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Sunday, February 26, 2017

THE UNBOXING - FEBRUARY 2017

We've got a couple books from outside the realm of the usual suspects (Marvel, DC, and IDW) this month, so I'll save those for last. First up are two offerings from Marvel: LUKE CAGE, IRON FIST, AND THE HEROES FOR HIRE Volume 2. and WOLVERINE: WEAPON X UNBOUND. Both conclude runs begun in previous collected editions, though you wouldn't know it based on the Wolverine book's name.


"Unboxing" aficionados will recall that the HEROES FOR HIRE series was fast-tracked, with volume 1 just released a couple months back. The WOLVERINE book, meanwhile, completes the Larry Hama/Marc Silvestri run that began in 2013's WOLVERINE BY LARRY HAMA & MARC SILVESTRI volume 1 and 2014's volume 2. Why wasn't this collection simply branded as volume 3 in that series? My guess would be that with a full three years elapsed since the prior volume (it came out in February of '14), Marvel opted to go with a new angle for the final installment. In any case it doesn't really matter; the important thing is that the complete Hama/Silvestri run is now collected in three nifty paperbacks.

Then we have RED ONE VOLUME 2: UNDERCOVER, from Image. Some may remember that I wasn't that impressed with the first RED ONE volume, but I like Terry Dodson's artwork and these things are so reasonably priced that I figured I'd give the series a second chance to win me over before dropping it altogether. I'll try to read this one and write a bit about it at some point in the near future.


Lastly, Dark Horse brings the HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE NEWSPAPER STRIP COLLECTION. I've been on a bit of a newspaper strip kick recently -- something I'll speak a bit more about a couple months from now -- and this book is right in my wheelhouse. I had no idea there ever was a He-Man strip -- our local papers didn't carry it (they really didn't carry any adventure strips aside from PRINCE VALIANT). Apparently Mattel commissioned a Filmation employee to continue the TV series' continuity into the papers, continuing to introduce new characters to He-Man's world. This is one I'm quite excited to check out.

Bonus Photo: Check out how massive the HE-MAN book is beside a standard-size (normal comic book dimensions) trade paperback!


Bonus Photo 2: I really like that, as they've released these various HE-MAN books over the past few years, even though they come in all different shapes and sizes, Dark Horse has maintained a standard cover design for all of them. It's a nice touch:

2 comments:


  1. // Mattel commissioned a Filmation employee to continue the TV series' continuity into the papers //

    Huh. I never knew that. While the line came out towards the end of my time playing with action figures, I did have some of them and watched the series. I preferred the minicomics continuity, though, sparse as it was then. Anyway, neat thing to have, and, yeah, really nice unifying cover designs.

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    1. When this book was announced, I did a little Googling and found this interview with the strip's writer: LINK. Though it appears I misspoke above; he was a freelancer who wrote some scripts for Filmation and that led to the newspaper strip gig.

      As a child, I vastly preferred the cartoon continuity over all else, and got a little miffed when various storybooks, etc. got the TV show's details wrong. In later years, I've found a lot to like in those early minicomics, and while I don't know that I like them more than the cartoons, I probably like them just as much for different reasons. The mythology is somewhat Conan-esque, presenting He-Man as kind of a wandering barbarian (which makes sense since the property was initially conceived as a licensed Conan toyline), which is really cool.

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