DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for November 27 2013

DC COMICS

JUL130265 100 BULLETS HC BOOK 05 (MR) $49.99
SEP130255 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #7 $3.99
SEP130249 ALL STAR WESTERN #25 $3.99
SEP130189 AQUAMAN #25 $3.99
JUL130234 BATMAN & ROBIN HC VOL 03 DEATH OF THE FAMILY (N52) $22.99
AUG130292 BATMAN & ROBIN TP VOL 02 PEARL (N52) $16.99
JUL130233 BATMAN INCORPORATED HC VOL 02 GOTHAMS MOST WANTED (N52) $24.99
AUG130293 BATMAN INCORPORATED VOL 01 DEMON STAR (N52) $16.99
SEP130236 BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #25 $2.99
SEP130296 BEWARE THE BATMAN #2 $2.99
SEP130152 CATWOMAN #25 (ZERO YEAR) $3.99
SEP130233 DAMIAN SON OF BATMAN #2 $3.99
SEP130157 FLASH #25 (ZERO YEAR) $3.99
SEP130184 FOREVER EVIL ARGUS #2 $2.99
AUG130304 GREEN ARROW TP VOL 01 HUNTERS MOON $14.99
SEP130251 GREEN TEAM TEEN TRILLIONAIRES #6 $2.99
SEP130263 INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US #11 $3.99
AUG130307 JOKER CLOWN PRINCE OF CRIME TP $16.99
SEP130178 JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #25 (EVIL) $3.99
SEP130246 LARFLEEZE #5 $2.99
JUL130225 LOIS LANE A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS HC $39.99
AUG130301 RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS TP VOL 03 DEATH OF FAMILY (N52) $16.99
SEP130247 RED LANTERNS #25 $2.99
SEP130300 SANDMAN OVERTURE #1 SPECIAL EDITION (MR) $5.99
SEP130221 SUPERMAN #25 $2.99
JUL130224 SUPERMAN A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS HC $39.99
JUL130231 SUPERMAN HEL ON EARTH HC (N52) $29.99
SEP130240 TALON #13 $2.99
SEP130187 TEEN TITANS #25 (EVIL) $2.99
SEP130311 TOM STRONG AND THE PLANET OF PERIL #5 $2.99
SEP130289 VERTIGO ESSENTIALS Y THE LAST MAN #1 (MR) $1.00

DC COMICS/DC COLLECTIBLES

OCT130311 BLACKEST NIGHT SINESTRO AS GREEN LANTERN BUST $24.95
JUL130280 DC COMICS THE NEW 52 SWAMP THING DELUXE AF $49.95

DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for May 29 2013

DC COMICS

SEP120255 ABSOLUTE TOP TEN HC $99.99

MAR130253 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #1 $3.99

JAN130307 BATMAN NOIR EDUARDO RISSO DELUXE ED HC $24.99

MAR130209 BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT ANNUAL #1 $4.99

MAR130219 CATWOMAN ANNUAL #1 $4.99

MAR130187 EARTH 2 ANNUAL #1 $4.99

MAR130293 INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US #5 $3.99

MAR130163 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #4 $3.99

MAR130166 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #4 COMBO PACK $4.99

FEB130247 LUCIFER TP VOL 01 (MR) $29.99

JAN130313 NEW TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS HC VOL 03 (RES) $75.00

FEB130210 PHANTOM STRANGER TP VOL 01 A STRANGER AMONG US (N52) $14.99

MAR130223 RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS ANNUAL #1 $4.99

