Welcome to Down the Line, our monthly look at Previews! Co-written by Randy Lander and Dan Grendell, each Down the Line looks at what’s coming out in comics (and manga) a few months down the road.

This installment covers the July Previews for comics due to ship out September 2008 or later. Remember, especially with the indy books, that pre-ordering is your friend, and the best way to make sure you get the books you want. Thanks to the increasing prevalence of advance solicitation, that some of the books here won’t actually ship until October or later, but the pre-orders are still due by the end of July.

As always, the Previews rundown is in alphabetical order, rather than the order used in the catalog. To facilitate those seeking more information, each entry will include the page number of the solicitation. Dan and I will both offer up a “Top Five Shiny New Things to Watch Out For,” also in alphabetical order, and then we’ll provide a rundown of “Other Stuff That Caught Our Eye.” The focus in this column is always going to be on jumping-on points and new stuff, so if you’re wondering “Where’s Fables?” or something along those lines, we still love it, we just don’t want to keep harping on it.

Randy’s Top Five Shiny Things To Watch Out For:

Crogan’s Vengeance HC (Oni Press):
Randy: I’ve been looking forward to this since I first met the writer/artist, Chris Schweizer, in San Diego last year. This is an ambitious project, as he’s going to do graphic novels about the Crogan family, a fictitious family for whom he’s worked up a family tree, and the use of descendants and ancestors and such will allow him to jump around in time and genre. Schweizer is an immensely talented cartoonist (you might have seen his buzzed-about Smokers of the Marvel Universe), and that plus an interesting concept is enough to intrigue me. But even better, the first volume is about “Catfoot” Crogan, a sailor in the age of piracy. You can check out a 26-page preview HERE. (page 314)

Dan: This is a really cool idea for a project. It allows Schweizer to tell stories about different people and eras while still tying them together with strands that the reader can follow so they still feel linked. I dig it.

Marvel Apes #1-2 (Marvel Comics):
Randy: Scoff if you must (and I know, you must), but I’m really looking forward to this project. People have said that this feels more like a goofy DC event than Marvel, or that this is a weird, weak attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the fading Marvel Zombies, or even that monkeys and superheroes are just kind of a feeble joke at this point. And they’re right, but here are the three reasons why I’m looking forward to Marvel Apes:

1 - The Gibbon, perennial third-string Spidey villain with a monkey theme, finds his way into an alternate monkey-powered Marvel Universe. C’mon, that’s potential comedy gold.

2 - Karl Kesel is writing, and he’s a guy who has got a real handle on solid, old school, fun superhero storytelling.

3 - It’s giving us monkey variant covers. Monkey. Variant. Covers. Hells yeah. (page M34)

Dan: Uh, yeah. I lack the monkey love of many comics fans, but the combo of Kesel and the Gibbon will at least get me to check this out. Some of those alternate covers do look really good, though.

Northlanders Vol. 1: Sven the Returned TP (DC Comics/Vertigo):
Randy: I’d recommend this book regardless of price tag, because Brian Wood’s tale of an angry young Viking returning to his home has been terrific reading, getting better with every issue, and Davide Gianfelice is another great artistic find for Vertigo. But this gets the bargain $10 first Vertigo trade price, even though it’s an eight issue opening arc. That’s just over a dollar an issue, which is a tremendous vote of confidence in the series and an absolute steal of a price. (page 113)

Dan: I lost interest in this series after the first few issues, but at that price I’ll pick up this trade and check out this first arc as a whole story. I’m pretty sure it’ll read better that way- Wood’s stuff usually does- and ten bucks is a steal.

Veeps HC (Top Shelf):
Randy: Now, normally, when you say to me “It’s a story about all the American vice presidents” and the next words aren’t “teaming up through the magic of time travel to battle dinosaurs and robots,” I’d pretty much blow you off. However, Top Shelf’s new hardcover, which explores the various foibles and quirks of the vice presidents through the ages, who were probably way closer to the top office in American government than they should have been, sounds like a lot of fun. (page 346)

Dan: Given that our current VP gets to shoot people in the face with a shotgun and then have the victim apologize for it, I’m not real sure I want to know what the other VP’s have been able to get away with. Was John C. Calhoun a cannibal? Did Garret Hobart run an underground midget-racing operation? Did Charles Curtis sleep in a bed full of fresh tuna? Do I really want to know?

