The Shipping Forecast for March 27th

With CAGE, ULTIMATES and the new look DEADPOOL, it's a good week for The House of Ideas. There's even a small book you've probably never heard of called 'CAPTAIN MARVEL'. Captain who?
25 March 2002

The Shipping Forecast is Ninth Art's pick of the best and most notable new releases hitting comic stores each week, courtesy of the fishing crew at the Ninth Art lighthouse. Shipping details come courtesy of Diamond. Check out the Diamond website for the latest information, as the list is subject to change.

VIKING PICKS:

CAGE #2 (Marvel Max)
Cage is one of the few non-100 BULLETS books by Azzarello that I've enjoyed. The premise is similar to that of its progenitor, LUKE CAGE, HERO FOR HIRE - a black guy helps out po' folk in the ghetto for money. And he has super-powers. Basically, it's like a blaxploitation flick as sequential art, and it's quite well told. The art's by Richard Corben, Azzarello's collaborator on HELLBLAZER: HARD TIMES and STARTLING STORIES: BANNER, and he's more or less the perfect artist for this book, as he's apparently one of the few artists who actually knows what black people look like.

CAPTAIN MARVEL #30 (Marvel)
CAPTAIN MARVEL writer Peter David and his Marvel boss Joe Quesada recently had a bit of a high profile spat over this title. David offered - in public - to write the book for next-to-nothing so that it didn't have to take a 25 cents price hike. A little controversial back-and-forthing happened, but that's not the point - the point is that David truly believes in the book, and has offered to do it for nothing because he cares about it. That's me sold already, pretty much, and the fact that Captain Marvel is a genuinely fun, light-hearted buddy comedy with lovely art by Chris Cross doesn't hurt, either. Give Captain Marvel a go!

PLYMOUTH PICKS:

POUNDED #1 (Oni Press)
Best known for a study on political ideology and a spy-games thriller, respectively, Brian Wood and Steve Rolston could easily let themselves be pigeonholed into specific genres. Maybe that's why their collaboration, POUNDED, is so much fun - because both creators are here to prove that they're anything but one-note creators. Their creation, Heavy Parker, is hysterically funny, and the situations he finds himself in manage to go from bad to worse faster than Heavy can even blink. Punk rock, relationship problems, and a great sense of humour. What more can you ask for? (There's even four free POUNDED strips available on Oni's website, if you aren't completely convinced!)

GERMAN BIGHT PICKS:

COPYBOOK TALES TP (Oni Press)
In which we find out the secrets of geek friendship, if not geek love. A welcome reprint for those of us who heard good things about this series but couldn't find it anywhere. It'll be a familiar tale to most of us - fanboys grow up together keeping a love of comics even as they learn about all of the other things life holds in store for them and try to break into comics. But this is not so much about fanboy evolution as just people growing up. With sensitive script from J Torres and artwork by Tim Levins so low-key you hardly register just how accomplished it is, this is well worth picking up. Relive your youth, people. Just leave the hairstyles behind.

PETE THE P.O.'D POSTAL WORKER WAR JOURNAL: RETURN TO SENDER (Sharkbait Press)
A sure sign that the US is returning to its old self - humour comics about anthrax letters. Meleton and Garcia's occasional anti-hero pops up again. This time he's (ahem) "going postal" over the misuse of the US mail for nefarious purposes. There's no return address, but Pete has a pretty good idea who's responsible, so off he goes to Afghanistan with only his temper and determination to fuel him. Essentially this character has always been coasting on one joke - he's a postal worker and he's angry - but maybe the change of scenery will suit him.

SUGAR BUZZ #8 (Slave Labor Graphics)
The usual medley of nutty fun from Carney and Phoenix. Irritating brats Precious and Percival make the acquaintance of a distinctly dodgy octopus, and a new character called paper girl is introduced. (What's her superpower? She's made of paper!) Carney and Phoenix spend each issue of SUGAR BUZZ just revelling in silliness. As you giggle like a twelve-year-old while you read, you can be fairly sure that the creators were doing much the same while putting the comic together. My only fear is that junior Jake Carney may now be too grown up to contribute the one-page dada-esque comics that were the icing on the comedy cake.

