Captain America #602

A customer just came in the store and asked us if we had any more copies of Captain America #602. No, he had the last copy in his hand. I asked if he wanted us to order him more copies, and he said that he doubted if we could get anymore because they are being recalled. Huh? That’s news to us!

So, as soon as we left, we started researching, and found that no, they are not being recalled at all, but they ARE going to be changing the future printings, as there is a page that can be conceived as very controversial in the current issue. You can read more about it here. Apparently, Marvel had their letterer fudge in some content to the blank protest signs, and the result is this snafu.

My first reaction as a retailer was to go out to eBay and find out if we can snag some more copies quick, but most folks have already raised prices to $9.99 with all sorts of dramatic comment about how they are being recalled, pulled from shelves, etc.

If there is a wave of demand, we haven’t yet seen it – just that one customer – and by the time we could get our hands on more, it will probably have blown by.

Retailers are always up against challenges like this. When Amazing Spider-man #583 came out with Obama on the cover, it was all the rage, so we ordered extras of that one, and of some of the other Obama comics that were out at the same time. And now they sit on our “Obama” shelf, the frenzy passed.  Would the same thing happen to this one, should we get more copies?

For me, I am just as happy as can be that comics are making the news. All attention helps.

Wal-Marvels

My friend Gail, of Gail Keith Marketing, posted this article to our Facebook account today: http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/?p=9110

Wal-Marvel Comics

What a sight! I would love to see such an array of folks in our store. Some one of these days, we need to run a costume contest and take a picture of all of the contestants. That would be a lot of fun, I think. In fact, it’s been way too long since we did something like that.

Stay tuned. You may be hearing about something soon…..

Updates, quickies

So, I’ve been kinda poor at keeping this thing as updated as I would like. But there’s a very good reason for that; I’ve been working on the NEW ComicZoneAZ.com! Hopefully, if all goes according to plan, it will be up and running before Thanksgiving.

Here’s some quickies from our Twitter account – Twitter.com/comiczoneaz

Wednesday, 5:20 pm
If Superman sales were so poor already, why was it a good idea to take Supes out of his own book? Who’ll buy “Superman” without Clark Kent?

Wednesday, 5:22 pm
Clearly, DC didn’t think this one through. People are already dropping Justice League, because Mon-El is just not an interesting character.

Wednesday, 5:24 pm
I think Blackest Night: Superman actually using him just goes to prove that the New Krypton experiment didn’t work. Put Kal in his own book!

Wednesday, 5:26 pm
Inversely, how great has Batman been since Dick Grayson took over the cowl? It’s nice to give Bruce a rest, and put Dick in the limelight.

Thursday, 6:50 pm
How did X-Men Origins: Iceman get Iceman’s origin wrong? “I got mutant powers and my dad kicked me out of the house” isn’t hard to do right.

Thursday, 7:00 pm
Deadpool Team-Up #899, meanwhile, made me into a big Hercules fan. I should probably start reading his solo book. Can’t wait for #898 in 30.

Thursday, 7:05 pm
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man continues to be wonderful. Just the right mix of high-octane action and high school drama. Magnifique!

Thursday, 7:25
The Psylocke/Revanche/Betsy Braddon/Kwannon story (X-Men #20-23) was my first X-Men story. So this new Psylocke miniseries feels like home.

Thursday, 7:27
Re: Psylocke #1 still, I’m digging Harvey Toliabao’s action panels, but I’m not sold on his storytelling quite yet.

Quickies – 07.Oct.2009

I’m back! I’ll try to get these up and going more frequently.

Batman: Unseen #1 of 5 – Not a bad first chapter. I’m not convinced this has to be a Batman story, except that it happens to take place in Gotham. But I can’t tell you to NOT read it…

Batman and Robin #5 – I’m digging the Red Hood story far more than the Pyg one. Phillip Tan’s improved, but he’s still no Frank Quitely.

Cable #19 – Everybody vs. the Brood! God, Emil is annoying. I hope he dies so Hope can become the hardened warrior the adopted child of Cable SHOULD become.