Warhammer Volume 2: Condemned by Fire TP (Boom! Studios):
Randy: As I write this, I’ve only read the first two issues of this limited series, but I’ve loved them both, and I can’t imagine the creative team is going to drop the ball on the last three. I’ve reviewed the first two issues here on the site, but the quick hit version is this: Badass demon hunter battles demons, chaos cultists, undead and more with flintlock pistol and sword in dour dark fantasy world. (page 225)

Dan’s Top Five Shiny Things To Watch Out For:

Tezuka’s Black Jack V.1 HC (Vertical Inc):
Dan: Oh man, I have been waiting for Vertical to publish this. There have been a couple volumes of this 17 book series published in the past, but Vertical does it up right. This Previews exclusive edition has an unpublished 20-page story and is limited to 1500 copies. I can’t quite figure out if the exclusive is the extra story or that it’s hardcover, but either way, this series about a mysterious wandering surgeon and his medical miracles is a must own for Tezuka fans and manga purists. (page 350)

Randy: I’m a big Tezuka fan, but I haven’t bought a ton of his stuff… just some of Phoenix, Buddha, Astro Boy, some of the biggies. But I’m pretty intrigued by this one, partly because I have a love for the sheer crazy concept of “A surgeon with the hands of God!” and partly because Vertical always does beautiful hardcover editions.

Jack Kirby’s The Demon Omnibus HC (DC Comics):
Dan: This is one of Kirby’s DC books that I’ve been most looking forward to being collected. I’ve always liked the Demon character, but I’ve never had the chance to read these earliest stories. Fifty bucks will get all sixteen issues of Kirby goodness, and I honestly can’t wait. (page 83)

Randy: I’ve never been a huge Demon fan, but I’ve bought all the Kirby omnibuses so far and haven’t been disappointed, so I’ll probably pick this one up too. But where’s my damn Kamandi Omnibus?!

Tamara Drewe GN (Houghton Mifflin Company):
Dan: Posy Simmonds is a name better known in Great Britain than elsewhere, which is a damn shame, as she’s a brilliant creator. A cartoonist and writer for The Guardian newspaper, she is a satirist, and her work is thought-provoking and entertaining. This particular book, about a newspaper columnist who disturbs life at a writer’s retreat and the consequences, has been available in Britain for about a year, but I believe this is the first time it is getting an American release. Simmonds combines prose with a watercolor-style cartoon art to tell a magnificent story, and I’m glad to see it finally get wider availability. (page 293)

Samurai #1 (Marvel Comics):
Randy: Wow, the artwork on this Soleil/Marvel project looks gorgeous… but it’s all about the samurai, which is Dan’s area of expertise, so I’m going to turn this one over to him. Dan? (page M6)

Dan: Well, first of all, you’re right. It looks gorgeous. Second, the solicit doesn’t say when this is set, but it does say a samurai general is intending to betray the Emperor. During most of the period where the samurai existed, the Emperor was a figurehead with little power and there wasn’t much to betray, so I’d guess it takes place in either the late Heian period, from around 1000 to 1185, or during the short-lived Kemmu Restoration, from 1333 to 1336, when the Emperor was actually in charge. There’s also mention of a 13th prophet, which sounds like a western idea, but could also be Shinto- I’m fairly sure Buddhism doesn’t have prophets, though I could easily be wrong. No matter when it’s set or who this prophet guy is, though, I’m intrigued, and looking forward to reading this bad boy.

Randy: And that’s why I handed it over to Dan. My synopsis would be along the lines of “It has samurai, and I think samurai are neato.”

The Good Neighbors V.1: Kin (Graphix):
Dan: From Holly Black, the author of The Spiderwick Chronicles, comes this story of a daughter who discovers her mother is a fairy after she disappears. Not only that, she is trapped in the faerie realm, and the girl must learn their ways and fight dark forces to get her back. That sounds pretty cool, but the real draw for me is the artist- Ted Naifeh, creator of Courtney Crumrin and Polly and the Pirates. If anyone can bring the proper look to a lone girl in a creepy faerie realm, it’s him. (page 292)

Randy: I missed this on first pass, glad you caught it. Naifeh’s art is always a treat, and Graphix hasn’t really had a miss yet.

