Marvel in August

Marvel Comics has released their August Solicitations. Some thoughts:

Ultimate X-Men #50 - "It's the moment you've all been waiting for - Gambit returns to Ultimate X-Men!!!" Who writes these solicitations? "The moment you've all been waiting for..." is like the comic solicit version of the movie trailer's "In a world..." And anyway, I wasn't waiting for this.

Ultimate Nightmare - Warren Ellis is always strong, could be interesting.

Ultimate Elektra - Regular Elektra's book was cancelled, why should we think Ultimate Elektra will be any different?

Avengers Disassembled - Marvel has found another way to siphon money from my bank account -- by putting Bendis on yet another title.

X-Men: The End - "The End" books have been hit or miss for me. Hulk was good, Punisher okay and Wolverine thus far underwhelming. But since I love the X-Men, I will be getting ALL of this.

Other notes - The cover to Cap & Falcon shows Cap kissing Scarlett Witch - a new romance between two long-standing characters that wasn't started by Chuck Austen! Waid's FF is excellent - one of the best books out there... Do we really need more Rob Liefeld art much less an X-Force series? Marvel Knights: Spider-Man has been excellent but why are the Dodsons out for the new story arc? Recently I've been underwhelmed by Amazing Spider-Man and Supreme Power -- enough to probably stop getting them soon. On the flip side, Daredevil has been excellent and Rucka has made Wolverine much better.

DC Comics in August

DC comics released their August solicitations today.

Quick thoughts -

Batman: War Games - Another Batman mega-crossover? I will read it in collected form, as I have the last few of these events. The Batman teams tends to execute these fairly well. I wish the X-Men books could work out something similar of high quality.

JLA - Now written by Chuck Austen. His work hasn't clicked with me - especially his X-Men stuff. So pardon me if I don't seem too excited about him tackling the JLA.

Justice League Elite - I read the story in Action Comics 775 that originally featured the Elite. It was a great parody of the Authority. But once again, like all good ideas in comics, these characters will get milked over and over again until they are no longer fresh (Venom, Carnage, Xorn anyone?).

The Authority - One more month until Brubaker and Nguyen!

WE3 - I jumped onto the Grant Morrison bandwagon late in the game. Mostly, I've read his super hero stuff (JLA, New X-Men), but I'm told Invisibles is quite good. WE3 sounds interesting enought that I'll probably pursue it. The solicit describes it as, "The eagerly awaited reunion of the white-hot team of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, WE3 is their most ambitious collaboration yet - their own unique attempt to create a 'Western manga' - in a wild adventure that readers of any age can enjoy.

Yet another blog...

Yet another blog/place to read about comic books. Oh yes, I've found another way to take this hobby and waste some time.

Currently, here's what I'm reading:

Marvel: Amazing Spider-Man, Astonishing X-Men, Daredevil: Father, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Secret War, Supreme Power, Ultimate FF, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimates, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, Wolverine: The End, X-Men

DC: Batman: Death and the Maidens, Identity Crisis, JLA, JLA: Another Nail, JSA, Superman, Superman: Birthright, Superman/Batman, Teen Titans

Wildstorm: Authority, Planetary, Sleeper, Wildcats

Image: Wanted

Trade Paperbacks: Alias (MAX), Global Frequency (Wildstorm), League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (ABC), Powers (Image/Marvel), Y: The Last Man (Vertigo)

As you can see, a lot of popular titles, a lot of Marvel/X-Men/Bendis, and a lot of super-hero stuff. Each week around Thursday, after going to the store, I'll try to highlight some books.