Welcome once more to the Previews page, covering Previews vol. XVII #12, December 2007 for comics shipping in or about February 2008 - the one with the really ugly Fantastic Four cover. Seriously, what the heck happened to Sue Storm's face? Her left eye's migrating onto her forehead, that can't be healthy. Anyway: We skip past the Dark Horse section - sorry, but once more nothing caught my eye - and on to DC. Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood wraps up with issue #5, which I imagine will have Renee facing Brother Flay, and that should be quite a showdown. Countdown to Adventure #7 has Forerunner on the cover again, but since her 'backup' story is turning out to be more interesting than the main one, I'm not fussed about that. Meanwhile Gotham Underground #5 has, as part of the nine-covers-make-a-single-image thing, Batwoman's left glove - if she's not in the issue itself, am I nutty enough to buy it just for that? Time will tell. Justice League of America #18 looks like it'll continue the two-story format, with McDuffie only writing half of it - I'd love to know why that is. Justice Society of America #13 continues 'Thy Kingdom Come', so that's going to be awesome (the hardcover of issues #7-12 is also coming) and speaking of awesome Gail Simone's first story arc on Wonder Woman wraps up with Wonder Woman #17 (please dump the DMA, please dump the DMA...). Diana also guest stars in Wonder Girl #6, and can I just say how surprised I am that Hercules turned out to be a jerk again - I really wish they'd stop using him. DC trots out some merchandise, in the form of Ame-Comi statues of several heroines and villainesses, and... I'm sorry, they look awful. Green Lantern series 3 includes a Star Sapphire who looks a lot more interesting than the previous effort a while back, though, and the Wonder Girl bust is really characterful. On to the Image section, and the Liberty Meadows Cover Girl hardcover is on offer again - I don't think I've mentioned LIberty Meadows before here, but it's one of my favourite books. Meanwhile Dynamo 5 #12 looks like it's getting into the all-hell-breaks-loose stage of its story - see last week's reviews for a look at the first trade paperback of this series, it's worth checking out. McFarlane Toys just has a bunch of sports and military figures, so nothing interesting there - there's not a lot of merchandise on offer this month, what with it being post-Christmas. Magdalena/Daredevil will be out from Top Cow, but to be honest my interest in the Magdalena was pretty much nixed by the miniseries a few years back that was a poor Buffy rip-off, and nothing since has seemed to do much to help her. Moving on to Marvel, and it's a fairly quiet month for once. Annihilation: Conquest #4 should help keep the excitement up, with Quasar again looking great on the cover, and much twisty turny adventure goodness going on. Avengers: The Initiative #10 has Christos Gage (who wrote the Quasar miniseries for Conquest) joining Dan Slott on writing duties, possibly to give him time to turn out four issues of Spider-Man the previous month - I'm not sure I'd describe Cloud 9 as a 'headcase' though, she doesn't seem that flaky to me, just a normal girl out of her depth. Mighty Avengers #9 has Spider-Woman prominent on the cover (being strangled by Doctor Doom, but anyway), making me wonder if she's going to defect to Mighty full-time - if so, yay, I won't mind ignoring New Avengers any more for any reason - should be a great issue regardless, the blockbuster style of Mighty should suit Doom to a tee. The Order #8 has all sorts of stuff going on, and since the book hasn't put a foot wrong so far that should be great - their first trade paperback is coming too, collecting #1-7. She-Hulk #26 sports a kick-ass cover by Greg Land, and looks to be addressing Jen's post-Iron Man cynicism about being a superhero. Ms. Marvel #24 has an awesome cover of Carol doing her Binary powers thing - the hardcover of volume four (which goes right up to #24) will be out at the same time. Oh, and the trade paperback of Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest will be out, but it was a pretty mediocre miniseries, so you'd be better getting the original Frank Cho Shanna, or checking out Jungle Girl instead. And we arrive at the miscellaneous section. The Long Count #2 will be out, this Mayan cyberpunk (rather than steampunk, as I keep accidentally calling it - well, I like steampunk) has been getting a lot of positive attention on podcasts and the like. And Blackbeard Legacy #2 adds zombies to the mix, along with the previously established hot pirate lasses, which sounds like a recipe for awesome. Even though it's an off month in Tarot's bi-monthly schedule, Broadsword has a bunch of things on offer. The Love & Beauty full-colour portfolio is a set of Tarot and Raven art prints - I don't buy art much, but if you do that's worth a look. Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose issues #32, #34 and #35 are reoffered - I've already got #35 (which has Tarot struggling with her own moral code as she confronts a ruthless enemy), but I'll be taking the opportunity to add the other two back issues to my collection. Hack/Slash #9 will bring to a climax the ongoing story that's been simmering since #5 - and continues to tease us with girls' school innuendo. Bloodrayne volumes one and two are on offer, which I won't be ordering, but will certainly take a look at if they reach the shelves here - I'm trying not to judge the character purely on the basis of her movie being done by that idiot Uwe Boll. IDW finally comes out with the book I've been waiting for all this time: Transformers Spotlight: Arcee, in which the Transformers' most famous fembot is now a kill-crazy hell bitch, apparently. Odd, but whatever - any Arcee is good, especially after rumours that writer Furman intended not to include any of the girlformers at all. On the next page Rogue Angel #1 seems like it might be worth a look, with the idiosyncratic teaser that the heroine's discoveries "could change the public perception of Mark Twain forever." No, not Mark Twain! How will the world survive? Red 5's Atomic Robo #5 is solicited, and looks appropriately awesome with a return to the Helsingard plotline started in issue one. Viper Comics has The Lost Books of Eve trade paperback, which sounds like it might be all kinds of fun, and Virgin has Jenna Jameson's Shadow Hunter #2 - Christina Z should be good on writing, but I'm a bit worried about 'art by Virgin Studios', after what happened when they put a crap artist on Devi and ruined it just as it was drawing to the big climax of its first arc. Speaking of that, Devi #19 doesn't have said crap artist (Saumin Patel) on it, so it may be worth a look if they've moved on for good. On to toys, and like I said before it's slim pickings this time of year, with everyone having rushed their stuff out for Christmas. The 24 Season 3 minimates include Sherry Palmer, aka Lady Mac, and (this is the important one) Chloe O'Brien, aka Awesome (plus it's cute that Agent Charlie Brown has the silly virus bomb pack attached to his hand - I wonder if it pops off?) - oh, and the Defenders minimates includes Valkyrie, but I've never liked her costume much. This next is nothing to do with heroines, but take a look on p423 at the Hot Wheels Designer's Challenge die-cast cars - ignore the yellow one and the silver one beneath it, and look at the other four: those are the best concept cars these companies could come up with? No wonder no-one liked American cars, yikes. Gentle Giant has a Minerve McGonagall bust from Harry Potter, which looks pretty spot-on so far as I can tell from the photo, and McGonagall's pretty cool. In the Imports section there's Final Fantasy VII Game Edition figures of Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa - I'd prefer a movie Tifa, but I may give in on seeing this one in person. The Shakugan No Shana Second statue on the previous page scares the hell out of me though - who would want one those on display in their home? Moving on to heroines who've passed puberty, the Doctor Who: Martha Jones 12-inch figure is, as I reviewed a while back, terrific, and they really should be advertising it as having a lot more than 14 articulation points. The Stargate SG-1 figurines are a bit pricey, but the Samantha Carter (regular or black ops - same sculpt, looks like) has her cap off, so she's sufficiently distinct to the action figure that if you like pewter figurines, she's worth a look. And that's it! Let me know if I'm missing something:    [November 2007]    [October 2007]    [September 2007]