What you've Been Waiting For

Here we are, once again, looking at the Diamond invoice. Time to see what's what for incoming comics this week.

What you've been waiting for - these are comics that have gone 2+ months between issues. Sometimes they're late. Sometimes they just are scheduled with larger gaps between issues. But either way, you've been waiting. This week has a much longer list than we've seen in the past several weeks, and there were a handful that missed my cutoff by just one week.

Testament #22 (DC/Vertigo) (pictured) is coming out this week. The prior issue of that came out back on November 21st, just about 2 months ago. I believe that this is also the last issue for this comic.

Mice Templar #3 (Image) and Spawn Godslayer #6 (Image) are both scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Both of these comics had their last issues for sale on November 14th. Spawn Godslayer was ordered in August, so we should have seen that one back in October - looks like the whole series is running late. No surprise really, the regular Spawn series is also chronically late.

Speaking of chronically late, we're expecting Astonishing X-Men #24 (Marvel) tomorrow, at long last. This will be the end of the story arc, except for some wrap-up issue that I think they're calling an Annual. Then the new creative team will step to the plate. Anyway, the last issue of Astonishing X-Men came out back on November 11th. It was ordered in October, and according to Marvel's October previews, it was scheduled to arrive 12/5/07 - looks late to me.

For the three of you that read the comic, you'll be glad to know that Kiss 4K #5 (Platinum Studios) should be available at your local comic book store tomorrow. The previous issue of that comic came out back on Halloween last year. It was ordered in September - Late? you do the math.

Clockwork Girl (Arcana Studios) is a fun, cute comic book created by a couple of guys who used to work for Disney. Issue #2 (pictured) finally comes out tomorrow, and the previous issue came out back on October 10th. Sadly, we ordered it back in September, so we should have seen this issue in November.

I don't know how many people know this, but Steve Geppi, owner of Diamond, also owns the comic publisher/imprint called Gemstone. Gemstone publishes Disney comics. Apparently they had run into some licensing problems, and the comics were on hold. The licensing issue did get resolved, and the comics are once again coming out. Both Uncle Scrooge #371 and Walt Disney's Comics & Stories #686 are coming in tomorrow, and both saw their last issues hit the racks back on September 26th. They are late, but they had a decent excuse. Fans will be glad to see these comics again - unfortunately the annual Christmas Special didn't arrive in time for Christmas this year.

Starship Troopers #5 (Markosia) is arriving tomorrow, and this issue starts a new story arc. That's good, because issue #4 came out way back on August 29th. At least readers won't have to remember exactly what happened in the last issue to get something out of the new issue.

Now, technically this isn't late or anything, but I just wanted to point it out. Fans of Young Avengers will be happy to know that they are finally getting a new mini-series featuring their favorite characters. Young Avengers Presents #1 (Marvel) comes out tomorrow (and is Neptune's featured comic for the week). Wondering when the last time was that we've been lucky enough to get a Young Avengers comic? It was back on June 28th, 2006.


Now let's take a look at the status of the mini-series mess that DC & Marvel have cooked up.

Big Two one-shots and mini-series starting this week
WORLD WAR HULK AFTERSMASH DAMAGE CONTROL #1 (OF 3) - Marvel (pictured)
YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS #1 (OF 6) - Marvel

Big Two mini-series ending this week
FAKER #6 (OF 6) - DC/Vertigo - DC
X-MEN FIRST CLASS VOL 2 #8 (OF 8) - DC

Looks like we're even up, two starting & two ending. I didn't even know X-Men First Class was a mini-series until they added the "of 8" on the invoice this week. There are still plenty of mini-series going on, so we should see more coming to an end as we head into the slow season for comics - February.


What I'm Reading:
AFTERBURN #1
ASTONISHING X-MEN #24
CLOCKWORK GIRL #2 (OF 4)
COMICS NOW #1 (it's a magazine about comics, not a comic, but I'm putting it on here anyway. For people looking for alternatives to Wizard, check it out.)
CRIME BIBLE THE FIVE LESSONS OF BLOOD #4 (OF 5)
DAN DARE #3 (OF 7)
MICE TEMPLAR #3 - still not sure on this one, #2 was better than #1, so this might be the deciding issue
NEW BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SEASON ZERO #5 (pictured)
TEEN TITANS #55
ULTIMATE IRON MAN II #2 (OF 4)
WONDER WOMAN #16
YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS #1 (OF 6)