Previews-o-Rama part 1: The Front

It's time to go through the latest Previews to discover the good, the bad, and the strange:





Dark Horse



If you want to have the final Star Wars movie spoiled before you see it, you can get the weekly four-part Revenge of the Sith adaptation in April.



There's a Vampire Hunter D novel. Considering what utter crap the movie was, I can't imagine sloughing through a 300 page prose version.



A new volume of Trina Robbins & Anne Timmons' Go Girl! Yay!



P. Craig Russell is doing a Conan and the Jewels of Gwahlur mini. I'll wait for the trade, like I do with most Dark Horse offerings these days.



Speaking of which, Steve Rude's The Moth has a trade collection this month. The stories were hit-or-miss, butwith always nice art from The Dude.



I don't ever remember hearing anything about a first volume of Dare Detectives, but apparently there's a volume two. Looks interesting.



The late Will Eisner has a story in The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist, with The Spirit teaming up with the title character. Other creators in the anthology include Howard Chaykin, Eddie Campbell, & Paul Hornschemeier.



The Dark Horse Book of the Dead features an all-new Hellboy story from Mike Mignola, plus work by Jill Thompson, Kelley Jones, Eric Powell & Gary Gianni.



Woo-Hoo, a $30 Sin City Zippo Lighter. (That's sarcasm, folks.)



If you missed any of Dark Horse's recent miniseries, they have convenient Comic Book Packs, with all of the issues at a cost of $2 per issue.





DC Comics



Nightwing on crutches. Bruce Wayne in a wheelchair in the Batman: Blind Justice collection. Is this the lead-up to an exciting cross-over event that will change physical therapists in the Batman Titles forever?



The Batman: Jekyll & Hyde has Jae Lee art, so I'll wait for the trade so that I won't have to have the story interupted by adds for dumb-ass video games every two pages.



It's Captain Marvel vs. Superman, with a mysterious 'great evil' awakened in Metropolis. Gee, given that big blue tattoo on Supes's face on the covers, do you think it might be Eclipso?



Ed McGuinness returns to the art chores on Superman/Batman.



Adam Strange comes to an end with issue #8, which is about 3 issues too late. This could have/should have been done in about 5.



Wildcat shows up in Birds of Prey, which should make some people happy.



Two new minis spin out of DC Countdown: Day of Vengeance and The OMAC Project. I'm a sucker for continuity-spanning series like this. IS there a twelve-step program somewhere?



Solo #4 is all about Howard Chaykin, who seems to be popping up a lot these days.



Two new Seven Soldiers minis: Klarion the Witch Boy & Zatanna (Ryan Sook rules!). I take it then that these are all going to be bi-monthly? Should help keep them on schedule, I suppose, but could kill any momentum.



The Question is cover-featured in Justice League Unlimited.



The OGN ElfQuest: The Searcher and the Sword gets a soft-cover treatment.



So far I've been mostly uninterested in the CMX offerings, and the new Tenryu: The Dragon Cycle is no exception.



The Fourth Power, space opera from Humanoids, looks promising.



Howard Chaykin's (him again!) new mini City of Tomorrow is another wait-for-the-trade, something I'm trying to do more of these days.



2000 AD's Thirteen is written by Mike Carey.



Ocean and Wild Girl both reach a conclusion.



Kent Williams adapts Darren Aronofsky's upcoming movie The Fountain; it's $30, which is probably more than the DVD will end up costing.



Vertigo: First Taste, a sampler of Vertigo's GN offerings, is just $5; thorugh DCBS, it's only $2.50. At that price, you could afford to buy several and give them to friends.



Have you ever said to yourself: "Gee, I have $90 in my pocket, and I'd love to have an 8.25" tall statue of the Joker from the new Batman cartoon"? Then August 3 is your lucky day, chum! (But if you only have $60, you'll have to settle for the Alex Ross Green Lantern & Green Arrow Colelctor's Plate.)





Image



Frank Cho does Zombies with Zombie King. I wonder if he'll have to cover up zombie nipples?



Death Jr. looks like it could be fun (unless you think that goth comics suck, that is).



Invincible #0 is only 50 cents--buy two, they're small!



Both The Gray Area and Ultra get collected, and there's a third Walking Dead collection too.



What the heck is Terry Moore doing writing a Darkness/Vampirella one-shot?



The Rising Stars Hardcover collects the entire series--all 624 pages worth. I ordinarilly wouldn't consider such an expensive item, especialyl considering that I read it in floppies, but DCBS is offering it at half-off (i.e. $35), which is looking awfulyl tempting...





Marvel



What's up with the Marvel solicit-copy guy this month? He's relatively laid-back this month, but he's now all about the questions:



Who's that hitting on Mary Jane?

Will Alex be able to sneak out for a romantic evening?

Will either survive this epic encounter?

Will they make it through meeting Ultimate Annihilus and his fellow survivors?

Can even the greatest super team on Earth take down a Norse thunder god?

Is Johnny her new red-hot lover, or a cat's-paw for her latest heist?

Exactly how much was Matt Murdock willing to sacrifice in his obsession to clean up Hell's Kitchen?

Can Ismael overcome his fears and do what's right?

What's scarier than a high-profile super hero turned deathcult assassin?

How will Reed, Sue, and Ben escape from Ancient Egypt to stop the mad tyrant Ramades in the present?

What could be worse than a dozen hungry raptors? *

What better way to pump up his Q-rating than to relive his defining moment?

Who killed the Red Skull?

Do these young heroes intend to help the Runaways, or destroy them?

Can they save the day?

Will the combined might of the Earth's two greatest super hero families be enough to save Manhattan--and the world--from total annihilation?

Will the growing threat froma classic Avengers foe unite the two teams or destroy them both?

What separates the super-villains from just plain villains? **

Will the helping hand be in time?

Are the X-Men prepared to face what's inside them... or will they be defeated by their own inner demons?

Are they now foes?

Who are the Timebreakers?

What will be the final fate of the AoA universe?

Is she the only one behind their problems?

Is it too late to stop the demon-lord Ryuki and his hoard of zombie-samurai and save Japan?



Wow, that's a lot of questions to be answered in just one month's comics!



In the meanwhile, you can get and read the first two issues of the new manga-tinged Power Pack mini, or the second She-Hulk collection.





Wizard



Ooo, Phil Noto is drawing The New West--I must have the pretty pictures!





That's it for part 1. Part 2 tomorrow (probably...)



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* Maybe a high-profile super hero deathcult assassin?



** I'm guessing maybe the 'super-' part?