Véronique Sales

Here's a peek into 9 hot titles releasing or continuing during the month of November 2010, freely distributed to comic book outlets as part of Marvel's promotional campaign to generate more sales.

was a police procedural comic book series that was published by DC Comics from February 2003 to April 2006. It focused on the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) and the difficulties of its officers living and working in Gotham City, home of Batman. Albeit an artistic success, the series was a commercial failure. The series eventually became notorious for its outstanding reviews, dedicated fanbase and poor sales and was ended on issue #40. Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker co-wrote the first story arc together then divided the series between them with Rucka writing the GCPD day shift storylines and Brubaker doing the night shift, with artist Michael Lark for both. The vivid, in-depth characterizations was in stark contrast to the many ongoing titles of DC at the time and Gotham Central's debut yielded Eisner Award nominations in 2003 for Best New Series, Best Writer-Rucka, Best Writer-Brubaker, and Best Penciller/Inker-Lark. It ended up winning the Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story 2004 for "Half a Life" () and the Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story 2004 for "Half a Life" ().

Disney Publishing's (Marvel Comics' parent company) is a graphic novel prequel that bridges the story between the first Tron film from 1982 and the upcoming Walt Disney Studios film, , which hits U.S. theaters in Disney Digital 3D and IMAX 3D on December 17, 2010. The full TRON: Betrayal graphic novel will hit stores on November 16th, 2010, but Marvel also released recently it as a 2-part miniseries, each volume in the series a 50+ page giant-sized issue. Showcasing a key time of the mythology of the Tron world, TRON: Betrayal #1 shows the early days of the Grid, and the first appearances of the heroes and villains that will be seen in . The first movie by Disney was the most advanced in its time, in terms of CGI effects achieved and was a favorite of mine. The upcoming movie should push the envelope even further. This comic book prequel is hoped by both Disney and Marvel to likewise push sales and box office receipts, yet for fans of it stands on its own as a must-have to precisely bridge the gap between the first and the second movie. Both high-quality Minutemen scans.

Daring heroes, breathtaking women, betrayals, love and death–the most spectacular war story ever told: The Trojan War. When a lustful Trojan prince abducts the beautiful Queen Helen of Sparta, Helen`s husband vows to recover her no matter the cost. So begins the Trojan War. From far and wide the ancient kings of Greece bring their ships to join the massive force to pledge their allegiance to High King Agamemnon. Featuring the greatest of the Greek heroes: Achilles, Odysseus, and Herakles, along with a cast of thousands.

A man wakes in a field wearing nothing but his underwear. He's got no idea who he is or how he got there. His only connection to the outside world a cell phone on which he receives mysterious texts warning him of impending danger. Danger like Christian, an ex-bible sales-man in the middle of crime spree fueled by Christian Rock, dirty sex, meth, murder and keeping this underwear clad, nameless and pastless man close by his side.

A Marvel Monster series. One of the last surviving Marvel monster series that, like most of them, started in the early 1970's. The last 4 issues also starred Doctor Druid as a 'host' to the horror stories inside. This was done in hope of making the series more 'continuity loaded' and thus preventing the declining sales from canceling the magazine. Unfortunately it did not work, and Weird Wonder Tales was cancelled with issue 22, surviving most other 'horror genre' comic-series from Marvel.

Before Top Cow & Witchblade, artist Marc Silvestri rose to comics' superstardom during his legendary and sales record-breaking run on WOLVERINE and UNCANNY X-MEN. Now having made his triumphant return to NEW X-MEN, energizing his fans and finding legions of new ones, Marvel offers a new collected edition of some of his best Wolverine stories, highlighting a benchmark in the career of one of comics' top artists and a run of one of the industry's best-selling titles! Watch Wolverine take on the drug-crazed Japanese Yakuza, face down a legendary Canadian monster and uncover secrets of the mysterious Weapon X program, culminating in a battle with a cyborg version of himself! Collects WOLVERINE #31-34, 41-42, 48-50!

Well, since ol' Spidey has his 600th issue and since he also guest-stars in the this the 600th issue of probably the strongest of all Marvel title characters, I may as well post it. I must say, however, that I gave up on the Hulk when Jeph Loeb got onboard. I was already confused with the ordinal sequence of issues (from what I have counted, this should already be at least issue #604) and the ever-present need of writers to give in to their egotistic urges and meddle with continuity with little or no logic. Frank Miller or Alan Moore or Neal Gaiman break from established character or comics universe canon but they do so with well-thought-out storylines that transcend and elevate the medium into rarefied levels of art and literature. Jeph Loeb does not, for he evidently can not. And I won't even quote the issue solicitation lest I be tainted with the same misleading hype no doubt stoked by Marvel executives' greed for sales. 'Nuff said.