Monthly Comics Picks – July, 2006

July’s going to be one heck of a month. DC has lined
up some incredible writers for its Superman and Batman
lines, and Marvel has Civil War tie-ins coming out the
wazoo.

DC Comics

  • ABSOLUTE DARK KNIGHT HC – A hardcover collection
    of “The Dark
    Knight Returns” and “The Dark Knight Strikes
    Again”.
  • BATMAN #655 – Written by Grant Morrison, with art
    by Andy Kubert
  • DETECTIVE COMICS #821 – Written by Paul Dini.
  • ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER #5 –
    Still by Frank Miller.
  • ALL STAR SUPERMAN #5 – still written by Grant
    Morrison.
  • SUPERMAN #654 – written by Kurt Busiek
  • ACTION COMICS #841 – written by Kurt Busiek and
    Fabian Nicieza
  • SUPERMAN/BATMAN #28 – written by Mark Verheiden,
    with art by Ethan
    Van Sciver. One of my four DC pull list titles.
  • THE ALL-NEW ATOM #1 – written by Gail Simone,
    developed by Grant
    Morrison.
  • CRISIS AFTERMATH: THE SPECTRE #3 – Part 3 of a 3
    issue miniseries.
  • CRISIS AFTERMATH: BATTLE FOR BLUDHAVEN – Part 6
    of 6.
  • 52: WEEKS 9-12 – This is ambitious, but it adds up
    quickly.
  • THE FLASH: FASTEST MAN ALIVE #2 – I admit that I’m
    tempted, but
    not tempted enough.
  • GREEN LANTERN: THE GREATEST STORIES EVER TOLD TP –
    This one is a
    serious temptation, too.
  • GREEN LANTERN #14 – Geoff Johns goes through
    another art team.
    What is with this title and its artists? One of my
    four DC pull list
    titles.
  • GREEN LANTERN CORPS #2 – The third of my DC pull
    list titles.
  • ION #4 – The fourth title on my list, though I
    admit some
    confusion is issue #1. The last time I saw Kyle, he
    needed a ring,
    and how he doesn’t. I assume that this change took
    place somewhere in
    the “Infinite Crisis” series; if someone can tell me
    if it happened in
    the main series or on of the spin-off series, I’d
    appreciate it.
  • JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #0 – A relaunch written
    by Brad
    Meltzer. Give me a chance to take a deep breath
    before listing the
    artists: Art by Ed Benes, George Perez, Jim Lee, J.H.
    Williams, Gene
    Ha, Dick Giordano, Eric Wright, Tony Harris, Kevin
    Maguire, Dan
    Jurgens, Howard Porter, Luke McDonnell, Rags Morales,
    Ethan Van Sciver
    and Phil Jimenez
  • JSA #87 – The solicitation text refers to it as a
    final issue.
  • OMAC #1 – A new series spun off of Infinite
    Crisis.
  • WONDER WOMAN #2 – Allan Heinberg continues his
    reboot of Wonder
    Woman. This and the new “Flash” are very
    tempting.

