Comics Hype Calendar 2010 January through April
Wow, I meant for this to be out sometime in March or so, but things did not go according to the plan. Ah well, screw it. You know what this is. Last year I noticed all the amazing projects coming out for 2009 and I went through them all, month by month. I very much wanted to do a part two, but the information came in dribs and drabs after that--never a flood large enough to coalesce into a Sage-length blog post.
But thanks to The Source's DCU in 2010 week in December and a few other announcements that were made along with solicitations up to June...the Comics Calendar is back! I'm a few months late, so I'll do a quick over view of January through March before getting on to what's next for the year. Ready? Here we go.
January
Siege - The big "change everything" event from Marvel Comics in 2009. Brian Bendis has made a point of saying this is a major turning point, and has structured it in such a way that it cuts right to the point, and the entire comic book is just a short four issues long. I haven't read a comic of Brian Bendis' since Avengers: Disassembled back in 2004, and the primary reason he's got me reading this is the promise that the Big Three (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man) would unite again, which has not happened since Geoff Johns' crossover story back in '03. So far, what the fans were promised has been delivered on, and although personally I think Ares versus Sentry should've gone exactly the way it did if you were to switch who lost, its been a decent story. And, after this month's #4 (...REALLY late on this one, sorry guys) Marvel will be entering the Heroic Age.
'Bout time.
Joe the Barbarian - Another Grant Morrison epic. After writing one of the greatest comics of 2008 and blowing people away with his Batman series one of my favorite writers of all time is back at Vertigo, telling the story of a teenage boy with diabetes who's on a quest...to make it downstairs to find his medicine before he dies. Along the way, he begins to hallucinate his home as a far away fantasy kingdom that only he can save from King Death. Its like Flex Mentallo without the superhero tie, but I'm rather certain there are twists coming to make this one another good indy comic.
Last Stand of New Krypton - Last year's World of New Krypton was one of the best ongoing comics of 2009, with beautiful artwork and excellent world-building from writers Greg Rucka & James Robinson and artist Pete Woods, and I firmly believe that you could do an Elseworlds series like that for at least 100 issues if allowed to bring in elements of the DC Universe as this series did whenever appropriate. However as of March 1st, World of New Krypton is ended (*sniffles*), and this mini-series, Last Stand of New Krypton, has taken its' place.
For those unaware, after his last encounter with Brainiac, Superman discovered a metropolitan Kryptonian city that had been captured before Krypton exploded. The ramifications of the city growing to full size was dealt with in 2008's Superman: New Krypton story, while the Kryptonians having their own planet has been dealt with in all the Superman comics (primarily World of New Krypton). Well now, Brainiac's back. And he wants what's his. But with the Kryptonians having the same powers as Superman now, he's got a completely different fight on his hands, I think.
Another fast-paced big action comic. And the Legion's involved! Which reminds me...
Brainiac and the Legion of Super-Heroes - Geoff being allowed to do Flash: Rebirth and Flash meant he had to leave Adventure Comics. I'm saddened by this, as having him on Legion has been something I wanted for years. His short run on the team left a number of plot threads that were supposed to be followed up both here and in other Superman books are now being wrapped up in this four month long inter-connected story. Adventure Comics, Last Stand of New Krypton, Supergirl, and Superman all combine to tell one massive story. That thing I said, about all the Kryptonians having the same powers as Superman?
...Well, that's apparently worthless, as they still end up losing to Brainiac. Or at least, they would, if the LSH Espionage Squad had not come back in time to stop Brainiac and save Superman's life. It isn't happening the way I want it, but they've still got my attention.
First Wave - When you've managed to create one of the most popular comics of the new millenia, standing alongside epics that people will be placing on their Top # lists for years, your next step has got to be to create a pulp universe with Doc Savage, The Spirit, the Blackhawks...oh, and Batman. With guns. Wait, what?
Yeah. When First Wave was announced, I knew it would be a great comic, and I still believe it is, after having read the first issue. With the writer/artist team of Azzarello (100 Bullets) and Rags Morales (Hawkman), DC is on its way to creating a line of books for those who are sick of superheroes but could do with a taste of detectives, zeppelins and classic pulp tales. (Hopefully Azzarello has more planned than this, though.)
X-Factor Forever - The "Forever" branding is one of the strangest ideas either Marvel or DC has ever put forth. I can't tell how much I like it, because as of yet no one's done it who I'm terribly interested in. We all know how American superhero comic books work. A writer works on a book until more interesting title comes along or they're out of ideas and they move on, and someone else gets his turn. Theoreticaly, this refreshes the character with new, interesting stories every few years. The "Forever" line, however...it takes someone who has done a particularly popular run on characters and goes back to the last time they were on the book and lets them tell their own stories set on another world.
