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.

BOOKS OF THE WEEK: DMZ/LOCAL

As this year was devoid of a 'Brian Wood Month', I guess we'll have to settle for 'Brian Wood Week', with this week's launch of two new series.

LOCAL, from Oni Press, has already done the rounds of the blogosphere, gaining plaudits nearly everywhere. It's a spiritual sibling to last year's DEMO, which did remarkably well - a series that started out about kids dealing with 'superpowers', it eventually evolved into a series about kids dealing with... well, being kids, the whole pesky metaphor of powers = maturity thrown to the wayside.

LOCAL focuses each of its twelve issues on a different American city, with the common thread being a single character who may or may not have an active role in each story. Wood is assisted this time around by Ryan Kelly, another beautifully talented artist like DEMO's Becky Cloonan, and another perfect fit for Wood's more naturalistic, slice-of-life stories - a world away from where he started out, with the anti-authority scream of CHANNEL ZERO.

But don't worry, his other comic this week, deals with that familiar territory. DMZ from DC/Vertigo is Wood going back to his roots. Originally called LIFE DURING WARTIME, it copped a bit of bile during its conception, as the story is about a war that literally splits the US, with the Right against the Left.

As a result, New York is left a no man's land full of snipers nests, and a rookie photojournalist starts his first day at work in the war zone. It'll be interesting to see how Wood, who has matured as a writer since his CHANNEL ZERO days, handles returning to similar territory. I'm certainly looking forward to finding out. [Ben Wooller]

BAMBI'S A THUMPER

Did you cry when Bambi's momma died? I did. But then I grew up, discovered the films of Sam Peckinpah, and got over it. Now I positively adore violence, and the more comedic and over the top the better. Nobody does this like the Japanese, as anyone who has seen Miike's ICHI THE KILLER or films like MONDAY or DEAD OR ALIVE or SURVIVE STYLE 5+ can attest.

BAMBI AND HER PINK GUN is all that in manga form. Like some unholy cross between TANK GIRL and LONE WOLF & CUB, BAMBI is the story of hot punk teen girl Bambi, her pink gun, and her renegade quest to bring an obese junk-food-addicted, trouble-sensing brat of a toddler named Pampi to some mysterious men. I could go all Comics Journal on you and burble about how BAMBI is a post-modern, punk-feminist reinterpretation of the traditional Japanese chambara/jidaigeki story, but I can't be bothered. Instead, I say: it's big, it's stupid, it has no redeeming social or moral value, and I love it like it were my own sister.

Volume two is out now. Atsushi Kaneko's art is some of the loveliest and most unusual manga art available in US translation, heavily brushed and reminiscent of Paul Pope or Evan Dorkin, only with hotter-looking girls. Digital Manga has provided a beautiful translation and reproduction job, with a Japanese-style paper cover, and the entire book is printed in dark pink ink. And have I mentioned the book has fat, lecherous, psycho Elvis in it? Yes, you need Bambi. [Alex de Campi]

STING IN THE TALE

The new SCORPION, Camilla Black, made her debut in April's AMAZING FANTASY #7, the anthology series that, once upon a time, gave us Spider-Man. She's nineteen, wears Goth Couture, and has creepy Touch of Death powers. You would think that I would be jumping for joy at such a character. But you'd be wrong.

Having read this interview, I know that Marvel picked the target demographic first, fixed the character design and backstory second, and found the creative team last. It's a cookie-cutter boyband approach to comics, but if the music industry is anything to go by, it works like a fox.

My problem with the character stems from the use of the name 'Scorpion'. The original Scorpion wore a scorpion costume and had scorpion powers. A poisonous touch aside, the new Scorpion has little or no connection to the animal whose name she bears. In fact, for all it appears to matter, she may as well be called Wasp, Dragonfist, or even Scorpia (all current Marvel trademarks). Her powers even recall those of X-MEN's Rogue, if you squint.

Worse, in order to make way for the new model, the original Scorpion (Mac Gargan) has become the new Venom, losing both his core motivation and his dress sense along the way.

Almost everything I've heard about this new Scorpion seems designed to make me hate her. In many ways, the character is a symbol of everything that's wrong with corporate comics. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the actual stories might be rather good. After all, they're by Fred Van Lente (ACTION PHILOSOPHERS) and Leonard Kirk (ULTRAGIRL). So I'm going to buy this week's POISON TOMORROW digest anyway, against my better judgement. May Art have mercy on my soul. [Matthew Craig]

DECIMAL POINT?

It's a sure sign that a story that has grown too over-blown and over-grown for it's own britches when it needs an entire issue post-script just to explain what happened. Surely Marvel's clunkily titled one-shot DECIMATION HOUSE OF M THE DAY AFTER is the kind of thing Bendis, Coipel et al should have incorporated into the series itself? I mean, seeing as there are three or four issues in the middle of the series that can be skipped without altering one's understanding of the story?

However, in this world of PRELUDES, AFTERLUDES, DURINGLUDES and so forth, we lap up any minute extra information we can get. And here, Chris Claremont and Randy Green provide us with the events closely following HOUSE OF M. And basically... Well, some mutants get de-powered. We get Sentinels back - the one beneficial move in the whole series. Here's hoping this feeds in to a fourth X-MEN movie, with 200-foot tall robots stomping on Halle Berry.

The entire point of HOUSE OF M was, as Joe Quesada put it, "putting the mutant genie back in the bottle", which would seem to be missing the point somewhat. It seems the main thing this mini has achieved is the erasure of the thousands of pointless no-mark mutants we'd never heard of, along the way de-powering a handful of the no-mark mutants that we have heard of, while giving all the other mutants something new to grimace about.

Hopefully this one-shot should do what the mega-crossovers are intended, in their own ham-fisted way, to do - set the stage for change. Claremont would seem a shoe-in for his role as X-Men nerd extraordinaire, though Randy Green's sloppy Amerimanga looks just as Kapitalist Konsumer Friendly as ever. Oh, and the story features more pointed anti-terrorist blowing-up-of-buildings scenes. When will those terrorists ever cop a break? [John Fellows]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR NOVEMBER 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

SEP050017D BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #107 (MR) $2.99
AUG050066D SUPER MANGA BLAST #57 (MR) $5.99

DC COMICS

SEP050305D 100 BULLETS #66 (MR) $2.75
SEP050301D ABC A-Z GREYSHIRT AND COBWEB $3.99
SEP050220D ACTION COMICS #833 $2.50
SEP050229D AQUAMAN #36 $2.50
SEP050209D BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #197 $2.50
SEP050267D BATMAN STRIKES #15 $2.25
SEP050232D BREACH #11 $2.50
SEP050291D DANGER GIRL BACK IN BLACK #1 (OF 4) $2.99
SEP050258D DAY OF VENGEANCE TP $12.99
SEP050304D DMZ #1 (MR) $2.99
AUG040453D FABLES VOL 4 MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS TP (MR) $17.95
SEP050215D GOTHAM CENTRAL #37 $2.50
SEP050239D HAWKMAN #46 $2.50
SEP050240D JLA #122 $2.50
SEP050310D LOSERS CLOSE QUARTERS TP (MR) $14.99
SEP050294D MAJESTIC #11 $2.99
SEP050253D MANHUNTER VOL 1 STREET JUSTICE TP $12.99
SEP050285D MUSASHI #9 VOL 5 $9.99
SEP050216D NIGHTWING #114 $2.50
SEP050276D SCOOBY DOO #102 $2.25
SEP050283D TESTAROTHO VOL 2 (MR) $9.99
SEP050299D WILDCATS NEMESIS #3 (OF 9) $2.99

IMAGE

APR051664D AGE OF BRONZE VOL 2 SACRIFICE TP $19.95
AUG051649D ARTHUR SUYDAM POSTER BOOK $38.99
SEP051743D CITY OF HEROES #7 $2.99
JUN051792D MORA #4 (OF 4) $2.99
MAY051571 SEA OF RED #5 (MR) $2.99

MARVEL

SEP051978D BOOK OF LOST SOULS #2 $2.99
SEP051925D CABLE DEADPOOL #22 $2.99
SEP051949D CAPTAIN UNIVERSE DAREDEVIL $2.99
AUG051905D DAREDEVIL FATHER #4 (OF 5) $2.99
SEP051932D DECIMATION HOUSE OF M THE DAY AFTER $3.99
SEP051927D DRAX THE DESTROYER #3 (OF 4) $2.99
APR041737D ESSENTIAL SPIDER-MAN VOL 6 TP $16.99
SEP051958D EXILES #72 $2.99
SEP051928D FANTASTIC FOUR IRON MAN BIG IN JAPAN #2 (OF 4) $3.50
SEP051930D FANTASTIC FOUR WEDDING SPECIAL $4.99
SEP051906D FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #2 $2.99
SEP051917D GHOST RIDER #3 (OF 6) $2.99
SEP051935D INCREDIBLE HULK #88 $2.99
SEP051974D MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #6 $2.50
SEP051918D MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 #24 $2.99
SEP051992D MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN VOL 4 WILD BLUE YONDER TP $14.99
JUL051922D MARVEL MASTERWORKS GOLDEN AGE HUMAN TORCH VOL 1 HC VAR ED $54.99
JUL051921D MARVEL MASTERWORKS GOLDEN AGE HUMAN TORCH VOL 1 NEW ED HC $49.99
SEP051961D NEW EXCALIBUR #1 $2.99
SEP051942D NEW THUNDERBOLTS #15 $2.99
SEP052001D NEW THUNDERBOLTS VOL 2 MODERN MARVELS TP $14.99
SEP051941D NEW WARRIORS #5 (OF 6) $2.99
SEP051962D NEW X-MEN #20 $2.99
SEP058044D NEW X-MEN X-23 VARIANT #20 $2.99
SEP051943D PULSE #12 $2.99
SEP051995D SCORPION POISON TOMORROW DIGEST TP $7.99
SEP051954D THOR BLOOD OATH #4 (OF 6) $2.99
SEP052005D TOXIN THE DEVIL YOU KNOW TP $17.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

SEP053269E ANGEL SANCTUARY VOL 11 GN $9.99
SEP053270E BANANA FISH VOL 11 TP $9.99
SEP053271E BASARA VOL 15 TP $9.99
AUG053227F BE A MAN #1 (NEW PTG) (MR) $3.00
AUG052705E BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #161 $2.39
AUG052706E BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR #72 $2.25
SEP053272E BOYS OVER FLOWERS VOL 15 TP $9.99
SEP052695E CORPORATE NINJA #1 $2.95
SEP052888E DRAGONLANCE THE LEGEND OF HUMA KURTH CVR A #6 (OF 6) (RES) $2.95
SEP052889E DRAGONLANCE THE LEGEND OF HUMA WALPOLE CVR B #6 (OF 6) $5.95
AUG053244J EXALTED #1 POWER FOIL CVR ED PI
SEP053246E FIREFIGHTER DAIGO OF FIRE COMPANY M VOL 13 TP $9.95
SEP053247E FLAME OF RECCA VOL 15 TP $9.99
SEP053273E HANA KIMI VOL 9 GN $9.99
MAR042333E HEROES ANONYMOUS #5 (Of 6) (MR) $2.99
SEP042476E HEROES ANONYMOUS #6 (Of 6) (MR) $2.99
SEP053275E HOT GIMMICK VOL 10 TP $9.99
AUG052710E JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #117 $3.59
SEP053052E LOCAL #1 (OF 12) (MR) $2.99
SEP053267E MAISON IKKOKU VOL 14 2ND ED TP $9.95
AUG053060E POLLY & THE PIRATES #2 (OF 6) $2.99
JUN052902E RED SONJA ONE MORE DAY ONE SHOT $4.99
OCT032813E RUROUNI KENSHIN VOL 2 TP $7.95
SEP052913F SENTINELS BOOK 3 ECHOES TP (MR) $14.95
SEP053261E TUXEDO GIN VOL 15 TP $9.99
SEP052712E VAMPIRELLA REVELATIONS GONZALEZ CVR #1 $2.99
SEP052714H VAMPIRELLA REVELATIONS GONZALEZ VIRGIN CVR #1 $14.95
SEP052711E VAMPIRELLA REVELATIONS TEXEIRA CVR #1 $2.99
SEP052713H VAMPIRELLA REVELATIONS TEXEIRA VIRGIN CVR #1 $14.95
SEP053243E YU GI OH MILLENNIUM WORLD VOL 2 TP $7.95
AUG053053F ZORRO #6 $2.95

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.