Coming This Week: "Nine Ball Is Rotation Pool"

I’m just eyeballing it, but it seems like kind of another light week, no? Maybe it’s just that I’m not feeling terribly excited by any comics lately. I’m not saying I’m out on the entire medium or anything, it just feels like I keep going to one of my favorite restaurants and ordering the same thing. The food is good. I mean, obviously there’s a reason I keep going to this restaurant. Yeah, the books are good, I enjoy them, but I’m ready for something new. I’m ready to be WOWed. I haven’t felt WOWed in quite a long time. Until then, until that new artistic dish just knocks me on my ass, the tried and true meals at Café Vertigo will have to suffice. It’s another in the longer arc, with Brian Wood delivering Northlanders #26 (DC/Vertigo) and Jason Aaron chugging forward with Scalped #36 (DC/Vertigo). Both still $2.99, I might add. At the $3.99 price point, we have Uncanny “I’m Just Reading To See What Happens to Kitty Why Isn’t There More Fanfare” X-Men #522 (Marvel) from Matt Fraction, Phil “I Didn’t Love Him On Astonishing” Jimenez, and Whilce “This Could Be Good Or This Could Be A Train Wreck But At Least It’s Not Greg Land” Portacio. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve nearly convinced myself I’ll have issues with how Kitty’s return is handled, so good luck overcoming all of my preconceived prejudices.

In the 99%-sure-I-won’t-be-purchasing-it-column is Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal #1 (DC). For $3.99 a pop and four issues, I don’t think I can handle much more of the hyperbolic over-the-top, out-of-character, manufactured tragedy porn melodrama, but I can surely muster the courage to scan it at the LCS just to mock it later. I’m sure it will be the talk of the town in some circles, but I’ll pass on Nemesis #1 (Marvel/Icon), the latest Mark Millar extravaganza. I’ve just never seen what the big deal was. Civil War had an interesting core premise kicking it off, but ultimately the mini-series proper did nothing with those ideas, Kick Ass pushed all the wrong buttons, let’s make a movie before the mini even wraps, and I’d just rather not feel like I’m getting played as a consumer, thanks. Did 1985 ever finish?

Another entry of note is Supergod #3 (Avatar Press) by Warren Ellis and Garrie Gastonny. This title is in a precarious position. It’s not the tour de force writing performance I felt Black Summer and No Hero were, though it shares a thematic connection, and sorry, but Gastonny is a little uneven for me, especially compared with the inimitable Juan Jose Ryp. It’s the type of thing the Warren Ellis completist in me will surely seek out in trade just so *I’ll know* I read all of his sci-fi fetishism available, but I’m not in a frenzy to support the “monthly” floppies. Lastly, in the collected editions department, be sure to grab Northlanders: Volume 3: Blood in the Snow (DC/Vertigo), while not my personal favorite Brian Wood book, it just might be his best work to date.

UPDATE: Also out this week is Black Blizzard (Drawn & Quarterly). Yoshihiro Tatsumi!