Daredevil #501 – It would’ve been nice if, y’know, there was some warning in Daredevil #500 that I would’ve had to read Daredevil: The List before it sold out in order to read #501.

Quickie Reviews…again?

I’m kinda digging these quickie reviews. I can get more stuff covered, and give out fewer spoilers.

- Gen 13 #31: I guess I missed last month’s issue, ’cause I was kind of confused… But it wasn’t bad. The series definitely has a direction that it’s moving in, but that direction is more of a traditional team book than the quirky, fun, teenage book that the original series was. But maybe that’s what the book needs, in the current market. As a random aside, the Worldstorm Gen 13 title has now lasted about half as long as the original ongoing, and twice as long as the Herod relaunch from 2002.

- Blackest Night #2: More black lanterns! More mayhem and violence! More death! And, for once, I actually find Aquaman intimidating! Definitely sticking with this one through the end.

- Blackest Night: Batman #1: “What’s happening in Gotham during the Blackest Night?” Deadman has both been turned into a Black Lantern, and is still Deadman. But he’s gotta warn the new Batman and Robin about what’s coming! Not bad, but the cliffhanger ending makes me wish I had issue 2 right here. I might suggest waiting until all 3 issues are out, on this one.

- Green Lantern Corps #39: Blackest Night tie-in! Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner talk about their bizarre lovelives, when the Black Power Rings zing past their heads and start resurrecting even more fallen heroes. Not as essential a tie-in as Green Lantern #44 was, but certainly nothing to scoff at.

- Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1: Bendis has still got it! David LaFuente’s artwork is a little more cartoony than I think this series really calls for, but it’s still hard to get over Mark Bagley’s 110-issue run. Either way, this is definitely one to stick with.

- Ultimate Avengers #1: Not a bad first chapter, but this had the same effect on me as Blackest Night: Batman, where I wish I had more of the story at once. I guess that’s a good thing, really, since it means I’ll be back next month. This issue debuts the Ultimate Red Skull! OooOOOOoooo!

- Ms. Marvel #43: “War of the Marvels” continues. And the original Ms. Marvel is revealed to be… Catherine Donovan? Wait, that’s not Carol Danvers at all! I’m not sure about this alternating artist thing… I wish they’d just get Sana Takeda doing the pencils all the time.

Quick Reviews

My apologies, dear readers, for the lack of updates. My computer has decided it no longer wishes to operate correctly, so my Internet access has been cut rather drastically over the last few weeks.

X-Men: Forever Alpha

X-Men Forever Alpha
Writers: Chris Claremont & Jim Lee
Pencils: Jim Lee
Inks: Scott Williams
Marvel Comics
$4.99

So, for the uninitiated, X-Men: Forever will be a mini-series from Marvel, with the premise of “If Chris Claremont didn’t get booted off the X-Books in 1991, leaving Jim Lee to take over as writer for the next year starting with issue #4, these are the stories that would have been told.” It’s an interesting concept, although it’s been 18 years since Lee took over for Claremont. I suppose it’s better to do it almost two decades later than it would’ve been to have split realities for the X-Men at any point at time.

I question the intelligence of this, though. Essentially, this is a “What if Earth was different?” story, where Marvel aren’t just telling new stories in their universe, they’re essentially playing with real reality. If this is an isolated incident, then that’s fine. But I’m a bit fearful of where the X-Franchise goes after this experiment, and I wonder where the line is drawn for these alternate universe stories? For example, let’s suppose Stan Lee decided he was going to do Fantastic Four: Forever, and just tell FF stories from when he and Jack Kirby stopped working on the book, at issue #104? FF is at issue 566, this month. That means 462 issues of Fantastic Four just didn’t happen in this split world. And then the fanboys get to argue over which reality is better; Is the regular Marvel Earth-616 the way that things should’ve gone? Or should we go with the Forever realities?

