Young Allies Ongoing Starting This June! (or: OH MY GOD MORE RIKKI BARNES)

*inhale* YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

You know what's starting in June 2010 as a Heroic Age title? You know what's gonna be an ONGOING TITLE? And has RIKKI BARNES IN IT?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I'M IN SUCH A GOOD MOOD!

That's right, it's Young Allies. Well done you for reading the title of the post.

Now, some of you might well be wondering why I care so much, and indeed why this gets a post on a site that has by and large dropped posting anything other than rambling alphabet related tripe. And I'll tell you why. I, Max Barnard, LOVE Rikki Barnes. So much so that in the build-up to the Nomad: Girl Without A World I made no less than a WHOLE BUNCH of posts about ANYTHING that cropped up to do with the series, a series that did in fact turn out to be the BEST mini of 2009, HANDS DOWN. So when I say that you should be stoked for Young Allies and should in fact be adding it to your shopping lists for June (I mean you all make shopping lists that far ahead right? right.), you can bloody well believe I'm right on the money.

Anyway, what should you expect from this apparent 'best series to keep an eye out for this year because a dude called Max says so'? Well for one thing a helluva line-up. Young Allies promises to have Nomad (Rikki Barnes), fresh from her own mini-series and Captain America back-up tales ready to kick arse and take names alongside Arana, who has been appearing alongside her in said back-ups and proving to be a wonderful team-mate to Rikki. Alongside that pairing we have Gravity, Mckeever's own AWESOME creation from a few years back that's gone through the wringer a little, having kinda died in BEYOND! and also having resurfaced in Fantastic Four a while afterwards, Toro (a new guy who has powers relating more to a bull than a flaming WWII veteran) and the 'kinda a bit too old for a team with 'young' in the title by now surely' character Firestar, fresh from... Surviving cancer. It's a team so off-kilter compared to the usual dreck we're getting nowadays that it's pretty much guaranteed awesome.

Alongside the great non-team (as Mckeever assures us is the case. which is unusual but hey) we have an interestingly named group of villains known only as the 'Bastards of Evil'. Which as far as unusual names go is right up there with... something.

Of course the final step to sell you on this ONGOING (remember when great ideas would get ongoings and make it past issue 5? make that happen. go on.) is to tell you of the creative team.

Surely you all know of Sean Mckeever, whether for some brilliant Teen Titans material (which some people are down on for some weird reason but screw those guys, right?), his Gravity mini-series, his Nomad mini-series, his 12 issue Inhumans series, his Sentinel mini-series and Spider-Man loves Mary Jane. All of which are great. Or at the least good. Mckeever rarely disappoints, especially when writing young characters.

David Baldeon is also an excellent person to have on the creative side of things, as his recent art duties on Nomad were performed more than admirably, creating an emotive and beautiful work that really just emphasises how much more work the man needs with Marvel. Thankfully that itch is gonna be scratched here, and it's a pretty safe guess that he'll continue to bring his A game throughout. (note: he'll also be doing the Gravity story in Age of Heroes, so look for some pretty are THERE too)

And if you REALLY want a bonus to make you jump on board, the first cover appears to be a Wraparound effort from none other than David Lafuente, another artist I can do nothing other than LOVE nowadays. Of course if it ISN'T a wraparound cover then hey, at least you can see this awesome piece of Lafuente art promoting what is 99% likely to be THE series to read this year.

Ya know, unless you think that one of those Avengers titles will be better (hint: they won't).


related links:

Marvel.com article
Comic Book Resources article
Newsarama Interview

OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT

Still finishing up the letter E for A to Z and a coupla top tens, but that's neither here nor there. Because I'm about to blow my own soul wide open. You ready for this shit?

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: DIAL H FOR HERO TP
Advance-solicited • On sale APRIL 21 • 288 pg, B&W, $9.99 US
Written by DAVE WOOD
Art by JIM MOONEY & others
Cover by JIM MOONEY
The quirky series from HOUSE OF MYSTERY #156-173 is collected for the first time in this title introducing teenaged Robby Reed, whose discovery of the H-E-R-O dial leads to costumed adventure!

LET IT BE KNOWN ON THIS DAY THAT I AM FUCKING PRESCIENT! I AM THE ULTIMATE GOD! I HAVE THE POWER!


And that I'm buying the shit out of this when it's out. And so will all of you, else there will be pain.

Quick-Fire Things I Don't Want To Review But Have An Opinion On

A slightly lax approach today, where I'mma just address things from last week that I have opinions on but really can't be arsed to review.

Runaways has not been worth the time of day since it's latest renumbering (though some could argue Joss Whedon's arc lacked BKV's spark.

As such the bitch isn't worth my time anymore. The thing that tipped me over the edge?

Nico hooking up with Chase AGAIN (this makes her the biggest slut of the group and that's such a lame characterisation). Oh yeah that and nonchalantly dropping their first frog vehicle THAT HAS A FUCKING PERSONALITY YOU JERKS. No image for that one though. Oh and the art's REALLY bad now. In fact I don't even know why I've read it. RUNAWAYS, FUCK OFF. YOU'RE DONE.

