Buy This! - Feb 23rd, 2012

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.


Forgive the lack of a new column last week and the lateness of this week's but I've just returned from a week-long vacation down in the swamps of Florida... or Disney World if you prefer. It's sort of a light week, almost to the point where I was going to bail on this week's column and instead write about my trip to the House of Mouse and how it was surprisingly Marvel-free. However, after a bit of searching I did manage to dig up three purchases that would be worth anyone's time.

Before I get to that I'd just like to take this opportunity to again commend Marvel on their omnibus editions. I just picked up the Wolverine by Jason Aaron one this past week and it's definitely impressive. Not only for the wonderful knack Aaron has for writing Logan and the stories he places him in but for the package itself. While light on extras I'm still pleased every time I open a Marvel omnibus. The books lays flat when opened (none of that page-bleeding-into-the-gutter crap that DC pulls) and they're printed beautifully in an oversized format. With artists like Ron Garney and Yanick Paquette contributing to the issues contained therein it's a great book to have in a larger scale like this.

Since I'm not going to write up a column about Orlando I will say I was severely disappointed in the lack of a Marvel presence in the Magic Kingdom... and EPCOT... and Downtown Disney. To be honest the only display of any Marvel product I could find was in the toy shop in Downtown Disney (basically Disney's version of an outdoor mall) which consisted of a handfull of digest sized trades of random Marvel Age titles and, bizarely, about 20 copies of the Marvelman collection hardcover. I wish there had been more but its strange to see such a strong Transformers and Star Wars presence in the stores when neither of those franchises are actually owned by Disney.

Okay enough complaining, onto this week's picks...

The Flash #6

One of my biggest problem's with the new 52 Flash title has been the opening story arc. Mob Rule, as a villain, just didn't interest me very much. Sure they were reminiscent of something we might have seen back in the early days of Geoff Johns work on the title but no where near as captivating as Johns would have made them. Thankfully with this issue we step out from under the initial story arc and have what seems to be a breather one-issue story revolving around a cold crime that Barry/Flash is trying to solve. It sounds like a fun little story and I'm hoping this is where the book finally takes off. Now that we've established Barry and his world this could be the start of something great.

Near Death vol 1 tpb

I read a couple issues of this series and enjoyed them quite a bit. They center around a former assassin whose near death experience opens his eyes to the fact that he's in need of some serious redemption. His decision to acheive this redemption through killing many, many bad people is a questionable one but it does make for fun reading. This is a creator owned series written by Jay Faerber whose work I've always liked. The art by Simone Guglielmini is reminiscent of Michael Lark or Alex Maleeve. It's a solid crime/revenge action-thriller and your best bet for a solid Punisher title out their right now.

Wolverine and the X-Men #6

I just have to sing the praises of this book one more time. What Jason Aaron is doing here is really something special. He's created a team book with a massive cast of characters that manages to avoid the pitfalls of such a large cast while managing to develop each one and give them all their moment in the spotlight. It's also one of those "fun" books that Marvel is publishing right now that seem less interested in breaking characters down and grinding them under the boot heal of their own misery than it is in placing them in an interesting, light hearted story. This is the last issue of the current 3 issue arc but pick it up anyway... Then go back and buy the first 3. You'll thank me.