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The Forecast for October 27th 2004
Welcome to The Forecast. Every Monday, Ninth Art's core team of comment writers, the Ninth Eight, will be your guides to the best, worst, weirdest and most noteworthy books on the shelves of your local comic shop. BOOK OF THE WEEK: BIRTHRIGHT My reaction to Superman is one of BA Baracus-like disdain: I ain't reading no Supes, fool. He's a big dork in red pants! Yet now I find myself owning a Superman trade. In hardcover, no less! And it's all Mark Waid's fault. Well, him and Leinil Yu. I don't buy a lot of mainstream comics, and I didn't become aware of Waid as a writer until my flatmate dumped EMPIRE on my reading pile, saying, "You'll like this. There's people playing basketball with severed heads." Ooo, said I, and devoured it immediately. So when friends started talking about how good Waid and Yu's twelve-issue SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT miniseries was, I borrowed a few issues. And I found, to my surprise, that amongst the fifteen different DC books involving Superman on the shelves in January, here was one I liked. Why? Well, it's basically Ultimate Superman - the Man of Steel's origin, once more, with feeling. Everything works in Birthright. Lex Luthor is nasty as hell, but has clear motivations. Lois isn't just a simpering love-object. Superman/Clark Kent is shown taking his first tentative steps both as an adult and as a superhero, and he makes mistakes. And, like all of Waid's stuff, there's a nasty edge to it waiting to sneak out. Witness the dissection scene, and the populace of Metropolis's mistrust of their new hero. SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT is for everyone who thinks the magic is gone with Superman, and for those - like me - who can't be bothered catching up seventeen years of continuity or sieving through all the Superman titles on the shelf for 'the good one'. Oh god, I can't believe I'm buying a Superman book. Don't tell anyone, OK? [Alex de Campi] FLYING SOLO SOLO, DC's new anthology series, was announced two years ago. Now, it's all well and good to throw hyperbole like, "and it's been worth the wait", around, but, y'know what? I think in this case it might be true. SOLO is the brainchild of Mark Chiarello, the same guy who came up with the striking BATMAN: BLACK AND WHITE a few years back. Like that book, SOLO is all about the artistic talent, and the creators have been given the option to either create short stories set within DC continuity, or to move outside the pigeon hole and create something completely original. The line-up of talent looks impressive. The first issue sees Tim Sale again reunited with Jeph Loeb on a SUPERMAN story and working with Brian Azzarello on a BATMAN/CATWOMAN story, while Diana Schutz and Darwyn Cooke provide a SUPERGIRL tale. And that's just for starters. Future issues include contributions from (deep breath): Mike Allred, Brian Bolland, John Cassaday, Richard Corben, Dave Gibbons, Scott Hampton, Adam Hughes, JG Jones, Kevin Nowlan, Paul Pope, Bill Sienkiewicz, Walter Simonson, Jill Thompson, Bruce Timm, John Van Fleet and Matt Wagner. Me, I'm really looking forward to Pope's contributions, which will apparently be a Golden Age Robin story and a retelling of the Minotaur story. But everyone will have their favourites, and you'd better hope yours turn up early in the run. A project with this scope and vision has barely more than a snowball's chance of surviving in the current market. [Ben Wooller] REVOLUTION NUMBER ONE I remember picking up the very first issue of Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch's AUTHORITY and being blown away. It wasn't the fascinating characters, because they were actually fairly uninteresting. It wasn't the riveting stories, because most of them were classic stories tarted up in Ellis's trademark dialogue. It was the shock of how things were being done differently. Splash-pages with epic detail and depth; colouring that was actually part of the art; Hollywood-style story structure - it was a brave and glorious twelve-month affair. Then came Mark Millar and Frank Quitely, who built on Ellis and Hitch's groundwork and provided consequences for the characters' actions. Ellis cared little for the reaction when the Midnighter ploughed a 35-mile wide spaceship through the capital city of an evil dictator, but Millar had The Authority answer for its crimes. Hamstrung by artistic musical chairs, the run ended on more of a whimper than a bang - a sad end to a groundbreaking series. The recent Robbie Morrison/Dwayne Turner relaunch failed to reach the highs of what the series used to be, despite its 'mature readers' tag, and drastic action was required. Now Ed Brubaker has been gifted his first team book, and it's a doozy. Joined by rising star Dustin Nguyen, he's launching his own 12-issue run on the title, AUTHORITY: REVOLUTION. Brubaker seems an odd fit for a book built on bombast, but with this and CAPTAIN AMERICA, he's clearly looking to expand his oeuvre. His promise to look into the team's problems following their recent takeover of America doesn't set my soul on fire like Ellis's work, but this long ago ceased to be Ellis's book, and the presence of WILDCATS artist Nguyen guarantees that it will at least look stunning. [John Fellows] THE SHIPPING LIST FOR OCTOBER 27th 2004: Shipping details come courtesy of Diamond. Visit the Diamond website for the latest information, as the list is subject to change. DARK HORSE JUN040040 LAST TRAIN TO DEADSVILLE A CAL MCDONALD MYSTERY #4 (Of 4) (M
$2.99 DC COMICS AUG040376D ADAM STRANGE #2 (Of 8) $2.95
IMAGE AUG041627D HUMANKIND #3 $2.99
MARVEL AUG041819D AMAZING FANTASY #5 $2.99
OTHER PUBLISHERS AUG043122E ALICE 19TH VOLUME 7 TP THE LOST WORD $9.99 The Ninth Eight are Matthew Craig, John Fellows, Kieron Gillen, Alistair Kennedy, Zack Smith, Andrew Wheeler, Ben Wooller and Bulent Yusuf. 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. Back. |