MAR130262 SMALLVILLE SEASON 11 SPECIAL #1 $4.99

FEB130214 SUPERBOY TP VOL 02 EXTRACTION (N52) $14.99

MAR130295 WAKE #1 (MR) $2.99

FEB130225 WATCHMEN THE DELUXE ED HC $39.99

DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for April 10 2013

DC COMICS

DEC120363 100 BULLETS HC BOOK 04 (MR) $49.99

FEB130140 ACTION COMICS #19 COMBO PACK $4.99

FEB130162 BATGIRL #19 $2.99

FEB130151 BATMAN #19 $3.99

FEB130154 BATMAN #19 COMBO PACK $4.99

FEB130150 BATMAN AND RED ROBIN #19 $2.99

FEB130201 BATMAN ARKHAM UNHINGED #13 $3.99

DEC120324 BATMAN DETECTIVE COMICS HC VOL 02 SCARE TACTICS (N52) $29.99

FEB130232 BATMAN LIL GOTHAM #1 $2.99

FEB130179 CONSTANTINE #2 $2.99

FEB130192 DEATHSTROKE #19 $2.99

FEB130187 DEMON KNIGHTS #19 $2.99

NOV120295 DJANGO UNCHAINED #3 (MR) $4.99

JAN130310 FLASH CHRONICLES TP VOL 04 $14.99

FEB130173 GREEN LANTERN CORPS #19 (WRATH) $2.99

FEB130198 RAVAGERS #11 $2.99

FEB130249 SAUCER COUNTRY #14 (MR) $2.99

FEB130193 SUICIDE SQUAD #19 $2.99

FEB130143 SUPERBOY #19 $2.99

JAN130301 SWAMP THING TP VOL 02 FAMILY TREE (N52) $14.99

FEB130189 TEAM 7 #7 $2.99

FEB130190 THRESHOLD #4 $3.99

JAN130325 TINY TITANS TP VOL 08 AW YEAH TITANS $12.99

JAN130302 WORLDS FINEST TP VOL 01 LOST DAUGHTERS (N52) $14.99

DC COMICS/DC COLLECTIBLES

FEB130259 AARDMAN BATMAN & ROBIN CLASSIC AF 2 PACK $39.95

Vertigo Review - SPACEMAN: The Deluxe Edition

SPACEMAN THE DELUXE EDITION
DC COMICS/VERTIGO – @vertigo_comics

WRITER: Brian Azzarello
ARTIST: Eduardo Risso
COLORS: Patricia Mulvihill with Giula Brusco
LETTERS: Clem Robins
COVER: Dave Johnson (also series cover art)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3552-9; hardcover
224pp, $24.99 U.S., $28.99 CAN

The comic book creative team of writer Brian Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso is best known for the Eisner Award-winning comic book series, 100 Bullets, which was published from 1999 to 2009. The most recent Azzarello-Risso “collabo” is Spaceman, a nine-issue, science fiction comic book miniseries. Published by DC Comics’ imprint, Vertigo (also the home of 100 Bullets), Spaceman is set in a future in which the rising seas leave a significant portion of the planet a drowned world. In this time, an outcast tries to be a hero and finds fame a very dangerous thing.

Vertigo has collected all nine issues of Spaceman, plus a short story that appeared in Strange Adventures #1 (the 2011 Vertigo anthology one-shot) in the hardcover collection, Spaceman: The Deluxe Edition. The new book also includes sketches and preliminary art that Eduardo Risso executed for the series, and there are also samples of Risso’s final art for the series in pencil form.

Spaceman’s title character is Orson, a simian-like man. He was born as the result of the Spacemen program, NASA’s attempt to biogenetically engineer humans that could withstand space travel. Orson and his Spacemen “brudahs” (as he calls them) were born with expanded bone mass and flesh density so that they could withstand the zero gravity of prolonged space travel. Orson and a few of the Spacemen did travel in space, but once the public became aware of the program, the Spacemen were basically tossed aside.

Now, a hulking, lonely loser, Orson lives in “the Rises,” a Venice-like community of broken buildings still standing in areas flooded by seawater. Orson spends his days in a small boat, trawling for scrap metal and dreaming of a better life. Meanwhile, like the rest of the country, Orson finds entertainment in “realtee” (reality television shows), and the most popular one in the world is “The Ark.” This realtee focuses on wealthy couple, Marc and April, and the orphaned children who compete for a place in Marc and April’s adopted clan.

One of the children, Tara, a Filipino girl, is kidnapped. Fate brings Orson and Tara together, but money and fame bring together a coalition of self-serving factions, all vying to retrieve Tara. Suddenly, Orson’s need to save Tara has put his life in danger and also dug up a dark part of his past, which goes by the name of Carter.

Brian Azzarello has some good ideas in this series. Some may seem obvious, such as the notion that the Internet and hand-held devices will be the engines that drive television entertainment and not televisions and broadcast signals. Azzarello creates a future English language full of strange colloquialisms and slang. It is as if a Jamaican, a black kid from the streets, and Anthony Burgess formed a poetry-slam/rap trio. Spaceman is a richly conceived world, but I do question the series as a whole. In terms of the execution of this concept as script (or series of scripts), it is probably three issues too long, which hampers the overall narrative development. Spaceman is interesting, intriguing, and thoughtful, but somewhat flawed.

You can make an argument that the star in Spaceman is artist Eduardo Risso. Practically every page is a narrative painting, with panels imbedded in the pages like bejeweled drawings in a tapestry. Risso makes Azzarello’s gaggle of ideas practical as a graphical narrative. Suddenly, the theoretical and eccentric are actual, and the unique voice Azzarello designed is given full throat through Risso’s pencils and lush inking.

Of course, Spaceman: The Deluxe Edition is the best way to read this original science fiction vision. It is the best way to see this unique, but surprisingly possible future.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux