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: PROMETHEA

Michael Jackson once sang, "She's out of my life, and I don't know whether to laugh or cry". A mawkish sentiment, to be sure, but appropriate for this week's most bittersweet farewell.

The thirty-second and final issue of PROMETHEA (DC WildStorm/ABC) arrives in stores this week, and you might be wondering exactly what there is left for the character to do. After all, in the last thirty-one issues, Promethea has guided us around Misty Magic Land, shimmied up and down the Tree of Life, become one with Everything and ended the world as we know it. Indeed, by the end of issue thirty-one, all the major players in the series had received the sort of closure that would leave most comics characters green with envy.

All except one.

From early on in the series, the reader has been an integral, if silent, part of the story. There have been times in this odyssey-cum-dogmatic text that the characters have, in no uncertain terms, talked directly to the reader. Whether you buy into Moore's snake-worshipping warlockery or not, it's hard to deny the powerful celebration of stories and ideas that has been on show throughout the series. From cyclical studies of universal origins to the quiet tragedy of a friendship betrayed, PROMETHEA has been so rich and dense a series as to defy its occasionally sporadic dissemination.

The strength, skill and dedication to formal experimentation that has characterised PROMETHEA will, of course, continue right up until the very last page of issue thirty-two, in which Promethea once again takes us by the hand for one last trip around the universe. And, as if to scoff at every piece of sleight-of-hand comicbookery that has gone before them, Moore, Williams et al. have one last trick up their sleeve.

While issue thirty-two of Promethea may be read as a straightforward turn-the-page comicbook, it may also be taken to pieces and reassembled as a giant double-sided poster, in which strange, hidden images are brought out of the text. An alternative edition of Promethea #32 is also available this week, in the form of two complete posters and a book containing all the covers used in the series. Of course, you would save a pile of cash by just buying three copies of the regular comic and some Sellotape - or, if you're digitally-minded, by scanning the pages from the regular edition into your computer and assembling the posters in Paint Shop Pro.

As strong and singular a vision as any you might see in a lifetime of comics, Promethea has been a thing of unalloyed beauty from start to finish. It has made comics better by its presence, and leaves not only a rich legacy in its wake, but also a high and mischievous bar for the next generation of creators to aim for.

In this week of love and Lenten pledges, there can be no greater gift to the comics community than that. [Matthew Craig]

FOOL IF YOU THINK IT'S OVER

APOCALYPSE NERD #1 (Dark Horse) should probably be subtitled 'Just Imagine Peter Bagge Creating Dilbert In The Post-Apocalypse'. If that alone hasn't sold you on the book, then I shall elaborate on the premise: the protagonist, who was a worthless middle-manager prior to the collapse of civilisation, finds that he doesn't measure up that well in the race for survival, and even with the old order dissolved, he's still not an alpha-male.

It's perhaps not the most optimistic premise ever written, but then this is a Peter Bagge comic. This means that it will be smart, wry, funny and entertaining, if non-stop cringe-inducing idiocy is your particular cup of tea. The book also boasts a back-up strip featuring what are described as "poignant yet humorous anecdotes about America's Founding Fathers". You can practically sense the irreverence emanating from the comic in waves. Still, I'm sure George, Thomas and the gang can take it. [Lindsay Duff]

THIS IS OUR YOUTH

After last week's slice-of-English-life-mixed-with-Hindu-Gods in VIMANARAMA, we come to this week's slice-of-English-life-mixed-with-small-plastic-mammals. Ian Carney (SUGAR BUZZ) and Jonathan Edwards (an illustrator for UK newspaper The Guardian) team-up for BAG OF ANTEATERS #1 from Slave Labor Graphics. It's 32 pages of black and white goodness.

Ian Carney's work on WHERE'S IT AT, SUGAR KAT and SUGAR BUZZ with Woodrow Phoenix was a witty, light-hearted break from the norm, but with BAG OF ANTEATERS he looks to be striking out toward a more grounded slice-of-life style. Joined by Edwards, who's overtly cartoon look unites skater-punk vitality with a more abstract iconic take. The preview at SLG's website demonstrates how their pairing works, even if the distinctly "earthy" tone seems to clash with the unreality of the artwork.