Other stuff that caught our eye:

Afro Samurai V.1 (Seven Seas Entertainment):
Dan: You may have seen the anime of this- it’s pretty funky. It’s almost like a blaxploitation samurai film. This is the manga that kicked it all off, and the art looks pretty amazing. It’s done in black, white, red, and gray, but the grays are complex enough that Seven Seas is publishing it in full color to show their full range. I’ve gotta admit, I want to see more. (page 326)

The Age of the Sentry #1 (Marvel Comics):
Randy: It’s no secret we’ve got a lot of Sentry-hate here at Panteon HQ, but looking at the talent on this miniseries, I think I’ll probably be reading it. Jeff Parker and Paul Tobin writing? Nick Dragotta on art? Dave Bullock and Michael Cho on covers? The only name I’m not already a huge fan of is Ramon Rosanas, because I don’t know his work yet. I mean, I’d rather these guys were working on almost any other character, but that’s too much talent to pass up, even if they are working on the Marvel character I’d most like to see die permanently. (page M62)

Dan: I, on the other hand, have zero interest in the Sentry, and even with this talent I have no plans to read this. People I like working on a project I don’t care about is still a project I don’t care about.

American Widow HC (Villard Books):
Randy: This one has all the hallmarks of a critical success with bookstore appeal, an autobiographical graphic novel about a woman who lost her husband soon after they married because he was in one of the towers on 9-11. It’s gotten some buzz, and it’s probably going to be an important work, but I can’t help that when I read the solicit, I mostly think “This sounds really depressing.” (page 350)

Annihilation Classic HC (Marvel Comics):
Randy: What a weird, and kind of cool, project. Collecting appearances of the Marvel cosmic characters who have become favorites since Annihilation from various decades, this has the first issues of Nova (’70s), Quasar (’80s), Marvel Premiere, Marvel Spotlight… and Logan’s Run?! Hands up, anyone who ever expected an issue of Logan’s Run to get a hardcover reprint. At any rate, it’s a weird, but generally pretty good, set of reprints, but the gem of the bunch is the Bill Mantlo/Mike Mignola Rocket Raccoon miniseries, in its entirety, which is what will probably get me to lay down the $30 for the book. Now if they’d only reprint the Starlin Warlock stuff, most of which I’ve never read, even in an Essential format, that’d be great. (page M94)

Dan: I’m all over this book. I already have some of these stories, including the Logan’s Run one, believe it or not. It’s a backup that has Drax and Thanos throwing down over a flower, and I have it in the Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos trade. Even so, that Rocket Raccoon mini is pure gold, and the rest of this stuff is great too. Damn you Annihilation, for taking my money long after you ended.

Archer & Armstrong: First Impressions HC (Valiant Entertainment):
Randy: I was sent a review copy of the X-O Manowar hardcover from Valiant, and I can report that their production values are pretty sharp, akin to the Marvel Premiere hardcovers. I’d wish for oversized collections, of course, but other than that, it was a pretty nice package. This is a similar package, collecting the first seven issues of Archer & Armstrong, which was one of the best Valiant series, a buddy comedy about a drunken lout of an immortal and a more balanced, Eastern philosophy type martial artist. To be completely honest, I think they’d be better served putting out cheaper, bigger softcover collections with larger chunks of story to re-ignite interest in this universe, but if you’ve been intrigued by what you’ve heard, or if the Valiant nostalgia bug has bitten you, I definitely recommend these collections in general, and Archer & Armstrong specifically. (page 348)

Big Hero 6 #1 (Marvel Comics):
Dan: Big Hero 6 is to Japan what Alpha Flight is to Canada. They first showed up in a special in the late Nineties and later in the Alpha Flight title, and it looks like this time they get their own mini-series with Chris Claremont writing and a couple new members. I like the idea of this team, David Nakayama’s art looks great, and Claremont can still do a fun story. I’m looking forward to this. (page M18)

Randy: I like the concept of Big Hero 6, I like Nakayama’s art, but this team has never had a writer who sparked any enthusiasm in me. It was created by Scott Lobdell, and now it’s being written by Chris Claremont? Bleh. Give me Fred Chao from Johnny Hiro or Brandon Graham or someone who can really nail the weird Japanese pop cultural influence and the superhero, and I’d be interested. Hell, give me Warren Ellis in Nextwave mode. But standard superhero tropes just don’t seem to realize the potential of this team.

