Welcome to The Forecast. Every Monday, Ninth Art's hand-picked team of crack comic pundits offer a rundown of some of the best, worst and most noteworthy books on the shelves of your local comic shop.

BOOK OF THE WEEK: NEXTWAVE

Comics, like any other artform, are merely a tool. A means to an end. Whether it's teaching somebody how to maintain a firearm, or turn pigeon blood into a refreshing dessert, or explaining the harsh realities of a totalitarian regime, there seems to be no subject too esoteric, too deep, too life-affirming for comics to delve into.

But, as valuable as PERSEPOLIS, IRON WOK JAN and PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE MONTHLY have been to the public perception of comics as a worthwhile artistic endeavour, there has to be room in the medium for more light-hearted fare. Man cannot live on foie gras alone. Sometimes, he needs his empty calories.

Enter NEXTWAVE.

NEXTWAVE (they move too fast for the space bar) is a new ensemble series from Marvel that draws a number of rotten, forgotten or just plain misbegotten characters out of Comics Limbo and heaves them at each other to see what happens.

Disturbingly, they all seem to have been living in my attic.

Characters include Boom-Boom, who debuted in the pages of SECRET WARS II as a kind of white trash jailbait sidekick to The Beyonder, Machine Man, Marvel's greatest robot insurance salesman, and Elsa Bloodstone, star of a short-lived monster-mashing miniseries, who appeared to be modelled on '90s pin-up Samantha Janus. Each of these Z-listers is brought into service by the unlikely-sounding counter-terrorist group H.A.T.E. (and their leader, the equally implausible Dirk Anger), only to go rogue when they discover that things are not what they seem.

With characters and a milieu like that, it's hardly surprising that NEXTWAVE (the space bar burns oil and shits filth into your air) reads like a palate-cleansing antidote to all the dour hand-wringing that has infested the modern superhero comic.

Indeed, having read some of the preview material and interviews on the series, it almost seems like writer Warren Ellis is engaged in a bout of self-parody. But, to be fair, his superhero work has rarely taken itself too seriously. Artist Stuart Immonen, too, is refusing to let the conservative fanbase get him down. His art here is expressively looser than on his recent SUPERMAN novel, SECRET IDENTITY, but it retains his usual strong layouts and depth of field.

NEXTWAVE (every time you hit the space bar, a blogger gets his wings) promises to be as giddy with fun as it is grammatically unsound. And when a new Marvel comic features high turnover two-issue stories, angst-free super-violence and Fin Fang Foom in a nappy, it can't be too bad, can it? [Matthew Craig]

DEVIL'S RUN

DAREDEVIL #81 marks the last issue by writer Brian Michael Bendis, who has provided the only extended run on the title since Frank Miller's to make a major impression with both fans and critics - accompanied the entire distance by the excellent art of Alex Maleev.

Throughout his run, Bendis played the book as a drama on the scale of THE SOPRANOS or THE SHIELD, laying out the hypocrisies his protagonist represented as he pursued his quest for survival. In Bendis' hands, Daredevil became 'The King of Hell's Kitchen', a vigilante actually capable of bringing about social change - but at the cost of publicly denying evidence of his dual identity. The same person who went out and fought for justice was also a man who had to try to sue the people who had 'outed' him. This was a character who was trying to do the right thing, while also being an out-and-out liar and lawbreaker in an effort to keep up his good works. Along the way, the pressures in his life also took a toll on his sanity - and it was always a question of when he would finally crack.

For his last issue, it looks like Bendis will resolve some of his dangling plot threads, and leave others open for his more-than-capable replacement, Ed Brubaker. It also looks like a major character will die.

Though not all of his storylines were perfect, Bendis made the book a tense, sometimes fascinating read, and his run ranks among his best work, and among the most accomplished major superhero runs of recent years. [Zack Smith]

ARE YOU LOCAL?

I knew I was going to like Brian Wood's DEMO from the end of the first scene of issue one. That issue shared the insouciant attitude of Wood's other indie smash, THE COURIERS, but surpassed it by leaving that book's amorality behind. I empathised with at least some of the characters in DEMO in a way that I never could with Special and Moustafa, and I found it to be a powerful exercise in character comics.

