This Week in Comics: 09/16/09

You got lucky this week, Internet. Fantagraphics doesn’t seem to have released anything this week and DC and Marvel published a few new notable comics that you were probably going to buy anyway. In return for this concession, you have to read about my weird manga interests and my MODOK fetish.

This list was easier to cultivate than the last one, but I don’t think it’s quite as satisfying. What does THAT say?

Pluto Urasawa x Tezuka Volume 5

(Naoki Urasawa/Takashi Nagasaki)

Viz Media

Naoki Urasawa should be as famous in this country as Hayao Miyazaki. So should Osamu Tezuka and Katsuhiro Otomo, but at least their creations precede them here. Alas, the world of Urasawa such as Monster and the wonderful 20^th Century Boys are relegated to the obsessions of those in the know while kids in Borders sit on the floor and read One Piece and Magic Knight Rayearth (do the kids still read that?).

Pluto is Urasawa’s remix (“re-imagining” if you’re into buzzwords) of Tezuka’s beloved Astro Boy into a science fiction detective story. I’ve read a few early chapters, and it’s deadly serious and just a little heartbreaking. It’s also only 8 volumes, so there’s minimal commitment to reading the whole thing — though it’s probably worth reading even if it was 100 volumes.

Vengeance Of The Moon Knight #1

(Gregg Hurwitz/Jeremy Opena)

Marvel Comics

Once again Marvel attempts to resurrect Moon Knight. If someone can explain to me the appeal of Moon Knight I would greatly appreciate it. Outside of his anti-Batman costume he seems to me like another Batman clone only beaten by Night Thrasher on the Derivative Scale. The only argument I’ve ever heard in favor of Moon Knight is that the original run by Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz is supposed to be very good.

Vengeance of The Moon Knight #1 has Moon Knight returning to New York City to seek — gasp! — vengeance on Norman Osborn, who has suddenly become the principal villain in every Marvel Comic on the stands. Lex Luthor wasn’t so ubiquitous, and that guy was President. That Norman Osborn is the villain the comic says to me that nobody has any idea what to do to make this character sell and they have to make it a Dark Reign tie-in for anyone to care.

Air #13, $2.99

(G. Willow Wilson/M.K. Perker)

Vertigo/DC Comics

Look, everyone! A comic book not written by a white male for once.

No, there aren’t any superheroes. Or zombies. Or cowboys. Or heaving bosoms.

I see we’re not going to find any common ground here.

Veil #3

(El Torres/Gabriel Hernandez)

IDW Publishing

IDW does so many licensed comics nowadays that it’s become a bit of a surprise to look at the list of releases for the week and see something that isn’t Transformers, Star Trek, Angel, or Doctor Who. This time it’s The Veil, about a down-on-her-luck private eye for the dead named Chris Luna who moves back to her hometown only to unsurprisingly find that there’s ghosty things to deal with there, too. Pray it’s an ongoing book, because it features some great impressionistic art by Gabriel Hernandez.

Blackest Night #3 (of

(Geoff Johns/Ivan Reis/Oclair Albert)

DC COMICS

For many readers Blackest Night #3 is the hotly anticipated book of the week. I cannot tell you why because I’m still having trouble deciding when the book lost me: the convenient “Dead Superhero Day” that starts the book off or the utterly laughable shock value moments, like when Hawkman and Hawkgirl are killed only to be immediately resurrected as DC Zombies. It all sounds like a huge self-parody, but it’s played totally straight.

Considering that, I might be looking forward to future issues of Blackest Night in the same way I look forward to the next Judd Apatow movie.

Galactica 1980 #1

(Marc Guggenheim/Cezar Razek)

Dynamite

This blurb was originally going to be just “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA” and then I would have moved on to something more substantial (like making fun of Blackest Night) but it turns out Dynamite wrangled big-name talent like Marc Guggenheim (whose work I don’t really like, but he’s a name) to, according to the ad-copy, “re-imagine” the maligned Galactica 1980 — a TV show nobody asked to be imagined in the first place. This could be readable, but I don’t see myself reading it.

