The Year Begins

The Year has Ended, but a new one is starting up and for that we must take a look into the new frontier that is 2009. Open your eyes wide children as the sun can be seen on the horizon! We here at New Age Comics are taking a good luck at the new year and some of the great, and not so great, comics, games and movies coming out in this New Year.

Resident Evil 5

I wanted to open with my most anticipated video game of 2009, RE5. 4 was an incredible experience, completely turning this popular series around and upside down and making it work so well, 5 continues that and from the previews, looks to be an incredible game. Yes, there has been frustrating controversies over this game in that Chris Redfield, the main hero, is a white guy shooting African Zombies. Looking past the bullshit that is idiots looking to stir up controversy, this game looks absolutely incredible. Only a few months away, RE5 looks to be the best in the series yet, I know it’s a tough thought, after all 4 really set the bar high for anything to follow, but 5 looks like it will reach the bar, snap it in half then shove the broken bar down Wesker’s throat.

Watchmen

Fox is now the most frustrating pain in my ass company in all of America. I can take all the stupid shit with American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance and…ugh…THAT but…Watchmen takes the cake. I won’t go too in depth about it if you’re not aware, but to put it simple, Fox seems to have thrown a big wrench in the hopes of all comic lovers who enjoy Watchmen. Now I love this story and was extremely psyched for this movie…thanks Fox, almost forgot about that shitty Daredevil movie you guys made.

More Old Man Logan

Wolverine was one of the best series of 2008 and the streak looks to be alive as Old Man Logan should be closing mid-2009. Delays are always something that kill a good book for me, but this series has been able to survive despite them and for that I must say I am indeed impressed. Is it a little cliché? Yes, undeniably cliché in some aspects, but at the same time it has a great voice for the characters and some crazy fun ideas, and the artwork is absolutely incredible. Should this series be collected by 2009’s end it may just be Collection of the Year.

Battling for the Cowl

I won’t be picking this series up, at least I don’t look to. I’ve never once heard of Daniel as a writer and this could seriously bite DC in the ass for that, though I do like his artwork. At the same time, the idea is so cheesy and dumb, everyone fight to get Batman’s cowl, that it could be a dopey cartoon pitch and work better. It’s ludicrous and I’m sure it will either suck due to how poor it will al be, or only praised for the fact that it’s another one of those hyped comics that everyone is paid to love. Maybe I’m just being a bit too cynical, but with a title called “Battle for the Cowl” it’s hard not to roll my eyes.

Superman: Spaaaace Heeerrrooooo

So supposedly Superman is taking to the stars and leaving earth. That’s what seems to be the big point of New Krypton. Well as if that wasn’t stupid as it is, he no longer is the hero of Action Comics, the comic that he STARTED from issue #1…ugh, you know, every now and then I think DC is actually a smart company that makes some good decisions, then I see this shit and I just wonder if Didio throws darts at a board and whatever hits is the next big story. I know I’m being negative 2 times in a row, but DC seems determined on ****ing up their 2 biggest franchises. Don’t be too surprised of we get a repeat of the Multiple Wonder Woman crap sooner then later.

600 Spider-man

Brand New Day was the worst thing in 2008, to me, and I doubt things will improve as #600 for the wall-crawler is closer and closer. I’ll pick up this issue, and you know why? To prove a point. I can just see it now, it’s the most thing of the wedding. MJ is probably caught having a three-way with Uncle Ben and Norman Osborn or something that’s supposed to make us feel better about them not being married anymore. Marvel has made it clear they don’t care about the Spider-man fan base anymore in their piss-poor attempts to reboot the franchise, I doubt 2009 can make it any better.

Spawn keeps Ending his Game

Spawn: Endgame is 3 chapters in and it looks like everything has finally been set up for the rest of the storyline and we can finally go on with Spawn being Spawn. I look forward to seeing what Spawn does here, though at the same time, I’m not too sure. 3 chapters in and it’s degenerated to Check It storytelling but the opening chapter was Must Have material. Will the team keep Spawn down to 3’s or return the book back to 5’s? I’m not sure, but I have high hopes for it.