When it comes to Marvel, I'm not especially big on most of their old work, so while the concept has potential, I didn't think I'd ever be all that interested, until this idea came along. Before X-Factor was Peter David's brilliant superhero-noir title, the book was Marvel's way of getting the original five X-Men into one title and telling stories with them. I wasn't around for this era of comics, but I've a decent nose for revivals I might like and I've always been huge on the original five X-Men, so when it was announced Louise Simonson was writing a mini-series beginning from her last issue of X-Factor, well, it earned her a spot on my Hype Calendar.
Firestar - I grew up reading Kurt Busiek's Avengers, a comic that had one of the most Avenger-y line-ups both of the last decade or of this one. Busiek made sure he got all the big guys on the team, the B-List people without whom you don't truly have an Avengers title, and two new members: Justice and Firestar. A superhero couple previously on the New Warriors, Busiek took these newbie heroes and put them on the premiere super-team and sent them on some of the biggest adventures they or the team had ever seen. In the process, he made me a huge Firestar fan. Just a one-shot but in June she'll be in the Young Allies. Hoping for awesomeness.
Black Widow - Ever known a writer who's work you REALLY thought was good, but none of the projects they'd done yet appealed to you, so despite knowing they're talented, you're not following anything they've done? This is the case with me, and Marjorie Liu. I KNOW she's a good writer, but I missed the boat on NYX, and Dark Wolverine...just made me want to kick someone, so I've yet to check her work out. The same really is true with Black Widow, as a character who I have some interest in but has never had the right creative team.
It'll be canceled inside a few months because Daniel Acuna is a great portrait artist but does action stuff for crap, but right now, I'm going to sit back and enjoy the stories Ms. Liu has in mind. Superhero-spy thrillers have been on a downward trend since Checkmate got canceled.
Marvel Her-Oes - MAN that's a stupid title. Also, who'd Marvel piss off that they've got to create this many female titles to appease readers? I don't have a problem with it (some HAVE made it to my Hype Calendar, after all); just curious is all.
Anyways, Marvel Heroes (spelled the other way it sounds like cereal) has a familiar twist that I would hate if done for television, but as a comic I'm all for it: Take the A-List female superheroes turned teenagers, put them in a school setting, and wait for following insanity. No clue what brought this on, but I'm all for it--I can use a break from huge action stories the Big Two normally does.
Iron Man: Legacy - Iron Man 2 comes out in May, so naturally Marvel has a second ongoing for my favorite Marvel hero coming out in April. If I'm not mistaken, writer Fred Van Lente previously did the all-ages Iron Man Adventures comic book, which was a short, but stellar series. Legacy appears to be going the "Untold Tales of Iron Man" route, going into his past and showing us stories we've never seen before from it. FVL's shown he can write Iron Man, now he just needs to show he can do it weaving through continuity.
Brightest Day - (Blackest Night spoilers coming....)
DC's epic event Blackest Night is over. And now comes, the Brightest Day. Oh, sweet. Initially we all wondered just WHAT Brightest Day could possibly be about...but BN8 hit this Wednesday, so now we're aware Brightest Day will be following the few dead who returned to life in Blackest Night 8.
A 26 issue, bi-weekly series by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi, Brightest Day feels like a second 52, and hopefully that feeling turns out to be accurate.
Flash - We're skipping past all the bad "Fastest Man Alive had the slowest relaunch" cracks. You know what this is. Geoff Johns. Francis Manapul. Barry Allen. First arc, Dastardly Death of the Rogues. Plus Captain Boomerang has some strange changes he has to deal with after his resurrection from the end of Blackest Night. Its Geoff Johns building up the mythology of the Flash. I'm expecting awesomeness.
Doc Savage - What I know about Doc Savage is that he's ABC character Tom Strong is an analogue of. Other than that, he's a pulp hero and the star of Azzarello's aforementioned First Wave. In addition to being placed in his own universe, the pulp hero Doc Savage is now being given his own title written by Paul Malmont and drawn by Howard Porter (also known as "I drew the best JLA run in the last ten years). The writer's an unknown but Howard Porter's one of the greatest artists of our era.
The Spirit - Michael Eisner's Spirit character is back. After a critically acclaimed series by Darwyn Cooke, The Spirit is being placed into the First Wave universe and given another ongoing. Proof positive ongoings in universe do better than standalones, its caught my interest this time and I'll be following this to see how it fits in with our other First Wave series.
