As always, the complete list is here. I’ll try to review “Punisher: War Journal” tomorrow morning and the other two tie-in series next Monday and Tuesday, (or sooner, but that’s less likely) so everything’s caught up when the final issue of “Secret Invasion” hits on December 3.
Dark Horse Comics
- BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #19
- STAR WARS LEGACY #30 VECTOR PART 11 OF 12
DC Comics
- BATMAN #681 – This is the last issue of “Batman R.I.P.”
- BIRDS OF PREY #124
- BLUE BEETLE #33 – This series, popular among critics, is apparantly less popular among readers. It ends with issue 36.
- HEROES HC VOL 02
- JSA KINGDOM COME SPECIAL THE KINGDOM #1
- REIGN IN HELL #5 (OF 8)
- SHOWCASE PRESENTS SGT ROCK TP VOL 02
- SUPERMAN #682 – New Krypton, part 6 of 10.
- TRINITY #26 – This marks the half way point.
Image Comics
- SAVAGE DRAGON #141
- WALKING DEAD #55
Marvel Comics
- CAPTAIN AMERICA #44
- DAREDEVIL #113
- GHOST RIDER DANNY KETCH #2
- GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #7 – Leading into the “War of Kings” soonish.
- HULK #8
- MS MARVEL #33
- NEW WARRIORS #18 – Ends with issue 20.
- NOVA #19
- RUNAWAYS 3 #4
- SECRET INVASION INHUMANS #4 (OF 4) – Will be reviewed as soon as my schedule allows. I’ll try to get it done before the main event ends next Wednesday.
- SECRET INVASION X-MEN #4 (OF 4) – Also a high review priority.
- SHE-HULK 2 #35
- THOR MAN OF WAR
- ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #128
- ULTIMATE X-MEN #98 – Ends with issue 100
Spoiler
Chad sent us this spoiler, though DC has been leading to this for awhile…. And we should start placing bets on when status quo will be reset.
BB
This is very sad! :(
John Rogers, one of the series’ creators and the main writer for what turned out to be most of the run, reacted to the news with a discussion of alternative distribution channels and the value of independent comic producers. The discussion leads to whether indy comics are made more viable by the internet, and if so how.
Newsarama has a good interview with the current BB writer, Matt Sturges, and his take on the fact that the title’s ending. (Warning, there’s at least one spoiler in there, of the "I don’t want to spoil anything, so let’s just say…" variety.) He makes the interesting point that the people raving about the series are not the same as the majority of comic buyers. Which is sad.
Personally, I think BB would have developed into a quite satisfactory B-list title. DC has already shown that they’re interested in the character; he’s still with the Teen Titans and he’s the very first guest star on the new "Batman: the Brave and the Bold" animated series.* All of which just makes me more frustrated that they’re cancelling his title. :( (As an aside, this was one of the only solo titles in either DC or Marvel featuring a non-white guy.)
-Erf.
*Apparently on that series Batman works with a different guest hero every week. From the preview clip I found on YouTube it looks like they managed to nail the spirit of early Blue Beetle in spite of having to simplify it to fit into 20 minutes of a kid’s cartoon. Yay! :)
Re: BB
I read and rather enjoyed the first part of this run, but it lost my interest after awhile, and I stopped buying. I meant to check back in with it.
The various incarnations of the Blue Beetle have always run into problems, it seems.
Blue Beetle
How many other comics have published an all-spanish issue? I think this one had a lot of potential; it’s a shame that it didn’t pan out this time around.
Re: Blue Beetle
Sadly less than half of that Spanish issue had anything to it. There’s some great interaction and development with Jaime’s mom’s family, but that’s pretty brief. Most of the ep is a generic fight with a generic (but Spanish-speaking!) supervillain.
(This is unfortunately typical of the guest-written one-shots in this series, with a couple of exceptions. Probably because the guest writers (a) aren’t as steeped in the story, and (b) likely aren’t allowed to really change anything, which they see as a limitation. Is that the case for most series? Happily there weren’t many guest-written one-shots. :)
Re: Blue Beetle
This is pretty typical, yes, particularly when the one issue fill-ins are there to help keep the book on schedule when the regular team averages more than a month per issue. There are really only three ways to ensure that you’ll be able to have a significant impact on a character:
1) create the character,
2) write a second (or third, or fourth, etc.) tier character that the company has less invested in (especially when you can tie this into method 1), or
3) have a track record of selling really, really well.
Method one is pretty obvious. Method two is one that Fabian Nicieza seems to really enjoy. He did a lot with Deadpool and the New Warriors in his tenures that wouldn’t have necessarily been allowed with some of the other heroes. Method three is pretty much the only way to impact the "top tier, headline, known to those who never read comics" kind of characters, like Grant Morrison’s Batman run or the like.