Coming This Week: "Good Morning Gentlemen, the Temperature is 110 Degrees"

Every week I review Diamond's “New Releases” to determine what I’ll definitely be buying sight unseen, what I’m interested in enough to do a quick scan of at the LCS to see if it can win me over, and note any other items that catch my eye. Here’s a look…

Buying:

Scalped: Volume 5 (DC/Vertigo): This edition collects the High Lonesome arc, comprised of issues 25-29. Psst! The books you’re reading right now probably aren’t as good as Scalped.

Invincible Iron Man #19 (Marvel): Since I think I’m done with Uncanny X-Men for a while (yeah, it's like that troublesome ex-girlfriend, we need to take "a break"), this has become my go to Fraction superhero book simply by default.

Considering:

Sugarshock: One Shot (Dark Horse): I generally like the work of Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon, so I may decide to see what all the hubbub was about here. I mean, it did win an Eisner Award. Though I'm not sure what that means anymore.

Justice League of America #38 (DC): James Robinson and Mark Bagley. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of Bagley, but his pencils are attractive enough and he's extremely consistent (which is becoming more and more a rarity), having put in long runs on high profile books for the Big Two. James Robinson will either crank out a masterpiece (Starman), or if it's anything like his recent work (JLA: Cry for Justice), it'll be so laughably bad that I’ll enjoy it as a weird guilty pleasure. My hopes are kinda' leaning toward the latter. At the end of the day, I really just want to see Dick in the cowl officially on/leading the team - none of that Justice League Task Force style technicality crap.

Noting:

Ex Machina #46 (DC/Wildstorm): With only four issues to go, it seems like DC/Wildstorm have been pretty slow to get that second Deluxe Edition Hardcover out.

Five Fists of Science (Image): Probably the overlooked Fraction book; I think it's one of his best pieces of work. Essentially taking an Alan Moore LOEG riff and steampunking it up with historical fiction. If you dug that issue of Uncanny X-Men (512 was it?) with the Science Team going back in time, this is the book you want to seek out. Perhaps the new printing is set to coincide with Steven Saunders upcoming S.W.O.R.D. book from Marvel with Kieron Gillen(?), which I’m looking forward to. Saunders has got nice distinct pencils, Gillen can surely capture unique voices, and I really enjoyed Abigail Brand and S.W.O.R.D over in Astonishing X-Men. It seems like you could get lots of mileage out of that premise, and that could be a winning creative team. But anyway, yeah, Five Fists of Science.

Lone Ranger & Tonto #3 (Dynamite Entertainment): I'm a big fan of the regular series, but so far all of these off-shoot stories have really been crap. Sorry. It just feels like the property is being diluted.

Echo: Volume 3 (Abstract Studio): Terry Moore delivers the third chunk of story entitled Desert Run. These softcover trades are a good value over the single issues if you're tradewaiting, but if you're someone like me who loyally purchases every issue, then they don't offer anything at all. There's no incentive to upgrade, not a lick of extras, and the paper quality is arguably shoddier. Maybe Moore will eventually do some sort of absolutey digesty sized thingy like he did for SiP? That'd be swell. I think he said this series would go about 30 issues or so, so that's not a terribly long wait. I'll just hold onto my single issue for know, k thanks.