We'll stop there for now. There's more but...yeesh. June's a looooong month.
But thanks to The Source's DCU in 2010 week in December and a few other announcements that were made along with solicitations up to June...the Comics Calendar is back! I'm a few months late, so I'll do a quick over view of January through March before getting on to what's next for the year. Ready? Here we go.
January
Siege - The big "change everything" event from Marvel Comics in 2009. Brian Bendis has made a point of saying this is a major turning point, and has structured it in such a way that it cuts right to the point, and the entire comic book is just a short four issues long. I haven't read a comic of Brian Bendis' since Avengers: Disassembled back in 2004, and the primary reason he's got me reading this is the promise that the Big Three (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man) would unite again, which has not happened since Geoff Johns' crossover story back in '03. So far, what the fans were promised has been delivered on, and although personally I think Ares versus Sentry should've gone exactly the way it did if you were to switch who lost, its been a decent story. And, after this month's #4 (...REALLY late on this one, sorry guys) Marvel will be entering the Heroic Age.
'Bout time.
Joe the Barbarian - Another Grant Morrison epic. After writing one of the greatest comics of 2008 and blowing people away with his Batman series one of my favorite writers of all time is back at Vertigo, telling the story of a teenage boy with diabetes who's on a quest...to make it downstairs to find his medicine before he dies. Along the way, he begins to hallucinate his home as a far away fantasy kingdom that only he can save from King Death. Its like Flex Mentallo without the superhero tie, but I'm rather certain there are twists coming to make this one another good indy comic.
February
Last Stand of New Krypton - Last year's World of New Krypton was one of the best ongoing comics of 2009, with beautiful artwork and excellent world-building from writers Greg Rucka & James Robinson and artist Pete Woods, and I firmly believe that you could do an Elseworlds series like that for at least 100 issues if allowed to bring in elements of the DC Universe as this series did whenever appropriate. However as of March 1st, World of New Krypton is ended (*sniffles*), and this mini-series, Last Stand of New Krypton, has taken its' place.
For those unaware, after his last encounter with Brainiac, Superman discovered a metropolitan Kryptonian city that had been captured before Krypton exploded. The ramifications of the city growing to full size was dealt with in 2008's Superman: New Krypton story, while the Kryptonians having their own planet has been dealt with in all the Superman comics (primarily World of New Krypton). Well now, Brainiac's back. And he wants what's his. But with the Kryptonians having the same powers as Superman now, he's got a completely different fight on his hands, I think.
Another fast-paced big action comic. And the Legion's involved! Which reminds me...
Brainiac and the Legion of Super-Heroes - Geoff being allowed to do Flash: Rebirth and Flash meant he had to leave Adventure Comics. I'm saddened by this, as having him on Legion has been something I wanted for years. His short run on the team left a number of plot threads that were supposed to be followed up both here and in other Superman books are now being wrapped up in this four month long inter-connected story. Adventure Comics, Last Stand of New Krypton, Supergirl, and Superman all combine to tell one massive story. That thing I said, about all the Kryptonians having the same powers as Superman?
...Well, that's apparently worthless, as they still end up losing to Brainiac. Or at least, they would, if the LSH Espionage Squad had not come back in time to stop Brainiac and save Superman's life. It isn't happening the way I want it, but they've still got my attention.
First Wave - When you've managed to create one of the most popular comics of the new millenia, standing alongside epics that people will be placing on their Top # lists for years, your next step has got to be to create a pulp universe with Doc Savage, The Spirit, the Blackhawks...oh, and Batman. With guns. Wait, what?
Yeah. When First Wave was announced, I knew it would be a great comic, and I still believe it is, after having read the first issue. With the writer/artist team of Azzarello (100 Bullets) and Rags Morales (Hawkman), DC is on its way to creating a line of books for those who are sick of superheroes but could do with a taste of detectives, zeppelins and classic pulp tales. (Hopefully Azzarello has more planned than this, though.)
X-Factor Forever - The "Forever" branding is one of the strangest ideas either Marvel or DC has ever put forth. I can't tell how much I like it, because as of yet no one's done it who I'm terribly interested in. We all know how American superhero comic books work. A writer works on a book until more interesting title comes along or they're out of ideas and they move on, and someone else gets his turn. Theoreticaly, this refreshes the character with new, interesting stories every few years. The "Forever" line, however...it takes someone who has done a particularly popular run on characters and goes back to the last time they were on the book and lets them tell their own stories set on another world.
