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: ESSENTIAL GODZILLA

Godzilla, as any pseud can tell you, is an allegorical representation of Japanese fears about the effects of the atom bomb. More importantly, however, he's a great big lizard who tramples through cities and fights other monsters. What could be more fun than that? Well, what about a great big lizard who tramples through cities, fights other monsters and tangles with iconic 70s superheroes?

ESSENTIAL GODZILLA may just be the most cultishly anticipated Essential volume Marvel has yet produced, and could hopefully pave the way for Essential collections of other vintage licensed properties. ESSENTIAL GODZILLA collects the entire 24-issue run of the lizard's adventures in the Marvel universe, featuring scripts by the legendary Doug Moench, and pencils from Herb Trimpe, Jim Mooney and Tom Sutton.

The collection promises plenty of monster fun as Godzilla looms large over LA, Las Vegas and New York, fending off SHIELD, battling Doctor Demonicus and even tracking down cattle rustlers like a massive, toothy Lassie. Other highlights include a trip to the moon, a team-up with Devil Dinosaur, and of course a series of encounters with SHIELD's own shogun warrior, the giant robot Red Ronin. (Speaking of which, an Essential collection of Doug Moench's SHOGUN WARRIORS must surely follow, if the licensing details can be worked out.) Lest there be any doubt, ESSENTIAL GODZILLA is probably not one of the great works of modern literature. Dare I say it, it may even be a little on the ropey side, rife with all the melodramatic exposition and stagy foreshortening we've come to expect from an Essentials volume. But these are stories from an era where comics revelled in their pulpy roots, and creators seemed a lot more in touch with the simple pleasures of having a giant robot punch a monstrous lizard on the snout - without irony, cynicism, or a begrudging resentment for the audience. [Andrew Wheeler]

LONG LOST PAL

Poor Jimmy Olsen. The eternal third wheel. The great mythic gooseberry. In the distant future, when you and I are but holographic ghosts for our descendants to download and play with, Jimmy Olsen will be used as cultural shorthand for the useless and redundant.

So crap is Jimmy Olsen that the makers of SMALLVILLE turned him into a cherry popping joke for that other perennial also-ran Chloe Sullivan to regale us with. But at least they took their inspiration from the comics.

Ever pushed to the side in the great two-sided triangle of Lois Lane and Superman, Jimmy Olsen was forced to perform acts of staggering stupidity just to get the attention of his Kryptonian hero. This week's SHOWCASE: SUPERMAN FAMILY, then, is a sombre affair, collating Olsen's earliest misadventures with all the dispassion of a forensic psychologist.

Reprinting issues #1-22 of the patronisingly-titled SUPERMAN'S PAL (as well as a single Lois Lane short from the original SHOWCASE monthly), the book follows Olsen on his one-man stalkathon, taking every potion and tincture he could find in order to become as Super as his idol - pretending to be his long-lost brother, convincing him to play Marbles (instead of, say, saving the world), impersonating Tarzan, growing a beard, and so on.

What the stories share - aside from a hero that embodied the spirit of the Darwin Awards - is a generous portion of Silver Age madness, as creators such as Otto Binder and Curt Swan tried desperately to prove that Jimmy Olsen was more than a bow tie and a box brownie. (Which is a type of camera, you mucky, mucky people.)

SUPERMAN'S PAL was the sort of money-grabbing spin off that modern readers have become inured to. To be fair, it's probably closer to WOLVERINE than X-23 (or closer to LUCIFER than THE DREAMING, for all you photophobic types). While it probably won't inspire anyone to dress up like Jimmy Olsen for Hallowe'en, it will certainly go some way to explaining how a boy who made Peter Parker look like Shaft was able to hang with the Man of Steel for sixty years without being killed for the sake of the gene pool. [Matthew Craig]

HEY KIDS, COSMICS

Confession time: I'm a sucker for the New Warriors. I'm on a bit of a Holy Quest to track down all of the issues of their various series (even the rubbish ones), and ESSENTIAL NOVA can't come quickly enough. I'm also a fan of Marvel's cosmic heroes, tending as they do to have a bit more of the STAR WARS and a bit less of the LENSMAN about them.

What a joy, then, to know that ANNIHILATION: PROLOGUE, the opening shot in Marvel's new space war saga, stars ol' buckethead Nova and a slew of famous and not-so-famous cosmic characters. While the format may seem a little... familiar (a double-sized one-shot to kick off, then four mini-series, then another mini housing the main event), there's a very different focus here than in DC's current spectacular. We're promised a sweeping, epic story that touches on everyone from Warlock to Quasar and back again, but it's not a line-wide crazyfest like some other events we could mention. It knows its audience, it knows its limits, and it bears all the hallmarks of being pretty good fun.

The prologue-to-the-prologue in all but name, ANNIHILATION architect Keith Giffen's DRAX THE DESTROYER mini-series, is also out in TPB this week. People looking for the Hulk-esque big galoot from the INFINITY WATCH days might be disappointed, but fans of action comics and of gorgeous artwork would do well to check it out. The plot, featuring Drax taking on the inhabitants of a crashed alien prison ship when they take over a small US town, may be nothing to write home about, but it spiffily drawn and tightly written. It also features a young teenage heroine who, crucially, is an absolute horror. THE IRON GIANT it is not.

