Welcome back to the Shipping Forecast, Ninth Art's weekly look at the latest comic book releases. Every Monday we'll show you the week's shipping list from Diamond, and our three fisherman critics will make their picks of the most noteworthy new books hitting the shelves. Please note that the shipping list is subject to change.

DOGGER PICKS:

AGE OF BRONZE VOL 1: A THOUSAND SHIPS TP
Evidently this didn't arrive in stores last week after all. Nevertheless, once again I'm going to recommend it. Partly because damn, it's a crap week for comics this week, and partly because it still deserves it. High drama and lush art make this a potentially breakout work.

MERIDIAN VOL 1 TP
I don't read any of the CrossGen titles, but the collections of their other series that have already arrived in stores are impressive things - lovely heavy paper, extra material, a big chunk of story, and a good price to boot. I've heard more good things than bad about this magical fantasy coming-of-age story, so at the very least I'm going to take a good look at this in the store.

CROMARTY PICKS:

HELLBLAZER #162
Azzarello finally shows us John in London with this story, in a flashback exploring John's time in the punk act Mucous Membrane. The story will either silence the fans who are complaining that Azzarello shouldn't have taken John out of London or feed them fresh material.

AGE OF BRONZE VOL 1 A THOUSAND SHIPS TP
We could do with more historical comics. There's a grand sweep of majesty in parts of history to rival any of the much-vaunted "sense of wonder" in superhero comics, and it's hard to find anything to top the siege of Troy. This book has had acclaim across the board, and it'd be stupid to turn down a chance to read the story from the beginning if you missed it first time, wouldn't it?

FISHER PICKS:

BROTHERHOOD #1
This much vaunted new mutant book from Marvel is being pitched as dark and cutting edge, but it's written by an anonymous creator, someone masquerading under the name of X, so no-one knows what to expect. Rumours persist that this mysterious X is, in fact, the execrable Howard Mackie, the worst writer ever to work in any medium, and they're keeping him anonymous because he's renowned for being crap. What a baffling notion. It's not Mackie's name that makes a book crap, it's his total inability to construct or tell a story. If Mackie is writing BROTHERHOOD, his handiwork will soon shine through The other rumoured possibility is Howard Chaykin. Fingers crossed, eh?

US AGENT #1 (Of 3)
The book the 2000AD lawyers love to hate! Heaven knows what Marvel was thinking when they decided to redesign US Agent for the Maximum Security crossover to look like the spitting image of Judge Dredd, but when they decided to run ads in Previews with the promo line "He Is The Law", they were really asking for trouble. Maybe they thought it was an amusing tribute. Or maybe Marvel's just used to getting away with this kind of rip-off for too long. Either way, this series is a mistake, and you need to steer well clear of it.

Comics shipping in the US on May 31st:

DARK HORSE

MAR010038 OH MY GODDESS THE DEVIL IN MISS URD TP $14.95

DC COMICS

MAR010405 ACTION COMICS #779 $2.25
MAR010458 ASTRO CITY TARNISHED ANGEL TP $19.95
MAR010392 BATMAN BEYOND #21 $1.99
MAR010389 BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #17 $2.50
MAR010397 CATWOMAN #94 $2.25
MAR010440 DEXTERS LABORATORY #23 $1.99
MAR010414 FLASH #174 $2.25
MAR010412 GREEN ARROW #4 $2.50
MAR010467 HELLBLAZER #162 (mature readers) $2.50
MAR010435 WONDER WOMAN #170 $2.25

IMAGE

FEB011246D AGE OF BRONZE VOL 1 A THOUSAND SHIPS TP $19.95
FEB011252D DARK ANGEL PHOENIX RESURRECTION #4 $2.95
FEB011261D DARK REALM #4 $2.95
FEB011245D DISTANT SOIL #32 $3.95
MAR011284 D OUBLE IMAGE #4 $2.95
MAR011288 EVE PROTOMECHA VOL 1 SINS OF THE DAUGHTER TP $17.95
FEB011287D FATHOM KILLIAN #2 $2.95
FEB011239D SAM AND TWITCH #21 $2.50
JAN011245D VIOLENT MESSIAHS #6 $2.95

MARVEL

MAR011566 AVENGERS #42 $2.25
MAR011533 BROTHERHOOD #1 $2.25
MAR011537 DAREDEVIL #18 (RES) $2.99
MAR011560 INCREDIBLE HULK #28 $2.25
MAR011567 THUNDERBOLTS LIFE SENTENCES $3.50
MAR011568 UNIVERSE X #10 (Of 12) $3.50
MAR011565 US AGENT #1 (Of 3) $2.99
MAR011534 WOLVERINE #164 $2.25

OTHER PUBLISHERS

MAR011886 BART SIMPSON COMICS #4 $2.50
MAR011830 BETTY #100 $1.99
MAR011834 BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #98 $3.29
FEB012168F BOX OFFICE POISON COMPLETE TP ED $29.95
FEB011906E CHASTITY SHATTERED #1 $2.99
FEB011905I CHASTITY SHATTERED PREMIUM ED #1 $9.99
FEB011941F DEADBEATS #47 $2.50
JAN011751I DFE TONY DANIELS SILKE #1 BLUE FOIL ED $14.95
MAR011835 JUGHEAD #137 $1.99
MAR011986 LOUIS RIEL #6 $2.95
MAR012035 LOVE AND ROCKETS VOLUME II #2 (mature readers) $3.95
MAR011970 MERIDIAN #12 $2.95
MAR011972 MERIDIAN VOL 1 TP $19.95
MAR011788 ODDJOB #8 (Of 8) $2.95
FEB012091F OGENKI CLINIC 2 GN (A) $17.95
MAR012210 POKEMON ADVS PART 4 #3 (Of 4) $4.95
MAR011959 PRINCESS PRINCE #8 (Of 8) $2.95
FEB012072I VAMPI #9 UNDERWORLD PART 3 OF 3 DLX ED $9.95
FEB012071E VAMPI #9 UNDERWORLD PART 3 OF 3 REG ED $2.95

MAGAZINES

MAR012251J COMIC SHOP NEWS #728 PI

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

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