When it comes to Marvel, I'm not especially big on most of their old work, so while the concept has potential, I didn't think I'd ever be all that interested, until this idea came along. Before X-Factor was Peter David's brilliant superhero-noir title, the book was Marvel's way of getting the original five X-Men into one title and telling stories with them. I wasn't around for this era of comics, but I've a decent nose for revivals I might like and I've always been huge on the original five X-Men, so when it was announced Louise Simonson was writing a mini-series beginning from her last issue of X-Factor, well, it earned her a spot on my Hype Calendar.
April
Firestar - I grew up reading Kurt Busiek's Avengers, a comic that had one of the most Avenger-y line-ups both of the last decade or of this one. Busiek made sure he got all the big guys on the team, the B-List people without whom you don't truly have an Avengers title, and two new members: Justice and Firestar. A superhero couple previously on the New Warriors, Busiek took these newbie heroes and put them on the premiere super-team and sent them on some of the biggest adventures they or the team had ever seen. In the process, he made me a huge Firestar fan. Just a one-shot but in June she'll be in the Young Allies. Hoping for awesomeness.
Black Widow - Ever known a writer who's work you REALLY thought was good, but none of the projects they'd done yet appealed to you, so despite knowing they're talented, you're not following anything they've done? This is the case with me, and Marjorie Liu. I KNOW she's a good writer, but I missed the boat on NYX, and Dark Wolverine...just made me want to kick someone, so I've yet to check her work out. The same really is true with Black Widow, as a character who I have some interest in but has never had the right creative team.
It'll be canceled inside a few months because Daniel Acuna is a great portrait artist but does action stuff for crap, but right now, I'm going to sit back and enjoy the stories Ms. Liu has in mind. Superhero-spy thrillers have been on a downward trend since Checkmate got canceled.
Marvel Her-Oes - MAN that's a stupid title. Also, who'd Marvel piss off that they've got to create this many female titles to appease readers? I don't have a problem with it (some HAVE made it to my Hype Calendar, after all); just curious is all.
Anyways, Marvel Heroes (spelled the other way it sounds like cereal) has a familiar twist that I would hate if done for television, but as a comic I'm all for it: Take the A-List female superheroes turned teenagers, put them in a school setting, and wait for following insanity. No clue what brought this on, but I'm all for it--I can use a break from huge action stories the Big Two normally does.
Iron Man: Legacy - Iron Man 2 comes out in May, so naturally Marvel has a second ongoing for my favorite Marvel hero coming out in April. If I'm not mistaken, writer Fred Van Lente previously did the all-ages Iron Man Adventures comic book, which was a short, but stellar series. Legacy appears to be going the "Untold Tales of Iron Man" route, going into his past and showing us stories we've never seen before from it. FVL's shown he can write Iron Man, now he just needs to show he can do it weaving through continuity.
Brightest Day - (Blackest Night spoilers coming....)
DC's epic event Blackest Night is over. And now comes, the Brightest Day. Oh, sweet. Initially we all wondered just WHAT Brightest Day could possibly be about...but BN8 hit this Wednesday, so now we're aware Brightest Day will be following the few dead who returned to life in Blackest Night 8.
A 26 issue, bi-weekly series by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi, Brightest Day feels like a second 52, and hopefully that feeling turns out to be accurate.
Flash - We're skipping past all the bad "Fastest Man Alive had the slowest relaunch" cracks. You know what this is. Geoff Johns. Francis Manapul. Barry Allen. First arc, Dastardly Death of the Rogues. Plus Captain Boomerang has some strange changes he has to deal with after his resurrection from the end of Blackest Night. Its Geoff Johns building up the mythology of the Flash. I'm expecting awesomeness.
Doc Savage - What I know about Doc Savage is that he's ABC character Tom Strong is an analogue of. Other than that, he's a pulp hero and the star of Azzarello's aforementioned First Wave. In addition to being placed in his own universe, the pulp hero Doc Savage is now being given his own title written by Paul Malmont and drawn by Howard Porter (also known as "I drew the best JLA run in the last ten years). The writer's an unknown but Howard Porter's one of the greatest artists of our era.
The Spirit - Michael Eisner's Spirit character is back. After a critically acclaimed series by Darwyn Cooke, The Spirit is being placed into the First Wave universe and given another ongoing. Proof positive ongoings in universe do better than standalones, its caught my interest this time and I'll be following this to see how it fits in with our other First Wave series.
We'll stop there for now. There's more but...yeesh. June's a looooong month.
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