The new Preveiws that's out this week didn't yield much to me in the way of comics,just the first wave of Before Watchmen mini-series and a couple of one shots,but the TPB sections of DC and Marvel had some nice mainstream and off-beat titles.I picked out Morrison's JLA vol. 2 and Wonder Woman:Oddysey vol.1 from DC and Avengers Assemble vol. 4(continuing Busiek's awesome Avengers run collection),Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Classic vol. 1,collecting the late 80's ongoing that took place after the Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. mini(hmmmm,I wish I had that TPB first before this one...oh well)and Essential Spider-Man Vol.11,which collects awesome Roger Stern/Bill Mantlo stories and features the beginning of the Hobgoblin character...quite possibly my favorite Spidey villain.

allan1 for Comic Book Mod...

I'm looking forward to the DC 52 trades starting in may. There's at least five in the first month I want to buy.

Fuck off, Gerald.

Is that a new trade coming out?

Are those the stories that took place around gang war and Hobgoblin revealed stories? Those were good stories.

Yes to new TPB and it collects ASM #'s 232-248 + Annuals 16 & 17.

Please don't encourage him, al.

Lothar, you are a national treasure.

.....Book of Secrets.

Lothar is a wicker man!

?!?

That's an odd pick of issues for one volume.

Roger Stern's AMAZING SPIDERMAN run is one of my favorites, from 224-250. They could do it in two color trade volumes, 224-237 in the first. And the Hobgoblin storyline in 238-250 in a second volume.

Stern also had a preceding run in SPECTACULAR SPIDERMAN 43-61, already collected in MARVEL VISIONARIES: ROGER STERN SPIDER-MAN, vol 1.
I wish they'd do a vol 2 and 3 as I described.



DC recently screwed up my other favorite of the period, in an odd compiling of the Levitz/Giffen LEGION series in two hardcovers. They had LSH 284-296 in vol 1. But 296-297 is a two-part story! So you get an incomplete story in the first volume. I'm even less impressed with the second volume, and can still enjoy them in their original form.



A hardcover I picked up a few months ago is DREADSTAR: THE BEGINNING hardcover by Starlin, collecting all Starlin's painted art from EPIC ILLUSTRATED 1-9 and 12, THE PRICE graphic novel, and DREADSTAR graphic novel. Great work, in a nicely collected volume.

The mother fucking Ghost Rider!

Do you need a license before you are allowed to ride ghosts?

I ain't afraid of no ghost.

Dang ol' boo!

True it does split a two parter but I still really enjoy having that run of issues in reasonably priced hardcover editions. I'll also snap up the new Legion Archive next month. For me at least, the originals tend to sit in a box some where while the hardcovers get pulled off the bookcase every once in a while.

Just picked up the first three volumes of Exiles:Ultimate Collection and Fables:Cinderella-From Fabletown With Love.
The first run of Exiles was pretty good reading.One of the very few books from Judd Winnick I actually liked and the Mike McKone and Jim Calafiore art was pretty solid stuff. The Cinderella TPB was a "Why Not?" plus you can't go wrong with any Fables stuff.Chris Roberson I think captures the tone set by Willingham pretty good and if Willingham were ever to leave Fables,Roberson I think could continue the story if DC so decided to keep the series going.

Saga of the Swamp Thing vol.1 by Moore and Bissette and Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus vol.2 came in for me yesterday.Never read Moore's Swamp Thing in any semblance of order,so this is a good way to go and Kirby's Fourth World stuff never really held interest for me but I picked up the first volume and found it more entertaining reading due to the way the Omnibus has the complete storyline in order.

Whatever happened to Swamp Things daughter? Wasn't she a bit of a psycho or something?

Yes and no.I had to dredge through the collection for this one.Tefe Holland was aged to 18 in this particular series and had some trouble with controlling her darker impulses but wasn't really "psycho",just the awkwardly social outcast type that had the power to control flesh as well as plants.Ultimately,she ate from the tree of knowledge which showed her two different destinies.One:the destruction of human life,the other,plant life(sorta).She decided to not accept the either/or scenarios and that was the end of the series. On the whole, a pretty different take and really,the series was Swamp Thing in name only.Brian K. Vaughn wrote this before scoring big with Y:The Last Man and even though it lasted only 20 issues,I kinda liked his version of Swamp Thing.No TPB for this series though.

Latest TPB for me is Byrne's X-Men:The Hidden Years Vol.1. Byrne himself said not too long ago that there would be a lot of crow eaten at Marvel before they put THY out in TPB and well,I think someone at Marvel read that and not long after,the solicit for the TPB....kinda making ol' JB look a bit foolish,although it still hasn't deterred him from his bitterness over the cancellation of the book and his subsequent statement after the book's cancellation to the effect that he will never work for Marvel again under the current regime.

That said,I'm gonna say that this title was a whole lotta fun to read and Byrne did a good job capturing the Roy Thomas/Neal Adams era of the original X-Men.See,I believe that Byrne spins a good super-hero yarn with characters you can tell he has affection for and it shows in this book.He stays true to the characters and how they were portrayed at that time and even weaves in some characters from his time with Claremont(such as Storm for instance) & to be honest,when this book was being published,it was the best X-Men title at the time.

Almost forgot to add New Teen Titans Omnibus vol 2 and Showcasse Presents:All-Star Squadron Vol.1.

I scored the first 20 issues of Byrne's Next Men, which I've never read, for pretty cheap (the GN, #0-18). For all the Byrne insanity online, I've yet to read a comic by him I didn't like (possibly because I've never read anything he's done after like 1990).

Also got the first two issues of Bendis' New Avengers, which are being reprinted on a cheap weekly format down here. Never read this either.