Super-Powered Comics: Diamond Destinations June 2010 (for August)

Not the cover to Guardians of the Globe

p. 68: Superman Earth One HC: First announced around New Years, DC finally brings one of its two Earth One books to fruition. This hardcover by the team of J. Michael Straczynski (also the regular Superman writer) and Shane Davis promises to recreate the origins of the Man of Steel for the twenty-first century. I don’t know quite what to expect here. We have had at least three different origins of Superman in the last twenty-five years, and that’s not counting Smallville. But we will see how this “Ultimate” Superman takes off in the long run.

p. 87: Superman: The Last Family of Krypton #1 (of 3): Outside of surprise to see Elseworlds back at DC, I am excited to see more Cary Bates comic writing. The classic Superman scribe and more recent writer of Marvel’s excellent True Believers has shown that he has really stepped up his A-game in recent years. it will be interesting to see how this one plays out.

p. 145: Dungeons & Dragons #0: IDW has picked up the D&D license now and I have no idea how good or bad it will be. But I do know one of the two universes they are debuting is a new Dark Sun book (to tie in to the re-release of the setting this year). Dark Sun is easily the most original (and over-powered) D&D setting ever and I am excited to see it in comic form for the very first time.

p. 168: Guardians of the Globe #1 (of 6): Robert Kirkman finally gives Invincible’s super-team a brand spanking new book of their own. With co-writer Benito Cereno and artist Ransom Getty, I trust these characters are in good hands. Now if we can just get an ongoing....

p. 172: Morning Glories #1: Nick Spencer really impressed me with his recent series Forgetless and this series about a private academy with hidden secrets and the six troubled kids that must unlock them looks to be one of the most promising new comics of the year.

p. M34: Avengers & The Infinity Gauntlet #1 (of 4): Normally a retelling of the Infinity Gauntlet as an all ages title would probably not appeal to me. But when written by Brian Cevinger (Atomic Robo) and drawn by The Anchor’s Brian Churilla, my interest rises. And unlike most Marvel limiteds, this one still runs only $3, so I’ll be sure to pick it up.

p. M44: Shadowland: Power Man #1 (of 4): I know nothing about this new Power Man, though his costume reminds me a little too much of Rocket Racer for my taste. Still the creative team of Fred Van Lente and Dynamo 5’s Mahmud Asrar has potential. Unfortunately for my budget, the book runs $4.

p. M71: Namor: The First Mutant #1: I have been a big Namor fan ever since I discovered John Byrne’s book in 1990, followed shortly by back issues of Invaders. Normally, I would be all fired up for a new book starring the character. But his new X-universe book written by Stuart Moore, a solid but as yet unimpressive writer to this reader, and drawn by Ariel Olivetti, an artist whose current style I am less than fond, dampens my mood a little bit. The $4 price tag doesn’t help much either.

p. 252: Dracula: The Company of Monsters #1: Boom continues its attempts to expand its marketshare with this series developed and plotted by Kurt Busiek. The high concept is that it’s Dracula vs an evil corporation. If actually scripted by Busiek, I would almost certainly give this one a try despite the somewhat tired concept. Instead I’ll probably be giving this 4 buck book a once over at the store first.

p. 264: The Last Phantom #1: Dynamite’s take on Lee Falk’s Phantom debuts this month. And outside a lackluster cover by Alex Ross(!), I see very little to sell me on this book. I’m honestly a little disappointed to see the company let this book’s debut go so unheralded.

My costume is blood! I'm so 90's!

p. 298: Airfighters #2: Just when I was afraid we had seen the last of this great anthology book, Moonstone gives me issue two. Let’s hope it is 72 pages of awesome just like issue one.

p. 360: “Multiple Mang” t-shirt: Is this the first time Madrox has had a t-shirt, at least in this design, the same as the characters regular t-shirt. If so, isn’t that really strange?

p. 436: DC Adventures RPG: Hero’s Handbook: DC returns to table-top RPGs and it does so with the Mutants & Masterminds game system. I still am known to play the occassional game of the classic DC Heroes game from Mayfair, so I am more than interested in this combination of my two favorite super-hero RPGs.

p. 437: Smallville RPG Core Rulebook: And the same month the DCU gets a new RPG, the CW series based on the Superman mythos gets its own game as well... from a completely different publisher. Margaret Weis Productions brings this game to the market. They are known for high production values, and it should be interesting to see how they play out the show’s combination of superheroes and normal mortals.