Friday, March 16, 2012

Sensational Comics for June, 2012



Sensational Links:

Wonder Woman


WONDER WOMAN #10
BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art by TONY AKINS and DAN GREEN
Cover by CLIFF CHIANG
1:25 Variant cover by CLIFF CHIANG
On sale JUNE 20 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. The variant cover will feature the standard edition cover in a wraparound format.
• WONDER WOMAN has been shot through the heart! It’s up to LENNOX to pull his half-sister out of HELL!
• One of DIANA’S closest companions is not to be trusted!
Way to spoil the current Tomb Raider arc right there in the solicitations. Wait. Cool cover, anyway.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #10
GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
Backup story art by GARY FRANK
Variant cover by CULLY HAMNER
1:100 B&W Variant cover by JIM LEE
On sale JUNE 20 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $4.99 US
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for more information.

• “THE VILLAIN’S JOURNEY” part two!
• The identity of the Justice League’s newest and deadliest foe is revealed!
• Part four of the debut of SHAZAM!
This issue is also offered as a combo pack edition with a redemption code for a digital download of this issue.
That guy's doofy looking, and there's no way in hell this ships on time with the solicited artist working solo. Just saying.

EARTH TWO #2
JAMES ROBINSON
Art by NICOLA SCOTT and TREVOR SCOTT
Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
1:25 B&W Variant cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
On sale JUNE 6 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. The variant cover will feature the standard edition cover in a wraparound format.
• MR. TERRIFIC – Michael Holt – lands on EARTH TWO!
• Don’t miss the origin of the Earth Two FLASH – and the first time he uses his powers!
• What could be a bigger threat to Earth Two than APOKOLIPS? Jay Garrick is about to find out!
Prediction: Darkseid managed to kill the DC Trinity on Earth Two, inspiring new heroes to rise in their place. Now the original heroes are new, making them pretty irrelevant. Who really cares to have a rookie Jay Garrick running around, or maybe that's Wally? That might be alright. Anyway, if Huntress and Power Girl hit Earth One five years ago, they predated the main heroes, so I guess Jay and company will have a few years head start. Whatever.

WONDER WOMAN: THE TWELVE LABORS TP
LEN WEIN, CARY BATES, ELIOT S. MAGGIN and MARTIN PASKO
Art by CURT SWAN, IRV NOVICK, DICK DILLIN, KURT SCHAFFENBERGER and others
Cover by BOB OKSNER
On sale JULY 4 • 232 pg, FC, $14.99 US
• Collects WONDER WOMAN #212-222.
• In these 1970s tales, Diana Prince is back as Wonder Woman – but she must prove her worthiness by undertaking twelve tasks – each monitored by one of her former Justice League teammates!
I have always wanted to read this run of stories, with their intriguing covers of Wonder Woman proving to various Justice Leaguers that she's got the stuff to be a super-heroine again. Also, I'm just glad DC is continuing to offer this Bronze Age material in affordable reprints following the Diana Prince: Wonder Woman collections.

WONDER WOMAN: ODYSSEY VOL. 1 TP
J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI and PHIL HESTER
Art by DON KRAMER, EDUARDO PANSICA and others
Cover by ALEX GARNER
On sale JULY 25 • 168 pg, FC, $14.99 US
• DIANA must track down the truth behind what’s happened to her timeline and learn who destroyed PARADISE ISLAND!
• Collects WONDER WOMAN #600-606.
It says something that I see vastly more value in a trade paperback of silly old comics I could probably dig out of cheapie bins than a hyped run from less than two years ago. The invalidation that came with the New 52 just compounded the undesirability of this Elseworld in canonical clothing.

JLA VOL. 2 TP
GRANT MORRISON
Art by HOWARD PORTER, GARY FRANK and others
Cover by HOWARD PORTER and JOHN DELL
On sale JULY 11 • 320 pg, FC, $24.99 US
• The JUSTICE LEAGUE facing off against LEX LUTHOR’S newly assembled INJUSTICE GANG while the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance.
• Collects JLA #10-17, PROMETHEUS #1 and JLA/WILDCATS #1.
There are good stories here, but not for Wonder Woman fans, as she was typically the team member in the background with the breasts.

Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)
SUPERBOY #10
SCOTT LOBDELL
Art by IBAN COELLO
Cover by SCOTT CLARK
On sale JUNE 13 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• WONDER GIRL, SOLSTICE, RED ROBIN, KID FLASH and BUNKER all guest-star in a story that connects to this month’s TEEN TITANS #10.
• Don’t miss SUPERBOY and WONDER GIRL, lost in an ancient world – with no adult supervision!

TEEN TITANS #10
SCOTT LOBDELL
Art and cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
1:25 B&W Variant cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
On sale JUNE 27 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. The variant cover will feature the standard cover in a wraparound format.
• THE TEEN TITANS LOST in an inner-world!
• What did SOLSTICE learn from the LEGION LOST team during THE CULLING? Hint: It has to do with the mystery surrounding KID FLASH’S origin!
• BUNKER confronts RED ROBIN about the missing SKITTER!
• DINOSAURS – and a new threat!

4 comments:

karl said...

Looking so forward to the Twelve Labors trade; I ordered this many months ago. Two of those very issues remind me of the Seventies so much, in so many ways...
The current WW cover? Diana holding guns? How tasteless, and demonstrating how DC writers and editors just cant get a grip on her character. This ongoing storyline is reflective of Greg Rucka's time on the book, with its Gods manipulations and Diana subject to their whims and mercies. Hopefully as this progresses she will take a more centralised role and all these peripheral characters will fall away.

Diabolu Frank said...

Karl, I actually like the shock value of the guns, recalling oodles of old WW covers and stuff like Diana working at Taco Whiz. The trick is to throw Wonder Woman a major curve ball and watch her adapt with skill, grace and wit. Everything I've read about the current run indicates that Diana is an idiot who managed to reach full adulthood (minimum current age of early twenties, right?) without being aware of basic elements of her own culture. Whether it's guns or a sword, WW is running around with a penis proxy instead of a lasso and betraying all of her creator's ideals in favor of hyperviolent misogynist revisionist schlock. I passed on the hardcover, and despite raves will do the same in softcover. I'm sick of people who don't understand the most obvious and essential elements of the character telling me this is some great revitalization, when it's really just adulteration and abandonment of any pretense of integrity. I just wrote a comment elsewhere raving over the long delayed Marshal Law Omnibus, so I'm no fuddy-duddy. It's just that I want Wonder Woman to be Wonder Woman, not the dupe of psychotic mass murderers.

karl said...

Oh, I agree - I have oodles of WW books with covers depicting Di in controversial situations, Red For Death with her toting a machine gun in Red China being amongst them. And I would posit the idea that many WW covers are there for 'surprise value' and bear little or no relation to the comics insides. Im willing to give them the benefit of the doubt nevertheless as I worship our lovely lady too much.
What I find a bit disturbing is the most recent issue which depicts the Amazons as 'rapists' of men, abandoning/destroying male babies and so on. Surely growing up amongst them Diana mustve known what they were like doing this, which I find rather worrying. One advantage of this unsettling issue is at least WW appears more confident and settled as a character and ready and willing to play her murderous Gods/family at their own game, and play it better - we've just got to lose that 'penis proxy' sword fetish as you say and get her back to her Lasso and bracelets schtick.

Diabolu Frank said...

That, and not play the death card inside the first year...