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CBR has an advanced look at Marvel’s February Solicitations and there was one that particularly caught my attention.

X-Force #1

It wasn’t the image that snagged me. No, it was the solicit text, which reads:

“ANGELS AND DEMONS” Part 1 (of 6)
There are lines that the X-Men have sworn never to cross. But after the shocking events of “Messiah Complex,” Cyclops realizes that some enemies need to be dealt with permanently… and the X-Men can never know about it. Enter WOLVERINE, WARPATH, X-23 and WOLFSBANE…X-FORCE.”

When I first read about this series, I suspected that this team was assembled to hunt someone down. I thought that maybe they were assembled to find the missing mutant-baby-messiah, but was I wrong.

This is a kill squad and I couldn’t love the idea more.

Thoughts?

Checking out Diamond’s list and here’re the goodies for this week for me.

INVINCIBLE #46

“Invincible and Rex Splode haven’t always seen eye-to-eye but when Dupli-Kate’s twin brother Multi-Paul comes to town, more than a little angry about his sister’s death, the two of them find a little common ground on which to relate - common ground called KICKING ASS!”

WALKING DEAD #44

“Everything is changing – starting now! It’s all been leading up to this, folks! Nobody is safe. Nothing will ever be the same. The biggest, most explosive story-arc in the history of this series starts right here, in this issue.”

CAPTAIN AMERICA #32

“The Falcon and Black Widow hunt together! Can they save the Winter Soldier from becoming a tool of the Red Skull again? And if they do, will he just go kill Tony Stark? And what of Agent 13, Sharon Carter, who shot the final bullets into her true love, Steve Rogers, and has seen her life fall apart since then? Those answers, much action, and more!”

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE CHOSEN #4

“Captain America faces the toughest challenge of his life as he becomes the subject of another government super-soldier experiment…a very different experiment than the one which created the Sentinel of Liberty. Or is it? What does this mysterious procedure have to do with U.S. Marine Corporal James Newman, currently deployed in Afghanistan? Will Newman be able to save the lives of his brothers in arms with the help of the Star-Spangled Avenger? Will Captain America survive the ordeal?”

HALO UPRISING #2

“Master Chief is captured and interrogated by Covenant forces. While back on Earth, a star-crossed human couple tries to stay alive as every single thing they hold dear is taken from them. Earth is falling to alien invaders, and no one knows what or where the mysterious artifact known as “the Key” is. The human race is at the brink of destruction—can the bravery of a few turn the tide?”

IRON MAN DIRECTOR OF SHIELD ANNUAL #1

“S.H.I.E.L.D. has a problem, and her name is Madame Hydra. The leader of the world’s deadliest terror organization is also the lawful ruler of Wolverine’s old stomping ground: the island nation of Madripoor. Unable to depose her openly, S.H.I.E.L.D. sends in its best man to secretly take her down. His name? Stark…Tony Stark. But with his Extremis powers blocked and his Iron Man armor hovering in orbit for emergencies only, can the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. survive against enemies like Bloodscream and Roughhouse, who’ve nearly killed Wolverine himself?”

WOLVERINE ORIGINS #19

“Logan, Captain America, Bucky and Nick Fury continue their assault on Baron Von Strucker’s stronghold…but whose side is Logan really on? One of the most requested stories in Marvel history rolls on, giving readers not only the details of the first meeting between Captain America and Wolverine, but also an insight into the first time Wolverine realizes that he, like Captain America, has the power to change his own destiny. But will he?”

THE BOYS #12

“The plot thickens as Little Nina’s backers are revealed, and the Boys dig deeper into the mystery of the exploding supes. Hughie learns the delicate art of prisoner interrogation, and Vas lets slip the secret of the Black Skull Vodka… in Glorious Five Year Plan, part two.”

It’s not a lot, but it’s what I like!

Tell me what’s on your list for this week!

