The Secret of the Wednesday’s Haul

How many collections can Marvel put out in one week? This looks like it’s the week to go broke.

• JLA Presents Aztek The Ultimate Man TP– Grant Morrison and Mark Millar’s third-rate DC hero gets a collected treatment years and years after his series was DOA. Of all the trades this week, this may be the one I actually pick up in the comic shop because I missed most of this series when it was coming out and only picked up the JLA try-out issue but am kind of interested to see what they were trying to do with a brand new character.
• Suburban Glamour Vol 1 TP– I’m looking forward to finally reading this series but I think I’ve got to rethink my strategy towards what books I support on a monthly basis. I got the individual issues of both this and Wasteland (see below) but I’ve barely read the issues, instead waiting until I get the trade to read the whole thing. Is it good to support the regular issues of smaller-press books like this if I’m not reading them?
• Avengers Invaders #1–The Ross/Krueger team has turned out some good but nothing exceptional stories over the past 10 years but this is one of those books that reach into my fanboy heart and I hope it ends up being better than I think it will be. Their Justice was a pleasant enough story but easily forgettable. The high-point of this book for me starts out being Steve Sadowski on the art. I enjoyed his run on JSA and think that he’s a good artist to combine an old fashioned feel with modern storytelling sensibilities.
• Invincible Iron Man #1 – After this weekend, I’m very, very excited to get this book. I’ll admit, I’m one of those who let The Order die. It may be a good story but Barry Kitson has become one of the most straightfoward and terribly unexciting storytellers around. There’s just a quality to his work that has become lifeless to me. I felt that way on The Legion and it carried over to The Order. I have the first trade and have tried to read it a number of times but I can’t get past the art. Technically it’s good but there’s no life or real emotion to his characters. I feel like it’s all stiff acting. With that said, I want to see what the team of Fraction and Larocca do on this title. I had no problem with Larocca’s artwork on newuniversal. And I hope this book allows Fraction to be Fraction. Let’s see some of that manic energy that’s in his solo, independent work come through here.
  
• Mighty Avengers #13 – This isn’t a good sign but I’m already tired of these crossover issues. I want to see the Avengers but I bought 2 Avenger books in the last couple of weeks and barely saw a real Avenger. Bendis’s Avengers run has been a series of starts and stops and it feels like both titles have been on pause already for a couple of months waiting to have something to really do with the Secret Invasion. I felt the same way during Civil War– that the book was on hold while the actual story happened elsewhere.
  
• Secret Invasion #2– So, with my apathy toward the Avenger titles, I hope this issue maintains my excitement for the main story. I liked the first issue and thought it was a good set-up. I hope Bendis continues to play up the popcorn summer blockbuster aspect of this book and make it a rollercoaster ride that House of M and Civil War weren’t but World War Hulk was close to being.
  
• Captain America Death Of Captain America Vol 2 HC –Honestly, I don’t know if I can say I’m as enamored of this title as a lot of other people are. It’s a solid read, don’t get me wrong, but I think Brubaker lost some steam with the Civil War crossover and nothing in the first volume of this story made me think that he regained all of it. The story of the Winter Soldier that Brubaker started in the first issue of the series carries into the next logical step with this volume. I think my biggest problem with Brubaker’s mainstream Marvel work is that it’s technically well plotted and paced but I have trouble connecting his hard-line writing with bright, colorful superheroes. The same problem is present in Daredevil where it’s a solid story but I can’t find an emotional core to it.
  
• Hulk World War Hulk TP– $24.99 for a five issue miniseries? Can’t wait to get a 40% Border’s coupon to actually buy this book. Marvel’s collection pricing is all over the board, isn’t it?
  
• Iron Man Enter The Mandarin TP– Eric Canete’s artwork on this series was excellent, bringing a design sense to Iron Man that often isn’t there.
  
• George RR Martins Wild Cards Hard Call #2–I think my teenage/early 20’s enjoyment of this series may have ended there. I haven’t been able to get into any of the novels since the original run (partly thanks to the wonderful Tim Truman covers) and the first issue left me underwhelmed. I’ll see how this issue does but it better wow me to get me to buy the rest of the series.
  
• Wasteland (Oni Press) #17– See the thoughts on Suburban Glamour. Someday I’ll get caught up on this series.
  

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