Marvel Comics

  • THE HALO GRAPHIC NOVEL HC – A graphic novel based
    on the game.
    I’ve never played the game (well, at least not with a
    functioning
    controller), so I’ll give it a pass.
  • ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #32 – The last issue of
    the Mark Millar
    and Greg Land run. My pull list includes the entire
    Ultimate line,
    which amounts to this and the next two items this
    month.
  • ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #97 – Part one of the Ultimate
    Clone Saga.
    Expect strong reactions.
  • ULTIMATE X-MEN #72 – Robert Kirkman’s run
    continues.
  • AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #534 – A Civil War tie-in.
    (I’ll be getting
    the entire Civil War.)
  • BLACK PANTHER #18 – T’Challa and Storm finally
    make it to the
    altar. Marvel tradition would dictate an attack from
    a supervillain,
    but since this is a Civil War tie-in, I’d almost bet
    that the guests
    start fighting amongst each other.
  • CIVIL WAR #3 (OF 7) – The main Civil War title, by
    Mark Millar and
    Steve McNiven. I admit, I’m very excited about this
    one. It sounds
    far more interesting than most of the gimmick summer
    events.
  • DAILY BUGLE: CIVIL WAR SPECIAL EDITION – Like the
    special edition
    of the Pulse for House of M, this is a look at the
    Daily Bugle during
    the Civil War, written by Peter David, J. Michael
    Straczynski, and
    others.
  • CIVIL WAR: FRONT LINE #3 & 4 (OF 10) – Paul
    Jenkins continues this
    in place of “The Pulse.”
  • CIVIL WAR: X-MEN #1 (of 4) – A David Hine
    miniseries.
  • CIVIL WAR: YOUNG AVENGERS & RUNAWAYS #1 (of 4) –
    Zeb Wells is
    writing this one.
  • FANTASTIC FOUR #539 – A Civil War tie-in set on
    Yancy Street.
  • NEW AVENGERS #22 – The Civil War sparks a new
    “Disassembled”
    storyline.
  • THUNDERBOLTS #104 – The ex-villains are hunting
    the heroes.
  • CABLE & DEADPOOL #30 – Deadpool faces Daredevil.
    Written by
    Fabian Nicieza, so it’s got my interest.
  • WOLVERINE #44 – More Civil War tie-in.
  • X-FACTOR #9 – Peter David is writing this Civil
    War tie-in, which
    is the last Civil War tie-in listed for this
    month.
  • FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #10 – Peter David
    and Mike
    Wieringo have done good work on this title so
    far.
  • SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #28 – This is listed as a
    tie-in to the
    Civil War tie-in found in Amazing Spider-Man,
    so I don’t know
    if it really counts a
  • SPIDER-GIRL #100 – This title has been teetering
    on the brink of
    cancellation only to be rescued by fan action more
    times that I’d care
    to count. This is another possible final issue for
    the series.
  • ANNIHILATION: RONAN #4 (of 4) – This series is
    wrapping up, making
    way for the main title.
  • ANNIHILATION: SUPER-SKRULL #4 (of 4) – Another
    prequel series
    wraps up.
  • ANNIHILATION: SILVER SURFER #4 (of 4) – The third
    such series wraps.
  • ANNIHILATION: NOVA #4 (of 4) – The most tempting
    of these
    miniseries wraps up.
  • BEYOND #1 (OF 6) – Dwayne McDuffie writes this
    series, with
    Spider-Man and an assortment of B-list characters
    facing the
    Beyonder.
  • CAPTAIN AMERICA #20 – As I’m sure you’re tired of
    hearing from me,
    Wizard picked this as the best title of 2005, and I
    still haven’t read
    any.
  • ETERNALS #2 (of 6) – Neil Gaiman and John Romita
    Jr. relaunching
    the old Kirby title.
  • DAREDEVIL #87 – I’m three issues into the
    Brubaker/Lark run and
    I’m loving it. This is the most interesting the title
    has been since
    Murdock was outed.
  • MOON KNIGHT #4 – Man, thems pretty pictures.
  • RUNAWAYS #18 – Another story arc wraps.
  • SHE-HULK #10 – She-Hulk marries Man-Wolf. My
    condolences to
    whomever has to clean the honeymoon suite.
  • SQUADRON SUPREME #5 – Billed as a great jumping-on
    point, and a
    place to get familiar with the series before the
    Ultimate Power series
    launches. I’ll be getting it anyway. This is a great
    series.
  • EXILES #84 – Tony Bedard’s run continues, as
    Claremont needs time
    for medical reasons.
  • UNCANNY X-MEN #475 & #476 – Ed Brubaker takes over
    writing, which
    I’m quite happy to hear.
  • WOLVERINE: ORIGINS #4 – A really tempting series,
    particularly
    given the quality of the Supreme Power:
    Nighthawk
    miniseries
    this creative team made.
  • THE THING: IDOL OF MILLIONS TPB – I’ve heard great
    things about
    this Dan Slott title.
  • CAPTAIN AMERICA: RED MENACE VOL. 1 TPB – Brubaker
    wrote this, too.
  • SUPREME POWER: HYPERION TPB – I’m way behind on
    reviewing these,
    but it’s good.
  • ESSENTIAL MARVEL TEAM-UP VOL. 2 TPB – It’s been
    way too long in
    coming, but it’s here now.

Other

Battlestar Galactica #1 ships from D. E. this
month, as
well. I’ll be collecting it, but I’m not sure I’ll be
reading them
right away, as I’m following the series on DVD (which
I can import
faster than Canadian broadcasters pick it up) and
don’t know if it’ll
contain spoilers or not.

2 replies on “Monthly Comics Picks – July, 2006”

  1. Star Wars
    The Dark Horse Star Wars comics for July are:

      * Star Wars: Legacy #2
      * Star Wars: Rebellion #4
      * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #7
      * Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures Volume 6
      * Dark Horse Twenty Years (25¢ issue)

    More info here.

    Dark Horse essentially ended the existing Star Wars series and started three new ones. There’s still time to get in on them from the beginning!

  2. Ion and his ring
    This may be a spoiler, maybe not.

    Way back in Judd Winick’s run, Kyle absorbed the leftover energy of the GL Corps. It was apparently left in the sun when Hal Jordan (who had stolen it to power his run as Parallax) reignited the sun.

    whew.

    This power made Kyle nearly God-like, and he referred to himself as Ion. Among his works, he restored Jade’s natural powers by instilling her with some of his own. He ultimately resurrected the Guardians and relit the Master Power Battery on Oa.

    In the Rann / Thanagar War Infinite Crisis Special, Jade and Kyle are among those heroes fighting at the new center of the universe, when a tremor in spacetime mortally wounds Jade. With her last breaths, she returns the power Kyle gave her. Kyle changes immediately, and became Ion once more.

    The guardians noted that he had become something more than a Green Lantern, though how much more remains to be seen. He does not appear to be as Godlike as he was during Winick’s run.

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