Welcome to The Forecast. Every Monday, Ninth Art's core team of comment writers, the Ninth Eight, will be your guides to the best, worst, weirdest and most noteworthy books on the shelves of your local comic shop.

BOOK OF THE WEEK: SLEEPER

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' SLEEPER is the best thriller on the comic store shelves today. Out this week is the third trade, collecting the first six issues of the book's final season. Noir is hard to write well, and superhero noir almost impossible, but Brubaker makes it look easy. A CROOKED LINE isn't a happy book. It's a nightmare fairground ride into the black depths of the criminal fraternity and those shadowy agents who try to fight them, but whose techniques are often worse than the criminals'.

SLEEPER stars double agent Holden Carver - I always want to write "Holden Caulfield", the lead character from Salinger's CATCHER IN THE RYE. And now that I think about it, the two Holdens share a similar kind of death grip on their idealism in the face of a world pushing them to just let go and forget about it. If Carver gave up caring quite so much about trying to do the right thing, his problems would mostly be over. But instead he rattles between criminal super-boss Tao and the equally crooked master-spy John Lynch, until he ends up at the exact point described by Neitzche when he wrote, "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you".

Carver is surrounded by monsters, and he is long past knowing that he's become one of them. And there's a dame, of course. Long red hair, hot as hell and meaner than a one-eared tomcat. But he loves her, in his way, and keeping her safe may just do him in. I'm the kind of girl who usually works out the twist in thrillers in the opening couple of pages, but I can tell you I have no idea how Carver is going to get himself out of this. I just hope it doesn't go all SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD at the finale. Carver deserves a happy ending, but I don't think he's going to get it. [Alex de Campi]

WINGED VICTORY

Grant Morrison's SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY super-series begins in earnest this week with the first issue of SHINING KNIGHT (DC Comics).

The Shining Knight of the tale is Sir Justin, a young Arthurian who finds himself thrown 800 years into the future, landing in the maddening dystopia that is the 21st-Century DC Universe. Fortunately, both Justin and his wingéd horse, the noble Victory, will probably blend in amongst all the gorilla guerillas, plastic men and star-spangled girls that parade up and down LA's Sunset Strip.

SHINING KNIGHT, followed later this month by THE MANHATTAN GUARDIAN, is the first of a series of seven approximately bimonthly overlapping miniseries, which can be read separately or as part of a greater whole, and which tell Morrison's grand story of a secret war across the DC Universe. With Morrison the common denominator, we can expect that the writing will, at least, be of a certain high standard. It may be that it's the artists who determine whether or not you read a particular book.

The artist on SHINING KNIGHT is Simone Bianchi, who has drawn Conan for Marvel Italia, amongst other things. The preview pages here show Bianchi to be an excellent, meaty artist in the Glenn Fabry mould. Hopefully, his depiction of modern-day America will be as visceral and as cutting as the battle scenes set in 12th-Century Camelot.

It's worth noting that the seeds for this super-story were apparently sewn in Morrison's recent JLA: CLASSIFIED run (#1-3). SEVEN SOLDIERS completists may want to keep an eye out for the back issues, or make sure to order the inevitable trade. [Matthew Craig]

ONLY INHUMAN

Marvel's stereotypical superheroic schtick is that the stories tend to concentrate on characters who are alienated teens, or young people who find themselves thrust into positions of responsibility due to their powers. You'd think that the likes of the X-Men and Spider-Man would have left this a played-out theme, but Sean McKeever has found a rich new seam with the Inhumans. INHUMANS: CULTURE SHOCK sees a school exchange party of Inhuman teens visit a US school. The alienation has been turned up to 11, and the situational humour benefits from not having the decades of baggage that Marvel's other properties have.

The superpowered shenanigans add nicely to the individual characters, who are all interesting takes on predictable college kid archetypes - Artistic Loner, Naive Jock, Bitchy Beauty and so forth. Matthew Clark's pencils are a great deal nicer than most of the over-hyped rubbish that Marvel seems to be trumpeting as the next big thing, and should suit the digest format perfectly. This was one of the most enjoyable books of the couple of years, and so I heartily recommend it. [Lindsay Duff]

THE MENSCH OF STEEL

Click here to crack open a Real Media version of Howard Jacobson's BBC Radio 4 documentary, 'Is Superman Jewish?' (The link may only stay active for a few days, so don't wait too long.) Jacobson's exploration of Superman's origins is rooted in assimilationist mythology and ancient Jewish legend.

Interviews with DC Comics editors and Jewish scholars reveal layers to the Man of Steel's origins that may have escaped even the most avid reader's notice. Parallels drawn between Superman and larger-than-life Talmudic holy men, and between elements of Super-myth and elements of Jewish culture, argue the case more convincingly than anything I've read or heard before. The only place where the documentary falters is in its dramatisation of SUPERMAN comic strips, which ooze with condescension and lack gravitas.

