1) Boy oh boy,
Saga is back. I sort of like that Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples take a break every six issues. I understand that it gives the time to do better work, but what I mean is that I like it from a reader's perspective-- the six months on two months off schedule gives the book the feel of a real serial, reinforcing the idea that this potentially infinite story comes in finite chunks, each one with its distinct beginning, middle, and end. It's a neat sort of way of taming the series, inflicting the one benefit of a collection on that section of the reading public too enamored of
Saga to trade wait it.
Preview here.
2) One of Jonathan Hickman's many ongoing projects,
East Of West is flawed, a little hard to follow. My hope is that this opacity is purposeful, and that all will be revealed in time to the readers who are paying close enough attention. It may be that each issue
East of West is more rewarding on the second read than on the first; I haven't tried rereading any of them but, lest you be scared away,
Nick Dragotta's art should be enough to keep you satisfied on that first go round.
3) Speaking of Hickman, today sees the release of the first issue of his
Infinity crossover for Marvel. Given the fetid mediocrity that was
Age of Ultron, I'm keeping my expectations for this one low; with that said, and although the last issue of the otherwise sterling
New Avengers was basically incomprehensible, I figure that, if anyone can do this well, its Hickman. It'll be interesting to see how he pulls together the unrelated impending destruction of the world threads from
Avengers and
New Avengers, and what Thanos has to do with it. That Jim Cheung's on the art here helps, as does the setup of the series, which only asks me to buy three books outside of my normal pull list, and those over the course of only two months.
Preview here.
