Monday, December 19, 2011

Buy This! - December 21st, 2011

 
Every Monday Seth picks out three items that are due to ship on Wednesday and directs you toward your best bets for a quality purchase. Some times it's a single issue of a comic, other times a massive omnibus edition of a beloved series, and occasionally a figure or shiny bauble that caught his eye. Read on to find the three items you shouldn't leave your comic shop without this week.

T-minus 6 days till Christmas, boys and girls. Hope all your shopping is done with and you made sure to buy yourself a little something. I picked up the Prelude to the Death of Spider-Man (Ultimate) hardcover on Sunday, and my girlfriend and I decided to open our gifts early so I was also blessed with the Flash by Geoff Johns omnibus. Very excited to dig into that.

As usual, be aware that any or all of these books might not show up in your shop when they're solicited to due to the chaotic nature of the industry.

Onto this week's buys...
  

Baltimore: The Plague Ships tpb

I picked up the FCBD preview for this series last year and despite never having read the book that proceeded it, found that I enjoyed it quite a bit. Since it is co-written by Mike Mignola (along with Christopherl Golden) it has a lot in common with Hellboy stylistically. If you've read and enjoyed any of the BPRD or Hellboy books this should be right up your alley. On the other hand, if you've never taken a step into the sort of moody, and darkly comical storytelling that Mignola traffics in this would be a great place to start. the art by Ben Stenbeck fits nicely into the Mignola mold as well. This one comes highly recommended.


Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes one shot

FINALLY... After a few months off the Batman Incorporated title is back... for the first time in the new DC universe. As a huge fan of everything Morrison has done with the Bat corner of the DCU I can't express how excited I am for this book. This one shot wraps up the story threads from his ongoing Leviathan arc begun last year in Batman: The Return. He's joined by my favorite artist of 2011 Chris Burnham on art. This should serve as not only a nice bookend to the Leviathan story but also as a good introduction to the world-wide Batman conglomerate as a whole. Something that was sorely needed for new readers to understand books like Batwing. Wednesday can't come soon enough.
 

The Infinite vol 1 tpb
Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld's The Infinite isn't a great comic or even an especially good one. It is essentially a 90's comic with a modern approach courtesy of Kirkman's writing. Why did it make the cut? Well, like Kirkman's Haunt, while it isn't the best book on the stands it's still a lot of fun. Where Haunt was all about the horror-meets-superhero vibe The Infinite is a straight ahead time-travel story that instantly calls to mind Liefeld's previous time-travelling character creation, Cable. Thankfully, while the book does dip it's toes into the bombastic it does so with a knowing nod to it's audience. This is a book written by a guy who grew up reading and loving 90's comics and it's drawn by the guy who created some of the most absurd comics and creations of that era. The Infinite is as much a love letter to Liefeld from Kirkman as it is a comic book.
 
That does it for this week. Next week's Buy This will be popping up on Tuesday instead of Monday due to the holiday. I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas and, despite my materialistic nature, I'll recite that old stand-by... remember the real reason for the season.

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