Image: Marvel.com Cover: Mirco Pierfederici
Frank Cho blows my mind with this Avengers vs. X-Men cover featuring crazy balls Scarlet Witch and tough as nails Hope Summers! We can’t wait for next year!!!
AvX #0 by Frank Cho
Mutant A Day caught up with artist Evan Bryce at the Wizard World Austin Comic Con 2011! Check out some of his work below and check out his tumblr HERE and his deviantART page HERE to get more info about him, and his beautiful and unique work! He’s definitely one to watch out for!
X-Men by Evan Bryce
Batgirl by Evan Bryce
(Cover by Travel Foreman, DC Comics)
Animal Man 3 is going to rock every single casbah in the universe! Travel Foreman and Jeff Lemire are doing spooky, creepy, wonderful things and this is one book you will want to say you were reading from the beginning. Our intrepid duo are making their way into the Red and something wicked is preparing to lay some serious pain on the Bakers. Such a great comic here!
(Cover by Yanick Paquette, DC Comics)
Swamp Thing 3; replace Yanick Paquette and Scott Snyder, respectively, in my Animal Man entry and you have my opinion of Swamp Thing! This is terrifying, beautiful comics at their best. Sethe is revealed as the face of the third life force (Red & Green being the other two) and he’s got a mad on that only Swamp Thing (and Buddy Baker in AM) can defend against! A must-read.
(Cover by Dale Keown, Marvel Comics)
Uncanny X-Men 1 continues my “Try All the Regenesis Things!” campaign and I’m always excited to be reading a Kieron Gillen comic. Mister Sinister is doing his thing against Scott’s newly re-shuffled deck and I can’t wait to see the outcome! I love that Emma Frost and Magik feature so prominently on the Keown cover, I hope that means a focus on those two in the issues to come. Hooray for the X-Men!
(Action Comics 3, American Vampire 20, Avengers Academy 21, Detective Comics 3, Fear Itself 7.1, Green Arrow 3, JLI 3, New Mutants 33, O.M.A.C. 3, Stormwatch 3, Sweet Tooth 27 and X-Men 20 are my other titles this week)
(Cover by J.H. Williams III, DC Comics)
Batwoman 2, if anything like the first issue (and the Detective run of the character before), will simply be must-read material. It’s been perfectly new-reader friendly from what I gather and – seriously – this art must be seen to be believed. J. H. Williams III, Amy Reeder & William H. Blackman seem to have an excellent formula for making this a title that should be on every fan’s list. Get in before it’s too late! The fun bus waits for no one!
(Cover by Chris Bachalo, Marvel Comics)
X-Men: Regenesis bridges the Schism event with the official Regenesis-branded relaunch of the X-books and I’m very excited about it, if slightly unsure about what this one-shot will provide us with. Clearly, it’s the issue where the line drawn in the meteorite by Wolverine & Cyclops (with their dicks, of course) will be spelled out for each of the mutants on Utopia and we’ll see who is on who’s side but will we see the status quo of each of the books set up? Will there be big bads introduced? Much mystery surrounds it but I have a feeling this will be more for fans who have follows so far and not necessarily for new fans looking to jump on to a title after the event hits.
(Cover by Kaare Andrews, Marvel Comics)
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man 3 is going to be one hell of a comic! I say this with full confidence in a lead duo that have yet to fail us and I don’t see how they ever could. Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli are pure talent and pure creators. They’re telling Miles’ story with such empathy, humor and intrigue that I don’t see how this wasn’t number one in September! I say this every time about books I like but trust that this is well worth the price point. If you’ve ever been a teenager, you can connect with this young man struggling with a new experience and a dangerous world.
(The rest of my titles this week are American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest 5, Batgirl 2, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 2, Demon Knights 2, Dollhouse: Epitaphs 4, Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E., Generation Hope 12, Green Lantern 2, Mister Terrific 2, Shade 1, Suicide Squad 2, Superboy 2, Ultimate Comics X-Men 2 & Uncanny X-Force 16)
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Ack! I’m late for a very important date! These are this week’s comics and I can’t wait to read them!
(Cover by Travel Foreman, DC Comics)
If Animal Man 2 is more of the great, grotesque story that we had the first go ’round then I will be one super-happy animal! Buddy (plus one creepy-ass offspring) are dealing with a surge of something strange and deadly in The Red. As personal a problem as that sounds, I can’t wait to see for myself!
(Cover by Adam Kubert, Marvel Comics)
X-Men: Schism 5 is the end of the road for the dystopian Utopian society! No more mutant-islands, etc.! I’m very curious to see how this ends up for the two men schism-ing all over each other but even more so am I excited to see the Regenesis to follow. Jean Grey Institute, here I come!
(Cover by Guillem March, DC Comics)
Huntress 1 features Helena (Bertinelli, one may presume) kicking all kinds of criminal ass in Italy, art by Marcus To (and John Dell) AND it’s written by Paul Levitz, the original Helena Wayne creator himself. This is exactly the kind of book everyone should be reading! Check it out however you’re able!
(My remaining reads this week are Action Comics 2, Detective Comics 2, Green Arrow 2, iZombie 18, JLI 2, O.M.A.C. 2, Penguin: Pain & Prejudice 1, Stormwatch 2, Swamp Thing 2 and The Walking Dead 89)
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(Cover by Jim Cheung, Marvel Comics)
Children’s Crusade 7 is here and will it be perfect or too perfect? What’s more to say than that? This will be a fun, beautiful comic; no other outcome is possible. I am mighty curious to see how this fits into the Marvel continuity though, once it all shakes out. Must-buy for everyone!
(Art by Cliff Chiang, DC Comics)
Wonder Woman 1 kicks off the bizarre but promising pairing of Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang on a horror-themed Wondy book!(???) If the promise of a powerful, compassionate warrior goddess kicking ass and taking names isn’t enough to get you into this then PLEASE check out the preview art and get in line to buy it at your local shop! (Oh and the official cover has her in the bathing suit outfit but I prefer the pants in this one image.)
(Cover by Mike Choi, Marvel Comics)
Cloak & Dagger 2 continues the practically perfect (in every way except cover art, sorry Mike Choi!) series that pairs Nick Spencer and Emma Rios on a madcap adventure featuring the unnoticed duo of Cloak and Dagger! Danger abounds during the Spider-Island infection and these two are just trying to live through it. I won’t spoil issue 1 now because I need you to rush out (or online) and get it then this one. I’ll wait. Ignore the cover, love the book!
(My other reads this week are Generation Hope 11, Batman 1, Birds of Prey 1, Blue Beetle 1, Captain Atom 1, Catwoman 1, DCU Presents 1, Green Lantern Corps 1, Nightwing 1, Red Hood and the Outlaws 1, Supergirl 1, Ultimate Comics Hawkeye 2, Ultimate Comics X-Men 1, X-Factor 225 and X-Men: Schism 4)
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(Cover by Joshua Middleton, DC Comics)
Wonder Woman 613 is my most anticipated pick of the week because Phil Hester is finally bringing us the two-part conclusion to The Odyssey! Diana vs. The Morrigan in a show-stopping finale…that won’t matter in two months! The thing about that though is that I’ve found this to be a legitimately captivating story arc to me. Phil Hester’s words (on top of JMS’ plot) made me care about Wonder Woman; where she’s been and where she’s going. It’s going to be one long metaphor with a strong sprinkling of ass-kicking. I am all kinds of signed up!
(Cover by Frank Cho, Marvel Comics)
X-Men Schism 2 makes the list since I loved the first issue! The only slight concern I have is that it almost felt too much like a “aww yeah, X-Men!” beginning, in that I don’t see the conflict coming to a head between Wolverine & Cyclops thus far. That’s a very minor quibble and doesn’t affect my desire to find out how this terrorist/Sentinel-response situation plays out for the beleaguered Utopians just that for an event about a rift between the mutants, we’re getting the more usual Homo sapiens vs. homo superior plot points. All masterfully done by the creative team, of course, just that my interest is genuinely piqued about how we get from point A to point Schism.
(Cover by Frazer Irving, DC Comics)
Xombi 5 is the penultimate issue of this magnificent but short-lived reboot. The team is on board the Ninth Stronghold and it’s up to David Kim to steal back the city-ship and save the day. Seriously, with only 4 other issues to pick up to be caught up, definitely seek them out! It’s strange, it’s funny it’s haunting and beautiful. This is art on top of art and well worth the time and money.
(American Vampire 17, Search for Swamp Thing 2, DC Retroactive: JLA The 70s, Kid Flash Lost 2, Lois Lane and the Resistance 2, Project Superman 2, Green Arrow 14, Green Lantern Corps 62, Emerald Warriors 12, JSA 53, Teen Titans 98, Ultimate Comics Fallout 3, Uncanny X-Force 12)
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(Cover by Carlos Pacheco, Marvel Comics)
Though War of the Green Lanterns delivered some serious shocks and twists (and ended in true Big Summer Film fashion) the winner this week was Schism #1 by a mile! The relief I felt when I put down this issue after the rocky and lackluster Prelude just can’t be expressed fully in words. Jason Aaron and Carlos Pacheco (writing and pencils, respectively) turned in a masterful X-Men comic and started this event off on the right foot with action, actual character development and exciting plot movement! While many of these plot threads have been used before and some fans are more than sick of them, surely, it almost doesn’t matter with how compellingly real and natural the story feels. I resonated with the X-teams and I felt the fear of a Sentinel strike right along with them. I can’t wait for more and I must insist any X-fans get in on this! This is a complete 180 from the Prelude, pick it up if you dropped it on account of that!