BPRD Volume 9: 1946 (Dark Horse):
Randy: I don’t know that there’s much more I can say about how great BPRD is, but there are still people out there not reading it, so let me once again call attention to how awesome the BPRD series is. This one’s a little off the beaten path, being the story of a pre-Hellboy (rather than post-Hellboy) Bureau as Professor Bruttenholm (basically Hellboy’s dad) teams up with a scary Russian demon girl and American GIs to battle a secret Nazi vampire project. (page 38)

Dan: I love BPRD, but this is the first time it has ever actually creeped me out. Something about the way Mignola wrote and Joshua Dysart drew that little girl just made me shiver. The rest of the story was awesome, too. I’m very much looking forward to reading it again as a collection.

Civil War: House of M #1 (Marvel Comics):
Randy: My interest in House of M, and specifically in seeing the details of what led up to House of M, is somewhere near zero. However… the previous House of M miniseries by Christos Gage, House of M: Avengers, was fantastic reading, and so I’ll probably give this Magneto vs. the world miniseries a shot. I can’t help but feel, however, that it’d be cooler to give Gage his own alternate universe to play with from the ground-up, rather than force him to work with the shoddy leavings of a weak Bendis-penned crossover. (page M27)

DC Universe: Decisions #1-2 (DC Comics):
Randy: Words cannot express what a horrible idea I think this is. Giving political affiliations to the DC superheroes shrinks them, makes them less relatable, not more and just seems like long-term, hard to undo damage. I do not want to find out that Superman votes Republican. I mean, I credit DC for finding a right-wing and left-wing writing team (although I’m more amused by the notion of an actually antagonistic Chuck Dixon-Greg Rucka team), and at least they didn’t call it “Crisis on Infinite Polls” or something like that, but… yikes. Just seems wrong-headed.

Oh, and one more thing… we had a historic Democratic race this year, with a black man and a woman as the potential candidates. So what does DC offer up as their liberal candidate? Another fuckin’ white guy. Seriously, when did the fictional DC universe become less imaginative than the real world? (page 58)

Dan: Why wasn’t the DC candidate a black woman? That would have one-upped the real world and not even seemed all that far-fetched, considering the fact that in the DCU a super-villain has been president. Hell, why not Amanda Waller?

Dead of Night Featuring Devil Slayer #1 (Marvel Comics):
Dan: I’m not generally in favor of character recreations, and I like the old Devil-Slayer, but this looks really cool. I’ve seen some of Chris Samnee’s character designs for it, and they are sweet. The writer is horror novelist Brian Keene, and the idea of a soldier in Iraq running into actual demons in the cradle of civilization is one I dig. Devil-Slayer is a character that would work well in a darker horror book, and it looks like he’s getting it. (page M81)

El Diablo #1 (DC Comics):
Randy: I have an inexplicable fondness for obscure DC hero El Diablo. Part of that is down to Mike Parobeck’s work on the El Diablo pinup in DC Who’s Who way back when… actually, that might be all of it. My interest in this miniseries featuring a new version of the character is likewise artist driven, as Phil Hester and Ande Parks (who kicked much ass on Green Arrow) are doing the art this time out. That’s all I need to know, but for those who need more, this has an interesting premise as well, about a guy who might be a ganglord or might be a Robin Hood type. (page 64)

Four Eyes #1 (Image Comics):
Randy: The tale of a young boy who enters the dangerous world of training dragons for the fighting rings in Brooklyn during the Great Depression. Wow. What must it be like to live in Joe Kelly’s head? This is another truly bizarre premise, but it’s also an interesting one, and the art by Max Fiumara looks beautiful. (page 138)

Dan: I picture Joe Kelly’s head as being like the house in, well, the movie House, with crazy doors to people’s nightmares.

Randy: So that’s what happened to William Katt! He’s living in Joe Kelly’s head!

Galveston #1 (Boom! Studios):
Randy: The tale of a famous pirate who ends his days in Texas with Jim Bowie sounds fantastic, but it’s actually a true fact, and that’s what Galveston is based on. Sounds like fun, and Tom Peyer’s got an eye for these kind of fun, quirky projects. There’s no listing for who’s doing the art, but the covers look pretty good, at least. (page 221)

Dan: Here’s a little-known historical fact: Jean Lafitte, the aforementioned pirate, and James Bowie were in the slave trade together in Galveston. Lafitte and his brother would get the slaves and sell them cheap to Bowie, who would report them as having been found in the possession of smugglers, collect a reward for them, then use it to re-buy them- basically laundering them. He then re-sold them at higher prices. I wonder if Peyer’s gonna go into that?

