Coming This Week: The Great Astonishing Stumptown League

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:

Stumptown #1 (Oni Press): Greg Rucka’s long-awaited return to creator owned properties finally kicks off this month with artist Matthew Southworth. I’m not a huge fan of all of the noir crime stuff flooding the market in fadtastic fashion, but I tend to trust Rucka’s non-superhero work a great deal, with Oni’s own Queen & Country being a perennial favorite. The hook is solid enough here and the preview images of Southworth’s art I saw at San Diego Con two (!) years ago were pretty enticing.

Strange Tales #3 (Marvel): The wrap up to this offbeat anthology hits this week as well. For my tastes, the talent seemed to be front loaded with this series, but I’ll certainly check out pieces by Becky Cloonan, Nicholas Gurewitch, and Paul Hornshemeier. Let’s pray there will be more M.O.D.O.K.!

Astonishing X-Men #32 (Marvel): I wasn’t blown away by the last issue from Warren Ellis and Phil Jimenez, but it wasn’t offensive or anything. I’ll certainly give this creative team another issue or two to get their sea legs. BTW - Over that terribly late-in-the-making Halloween pizza, Michael and I were discussing Abigail Brand in general and the upcoming S.W.O.R.D. series. Perhaps it’s just wishful thinking, but I’m hoping that S.W.O.R.D.’s general off world charter, the inclusion of Beast (who, along with Abby, was present in the Astonishing arc that lost Kitty), and the inclusion of a forlorn Lockheed himself (her very own personal dragon), might suggest a search for Kitty Pryde sneaking up on us in that new title. Regardless, looking forward to that one.

Considering:

Great Ten #1 (DC): It’ll be interesting to see if Tony Bedard can do anything with this throwaway Grant Morrison concept that originated in 52. I’m not a fan of Bedard’s, but I certainly enjoyed Scott McDaniel’s pencils on Nightwing back in the day. This could pass the casual flip test if the contents live up to great house ads I’ve seen.

Noting:

End League #9 (Dark Horse): Wow. The first issue of this came out in January of 2008. The final issue of this interesting, but flawed in execution, Remender concept finally sees the last issue before the Mayan Apocalypse in 2012. Add this to my quarter bin list, stat.