On top of that, I wonder what Marvel are thinking by doing a story that didn’t happen? The majority of people this will appeal to are people who were reading X-Men back in 1991, which, again, was 18 years ago. There’s an entire generation of readers that wasn’t even alive when that happened, and now we get a big reboot from back then? They won’t have read the stories that this is supposed to be continuing, will they have?

Ah, enter X-Men: Forever Alpha. In case you haven’t read X-Men #1 (which is hard to believe, considering it sold 11 million copies or whatever), #2, or #3 from 1991, XMFA reprints those three issues! It also includes a back-up story that apparently bridges the gap between X-Men #3 and XMF #1. So, for five bucks, you get reprints of comics from 18 years ago, plus 8 or so pages of new material.

I suppose that’s not a bad deal, all things considered. It’s kind of like a mini TPB, really.

X-Men: Forever seems like it’s going to be for completists, or for X-Men fans who stopped reading (Ex-X-Fans?) when Jim Lee took over. But if you’re going to check it out, this is definitely a good item to pick up and get yourself re-acquainted with the late 80s/early 90s team. Or just dig through your back issue bins and read these again. ‘Cause those eight pages in the back aren’t really that important.

Or you could buy both covers, to re-create the poster found inside the fold-out cover of X-Men #1.

Secret Invasion: Front Line TPB

Secret Invasion: Front Line TPB
Writer: Brian Reed
Pencils: Marco Castiello
$14.99

Starting with Civil War, Marvel started including a Front Line tie-in book with their major crossovers (so, Civil War, World War Hulk, and now Secret Invasion). While the main crossover title deals with the major events, and the other tie-in issues deal with individual characters’ reactions to the events (i.e., Secret Invasion: Ms. Marvel is about Ms. Marvel’s story during the Invasion), the Front Line books have a unique take:

They deal with regular people in a Super world.

Secret Invasion: Front Line follows the stories of Marvel Universe citizens during the few days of Skrulls invading Earth. Ben Urich, from the newspaper Front Line narrates the story, through recordings he’s made as the events unfold.

I’ve really enjoyed the Front Line comics so far, and Secret Invasion’s version doesn’t disappoint. In just five issues, we’re invited to see the worlds of a police officer who’s been burned in the leg, a young nurse trying to do her job, a cab driver whose day went from crap to worse, and a teenage girl whose parents are separating. And we witness all of these characters coming together, and how they survive (or not) the Skrull Invasion.

It’s good times. Reading these tales, writer Brian Reed really brought more weight to the insanity of the Skrull Invasion – Rather than just seeing how Iron Man dealt with losing his StarkTech, or how Ms. Marvel was destroying monsters from another world, or how other heroes dealt with it, we get to see what would happen to you or I. Because, let’s face it; in the threat of an shape-changing alien invasion, I bet a lot more folks would run away than stand up and fight for the safety of the planet.

It’s also great to see Ben Urich’s reaction to people’s reactions to Norman Osborn taking control, and the beginning of the Dark Reign. Urich, as you may remember, wrote a book that ousted Norman as the psychopathic Green Goblin, and Mr. Osborn’s dealing with the situation is rather impressive.

So, if you want a complete picture of the Marvel Universe’s dealing with the Skrull invasion, I’d highly recommend checking this TPB out. But it’s mostly for completists and Marvel Universe uber-nerds, like me.

It seems as though I’ve only reviewed things I’ve enjoyed, so far… Maybe next time, I’ll review something that I think sucks…

New Mutants #1

New Mutants #1
Marvel Comics
Zeb Wells (writer)
Diogenes Neves (pencils)
Klaus Janson (inks)
Christina Strain (colors)

I missed New Mutants, the first time around. By the time I got into comics, New Mutants #100 was the latest issue, and, as X-buffs undoubtedly know, there was no New Mutants #101 – Rob Liefeld had transformed the book into X-Force.

I also missed New Mutants the second time around, in 2003 or whatever, because that was during my return to comics, and the series had just been canceled to be turned into New X-Men (which is not to be confused with Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, which ended that same year.)

