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: SUPERIOR SHOWCASE

The superhero polarises the comics community in a way that few other things can. People love them or hate them - often at the same time. Even the most hardcore indie art snob can have a secret collection of John Byrne's WONDER WOMAN. And even the most hardcore Green Lantern fan can be driven away from their hero.

Superheroes speak to a number of things in the human psyche: an unfettered imagination, adolescent frustration, social isolation, and so on. They resonate with our hopes and fears, often on a primal level, and whether they are a metaphor for burgeoning sexuality or a simple revenge fantasy, superheroes are, more often than not, a very attractive way of viewing the world through new, weird eyes.

The superhero characters of Marvel and DC are often the victims of corporate tinkering. This is hardly unexpected: they exist to make money, after all. But what this means for the superhero reader is periodic frustration, as favourite characters are sacrificed on the altar of commerce.

But, as much as they would like you to think otherwise, Marvel and DC are not the be-all and end-all of superheroes. Superhero and superhero-esque characters thrive outside the domain of the corporate comics structure, free from the dilution of the almighty dollar. Paul Chadwick's CONCRETE is a screenwriter's brain in a rocky, superstrong body, a vehicle for the author to explore environmental and humanitarian themes. Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca's STREET ANGEL is a surreal, somewhat melancholy affair, following a homeless teenager in her efforts to protect the city while finding a place to sleep. And Rick Veitch's KING HELL HEROICA is an excoriating examination of the history of superheroes and the comics business, couched in familiar archetypes.

Joining that ever-growing list of ever-loving hero books is this week's SUPERIOR SHOWCASE. A spin off from publisher Adhouse Books' PROJECT: SUPERIOR paperback, SUPERIOR SHOWCASE is a new anthology series, bringing the best of independent comics talent to bear on the medium's most well-worn genre. The first issue features stories by Nick Bertozzi, Mike Dawson and Dean Trippe, whose webcomic creation BUTTERFLY (the sidekick of a sidekick) makes a timely print appearance. Trippe is also one of the organisers of the superhero shrine PROJECT ROOFTOP, a website where tired old superheroes such as The Spectre can receive a much-needed makeover.

In an age of corporate mandates and thematic instability, it may be that the only place to find a pure hit of superheroic satisfaction is in the pages of books like SUPERIOR SHOWCASE. Sales of this first edition will determine whether or not there will be a second. Fans of the genre, take heed. [Matthew Craig]

THE ME WHO LOVED SPY

Oh, hello Tara. It's been too long.

In love (or, rather, infatuated) with the confusions of the post-Cold-War world, where everything's a little more complicated than a couple of pawns of Evil Empires glowering at each other over a poker-table, QUEEN & COUNTRY is a different class of spy comic. In that it's a good one. It's been recommended repeatedly in this column over all the years Ninth Art has been in existence, and has been the deserving recipient of a number of rewards from the site.

Ninth Art likes QUEEN & COUNTRY. You know this. But it never hurts to remind you.

Since the last issue of QUEEN & COUNTRY in 2004, we've seen a couple of stand-alone mini-series in the DECLASSIFIED spin-off (which wasn't the hot spy-on-spy penetrative action that Kittering/Chase watchers may have hoped for) and the novels A GENTLEMAN'S GAME and PRIVATE WARS, but this is a welcome return by Rucka to the sequential adventures of his depressive British minders. The eternally switching art-duties have turned this time to Chris Samnee, who you'll have seen in last year's splendid CAPOTE IN KANSAS, and the new arc should provide him with a similarly emotive subject matter to deal with. Just look at the cover, willya?

There have been some changes in the five years since QUEEN & COUNTRY debuted. In the superhero chattering classes, the bloom is a little off Greg Rucka's rose. But since QUEEN & COUNTRY is back, let's have a little circa-2000 style posturing: this says less about Rucka and more about the by-now evident truth that company-wide crossovers are always going to be interminable dross, and if you buy them you're getting exactly what you've asked for and deserve.

