THE BEEF: 021106
"Well here we are again. Since the folks at DC sent nothing "review-able" and Marvel only "Sneaked" out two titles that fit that bill this week, I'm gonna' whip another Beef on you. So what’s on tap this week? The last issue of Losers, the conclusion of the Winter Soldier Captain America arc and an answer to the question posted two weeks ago about the sales of Warren Ellis. And don't forget to check the bottom of the page (after you read my reviews) for a link to some SNEAKY PEEKIES of future titles"
JUST A BUNCH OF LOSERS?
This Wednesday marks the arrival of the last issue of DC/Vertigo’s The Losers which was the idea of Andy Diggle and more often than not was drawn by the man only known as Jock with guest appearances by Brit artist Colin Wilson. The title was inspired by a DC war title called The Losers which was from Robert Kaniger but (like so many Vertigo updates) the title only shared the name. The Losers was an action/caper/spy thriller involving a team of former government agents who had been screwed over and felt the need to get payback. The tendency with these sort of stories is to have a cool, grizzled leader who led a team of hardened professionals on missions that placed them as close to death as possible but not so you would lose a member because in this case whoever died wasn’t going to be replaced due to trust issues. Diggle was able to use this formula to his advantage and made human beings out of what could have been caricatures. Each mission was tense and the art always gave the title a realistic feel but the title never really caught on with audiences. DC realized this early and gave the book way much more leeway than others would have because they wanted to keep the duo in the fold and a sudden cancellation would have driven them elsewhere. It’s the same reason that DC kept the Tang Eng Huat drawn Doom Patrol title around past the sixth issue-they knew he would be someone that audiences would clamor for. Now considering the sales on Batman: Journey Into Knight DC may have screwed the pooch on that one but they do have plans for Diggle and he was probably the only person who could have made Adam Strange interesting. Jock also shows great potential on a character like Batman or anyone who spends their lives in the shadows.

So why didn’t the book work? Well it did but just couldn’t get over the sales hump like Transmetropolitan was able to do. Diggle’s gritty stories appeal to a certain audience and those folks are out there in Borders looking for the next Tom Clancy or Kyle Mills’ novel, not in comic stores. The trades seem to be doing well in mainstream book stores but the comic book market is and has always been a superhero driven one and in the world that the Losers hung out in there were no Batman appearances anywhere on the horizon. The title did gain the interest of Hollywood and will become a feature film under the auspices of Friday Night Lights’ Peter Berg and when the film does move closer to theaters you would guess that a one shot or limited series would arrive in shops to take advantage of the event.

"BUCKY, NO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O!"
Before I start, a bit of business: SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER ARC There, you've been warned. Last week the the conclusion of the Ed Brubaker/Steve Epting Winter Soldier arc in Captain America shipped. Brubaker promised that the arc would be controversial and he was right since he used it to resurrect his first partner, Bucky. We were introduced to General Lukin in a meeting with the perpetually alive Red Skull. Lukin was interested in obtaining the Cosmic Cube and as he and the Skull walked through a warehouse we saw the hint of something in a glass case that would prove important in this arc and supposedly the Marvel Universe. Marvel history says that Bucky died when he could not get free from a rocket that he and Cap were trying to stop. That adventure placed Cap in the water and resulted in him being in suspended animation for many years. Brubaker’s arc showed that Bucky didn’t die and was turned into an assassin of myth Code Named: the Winter Soldier. There were a few fans who got all upset about what he did and claimed that by having Bucky alive it took something important away from Cap. To that I say-BS! Yes Bucky’s death was an important component of Steve Rogers life but the arc showed that his not being dead added more to Cap’s feelings of guilt due to the fact that now his partner is a very dangerous man with comparable skills. The underside of Brubaker’s Cap is a tightly controlled sense of anger. He is angry that his partner has been turned into the opposite of what he wanted him to be, angry that he can’t do anything about it, angry that he is basically alone. The return of Bucky is just another component of that. The final issue of the arc had Bucky remember everything when he had the Cube in his hand and we learned that the Skull wasn’t dead after all but inside Lukin’s head as a result of his being shot while holding the fractured Cube. From here we move on but the Winter Soldier will appear elsewhere (this month’s Wolverine for one) and we know that eventually Lukin and the Skull will have to discover someway to unconnect themselves with the help of the Cosmic Cube. When I was a little Bo' the Cube was an important part of the stories I used to run and get out of those comic vending machines that you found in drug stores. It’s nice to see it back and an integral part of Captain America tales.

WARREN ELLIS IS GOD!
Finally, Warren Ellis. In a previous column I batted around a question that was posed to me when it seemed like there weren’t going to be books to review that week.-Why Warren doesn’t sell? Now since them a strange thing has happened, he has been selling out like crazy. Fell #1 and #2? Gone, Image doesn’t have any copies  left. Nextwave #1? That book sold out in less than a week so Marvel is doing a Director’s Cut before the second issue ships. Black Gas #1 with its many covers from Avatar? In the words of Dennis Lehane, the book is gone, baby gone. So what happened? Nothing at all. Ellis does sell, just not Infinite Crisis numbers. So retailers all over the county under ordered these books and got caught like a balloon in a thresher. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Not a very comfortable feeling but one that could be alleviated by you dear reader giving me a HEADS UP in advance of these books arrival) Sometimes it’s impossible to figure out just what is and isn’t going to move on a weekly basis since what is hot this week is forgotten pizza the next month. That’s what scares the crap out of dealers with something like 52. It could be one of the biggest hits of 2006 or become the next Sable and Fortune. BTW, as for why that Marvel limited series isn’t selling it has more to do with the books target audience is the British and book store market than a miscalculation of Marvel’s part. For a perfect example re-read the LOSERS article and you will see what I mean.
"See, I told you I'd be down here. We've got a bunch of SNEAKY PEEKIES of future MARVEL, DC and IMAGE titles right HERE"

Article © 2006 Alternate Reality, Inc.
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