimately, they cannot prove either of their speculative theories at this point, but Swann's points are good.

There are neat moments of visual storytelling in the scenes after Swann leaves Voight's office. The content of those scenes is unexpected, and I am already satisfied with purchasing the issue by this point.

Glimpses of Tensen's brutal slayings in the preview art released for this issue had me worried this would degenerate into a slasher comic. The level of violence is overkill but played better than I expected because of the circumstances of the scene. The depictions are still quite unnerving in their brutality.

Despite the fact that the character is butchering terrible people, I wonder how long this behavior can remain even partially sympathetic to the reader. At some point an unending string of violent merciless allocations of justice will grow tiresome or too repulsive. Then again, comics creations like Punisher, Spectre and Ghost Rider have long endured. It also leaves open as to how he will interact with the other fledgling powered characters. Will he work with them all? Or perhaps he will find them wanting, and destructive struggles will erupt. For now Tensen provides some action during the set up stages, which some are sure to appreciate.

The closing pages leave open the intriguing possibility of learning much more of the powered from the earlier era. My curiosity is piqued by this archaeological component to the tale and what story avenues it might provide. I expect Carson and his team might be called to aide the government as the best qualified experts.

One element of the art, the resemblance of faces to real actors, does create some interesting questions. When I look at Carson, I first think Johnny Depp. Should I hear his voice for the character in my mind? Should I assign some of his traits or those of roles he has played? Perhaps not. I am free to treat it as a new role, I suppose.

I am pleased with this series so far. If you asked me a month or two ago, I would have had little interest in buying this project. It is a nice surprise, and I expect to continue reading.

May Cover Previews

Ultimate Fantastic Four # 42 by Pasqual Ferry:


Heroes for Hire # 10 by Michael Golden:
And I thought running with the bulls was a bad idea.

Marvel Adventures Iron Man # 1 by Michael Golden:
Iron Man beating out that bolt of lightning at the finish line?!

Marvel Magic Handbook by Marko Djurdjevic:
Having mysteriously or perhaps even magically lost all recognition of whom any of these characters are, I suppose I need this. Hey!

Justice League Unlimited # 33 by Ty Templeton:
Star Girl and Crimson Avenger discover the first rule of dungeon adventuring: "We need a cleric!"

Loveless # 19 by Marcelo Frusin:
I'm sure those skeletal remains will fetch a pretty penny in town.

Star Wars: Legacy # 12 by Jan Duursema:
Someone's midichlorian count is over the legal limit.

Usagi Yojimbo # 103 by Stan Sakai/Tom Luth:
View the B&W version.

Usagi Yojimbo Volume 21: The Mother of Mountains by Stan Sakai:
See how this cover was created from scratch.

Links:
Marvel Comics for May, 2007
DC Comics for May, 2007
Dark Horse Comics for May, 2007
Image Comics for May, 2007
IDW Publishing Comics for May, 2007

The Walking Dead # 34

The Walking Dead # 34

Robert Kirkman/Charlie Adlard/Cliff Rathburn/Rus Wooton
January, 2007 (released January 31, 2007)
B&W (with shades of gray)
Image
$2.99

Plot Highlights: Characters battle zombies while making their way back to their car. After getting on the road, a startling revelation awaits. A reprinted Christmas story closes the issue.

Aside from having read the first issue of the series online some time back, this is my first issue of The Walking Dead. There have been no shortage of zombie stories crossing the comics racks of late. The stuff is relentless, like the zombies themselves. Zombies, zombies, zombies. What is the deal with all the zombies? I had to finally read something to find out. Also, I like to sample, from time to time, comic settings with fundamental world changing events, like Y: The Last Man or newuniversal, for example. Kirkman's epic seemed like a good choice for giving a zombie version a chance.

Maybe the cover is a bit of misdirection, or maybe it was completed in advance of knowing the eventual contents of this issue, but I can make no connection between it and the story on the inside. The back cover has art as well, which is nice to see.