I stress: QUEEN & COUNTRY isn't just a first division spy comic. It remains the entire first division of spy comics. Don't leave this one out in the cold. [Kieron Gillen]

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOT BEETLE

It's funny how we can all fixate on those loser series that only you, me and that one fat guy in Missouri who smells like drain cleaner reads. I had the mad love for the Giffen/McKone VEXT 'ongoing' that was launched several years ago. I say 'ongoing' in inverted commas not because I've turned into John Byrne, but because it got cancelled by issue six. Yes, six. The fact that the series' hero was the God of Sod's Law just made the whole enterprise that much funnier.

Ted Kord, aka The Blue Beetle, was the poster-child for low-readership hero-worship. Seemingly everybody and their mother was outraged when he had his head blowed orf in the epically terrible COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS. The fact that he was basically Fat Batman was lost on a group of people who admired Kord's waistline and the fact he got to hang out with Wonder Woman. But die the Beetle did - and... er... back he is. And as luck would have it, Giffen's back behind the wheel of another series destined to be cancelled within a year.

Giffen, co-writing with screenwriter chum John Rogers, will avail the nerd world with the newer, harder, more spiky Blue Beetle - Jaime Reyes. A youth with a goatee (piercings, tattoos and skateboard are unconfirmed at time of going to press) and a mystical Scarab fused to his spine that gives him a scary-looking super-costume to fight evil. Already given a lynch-pin role in INFINITE CRISIS, DC are hoping this new Beetle will capture the fans' imaginations as well as Ted Kord did. Unlikely, seeing as Kord's entire personality was Nerd Done Good, but an intriguing enterprise nonetheless.

I must make note of their artistic co-conspirator on this series, Cully Hamner. Fresh off a fill-in run on Ellis' grim, dreadlock-headed rape epic DOWN, he's slowly beginning to get the kind of attention he rightly deserves. That he took over on DOWN from Tony Harris is no surprise - they do bear some similarities - but he's far more like Jason Pearson. He's also an amazing talent, almost perfect for this job. Don't expect any long unbroken runs, as DC has already announced fill-ins, but appreciate what you get. Because who knows when it might end. [John Fellows]

HUSTLE AND BUSTLE

Spin-offs are nothing new. Everything from The Torah to Happy Days has spawned a spin-off or sequels. It's hardly surprising: popular series generate popular characters that people want to see more of. It's as de rigeur as big hats at Ascot, even if the resulting works can vary in quality. Sometimes you get a FRASIER. Sometimes you get a JOEY.

LADY CONSTANTINE is the queen of spin-offs, a character derived from not one, not two, but three earlier series. Created by Neil Gaiman in the pages of SANDMAN, Lady Johanna Constantine is an ancestor of HELLBLAZER's John Constantine, whose own series spun out of Alan Moore's legendary SWAMP THING run.

A lot of pressure for the writer who tries to live up to those three legacies, you might think. But the writer of Lady Constantine is also the author of a fourth Vertigo classic: Andy Diggle, of THE LOSERS (and the SWAMP THING revival).

Illustrated by OUTLAW NATION's Goran Suduzka, the story finds the disinherited sorceress involved in a scheme to retrieve a mystical box from a scuppered boat at the bottom of the North Sea. Enlisting the help of a roguish sea captain, and dragging her young sibling along for the ride, Johanna comes up against everything from malevolent aristocracy to seasickness in her quest for the totem - which itself might seem familiar to fans of a certain Clive Barker franchise.