Randy: Laundering slaves… ah, Texas, my adopted home state, what a proud and noble heritage you have! Sheesh.

Iron Man: DVD Digital Comic Book Archives (Marvel Comics):
Randy: This, and the similar Hulk release this month, are kind of cool. 50 issues of comics in digital format for only $30 seems like a pretty good deal. Until you realize that there’s no mention of whether it’s an open PDF standard or some annoying DRM-ed and difficult to read format, and that before Marvel terminated their license with GIT, you could get 30 or 40 years’ worth of comics for $50. So these are cool and all, but given what’s already been done, it feels more like a step back than a step forward. (page M85)

Dan: Well, it says it includes “exclusive Marvel Digital Comics Reader versions” of the books. I very strongly suspect that isn’t a PDF. Unless you are in love with that particular reader, I’d do what I did and hunt down the GIT collections, which are PDFs and include a whole ton more books. There are also GIT versions for the FF, Silver Surfer, X-Men, Captain America, Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man, and Ultimate X-Men. I may even be forgetting a couple. Unfortunately, they lost the license just before they did Thor.

Legendary GN (Spark Unlimited):
Randy: An art thief unwittingly opens Pandora’s Box in the modern world, unleashing monsters. It’s a solid premise, and the writer on this original graphic novel is Mark Waid, which bodes well. The only nervousness I have is that it’s based on a videogame, and a videogame I’ve never heard of at that, but then, you could say the same thing for Image’s Dead Space, which has turned out to be a pretty entertaining read. (page 330)

Monsterpocalypse #1 (Desperado Publishing):
Randy: This is based on a new collectible miniatures game about giant monster battles, which I’m kind of excited to see. Even if I didn’t have the tie-in interest, though, I’d be interested in a giant monster battle comic, especially since I’ve seen a few teasers of art and some of the monsters, and it sounds like they’re incorporating everything from Godzilla to martian invaders to giant robots. Shogun Warriors and Godzilla fans take note! (page 261)

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Vol 1 GN (Del Rey):
Randy: In TV, the legal drama genre bores me to tears, because it’s been done to death. But a manga based on legal drama videogame Phoenix Wright? Now that sounds interesting, and not just because everything I’ve read about the game leads me to expect this to be the legal battle equivalent of something over-the-top and crazy like Iron Wok Jan. (page 260)

Dan: OBJECTION!!!! Well, okay, maybe not so much. My exposure to Phoenix Wright and his courtroom archenemy Miles Edgeworth has pretty much been limited to screenshots of the videogame and funny mashups made from them, but from what I can tell there’s more to it than just two guys yelling at each other. Even if there isn’t, well, that can be pretty funny.

Prince of Persia GN (:01 First Second):
Dan: Based loosely on the video games, this looks just plain gorgeous. The story is by the actual creator of the games, and ties into them, but it’s the artwork that has my attention. Well, that and the publisher- First Second has an eye for good books and great quality, so anything they produce is worth a look. For video game fans and art lovers alike, this looks to be a great catch. (page 285)

Randy: The artwork here looks gorgeous, and First Second has great production values. I’ve only played a tiny amount of these games, but it seems like a setting and story rich in potential.

Pulp Tales One-Shot (Boom! Studios):
Randy: Boom! has done a pretty good job with their themed anthologies of zombies, Cthulhu, pirates, ninjas, etc. I’d be interested in this one based on their track record and the pulp genre alone, but it’s also worth noting the involvement of creators like Joshua Hale Fialkov, Kody Chamberlain and Chris Samnee, all of whom have done books I’ve really liked. On top of that, it’s a benefit for talented artist Josh Medors, who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Good cause, good creators, interesting subject matter? Sounds like a can’t miss for me. (page 221)

Secret Six #1 (DC Comics):
Dan: Gail Simone’s team of renegade villains gets its own ongoing series with her Birds of Prey counterpart Nicola Scott on art. There are two new mystery members on the team, and I must admit I’m curious who they are. There has always been an Apokoliptian, but given the reaping that crew has taken, that seems unlikely. In any case, I’m excited to see this creative team back together again, and looking forward to their adventures. (page 63)

Randy: Maybe Orion will be in it as the Apokoliptian rep. I mean, I know he’s dead, but he’s been killed at least twice, so maybe he’s like Kenny from South Park.

