December 2009

Writer/Artist: Brian Michael Bendis, Jonathan Hickman, Stefano Caselli

Publisher: Marvel, $16.99

I originally wasn’t that tempted to check this out despite liking Caselli’s artwork, but peeking through a bunch of single issues the scripting and art did grab my attention and overall concept seemed intriguing. After the events of the modern Secret War and Secret Invasion, Nick Fury returns from hiding with the knowledge that everything he’s ever fought for was a lie and that now more than ever the bad guys are in control. Forget Normal Osborn and the Dark Reign, it turns out that Hydra has been controlling SHIELD all these years and after the events of Secret Invasion Baron Strucker is spurred into a stronger push for world domination.

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Need some last minute ideas for holiday gifts? Keep in mind that shipping for new comics is normal this week, so with new books available today and some great items shipping over the past couple weeks there are plenty of things you should check out.

The Complete Rocketeer from IDW. The standard HC edition is a steal at the price of $29.99, offering all of the Rocketeer stories in a nice package with new coloring that really showcases the beauty of Dave Stevens’s art. Now if you want to really spoil someone, the deluxe slip-case edition offers a crap-ton of additional material including early designs, sketches, posters, and much much more. All of that plus the oversized format does fantastic justice to the material and the $75 price tag really isn’t that bad at all once you crack this sucker open and start going through it.

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Writer/Artist: Brian Churilla, Jeremy Shepherd

Publisher: Archaia, $9.95

One of the best surprise packages to come out this year, the Engineer is a quirky fun series about an unlucky and offbeat hero chosen to save reality itself from a horrible creature from beyond. Accompanied by three odd witch sisters and his handy and potentially disturbed robot companion Roland (who likes chickens a little too much), the Engineer uses a mix of science and mysticism to travel across dimensions in search of the missing pieces of the all-powerful Konstrukt. Of course, the search tends to lead him into the maws of danger time and time again and he’s generally unwelcome wherever he goes due to the destruction he tends to bring with him.

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Writer/Artist: Greg Broadmore

Publisher: Dark Horse, $19.95

Victory is a nice oversized hardcover package that’s part raygun catalog, part sci-fi serial, and part colonial uchroniae. Follow Lord Cockswain as he explores the galaxy and discovers new life with his rayguns and generally does horrible things in the name of adventure. There are a couple of full stories crammed in here as well as a great series of shorts, and then you have the awesome catalog of rayguns and tanks and some great propaganda posters as well.

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Writer/Artist: Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, Doug Braithwaite

Publisher: DC, $99.00

The Absolute Justice is a massive chunk of painted super-hero action, and while a pricey package it is a great format for the work inside and packed with a crap-ton of extra material. Influenced by the original Challenge of the Super Friends cartoon, Justice is a self-contained out of continuity story that’s fairly easy for any new reader to jump into. The world’s worst villains band together in what seems to be a change for the better as they attempt to correct all the world’s ills and help the needy, while at the same time the Justice League find themselves and their secret identities under attack. The world’s greatest heroes must rally together to survive and to get to the bottom of this strange conspiracy.

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Writer/Artist: Dan Jurgens, John Romita Jr., Howard Mackie

Publisher: Marvel, $29.99

I remember reading these and enjoying them when they came out, but over time I just never really bothered going back to them and generally forgot about what a fun run this was. Set back after the return of the Avengers and other heroes from the Heroes Reborn fiasco, Jurgens and Romita set out to make Thor epic again and utilized the richness of Kirby infused mythology to create solid and just all around fun stories.

Starting off with a big showdown with the Destroyer and setting the pace of the series as well as establishing a new supporting cast and some new villains, this first volume is packed with a good amount of action, bold art that captures the mythological tones, and a fairly light hearted approach that makes this easily accessible to all ages.

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