Marvel Zombies: The never ending story

As happy as I am to have the Midnight Sons back in business, the circumstance of yet ANOTHER MZ series is a tad frustrating. And if 4 addresses the end of 3, which is secretly 1.5 though Marvel won’t admit it, then why didn’t Marvel wait to tell the story of 2 to be the real #4 where #4 would be volume 3 instead of #3 being 1.5 or the actual 2. Marvel doesn’t know what the hell their doing with this franchise it seems. If Van Lente is involved and Walker is drawing, I’m check it out. Besides, more Man-Thing is always a plus.

Witchblade Wars

War of the Witchblade is starting pretty soon here and I’m psyched for it. Witchblade is an incredible series and a real treat to read each month that I highly suggest. This storyline though I’m not so sure about. After all, Dani’s student Finch is supposedly the catalyst for the war…yet all she’s done is kiss Dani. Is she some new villain who plans to seduce Dani and use the blade? (Didn’t that just happen a few issues back?!).Marz really has me guessing and keeps poking holes in my guesses. Damn…is it February yet?

DC: Canceling for the hell of it.

DC is canceling Robin, Nightwing, Birds of Prey and Blue Beetle all in one month. While god awful books like Titans continue to pollute DC fans and comic book fangs in general. I tried the first issue of Titans…something I regret ever even looking at. I feel these cancellations are all severe mistakes on DC’s parts and it’s rather sad to see how little they really care of the fans’ opinions or about the books their canceling.

Invincible and His Amazing Friends

Invincible has been on a role with it’s new jumping on point a few months back. I’ve returned and I’ve yet to regret it. While the pacing is still a little off, compared to some of the damn near sluggish storytelling’s of the past, it’s great. I look forward to the book’s future as it’s finally back on schedule. #60 looks to be a good read and this plot should be cool. My problem is…there’s been a rumor spreading that Atom Eve will possibly die. Talk about cutting off your hand after getting your arm sown back on. Kirkman has been excelling at writing the relationship of Invincible and Atom Eve, it would be sad to see them cut away so soon.

Avengers, Mighty Dark and none too New

By now everyone knows I’m not getting New Avengers and won’t be anytime soon. The book looks great, and if I could spare some extra cash I’d buy it, but at the same time it doesn’t quite hold my attention as much as it’s 2 brother books. Dark Avengers looks to be awesome. I’m hoping Bendis doesn’t prove me wrong and that he can bring that street depth and grit to this title that it deserves, what with having Deodato’s amazing artwork and all. Mighty looks to be interesting as well, I’ve already mentioned my worries with it a while back, the relationships and artwork. Though I will give Slott the credit he deserves, when he’s not making bullshit excuses for Quesada on Spider-man, he’s a damn good writer.

Ultimatum, like seeing a bad torture porn movie?

I’m uncertain of Ultimatum. On one hand, the overall story isn’t awful, but on the other, if Loeb is just hinging on shocking scenes of death and violence, I could care less, amazing artwork or not.

Back in Blue…uh, green?

Savage Dragon was great and I’m glad to be reading it again. A new jumping on point comes next month with the Back in Blue storyline, and to anyone interested, I suggest you check it out.

Black Panther: Here we go again with the guessing…

I’m honestly sick and tired with Marvel’s fascination with rebooting/hyping some comics that either are unnecessarily rebooted or have annoying hype. I could take the SI posters but all these guess posters about who the new Panther is are getting on my nerves. I doubt I’ll check this series out at all.

The Promised land Moses talked about? Yeah, it’s Jersey.

Jersey Gods debuts next month and I must say, I’m excited about it. I love finding new and interesting looking series like this. The art still doesn’t really look all that great really, it looks passable but not to my tastes, but this still looks awesome. I’m not sure if it’s a Mini or an ongoing though.

Thor in the house!

It’s no secret I’m getting Thor now and that I will be from now on. While I’m not 100% sure about this series and a tad skeptical of #600 will bring me into it happy, I still look forward to checking it out.

X-matters of diplomacy

The X-men are tied into Dark Reign, even if they don’t want to be, and it looks to be an interesting tale. The Annual coming out soon chronicles Emma’s involvement with the Illuminati as well as…Namor? Odd that we see so many preview pages with Namor, one even of him kissing Emma, yet he stupidly forgot her at the meeting. Makes me wonder what Bendis was drinking as he wrote that issue…but anyway, the future of the X-franchise is looking up and I have high hopes for it.

And so ends our look at the coming year 2009. It looks to be one hell of a year, a bit better then 08 I’m hoping, both in the world, in America and in Comics.