Solanin GN (Viz):
Randy: The story of a recent college grad and her difficulties adjusting to the real world is hardly rich, untapped territory, but that doesn’t mean interesting stories can’t be told in the genre, and I like that this seems like a rare one-volume self-contained manga, and has an art style that reminds me at a glance of Becky Cloonan’s stuff.

Mostly, though, I mention it to have an excuse to talk about the new Viz section in Previews, which looks like it was beaten severely with an ugly stick until it was deemed to be almost entirely unusable. Seriously, the new stuff and resolicits are barely broken out, the organization isn’t alphabetical but instead by themes you’d only find intuitive if you actually worked at Viz, and many of the solicits don’t even have any information in them beyond the title and volume number. Plus, what is that font, like 6 point type? (page 361)

Solomon Kane #1 (Dark Horse):
Randy: Boom! might have beat Dark Horse to the punch here, as Warhammer: Condemned by Fire is pretty much everything I’d want from an evil stompin’ Puritan comic like Solomon Kane. However, Dark Horse has done well by Howard’s other creations, the art by newcomer Mario Guevara looks pretty good and I have to admit, it’s not like the “ass-kicker for the Lord” subgenre is flooded or anything. Kind of surprised that editor Scott Allie took up the writing chores himself rather than bringing in somebody else to write (how awesome would a Joe Lansdale Kane series have been?), but Allie’s a great editor and a good writer, so it’s still pretty promising. (page 26)

Spooks: Omega Team #1 (Devil’s Due):
Randy: I wasn’t all that wild about the first issue of Spooks, which was spun off of concepts from Larry Hama and R.A. Salvatore. But I do like the idea of a special ops team battling the supernatural, and Hama’s actually writing this one, with Tim Seeley on art, so I’ll give it another shot. Hama is the go-to guy on special ops action like this, so it should be fun. (page 241)

The Stand: Captain Trips #1 (Marvel Comics):
Randy: Back up the empty money truck, Marvel, here comes another mother-lode from the Stephen King adaptations! Beyond the near-guaranteed commercial success, though, I’m also interested in this book because I had a great fondness for The Stand TV miniseries, and I love the idea of seeing more of King’s apocalyptic mega-story explored in comics. Throw in artwork by Mike Perkins, and I’ll definitely be giving this first issue a shot. (page M3)

Dan: I had originally heard this was going to be released as a graphic novel, and I’d honestly rather they did that, but either way this looks to be pretty cool. It’s gonna be long, too- this is just the first of several minis, I’d bet.

Street Fighter: Tribute GN (Udon Entertainment):
Randy: Even though I’m a bigger Soul Calibur fan than a fan of Street Fighter, I’ve got enough love for the characters to be intrigued by this art book from Udon. There are almost 300 pages of illustrations from a whole bunch of artists, including standouts like Bryan O’Malley. I’m not sure I’m interested enough at $40 for a softcover… but Udon has done nice art books in the past, including their Art of Capcom book, so I’d guess this is going to look terrific. (page 348)

Warhammer: Crown of Destruction #1 (Boom! Studios):
Randy: Boom! seems to be broadening their talent pool for Warhammer, and they’ve got up-and-coming indy writer (and Warhammer fan) Kieron Gillen writing this one for them, about the ratlike Skaven going up against one of the memorable characters from Forge of War. I’m finding previously unknown depths of love for the Warhammer fantasy universe in myself, and I’m excited to see this one as well. I mean, it features the phrase “before the thin shield of human steel shatters beneath an irresistible hail of warpstone bullets” in the solicitation. I don’t even know what that really means, but it sounds awesome. (page 225)

Wolverine: Saudade & Roar (Marvel Comics):
Randy: OK, I know he’s popular, but… Marvel? For the love of God, please stop flooding my shelves with extra Wolverine one-shots. You’re de-valuing the character and lowering sales on his other books. He’s got three ongoing series already, does he really need one or two one-shots each month as well? (page M76-77)

X-Men: Magneto - Testament #1 (Marvel Comics):
Randy: I’ve gotta be honest, I don’t know that I have a lot of interest in reading a miniseries about a pre-powered Magneto in a concentration camp, but… when it’s written by Greg Pak, I at least want to give it a look, and the preview art by Carmine Di Giandomenico looks beautiful. (page M73)

Dan: I find Magneto to be one of the more compelling characters in the X-Men ballpark, and his origins have always intrigued me, so this is actually right up my alley. I’m at least as interested in why he does what he does as I am in his mutant powers.