Bad Girls TP

(Steve Vance/Jennifer Graves/Christine Norrie/Daniel Krall/J. Bone)

DC COMICS

Quick history lesson: In 2003 DC Comics published this six-issue miniseries called Bad Girls, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer-esque affair a new girl in town who finds out that the popular girls at school all have superpowers and are using their powers for evil. DC to canceled the mini due to low sales, forcing the creators to cram two issues of material into the fifth.

Six years later, DC is collecting the miniseries in a trade for reasons unbeknownst to me. Maybe they’re serious about this “reaching new readers” thing. Regardless, Bad Girls sounds like it could be a fun (albeit derivative) read.

MODOK Reign Delay (One Shot)

(Ryan Dunlavey)

Marvel Comics

Of course I’m covering a MODOK comic book. I couldn’t NOT cover a MODOK comic, even if it is a silly humor book. There aren’t enough humor books in comics, anyway, though I think MODOK works better when played (mostly) straight. After all, he’s the Mobile Organism Designed Only for Killing. You’re going to have to look elsewhere for the Mobile Organism Designed Only for Comedy.

Regardless of my creepy giant head fetish: MODOK! In a comic!

In a perfect world, there would be a MODOK COMIC (Conquest-Oriented Media-Infiltrating Comic) written by me and drawn by Seth Fisher where we chronicle the absurdist psychedelic adventures of Jack Kirby’s greatest drug-fueled creation, depicting what goes on in his weird interior headspace as he hatches plots and invents things that invariably have weird, unwanted effects on hapless A.I.M. agents.

But alas, Seth Fisher is dead and you people make me sad.

Beasts Of Burden #1 (of 4)

(Evan Dorkin/Jill Thompson)

Dark Horse Comics

Seeing the cover to Beasts of Burden #1, I thought, “Oh, nevermind. It’s a book about animals.” Then I saw the creators: Evan Dorkin of DORK and Jill Thompson of various wonderful Vertigo Books. That said, this looks like a really promising book and I’m going to have to send Dorkin and Thompson each a written apology.

Oishinbo: Vegetables

(Tetsu Kariya/Akira Hanasaki)

Viz Media

Yes, it’s a manga about cooking. Most of us wouldn’t know it (even the ones who do read Japanese comic books), but Japan’s comic book industry publishes a much wider variety than America does, and I don’t just mean “comics for girls.” There’s manga about horse racing and baseball in addition to your Narutos and Fullmetal Alchemists. Oishinbo is one such manga, first published in 1983 and still continuing to this day. Viz Media, ever the bastions of Japanese media in America, began publishing the collections of Oshinbo this year, and Vegetables is the newest volume.

What audience Viz suspects to buy this comic I do not know. Considering it’s published under the “Viz Signature” umbrella with other “unconventional” works like TEKKONKINKREET and everything Naoki Urasawa does, they must be trying to court the sophisticated, open-minded manga reader who doesn’t give a shit about Naruto.

I’m right there with you, Viz.

Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #1 (of 4)

(Warren Ellis/Steve Kurth)

Marvel Comics

I know you’re probably going to buy Ultimate Comics Armor Wars, but I’m going to talk about it anyway because this is Marvel’s big book of the week and, considering Warren Ellis at the helm, it will more likely be worth reading than Blackest Night. Warren Ellis, you see, has read things other than superhero comics and can inject that influence in his superhero comics and create something that stands out amidst the usual crap even if he’s just doing it for a paycheck.

It’s safe to assume that, if the comics industry provided more opportunities to do what he wants that could also help sustain his lifestyle, you couldn’t pay him to write a superhero comic. Until then, here’s an Iron Man comic by Warren Ellis. You’ll read it and you’ll like it.