There is so little fiction based in the reality of youth that isn't glamorised or moralised into a soupy mish-mash of Hollywood melodrama. TV is clogged with beautiful teens and twenty-somethings worrying about which beautiful teen or twenty-something to date. They don't have real problems, they have pretty problems. They sail through their days with nary a care in the world. Carney and Edwards look to be representing not just the reality of youth, but the reality of being a British youth. [John Fellows]

SECOND RUN

Marvel's Tsunami imprint of a few years back was a noble failure - an attempt to lure new readers with a new kind of comic. The fact that readers stayed away in droves from the manga-stylised art and the painful 'down with da kids' attitude is besides the point; at least it wasn't the same old shit repackaged as the new shit. The Tsunami line has come and gone, but it gave birth to at least one memorable series, RUNAWAYS, and for that we can all be thankful.

The premise is built upon a very clever bit of pop-psychology. A bunch of kids accidentally discover that their parents belong to a secret-society of super-villains (try saying that after a couple of beers), and the ensuing struggle between the two parties gave the concept of teenage rebellion a whole new meaning. This second volume picks up the thread; with their parents now defeated, the kids have to contend with the super-villain power-vacuum in Los Angeles they helped create.

Let's not mince words here. Anything that Brian K Vaughan writes is a stroke of frickin' genius. I love Y: THE LAST MAN, I love EX MACHINA, I loved his brief run on MYSTIQUE, and most of all I looooooove RUNAWAYS. Call it teenage angst with a modern twist, call it a genre-hopping fairground ride, call it whatever the hell you like. I call it a damn fine comic book, and I'm going to be first in line to buy my copy. [Bulent Yusuf]

PRAYING TOWARDS MECHA

Sick of big comic book companies' sad attempts at teen books, which seem to revolve endlessly around, "I may have superpowers, but I just can't get a prom date, boo hoo"? Tired of comic scribes and artists whose portrayals of teens are as cringe-making as your granddad coming out with a "fo' shizzle"? Do you ache for a teen comic that actually gets pop culture, that makes you laugh with it (not at it), and where shit gets fucked up on a regular basis? Look no further. Adam Warren is back, and he means business.

Warren's new project, LIVEWIRES (Marvel), chronicles the story of five "nanobuilt humanform combat mecha" - oh fuck it, it's BATTLE ANGEL ALITA meets THE X-MEN with a bit of CHOBITS thrown in. Five robots (the big guy, two loners, and two hot girls - Alan Moore's Basic Law of Superteams) act as government white ops agents to foil the activities of the Marvel Universe's massive population of top-secret tech operations. From the 'Real AIM" gag on the front cover alone, LIVEWIRES looks like an awesome blend of Marvel Universe nerdfest and pop Armageddon. Bring it on. If you like LIVEWIRES, hunt down Warren's run on WildStorm's old GEN 13, some of the best teen comics ever. [Alex de Campi]

ZOMBIE GRANDMA

Ninth Art's Matthew Craig pays special tribute to a favourite comic from the past...

Ten years ago this very week, Marvel Comics released AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #400. It was slap-bang in the middle of the Clone Saga, and ended with Peter Parker being arrested for a murder committed by one of his clones. More importantly, however, it saw the moving and tragic death of Peter's beloved Aunt May.

When I first read ASM #400, sat on a bench outside Manchester's Corn Exchange, I was moved to strong, manly tears (read: I wept like a baby) by the poignant sense of closure it brought to the relationship between Spider-Man and the woman who raised him.

While the story has since been wiped from the series' memory, and Aunt May restored to her usual rude health, and while the bench I sat on was blown up and replaced by giant televisions for the homeless, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #400 remains a high watermark for mainstream comics in general, and the Spider-Man series in particular. With a touching, well-paced script by J Marc DeMatteis, strong, grounded art from Mark Bagley and Larry Mahlstedt, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #400 stands in stark contrast to such modern day "epics" as Identity Crisis and Avengers: Disassembled, and puts every sprawling, overhyped one of them to shame. [Matthew Craig]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR FEBRUARY 16th 2005:

