The Shipping Forecast for 22nd May

It looks like a light comics week, but scratch the surface and you'll find all kinds of ooky mysteries in Massachusetts, some dark goings on in New York, and a treasure trove of extraordinary secrets in Ancient Greece.
20 May 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.

PLYMOUTH PICKS:

LONE WOLF 2100 #1 (Dark Horse)
We at the watchtower are a little perplexed by this one. Sure, it's one thing to work on iconic properties that've passed from one hand to the next over the course of many years. But to take a work that was always the joint vision of two creators and update it for a futuristic setting? We're not sure what the point of this is. Mike Kennedy and Francisco Ruiz Velasco are both talented creators, and some of the art samples seem nice enough, but this looks like an unfortunate misstep on both of their parts. LONE WOLF AND CUB fans should look very carefully before blindly buying this.

HOOD #1 (Marvel Max)
When Marvel's new Max line was announced, the one thing it seemed to be lacking was a great number of new concepts and ideas behind the titles; aside from Brian Michael Bendis's ALIAS, it seemed to be reserved for dusting off old characters. Brian K. Vaughan and Kyle Hotz's new book, THE HOOD, is a welcome step away from that trend. Vaughan's described it as an unapologetic look at a villain, something we don't see often enough in comics. The end of Vaughan's run on SWAMP THING seemed to show him getting the knack for writing a questionable protagonist, which gives one great hope for THE HOOD. Add in Hotz's dark, twisted art and this may prove to be a success. Vaughan's career up until now has been servicing other people's creations - it's definitely worth taking a look at what happens when he's able to create something on his own.

DOGGER PICKS:

MIDNIGHT MASS #2 (DC Vertigo)
This series about husband-and-wife paranormal investigators is a very different take on Lovecraft. It's set in a New England that's not Lovecraft's dark, wild country of strange wildlife and old, warped trees, but is instead much closer to reality, at least on the surface. Rozum and Sais' quiet little Massachusetts backwater town of Midnight seems too clean and nice to be true - a different sort of sinister than Lovecraft, but no less strange, especially when coupled with the overt weirdness we've already been shown. Issue one was interesting, but felt like it was composed almost entirely of set-up material - establishing the status quo before kicking it over in issues to come. Still, it's a strong enough set-up that I'm dying to see where the story goes.

FASTNET PICKS:

AGE OF BRONZE: BEHIND THE SCENES (Image)
The Trojan war epic is a near-myth, but Eric Shanower's retelling of it is a direct hit. It's a work of scholarship and craftsmanship - Shanower puts superhuman effort into researching the costumes, arms and armour, and details of religion of the period, to ensure that they are authentic as possible, and his confident portrayals of the complex characters and situations show that he's obviously read and re-read Homer, Virgil and God only knows how many other versions of the story umpteen times. His decision to tell the story without any supernatural spin - the Greek gods don't appear - keeps the scale human and makes the story fresh and accessible. The fact that his artwork is also clean, expressive and beautiful is frankly unfair. And it's perversely great to see a straight version of the story - not only one of the oldest of mankind's tales, but also one of the major influences on superheroes - in comics form. Details of this one-off aren't available online, but I'm assuming it'll tell us how he does it. I've been wondering that since I first saw the series, so this is a 'must buy' for me. Oh, and in case you haven't got the message yet, if you aren't reading this series, you damn well should be. The first volume of the story, A THOUSAND SHIPS, is available in hardback and trade paperback. Buy it. Now.

GERMAN BIGHT PICKS:

IT GIRL ONE SHOT $2.95 (Oni Press)
It's summer! Nowadays I mark the beginning of summer in comics with the release of something in colour from Oni. Yes, that's usually the annual COLOR SPECIAL, but this year we also get the IT GIRL ONE SHOT. Lucky us, I says. For those who haven't tried Mike Allred's THE ATOMICS (now on hiatus), they're a team of charmingly naive beatnik kids trying to come to terms with their new superpowers. They fight crime. Well, sometimes - but I digress. The IT GIRL ONE SHOT gives centre stage to the sweetly gauche It Girl, youngest member of the group, as she tries to get a band together. Allred scripts while Chynna Clugston-Major takes over the art. Clugston-Major seems to be the artist of choice for depicting whimsical teen fun, and she's embellished here by Han Allred's bright, peppy colours. Four-colour loveliness with guitars - like a Beach Boys song in comics form - I can't wait.

