ERIC'S "SO MUCH TO SEE, SO LITTLE TO DO"
COMICS NOW! NEWSLETTER VOL. 7 #12 - December 2005

INTRODUCTION
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December is hitting us with a huge number of comics this year but in a somewhat strange twist of fate, there doesn't seem to be that many huge heavy-hitters in the newcomer list. Sure, there's the Spider-Woman origin which I love, the next run of the House of M mini-series, and more other series than I can even mention here (though I do go into more detail in The Good Stuff section). But, at any rate, lots of crap is better than nothing at all, so, without further ado, let's hit it!

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
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My pick of the month is the origin of Jessica Drew's Spider-Woman. Jessica Drew started life in Spider-Woman comics in the 1970s wearing a very similar costume to what she wears in our current New Avengers. For some reason, back then she never caught on and was canceled. Marvel's tried to recreate Spider-Women in many shapes, sizes, and varieties ever since, but they just don't seem to stick... until now. The revival of Jessica Drew in New Avengers has been such a huge success that Brian Michael Bendis is writing her origin in a new mini-series. I can barely wait!

OCT051988 SPIDER-WOMAN ORIGIN #1 $2.99 retail
** 50%-OFF AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM **

HUGE DISCOUNTS AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM
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Aside from always offering 35% off the cover price of monthly comics with no minimum to buy, each month Comics NOW offers incredible deals on some of the newest titles out there. Just point your browser to http://www.comicsnow.com to order any of these titles below at huge discounts or any other comic at least 35% off the cover price.

Here are this month's deals:
OCT050250 HARD TIME SEASON TWO #1 $2.50 - 50% OFF
OCT050258 JLA CLASSIFIED COLD STEEL #1 $5.99 - 50% OFF
OCT050305 TEAM ZERO #1 $2.99 - 50% OFF
OCT050327 TESTAMENT #1 $2.99 - 50% OFF
OCT050317 FABLES VOL 6 HOMELANDS TP $14.99 - 40% OFF
OCT050233 LEX LUTHOR MAN OF STEEL TP $12.99 - 40% OFF
OCT050276 VILLAINS UNITED TP $12.99 - 40% OFF
OCT051969 IRON MAN THE INEVITABLE #1 $2.99 - 50% OFF
OCT051977 MARVEL ZOMBIES #1 $2.99 - 50% OFF
OCT051988 SPIDER-WOMAN ORIGIN #1 $2.99 - 50% OFF
OCT051943 ULTIMATE WOLVERINE VS HULK $2.99 - 50% OFF
OCT052020 FF BY STRACZYNSKI TP $19.99 - 40% OFF
OCT052038 WOLVERINE VOL 2 TP $12.99 - 40% OFF
OCT052025 ULTIMATE GALACTUS #2 TP $12.99 - 40% OFF

THE BIZ
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DOOM: THE MOVIE FEATURES FPS!

Doom, the upcoming movie based on the video game with the same name featuring The Rock in a prominent role, is going to be one of the first movies ever to attempt a First Person Shooter perspective in several sequences. Scheduled to release October 21, 2005, I'm not saying whether or not this is a good thing. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

GEN-13 RETURNS?

Rumor has it that Gen-13, one of the more intriguing comic books of the late 90's featuring five different teenagers and their plights being superheroes, may be rebooted in 2006. Writer Gail Simone is scheduled to team up with artist Talent Caldwell if they don't get canceled first.

SERENITY, THE MOVIE, IS ACTUALLY DECENT!

Although Firefly (the TV series that Serenity is based on) has a decent-sized fanbase, if you've been out of the loop you've probably been wondering whether Serenity is worth seeing if you've never seen an episode of the TV show. My verdict? Absolutely. I've never seen the TV show nor did I have much interest in listening to the Western-twang accent of the characters (which still makes me ill but I'll forgive it). However, after going to the movie this past week, fans of Star Trek and Star Wars would be greatly remiss to pass up the opportunity. An excellent movie. Well done, Joss Whedon!

TOP-10 and TOP-100
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Check out Comics NOW! Inc.'s Top-100 on IRX Productions. Download the November 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. (1) Infinite Crisis

2. (2) All-Star Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder

3. (3) Superman Batman

4. (5) New Avengers

5. (4) Amazing Spider-Man

6. (10) Batman

7. (-) Supergirl

8. (-) Ultimates 2

9. (-) JLA

10. (6) Green Lantern

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS

1. (2) Red Sonja

2. (4) Fathom

3. (5) GI Joe America's Elite

4. (7) Strangers in Paradise

5. (8) Simpsons Comics

6. (-) Army of Darkness

7. (-) GI Joe Snake-Eyes Declassified

8. (-) Red Sonja Goes East One Shot

9. (-) Purgatori

10. (9) Donald Duck and Friends

THE GOOD STUFF
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DARK HORSE COMICS

SERENITY TPB

Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews write an all-new prequel to the Serenity movie currently in theaters. This is NOT a movie adaptation. This is all-new content. Having just seen the movie this past week, I must say that I am very impressed with the quality of Whedon's work on this one, and I am as far from a Buffy fan as you can get. This TPB should be good.
By Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews and Will Conrad.
104 pages. One-shot special. $12.95 retail.

