#1 is the loneliest number of all

So, about that retailing thing...

Ah! No, just kidding!

How about some reviews, this time of some of the new #1's from this week...

ADAM STRANGE SPECIAL #1: Much like the HAWKMAN SPECIAL #1 from a few weeks ago, this tries to set up a new status quo projecting Adam as one of the "Aberrant Six" with a lot of yadda yadda yadda set up about Synnar and some cosmic problem, and blech, I don't find any of this compelling whatsoever. Adam starts jumping through time, rather than space, which you know, could actually maybe be a somewhat interesting twist on his basic set up... but absolutely nothing of consequence is done with this concept, other than maybe showing a future where Alana appears to hate him, essentially negating everything interesting about Adam Strange to begin with (he's always always trying to get back to Alana) If "Synnar" was a compelling villain, then maybe this setup would be interesting, but while Kirby got away with doing a misspelled "Dark Side" in the 60s, that doesn't fly in 2007! At least HAWKMAN had some really nice Starlin art. Rick Leonardi just isn't in the same league. I really hope we don't have to sit through four more specials to get to the rest of the "Aberrant Six and have an actual story happen... AWFUL.

JONAH HEX #35: Well, OK, it's not a #1, but I feel compelled to bring up this issue, with fucking nice J.H. Williams art! This gets my vote for the prettiest comic of the week. I don't buy the plot at all, where they try to rape a drugged Hex (imagine the howls if the genders were reversed!), but the art is nice enough to make me not care too much... GOOD.

MARVEL APES #1: I was walking in expecting to loath this, what with that "preview" they ran in whatever Spider-Man special that was a few weeks ago, where it read like a really bad CAPTAIN CARROT, with half of the puns. So, I was pretty surprised that this was as an enjoyable read as it was, was actually set in "real" continuity, and had some genuine character development. Albeit with The Mandrill. Still, all of that rates it an easy OK.

MS. MARVEL ANNUAL #1: Hey it says #1 on my invoice, so it counts! This was a fun Bugs Bunny story. Bugs is played by Spider-Man, and Ms. Marvel gets the Elmer Fudd role. Not strictly the choice *I* would have made in casting the lead as Elmer, but sure, why not? This was surprisingly OK, but should have ended with Ms. Marvel having her face ashy and hair frizzed out from an explosion or something...

SECRET SIX #1: This comic was pretty wrong, with its love of casual violence and female lap dances, but I think it was probably my favorite capes & tights book of the week. I'm not sure that this is sustainable as a monthly ongoing title, but here's a place I'm willing to find out. VERY GOOD.

SUB-MARINER: DEPTHS #1: Lovely lovely art, but the protagonist isn't really on view, and I found my head nodding as I tried to get through it. Still, LOVELY art, and worth an OK on that basis alone.

TWELVE #1/2: Slightly cheating again for this pack of golden age Timely reprints, but holy cow there's an AWESOME Basil Wolverton Rockman story buried in here which is worth the purchase price all by itself. It's really amazing how strinkingly different it is from the comics that surround it. The package as a whole: OK. That Wolverton bit? VERY GOOD.

OK, I need to get back to work now! What did YOU think?

-B