Image Previews Picks: March 2013
First of all, it’s nice to see publisher Eric Stephenson take immediate action after Image revealed its “no second prints” policy earlier this week. Not only did he nip an emerging controversy in the bud, the new strategy he unveiled should go a long way towards fixing that issue he talked about with titles and their momentum after the first collection is released. Offering retailers a deep discount and incentives to convince “tradewaiters” to jump onboard the monthly comics should go a long way towards encouraging growth with the monthly comics. Not with me, though, because I’m a dick like that.
Also, Mark Millar and Frank Quitely’s “Jupiter’s Children” series is now called “Jupiter’s Legacy” after a cease-and-desist order was issued by the band Jupiter’s Child. Too bad for them… assuming the comic is ever going to come out. It was originally solicited for April of this year and is currently set for a bi-monthly serialization starting in April 2013. Of course, when asked about the title a few months back, Quitely said that he had only drawn a handful of pages for it. So even if we do see it in next month’s solicitations, that’s still no guarantee it’ll make it to the stands.
East of West #1: American Dystopia. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. A plan to kill the President of the United States. Brought to you by Jonathan Hickman and his “Fantastic Four/FF” collaborator Nick Dragotta. After seeing how well “The Manhattan Projects” turned out, I’m very much looking forward to this. I just hope that he’ll be able to maintain a monthly pace on this title between this, “Manhattan,” and “New and Adjectiveless Avengers.” His other monthly title from last year, “Secret” seems to have gone completely off the rails schedule-wise so let’s hope that this doesn’t suffer the same fate.
Lost Vegas #1 (of 4): The title place is a space station that serves as the most luxurious and notorious gambling center in the universe. Where does the notoriety come from? Well, if you wind up in debt to the house, then you’re doomed to work it off as a slave there. That’s the fate of one gambler who sees a way out of his current state by pulling off the greatest heist the galaxy has ever seen. It sounds like a great setup, and I’d be more optimistic if the first collection of writer Jim McCann’s previous series “Mind the Gap” hadn’t been so underwhelming. Still, this is only four issues so it’s highly likely we’d be getting a faster-paced and more focused experience than that title offered.
Sex #1: Oh Joe Casey, you provocateur, you. The cover indicates this is some kind of superhero story while the solicitation text has snippits about a character who has retired from his “alternative lifestyle” and “returned to the city he’s sworn to protect.” There’s no indication what kind of bearing the title has on the comic itself, but anyone looking for simple spank material will likely be disappointed with whatever Casey offers up. The man loves to confound expectations in ways both good (“Wildcats”) and bad (“Uncanny X-Men”).
Savage Skullkickers #1: Continuing the trend from last month, “Our twentieth issue is a brand new #1! Welcome to comic math.” I’m fully expecting a new #1 next month too. Likely appellations for the title include “New,” “X,” “Secret,” “Legends of,” or “of America.”
The Walking Dead: The Governor Special: The recent Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Liberty Annual featured a story by the regular team of Kirkman and Adlard showing the character’s “secret origin.” It resulted in the best selling Annual that the CBLDF has published in years, and that was before they went to a second print on it. Now it’s being reprinted in its own one-shot which also has the character’s first appearance in the comics as well. Personally, I’m not as interested in picking up a copy of this as was with the “Michonne Special” because I was never that big a fan of the Governor, and I honestly prefer the version of him on the TV show to the one in the comics. So this one gets a “pass” from me.
Cyberforce vol. 1: Rebirth: Collecting the five issues that were originally offered free to consumers in a $15 collection. Riiiiiiight….
The Manhattan Projects vol. 2: OH HELL YEAH! I mean… After the last volume, I’m really looking forward to this.
Morning Glories vol. 4: Truants: This collects issues #20-25, the end of the title’s “first season.” I can only hope that it doesn’t offer up a “season ending cliffhanger” along the lines of what we got in the previous volume and is more along the lines of the ones “Star Trek: The Next Generation” used to offer up. (Yes, I know that series went off the air nearly two decades ago, but it’s still the best example I have. I don’t have much time for TV these days between comics and videogames.) In any event, the “second season” has yet to be solicited, so I can only hope that Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma are hard at work on getting enough issues in the can to ensure a timely serialization of issues when it returns.
Severed: Now in softcover, and still just as disappointing.
Thief of Thieves vol. 2: This arc was co-written by James Asmus who I’m not familiar with. The solicitation text also doesn’t give any real detail behind the story of this volume, though I’ve heard that it involves master thief Conrad Paulson’s son Augustus finally joining his dad on a heist. Things will likely not go well at all, but based on how things went in the first volume that sounds like a good thing.
Invincible #101: Well, that’s certainly an ominous cover.