While not much actually happens in this issue in terms of plot, it does give an effective glimpse of the setting. The discussions and reactions feel authentic for the situations. One character, who may be new, relates some of his background and experiences to the others. While introducing him, it also gives a newer reader more feel for the setting. The nearly constant pressure from zombies is palpable.


The art is well done throughout from action filled encounters with the zombies to more mundane moments of conversation all the way to delivering a scene of large scale zombie devastation. Gore is limited to dispatching zombies, though there are indications this would not be the case in every issue.


Update (2/12/2007): Image Comics' "Walking Dead" #34 Sells Out

Civil War's Registration Side Finally Lost Me

I took down my "Civil War: I'm With Iron Man" banner from the sidebar.

Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic and Yellowjacket finally lost me with the decision to strip the freewill of their Thor clone in a marathon 36+ hour operation in the pages of Civil War # 6. While the death at the hands of the Thor clone earlier in the series was shocking and unacceptable, that doesn't mean that I'm going to support stripping him of freewill.


If I'm somehow deemed heroic enough or find myself wealthy enough for cloning sometime in the future, I can posit some scenarios where the current me would find such cloning acceptable.

Perhaps the clones could somehow house my current consciousness, so I would never have to die of old age (cf. Altered Carbon). Is someone working on portable compressed digital brain storage? Enough with the MP3 players already.

I could even see possibly giving my current DNA a few extra lives starting from scratch with no influence from my current self. Either way my clones would have lives to live as they saw fit.

Could I bear to harvest them for body parts to perpetuate my own existence (cf. The Island)? Possibly, I am forced to admit.

But cybernetic versions of me running around at the beck and call of whoever sponsored them? That sounds more like something out of RoboCop. I suppose that might be better than having my DNA wiped from the Universe in death, but probably not by much.

I'm still rooting for Iron Man, Ms. Marvel and the other Registered heroes to demonstrate the good in these initiatives. With the laws as they are and the shift in thinking among the normal populace of the Marvel Universe, though perhaps ultimately too swift, too ungrateful for past good deeds, and overzealous, what choice do they really have. I just can't keep the banner up any longer though. I certainly don't have a handle on how to justify the anti-registration stance, so that won't be going up either.

Hopefully soon the heroes will realize there are things happening outside of their Civil War and stop thinking so much in those terms, like they appear to do here in Eternals # 6:

Variant Covers

I like comics covers, but covers hopefully are primarily attracting readers. And I don't see how variants help with that.

These days if variants for an issue I am buying ship in equal ratios, I'll almost always just pick the _one_ I like best, or the best _one_ of what is still available on the rack, as the case may be. I learned my lesson long ago on these. Buying more than one is not worth it to me.

Most people have a budget, so I have to wonder if spending on variants is reducing the variety of comics people purchase.

I essentially ignore the rarer variants that are printed these days as sales incentives (1:10, etc.). I certainly won't pay extra for them. If a person enjoys collecting them that is fine, but I hope people are cautious about using these as an investment. I have a hard time believing these will have lasting value, as people who crave them will snap them up, and the rest of us won't care. So where is the market down the road? I suppose "the Internet" may have a source that records the actual rarity of all these variants and how they look, but I'm certainly not going to do so in my own head. So if I'm randomly given a chance to buy one, I won't have any clue about the rarity, and, in many cases, if it was a genuine variant in the first place.

I'm concerned that these incentive variants may be inflating inventory of the normal covers. When I think about it, if a variant is worth more than cover price, why isn't my regular version selling for less? The retailer paid the same for all of them. And if he bought extras to get more variants that isn't my fault. I'm not generally in the habit of turning my comics over in the market after I read them, but if I were, I imagine the extra plain copies lying around are hurting the value of what I've collected.

I don't actually mind too much when later printings have a different cover. Of course, sometimes I wish I could just get the original cover or think the later version is cooler when I'm already stuck with the original, but that's not what I'm talking about here. If the printing matters to people enough to mark it on the issue in the first place when more are printed, then it might as well have a different cover because people consider it a different product. It makes it easier to tell it is not a first print.

Update (Feb. 8, 2007): Some more thoughts on variants from me (originally posted here):

Are Variant comics something you love or disdain in the comics collectibles market?