I'm still undecided as to what I really think of DEMO's thematic follow-up, LOCAL (Oni Press). The 'virtual tour' aspect of the series is lost on me. Richmond, Virginia, where this month's story is set, may as well be the Cybertron, for all I know. However, the verisimilitude with which Wood and artist Ryan Kelly approach each town is to be applauded. It's certainly an antidote to the Manhattan-centric bias of mainstream comics and television.

Far more interesting, to me at least, is central character Megan McKeenen. Like a number of Wood's characters, Megan labours under a kind of despondent isolation. And like the characters in the first issue of DEMO, she's a runaway, although we're not yet privy to why. The first two issues have had her moving from one doomed relationship to another as if, in her need to forge some sort of replacement roots, she's had to bypass her common sense. So while I'm keen to see how well - or how badly - Megan copes with her naiveté, I'm hoping that she turns the corner sooner rather than later.

Ryan Kelly is the latest in a long line of first-rate artists to work with Brian Wood. Similar in style to Paul Pope, but with a tighter design sense, Kelly's forte appears to be the ability to ground the shifting locales and rotating, aging characters in a consistent reality. His character designs are superb, from the Jagger-mouthed co-star of issue #2 to the freckles on the protagonist's face.

While the series looks set to be one long twelve-part, twelve-year character arc for Megan McKeenan, LOCAL's standalone structure makes it possible to enjoy each story on its own. It's certainly worth a look, if only for those of you with enough first-hand knowledge to play Spot The Landmark. But make sure you don't miss the Wood for the trees. [Matthew Craig]

TAKE PLASTIC

"We blew it." - EASY RIDER, 1969

There once was a comic for younger readers that no one quite knew what to make of. Older readers were put off by the loose, cartoony art and gentle storylines. Younger readers bought more copies of it than they did of more explicitly youth-oriented books from the same company, which was confusing, because it wasn't marketed as a kids' book.

It won multiple Eisner Awards. It had a well-designed plastic trade collection, whose only fault was that it kind of smelled funny. Reviewers gave it great notices, time and time again. The company kept it around despite low sales - though when the publishing schedule was cut back, the writing was already on the wall. Finally, as of this week, PLASTIC MAN comes to an end.

With a third of its run and two gorgeous Scott Morse fill-ins still uncollected, PLASTIC MAN must take his final bow. Writer/artist Kyle Baker has plenty of other projects to work on, many with characters he outright owns, and more power to him. But for a while, there was a cute, funny book out there that offered one of the best takes on an old character since the classic tales of the 1940s, and it was one of the few genuinely all-ages books being published by any major company. Yet in spite of everything it had going for it, it couldn't survive the marketplace.

PLASTIC MAN, we salute you. [Zack Smith]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR JANUARY 25th 2006:

Shipping details come courtesy of Diamond. Visit the Diamond website for the latest information, as the list is subject to change.

DARK HORSE

NOV050036D BPRD THE BLACK FLAME #6 (OF 6) $2.99
NOV058153D CONAN & THE DEMONS OF KHITAI SECOND PRTG #3 (OF 4) (PP #699) $2.99
NOV050047D REVELATIONS #6 (OF 6) $2.99
NOV050033D USAGI YOJIMBO #90 $2.99

DC COMICS

NOV050317D ABC A-Z TERRA OBSCURA AND SPLASH BRANNIGAN $3.99
NOV050228D BATMAN #649 $2.50
NOV050231D BATMAN JOURNEY INTO KNIGHT #6 (OF 12) $2.50
NOV050239D BATMAN RAS AL GHUL YEAR ONE TP $9.99
NOV050296D CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #17 $2.25
NOV050235D CATWOMAN #51 $2.50
NOV050276D JLA CLASSIFIED #16 $2.99
NOV050272D JLA VOL 18 CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE TP $12.99
NOV050311D MAJESTIC #13 $2.99
NOV050288D PLASTIC MAN #20 $2.99
DEC050288D POWERPUFF GIRLS #70 $2.25
NOV050238D ROBIN #146 $2.50
NOV050291D TEEN TITANS GO #27 $2.25
NOV050289D VIGILANTE #5 (OF 6) $2.99
NOV050290D WONDER WOMAN #225 $2.50