The Incredible Hulk is actually pretty good, though I'm still just reading it for the Savage She-Hulk backup.

Seriously it's great to have an Olivetti Hulk book (his art actually suits overmuscular giants ya see) and the first 'proper' issue last week has had some great writing from Greg Pak, but Van Lente's Savage She-Hulk backup has pretty much punched that in the nuts and decided it's more awesome. And outside of the art slipping a bit it pretty much has.

Look at that bottom panel and tell me I'm wrong, I fucking dare you!

New Mutants is still one of the two best X-books around...

The other being X-Factor of course. I was going to review this but kinda figured I shouldn't review the same series issue after issue. Just trust me when I say that if you're not following it you are a TOOL.

..... And X-Force is probably the worst book being released by Marvel

Yeah, worse than Loeb's Hulk. I mean it. A) Necrosha's build up, something I was SURE wouldn't look like a complete rip-off of Blackest Night.... Does.

Seriously. Fucking awful. Caliban is the Black Hand. Also B) they can't pay enough attention to which arm is cut off of X-23.

Right Arm to Left Arm in the space of ONE PANEL!

Which whilst hilarious also kinda sickens me as the whole scene is basically something out of a really sick Guro comic. Just stay the fuck away from this abomination and we shall never speak of it again.

.... Oh yeah and C) Rahne feel character assassinated compared to her X-Factor days. This pisses me off.

Wolverine HATES film piracy!

'Nuff said? Wolverine First Class actually matters this week as we get the origin of Jamie Madrox's dupes going out to learn stuff, including the fact that one of the first batch will become James Maddox! This is awesome.

See? Awesome.

Cow Variants are awesome

Skrull Kill Krew needs a small trophy... Or higher sales.

Other things

Guardians of the Galaxy has gone completely and utterly hatstand at the moment, with crazy shit happening all over the place. Read it already!

Beta Ray Bill now has a partner to try and procreate his species with. That won't work in the long run but still how nice.

DON'T pull Herc's finger

Okay and that's a new approach of not reviewing anything but still saying things. Whaddaya think?

INTERLUDE: Whoop More Nomad!

In all my efforts to get back to updating with reviews and such I had this completely pass me by, but thanks to Hex's Fifth Column I've had the fortune to know about the art only preview of NOMAD: GIRL WITHOUT A WORLD #1 over at newsarama. This stuff is beautiful and has gotten far more stoked for my anticipated series of the year than anything before it (which regular readers will know is RIDICULOUS).

HIT THE JUMP TO SEE THE PAGES AND MY THOUGHTS ON EACH ONE!

So we kick off with Rikki peeking in on BuckyCap, as part of her want to be HIS Bucky. A pretty cool page, mainly just for that little box showing where she is on the page.

Black Widow is a character I haven't cared for since her hair grew again (weird right?) but I'm just biased so instead of thinking how awesome it'd be for them to chat I'm thinking... the page is pretty.

Probably not a plot point: Rikki considering becoming an alchoholic, gazing longingly into a fridge at a shop.

Ya know, this is all just setting things up, but it's pretty awesome. Both pretty and setting the scene at the same time.

.... Strangely hot, loathe I am to admit it. Oh who am I kidding I love to admit it.

And we end on the awesome coloured in pencil work we saw last month. The colours have added so much life to it and make for pretty impacting stuff. Man I'm stoked.

So there you go, barely a post but fuck it Nomad is a peculiar focus of this blog.

Source: Newsarama via Hex's Fifth Column

Interlude: A Sketch Of Rikki Barnes To Whet My Excitement

Turns out that on June 26th ComicBookResources had a brilliant Cup 'o Joe that I managed to ignore by being one of the few fools who never checks out the column.

Well FOOL ON ME! Turns out a nice little bit of Rikki Barnes/Nomad art snuck its way in there, whetting my appetite for the upcoming lovefest that is Nomad: Girl Without A World.

I'm aware I shouldn't keep making posts about this, but we're talking the ONE release this year I'm genuinely excited about so any and all information that appears will be thrown in your faces right here at Flip The Page.

Here's The Awesome Art In Question:

Oh Fuck... That's Awesome.

Source: Cup 'o Joe Q&A

To Those Who Recognise My Profile Picture:

This shit just went up a notch!

Nomad: Girl Without A World Announced

To most this is just another announcemeny of ANOTHER minor character getting a spotlight limited series, but we're talking about RIKKI BARNES here. As the new Nomad for now too (apparently. don't hold me to that)

Not just that but the writer is Sean Mckeever, who wrote some good stuff with Young Inhumans.

So the best news for me, a chance to update my profile picture AND pretty pointless news for everyone else.

On the note of updates I've finished the notes for New Mutants #098 (this stuff is HARD) and am getting ready to churn out the Top Ten #2: Black Avengers update soon as. MIGHT do a previews thing but my opinions are fanboyish schlock at best.

EDIT: turns out the good people at IGN have an interview with mckeever about NOMAD. Check it out here. Yeah, I'm making this a long link 'cause I can.... And so you can actually notice it.