Neither of these books will change your life, it's true. But they should provide your recommended daily allowance of outer space hijinks, and that's good enough for me. [Alistair Kennedy]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR MARCH 15th 2006:

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

DARK HORSE

JAN060046 CONAN BOOK OF THOTH #1 (OF 4) $4.99
DEC050021D PERHAPANAUTS #4 (OF 4) $2.99
SEP050018 SAMURAI EXECUTIONER VOL 9 TP (MR) $9.95

DC COMICS

JAN060372 100 BULLETS #70 (MR) $2.75
JAN060283 BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #201 $2.50
JAN060287 BATMAN YEAR ONE HUNDRED #2 (OF 4) $5.99
JAN060303 BIRDS OF PREY #92 $2.50
JAN060375 DMZ #5 (MR) $2.99
JAN060343 ELFQUEST THE DISCOVERY #2 (OF 4) $3.99
SEP050286 GALS VOL 4 $9.99
JAN060309 GREEN ARROW #60 $2.50
JAN060316 JLA CLASSIFIED #18 $2.99
DEC050311D LAND OF THE BLINDFOLDED VOL 7 $9.99
JAN060346 MOON CHILD VOL 2 $9.99
JAN060280 NIGHTWING #118 $2.50
OCT050291 PIECES OF A SPIRAL VOL 2 $9.99
JAN060359 RED SONJA CLAW DEVILS HANDS #1 (OF 4) $2.99
JAN060360 RED SONJA CLAW DEVILS HANDS VARIANT COVER #1 (OF 4) $2.99
JAN060340 SCOOBY DOO #106 $2.25
JAN060347 SEIMADEN VOL 4 $9.99
JAN060297 SHOWCASE PRESENTS SUPERMAN FAMILY VOL 1 TP $16.99
JAN060292 SUPERMAN #650 $2.50
DEC050241D SUPERMAN THE DAILY PLANET TP $19.99
DEC050314D SWAN VOL 6 $9.99
APR058272D V FOR VENDETTA TP $19.99
FEB058406 WATCHMEN TP $19.99

IMAGE

JAN061850 TOMB RAIDER COVER GALLERY $2.99
SEP051681 WALKING DEAD VOL 4 HEARTS DESIRE TP (MR) $12.99

MARVEL

JAN068075 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2ND PTG #529 $2.50
JAN062017 ANNIHILATION PROLOGUE $3.99
JAN062104 DRAX THE DESTROYER EARTH FALL TP $10.99
NOV052035D ESSENTIAL GODZILLA TP $19.99
JAN062009 FOUR #28 $2.99
JAN062002 FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #6 $2.99
JAN062007 FURY PEACEMAKER #2 (OF 6) $3.50
JAN062064 GENERATION M #5 (OF 5) $2.99
JAN062032 MARVEL ADVENTURES FLIP MAGAZINE #10 $3.99
JAN062033 MARVEL HEROES FLIP MAGAZINE #10 $3.99
JAN062051 NEW MANGAVERSE #3 (OF 5) $2.99
DEC058188D NEXT WAVE DIRECTORS CUT #1 (PP #703) $2.99
JAN062010 PUNISHER VS BULLSEYE #5 (OF 5) $2.99
JAN062056 RUNAWAYS #14 $2.99
JAN062093 SPIDER-GIRL PRESENTS JUGGERNAUT JR VOL 1 SECRETS & DIGEST TP $7.99
JAN062060 SPIDER-WOMAN ORIGIN #4 (OF 5) $2.99
JAN061995 ULTIMATE EXTINCTION #3 (OF 5) $2.99
JAN061999 ULTIMATE X-MEN #68 $2.50
JAN062094 ULTIMATE X-MEN ULTIMATE COLLECTION VOL 1 TP $24.99
JAN062047 UNTOLD TALES OF THE NEW UNIVERSE JUSTICE $2.99
JAN062076 X-MEN APOCALYPSE DRACULA #2 (OF 4) $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

DEC053044 A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #30 (A) $4.99
JAN063096 ANGEL SCRIPTBOOK #1 $3.99
JAN063050F ARCHAIC #2 $2.99
DEC052825 ASPEN SWIMSUIT SPECIAL #1 $2.99
DEC053185 ATHENA VOLTAIRE FLIGHT OF THE FALCON #2 $2.99
JAN062859 BETTY & VERONICA #216 $2.25
JAN062858 BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #164 $2.39
JAN063242 BLACK COAT CALL TO ARMS #1 (OF 4) $2.99
DEC052959 BLACK HARVEST #4 (OF 6) $3.25
JAN063237F CONVENTION CONFESSIONAL #2 $3.95
JAN063052 DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #338 $2.95
DEC052826 FATHOM #7 $2.99
JAN062983 GI JOE SIGMA 6 #4 $2.95
NOV052744E GOLD DIGGER VOL 7 PKT MANGA TP $9.99
JAN062862 JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #120 $3.59
JAN062822 LITTLE SCROWLIE #13 $2.95
JAN063065F LIVING WITH ZOMBIES #6 (MR) $2.95
JAN063053 MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #287 $2.95
DEC052800 NHS HAWAII PKT MANGA VOL 1 TP $12.95
NOV053118E PHANTOM JACK NO WHERE MAN AGENDA #1 (OF 3) $2.99
SEP052687F PIZZERIA KAMIKAZE TP (MR) $14.95
DEC052958 PURGATORI (DDP) #5 (MR) $2.95
JAN062863 SABRINA VOL 2 #74 $2.25
JAN063081 TRANSFORMERS BEAST WARS (IDW) #2 (OF 4) $2.99

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.