ERIC'S "FANTASTIC FILM FLOPS"
COMICS NOW! NEWSLETTER
VOL. 7 #9 - September 2005

INTRODUCTION
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First off, let me say that Fantastic Four is a frightening flop of a film that should be burned off the face of the Earth and then each of the actors involved in the making of the movie should suffer life in prison. Horrible acting, horrible casting, horrible movie-making, and a horrible plotline. Basically... a horrible, horrible movie.

And, maybe it's a little late, but I feel as though I should quickly mention that Batman Begins may be, quite possibly, the best superhero movie ever made. Marvel is seriously going to have to improve the quality of their substandard fare to compete with DC if Superman comes out being anything near Batman Begins. It's a beautiful thing. Watch it, live it, love it. Now, on with comics...

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
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This month's pick is Ghost Rider. Garth Ennis is going to do to the Ghost Rider what he did to the Punisher -- revitalize an entire story concept. Ghost Rider has always been an interesting idea -- a guy is infected with an avenging angel of death who rides a motorcycle made of flaming wheels with a skull that's on fire capable of blowing flames and chains out of its mouth and peering into evildoers' souls. Despite the great concept, Ghost Rider has failed more times than a lobotomized George W. trying to pass Calculus. No one can seem to get the story right; but, just like the Punisher, I have this sneaky suspicion that Ennis is the right man for the job.

JUL051868 Ghost Rider #1 $2.99 retail
** 50%-OFF AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM **

THE BIZ
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HOUSE OF M IS ACTUALLY GOOD

This is kind of a personal review, but whenever any of the big guys releases their perennial "BIG STORY," I'm skeptical of its quality. This year, Marvel releases House of M, and now that both of the first two issues are available, let me tell ya -- this is good stuff! House of M brings most of the Marvel Universe together to decide the fate of the Scarlet Witch, a mutant from the Avengers and daughter of Magneto who has the power to alter reality. The problem? She kinda lost her mind a while back and destroyed the Avengers mansion, killing three superheroes at the same time (one of whom was her husband). She's crazy. Professor X can't bring her back. Does the Marvel Universe need to put her down? It all starts slow... and then she wakes up.

ALAN MOORE FLIPS THE BIRD AT DC... AGAIN

Alan Moore has always had problems with DC. In fact, according to Wizard, Moore's been pissed at DC ever since the 1988 when he swore he'd never write another comic for DC. Unfortunately for Moore, DC bought up Wildstorm in 1999, taking Moore's ABC lineup with it. Well, DC's ticked off the big man yet again by poorly handling the big-screen version of Moore's "V for Vendetta." Moore's announced he will leave DC Comics... again.

FANTASTIC FOUR ANYTHING BUT FANTASTIC

As expected, the Fantastic Four movie is flopping so hard at the box office that you'd think it was a beached whale. Why "as expected?" From the cast all the way down to the storyline, this movie was mis-handled from the beginning. One reviewer (Victoria Alexander from Filmsinreview.com) calls Fantastic Four "so bad it takes points away from Batman Begins." Yikes. Come on, Marvel. You had Spider-Man 1, and then X-Men and X2. Do better! Not worse!

TOP-10 and TOP-100
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Check out Comics NOW! Inc.'s Top-100 on IRX Productions. Download the August 2005 Top-100 PDF file (it's 8KB!)

It's Comics NOW!'s very own Top-10 and Top-100 lists. This list is based on the internal sales quantities of the titles with Premiere being the big guns who pay the extra bucks to be listed first in the ordering system: Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics, and Marvel Comics. The Independent list is everyone else, all those pea-shooters who no one really pays attention to... or do they?

Here's an example of how to read the format:

1. (3) The Amazing Eric Comic

"1." - the place of the title in the list this month

"(3)" - where the title was LAST month ("-" if it wasn't)

the title - this one should be pretty obvious

TOP 10 PREMIERE COMICS

1. (2) Superman Batman

2. (-) Justice

3. (-) Supergirl

4. (5) Green Lantern

5. (6) Ultimate Spider-Man

6. (7) Amazing Spider-Man

7. (4) New Avengers

8. (-) House of M

9. (-) Ultimates Annual

10. (-) Batman

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS

1. (3) Soulfire

2. (4) Army of Darkness

3. (1) Red Sonja

4. (2) Fathom

5. (-) Soulfire Dying of the Light

6. (-) GI Joe America's Elite

7. (7) Simpsons Comics

8. (-) GI Joe Snake-Eyes Declassified

9. (-) Red Sonja One More Day

10. (-) Medieval Lady Death

THE GOOD STUFF
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DC COMICS

SHAZAM/SUPERMAN: FIRST THUNDER #1 of 4

The first meeting of Superman and Captain Marvel. Ever wonder why the comic was called Shazam and not Captain Marvel? Lawsuits, m'man. Marvel already held the license for their own company name (obviously) and smacked the heck out of DC for trying to create a
character by the same name (and then promptly did it themselves years later).
By Judd Winick and Josh Middleton
40 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

