Ed Brubaker’s latest Criminal TPB - Lawless - gets looked at by James, there’s some scary news about the future of Buffy Season 8, a tip about one of comics’ up-and-coming artist offering cut-price commissions, some speculation about just what’s going on with the GL Corps’ new rivals and a little more about Morrison’s Batman.

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It’s a quiet one this week, but below you’ll find some news about a special event in the Buffy comic, speculation about where Morrison’s Batman run is going, some Eagle Awards suggestions and another FREE comic (one you’d actually want to pay for) from Newsarama!

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Okay, usual disclaimer time – you know that James and I are both fans of Jamie McKelvie’s work and friendly with the man himself. But aside from getting in digs at Jeph Loeb at every available opportunity, we consider ourselves to be editorially neutral – and this works both ways. So, just as we wouldn’t hold back from giving Jamie a bad review if the book warranted it, neither should we feel like we have to stop ourselves writing about his work while it continues to be so great.

 And Suburban Glamour is, indeed, a great comic. It hasn’t clicked with everyone, and I’d put that down, at least in part, to its type of characters – much like those in Phonogram – having a quite specific appeal. But look beyond the superficial setting of “gorgeous hipster teenagers in faceless Midlands town”, and there’s a pretty universal theme on show. In fact, for all the talk comparing this series to Buffy The Vampire Slayer, you can actually look back even further to the classic childhood wish of being told that your parents aren’t your real parents, and you’re instead the heir to a fantastical world. There’s just more swearing here. And cooler clothes. And this is the point – McKelvie would be the first to admit that the fantasy elements are hardly original (he wears his influences on his sleeve, Neil Gaiman chief among them), but he’s telling them in a way that is completely here-and-now, and the sheer hipness of the whole thing is practically aspirational. Thus, while the sort of person who’d (stereotypically, at least) normally read a story about faeries probably can’t engage with the characters, the style of storytelling opens up the genre to an entirely new strata of potential readers. To batter a laboured point - consider what Scott Pilgrim does with the romance genre, and you’ll see what I mean.

If there’s been a problem with the series so far, then it’s probably the pacing. Issue three feels like a great halfway point – but less good as a penultimate chapter. I’ve had to keep reminding myself that it’s only a four-parter, as there are seemingly too many layers of mystery still to be unpicked – and, most probably, a lot of plot to get through in the final issue. At times, such as with the brilliant, Edgar Wright-ish montage from issue one, it’s been quickfire – but more often than not, the book has dealt in silent, longer and more ponderous moments; fine in and of themselves, but they don’t really seem suited to a series of this brevity.

That said, it’s one of the latter types of scene that here provides what is probably, as far as I’m concerned, the highlight of McKelvie’s artistic career so far – two panels on a page, the first a beautiful close-up of Astrid that demonstrates his Steve Dillon-esque knack for facial expressions, the second a stunning view of the landscape of… er… Lanbern… which probably took him about three weeks to draw. There’s also something which might count as the first proper “action” moment I’ve seen from him – and an entertaining use of the panels surrounding the action seeming to rattle around it in the manner of an old Incredible Hulk cover.

Suburban Glamour may not have the jaw-droppingly-unmissable nature of Phonogram, and it may feel firmly like a fledgling writer just starting to find their voice. But it’s sharp, funny – and easily the most beautiful-looking comic this side of Frank Quitely.

We don’t usually do much in terms of new updates here, but since the April 2008 Marvel Solicits have just been released, and in light of all the secrecy over the casts of various titles, I couldn’t help noticing this Greg Land X-Men poster (top image below, click to enlarge)

Colossus, Frost, Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Pixie? Odd set of characters to be appearing on a poster together. It doesn’t appear to be the cast of Ellis’ Astonishing X-Men, after all (depicted here) though there is a little crossover. Could it be something to do with the post-Messiah Complex X-Men line? The Uncanny cast, perhaps?

There’s also this leaked Young X-Men cover (bottom image on the left, also click to enlarge.) YXM is, as we know, the successor to the dearly departed New X-Men.

 Clearly no Pixie there. Though I do recognise Wolfcub, Blindfold (in costume!?) Rockslide and Dust, clockwise from the far left, along with an (apparently) new guy on the far right and either Elixir or a new character in the centre. That’s clearly a Dodson cover even before you read the signature, though whether that means he’ll be the regular artist is anyone’s guess.

Still, I suppose we’ll find all this out soon when the full X-Men solicits come out on Thursday.

And, while we’re speaking about the solicits, it’s also good to see this has finally been announced:

X-MEN DIVIDED WE STAND BOOK 1 (of 2)
Written by MIKE CAREY, MATT FRACTION, CRAIG KYLE, CHRISTOPHER YOST and SKOTTIE YOUNG
Pencils by BRANDON PETERSON, JAMIE MCKELVIE, SANA TAKEDA and SKOTTIE YOUNG
Cover by BRANDON PETERSON
*Solicit classified until 1/24/2008*
48 PGS./Rated T+…$3.99

Frankly, that’s going to be worth it for McKelvie’s first mainstream superhero work alone. Excited? Yes sir.

When McKelvie’s not getting namechecked by the Duloks and racking up endorsements from Warren Ellis, he’s still plugging away at the thing everyone’s raving about in the first place: his comics. Suburban Glamour #2 hit shelves this week, marking the half-way point of his first writer/artist turn. If you’re not up to date on the (sold out!) Issue #1, then at least read the NTS review of it here and see what you’re missing, before continuing with the following entry.

This issue resolves the previous cliffhanger with a “mystery” rescuer, though luckily it’s not strung out because there’s nothing worse than a mystery being laboured when the audience knows the answer and the characters don’t. It then follows up with the most Buffy-esque sequence to date, featuring a pre-beard Kieron Gillen guesting as a school guidance counsellor, and christ knows there are forces in the world that would want to prevent THAT from happening. The school-based material, in fact, brings to the front the kind of themes McKelvie has suggested would be present in Suburban Glamour, but were largely under the surface in the first issue - the idea of being lost for direction when you’re only getting the kind of options you’d rather turn down. All it needed was for someone to suggest Astrid considered an HND or Modern Apprenticeship.

From there’s it becomes time for a trip into Sandman territory for the remainder of the issue. Only recently I was ragging on Vertigo’s tendency to put out Sandman-lite nonsense, so I should definitely qualify this by saying that the comparisons here are fairly superficial. McKelvie has put enough of his own spin on it that it’s not just a retread. There’s always a danger in using this kind of concept that people are going to look at it and go “Gaiman did it better” and, well, of course he did, he’s Neil Gaiman. On the other hand - Gaiman never wrote anything this hip.

Anyone complaining that the first issue was too slow should be satisfied by this one, which throws some serious twists at the reader. If the first issue was all about establishing the characters, this issue is all about setting up the plot. Just when I thought I had Suburban Glamour figured out (and I consider myself a fairly jaded and sceptical audience) it turns out I didn’t guess the half of it. McKelvie has proven himself as an artist over and over, and now he’s proving he can spin a decent yarn as well. Like a proverbial Icarus, he’s flying daringly close to greats like Whedon and Gaiman, but so far the wings haven’t come off yet. Roll on Issue #3.