New comics are due to hit the shelves on Wednesday so here’s a look ahead at some of the books we’ll be picking up this week. To see what’s available at Paradox this week, click here.
Matt C: This Wednesday sees new books from two men who helped shape the superhero medium at the the turn of the century. First off it's Starlight from Mark Millar, which centres around an ageing Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon type who's called up for one last adventure. Millar's very much about high concepts these days, and while they're generally great ideas he's not always able to flesh them out in a satisfactory manner. He can still produce real magic from time to time, as another of his current series Jupiter's Legacy shows, but that sees it's fourth issue hit the stands this week, nearly 11 months after the first appeared, and those delays that often plague his work can diminish that magic (I'll have some difficult casting my mind back five months to remember what happened in issue #3!). Still, at least you know his books will eventually reach their conclusion, which is more than you can say for Warren Ellis (*cough* Doktor Sleepless *cough* Fell *cough* Newuniversal *cough*). Having said that, it's hard to ignore anything new written by Ellis as, when he's on fire, he really is one of the all-time greats. A work-for-hire relaunch of Moon Knight doesn't sound especially appealing, particularly considering his original graphic novel for Marvel, Avengers: Endless Wartime, was a bit lame, but cast your minds back a bit further to his short stint on Secret Avengers to remind yourself what he's capable of with these company-owned characters. So, while there's far from any guarantee either will be a winner, I do think both Starlight #1 and Moon Knight #1 are going to worth a look.
Stewart R: Matt's mentioned Moon Knight #1 already and I'm a little dubious over yet another go at a character who seems to fail to gain traction with audiences despite some decent talent dropped on his various titles over the past eight years or so. Charlie Huston's go with David Finch was suitably dark and menacing and Greg Hurwitz's Vengeance Of The Moon Knight showed huge promise before being binned due to failing sales. Bendis even failed to get the character a high profile in his mixed-bag reboot so while I'm confident that Warren Ellis is a writer who could do wonderful things with a hero as complicated as Marc Spector I'm doubtful that we'll end up with a series that goes beyond 12 issues unless something truly special happens. I'll be buying this first issue and then watching the situation carefully from there. There seems little reason to watch She-Hulk or The Punisher so closely after a successful first (and second in the case of the latter) issue for each and it seems that the early indications of Marvel's second 'NOW!' push are positive in the main with some inspired creative team choices. It'll be interesting to see how Charles Soule pushes She-Hulk on in #2 with the premise of Jen setting up her own legal firm now established, and how he chooses to dish out her different fighting styles in and outside of the courtroom and whether they'll even remain that exclusive to those arenas. In just two issues Nathan Edmondson has made Frank Castle a character that I'm interested to read more stories about and I am enjoying the slightly less unhinged Punisher that he appears to have brought to the table. Elsewhere I'm eager to get the pages open on Wild Blue Yonder #4 as it seems an age since the last chapter was out and in such a turbulent comic book world it seems that disaster could strike at any moment and to be left waiting to see what happens feels like first world, media torture. Two other comics that I've been enjoying greatly have their next instalments out tomorrow and they will be Bad Blood #3 - which looks at the vendetta put upon an unfortunate cancer sufferer, persecuted and terrorised having inadvertently poisoned his fanged attacker - and Hinterkind #6 from Ian Edginton which just gets better and better every issue. I'm sure tomorrow's reading will prove that that particular rule is still in effect.
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