While ADD can be a bit, oh, how shall we say, passionate about his distaste for the short lived Wildstorm series, Highwaymen, I did like the artist, Lee Garbett.

While perusing the NEWSARAMA.COM: DC COMICS SOLICITATIONS FOR FEBRUARY 2008, I found some good news, at least for me:

Lee Garbett will take over the art duties of Midnighter starting with #16.

“The new art team of Lee Garbett (HIGHWAYMEN) & Rick Burchett (BATMAN/HUNTRESS) debuts! There’s a new guy in town: Assassin8, a contract killer so deadly he’ll even give the Midnighter a run for his money - and his target this time is the Midnighter himself.”Why I like this?1. I like Garbett’s artwork. It’s still in it’s infancy, but it reminds me of Frank Quitely’s style. It’s clean, crisp, and open for a lot of potential.

2. Midnighter has been seriously suffering from having a regular series artist. While the fill-in writers and artists have been nice (Brian K. Vaughan, Brian Stelfreeze, Darick Roberston), I started buying this series for three sole reasons:a) I like the character.

b) Garth Ennis was writing it.

c) Chris Sprouse was drawing it and then he fell off the face of the earth for some reason. In fact, I began buying the series primarily because Sprouse was the artist.

Imagine my disappointment in the months to come.

Truth be told, Highwaymen didn’t do much for me, but I did like the art. I’m glad to see Lee become the regular artist on Midnighter and hopefully begin to see some cohesion between wirter and artist on the series.

But I’d still love for Garth and Chris to come back.

Friend of ComicHacks.com, ADD at ComicBookGalaxy, has posted his 2007 Year In Review which includes his best and worst of 2007.

First, let me say that I’m just not really sure that it was a great year for comics (I accidentally typed “vomics” and, truth be told, that’s what I feel that we, as readers, were exposed to all too often this year) because I still feel disappointed in several ways:

- Late comics (I know, that’s no surprise)

- Comics that should have been GREAT but just weren’t (All Star Batman & Robin, The Authority, Wildcats, anyone?)

- Too much mediocrity or just plain crap (52, Countdown, or simply insert just about any DC title here)

Hammering on DC, ain’t I?

To be honest with you, there was so much that I was disappointed with in 2007 that I was looking forward to announcements more than actual comic book releases in the hopes that there would be something that I’d want to get or at least try. Also, with my time and income being so limted by nursing school, I had to really like what I was spending my limited funds on.

Marvel definitely proved this year that they have no idea what they want to do or need to do with the Ultimate Universe and now it appears that the entire universe will be placed (mistakenly?) in the hands of Jeph Loeb for a complete overhaul. He’ll also be writing what was once my favorite Ultimate title, The Ultimates, and I’ll check it out, but it won’t be for the writing. I’m a MAD fan from way back and from what I’ve seen of U3, this looks to be his best artwork ever. I’d give Marvel kudos for bringing MAD back to comics, but I think that’d really belong to Loeb more than Marvel. I’m not sure what it is with McGuinness, MAD, or Liefeld, but these guys seem to absolutely love Loeb while I have yet to be impressed with any comics that he’s written. Maybe U3 will change that…we’ll see.

DC seems to have bitten of more than they can chew from their own kitchen table. The obnoxious advent of 52, all of the different seemingly cumbersome Countdown titles, the major editorial screwups with Wonder Woman and the All Star titles, thinking they knew what to do with The Boys, and, finally, seeming to have no clue what to do with Wildstorm or how to restart it (they’ve basically handled Wildstorm just like Marvel has handled the Ultimate universe for the past year) has led me to believe that there’s been very good reason that Marvel has kicked the crap out of them for the majority of the year in terms of sales and creativity. Marvel and DC have their times of being absolutely clueless, but, I gotta tell ya, DC took the cake this year.

Avatar and Dynamite were the breakouts this year. Avatar got me hook, line, and sinker with The Chronicles of Wormwood and then just kept pulling with Black Summer and Streets of Glory. Dynamite scooped up The Boys and now have a major series coming with Superpowers by Ross and Krueger that will put them on the map like they’ve never been before.

