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: ACTION PHILOSOPHERS

Much of comics is concerned with devotion to black-and-white morality and uncomplicated ontological dilemma. Spider-Man is the Good Samaritan, Batman seeks to impose order on a chaotic world, and Superman knows that "there's a Right and a Wrong in the universe, and that distinction is not hard to make".

Indeed, there seem to be precious few mainstream comics where the core philosophy is anything more than a means to an end - something to drive the story, rather than something to be explored or discussed. And while there are plenty of comics about thinking about comics, there are fewer comics about thinking than there ought to be.

ACTION PHILOSPSHERS (Evil Twin Comics) seeks to redress the balance, by presenting the lives of History's Greatest Thinkers, and the thoughts that got them there, in a popular comics format. Written by Fred Van Lente (AMAZING FANTASY), and featuring art by Ryan Dunlavey, the first issue starred Plato, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Bodhidharma, the father of Zen Buddhism. As these preview pages show, ACTION PHILOSOPHERS adopts a light-hearted approach to the material that allows them to tell a good story without dumbing-down the eternal verities. The clean lines and narrative rhythm recall Scott McCloud's UNDERSTANDING COMICS, and fulfil the promise of that legendary tome: to make good Documentary Comics, for every reader.

The second issue of ACTION PHILOSOPHERS is published this week, under the title ALL-SEX SPECIAL. It promises to tell the true story of US President Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and fathered children with his slave mistress, as well as examining the love lives of Saint Augustine of Hippo (inspiration to Protestant forefather Martin Luther) and Objectivist thinker Ayn Rand (inspiration to Spider-Man forefather Steve Ditko).

While ACTION PHILOSOPHERS is not the first example of Philosophy Comics (or even the second), it may well be the best and brightest, succeeding where a hundred Very Special Issues have failed: by making us think.

Which is more than Green Lantern ever did. [Matthew Craig]

THE WEIGHTING PLACE

Marvel is trying something bold and different this month. In amidst the usual desperate relaunches of failed series and female teenage clone versions of established heroes, they're also rolling out a brand new superhero, GRAVITY.

This doesn't happen very often. While Marvel loves to boast of its huge stable of 'licensable characters', most of those characters date back at least thirty years. Whole comic universes have risen and fallen in the time since Marvel last successfully launched a new concept. GRAVITY almost certainly only exists so Marvel can prove to its stockholders that it's still 'creating', but hell, let's not look a gift horse in the mouth.

So here's the new idea; a teenager develops strange powers in a quirky accident and decides to fight crime. Well, OK, so it's not a very new idea, it's a reliable old stalwart, but there's an appealing creative team on board to try to at least make it feel a little new.

Sean McKeever and Mike Norton first worked together on McKeever's THE WAITING PLACE, a tale of disaffected small town teens. McKeever has since established himself as Marvel's go-to man for teen tales, with titles like INHUMANS and SENTINEL. Though both titles were fun reads, neither took off, which is perhaps why GRAVITY is being launched as a mini-series and not another ongoing.

Mike Norton is an undervalued talent who has produced great work on books like QUEEN & COUNTRY and, well, VOLTRON (I haven't actually read VOLTRON, you understand, but I have faith). He has a pleasingly bold line that should prove a good fit for this story of a small town boy trying to make it big in the city.

Of course, I'm sure it'll now turn out that Gravity is the teenage nephew of the supervillain Graviton, and not a new idea at all. Still, at least it's a step away from the more grindingly obvious big-name cash-ins. How long can it really be before Marvel unleashes a teen Latina street avenger called La Punishá on the poor, undeserving world? [Andrew Wheeler]

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW WARRIORS AGAIN

Meanwhile, back in the more familiar Marvel territory of the relaunch, prepare yourself for the long-feared return of the NEW WARRIORS.

A quintessentially 90s superteam that brought together a billionaire on a skateboard, a bouncing boy who wouldn't take his Ritalin, and a girl who smelt of fish, NEW WARRIORS always felt a little desperate to appear 'yoof oriented', which is a sure way to alienate 'yoofs' everywhere.

It still somehow endeared itself to some people, but the new series looks like it'll be taking too many liberties to necessarily draw back those former fans, and it'll need to pick up a whole new audience if it wants to succeed. I certainly intend to give it a fair chance, though, and as with GRAVITY, it's the creative team that's the lure.

Zeb Wells and Skottie Young are relatively fresh-faced newcomers. Actually, they're probably fat fortysomething men with beards, like everyone else in the industry, but they're called Zeb and Skottie-with-a-k, so they sound like they could be young, and that's close enough for me. I like to imagine they hang out at the skate park with Kaare Andrews and Daniel Way, or whatever it is young people do these days.

