Just a couple Mignola items to note this month.
Hellboy hero Abe Sapien gets his first solo story in The Drowning. Set in the '80's Abe must search for the remains of a warlock defeated over 100 years earlier.
Speaking of Hellboy, Dark Horse finally gets around to giving him the deluxe hardcover treatment. Volume 1 will contain the first 2 adventures, Seed of Destruction and Wake the Devil, along with additional material including a Mignola sketchbook.
DC
Not a lot to list at all from DC this time around.
Booster Gold gets a Zero Hour crossover, 10 years late, but worth the wait. How will Boosters meeting with Hal Jordan Parallax turn out? And what's up with all the Blue Beetle's on the cover?
Action Comics Annual #11 finally arrives to finish off the "Last Son" storyline by Johns and Donner that started some time last year it seems. I'm not sure I even remember what this one was all about, something with Zod having a kid while in the Phantom Zone.
Tiny Titans #1 will probably go down in history as the cutest possible comic of all time. I'm
not sure if I'll enjoy it as much as the Teen Titans Go stuff, but it'll be nice to have another comic I can recommend to parents with young ones just starting in to the whole reading thing. No world threatening events or super bad guys here, just the challenges of a new puppy or a melted ice cream cone dilemma.
not sure if I'll enjoy it as much as the Teen Titans Go stuff, but it'll be nice to have another comic I can recommend to parents with young ones just starting in to the whole reading thing. No world threatening events or super bad guys here, just the challenges of a new puppy or a melted ice cream cone dilemma.
MARVEL
Clandestine#1 ...WTF?...I can't believe that Marvel is trotting this one out again. How many times will Alan Davis try to start up this group.
If I thought there was any chance of seeing more than 3 issues of this thing I wouldn't mind, but I sincerely doubt we'll ever see a 4th issue. Please let me know if you are interested in this as I really don't want to put more than a few of these on the shelf.
Speaking of slow artists, Fantastic 4 #554 starts the run by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. Yes the team that brought us 7 issues of Civil War in only 10 months feels they can do a monthly Fantastic Four. Marvel must have guessed that retailers and fans would be wary as they released a statement that the first 6 issues of this run are already pencilled and Hitch is at work on the next arc. I'll believe it when I see it. Meanwhile the story here seems to be that Reed was married before and Sue has a new super team of her own. Personally I'm wondering if Millar has been told that there is a difference between the regular universe and Ultimate versions of these characters.
FANTASTIC FOUR: The Lost Adventure sounds like a neat little piece of history. The original unfinished issue of Fantasic Four#103 finally completed. Working from the original Kirby pages, Stan lee and Joe Sinnot have recovered this lost piece. Included is a complete reprint of Fantastic Four #108 which originally used parts of the unfinished story as flashback material. Sounds a little like when that Star Trek episode with Capt.Pike was cobbled together from the unaired pilot episode.Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men extends Joss Whedons run by just one more issue than its intended 24 , but I don't think anyone will really mind. This double-sized special brings the X-team back to Earth with the bad guys close behind and promises one of the X-Men will die by issues end. Not really necessary guys, trust me you don't need a death to sell a book by a team like Whedon and Cassaday.
The entire X end of the marvel universe continues its revamps as formerly adjective less X-Men adds the word Legacy to its title. From the looks of the cover, X-Men Legacy will feature the original classic 5 X-Men, but Marvel isn't giving out any details on the story until the Messiah Complex wraps up.
Wolverine has his hands full as he stars in yet another comic as X-Force restarts. The genesis of this title seems to be "how many characters with blades, claws and fangs can we fit in one book". Just having Wolvie and his little clone X-23 in the same book seems redundant, but with Wolfsbane and Warpath in here I'm surprised they didn't call the book W-Force.
Man-Thing is back and he's dirtier than ever. Dead of Night Featuring Man-Thing is a mature readers only MAX title, which probably means a lot more gore and occasional boobie shots.
Also from the mature end of the Marvel catalog we get a restart to the excellent crime series 
Criminal by Ed Brubaker. The book is being relaunched as a 40 pager with heavier covers and a price increase of 50 cents, but it'll be worth every penny. This has been one of my favorite new titles of the last few years and any fan of Brubakers run on Daredevil,Capt. America or Iron Fist, should be picking this one up as well. In fact I'll be adding this stand alone issue FREE to any (adult) member who picks up any of the other Brubaker titles. And check out the on-line store for a great deal on the first 2 paperback collections of the series.
Criminal by Ed Brubaker. The book is being relaunched as a 40 pager with heavier covers and a price increase of 50 cents, but it'll be worth every penny. This has been one of my favorite new titles of the last few years and any fan of Brubakers run on Daredevil,Capt. America or Iron Fist, should be picking this one up as well. In fact I'll be adding this stand alone issue FREE to any (adult) member who picks up any of the other Brubaker titles. And check out the on-line store for a great deal on the first 2 paperback collections of the series.Even more mature fun comes our way with Mark Millar and John Romita doing Kick-Ass. Not much info on this one other than the tag line " realistic super-heroes taken to the next level". Sounds like a decent idea for a one-shot special, but this thing seems to be listed as an on-going. Lets just hope it doesn't get in the way of Millar getting the scripts to fantastic Four in on time.
