Comics Picks of The Week 08.01.2014

So welcome to the first Comics Picks of The Week for 2014 where I list the comics that were actually to be the first ones released in the new year. Everything that has been revealed so far about 2014 promises an amazing year, I have to say. Well, for the most part at least. There are some things that I don’t quite understand, or like, but eh, it is still going to be a great year I feel.

This past week, Marvel finally launched its All-New Marvel NOW! line with Black Widow, All-New X-Factor and Revolutionary War: Alpha and they aren’t going to stop. New releases will continue throughout March at the least and we will even be getting some of these new titles double-shipped, such as Black Widow #2 which comes out next week. In other news, I had some fun reading DC titles this week, although Detective Comics #27 proved to be quite disappointing for most of the first half. And my disappointment is on several levels, not just with one particular aspect of it. But, more on that in the reviews.

My first graphic novel of the year happened to be the (unfinished) mini-series that Steve Gerber and Matthew Sturges wrote a few years ago, with the former writing the tale of a new Doctor Fate while the latter wrote about the supervillain Eclipse. Only eight issues of this double-sized series were released, but I have to say that I definitely enjoyed it and based on that, my graphic novel reading is off to a good start.

Anyway, here’s another edition of this new feature. Full reading list, as always, is available here and all my comics reviews are available here.

12 Days of Best SFF Characters of 2013: Day #4

For this new seasonal list of the best SFF characters I’ve read this year, my fourth pick consists of some more DC leading ladies, the Birds of Prey from Gail Simone’s first run on the title, with art by Ed Benes. At the time the team consisted of Barbara Gordon aka Oracle and Dinah Lance aka Black Canary. Helena Bertinelli aka the Huntress joined them with Gail Simone coming on to the title.

Hit the break to see why I picked this character.

Beware the Batman #1 by Ivan Cohen (Comics Review)

In a bizarre coincidence recently, DC Comics launched Ivan Cohen and Luciano Vecchio’s Beware the Batman #1 just at the same time as Cartoon Network took the show Beware the Batman off-air, with no apparent hope for a return. The show had apparently had low ratings and a cancellation was undoubtedly due, but the suddenness of the fact has left a lot of people dissatisfied. Particularly since Cartoon Network did the same thing last year with Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series. And this eventually led to a cancellation of the respective comics as well.

DC seems to be in some kind of an abusive relationship with Cartoon Network that it can’t get out of, given the latter’s behaviour and attitude with respect to the former’s television line-up. It sends the wrong message to fans that the shows have a very limited window in which to get on board or forget about the whole thing. I can only hope that these recent events don’t lead to a cancellation of the Beware the Batman comic, since it just launched, for one and two, it wasn’t all that bad really.