Dark Horse Comics has released issue #1 of Conan the Barbarian. Instead of doing anything with his origin, they jump you right in with him jumping on to a boat that’s casting off to escape some soldiers. He then acquaints himself with the captain of the ship, named Tito, who is now also in trouble with the authorities of that city for harboring Conan. So, Conan shows his gratitude by promising his protection to the captain.

Enter skanky possibly demonic pirate captain woman that everyone’s afraid of. Conan vows to defeat her so that his new friend, Captain Tito can sail safely wherever he wants. However, Conan’s also attracted to the stories of her, (of course, since she’s his match in power and warrior-ness…) And, pretty much that’s where we leave off in this episode, with a mysterious, tantalizing encounter with her.

I’m pretty fond of vikings, and willing to forgive a lot (Forsooth, Thor, anyone?) for them, and I pretty much put barbarians in the same category, but I was disappointed by this, all in all. The art was pretty lacking, and the plot line towards the end was pretty unclear. That being said, Conan was a very likeable character, and you’re rooting for him to do some quality conquering.

Discuss Conan the Barbarian here on the HAIRcomics forums.

Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Butch Guice
Colours: Bettie Breitweiser

Captain America’s sidekick James ‘Bucky’ Buchanan died in World War II. It’s a fact, a cornerstone of the Marvel Universe.

Except that a few years ago that ‘fact’ was revealed by writer Ed Brubaker to be false – his body was found by the Soviets, who nursed him back to physical health and brainwashed him into becoming their deadliest ‘sleeper’ agent and assassin – Winter Soldier. When Captain America learned of this he was able to break the brainwashing and for the period of time in which Captain America was thought dead, Bucky took on his mantle and, in a slightly different costume, served as a Captain America.

However, Captain America is ‘back from the dead’ and in costume, so Bucky needs a new role. He recently learned that he wasn’t the only Sleeper agent and he’s reclaimed the Winter Soldier identity in order to locate and disarm them. He’s enlisted the help of his girlfriend, the defected Soviet super spy and sometime Avenger, Black Widow, in the first issue of his new solo series.

“One agent, in the right place, at the right time … with the right skills … could be more effective than an army.”

Bucky & BW track a financier and follow the money to try to learn who sold/bought the details of the remaining sleeper agents. They find an empty stasis tube – someone woke one of the sleepers. They follow the trail to Minnesota and see a stasis tube being loaded up on a truck. A gorilla with a machine gun fires on them.

Red Ghost & Lucia Von Bordas, a cyborg former PM of Latveria, chat. She hopes the sleeper agents are as effective as he said they’d be because “I’ll have spent Doctor Doom’s own money to destroy him”. Cut to a sleeper agent firing on the Latverian embassy.

I enjoyed this – less for the unexceptional but acceptable espionage fare and more for the remarkable art. Butch Guice knocked this out of the park, echoing the best of Michael Lark, Sean Phillips and Gene Colan. The plot needs to kick into first gear but there’s time for that – and with art this good I’ll be giving the plot time to catch fire.

Discuss Winter Soldier here on the HAIRcomics forums.

Aquaman had never been, well, “cool”; and the story openly acknowledged the fact. However, the real brilliance was in how it was spun in such a way that Aquaman became the underdog champion that you were rooting for on the final page. He was the fish-man out of water, dedicated to protecting mankind, and we felt like we’d be seeing more of him on land, and not saddling 20 foot seahorses. The arc concluded with issue #4 satisfactorily.

Aquaman #5 ought to have been a very important issue. The character was finally getting some positive buzz, and positioning himself for an unforeseen comeback. The short answer is: it did not deliver.

From the first page, I felt like something tremendous had happened. We find Aquaman wandering the desert, near death, with a large metal shard protruding from his leg. He passes out, and gets knocked unconscious by a wandering flashback.

I was appalled at how much of the issue was just setup. The flashbacks all dealt with an Atlantean relic discovered by the military, which matches the one on Aquaman’s belt. They bring in the hero for a consultation, and he confirms the fact. Other flashbacks came up, probably for the purpose of solidifying what his origin story will be from henceforth; which dealt with his father, but really didn’t convey much.

Hopefully, this lolloping start doesn’t spell another end for Aquaman. With what you’ve read of the new run, what do you think? Do we all hold onto hope for Aquaman?

(We also discuss Aquaman on our forums here.)

They’re brought back, we think little of it.

They do it again, again and again and we saw ‘it comes with the territory, that’s just how comics are’.

But we don’t really like it. I mean, if it’s our favourite character, sure, we typically want to see them back, but we still gripe when it’s another character. And it’s not just death: they lose their powers, they get them back, they lose the use of their legs, forever … until they can walk again just fine a year later … until the lose the use of their legs again. It’s forever this time … for a year or two. Magneto’s her father. And then he’s not. And then he is, and then he’s not – there’s proof this time. And then he is, the ‘proof’ was wrong. And then he’s not!

She has the Phoenix power, she is the Phoenix, she was never the Phoenix – she was in a cocoon. She is the Phoenix, she is dead, she’s alive, she was dead along, no, that was her clone …

We know how silly it is, so why do we put up with this? Why do we – myself included – gripe and then shrug it off? Why do we still ‘buy in’ to storylines? Have we let our cherished comics become meaningless?