MIDNIGHT MASS #2 (Of 8) (DC Vertigo)
After a lot of talk about how the Vertigo line is going increasingly awry, along come two new titles in the space of a month that give you cause for hope. The first issue of FABLES came up to my high expectations, and I found the first part of MIDNIGHT MASS to be a delight. I seem to recall that this was originally trumpeted as an unlimited series, and then mysteriously shrunk to eight issues. A shame, really, because there's potential for enough stories to keep this title going for a while. This is entertainment, pure and simple - glamour, mystery, and quite the best dialogue I've read in a while. The entire creative team gels perfectly to produce a work as charming as a summer morning in New England.

Comics shipping in the US on May 22nd:

DARK HORSE

MAR020022 LONE WOLF 2100 #1 (Of 4) $2.99

DC COMICS

MAR020382 ACTION COMICS #791 $2.25
MAR020376 BATMAN GOTHAM ADVENTURES #50 $1.99
MAR020365 BIRDS OF PREY #43 $2.50
MAR020375 CATWOMAN #7 $2.50
MAR020361 DC FIRST GREEN LANTERN GREEN LANTERN $3.50
MAR020391 GREEN LANTERN CIRCLE OF FIRE TP $17.95
MAR020394 HAVEN THE BROKEN CITY #6 (Of 9) $2.50
MAR020398 JSA #36 $2.50
MAR020439 MIDNIGHT MASS #2 (Of 8) (MR) $2.50
MAR020421 OUT THERE #11 $2.95
MAR020377 ROBIN #102 $2.25

IMAGE

MAR021346 AGE OF BRONZE BEHIND THE SCENES $3.50
JAN021550 DAWN THE RETURN OF THE GODDESS TP (MR) $12.95

MARVEL

MAR021695 AVENGERS ICONS TIGRA #3 $2.99
FEB021933 CABLE THE SHINING PATH TP $14.95
MAR021692 CAPTAIN MARVEL #32 $2.50
MAR021669 DEADPOOL #67 $2.25
MAR021642 HOOD #1 (MR) $2.99
MAR021678 MARVEL KNIGHTS VOL 2 #3 $2.99
FEB021932 MARVEL MASTERWORKS AVENGERS HC NEW PRTG $49.95
MAR021691 MUTANT X FUTURE SHOCK #1 $3.50
NOV011826 ORIGIN #6 $3.50
MAR021679 WOLVERINE HULK #4 $3.50
MAR021670 X-FACTOR #2 (Of 4) $2.50

OTHER PUBLISHERS

MAR021964 ARCHIE #523 $1.99
MAR022482 CERES CELESTIAL LEGEND PART 2 #6 (Of 6) $2.95
MAR022115 CRUX VOL 1 TP $15.95
MAR022483 DRAGONBALL VOL 8 TP $12.95
MAR022488 EL HAZARD VOL 1 TP $15.95
MAR022031 FUTURAMA COMICS #9 $2.50
MAR022467 INU YASHA PART 6 #13 (Of 15) $2.95
FEB022583 IT GIRL ONE SHOT $2.95
MAR021973 JUGHEAD WITH ARCHIE DIGEST #175 $2.19
FEB022273F LITTLE WHITE MOUSE VOL 2 TP $14.95
MAR021930 MY MONKEYS NAME IS JENNIFER #2 $2.95
MAR022113 NEGATION #6 $2.95
MAR022491 NEON GENESIS EVANGELION VOL 6 COLL ED TP $15.95
MAR022490 NEON GENESIS EVANGELION VOL 6 TP $15.95
MAR021975 PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #67 $3.29
MAR022461 POKEMON ADVS PART 7 #2 (Of 5) $4.95
MAR022114 SIGIL #24 $2.95
MAR022111 SOJOURN #11 $2.95
MAR022324 THIRD DEGREE #2 $2.95
JAN022503F VAMPIRE PRINCESS MIYU ARTBOOK $24.99
MAR021978 VERONICA #127 $1.99
MAR022146 WARLANDS VOL 2 TP $11.95

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

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