FASTNET PICKS:

TOP TEN BOOK TWO HC (DC Wildstorm)
For my money, TOP TEN is the best of Alan Moore's ABC line. And these are the best issues. Book 1 showcased Moore at his funniest and most inventive, creating a setting, situations and characters that melded superhero and police procedural fiction, but it was essentially light entertainment. Book 2, collecting issues #8-12, completes 'Season One' of the series, and sees him using these characters to touch on themes of religion, love, sex and sexuality, death and loss. But it remains hilariously funny in places, there's a new character, Joe Pi, the world's coolest giant robot, and Gene Ha and Zander Cannon's artwork is intricately detailed, expressive, and packed with the half-hidden in-jokes and homages. You might want to wait six months for the paperback, but this is some of Alan Moore's best work, and you need it.

ULTIMATES #3 (Marvel)
We need you, they said. We've got this Viking bloke coming to the lighthouse, but he'll only cover the mainstream stuff, they said. We want you to help cover the indie stuff, they said. Come on board, they said. And how do I repay them? I recommend a Marvel book. I'm so ashamed. But look. We're always going to have superhero comics, especially from Marvel, so we can only hope that they're good superhero books. I wasn't a huge fan of Mark Millar's AUTHORITY, but his rebooting of the Avengers is definitely smart. They're not the characters we're used to - Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury, a Bruce Banner who's a real wimp, a frighteningly reckless Tony Stark - but they work, and there's a real tension between them. And if you want sexy characters and eye-poppingly spectacular action, then Bryan Hitch is the man you want wielding the pencils. I'm recommending a Marvel book. I can see Viking making rude gestures at me from his longboat. I may never live this down.

FISHER PICKS:

DEADPOOL #65 (Marvel)
In an industry occasionally prone to taking itself too seriously, it's refreshing to have someone like Gail Simone around. Not only did her You'll All Be Sorry column at Comic Book Resources provide the industry with a healthy dose of satire, it also proved unfailingly entertaining. Now she follows up her comics writing debut on Oni's KILLER PRINCESSES with her first Marvel gig, accompanied by the bright and able new artistic talents at Udon Studios. DEADPOOL, the story of a smart-mouthed superhuman mercenary, hasn't been a great book since the end of Joe Kelly's Mithras saga. It's long overdue a return to form, and if anyone can provide it, it's surely Gail Simone.

AVENGERS ICONS: TIGRA #1 (Marvel)
The X-Men Icons range of miniseries has generally proved something of a dead duck, but rather than gently sweep the whole sorry mess under the carpet, Marvel is following it up with a range of Avengers miniseries. And in a move seemed designed to suggest that Marvel doesn't actually want to sell any of these comics, it's launching the range with a fifth-tier West Coast Avenger who looks like she failed the audition for THUNDERCATS. Most peculiar. Art comes from the alleged studio that walks like a man, Mike Deodato Jr, while the story comes courtesy of another female writer making her Marvel debut, WITCHBLADE's Christina Z. Good luck to 'em, but I'm not optimistic.

KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER (Moonstone)
I've never heard of any of the people involved in this book (Jeff Rice, Gordon Purcell, Terry Pallot and Ken Wolak), nor have I ever read anything by Moonstone, the company behind the White Wolf role playing game adaptations, but I've heard of KOLCHAK. Jeff Rice actually created the character for a series of paranormal investigation novels that were turned into TV movies, which in turn inspired Chris Carter to create THE X-FILES. People in the know tend to speak highly of KOLCHAK, and this graphic novel is penned by Rice himself, so I'll certainly be interested to give it a go.

Comics shipping in the US on March 27th:

DARK HORSE

JAN020041 CANNON GOD EXAXXION #5 STAGE 1 (5 OF 8) (MR) $2.99
JAN020031 SPYBOY YOUNG JUSTICE #2 (Of 3) $2.99
JAN020026 USAGI YOJIMBO #56 $2.99

DC COMICS

JAN020630 100 BULLETS #34 (MR) $2.50
JAN020582 ACTION COMICS #789 $2.25
JAN020631 AMERICAN CENTURY #13 (MR) $2.50
JAN020564 BATMAN #601 $2.25
JAN020571 BATMAN GOTHAM ADVENTURES #48 $1.99
JAN020615 CARTOON CARTOONS #10 $1.99
JAN020574 CATWOMAN #5 $2.50
JAN020632 CODENAME KNOCKOUT #11 (MR) $2.50
JAN020590 FLASH #184 $2.25
JAN020635 GRIP THE STRANGE WORLD OF MEN #5 (Of 5) (MR) $2.50
DEC015177 HAWKMAN #1 2ND PTG $2.50
JAN020636 HELLBLAZER #172 (MR) $2.50
JAN020599 JIST WITH GARY FRANK CREATING SHAZAM $5.95
JAN020597 JLA #64 $2.25
JAN020602 LEGION #6 $2.50
JAN020625 OUT THERE #9 $2.95
JAN020583 SUPERBOY #98 $2.25
JAN020628 TOP TEN BOOK TWO HC $24.95
JAN020609 WONDER WOMAN #179 (RES) $2.25