GREEN LANTERN CORPS: RECHARGE #1 of 5

The Green Lantern Corps. has returned. Naturally, after Hal Jordan came back from the dead, DC Comics became as determined as possible to milk as much as they possible from the stress of bringing back a dead character. Chaos has descended on the universe and it's up to the Green Lantern Corps to find new members and stop it.
By Geoff Johns, Dave Gibbons, Patrick Gleason, and Christian Alamy.
40 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

VIGILANTE #1 of 6
Heeeeeee's back. Dr. Justin Powell is a psychiatrist trying to help psychotic killers from the inside out by rehabilitating them. Vigilante, on the other hand, wants to beat the ever-living crap out of the bad guys in order to show them who's boss. Are you a frou-frou or are you a tough guy? This mini-series will help you decide for sure.
By Bruce Jones and Ben Oliver.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

WILDCATS: NEMESIS #1 of 9
So, Nemesis is really this Kheran warrior named Chais Adrastea who killed a bunch of her Kheran comrades back at the dawn of man and took on the name Nemesis so she could inspire the Greek myth and then is trying to kill more and more people with only the Wildcats to stop her. There. One big run-on sentence describes 9 issues of a comic.
By Robbie Morrison, Talent Caldwell, Horacio Domingues, and Matt Banning.
32 pages. 9-issue maxi-series. $2.99 retail.

WRAITHBORN #1 of 6
So, the Wraithborn are protecting the Earth from these bad guys called the Immortals. Somehow, the Wraithborn power gets confused and is passed on to a timid high school girl. She's got to figure out the power she has and how to use it before the Immortals come down and kick her ass.
By Joe Benitez and Marcia Chen with Joe Weems.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

FELL #1
Warren Ellis is at it again. This time, a detective by the name of Richard Fell is transferred from the big city to the small suburb of Snowtown. Basically, the dude's down on his luck and is now only able to cling to his sanity by focusing on the one fact he knows to be true: everyone's hiding something.
By Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith.
24 pages. Ongoing series. $1.99 retail.

MARVEL COMICS

GHOST RIDER #1 of 6
Ghost Rider is one of those characters very much like the Punisher -- without the right writer, it's just a good concept that never seems to result in a successful comic book; finally, it seems as though Marvel has realized what they need to do if they want Ghost Rider to come back -- bring in the same writer that completely transformed the Punisher from being some goofy little sidekick with angelic powers into a true avenging monstrosity. Enter Garth Ennis. Again. To save Marvel's bacon a second time. My prediction - Ghost Rider is going to be huge.
By Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

BLACK WIDOW 2 #1 of 6
Furthering the adventures of Natasha Romanova, the original Black Widow, these mini-series investigates what happens after the Black Widow kills off the assassins sent after her (and then kills their boss). His friends at Capitol Hill aren't so happy with the outcome and even Nick Fury doesn't have the power to protect her this time. Uh, oh!
By Richard K. Morgan, Sean Phillips, and Bill Sienkiewicz.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

THE SENTRY #1 of 6
Supposedly the most powerful superhero in the Marvel Universe, the Sentry was reawakened in the pages of the New Avengers just last month. Now, he's getting his own comic. Why's he back? Why'd he leave? Is this story even any good? These questions and more will be asked in the first issue and probably won't be answered until after the series is canceled!
By Paul Jenkins and John Romita, Jr.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

DRAX THE DESTROYER #1 of 4
So, an interstellar prison transport crashes into a small town in Alaska and a whole bunch of big baddies, including Drax the Destroyer, are unleashed on this poor town. Yup. That about sums up the storyline.
By Keith Giffen and Mitch Breitweiser.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

X-MEN: COLOSSUS - BLOODLINE #1 of 5
Having just returned from the dead is probably a big enough deal to begin with, but now Colossus finds out that relatives of his are being killed in Russia. He returns to Russia in order to figure out who's doing this and, well, stop him.
By David Hine, Jorge Lucas, and Chris Bachalo.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

SUPREME POWER: HYPERION #1 of 5
Hyperion's in trouble. He's been outed as an alien. Nobody likes aliens. Look at ALF. Now, he's being hunted by other super-heroes from the original Squadron Supreme. Their goal -- to take him down.
By J. Michael Straczynski, Dan Jurgens, and Terry Dodson.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

SUPREME POWER: NIGHTHAWK #1 of 5
Kyle Richmond was just a child when he saw his parents killed before his eyes (ala Batman) and decided at that point that he would fight crime as a superhero. However, now there's a big monster that's killing lots and lots of people in Nighthawk's (Kyle's) home city of Chicago and it's up to him to stop it.
By Daniel Way and Steve Dillon.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

FINAL NOTES
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There ends yet another month of comic book greatness. September seems to be shaping up to be another month of great new stuff to read and I'm definitely happy about that. As always, remember, if you have a really bad idea for a comic book movie, Marvel's buying anything you're selling!

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric Jacobson