WLG #203: The Distinguished Competition!

By Michael A. Diaz

First and foremost I wanted to apologize for their being no column last week. As I noted then, I did have about half of it done, but it wasn't the beginning half of the end half, more of the middle half. I considered posting what I did have done online but it would have been too confusing, too incomplete.

Really, you readers deserve a full column.

The remaining Catholic guilt from my parochial school days is still strong within me. When I relaunched the column after my all-too-long hiatus I really wanted to hit the ground running. So what do I do the second week back?

I postpone the column.

Not a good way to bring back one's readership, I know.

But, like I said, it was one of those things that just couldn't be avoided. A real career, a fiancée, a new house, and a new dog seriously eat up one's free time and though I thought that I had the rhythm down, I was wrong.

So, I am sorry for last week.

In the future I'm going to try to manage my time better. This IS supposed to be a weekly column, after all.

OK, now this:

Standard Disclaimer: For those of you new to the WLG experience, here's how it works: Every week I check out the release schedule from the Diamond Comics Shipping List and decide which comics that I am going to spend my hard-earned money on. Yep, my money. That's good, because it helps to maintain my objectivity. If I spend money on a comic book and it turns out to be crap I'm going to be upset.I guess I should have called this “DC week” because there are only a handful of book this week that are making me distort my face in anticipation, and they are ALL coming out from DC.

That's not to say that I'm not going to be picking up some Marvel book this week as well, but for the heat this week is coming entirely from DC.

Let's see What Looks Good...

DC

AUTHORITY: PRIME #1 (OF 6) $2.99 (Christos Gage / Darick Robertson)

Let me explain something to you: one of my all time favorite comic book characters is Deadshot. I don't know exactly as I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something oddly honorable about the guy. I've loved him ever since the Suicide Squad days in the 1980s. A couple of years back DC ran a mini-series featuring him and I loved it very much.

Also, once Warren Ellis took over StormWatch it became one of my all-time favorite books. True, I didn't discover it until after the series had already ended because I was just getting back into comics at the time, but when I did discover it I TORE through those trade paperback collections.

They are some of my prized possessions.

That series ended and those that survived the book soon became members of The Authority, yet another favorite of mine.

Still, some, like Flint, were not seen again until the StormWatch: Team Achilles team formed. Though a VASTLY different incarnation of the team I still became engrossed. Soon I loved this new incarnation dearly as well.

Then, during a scandal, that series was canceled as well.

The third (or is it fourth?) version of the group exists now as part of StormWatch: PHD, and though I love this series now like I loved the previous iterations (as it nicely straddles the line between those two different teams), a part of me will always love, and miss, the original “StormWatch Prime” team of the Warren Ellis/Tom Raney run on StormWatch.

I realize this is an awful lot of back story, but there IS a commonality. You see, that Deadshot series was AWESOME in my opinion, and just so happened to be written by Christos Gage. It was the my first real exposure to his writing, and I loved it, finding it well-paced and strong in characterization.

Later Gage went on to write (you guessed it) StormWatch: PHD.

Could life be any better?

Actually, yeah, it could, because now a writer that I am steadily considering to be one of the best in the business isn't just writing the characters from The Authority, but he's including the “StormWatch Prime” team as well (Winter, Fuji, and Hell strike, for those of you not in the know).

Honestly, I couldn't be happier. Well, yeah, they could bring back the “Prime” team in an ongoing series, that would make me happier, but that's most likely not going to happen, so I am going to take what I can get.

Really, that the gist of this book: the surviving members of StormWatch Black that survived the demise of the StormWatch program to become the Authority versus their once formerly dead teammates who are again StormWatch Prime.

And to top it all off Darick Robertson, the guy that is doing such an amazing job on The Boys as of late, is doing the artwork!

I'm overjoyed!

Hands down this is my pick of the week.

GEEKGASM!

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #17 $2.99 (Dave Gibbons / Patrick Gleason)

What can I say about this that I haven't said already and DOESN'T make me sound like some kind of guy in his 30s that lives in his parents' basement? (For the record, I own my own home...but my geek stuff IS in the basement, where I'm typing this right now.)

I love the Green Lantern Corps and right now Gibbons, Gleason, Johns, and Reis and giving me EVERYTHING that I have wanted in the Corps. This crossover is epic with power rings galore and TONS of action to boot.

I love this, pure and simple.

I almost don't want the war to end.

Almost.

Seriously, this is SO good.

If you're not reading, really, you should be.

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #41 $2.99 (Alan Burnett / Dustin Nguyen)

I'm buying this for one reason alone: Dusting Nguyen.

What can I say, I LOVE the guys work and every time I see it I have to buy it. I'm almost stalker-ish in my devotion to this artist (OK, not really, but if I didn't have so many other hobbies and responsibilities I would consider stalking Dustin; OK, not really that either).

Yes, I am one of the few people in the world that enjoyed Manifest Eternity and yes, I am still upset that Wildcats: Version 3.0 was prematurely canceled (all those years ago...), but what can I say, Dustin is it for me.

He draws it, I buy it.

'Nuff said.

TALES OF THE SINESTRO CORPS: SUPERMAN PRIME #1 $3.99 (Geoff Johns & Sterling Gates / Pete Woods & Jerry Ordway)

Everything I said up above about the “Sinestro Corps War” up above in my geeking out about Green Lantern Corps? Mentally copy that and past it here.

Seriously, they could put out these one-shots every week and I'd buy them up.

If you've been sticking around to see if I was really going to come back or not let me thank you for your time and patience. I am really going to try to make sure that last week was an aberration and not a continuation of my disjointed posting schedule that existing while I was trying to find a house and move.

If you're new to the column, well, thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back again.

Whichever it is, please stop by the What Looks Good message boards (see link below) and let me know what books YOU are most geeked about this week.

See you there!

Until then,

Peace!

-Diaz