Well, another Christmas has come and gone, and once again, there are certain goodies Santa has not brought us.
First, Santa has not brought us a line of TPBs collecting Miracleman. Yes, I know the rights are all jumbled. But wasn't that whole McFarlane/Gaiman lawsuit supposed to clear the way? Weren't the profits from 1602 supposed to pay for any additional necessary legal action? Where's my Miracleman!?
Second, everyone these days thinks Bill Willingham is the bee's knees for his work on Fables and various other books. And while I'm a big fan of Fables, I'm old enough to remember Willingham's first major contribution to the comics canon -- Elementals. Unfortunately, the rights situation with Elementals seems almost as messed up as with Miracleman. Actually, I take that back -- it appears the rights are owned lock, stock, and barrel by someone who has no interest in doing anything with them. Is it too much to ask for TPBs?
Third, Marvel reprinted most of Walt Simonson's run on Thor in a series of TPBs, but stopped short of finishing it. What the heck is wrong with them? There's an epic battle between Thor and the Midgard Serpent waiting to delight a whole new generation of readers! This is the stuff of legends! Finish the run, Marvel! Finish it!
Fourth, when Giffen and DeMatteis did Formerly Known as the Justice League, DC said they would bring the two TPBs of their original run back into print. The first one -- "A New Begining" -- came back into print, but I'm still waiting for for "The Secret Gospel of Maxwell Lord."
So what are your unfulfilled comics Christmas wishes?
Posted by Jason Fliegel at December 26, 2006 12:03 AM
Unfulfilled Christmas wishes?
That "Panther's Quest" remains uncollected. I know Mr. Hudlin isn't a fan of Don MacGregor's work on T'Challa, but it's a seminal work and one of the few times comics ever took on apartheid. 200 pages, c'mon, Marvel.
That there hasn't been an announcement that while Jeph Loeb loves comics with all his heart, he is too busy in Hollywood to continue writing them. It's something I wish for every year. JMS too.
That Marvel still continues to string us along with the "Will they get rid of Mary Jane or not" stuff.
That Bendis hasn't realized the hypocrisy of his torturing women in his stories, his constant oversexualization of irredeemable bitch on wheels Maria Hill, while calling fans on not being able to get laid.
I wouldn't look for Willingham to work towards bringing Elementals back; in an interview in Pantheon he said he didn't own the rights anymore and "Good Riddance." Ironically, though it contains the scene that made me a Willingham hata 4 life, yo (well, that, and his infantile "You'll buy it anyway"- so why are YOU writing it, jerk?- reaction to the "War Crimes" reaction), yet it's the only work of his I feel comfortable for owning, despite the monstrous slandering of Clinton. Then again, I own Supreme Power, which includes a monstrous slander of Bush 41. So it balances out!
Where's volume 2 of Operation: Galactic Storm? It wasn't exactly the golden age of Avengers stories, but as multi-title crossovers went, it was handled a lot more elegantly than some I could *AHEM*OurWorldsAtWar*AHEM* mention, and it had a kickass ending.
I'm still waiting for Tony Stark to wake up one morning and discover that everything from Avengers: Disassembled on was just a fever dream.
I want the last volume of All-Star Archives, and the next volume of Legion of Super-Heroes Archives, which, by my reckoning, should take us up to just before EarthWar.
They should continue with the All-Star Super Squad volumes, and start collecting All-Star Squadron in trades, since we're at it.
I want a Strikeforce: Morituri reprint to sit alongside my Elementals reprint, somewhere near the pony. I want Essential Master of Kung-Fu, too.
Terence: Galactic Storm Vol. 2 was released a few weeks ago. Includes the rest of the story, the two epilogues, and the crappy What If? issues.
Dan: Ah, thanks. See? This is how much I'm paying attention to the current crop of comics these days.
Be warned that there is a screwed up signature in the second volume of Operation Galactic Storm, which means that some of the pages in the What If story are printed out of order. I'm not sure if it's a problem with all copies, but if you do have a screwed up copy, the correct reading order is:
255-258
275
260-264
279
266-274
259
276-278
265
280-282
(The above are page numbers)
Terrence: Re: All-Star Archives; Huh? They've definitely finished the Golden Age series, to the point where they even issued a 0 volume to reprint the pre-JSA #1 and #2 issues, as well as all 11 volumes reprinting the complete Golden Age JSA series. And v1 of tpbs reprinting the 70s All-Star revival has come out, I believe with a concluding v2 announced, as well as a collection of the Earth-2 Huntress backups from Wonder Woman.
Hadn't gotten around to reading my O:GS volumes yet. That's annoying, but I'm glad it was with the back-up and not the main story.
My danged American Flagg tpb. That was first solicited what, five years ago? I read in Erik Larsen's column that they were still re-coloring it or something.
I share your wish, Tony. I was very happy to read about the recoloring in Larsen's column, since I had figured the project was dead.
Tom: Okay, I've completely missed all of those - must have been during my wilderness years, and I haven't seen them in the store I go to.
I still want the last two volumes of the Comico Grendel run in Trades. And a trade for the Batman/Grendel crossovers, too, since Matt and DC seem to be on as good terms as ever these days. And the end of Zot!, while I'm at it.
(And even though I no longer have the issues or trades for either, I'd rather see a 'Shop or Die!' trade (covering the Manga Kahn/Bialia/Apocalypse storylines) than a reprent of the Secret Gospel. Because that was where that run really started being good.)
(And let's not even get me started about Suicide Squad trades)
I would love to see the rest of the Books of Magic trades, the rest of Hitman, and Larry Marder's Bean...
On the good-but-not-good-enough side, it pains me that the omnibus editions of The Filth, 2020, and now Outlaw Nation are sans color. If that weren't the case, I mighta busted my gift budget wide open in order to gift them upon some folks.
Yes, it is indeed. I must have been very very sleepy the day I saw it in the store. Or possibly there's another ex-vertigo monochromatic reprint that I'm thinking of? No, I think I was just half-lidded.