Alien Legion

This Week in Geek is a weekly blog about new comics written by WorthPoint Comic book Worthologist Matt Baum. Every Wednesday Matt takes a look at trends—good and bad—in the world of comic books from a collector’s point-of-view. Make sure to click on the hot links for previews and more information on the comics, characters, story-lines and creators discussed here and he encourages fellow comic nerds to post your comments below.

Years ago, while scanning the quarter bin at a now-defunct comic shop, I found a cover that caught my eye and for once, at the tender age of 15 or 16, I left the comic shop with a book that didn’t star Batman, Captain America, Spidey or Wolverine. That comic was “Alien Legion” volume 2, #2. Upon reading it, I instantly fell in love. Written by Chuck Dixon, who has also written some of my favorite Batman comics, and drawn by the incomparable Larry Stroman, Alien Legion followed a motley-alien-army-force into battle on even more alien worlds. I spent the next few years completing my Alien Legion run and will never part it, ever. I love Alien Legion and was overjoyed to hear about the Dark Horse “Alien Legion Omnibus” #1, which collects 300 pages of the original Carl Potts and the Chuck Dixon series. But lost my mind when I heard that Dixon and Stroman were reuniting for a new Alien Legion mini-series. I can’t tell you how geeked I am for this. I even told my fiancée. Who stared at me blankly and said, “That’s great, sweetie.”

The Stack:

Below you’ll find my stack of comics for the week of Wednesday, Nov. 18. Make sure and post your own weekly stack of comics below so I can make fun of what you’re reading and vice-versa. For a full list of comics shipping this week click here. To find a comic shop near you click here.

Adventure Comics #4
Alien Legion Omnibus Volume 1
Amazing Spider-Man #612
Cowboy Ninja Viking #2 of 4
Dark Avengers #11
Dark Reign: The List: Amazing Spider-Man
The Flash: Rebirth #5 of 6
Incredible Hulk #604
Mighty Avengers #31
Punisher #11
Realm of Kings: Inhumans #1 of 5
Realm of Kings
Spider-Woman #3
Supergirl #47
Thunderbolts #138
Wolverine: Weapon X #7

Thoughts on the stack:

Adventure Comics

Cowboy Ninja Viking

Dark Avengers

“Adventure Comics” by Geoff Johns is one of the best monthly comics I’ve read in quite a while. Johns has succeeded, yet again, in making me care about Conner Kent, Superboy. Unfortunately, Johns is only on the title for two more issues before Paul Levitz takes over. Yes, I’m being pessimistic here, but honestly, the guy hasn’t written comics since 1989. Which isn’t completely true. He wrote some fill-in issues of JSA that were . . . meh . . . at best.

“Cowboy Ninja Viking” is fun in the vein of Matt Fraction’s “Cassanova.” Issue one was violent, spastic, sexy, well-drawn, well-written and all-around-awesome. This is the kind of story you will only see in comic format. Don’t expect to see an AMC original series about a killer with a multiple personality disorder each of which are trained to kill as different historical warriors anytime soon. I highly recommend checking this one out.

“Dark Avengers” #11 wins the best-cover-of-the-week award with a homage to Todd McFarlane’s Spiderman #1. The closer we get to January’s “Siege” event, which looks to be the end of the “Dark Reign” crossover, the more nervous I get about this title ending. “Dark Avengers” is high-quality super-hero, or I guess in this case super-villain, storytelling and I love it. Every month.

Dark Reign: The List: Spiderman

Mighty Avengers

“Dark Reign: The List: Spiderman” is the only title with two—count ’em, two—semicolons, so it has to be good. That, and the fact that we finally get to see Norman Osborne go after Spiderman. Oh, and Dann Slott is writing with Adam Kubert on pencils. So I guess if you’re an uninformed jerk that hates Spiderman and America and your Grandparents and Thanksgiving, you’ll be skipping this one.

“Mighty Avengers” #31. Just when I thought I was done with this title writer Dan Slott pulls me back in by having Eternity name Hank Pym as Earth’s Scientist Supreme. It’s the little things that get me. I’m in Slott and cowriter Christos Gage have got me for at least six more issues. Although it would be nice if the art team could remain static for at least one story-arc.

Realm of Kings

Thunderbolts

“Realm of Kings” and “Realm of Kings: Inhumans” are must-buys. The writing team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning have transformed Marvel’s confusing and often boring cosmic cast into a cohesive, compelling and very well-written group of characters. Marvel Sci-Fi has never been this good. The fact that I even care about a Green Lantern knock-off character like Quasar blows my mind.

“Thunderbolts” is on its last chance with me. In fact, the only reason I’m picking this issue up is because of writer, Jeff Parker (“Agents of Atlas”). But honestly, this is Thunderbolts last chance. I don’t hate the book I’m just reading enough titles starring Marvel villains. If I’m going to read one starring Paladin, Nuke and the Headsman (whose real name is Cleavon Twain; terrible right?) it’s going to have to be pretty damn well written.

And now it’s time to mash all these comics together, mix with water, place on a giant spoon and cook them down to see which is the one comic I can’t live without this week in a little section I’m calling:

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

Punisher #11; Marvel Comics

Punisher #11

Solicitation: “Franken-Castle” Part 1. In the belly of New York, skulking and forgotten creatures of the night uncover the remains of a man in a familiar outfit. Frank Castle is dead. What exactly is Frankencastle? Long time collaborators Rick Remender and Tony Moore (Ghost Rider, Fear Agent, The Walking Dead) are reunited for what will be the greatest struggle in the afterlife of the Punisher. Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster . . .

32 PGS
$2.99 US
SEP090449
Written by Rick Remender; Pencils and inks by Tony Moore; Cover by Dave Wilkins.

Why this one? Rick Remender’s Punisher has been fantastic so far but is running the risk of wandering into the doldrums of the typical Punisher story where in Frank goes after bad guys, has a little trouble with them and then kills the hell out of ’em. It’s a formula that’s worked for 35 years now, sure. Rick Remender is not your average writer and proved it when he chopped the hero of his story into pieces in the pages of “Dark Reign: The List: Punisher.” That’s right, Frank Castle is dead. Way dead. Pile-of-dismembered-body-parts dead. But now he’s back in a story aptly titled “Frankencastle.” This one’s got everything, Mole Men, the Man Thing and an undead Punisher. If you’re not excited about this one you could be a jerk. And you hate comics.

Nerdy Question of the Week:

Earlier in this blog I was gushing about “Alien Legion.” Everyone has a title like this that almost no body else cared about. What’s yours?

See ya next time, true believers.

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This Week in Geek is a weekly blog about new comics written by WorthPoint comic book Worthologist Matt Baum. Every Wednesday, Matt takes a look at the week’s new comics from a collector’s point-of-view and discusses which books may be hard to find in the near future and why. Make sure to click on the hot links for previews and more information on the comics, characters, story-lines and creators discussed here. Also, feel free to post your comments in the new “comments” section below, or you can follow him on Twitter, where he is always screaming about something nerd-related. Want to know what your comics are worth? Join WorthPoint for free and post your comics in the “Ask A Worthologist” section. Remember to post the title, issue number and cover price. And finally a word to the Federal Trade Commission; all the comics discussed here are purchased solely by the writer, who receives no gifts or free merchandise from any publishers even though he would graciously accept them.

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This Week in Geek is a weekly blog about new comics written by WorthPoint comic book Worthologist Matt Baum. Every Wednesday Matt takes a look at the week’s new comics from a collector’s point-of-view and discusses which books may be hard to find in the near future and why. Make sure to click on the hot links for previews and more information on the comics, characters, story-lines and creators discussed here.

Happy New Year, nerds, and happy anniversary to me! It’s been one year since I started writing This Week in Geek and, as of today, I still have a job. I just want to take a minute to thank my WorthPoint overlords for giving me a chance and a place to write about my passion, comics both old and new. Thanks to you, as well, for reading this blog and keeping me busy with valuations, questions, and even the occasional insults and threats. Thank you all and stay tuned, because there are huge changes coming to WorthPoint very soon. Over the past year I’ve received a lot of e-mails detailing a ton of criticisms of the site and the good news is, they’ve listened! I can’t reveal details yet, mainly because I don’t have them, but there are big changes on the way. You’re going to love it.

Now, let’s talk new comics. With X-mas and New Year’s Day giving the good people of UPS two days off in one shipping week nerds will find themselves waiting until Friday to get their comic fix. Also because of the holidays you can expect a light comic week. Everyone is broke, not just due to crappy 2008 economic year, and the comic gods know it. The holidays are gone and the first real New Comic Wednesday of 2009 is just five days away.

Here’s my pile if comics for the week of Friday, Jan. 2, 2009. As always, I welcome your criticism, praise or threats of bodily harm based on what I am or am not reading/collecting. You may have noticed a new section below where you can respond to this article, it’s the perfect place to agree with or lash out at me for all to see! For a complete list of this week’s new comics click here. To find a comic shop near you click here.

Avengers: The Initiative #20
Batman #684
Batman: Cacophony #2 of 3
Captain America #45
Green Lantern #36
Guardians of the Galaxy #8
Incognito #1
Incredible Hercules #124
Justice Society of America #22
Punisher War Journal #26
Punisher: War Zone #4 of 6
Superman #683
War Machine #1
Wolverine #70
X-Force #10

Now let’s talk speculation. As you may or may not know, the purpose of this blog is to arm the comic nerd with the information he or she needs to make an informed and quality new comic purchase every week. While they might not be worth piles of money, these issues may be pretty hard to find in the near future.

Green Lantern #36

Green Lantern; DC; Written by Geoff Johns; Art by Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy; Cover by Shane Davi; $2.99.

Why it’ll go fast: “Blackest Night” prelude. The Green Lantern story you’ve been waiting for since the “Sinestro Corps War,” “Blackest Night,” begins here! Writer Geoff Johns has been building up to this story since “Green Lantern: Rebirth,” which brought Hal Jordan back to the DCU. I would guess retailers are going to order lightly on this one as GL #36 is just a prelude to “Blackest Nigh.” After it sells out instantly the GL #36 re-order madness begins and you can bet eBay will light up with ridiculous prices on this issue. “Blackest Night” sees the birth of the final Lantern Corps, the Black Lanterns, which represents Death. Is there anything cooler than an army of Zombie Black Lantern soldiers? Oh, and Johns promises we’ll see some of our favorite dead DC characters making re-appearances. I can’t stop giggling just thinking about this one.

Punisher War Journal #26

Punisher War Journal #26; Marvel Comics; Written by Matt Fraction and Rick Reminder; Art by Macdonald; Cover by Dave Wilkins; $2.99.

Why it’ll go fast: PWJ is being canceled. Not because of poor sales or fan backlash, quite the contrary, I would argue this Punisher series has been the most enjoyable romp I’ve had with the character for years. (I loved the Ennis Punisher stuff but longed to see Frank in the mainstream Marvel U.) Marvel is retitling the series The Punisher and starting over with a new issue #1 this month. The new series will pick up where War Journal ended showing us the adventures of Frank Castle as he deals with the Dark Reign event. I adored this series and will be sad to see Fraction go, however, I’m excited to see what Reminder can do with his first major Marvel book. Being this is the last issue look for it to be under-ordered at most shops (There were two copies left at my shop when I got there.). PWJ 26 marks the end of an excellent Punisher run by one of my favorite new writers. Here’s to more quality Punisher stories in 2009.

War Machine#1

War Machine#1; Marvel Comics; Written by Greg Pak; Art and cover by Leonardo Manco; 1:10 variant cover by Mike Deodato; $2.99.

Why it’ll go fast: What sells out faster than final issues? First issues, of course. War Machine #1 follows the adventures of Iron Man’s Brother in Arms Jim Rhodes in the post-Invasion-Dark Reign Marvel Universe. For those of you who read and loved Warren Ellis’ Authority (if you haven’t, you should), Greg Pak seems to be taking War Machine in a similar direction tackling real-world problems with super-heroics. In the preview War Machine confronted a corrupt Oil-pipeline-developer and will later take on the likes of African Warlords, corrupt genocidal regimes and other menaces overlooked by the world for too long. This is going to be a hot book much in the vein of Pak’s Incredible Hercules which you may recall retailers had a heck of time keeping in stock. Like Hercules, War Machine is not an A-list character but has a lot of potential. This seems to be where writer Pak works best, fleshing out a secondary character and making them infinity more interesting. Pair Pak’s writing with artist Leonardo Manco, who was already legendary but seems to have hit his stride here, and you have a runaway hit that comic fans will be clamoring for in the upcoming months.

Indy comic of the Week
Why I Killed Peter; NBM/Comics List; Written and Drawn by Alfred and Oliver Ka; $18.95 (mature readers).

Why I Killed Peter is one of the reasons I love independent comics. Alfred and Oliver Ka tell the true story of Oliver’s relationship with a pedophile priest and examines how he dealt with experiences and what happens when he confronts the Priest later on in his life. It’s hard to imagine a movie being made that could deal with such controversial topic in such matter-of-fact words directly from the person affected. The short distance from creator to reader without the interference of large publishing houses or entertainment companies is one of the best things about Indy comics. It’s not going to be a happy story, but Why I killed Peter is near the top of my “to-read” pile.

That’s all for this week true believers. I truly hope this blog has inspired you to pick up at least one comic book you may have passed on otherwise. If not, email me and tell me what I’m doing wrong. I love criticism, both creative and purely insulting. Thanks for sticking with me for a year and here’s to a happy and healthy 2009. Until next week, keep the questions coming. Also, check out my other blog The Comic Speculator, where I discuss classic yet still affordable back-issue comics. If you have any questions about these books or anything else in the comic book world feel free to contact me or post your question in the Comic Book community forum. Want to know what your comics are worth? Join WorthPoint for free and post your titles in the “Ask a Question” section. Remember to post the title, issue number and cover price.

Matt Baum is a Worthologist who specializes in comic books.

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