Lady Constantine is a timely collection of Andy Diggle's earliest Vertigo work. Unlike most spin-offs, it has the strongest of pedigrees. And pirates. You can't go wrong with pirates. [Matthew Craig]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR MARCH 29th 2006:

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

DARK HORSE

JAN060077 USAGI YOJIMBO #92 $2.99

DC COMICS

JAN060293 ACTION COMICS #837 $2.50
JAN060285 BATMAN JOURNEY INTO KNIGHT #8 (OF 12) $2.50
JAN060284 BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #202 $2.50
MAR060288D BATMAN THRILLKILLER TP NEW PTG $14.99
JAN050276 BATMAN YEAR ONE DELUXE EDITION HC $19.99
JAN060307 BLUE BEETLE #1 $2.99
JAN060351 CIPHER VOL 3 $9.99
NOV030254D ELFQUEST THE GRAND QUEST VOL 1 TP $9.95
JAN060310 GREEN LANTERN #10 $2.99
JAN060380 HELLBLAZER LADY CONSTANTINE TP (MR) $9.99
JAN060382 LUCIFER #72 (MR) $2.75
JAN060289 NIGHTWING MOBBED UP TP $12.99
JAN060336 TEEN TITANS GO #29 $2.25
MAR050448D TENJHO TENGE VOL 2 $9.99
SEP050284 TENJHO TENGE VOL 4 $9.99
FEB060306 VS (VERSUS) VOL 1 $9.99
JAN060331 WARLORD #2 $2.99

IMAGE

SEP051670 DISTANT SOIL VOL 4 CODA TP $17.99
FEB045201 MAGE VOL 1 THE HERO DISCOVERED TP $29.99

MARVEL

JAN062020 BOOKS OF DOOM #5 (OF 6) $2.99
JAN062019 CAPTAIN AMERICA 65TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL $3.99
JAN062105 ESSENTIAL NOVA VOL 1 TP $16.99
JAN062022 FANTASTIC FOUR #536 $2.99
JAN062102 INFINITY WAR TP $29.99
JAN062028 IRON MAN #6 $2.99
JAN062031 MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX GUYS & DOLL $2.99
JAN062043 MARVEL SPOTLIGHT DAVID FINCH ROBERTO AGUIRRE-SACASA $2.99
JAN062042 NEW AVENGERS ILLUMINATI SPECIAL $3.99
JAN062052 NICK FURY HOWLING COMMANDOS #6 $2.99
JAN062058 SENTRY #7 (OF 8) $2.99
JAN062001 SPIDER-MAN & ARANA SPECIAL $3.99
JAN062061 THING #5 $2.99
JAN061998 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #92 $2.50
JAN062073 UNCANNY X-MEN #471 $2.50
JAN062048 UNTOLD TALES OF THE NEW UNIVERSE PSI-FORCE $2.99
JAN062095 X-MEN COLOSSUS BLOODLINE TP $13.99
FEB062082 X-MEN DARK PHOENIX SAGA TP NEW PRINTING $24.99
JAN062075 X-MEN DEADLY GENESIS #5 (OF 6) $3.50
JAN062078 X-STATIX PRESENTS DEAD GIRL #3 (OF 5) $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

JAN063071F A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #31 (A) $4.99
NOV052979F ANGEL DIARY VOL 2 GN $10.95
JAN062860 BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #141 $3.59
NOV032646E CERES CELESTIAL LEGEND VOL 6 TP SHURO $9.95
JAN062796 CHRONO CRUSADE MANGA VOL 7 TP $9.99
JAN063051 DONALD DUCK ADVENTURES VOL 17 TP $7.95
FEB062908 EUREKA SEVEN VOL 1 GN $9.99
FEB052964F FIRST KINGDOM VOL 1 TP (OF 4) (MR) $17.95
JAN062795 FULL METAL PANIC MANGA VOL 9 TP $9.99
JAN062822 LITTLE SCROWLIE #13 $2.95
JAN063185 QUEEN & COUNTRY #29 (MR) $2.99
JAN042827 SENSUAL PHRASE VOL 1 TP (MR) $9.95
FEB062786F SUPERIOR SHOWCASE #1 $2.95
JAN062932F TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #37 (MR) $2.95
JAN062871 VERONICA #169 $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.