I have a feeling I know much less about the comics collectibles market and variant covers than I think I do, and I don't think I know that much. I just read the stuff I like, has me curious and can afford and store, and that generally does not include variants.

That said, perhaps variant covers have restored the thrill of the chase to modern comics collecting. These days between pull lists, mail order, ebay, and plain old making your way to the new issue rack of a competently run operation like [my local comics shop], how hard is it to really get an issue you want? Beyond an industry wide underestimation of how well an issue will be received, or the unwillingness to part with a few extra dollars, I'd say, Not very. That's pretty much how it should be, in my opinion, but some people want more.

So if variants are keeping people who need a challenge in everything they do or love having things not everyone else can have in the hobby, that could be a positive. I just hope they stick around as readers on some level if the thrill ever wears off again.

Variants may bring in extra dollars to retailers, who price them higher than cover, and publishers who get a sales bump as retailers try to acquire more variant copies. This is the tricky part for me. Building buzz and excitement can be fine. Yet greed is very dangerous and has hurt comics badly in the past.

Smaller publishers may feel doing variants is a way to survive by pushing up sales for their more limited product lines, but I have to wonder if Marvel and DC decided to do 4 variants of every title, like say Dynamite or Avatar, wouldn’t the smaller publishers get pushed off the shelves? I think they would, and I don’t think we want to find out if that is true.

I agree that sometimes a little choice of covers is fun. But is it worth slowness and lateness because artists are banging out extra covers instead of doing interiors on their monthly?

I can't say for sure if variants are a net positive for comics or not. It doesn’t feel like they are to me, but I'm far from fully informed, and I doubt there really is a solid answer.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight # 214

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight # 214: Superstitious and Cowardly

Christos N. Gage/Phil Winslade/Phil Balsman/Mike Atiyeh/Michael Wright/Joey Cavalieri
March, 2007 (released: January 31, 2007)
DC
$2.99

Plot Highlights: Batman wants a reluctant individual to testify. Costumed assassin Deadshot is hired to stop that from happening.

I remember buying the first issue of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight [LotDK] when it was released, and I still have it. That said, I have kept less than ten issues total of this series and none after # 43, so it really has been some time since it has attracted my interest enough to even purchase an issue.

Given the recent creation of Batman Confidential, which looks to overlap the original mission of LotDK, in an obvious attempt to streamline the naming conventions across DC's Batman and Superman lines, it was not a surprise that this title would be ending. I hoped this last issue would provide a good closing chapter worth purchasing, and it did.

The mostly gray scale figures fronting the black targets, cityscape and red background were an interesting choice for the cover that gave it a unique look among other issues on the racks this week. I thought it was neat to return to it after reading the comic. At that point I could place all the images.

This makes a good sample for the frugal commitment phobic comics fan. The story is complete in one issue. The series is over. And if it strikes your fancy, back issues are sure to start devaluing as people forget about this series, so perhaps some bargains will become available eventually.

With so many Batman issues in print between Detective Comics, Batman and LotDK, I really do not expect anything stunningly original at this point. This doesn't confound that expectation, but it is a well crafted effort. I now know to watch for artist Winslade in the future as I enjoyed his combination of small panel and larger image layouts.

Deadshot might want to consider ditching the red and white costume in order to blend into the background more easily during his assassination attempts and better escape Batman's attention. Since he has apparently been around in stories since 1950, that probably won't happen soon. He is pretty much a new character as far as I was concerned, so I felt the portion of the story devoted to his youth was informative and interesting.

Batman hallmarks from his detective skill and dogged effort to use of a key insight are displayed by the story. It does have the feel of a LotDK setting, in that this is something that Batman could have probably handled even in his early days. Batman does imply he and Deadshot have tangled often in the past, so maybe Legends eventually gave up the focus on early career stories.

I don't know that people will be talking about Batman's exploits here as legendary in the future, though there is an element that could qualify if Deadshot were a more well known adversary. This is, nevertheless, a well done standard Batman story.

Congratulations to this title for such a long run, as titles hitting 200+ are a rarity these days, and it ends on a quality note.