And, in fact, it seems that the lesson in this story is that art will destroy the world. Unless I’m misreading it. Except for the fact that that’s EXACTLY what it says!

So, take that message along with comics as a medium which incorporates two artforms - prose and pictures - and it seems to imply that comics will destroy the world. Which is either the bleakest fucking thing I’ve ever read in a comic book, or the most pretentious.

Either way, this book aspires to much, yet achieves little.

With regards to Dan Grendell’s Circle review:-

The MI6 agent has approached these two leaders of the Circle with Information that they have been “set up” in the theft of a russian Missile train. The Circle seems to be a mercenary team in the vein of the A-Team, a “kill if it’s needed”, not a “kill everybody for the heck of it” team . So it would be easily plausible that they would not want the death of the British agent.

Personally I thought it was an excellent set-up to a globe spanning espionage romp. A nice introduction to some of the Circle’s core membership. A fertive glimpse of a major protagonist for the Circle. All that and plenty of action intermingled throughout…. I couldn’t ask for more in a first issue

I’m glad you enjoyed it. According to the book, the Circle leaders are hiding from an assassin when the British agent approaches them. Why, then, would they be so dumb as to let someone they don’t even know start chatting one of them up and later meet the other? Because he says he’s a British agent? So what? If you’re hiding from an assassin, you don’t start hanging out with someone you don’t know. It makes no sense. This is what I didn’t understand. Either the Circle leaders are dumb, which I don’t think was the intention, or the book is just written poorly. My take was the second one.

Hadn’t heard about Dixon being put on B&tO. I might check it out. Does this mean he’s not going to be on Robin?

Actually, he’s on both. The Outsiders gig was a last-minute thing, but taking over Robin has been the plan for a while.

And Peter Tomasi (along with Rags Morales) is taking over Nightwing in January. Seems like a good time to be a Bat-family fan.

I dont think Rick is red-hulk I think Red HULK is plain old Bruce mutated. I saw nothing me think “Banner’s dead”

The MI6 agent has approached these two leaders of the Circle with Information that they have been “set up” in the theft of a russian Missile train. The Circle seems to be a mercenary team in the vein of the A-Team, a “kill if it’s needed”, not a “kill everybody for the heck of it” team . So it would be easily plausible that they would not want the death of the British agent.

Personally I thought it was an excellent set-up to a globe spanning espionage romp. A nice introduction to some of the Circle’s core membership. A fertive glimpse of a major protagonist for the Circle. All that and plenty of action intermingled throughout…. I couldn’t ask for more in a first issue

Have you read the Legion One-Shot?

Haven’t had the chance. It falls into that weird borderland between single issue (easily read on a given Wednesday) and graphic novel (probably going on the shelf to be read later). Looks nice from what I can see.

If you’re looking for a particular book, you can type the name into the search function and it’ll come up if we’ve already talked about it.

Yeah, okay, that’s a good idea.

Have you read the Legion One-Shot?

I do think some of the subsequent Sentry stories (namely mini-II and Bendis’ Sentry arc) have done little to help the character - and I’ll admit he may not be a good fit for the Avengers (though his introduction in New Avengers was pretty cool) - but I certainly don’t find him lame. He’s an interesting character who hasn’t been written particularly well recently - but one can always hope…

—-

addendum - an example of a Bendis Sentry story I *did* like was the “New Avengers Disassembled” on the moon.

addendum - Martin - I sort of see what you’re saying, and I think that’s the danger of playing Sentry “straight”. However, you’re really overstating the case for being annoyed - nowhere (that I’ve read) has any character described the Sentry as “the best” (except for in the past). And I’ve never seen him be the “dumb rookie” either. Yeah, the writers have made him make some mistakes, but then again, every Marvel character has been making lots of mistakes these days.

Years back when Bendis first said he was going to use him on New Avengers, I was a little excited. I thought the Sentry brought back could fill an interesting role; he would be the grizzled old veteran, who could share experiences of all the adventures he went through in the Silver Age, reminding everyone about the way old school heroism should be done. The fact that he’d also be the most powerful member of the team makes for an interesting character complex.

Instead, we had Bendis using him as a phobiac doof who doesn’t even feel like the “Superman” equivalent he should be. What makes Sentry most annoying is the fact that everyone’s saying “he’s the best hero” and we’ve had absolutely no signs of that. Instead, we’re seeing him as the dumb rookie who doesn’t know how to use his power. What’s up with that? It’s not even consistent with the original Sentry mini-series.

I fully agree that Sentry taking a couple of smacks definitely was the highlight. I couldn’t help but still get that same “non-ending BS” that I got from Civil War. Banners in jail, Herc is a place-holder in the regular book and Rick Jones Hulk is probably “Red” Hulk. And Skaar is coming. OK. It’s different, yes. But is it better? Or even all that interesting?

Not a *great* ending, but not as weak as Civil War, in my opinion. I’m also very interested in Skaar, if only because Pak has done a phenomenal job on Incredible Hulk. I’ve liked a fair amount of World War Hulk, but I’m loving what he’s doing with the Incredible Hulk book.

Man… Secret Invasion Better be good.

Oh, I think it’ll be at *least* as good as House of M.

Yeah, that means I think it’s gonna suck.

Or else sales be damned DC is kicking their ass quality wise. I mean Busiek and Johns on Supes, Morrison on Bats, and Simone on WW?

Honestly? I’m almost totally disconnected from DC these days. All of the books you mention *should* grab me, but they don’t, in part because of their tie-ins to an increasingly deep and mean-spirited continuity and in part because, well, I’m finding them kinda boring. Too soon to judge with Gail’s Wonder Woman, of course, but it’s basically stuck with a status quo formed from a dozen issues of mildly interesting to outright awful (mostly the latter) stories by Jodi Picoult and Allan Heinberg, and I just can’t really care about the current incarnation of the character.

