New Books this Week

Yet another DC free week.  This...is not a good trend, DC.  I actually took a few moments to analyze this, and something like 80% of my books lately have been from Marvel or Independents.  I've dropped Green Lantern, (which just KILLS me) although I am still enjoying Green Lantern Corps. Dropped Justice League because I just don't care about Darkseid and evil JLI, dropped Aquaman because it started out so good and then got so bad, dropped Batman because I don't care about Jim Gordon running around in an armored moth suit, dropped Wonder Woman because it went from being fabulous to stinking to high heaven.  I wanted to like Doctor Fate, I really did, but it was dull as dishwater. 

Maybe I'm just getting old and jaded, but I really don't see the point in buying books that I don't enjoy anymore. I'm not saying that every single issue has to be mind-boggling, (although that would certainly be nice) but it must at least be enjoyable, and not a chore to slog through.  I like to ENJOY my hobbies!  So I am being a lot more selective and just plain picky.  If it doesn't grab me in a few issues, it is now gone. No more hanging on, month after month in the hope that maybe...THIS month, it will start to be good.

Whew! That was cathartic!

Doctor Strange #5

Now this book I am enjoying the heck out of.  I've mentioned before that Bachalo is not my favorite artist, but he was simply BORN to draw this book!

Things have come to a head, the Empirikul have arrived, and they aren't fooling around.  Strange has to resort to the deepest of black magic in order to hold them off, and the physical and psychic costs are enormous.  All the other mages are doing their best as well.  The problem is that the force against them, isn't necessarily magical, but technical, but in a way that makes it all the more terrible. 

Strange does the unthinkable, and for a moment...but only for a moment thinks that he has won...But that's not the case.  A humdinger of a cliff-hanger!

Seriously, this is an excellent book.


Howard the Duck #4

Now that he is a living Nexus of all Realities, Howard finds himself to be high demand...by every power-crazed nutcase in the Universe!  First he is kidnapped...um...ducknapped by the Stranger, then Galactus and his new herald show up, although his new herald isn't actually his herald, and then the Silver Surfer, and then of course it all ends with the Collector.  The Guardians of the Galaxy are in there too. 

It's all a bit silly and frankly, that is how it should be.  The art is cute, the dialogue is cute, and heck, it is all just cute as can be.

Scarlet Witch #3

We have new art in this issue, by none other than Steve Dillon. I LOVE Steve Dillon!  I keep expecting Garth Ennis to show up as well, but James Robinson does a perfectly good job of getting that Irish voice. For Wanda has gone to Ireland, to save the country, since it is simply rotting away.  She takes the ghost of Agatha Harkness with her, as back-up, and figures out that something is seriously magically wrong. 

There is also a guy calling himself the Emerald Warlock, who has been going around for ages and ages, killing off the descendants of everyone who killed his family.  This is taking vengeance to a heckuva a degree!
Naturally he is tailing Wanda.  She does manage to wipe a perfectly nice old pup off the face of the earth, much to the dismay of the crusty owner, but heck, collateral damage is always present in comic books.

The covers have been utterly gorgeous, and although I have never been a Scarlet Witch fan much, I am liking how this is all going so far.

Klaus #3

This is Grant Morrison's take on the legend of Santa Claus, except that he's a Norse/Germanic hunter who hangs out with a magical white wolf, and sees spirits in the forest, and is doing his Norse ninja thing in a little hamlet which has an evil baron, and no toys...it's a little hard to explain actually.

But the art is just gorgeous and the story is fun, and what the heck, I'm liking it a lot.  It's a mini-series so it won't be around for long, so I am enjoying it while I can.

And that's it!  Not a huge week, but a pretty good week all the same.  So Get with It, DC!