Wells is responsible for the excellent recent Doctor Octopus origin story, the clumsily monikered SPIDER-MAN/DOCTOR OCTOPUS: YEAR ONE, with art by the aforementioned Andrews. Young graced the pages of Karl Kesel's Tsunami series HUMAN TORCH with his energetic cartoon graffiti art. They're both innovative talents worth keeping an eye on, and bringing them together could prove to be an excellent move on Marvel's part.

The pitch here is that the New Warriors have gone down the reality TV road, with a film crew following as they travel from town to town, offering the locals a crime makeover. Super Eye For The Bad Guy, if you will. It sounds hokey on paper, but Wells and Young give me hope. Wells can certainly write. Young can certainly draw. That's a damn good place to start. [Andrew Wheeler]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR JUNE 8th 2005:

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

DARK HORSE

APR050037D BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #102 (MR) $2.99

DC COMICS

APR050320D ACTION COMICS #828 $2.50
APR050311D BATMAN DARK DETECTIVE #3 (OF 6) $2.99
APR050304D BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #192 $2.50
APR050360D BATMAN STRIKES #10 $2.25
APR050330D BREACH #6 $2.50
APR050363D BUGS BUNNY VOL 1 WHATS UP DOC TP $6.99
APR050364D DAFFY DUCK VOL 1 YOURE DESPICABLE TP $6.99
APR050404D FABLES #38 (MR) $2.75
APR050309D GOTHAM CENTRAL #32 $2.50
APR050336D GREEN ARROW #51 $2.50
APR050343D JLA #115 $2.50
APR050342D JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE #12 (OF 12) $2.50
APR050321D LEX LUTHOR MAN OF STEEL #4 (OF 5) $2.99
APR050397D MAJESTIC #6 $2.99
APR050316D NIGHTWING #109 $2.50
APR050356D RANN THANAGAR WAR #2 (OF 6) $2.50
APR050322D SUPERMAN GODFALL TP $9.99
APR050401D TOM STRONG #33 $2.99

IMAGE

APR051669D AGE OF BRONZE #20 $3.50
APR051719D CITY OF HEROES #2 $2.99
MAR051673 EARTHBOY JACOBOUS GN $17.95
JAN051608D NEGATIVE BURN WINTER 2005 $9.95
APR051662D STRANGE GIRL #1 $2.95
JUN041379D TOMMYSAURUS REX GN $11.95

MARVEL

MAR058206 ASTONISHING X-MEN LTD ED VARIANT #10 $2.99
APR051893D DISTRICT X #14 $2.99
APR051870D GRAVITY #1 (OF 5) $2.99
APR051878D LAST HERO STANDING #2 (OF 5) $2.99
APR051887D MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #15 $2.99
APR051916D MARVEL NEMESIS IMPERFECTS #2 (OF 6) $2.99
APR051883D MARY JANE HOMECOMING #4 (OF 4) $2.99
APR051907D NEW THUNDERBOLTS #9 $2.99
APR051909D NEW WARRIORS #1 (OF 6) $2.99
MAR051902 PULSE #9 $2.99
APR051943D PUNISHER #22 (MR) $2.99
APR051885D TOXIN #3 (OF 6) $2.99
MAR051875 ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #19 $2.25
APR051952D ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL 3 N-ZONE TP $12.99
APR051872D ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #78 $2.50
APR051932D X-MEN #171 $2.50
APR051941D X-MEN THE END HEROES AND MARTYRS #4 (OF 6) $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

APR052879F ACTION PHILOSOPHERS ALL SEX SPECIAL $2.95
APR053183F AEIOU GN $12.00
JAN052452E AP HOW TO DRAW CHIBI SUPER DEFORMED TECHNIQUES TP $19.95
APR052731F BEAUTIFUL THINGS GN $13.99
FEB052831F BETE NOIRE #1 (OF 4) (MR) $9.95
MAR052601E BETTY & VERONICA #209 $2.19
MAR052602E BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #157 $2.39
FEB052689F DEADBEATS #71 $2.50
MAR053283E FIREFIGHTER DAIGO OF FIRE COMPANY M VOL 11 TP $9.95
APR053263E FUSHIGI YUGI VOL 15 GN $9.95
APR053264E FUSHIGI YUGI VOL 7 2ND ED TP $9.95
MAR052693E FUTURAMA COMICS #20 $2.99
APR053012F HOAX #2 (MR) $2.95
APR053271E HOT GIMMICK VOL 9 TP $9.99
MAR052606E JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #113 $3.59
APR053046E LITTLE STAR #3 $2.99
FEB052751F NODWICK #28 $2.99
STAR20130E ONE PIECE VOL 2 BUGGY THE CLOWN TP $7.95
MAR052525E PATTY CAKE & FRIENDS VOL 2 #14 $4.95
MAR053119E PHANTOM JACK COLL ED TP $17.99
MAR052608E SABRINA VOL 2 #67 $2.19
APR052517F SKYSCRAPERS OF THE MIDWEST #2 $5.00

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.