DC Solicitations for July 2005

Various thoughts on Previews:

ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER #1 - Everyone else'll be buying it, so I might as well.

ABSOLUTE BATMAN: HUSH OVERSIZED HC - I have no interest in this, but it gives me hope that we'll eventually see a New Frontier Absolute Edition.

GOTHAM CENTRAL #32 - I'm gonna miss Brubaker.

SUPERMAN books - Only three months in, and already a big crossover. It seems that the old Brainiac is back, though. I never really warmed to B13.

LEX LUTHOR: MAN OF STEEL #5 - DC better not dawdle in putting out a tpb of this. I want it now.

JLA CLASSIFIED #10 - Maybe I'll change my mind later, but right now I think I'll be leaving when Giffen's arc is through.

JSA CLASSIFIED #1 - It annoys me that a drawn-out JSA subplot is getting resolved in another series. On the plus side, this series is less expensive than the JLA one.

KINETIC TP - Eight issues of material for $10. I'm there.

Bypassing National Security for only $1.99

A short play, adapted from Monday's 24 episode:

CAMPER: “There are headlights coming right toward me.”

JACK: “That’s because there’s a tracker in the briefcase. It’s hidden, and designed not to be found.”

CAMPER: “So what am I supposed to do?”

JACK: “Do you have a compass?”

CAMPER: “Yeah.”

JACK: “Run it over the briefcase and you’ll find the tracker.”

CAMPER: “I thought you said it was designed not to be found?”

JACK: “Do you want to live or not?”

CAMPER: “OK, I found it. But how am I supposed to deactiviate this high-tech tracker?”

JACK: “Do you have a pointy rock?”

Hail to the Chief

It looks like neither one will appear again in their respective series, but last week gave viewers an interesting casting coincidence.

On The West Wing, Ed O'Neill guest-starred as a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for President.

On 24, Geoff Pierson gave what was likely his last performance as President John Keeler.

Thus, in the same week, the dads from both Married...With Children and Unhappily Ever After were shown to be Presidential material. That old adage about anyone being capable of becoming President can work in unexpected ways.

Pull List Thoughts

Here's my comic pull list as it stands now. As for the status of the books on it:

Akiko - Hasn't had a new issue in a year.
Astro City - "The Dark Age" starts in a few months.
The Ballad of Sleeping Beauty - Just shipped its final issue.
Captain America and the Falcon - One more issue and it's over.
Ex Machina
The Flash
Gotham Central - I wonder if Brubaker leaving will harm sales.
JLA - Dropping this after Busiek's arc.
JLA: Classified - Will reevaluate after Giffen's arc.
JSA
Planetary - Ships occasionally.
Plastic Man - Who knows how long this'll last.
Serenity - Three issues, starting in July.
Supernatural Law - Hasn't had a new issue in nine months.
Ultimate Spider-Man

So although there are 15 titles on the list, one has already ended, one ends later this month, and one I plan to drop after next month. One may be dropped after June. Three have unpredictable shipping schedules. And two may be cancelled by this time next year.

This means I should probably consider some new titles to try out.