DC COMICS

HARD TIME SEASON TWO #1

Hard Time was an intriguing storyline about a kid who discovers he has superpowers while in high school, causes a tremendous tragedy when a prank goes wrong and then gets sentenced to life in a high-security prison. This series continues that original storyline.
By Steve Gerber, Mary Skrenes, Brian Hurtt, and Steve Bird.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.50 retail.

JLA CLASSIFIED: COLD STEEL #1 of 2

The JLA meets Transformers? Maybe Robotech? Closer to Robotech. Anyway, this mini-series suggests that when the going gets tough, the tough gets battle-armor. After they run into two huge warring factions in outer space, the JLA realizes they need to wear battle-armor to harness their powers so they can actually fight these turkeys.
By Christopher Moeller.
48 pages. 2-issue mini-series. $5.99 retail.

TEAM ZERO #1 of 6

A group of seven American commandos is sent into Nazi Germany (yes, it's another WW2 epic) to evacuate German test labs before the soviets can get to it. Woo-hoo.
By Chuck Dixon, Sandra Hope and Doug Mahnke.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

TESTAMENT #1

Jake Stern is a grad student. Jake Stern also leads an underground band of renegades who must prevent any threat of freedom against the world of Testament. I don't remember doing anything like that when I was in grad school... strange.
By Douglas Rushkoff and Liam Sharp.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

BAD PLANET #1 of 6

Spider aliens are trying to eat us. Our only hope is another alien who we're trying to kill. I like it when the plotlines are simple.
By Steve Niles, Thomas Jane, Tim Bradstreet and Lewis Larosa.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

THE INTIMIDATORS #1

The Intimidators are America's domestic strike-force. They handle big Earth-shattering threats. They're superheroes. They're... well... like every other superhero team you've ever seen. Hopefully, the writing will be different enough that you won't feel that way.
By Jim Valentino, Neil Kleid, and Miguel Montenegro.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $3.50 retail.

THE LOOKING GLASS WARS: HATTER M. #1 of 4

Not to be outdone by Marvel (but obviously completely confused as to what the "M" stands for over in House of M), Image creates the Looking Glass Wars (i.e. Alice in Wonderland) and brings them to the modern day when Hatter Madigan must search for the lost princess, Alyss (hint: read it phonetically).
By Frank Beddor, Liz Cavalier and Ben Templesmith.
40 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $3.99 retail.

MARVEL COMICS

ULTIMATE X-MEN / FANTASTIC FOUR

When Cerebro goes missing and all the clues point to the Baxter Building in downtown New York, it's only natural that the X-Men assume that the Fantastic Four are up to no good. The fight's on, byotch!
By Mike Carey and Pasqual Ferry.
32 pages. One-shot special. $2.99 retail.

ULTIMATE WOLVERINE VS. HULK #1 of 6

Fury goes to Wolverine when he realizes that Bruce Banner is still alive, well, and globe-trotting. Wolverine, not one to shrink from a fight, is more than willing to try and take Banner down. Thus, begins the first Ultimate fight between Wolvie and Hulkie...
By Damon Lindelof and Lenil Francis Yu.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

PUNISHER: SILENT NIGHT

... or, as I'd like to call it, Punisher versus Santa Claus. Frank Castle's trying to track down a big, bad criminal of epic proportions and has to take on Santa Claus to do so. I'm just all about seeing Punisher in a Santa outfit, really.
By Andy Diggle, Kyle Hotz, and Mike Deodato.
48 pages. One-shot special. $3.99 retail.

IRON MAN: THE INEVITABLE #1 of 6

Iron Man's enemies are back and want to kill him (what else?). Two of the classic villains returning for this series include the Living Laser and the Spymaster. Scared yet?
By Joe Casey and Frazier Irving.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

MARVEL ZOMBIES #1 of 5

So, in the Ultimate Fantastic Four, Reed Richards gets tricked into going to an alternate reality where an alien virus has turned everyone on Earth into zombies. This mini-series seeks to investigate that concept much, much further.
By Robert Kirkman, Sean Phillips, and Arthur Suydam.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

SPIDER-WOMAN: ORIGIN #1 of 6

The true origin of Jessica Drew. I used to read the 1970s version of Spider-Woman way back when I was a kid so I was ecstatic when the New Avengers revived her long-dead character. Now, we get to read about her true origin and I couldn't be more excited... (get your minds out of the gutter).
By Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Reed, and Jonathan Luna.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

YOUNG AVENGERS SPECIAL #1

Jessica Jones and Kat Farrell investigate these new young whipper-snappers in order to figure out where they REALLY came from. Where were they before they met Iron Lad?
By Allan Heinberg, Neal Adams, Bill Sienkiewicz, Pascual Ferry, Gene Ha, Jae Lee and Michael Gaydos.
32 pages. One-shot special. $2.99 retail.

SON OF M #1 of 6

Not much is out there regarding this upcoming mini-series except that the images they show appear to be Quicksilver who happens to be the son of Magneto (surprise!). At any rate, it's yet another continuation of the ever-ongoing House of M storyline that Marvel's been milking for so long now.
By David Hine and Roy Allan Martinez.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

FINAL NOTES
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There wraps up yet another newsletter chock-full of great new comic goodness. Well, it might not necessarily be comic goodness, all of it, but there's definitely going to be some good stuff in there to put in your stockings.

As always, remember, a Happy Holidays to All and to All a Dark Knight! (Man, I love cheesy Batman jokes!)

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric Jacobson