The economy sucks, so it's hard to set a lot aside for funnybooks these days, but the need for escapism is only ticking up. So what comic books should you be checking out this month? Well, allow us here at Crave Online to make a few recommendations as to what to look out for on the November 2011 docket.
SINGLE ISSUES:
POINT ONE (Marvel)
This is 64-pages of Marvel setting the stage for everything they're going to do in 2012. Brian Michael Bendis, Jeph Loeb, Chris Yost, David Lapham and more are contributing stories previewing the new Scarlet Spider, the new Age of Apocalypse series, the next iteration of Ultron, whatever's going on with Nova and more they haven't told us about. If you want to be on board with the House of Ideas, this is where you jump on.
FANTASTIC FOUR #600 (Marvel)
Just to show all o' y'all who get all worked up about renumbering a thing or two, even though Fantastic Four has been FF (aka Future Foundation) for the last 11 issues, it still counts, and here's a nice big round number for you, just in time for the 50th anniversary of Marvel's First Family. Jonathan Hickman is giving us a 5-part story starting with this 96-page issue that will break off and run parallel to the ongoing FF title he's also writing. We've been promised the actual on-panel death of the Human Torch Johnny Storm for all the naysayers who believe he'll be back sooner rather than later.
VILLAINS FOR HIRE #0.1 (Marvel)
Misty Knight has been Control for the fledgling outfit known as Heroes For Hire for a while now, but something's changing, and we have no idea why. Where before, she was corraling people like Moon Knight, Silver Sable and even Spider-Man to bust up some nasty criminal activity, now, she's going to be employing the ne'er-do-wells she used to strive against. What happened? Did someone get to her? Paladin is still on board, but his moral compass is generally dubious - has he corrupted her? Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning will be bringing us this mystery, and they're pretty good at giving us the action. If you have a deep, abiding love of Marvel's B-listers, this is where you go to see them get some love.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #3 (DC)
Finally, DC's premiere superheroes have stopped having whiny slapfights with each other and actually have a real threat to unite against - namely, Darkseid's demonic Parademons. Also, we get to see Wonder Woman finally enter the fray. If the business in this story from Geoff Johns and Jim Lee doesn't immediately pick up here, there's something seriously wrong going on.
WONDER WOMAN #3 (DC)
Speaking of Wonder Woman, while Justice League may show us her first entrance into the superhero world, Brian Azzarello's series will be giving us her brand new origin. We discovered in #2 that Zeus, King of the Greek Gods, is actually Diana's father - something she'd never had before. How will that revelation change her sense of her own identity? More immediately, how will she be able to escape the jealous Hera's wrath? Big shakin's are afoot here.
TRANSFORMERS #30 (IDW)
Mike Costa and James Roberts have been charting an epic disaster on Cybertron that comes to a head here in the conclusion of the Chaos arc. Megatron is rebuilt and unstoppable, Galvatron is mystically-powered and deranged, and Optimus Prime and the Autobots are caught in the midst of the massive battle to determine the fate of Cybertron. Starting with Roberts' Prelude to Chaos, this has been some of the strongest Transformers writing to date. After this, the Transformers series unites and is supposed to be brought into tighter focus, and the painted-style art from Livio Ramondelli is not to be missed, if you're a fan of giant robots.
FEAR ITSELF #7.1 (Marvel)
Fear Itself as an event was a complete mess, but in this aftermath story, Captain America writer Ed Brubaker gets to reclaim his lead character of James Buchanan Barnes from Matt Fraction's murderous pen. Bucky was wearing the Cap uniform when he was cut down by the advance of The Worthy, spurring Steve Rogers to don the star-spangled identity once more. Now, we learn Bucky's fate. Is he really dead, despite everything Brubaker had set up for him to do before this ridiculous event started? If not, how will he live? If so... Brubaker's writing the eulogy, and that's not something to be missed.
THE INCREDIBLE HULK #2 (Marvel)
The jury's still out on Jason Aaron's take on the Green Goliath, but this is the issue where it'll start to really come into focus. The Hulk and Bruce Banner have separated now, and the Hulk has found peace in a subterranean village - only to be recruited into a fight against Banner, who has apparently gone mad trying to replace the Hulk by experimenting on other creatures. Just how nuts has he gone? Here's where we find out, and even if you don't like it, there's still the art from the legendary Marc Silvestri to enjoy.
