This Week in Comics: 05/17/10

Today I found out that Shakira — she of the big booty, funny voice, and nonsensical English lyrics — did a quite rubbish, dance cover of the moody, minimalist “Islands” by The xx but renamed it “Explore.” Now, I have no problem with covers, but goddamn, that song’s less than a year old, and Shakira is much richer than The xx. Can’t she pay some wannabe Bacharach to pen a club hit for her? It’s the same as Rod Stewart covering Tom Waits’ “Downtown Train” four years after the original — that’s not covering, that’s PILLAGING.

So welcome to This Week in Comics, where every day is a comic book and yes I know that record labels pay money to the originators to record cover songs but that doesn’t make it less terrible.

MONDAY

First Issues

Zatanna #1

(Paul Dini/Stephanie Roux/Karl Story)

DC Comics

The Paul Dini “Zatanna” series has been a long time coming. Dini’s clearly got a fetish for her ever since the days of Batman: The Animated Series, and he got to do a one-shot issue for Vertigo which I didn’t really like. But Grant Morrison did a 4-issue Zee miniseries as part of his Seven Soldiers project that was pretty great.

I’m just hoping for a solid superhero fantasy comic here.

TUESDAY

New Manga Day

Saturn Apartments Volume 1

(Hisae Iwaoka)

Viz Media

Didja hear about Viz Media laying off like 40 people? Yikes. You should buy one of their many quality manga to help them out.

Saturn Apartments takes place in a future where people don’t live ON Earth, but live in rings that circle the globe. The protagonist is a young man who takes up his father’s job as a window washer, and thus gets a look at how others live in this space colony thing. It’s slice of life sci-fi — a genre that people don’t explore enough.

WEDNESDAY

Mainstream Superhero Stuff

Avengers #1

(Brian Michael Bendis/John Romita Jr)

Marvel Comics

It would have been career suicide, but it seems like Bendis should have stepped down after the end of Siege, shouldn’t it? His mega-narrative was done, and now with the Heroic Age the Avengers are fighting Kang the Conqueror, which signals a more “classic” kind of Avengers compared to Bendis’ crime comic take on the characters. We’ll see.

THURSDAY

Not Quite Friday, but Still Exciting

Walking Dead #72, $2.99

(Robert Kirkman/Charlie Adlard/Cliff Rathburn)

Image Comics

Last month I checked out the latest Walking Dead on a whim after reading one of the early trades years and years ago because, well, everyone’s gotta start sometime, right? Well, it turns out the book is as good as I remember, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

FRIDAY

TGII(ron Man (still))

Invincible Iron Man #26

(Matt Fraction/Salvador Larroca)

Marvel Comics

Invincible Iron Man #25 really excited me. Even more than the good parts of the new movie did. It was a masterful attempt at catering to every potential reader: people jumping on in the middle of the series, people who are joining in because of the movie, people who have been reading since day one, and — most importantly — people like me, who want MORE out of their superhero comics.

Eventually I’ll overhype myself so much that I will severely backlash against this book. But until then, bang on.

SATURDAY

Essential Reading

X-Men Nation X HC

(Matt Fraction/Greg Land/Terry Dodson/Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa/James Asmus/John Barber/Ivan Brandon/Joe Caramagna/C.B. Cebulski/Becky Cloonan/Tim Fish/Chuck Kim/Corey Lewis/Peter Milligan/Grace Randolph/Scott Snyder/Simon Spurrier/Mike Allred/James Harren/Niko Henrichon/David Lopez/Harvey Talibao/Stephen Thompson/Gabriel Hernandez Walta)

Marvel Comics

Oh, crap. I promised not to go nuts showcasing the creators I like, and what do I do? Profile two Matt Fraction books in one week. Well, get off my back. It’s a slow week. Also, this has people other than Matty Frax working on it because it collects the Nation X anthology miniseries that I dug at times because it had work from creators I love — and I certainly didn’t want to buy the trade of Nation X, so this included with nine Fraction-penned issues of X-Men issues sounds like a winner. Plus, it’ll make the world of Utopia look more like a community with all the side stories. All for 35 bucks!

…I’ll probably still wait for the softcover.

SUNDAY

Last Issues

Devil #4 (of 4)

(Torajiro Kishi/Madhouse Studios)

Dark Horse Comics

For those of you who don’t know, Devil is an original Western-style manga by a manga-ka of some note and an animation studio of great note. The first issue was derivative, but it was fun enough. I lost track, so I don’t know if it improved. But it’s over. Maybe I’ll catch up.

Danny Djeljosevic