Wednesday's New Things: Leaving Things on The Shelf

For the first time in a long time, I'm going to leave books that I want to read on the shelf this week. If I'm still interested next week, maybe I'll take the plunge. But $3.99 is a lot for a funny book, and this week I was prepared to buy several too many. Do I really want to keep up with Avengers World? Does Hawkeye's weird publishing schedule mean I should just be reading it in trade? Consider this a first attempt at a more conscious comics buying policy from this particular blogger. Anyway, three things that caught my eye:


1) I've been looking forward to All New Invaders. I'm not looking forward to Steve Pugh's style-less Greg Land imitation (and this is one of those comics where the interior art is disappointing compared to both the main cover and the variant, above), but a James Robinson book about the original Invaders, set in space? Count me in, I think. At least for right now. To be completely honest, I'd prefer if this book were retro, set in WWII, but I don't think that even this version will sell well. Let's say the over/under on this one is eight issues; in the meantime, I'm hoping to enjoy it while it's here.

2) Did you read the first issue of Black Widow? The dialogue was kind of iffy, and Nathan Edmondson decided he had to justify narration by clarifying that Natasha was talking to a cat. Still, it was pretty good. I bet this second is going to be pretty good too. Check it out, if only so you can gape at Phil Noto's art. 

3) I like tenth anniversary books like this one, because I wasn't really reading comics when they first came out (obviously, at some point that will no longer be true). Still, it's a good chance to track the development of an artist over time. In this case, it'll be neat to see that way that Lost at Sea becomes Scott Pilgrim becomes the upcoming Seconds. 

Chatter: Steve Bisette

BTW, seeing all this go down—and seeing the results, and this initial package—well, it burns my ass in one way. This is proof positive and absolute that corporate Marvel COULD do the right thing, by all its past creators, if it wanted to—Marvel chooses NOT to. MM will never have the enormous revenue streams the legacy of Jack Kirby has—but Marvel, for various reasons, ended up doing right by all concerned for this MM #1 to hit the shelves. Marvel COULD do right by ALL its seminal creators. THEY CHOOSE NOT TO. 
It's a CHOICE. 
Steve Bisette, on Marvel's recent Marvelman reissue