Sunday, December 11, 2011

Weekly Reading: December 7

Wheee--such a colorful array of covers this week!
A little behind in posting this week, but it's not for lack of items to discuss.

This week's trip to the comic shop netted quite a haul, and much of it unexpected. Recently;y some of the smaller publishers, such as BOOM! and Dynamite, have priced the first issues of new series at a very inexpensive $1. One would assume that his is in an effort to have collectors try something that is not simply a reboot or revamp. Personally, these are often hit-or-miss (I'm looking at you Spaceman) but at a cost of one dollar, when the average price is between three and four, I'm willing to give anything a shot. This week's low-cost intro issues included both something old, Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist, and something new (though set in the past), Valen the Outcast. Another new title which came out this week, Dead or Alive, on the other hand, while also put out by a small publisher, Red 5 Comics, carried a more standard price tag of $2.99. I had actually intended on buying DoA as I am a sucker for zombie-Old-West mash-ups.
Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist #1 (Dynamite) Sci-Fi
Dead of Alive #1 (Red 5 Comics) Western/Horror
iZombie #20 (Vertigo/DC) Horror/Romance/Action
Swamp Thing #4 (DC) Horror/Superhero
Reed Gunther #6 (Image) All ages/Western
HP Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror #3 (IDW) Horror
OMAC #4 (DC) Superhero
Valen the Outcast #1 (BOOM!) Action
Betrayal of The Planet of the Apes #2 (BOOM!) Action/Sci-Fi
The Strange Talent of Luther Strode #3 (Image) Modern Superhero
After finishing my initial read through of the newer titles, I can't see myself adding wither Flash or Valen to my pull list. While flash did have a nice nostalgic feel to it, this was mostly attained through the use of lines of dialogue ("Klytus... I'm bored.") and characters from the 1980 Dino De Laurentiis produced Flash Gordon movie of my childhood, the use of these elements did seem a little lazy. I had hoped for a slightly news pin on the material--well something newer and fresher that the Ming the merciless/Adolf Hitler angle. Valen the Outcast, a Conan-inspired sword and sorcery tale, appears to have slightly more potential upside, including much much more consistent artwork, so I may return to it after a few issues to see if there has been some character developments that make it worthy of my hard earned cash.

Fortunately, even with those slight disappointments (they were only a buck apiece), I do have more OMAC and Gunther hijinks to wile my day away with...

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