Two years before Marvel’s premiere super team of the same name debuted in 1963, the The Avengers debuted on British TV screens with Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman. The rights to air the hit spy-fi show in the US were sold to ABC in 1965, when Diana Rigg joined the cast as Emma Peel – it’s the 1965-1968 era of the show that this comic draws from.

The show continued without Diana Rigg until 1969 and was revamped in 1976 as The New Avengers, this time running for two seasons and starring Joanna Lumley. The concept refused to die, re-emerging as a 1998 movie starring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman that suffered scathing reviews.

Comics legend Grant Morrison has now revived the concept as a six issue mini-series from Boom! Studios, with his artistic collaborator Ian Gibson, the first issue of which goes on sale tomorrow.

Tara King meets an old sailor, Admiral Fanshawe, in a gambling pub. They walk to the quay and discuss the existence of a mole in his department. The sailor is next seen tied to an anchor at the bottom of the sea.

Steed descends into the sewers to meet his boss, Mother. They discuss the ‘rash and irritatingly impetuous’ Miss King and Steed is asked to investigate the death of Fanshawe. He shows Steed a die found beside his body.

Steed calls Mrs. Peel and they meet in a graveyard, observing Fanshawe’s funeral. He recruits her to work the case with him. They visit Chez Fanshawe, where they’re instructed to play hopscotch down a long hallway by a butler who assumes them to be members of the Palamedes Club, which Fanshawe used as a meeting place for games enthusiasts. They search his ‘ship in a bottle’ conservatory and find a letter to an ‘agony aunt’, Doris Storm, on the subject of foxhunting. Mrs. Steed goes to visit Doris and learns she is giving blood at that moment.

Mrs. Peel heads down to the ambulance to speak with her as one of the nurses injects her with ‘something’. She rugby tackles the nurse and then finds the apparently dying Doris who mutters the last words ‘Rooks and Ravens.’

It’s a bizarre issue, delightfully paying homage to the surreal, stylish spy drama origins of the source material. It’s more nostalgia than new reading pleasure, but an enjoyable diversion.

You can discuss Steed & Mrs. Peel #1 here on the HAIRcomics forums.

However, the chart also reveals continued struggles for other iconic characters: Wonder Woman #1 could only reach #44, with issue #2 charting at #76. A fall in second issue sales is predictable, but Justice League, Batman and Action Comics all have at least two issues in the year end Top 10. Is this just the wrong creative team for Wonder Woman, or is she a casualty of so many books relaunching at the same time?

Marvel’s big new book of the year, Fear Itself #1, debuted at a lowly-by-comparison #14, behind two widely publicised Marvel deaths in Ultimate Spider-Man #160 and Fantastic Four #587 which by far outsold the new #1s of those books that followed. DC’s big event book, Flashpoint #1, could only chart at #42. While far from the death knoll of event books, the lacklustre performance of these two events do suggest a corner may be turning – but it may be more that these specific events failed to excite the potential audience.

Marvel’s eight best-selling book of the year was the surprise hit of the year, Avenging Spider-Man #1, and Defenders #1 had a strong launch as the #65 best-selling book on the chart – but can either book sustain an audience?

IDW’s highest placed comic was Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1 which, at #102, benefitted from a novel promotional campaign (allowing unique covers with photos of the store being destroyed by Godzilla) that’s subsequently been successfully replicated by such titles as Amazing Spider-Man #666.

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• Batman Incorporated, written by Grant Morrison & illustrated by Chris Burnham, which will present a “fresh take” on the series in which the Batman brand becomes an international franchise in preparation for a major threat. (Shown at right)

• Earth 2, written by James Robinson & illustrated by Nicola Scott, in which the Justice Society battles menaces that will set their parallel Earth at odds with other worlds.

Dial H• Worlds’ Finest, written by Paul Levitz & illustrated by George Perez and Kevin Maguire, which follows Huntress and Power Girl as they fight to return from our Earth to Earth 2 in story arcs that will be illustrated alternately by the two artists.

• G.I. Combat, written by J.T. Krul & illustrated by Ariel Olivetti, brings back the DC classic The War That Time Forgot alongside rotating back-up stories and creative teams, including The Unknown Soldier, with writers Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti and artist Dan Panosian; and The Haunted Tank, with writer John Arcudi & artist Scott Kolins.

• The Ravagers, written by Howard Mackie & illustrated by Ian Churchill, a spin-off from Teen Titans and Superboy that tracks four superpowered fugitive teens as they combat the organization that wants to turn them into supervillains.

• Dial H, written by China Miéville & illustrated by Mateus Santoluoco, takes the popular concept and turns it into an examination of the psychological effects on an everyman who accidentally gains powers.

View forum thread to read a plot summary

This is good, quirky fun with Alberto Ponticello’s art well-suited to the creepy creatures inside & Jose Villarubia providing reliably balanced colours – bold red when needed, appropriately muted when not. While light on plot, it’s a decent start and mildly humourous – it could easily fill the place of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy on the shelves as a quirky, oddball team book. The horror influences could tip it towards greater success. Writer Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth) certainly has the talent to make this a ‘must read’.

But, seriously. We got our Star Wars R2-D2 and Han in Carbonite ice cube trays last month and LOVE them! Being silicon, you can pour extremely hot liquids into them too, and the Star Wars-themed chocolates we made for Father’s Day were delicious. We thought we were content.

But NO! Must have more trays! Previews this month is offering DC-themed trays this time, and we offer them to you.