IMAGE

FEB045201 MAGE VOL 1 THE HERO DISCOVERED TP $29.99
NOV051723D OVERSIGHT COLL SHORT STORIES 1990-2005 TP $19.99
AUG051642D SPAWN COLLECTION VOL 1 LTD ED HC $59.95

MARVEL

NOV051966D ALL NEW OFF HANDBOOK MARVEL UNIVERSE A TO Z #1 $3.99
NOV051956D AMAZING FANTASY #17 $2.99
NOV051942D AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #528 $2.50
OCT058218 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN WIERINGO VAR #528 $2.50
NOV051948D BLACK PANTHER #12 $2.99
NOV051957D BOOKS OF DOOM #3 (OF 6) $2.99
NOV052029D CAPTAIN UNIVERSE UNIVERSAL HEROES TP $13.99
NOV051950D DAREDEVIL #81 $2.99
SEP051924 DEFENDERS #5 (OF 5) $2.99
NOV051987D EXILES #76 $2.99
NOV051970D MARVEL SPOTLIGHT WARREN ELLIS & JIM CHEUNG $2.99
NOV051974D NEW AVENGERS #15 $2.50
NOV051973D NEXT WAVE #1 $2.99
NOV051975D NICK FURY HOWLING COMMANDOS #4 $2.99
NOV051978D PULSE #13 $2.99
AUG041859D PUNISHER BORN TP (MR) $13.99
NOV051946D SPIDER-MAN BLACK CAT EVIL THAT MEN DO #6 (OF 6) $2.99
NOV051945D SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE #2 $2.99
NOV051980D THING #3 $2.99
NOV051936D ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR X-MEN SPECIAL $2.99
NOV051937D ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #89 $2.50
NOV051954D WOLVERINE #38 $2.50
NOV051995D X-MEN #181 $2.50
NOV051999D X-MEN AND POWER PACK #4 (OF 4) $2.99
NOV052027D X-MEN BLACK PANTHER TP $11.99
NOV052002D X-MEN DEADLY GENESIS #3 (OF 6) $3.50

OTHER PUBLISHERS

AUG053270E ALL NEW TENCHI MUYO VOL 7 TP $8.95
JUN053150 ATOMIKA #6 (OF 12) $2.99
NOV052758E BETTY #153 $2.25
NOV053053F BLUESMAN VOL 2 GN $8.95
NOV053057F COMPLETE OMAHA THE CAT DANCER VOL 2 TP (A) $12.95
OCT052888 DEADBEATS #75 $2.50
NOV052951E DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #336 $2.95
AUG053243F EXALTED #1 REG ED $3.49
MAY052795H FOGELS UNDERGROUND COMIX PRICE GUIDE (A) $29.95
NOV052763E JUGHEAD AND FRIENDS DIGEST #8 $2.39
DEC053094 LEVEL C VOL 5 GN (A) $9.99
NOV053064E LOCAL #3 (OF 12) (MR) $2.99
NOV052953E MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #285 $2.95
OCT052732 NIGHTMARES AND FAIRY TALES #15 (MR) $2.95
NOV052764E PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #100 $3.59
OCT053133 POLLY & THE PIRATES #3 (OF 6) $2.99
JUL052766J RED SONJA FIERY RED FOIL HIGH END ED #4 PI
NOV052767E SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #158 $2.25
SEP052767 SOULFIRE VOL 1 SLIPCASE ED HC $69.99
NOV052827F TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #36 (MR) $2.95
NOV052829F TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE DLX ED #36 (MR) $19.99
NOV052843F TRUTH SERUM VOL 1 TP (MR) $18.00

The Ninth Eight are Matthew Craig, John Fellows, Kieron Gillen, Alistair Kennedy, Zack Smith, Andrew Wheeler, Ben Wooller and Bulent Yusuf.

This article is Ideological Freeware. The author grants permission for its reproduction and redistribution 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.