Thursday, June 20, 2013

Martian Sightings for September, 2013

Martian Manhunter
FOREVER EVIL #1
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by DAVID FINCH and RICHARD FRIEND
1:25 Villain A-C covers by TBD
3-D motion variant cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
1:200 B&W variant cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
On sale SEPTEMBER 4 • 48 pg, 1 of 7, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $4.99 US

The first universe-wide event of The New 52 begins as FOREVER EVIL launches! The Justice League is DEAD! And the villains shall INHERIT the Earth! An epic tale of the world’s greatest super-villains starts here! This issue is also offered as a combo pack edition with a redemption code for a digital download of this issue.

What are the odds of Vile Menagerie representation? Good? Bad? Indifferent?

JUSTICE LEAGUE #23.4: SECRET SOCIETY
Written by GEOFF JOHNS and STERLING GATES
Art by MANUEL GARCIA and ROB HUNTER
3-D motion cover by MIKEL JANIN
On sale SEPTEMBER 25 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T

An army of super villains has been built throughout The New 52 during 2013—but for what purpose? Learn about the villains that have paved the way for the world of FOREVER EVIL.
I threw this in as a just-in-case, but I doubt there's anything here for the Alien Atlas aficionado.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #7.1: DEADSHOT
Written by MATT KINDT
Art by PASQUAL FERRY
3-D motion cover by TONY S. DANIEL and MATT BANNING
On sale SEPTEMBER 4 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T

Is it a death wish that makes Floyd Lawton put on the mask of Deadshot? Or is something more sinister pulling at Floyd when he becomes a relentless assassin who feels nothing for his victims? Discover the truth behind Deadshot’s secret history in this issue!

They threw J'onn on the cover and his back-up strip writer is aboard, plus the art should be nice.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #7.2: KILLER FROST
Written by STERLING GATES
Art by DERLIS SANTACRUZ
3-D motion cover by TONY S. DANIEL and MATT BANNING
On sale SEPTEMBER 11 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T

Not every villain is grateful to the Secret Society for ridding the world of the Justice League. For Killer Frost, only one thing matters: feeding off Firestorm’s energy! But with Firestorm gone, a desperate Frost is forced to decide whether she should search for the missing hero or find a new source for her power fixes.

The same background image on this one (though J'Onn is now obscured,) but Kindt is traded out for the writer of Vibe, and I never heard of the artist.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #7.3: SHADOW THIEF
Written by TOM DeFALCO
Art by CHAD HARDIN
3-D motion cover by TONY S. DANIEL and MATT BANNING
On sale SEPTEMBER 18 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T

Where is the line between duty and villainy? For the new Shadow Thief, there is no question: Her mission to eradicate all alien life on Earth is above questions of morality. Armed with technology that allows her to become a living shadow, the Shadow Thief wages a covert war across the globe, but how long can she stay in the shadows before they consume her soul?
Okay, at this point it's just leftover business from the canceled Savage Hawkman, so unless you're actively seeking to spend money on a book titled Justice League of America this month...
THE DC UNIVERSE VS. THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE #2
Written by KEITH GIFFEN
Art by DEXTER SOY
Cover by ED BENES
On sale SEPTEMBER 25 • 32 pg, FC, 2 of 6, $2.99 US • RATED T

Skeletor is on the loose in the DC Universe! If He-Man and the Masters of the Universe can’t stop him, then how can the Justice League hope to?
DC is hiding the cover on this one, as if anybody cares. Giffen inflicted DC/Wildstorm: Dreamwar upon an unsuspecting world, and Soy's the reason I didn't even try Captain Marvel. Let me give you both some NO.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA VOL. 1: WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS HC
Written by GEOFF JOHNS and MATT KINDT
Art by DAVID FINCH, SCOTT CLARK, BRETT BOOTH and others
Cover by DAVID FINCH
On sale NOVEMBER 6 • 224 pg, FC, $24.99 US

Green Lantern! Green Arrow! Catwoman! Katana! Vibe! Hawkman! Stargirl! They aren’t the world’s greatest Super Heroes—they’re the most dangerous! But why does a team like the JLA need to exist? What is their ultimate mission? And who is pulling the strings? Find out in this collection of the first five issues of the new series as the team takes on the Secret Society of Super-Villains!
Mongul
Green Lantern: Mongul #23.2
Written by JIM STARLIN
Art by HOWARD PORTER
3-D motion cover by BILLY TAN
On sale SEPTEMBER 11 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T

Deep in space, an unstoppable force is committing genocide on a galaxy-wide scale, and only the strongest will survive! Be warned, because nothing can prepare you for an all-new Warworld under the absolute rule of the tyrant called Mongul!
Every time I start to think I could quit DC, they do something like this. Jim Starlin is one of my all time favorite writer/artists, and while I haven't truly enjoyed his scripts in a long while, there will always be love there. Starlin co-created Mongul for DC Comics Presents #27 (November, 1980), a team-up between Superman and the long dormant Martian Manhunter. Starlin continued contributing to Mongul's adventures as the Man of Steel was joined by Supergirl, The Spectre and Starman in dealing with Mongul's machinations. Other creators took to Mongul, most memorably Alan Moore, but the character drifted far from his original conception after the Crisis on Infinite Earths. In recent years, creators seemed to take all their cues from the unimaginative Post-Crisis incarnation of the character, or just mine Moore's one story over and over again.

Jim Starlin made Mongul a villainous player with a great deal of potential, which was likely why Alan Moore used the character in the first place, only to see Mongul devolve into a brutal thug. Starlin hasn't written the character in any significant way since 1981, though I obviously and some thoughts about how that could have gone down. J'Onn J'Onzz was the first super-hero to ever face Mongul, and it would be really sweet if he could get himself snuck into this special. Regardless, even with the Green Lantern connection, the inclusion of Warworld and visual cues in his revised costume strongly point to a return to Mongul's early days. Maybe we'll finally get the full story on The Arkymandryte? I don't even mind that the artist who killed Mongul in Underworld Unleashed is on board, since he drew the guy quite well before Neron snapped his neck. This book seems all about second chances to get things right, and until Justice League of America #7.2: Commander Blanx gets announced, this is my #1 pick of the event!

2 comments:

will_in_chicago said...

I hope that this Villain's Month event is better than I suspect it will be. My hope is that a lot of heroes are not dead, just believed to be dead by the villains and the public at large. Hopefully, J'Onn will get a chance to shine. I would love an appearance by J'Onn with Mongul.

Diabolu Frank said...

If this were the old continuity, I'd hope that lesser known heroes would rise up. Today, I guess that would just be the casts of National Comics and DC Comics Presents. Not as exciting.