Jacobson argues that now might be the time for Superman to "come out of the closet" and embrace his Jewish heritage more fully. While this might put paid to such godawful creations as the Jewish Hero Corps (what, no Kosher Krusader?), Superman's true power may lie in his allegorical Judaism, rather than a concrete devotion to any one faith. [Matthew Craig]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR MARCH 9th 2005:

Shipping details come courtesy of Diamond. Visit the Diamond website for the latest information, as the list is subject to change.

DARK HORSE

JAN050087 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #99 (MR) $2.99
DEC040018 CONCRETE HUMAN DILEMMA #3 (OF 6) (MR) $3.50

DC COMICS

JAN050290 AQUAMAN #28 $2.50
JAN050263 BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #189 $2.50
JAN050291 BLOOD OF THE DEMON #1 $2.50
JAN050293 BLOODHOUND #9 $2.99
JAN050294 BREACH #3 $2.50
DEC040298 DEVLIN WAUGH RED TIDE TP (MR) $19.95
JUL040690D DOOM PATROL VOL 2 PAINTING THAT ATE PARIS TP (MR) $19.95
JAN050372 FABLES #35 (MR) $2.50
JAN050267 GOTHAM CENTRAL #29 $2.50
JAN050303 GREEN ARROW #48 $2.50
JAN050310 JSA #71 $2.50
JAN050352 MAJESTIC #3 (MR) $2.99
JAN050278 NIGHTWING #105 $2.25
JAN050332 SCOOBY DOO #94 $2.25
JAN050318 SEVEN SOLDIERS SHINING KNIGHT #1 (OF 4) $2.99
JAN050358 SLEEPER VOL 3 A CROOKED LINE TP (MR) $17.99
JAN050285 SUPERMAN BATMAN VOL 1 PUBLIC ENEMIES TP $12.99
DEC040317 TERRA OBSCURA VOL 2 #6 (OF 6) $2.95
JAN050383 VIMANARAMA #2 (OF 3) (MR) $2.99

IMAGE
DEC041514 AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS #3 $2.95
DEC041520 DAWN THREE TIERS #5 (OF 6) (RES) $2.95
DEC041572 HUNTER KILLER CAMPBELL CVR #1 $2.99
DEC041571 HUNTER KILLER HAIRSINE CVR #1 $2.99
DEC041570 HUNTER KILLER SILVESTRI CVR #1 $2.99
NOV041599D TOMB RAIDER SGN #50 $19.99

MARVEL

JAN051833 DISTRICT X #11 $2.99
JAN051857 GAMBIT #8 $2.99
JAN051885 GAMBIT HOUSE OF CARDS TP $14.99
JAN051874 INHUMANS VOL 1 CULTURE SHOCK DIGEST TP $7.99
DEC048340 MARVEL MUST HAVES NEW AVENGERS #1-3 $3.99
JAN051817 MARY JANE HOMECOMING #1 (OF 4) $2.99
DEC041771 NEW AVENGERS #4 $2.25
SEP048063D NEW AVENGERS #4 CHEUNG VARIANT $2.25
JAN051850 NEW THUNDERBOLTS #6 $2.99
JAN051819 SPIDER GIRL #84 $2.99
JAN051821 SPIDER-MAN TEAM UP SPECIAL $2.99
JAN051830 STOKERS DRACULA #4 (OF 4) $3.99
JAN051801 TALES OF THE THING #1 (OF 3) $2.50
JAN051867 THE PUNISHER #18 (MR) $2.99
DEC041740 ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #16 $2.25
JAN051853 WOLVERINE SOULTAKER #1 (OF 5) $2.99
JAN051803 X-MEN AGE OF APOCALYPSE #2 (OF 6) $2.99
JAN051862 X-MEN THE END HEROES AND MARTYRS #1 (OF 6) $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

DEC042789F AMAZING AGENT LUNA VOL 1 GN $10.99
DEC042387 BETTY #145 $2.19
AUG042894 BLUE MONDAY PAINTED MOON #4 (Of 4) (MR) $2.99
JAN052874F CRYPTOZOO CREW #2 $2.95
JAN052612E D3 SHADES OF BLUE VOL 1 TP $10.95
JAN058032E GI JOE #40 2ND PRTG $2.95
JAN052419E GLOOMCOOKIE #23 (MR) $2.95
DEC042390 JUGHEAD WITH ARCHIE DIGEST #200 $2.39
DEC042499 MASCA VOL 1 GN (MR) $9.99
JAN052428E NIGHTMARES AND FAIRY TALES #12 (MR) $2.95
DEC042788F NO MANS LAND VOL 1 GN $10.99
DEC042392 PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #92 $3.59
MAY042161E STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL 1 PKT TP $17.95
JAN052434E STREET ANGEL #5 $2.95
OCT042603J UDON STREET FIGHTER POWER FOIL CVR C #13 PI
DEC042498 WORLD OF NARUE BOOK 4 GN $9.99

The Ninth Eight are Matthew Craig, John Fellows, Kieron Gillen, Alistair Kennedy, Zack Smith, Andrew Wheeler, Ben Wooller and Bulent Yusuf.

This article is Ideological Freeware. The author grants permission for its reproduction and redistribution by private individuals on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice.