Welcome to The Forecast. Every Monday, Ninth Art's hand-picked team of crack comic pundits offer a rundown of some of the best, worst and most noteworthy books on the shelves of your local comic shop.

BOOK OF THE WEEK: NEW RECRUITS

In the wake of SEXY CHIX, the ironically named anthology designed to remind us all that there are (at least) two sexes working in comics, Dark Horse delivers a second showcase, this time featuring some of the best new comics creators.

NEW RECRUITS is a collection of short stories produced in response to an open talent search. Stories include the steampunky 'Wild Talents' by animator Ian Culbard (BBC Three's MONKEY DUST), the abstract 'Deep Sleep', by Rafael de Silveira, and 'Pied Piper', by Nick Plumber and Adam Adamowicz. Fans of STREET ANGEL and Jim Mahfood's oeuvre may also be interested in the Andrew Krahnke's punky 'Zombie Killer', or Jacob Chabot's 'Skullboy'.

As is often the case with anthology comics, the varying tone will no doubt prompt varying responses from the reader. However, the extensive previews here suggest that only the most curmudgeonly comic fan will find fault with Dark Horse's taste in talent.

After a year where sales have been overwhelmingly dominated by yawnsome superhero crossovers, a book like NEW RECRUITS is a breath of fresh air, a solitary green shoot poking through the nuclear winter of the Infinite House of Suck. And where other publishers, such as Tokyopop, may be offering people the chance to make and sell lengthy works to which they only have limited rights, it's nice to see a publisher of the stature (and market penetration) of Dark Horse providing a stage for such a wide variety of novel, full-colour, creator-owned work. Hats off to The Hoss, then. [Matthew Craig]

GOD BOTHERING

GODLAND's appeal can be summed up thusly: This damn book's crazy as hell!

Done in the style of Jack Kirby's 1970s comics, GODLAND (Image) combines Kirby Space Madness with a healthy dose of contemporary self-awareness. It's the sort of book where a collective of cosmic beings resembling foetuses are called...well, the "Cosmic Fetus Collective". Or where an alien mentor takes the form of a giant green dog called "Maxim". Or where a villain's head is not only a skull in a jar full of fluid, but said skull floats on its side and wants to get high off said green dog's precious bodily fluids.

Issue #6 concludes the first storyline, to be collected next month as 'Hello Cosmic!' It chronicles the trial of arch-villainess Discordia, whose obsession with torture veers into out-and-out S&M. She's on trial for kidnapping Crashman, a Fighting American-esque "America's Favorite Hero", whose rambling monologues mainly serve to annoy the hell out of Adam Archer, our intrepid-but-confused astronaut-turned-cosmic-hero.

In the course of 32 pages, the beyond-gonzo team of Joe Casey and Tom Scioli provide a mediation on America's obsession with celebrity, the media, superhero conflicts and what it really takes for mankind to evolve.

Writer Joe Casey has done the deconstructionist thing before in works such as AUTOMATIC KAFKA and THE INTIMATES. GODLAND works better than those series because the deconstruction is put in the context of old-school comic storylines. On one level, you can simply enjoy the book as an entertaining, deliberately goofy superhero comic; on another, you can enjoy its sly commentary on popular culture and subversion of comic cliches. It helps that the artist is Tom Scioli from THE MYTH OF 8-OPUS, who channels Kirby Cosmic, Kirby Machinery, Kirby Collage, and whatever other Kirby trope you can imagine in his amazingly detailed (and fast) artwork.

A raw dose of uncut creativity, GODLAND is the sort of comic you don't so much read as visually inject into your eyeballs. Sure, it's crazy as hell... but it's the kind of crazy that comics need. [Zack Smith]

NEW YEAR, OLD MARVEL

Wiping the festive gravy and chicken from the corner of your mouth, sipping the last of your lukewarm coffee in the vain hope you can counter-act all that beer you drank, climbing out from under the mountain of torn wrapping paper you discover... a whole new year of comics! Yes, 2005 was shit, but that doesn't mean 2006 has to be too. And just to prove it, Marvel has four new number ones coming atcha in barely the second week of this new annus-possibly-horribilus.

First up, it's ARES, featuring Mike Oeming with his writing cap on and Travel Foreman pencilling. Foreman is an up-and-comer who was unfortunately saddled with DOC SPECTUM, an unneeded spin-off from a moderately selling title with questionable critical plaudits. So now he's doing a THOR spin-off while Marvel finds a suitable team for the eventual reboot and then ditches them for Frank Tieri. Oeming's writing may well be at least the equal of his pencils, but he's never going to escape from under the POWERS shadow - especially while it's still being published. Still, this looks potentially like a rip-roaring man 'n' machine guns epic. If Marvel relaunches THOR with anyone but Oeming, they're daft.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray - a writing team who've seen a lot of good buzz at WildStorm and DC, yet none of the sales success - get another series based on fringe characters the world did not need, DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON. The recent reprint special whetted the appetite and it's a smart way for Marvel to generate interest in its reboots. The fact that the book is about two hotties with guns who kick ass is also bound to shift a few copies. As unoriginal as that concept is, the art by Khari Evans is a joy.

The big numero uno of the week is Warren Ellis and Brandon Peterson's ULTIMATE EXTINCTION. The final part of Ellis' ULTIMATE EXPLODOTHON trilogy, it looks like it may yet be the one series that makes it through all five issues without a replacement artist. Admittedly, the first two minis had able fill-ins by Steve Epting and Tom Raney - two fine talents - but this trilogy has seen some of the most piss-takingly amateur scheduling fuck-ups I've ever witnessed. Hopefully this will be more of the manic pop explosions of the second mini and not the mundane pointless 'They Meet! They Fight!' drivel of the first. Peterson's art looks absolutely gorgeous and we're promised Ellis' interpretation of Ultimate Silver Surfer. Don't worry, I promised not to make any pod-casting jokes this week.

And finally comes David Hine's "We're sorry we cancelled DISTRICT-X" series, X-MEN: THE 198. With so little pre-press about the actual content of the series, it was fascinating watching the more educated fans guess the meaning of '198'. Unfortunately, with the end of HOUSE OF M, the actual reason proved far less interesting than the theories and twelvty times more stupid. It looks like it may be a rehash of Grant Morrison's RIOT AT XAVIER'S arc, with the remaining mutants trapped in the Mansion and hankering for some terrorist-style homo-sapiens thrashing. Pencils by Jim Muniz look suitably bland and lifeless, but the covers by Juan Doe are gorgeous propaganda-esque masterpieces. [John Fellows]

SEVEN STORIES HIGH

The first volume collecting stories from Grant Morrison's Altmanesque SEVEN SOLDIERS arrives in stores this week. If you haven't been reading this frankly bosting (it's a real word!) line of superhero comics, then now's the time to start.

SEVEN SOLDIERS revolves around the efforts of seven unrelated superheroes (in seven discrete miniseries) to defeat an ancient race of faerie-demon monsters before they destroy the world and harvest humanity like so much corn (again). Within this overarching plot is contained several smaller stories - of redemption, discovery, self-determination, and bitter regret.

While the main characters in SEVEN SOLDIERS never actually meet, their paths cross and their stories overlap in the most delightful and surprising ways. The story may technically be a crossover - and at thirty comics, it certainly qualifies as a megacrossover - but the plotting is so intricate, and the execution so delicate, that it's almost a shame that the collection has been structured in this way.

Instead of collecting one or two of each four-issue series into individual books, SEVEN SOLDIERS VOLUME ONE collects the first two issues of MANHATTAN GUARDIAN, ZATANNA and SHINING KNIGHT, as well as the Zero issue prologue and the first issue of KLARION THE WITCH BOY. It's sacrificed some of the fun of reading the serial comics (working out where one series bleeds into or references another) for the chance to read the story as the author intended, and it omits the superb JLA: CLASSIFIED arc that introduced the major villains.

But with art by such luminaries as JH Williams III, Cameron Stewart and Simone Bianchi, and a series of stories that combine Morrison's lunatic talent for invention with an operatic scale and a theatrical emotional core, it may turn out to be no sacrifice at all. [Matthew Craig]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR JANUARY 11th 2006:

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

DC COMICS

NOV050321D 100 BULLETS #68 (MR) $2.75
NOV050241D BATMAN HUSH RETURNS TP $12.99
NOV050229D BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #199 $2.50
NOV050292D BATMAN STRIKES #17 $2.25
NOV050308D CAPTAIN ATOM ARMAGEDDON #4 (OF 9) $2.99
NOV050309D DANGER GIRL BACK IN BLACK #3 (OF 4) $2.99
NOV050268D DC UNIVERSE THE STORIES OF ALAN MOORE (MR) $19.99
NOV050310D DESOLATION JONES #5 (MR) $2.99
NOV050323D DMZ #3 (MR) $2.99
NOV050300D ELFQUEST THE DISCOVERY #1 (OF 4) $3.99
NOV050322D FABLES #45 (MR) $2.75
NOV050265D GREEN ARROW #58 $2.50
MAR040313D GREEN LANTERN GREEN ARROW VOL 1 TP $12.95
NOV050269D HAWKMAN #48 $2.50
NOV050271D JLA #124 $2.50
JUN050378 JSA CLASSIFIED #2 $2.50
OCT050294 SEIMADEN VOL 3 (C: 3) $9.99
NOV050281D SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY VOL 1 TP $14.99
OCT050295 TENJHO TENGE VOL 5 (C: 3) $9.99
NOV050315D WILDCATS NEMESIS #5 (OF 9) $2.99

IMAGE

NOV051725D AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS VOL 2 #4 $2.99
JUL051665 SMALL GODS #12 $2.99

MARVEL

OCT058215 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN SECOND PTG VARIANT #527 $2.50
NOV051947D ARES #1 (OF 5) $2.99
NOV052012D BOOK OF LOST SOULS #4 $2.99
NOV051985D CABLE DEADPOOL #24 $2.99
NOV051958D DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON #1 (OF 6) $2.99
NOV052036D ESSENTIAL AVENGERS VOL 5 TP $16.99
NOV051986D EXILES #75 $2.99
OCT058207 FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN 2ND PTG VAR #3 $2.99
NOV051951D GHOST RIDER #5 (OF 6) $2.99
NOV051965D MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #8 $2.50
NOV052030D MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 VOL 4 IMPOSSIBLE THINGS HAPPEN EVERY DAY TP $14.99
OCT058214 MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN SECOND PTG VARIANT #21 $2.99
NOV051971D MARVEL MILESTONES BLOODSTONE X-51 & CAPTAIN MARVEL II $4.99
NOV052008D MARVEL SELECT FLIP MAGAZINE #8 $3.99
NOV052009D MARVEL TALES FLIP MAGAZINE #7 $3.99
NOV051969D NEW THUNDERBOLTS #17 $2.99
NOV051991D NEW X-MEN #22 $2.99
NOV051981D SHE-HULK 2 #4 $2.99
NOV051992D SON OF M #2 (OF 6) $2.99
NOV052033D SPIDER-MAN VS SILVER SABLE VOL 1 TP $15.99
NOV051935D ULTIMATE EXTINCTION #1 (OF 5) $2.99
NOV051938D ULTIMATE X-MEN #66 $2.50
NOV051997D X-MEN THE 198 #1 (OF 5) $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

NOV052896E GI JOE AMERICAS ELITE #7 $2.95
NOV052900E GI JOE SIGMA 6 #2 $2.95
OCT053009 JANES WORLD VOL 4 TP $15.00
SEP052699 NEXT EXIT #7 $2.95
SEP052766 SOULFIRE VOL 1 HC $24.99
OCT052787 TALES FROM RIVERDALE DIGEST #8 $2.39
OCT052746 VAMPIRELLA REVELATIONS BECK CVR #2 $2.99
OCT052748 VAMPIRELLA REVELATIONS BECK VIRGIN CVR #2 $14.95
OCT052745 VAMPIRELLA REVELATIONS LILLY CVR #2 $2.99
OCT052747 VAMPIRELLA REVELATIONS LILLY VIRGIN CVR #2 $14.95
OCT052788 VERONICA #167 $2.25

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.