The Spider #2
Written by David Liss
Art by Colton Worley
Letters by Simon Bowland
Covers by John Cassaday, Ron Lesser & Francesco Francavilla
The Spider created by Harry Steeger
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: June 6, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Going into The Spider #2 I was concerned about Dynamite’s decision to put a pulp hero in a modern day setting. After all, today’s audiences are NOT used to their heroes being non super-powered. And how would the mystery of the character play out in today’s world? With phones that can do literally almost anything except cook your meals, computers that can identify someone by a camera on a stoplight, and all the high tech gadgetry that goes along with that, is a guy with a hat and a gun really that big of a deal?

The Shadow #2
Written by Garth Ennis
Art by Aaron Campbell
Colors by Carlos Lopez
Letters by Rob Steen
Covers by Alex Ross, Howard Chaykin, John Cassaday, Jae Lee, and Ryan Sook
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: May 16, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

The Shadow #2 is, to put it bluntly, a mystery. But, a really FUN mystery. Filled with action and adventure, if you liked the first issue, you’ll love the second. It’s Garth Ennis and Aaron Campbell at their best.

I have to wonder what made Garth Ennis take this assignment? Does he have a love for the character? Did he want to prove something to himself by writing a licensed book? Did Nick from Dynamite throw tons of cash at him? Who am I to say? But whatever the reason, I’m sure glad he did. I can’t imagine anyone else writing this series. It’s not too over the top on blood and guts like a lot of Ennis books are, but I’m sure that’s because of the nature of the project. It does have enough edge to it to make it feel deadly serious, and not just another watered-down version of a pulp hero. The pacing is perfect, it speeds up when it needs to and slows down and gets into the heavy story beats when you need them. Something that I LOVED about this issue was that it’s SO full of story. This isn’t something you’re going to read in 5 minutes and forget about in 10. This is a comic that your actually going to get $4+ of entertainment out of.

The Spider #1
Written by David Liss
Art by Colton Worley
Letters by Simon Bowland
Covers by Francesco Francavilla, Ron Lesser, Alex Ross & John Cassaday
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: May 2, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

In 1933, pulp writer Harry Steeger created The Spider to compete with The Shadow. The Spider, while never attaining quite the level of popularity as The Shadow, took on a life of his own in pop culture and became pretty popular in the world of Pulp Heroes.

Now, almost 80 years later, the Spider is back in The Spider #1 (published by Dynamite Entertainment, the same company that’s publishing The Shadow. Can irony BE any more ironic?)!!!

Dynamite Entertainment and comiXology are offering a limited-time-only half-off sale on Buck Rogers Volume 1.

If you’re interested (and you should be), the comics listed in the sale are Buck Rogers #0-12 from writer Scott Beatty, artist Carlos Rafael, and cover artist John Cassaday. The sale started on Tuesday, September 27 and will end on at 11PM EST on Thursday, September 29, so make sure you head over to comiXology now!

ComiXology is running a sale today on Astonishing X-Men issues #1-12 by Joss Whedon for only 99 cents each.

Note, the sale is only for today, Monday, April 18, 2011 and ends at 11pm EST in North America.

You can download the digital versions for the iPad or iPhone of issues #1-12 of the Marvel comic book series for only $.99 each at the ComiXology App.

Also, it looks like the Astonishing X-Men Omnibus hardcover, which collects the entire Whedon run (#1-24 and Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1), is on sale at amazon.com for $47.25 (that’s 63% off the list price of $75).