But Marvel, despite the Bendis/JMS corner of it, has Immortal Iron Fist, The Order, New Warriors, Thunderbolts, Captain America, Daredevil, Nova, Annihilation Conquest, Incredible Hulk and X-Men First Class to name only a few. They’ve definitely got a lot more of my attention right now.

Even though my favorite publishers and imprints are probably Archaia, Dark Horse, Oni Press and Vertigo.

Not sure why there’s such hatred for the Sentry. I rather like him (his first mini was great). Nothing since then has reached that level, but then again, nothing has lead me to call for his head.

Well, the main reason I hate The Sentry is that he’s a character who doesn’t fit at Marvel, and the whole point of his story was sort of a meta comics tale. He’s a lame character who was the focus of a great story, but trying to take him out of that story and fit him into the modern Marvel Universe just heightens what a lame character he is.

Marvel doesn’t need a Superman. They have Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, the X-Men, etc. instead. Giving Superman some psychological problems and an ugly costume, then trying to tell us that he’s the most powerful and important hero even though we hadn’t heard of him before a few years ago, doesn’t interest me.

It doesn’t help that he’s one of Bendis’s pet characters. I’m growing to hate most of those, even the ones I used to like such as Power Man or Spider-Woman.

Perhaps a note in future installments as to why the #1’s that aren’t mentioned, aren’t mentioned? Just something short, like a link to those you’ve already done, and a reason why you’re not doing others.

Um… you want us to link to the reviews we’ve already done in every column?

You can see why that might be untenable, right?

If you’re looking for a particular book, you can type the name into the search function and it’ll come up if we’ve already talked about it. That’s probably the best solution on that front. I think the odds of us adding more to do (and thus potentially making this feature go up even later) are pretty slim, honestly, although we’ll always keep it in mind.

Thanks for the kind words on the column!

Listen, I know you’re maybe trying to be helpful, but this really isn’t helping us out. We cover as many as we can, and we don’t (and can’t) hit everything *everyone* considers a new first issue.

I know….sorry.

It’s just that my LCS’s shipping schedule is obviously different from yours, and it’s sometimes a bit unwieldy to sift through the old reviews looking for uncovered books.

Perhaps a note in future installments as to why the #1’s that aren’t mentioned, aren’t mentioned? Just something short, like a link to those you’ve already done, and a reason why you’re not doing others.

I hate bugging you like this. I really do. Which is why I don’t comment that much.

Your column REALLY helps me out. I’m always looking for new things to read (as if I don’t read enough as it is), and you really help me out.

So although I may not speak up every week to say so, thanks a million.

Count me as one of the three Captain Marvel fans. That being said, I have no intention of picking the new book up. He had the best death in comics, why ruin it? The whole situation mystifies me. If even I won’t bother spending money on this series, who exactly is their target audience?

I probably would have been on board for a new Captain Marvel (or even just giving Peter David his old series back), but I can’t imagine being less interested this.

I guess I’m the 4th Captain Mar-Vell fan, and I agree that he should’ve remained dead. Jim Starlin gave the character a great send off, and Marvel should’ve left well enough alone. I’m not going to be buying this series, either.

If there’s such an urgent need for Marvel Comics to have a Captain Marvel character running around their universe, I think they should’ve made Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel the new Captain and given her crappy series a new direction and status quo. Oh well.

And ironically, now Starlin is killing off someone else’s creations in the crap-tacular “Death of the New Gods.” Sad.

Thanks Randy.
I fully agree that Sentry taking a couple of smacks definitely was the highlight. I couldn’t help but still get that same “non-ending BS” that I got from Civil War. Banners in jail, Herc is a place-holder in the regular book and Rick Jones Hulk is probably “Red” Hulk. And Skaar is coming. OK. It’s different, yes. But is it better? Or even all that interesting?
Man… Secret Invasion Better be good.
Or else sales be damned DC is kicking their ass quality wise. I mean Busiek and Johns on Supes, Morrison on Bats, and Simone on WW?
DC’s doing a damn good job of distracting me from today’s world while Marvel usually seems kind of late in reminding me of it.

Actually, with its continuing, character-killing spree (especially “Death of the New Gods” … ugh!), it’s DC that has gotten too “real-world” for me. Not that I have any love for what Bendis is doing over at Marvel. But at least that company has “Immortal Iron Fist,” which makes me giddy because it’s so fun.

Also, I haven’t enjoyed much of Busiek’s “Superman” at all. Though I’ll admit that the Johns-Frank team on “Action Comics” has me intrigued …

I’m not happy about the death of his wife though…that served no purpose at all.

Count me as one of the three Captain Marvel fans. That being said, I have no intention of picking the new book up. He had the best death in comics, why ruin it? The whole situation mystifies me. If even I won’t bother spending money on this series, who exactly is their target audience?

I probably would have been on board for a new Captain Marvel (or even just giving Peter David his old series back), but I can’t imagine being less interested this.

I guess I’m the 4th Captain Mar-Vell fan, and I agree that he should’ve remained dead. Jim Starlin gave the character a great send off, and Marvel should’ve left well enough alone. I’m not going to be buying this series, either.

If there’s such an urgent need for Marvel Comics to have a Captain Marvel character running around their universe, I think they should’ve made Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel the new Captain and given her crappy series a new direction and status quo. Oh well.

Absolutely nothing, not even the potential death of Power Boy, will get me to read that Titans East Special.

And count me as one of the ones who liked WWH #5. There’s no way three Hulk spinoff books are going to last, but that’s probably for a different discussion…