IMAGE

JAN021548 DARKMINDS MACROPOLIS JO CHEN CVR #2 (Of 8) $2.95
JAN021549 DARKMINDS MACROPOLIS PAT LEE CVR #2 (Of 8) $2.95
NOV011518 SAVAGE DRAGON #95 $2.95
JAN021592 WITCHBLADE #54 $2.50

MARVEL

JAN021900 AVENGERS ICONS TIGRA #1 $2.99
JAN021861 CAGE #2 (MR) $2.99
JAN021914 CAPTAIN AMERICA DEAD MAN RUNNING #3 $2.99
JAN021910 CAPTAIN MARVEL #30 $2.50
JAN021881 DEADPOOL #65 $2.25
NOV011868 DR STRANGE A SEPARATE REALITY TP $19.95
DEC011824 ELEKTRA #8 $2.99
JAN021911 INCREDIBLE HULK #38 $2.25
JAN021892 MARVEL KNIGHTS VOL 2 #1 $2.99
JAN021873 MUTANT X #1 (RES) $3.50
JAN021897 PARADISE X #1 $2.99
DEC011857 SPIDER-MAN REVENGE OF THE GREEN GOBLIN TP $16.95
JAN021872 SPIDER-MAN TANGLED WEB #12 I WAS A TEENAGED FROG-MAN $2.99
JAN021890 ULTIMATE MARVEL TEAM UP #14 $2.25
JAN021891 ULTIMATES #3 $2.25
JAN021882 WOLVERINE #174 $2.25
JAN021896 WOLVERINE HULK #2 $3.50
JAN021884 X-MEN EVOLUTION #5 $2.25

OTHER PUBLISHERS

JAN022215 ARCHIE #521 $1.99
JAN022705 BIG O PART 1 #2 (Of 5) $3.50
JAN022287 CHASTITY CRAZYTOWN #1 (Of 3) $2.99
JAN022288I CHASTITY CRAZYTOWN PREMIUM ED #1 $9.99
JAN022504F COOL DEVICES #5 (A) $2.95
JAN022559 COPYBOOK TALES TP (RES) $19.95
JAN022265 FUTURAMA COMICS #8 $2.50
JAN022327F GENERIC COMIC BOOK TP $8.95
JAN022581F HEDG #2 (MR) $2.95
JAN022532F KOLCHAK NIGHT STALKER GN (MR) $6.50
JAN022223 LAUGH DIGEST #174 $2.19
JAN022354 MERIDIAN #22 $2.95
JAN022505F OGENKI CLINIC VOL 8 #8 (A) $2.95
JAN022346 PATH #1 $2.95
JAN022612F PETE POD POSTAL WORKER WAR JOURNAL RETURN TO SENDER $2.95
JAN022562 POUNDED #1 (Of 3) (MR) $2.95
JAN022291 PURGATORI GOD HUNTER #1 (Of 2) $2.99
JAN022292I PURGATORI GOD HUNTER PREMIUM ED #1 $9.99
JAN022355 RUSE #6 $2.95
JAN022650F SMILE VOL 4 #4 $4.99
JAN022178 SUGAR BUZZ #8 $2.95
JAN022271F TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #13 $2.95
JAN022272F TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE DLX ED #13 $19.99
JAN022273F TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE PX CVR #13 $15.00
DEC012118I VAMPI #16 DLX ED $9.95
DEC012117 VAMPI #16 REG ED $2.99
JAN022502F VAMPIRE PRINCESS YUI VOL 4 #2 $2.95
JAN022226 VERONICA #125 $1.99
JAN022584 VICTORIAN TP ACT 2 SELF IMMOLATION $19.95
DEC012648 VILLIKON CHRONICLES #3 (Of 3) (MR) $11.99

The 9A Lighthouse Crew are Trafalgar, Shannon, Fastnet, Plymouth, Viking, German Bight, Finisterre, Forties, Dogger, Cromarty and Fisher.

Ninth Art endorses the principle of Ideological Freeware. The author permits distribution of this article by private individuals, on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice.