
Batman's sci-fi closet
Wanted, the super-villain edition
The war on terror, 2011
Scott Pilgrim gets a job
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, through the years
Each week we run down the 5 most interesting comics that come out on Wednesday. This is a major week for some highly anticipated releases. Here's what to look for today.
5. JLA: ULTRAMARINE CORPS
Written by Grant Morrison; Art by Ed McGuinness, Val Semeiks, Dexter Vines and others
DC Comics
144 pgs | $14.99
This one is a little more than just your standard Justice League of America story. Written by Grant Morrison, this 3 part story, when originally published in JLA:Confidential acted as a prologue to Morrison's brilliant multi-part Seven Soldiers of Victory saga. Both the themes of seven heroes needing to band together and the villains known as Nebulous Man and the Sheeda cross over in both this and the Seven Soldiers story. However this is a stand-alone story so don't feel you need to read Seven Soldiers to enjoy this.
The JLA get trapped in another dimension as Gorilla Grodd attacks the global superhero team known as The Ultramarine Corps leaving only Batman and Great Britain's version of Robin, the Squire, to save the day. There's some great Batman moments here, notably when he needs to dip into his "sci-fi closet" to get the tools he needs to win.
There's also a JLA/Wildcats one-shot from many years back included to help round out the volume.
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4. WANTED
Written by Mark Millar; art by J.G. Jones
Top Cow
192 pgs | $19.99
You might have seen the trailer for the upcoming Angelina Jolie flick, Wanted. What you might not have gleaned from the preview (which looks like a well-filmed but kind of Matrix-y action flick about assassins) is that it is based on a comic book mini-series written by Mark Millar, the popular writer of such books as Civil War and The Ultimates. Since the movie was based off the concept alone (I believe I heard something along the lines of the filmmakers not actually reading the comic) it appears to be a different beast from the comic. Both are about a loser named Wesley who finds out his father was a sharp-shooting bad guy and he gets trained into the life of being a killer. In the comic however, he gets sucked into the hidden, underground and colorful world of super villains. There's a huge cast of super villains and a lot more comic-booky kind of stuff here than you're going to see in the movie. To capitalize on the upcoming film release, Top Cow is re-releasing the trade collection of this series this week so you'll easily be able to compare the differences with the movie.
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3. SHOOTING WAR
Written by Anthony Lappe; art by Dan Goldman
Hachette Book group
The latest web comic to make it to print is Shooting War, a glimpse into the future of the war on terror written by Anthony Lappé, a writer for such publications as the New York Times and Paper and the producer of a Showtime documentary about Iraq called Battleground and drawn by ACT-I-VATE web comicker, Dan Goldman. Shooting War began in 2006 as a web comic and has gained a lot of attention, including an Eisner nomination for best serialized web comic and now a publication deal. The story is set in 2011 and follows a videoblogger named Jimmy Burns who happens to catch a suicide bombing of a Brooklyn Starbucks on tape and winds up as a war correspondent in Baghdad.
Check out a more extensive preview (ie, the whole thing if you want) at Shootingwar.com
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2. SCOTT PILGRIM VOL. 4: SCOTT PILGRIM GETS IT TOGETHER
By Bryan Lee O'Malley
Oni Press
200 pgs | $11.95
The much-anticapted next volume of the indie slacker hit Scott Pilgrim finally hits stores this week. If you've yet to pick up a Scott Pilgrim book then you really should start with volume 1 but I'm sure you'll wind up catching up to volume 4 in no time. It's unique style of mixing 20-something slacker realism with plot elements pulled straight from old school Nintendo games is downright infectious. If you're already a devoted Pilgrimite I don't need to tell you that this book is out as you've probably been hungering for it for months now.
In this volume, Scott continues to fight Ramona's seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to win her heart but things get a little hairier for Scott as Ramona tries to convince him that it would be a good idea to also get a job (!) Check out a preview of volume 4 and the previous 3 volumes here.
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1. LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: THE BLACK DOSSIER
Written by Alan Moore; Art and Cover by Kevin O'Neill
DC Comics
208 pgs | $29.99
And the most anticipated of this week's releases has to be the latest from the great Alan Moore, the newest volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. If you only know LOEG from the god awful movie with Sean Connery a few years back then you may be surprised by the level of thought and detail that are put into these books. In this volume, Alan Quartermaine and Mina Murray delve into the history of Leagues past. Expect some lengthy text pieces interspersed within the comic, most likely written in the style of the periods that it conveys.
Entertainment Weekly has a multipage preview on their site so go here for a look.
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