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

DARK HORSE

NOV040019D APOCALYPSE NERD #1 $2.99
JUN040024 SHI JU NEN #3 (Of 4) $2.99
JUL040045V TRIGUN ANIME MANGA VOL 1 TP $14.95

DC COMICS

DEC040242 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #637 $2.50
DEC040306 AUTHORITY REVOLUTION #5 (OF 12) (MR) $2.95
DEC040224 BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #62 $2.50
DEC040227 BATMAN WAR GAMES ACT ONE TP $14.95
DEC040251 BIRDS OF PREY #79 $2.50
DEC040325 BOOKS OF MAGICK LIFE DURING WARTIME #8 (MR) $2.50
DEC040233 CATWOMAN #40 $2.50
DEC040255 DOOM PATROL #9 $2.50
DEC040308 EX MACHINA #8 (MR) $2.95
DEC040263 HAWKMAN #37 $2.50
OCT040358 HELLBLAZER ALL HIS ENGINES HC (MR) $24.95
DEC040331 HUMAN TARGET #19 (MR) $2.95
DEC040266 JLA CLASSIFIED #4 $2.95
DEC040332 LUCIFER #59 (MR) $2.50
DEC040271 MANHUNTER #7 $2.50
DEC040307 OCEAN #4 (OF 6) $2.95
DEC040284 POWERPUFF GIRLS #59 $2.25
DEC040320 PROMETHEA #32 $3.95
DEC040321 PROMETHEA VARIANT EDITION #32 $49.95
DEC040304 SON OF THE GUN VOL 2 SAINT TP (MR) $17.95
DEC040292 SPACE GHOST #4 (OF 6) $2.95
DEC040318 TOM STRONG #31 $2.95
DEC040339 TRIGGER #3 (MR) $2.95

IMAGE

NOV041523D AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS #2 $2.95
NOV041542D PVP #14 $2.95
DEC041545 ULTRA #7 (OF 8) $2.95

MARVEL

OCT041723 ASTONISHING X-MEN #8 $2.99
DEC041782 CABLE DEADPOOL #12 $2.99
DEC041747 DAREDEVIL #70 $2.99
DEC041749 DAREDEVIL REDEMPTION #2 (OF 6) $2.99
DEC041735 LIVEWIRES #1 (OF 6) $2.99
DEC041774 MARVEL AGE SPIDER-MAN TEAM UP #5 (NOTE PRICE) $2.25
DEC041802 MARVEL MASTERWORKS DAREDEVIL VOL 3 NEW ED HC $49.99
DEC041803 MARVEL MASTERWORKS DAREDEVIL VOL 3 VAR DUST JACKET $54.99
DEC041764 NEW INVADERS #7 $2.99
DEC041791 NEW X-MEN #10 $2.99
DEC041756 OFFICIAL HANDBOOK MARVEL UNIVERSE MARVEL KNIGHTS 2005 $3.99
DEC041736 RUNAWAYS #1 (OF 12) $2.99
DEC041811 SABRETOOTH OPEN SEASON TP $9.99
DEC041768 SHE HULK #12 $2.99
DEC041743 SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #25 $2.25
DEC041767 STORMBREAKER SAGA OF BETA RAY BILL #2 (OF 6) $2.99
DEC041755 WOLVERINE #25 $2.25
NOV041821D X-FORCE #6 $2.99
NOV041847D X-MEN PHOENIX ENDSONG #1 POSTER $5.95

OTHER PUBLISHERS

DEC042385 ARCHIE & FRIENDS #89 $2.19
DEC042324 BAG OF ANTEATERS #1 $2.95
DEC042388 BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #131 $3.59
NOV042594 COSMIC GUARD #6 $2.99
DEC042636 DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #325 $2.95
AUG042673 DORK TOWER #30 $2.99
DEC042295 FIRST KING ADVENTURE MANGA VOL 2 TP $9.99
DEC042296 GADIROK MANGA VOL 2 TP $9.99
DEC042303 GAMERZ HEAVEN MANGA VOL 2 TP $9.99
DEC042291 GATE MANGA VOL 1 TP $9.99
DEC042297 GUNPARADE MARCH MANGA VOL 3 TP $9.99
NOV042834 HARDY BOYS #3 $2.95
DEC042658F JANES WORLD VOL 3 TP $15.95
DEC042708F LEVEL C VOL 1 GN (A) $9.99
DEC042499 MASCA VOL 1 GN (MR) $9.99
DEC042637 MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #274 $2.95
NOV042617 PS238 #10 $2.99
OCT042882 QUEEN & COUNTRY DECLASSIFIED VOL 2 #1 (MR) $2.99
NOV042342 SEAMONSTERS & SUPERHEROES #8 $2.95
DEC042460 SIMPSONS COMICS #103 (NOTE PRICE) $2.99
OCT048191 UDON DARKSTALKERS #2 2ND PRTG $2.95
DEC042498 WORLD OF NARUE BOOK 4 GN $9.99
DEC042501 ZZIM VOL 1 GN $9.99

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.