So, I figured, “Hey, a new number one. That’s a good jumping-on point, right?” So I read it.

Essentially, the story is that all the original New Mutants who are still alive (Cannonball, Sunspot, Magma, Karma, and the returning Magik, hot on the heels of X-Infernus) are headed out to investigate a possible mutant power manifestation from a 7-year-old girl. And, as is the case in all X-books, trouble follows. And then Legion shows up (which isn’t really a spoiler, because all of the ads leading up to NM#1 say that the team is back to combat Legion).

Diogenes Neves‘ artwork is solid. Everybody is easily-distinguishable from everybody else, even when they’re all suited up in their funky new X-costumes. And, y’know, Christina Strain is totally my favorite colorist in comics today, so having her on board certainly doesn’t hurt.

And, it’s a solid first issue. It made me want to read issue two, and I’m very much contemplating buying the wraparound cover (pictured above) to add to my collection. And I just might, if we have any left by the end of the day, today.

After reading both #1 issues today, I’m more excited for New Mutants #2 than I am for Power Girl #2, even though I was more excited to read PG#1 than NM#1. I’m not sure if that’s because I’ve been an X-Family fan for over 15 years, or if it’s because Zeb Wells wrote a more intriguing story than Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti did. But, whatever the reason, I’ll be back to check out both of these comics, next month.

Also, Marvel totally has the first few pages of New Mutants #1 up on their website, if you want to take a look, yourself. Head on over to http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.7845.Preview~colon~_New_Mutants_%231 and check it out!

New Avengers 52

New Avengers #52
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils by Billy Tan and Chris Bachalo
$3.99
Marvel Comics
No, everybody else is going to be talking about Detective Comics 853 this week. I won’t do it.

Well, maybe a little: Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert’s “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” is damn good. It almost makes me care about Batman, which I generally don’t. So, you should come in to Comic Zone and pick it up. We still have some second printings of part 1 (Batman 686) available, too, so you can get the whole thing at once!

But, no. Today, I’m going to talk about New Avengers #52. The quest for Earth’s new sorcerer supreme continues, as Stephen Strange (formerly Dr. Strange) comes to the New Avengers (which now consist of Captain America (Formerly Bucky), Ronin (formerly Hawkeye), Ms. Marvel (formerly of the Mighty Avengers), Wolverine (formerly not in 70 comics a month), Spider-Man (formerly had an identity even the Avengers couldn’t remember), Luke Cake (Formerly wore a tiara and a yellow disco shirt), Spider-Woman (formerly abducted by Skrulls), and Mockingbird (formerly dead)) to explain where he’s been, and about his recent run-in with Parker Robbins, a.k.a. The Hood.

The Hood, in addition to creating a criminal syndicate the size of which has never been seen in the Marvel U, has taken up as the host for some big bad demon (which I learned from the dialogue, since Chris Bachalo’s artwork mostly just looks like a muddles mess of black globs, these days — Good thing he’s only drawing the demon scenes, with Billy Tan drawing everything else), and is looking for the Eye of Agamotto (the mystic amulet dealio that is the property of Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme). But ol’ Stevie Strange won’t give up the Eye to just anybody – He’s lookin’ for the next Sorcerer Supreme, and won’t rest until he finds that individual.

So, of course, the Avengers take a trip with Dr. Strange, because they’re out looking for The Hood, and think that the team of them can take out The Hood. Even though he’s more powerful than Dr. Strange. I don’t see that ending well for anybody. Meanwhile, Madame Masque reveals her face to The Hood, and then they start making out. I’m not sure I see THAT ending well for anybody, either.

I think there may be some misdirection at the end, as the Hood finds another magic user we haven’t seen in a while, but it’s a character that I’m pretty sure is not in the running to be Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme…

Still, if you’re reading New Avengers, #52 is a worthy addition to your collection. It’s been really nice having a comic written by the same guy for more than a year, and other than Chris Bachalo, the artwork has consistently been top-notch. After all, it’s like Ultra Magnus taught us back in 1986: “Consistency is victory.”