Don’t Ask! Just Buy It! – Feb. 3: Ultimate X Debuts, Demo Returns, and the Previous Question Rises from the Grave

Savage Critic and "Reading Comics" author Douglas Wolk runs down the hottest comics and graphic novels coming out this week.

KEY



* AiT/Planet Lar alumni

¢ The eternal return

* ¢ DEMO #1



First of a six-issue revival of the 2003-2004 miniseries that was a creative breakthrough for its creators Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan: done-in-one short stories about young people finding their identities. (You can read the first issue of the original series in its entirety here.)

¢ DOMINIC FORTUNE: IT CAN HAPPEN HERE AND NOW TPB

A collection of Howard Chaykin's recent miniseries about his Depression-era soldier-of-fortune, along with a 1980 story with Chaykin layouts from "Marvel Premiere" and a 1975 Chaykin solo piece from "Marvel Preview," as well as the Dean Motter/Greg Scott "digital comic." But come on: as long as you're reprinting that stuff, Marvel, how about the Denny O'Neil/Chaykin full-color serial from 1980 issues of the "Hulk" magazine? The one whose "offbeat conclusion" never got published? In other Chaykin-watch news, he's got a story in this week's "Indomitable Iron Man," one of those odd black-and-white one-shots Marvel's been publishing lately.

* ¢ INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #23

Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca's "Stark: Disassembled" serial continues, and by this point it's self-evidently a plot-hammer, or at least a plot croquet mallet, to move Tony Stark into position for "Siege" (whose second issue also comes out this week). Still, they seem to be having some fun doing it. Preview.

¢ LITTLE LULU VOL. 22: BIG DIPPER CLUB AND OTHER STORIES

We are very lucky to be living in a time when basically every comic book John Stanley ever worked on is coming back into print.

¢ MARVEL HEARTBREAKERS #1

The by-now-traditional Valentine's Day special--not to be confused with the Anina Bennett/Paul Guinan sci-fi project of almost the same name. This issue includes a story by Kathryn Immonen, which means it's worth a look. Preview.

¢ MILESTONE FOREVER #1



Dwayne McDuffie was one of the people behind the short-lived Milestone line in the mid-'90s--a very interesting experiment that involved a lot of misfires, but also launched a lot of careers and produced some fresh, entertaining comics. McDuffie's returned for this two-issue wrap-up to that whole universe; the solicits list John Paul Leon, MD Bright and Romeo Tanghal as artists for this issue, and also mention Denys Cowan, Prentis Rollins and Chriscross for next issue. All of them drew comics for Milestone back in the day, which may mean that there's a bunch of long-shelved material that's going to get worked in here: McDuffie has noted that the concluding issues of "Icon," "Hardware" and "Static" were produced but never published. Preview here.

¢ THE QUESTION #37

And speaking of Denys Cowan, he's returning to the title he drew in the early '90s for this one-issue "Blackest Night" revival, along with its original writer Dennis O'Neil and current Question custodian Greg Rucka. (The two writers discussed their collaboration here.) Of all the one-off Blackest Night revivals, this one's potentially the most exciting. ¢ RECIDIVIST

The third and final volume of Zak Sally's experimental/memoiristic series, whose first two numbers were collected recently in "Like a Dog." Normally I wouldn't feature stuff here that Diamond lists as "offered again," but 1) this is pretty terrific, and 2) it's called "Recidivist."

¢ ULTIMATE COMICS X #1



For those who weren't keeping score: the unbelievably bad Jeph Loeb-written "Ultimatum" miniseries killed off that universe's Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Angel, Beast, Cannonball, Emma Frost, Longshot, Magneto, Psylocke and Professor X, which doesn't leave much material for an X-Men title. And yet there's this new, allegedly bimonthly, series, written by Loeb and drawn by the remarkable Art Adams. The preview suggests that it's basically going to be Ultimate Alpha Flight, and... uh... did I mention that Art Adams is drawing it?