Anyway, back to ADD’s lists of the good and the bad of 2007. I haven’t read all of the books that he’s listed in the good and the bad, so I’ll comment on the ones that I have read.

Crecy - As much as I like Ellis, Crecy did nothing for me. I barely even remember that I read it and all that I can remember about that experience was that the art gave me a headache. Not the art by itself, but the major contrast of all of the artistic detail on plain black and white that just hurt my eyes to look at.

Criminal - Criminal has been good, and I buy it, but it’s not a must read title to me like Sleeper was. Still, it’s one of the best books being released by Marvel right now and it’s still on my pull list. I recommend that you add it to yours.

Marvel Zombies 2 - Yeah, just plain, perverse fun. I haven’t read any of the other spinoffs, so I can’t comment on them.

All Star Superman - Ditto. But DC still screwed this up beyond belief. More on that to come in another post.

The Boys - You know, I thought that I would love this book and I don’t. So far, to much of it has been just shock and awe with no real substance, or at least not enough substance to satisy me. I want to see what Ennis does with the group in Russia, but this may the last arc that I get.

Thor - Wow. Talk about a disappointment there. Having read the first 3 issues, I get the impression that JMS really has no idea what he wants to do with the character and is padding out this first storyarc as a means of actually getting some kind of idea as to where he wants go. #1 was probably the weakest debut of a major character that I have ever seen in my life.

Some things that were missed that I liked:

Daredevil: Battlin’ Jack Murdock - This was a phenomenal miniseries that really struck a cord with me as a father. It just did. The art was fantastic and the story blew me away. It actually maybe the best Daredevil story I’ve ever read. Get the trade.

Green Arrow: Year One - Another miniseries that took me by surprise. Diggle and Jock actually made me interested in reading Green Arrow like I never have before. Get the trade.

Scalped - Who would have thought that this story was so interesting? Jason Aaron has hit Vertigo screaming with this breakout series and I’m loving every issue of it. I want more of this kind of creativity and ingenuity. Again, get the trades.

Fantastic Four by McDuffie and Pelletier - Wow. This creative team has made the series so enjoyable that I want them to stay on longer. I was only getting the series because Pelletier was on it, but McDuffie writes a fantastic FF! Just give Millar and Hitch their own FF series and leave McD & PP on this series. Get the trades.

Black Summer - Though the series isn’t finished yet, it’s already shaping up to be one of Ellis’ best works, on par with The Authority or Planetary. Also, my retailer and I were talking about Juan Jose Ryp and how fantastic his art has been for this series. The main question that we pondered was why he doesn’t do any work for any other company because I could see him drawing an awesome Punisher or Batman series. Regardless, I’m glad to have him on this series because his artwork has been stellar.

That’s it for  me. Hopefully 2008 will be a lot better for readers, but we’ll all have to wait and see.

All I can say is this: choose wisely.

One of my favorite artists in the industry is Mark Bagley and I didn’t realize until today that all of his comic work has been for Marvel. Could have sworn that I’ve seen him do something for DC…

Newsarama announced today that next year Bagley will move to DC Comics for an “undisclosed high-profile project”.

Thinking about this announcement, I really have no idea what Bagley should work on there. Personally, I’d like to see him do another team book. Yeah, I know that he’ll be doing some issues of The Mighty Avengers, but I want to see him on a regular team book, like what he did on Thunderbolts years ago. Loved Busiek and Bagley’s Thunderbolts. Loved it.

To me, Bagley is a Marvel guy, through and through. I don’t see him being a fit for DC, but I’m prepared to be surprised.

What DC characters would you like to see him work on?

Here are some of my suggestions, so listen up, DC:

Robin, Batman, Justice League, Green Arrow, Teen Titans…

I’m sure more will come to me later.

Tell me your thoughts!