It seems the December solicitations are upon us (the chilly thought of which feels great, since I'm sweating right now in this late summer heat). Driven partly by curiosity to see what the latest Tumblr fuss was about and partly by my need to ascertain when the new books I've been looking forward to hit (so I know when I can safely drop some of my less engaging titles to make room for them without accidentally dropping below the ten-book rule at my LCS), I looked over the coming months' solicitations. I noticed a few things (most of which you probably already noticed too):

• X-23 making out with a dude on the cover of ANXM 20 -- which neither makes sense for Laura as a character nor for Laura as a recently-traumatized person. Covers and solicits lie but it's still a pretty awful way to depict her on the heels of Avengers Arena.
• Oh yeah, no more Avengers Arena. Hallelujah.
• The cover for the Inhumanity tie-in with Uncanny X-Men has all the character names next to the characters, but erroneously calls Eva "Tempest" instead of "Tempus" (seriously, this got through editorial?).
• Speaking of Inhumanity, the number of tie-ins looks horrifying. I am nearly nonplussed at Marvel's insistence on having so many massive crossovers. A few was one thing but this is actually stupid.
• Not to be outdone, DC is following up their stunt-tastic Villain's Month with a pretty far-reaching Zero Year tie-in (impacting titles well beyond the confines of the Bat Family). This in addition to their ongoing Forever Evil (with its own many tie-ins and miniseries) has quite simply ruined the ongoing stories in a great many of their titles, which are set sometime in November or December to resume and wrap up stories which began in June or July.
• Readers of Uncanny Avengers probably expect Remender to be vicious, but seeing the solicit for 15, which says "after the numerous deaths last issue..." is par for the course in terms of my numerous prior assertions that Marvel is bloodlusted.
• Amazing Spider-Man #700.1-5 seem to say that "Peter Parker is back!" Though whether this is truly Marvel letting that cat out of the bag early or whether it's just a miniseries (a la DC's Damian: Son of Batman mini) remains to be seen. Seems legit, however. I won't lie: I was pretty surprised by that. The numbering does suggest ASM resuming, even though SSM is still going on.
• I may just have to pick up the Lois Lane: A Celebration collection which comes out on November 27th, just as a sign of protest for how awful she (and her relationship with Clark) have been handled in the New 52. Meanwhile I'll continue not buying anything Superman-related whatsoever. What with Superman/Wonder Woman launching soon, I don't imagine that's going to change anytime soon.
• With Scarlet Spider being cancelled, the grimness of the recent turn of events may actually turn out to be truly grim. Which, knowing me, it shouldn't surprise anyone that I despise and am all to happy to be dropping the book immediately in favor of something else.

Now if you're sitting there wondering what the point of all this was, I guess it was just me having an opportunity/excuse to say hello, and to remind you I'm still lurking (and occasionally tossing an opinion out on the board) in case anyone cares. As ever, my PM box is open should you seek to drop a line.

Within the next couple months, my prospective pull list is as follows:

1. X-Men
2. All-New X-Men
3. Uncanny X-Men
4. Amazing X-Men?
5. Morning Glories
6. Fatale
7. Velvet
8. Pretty Deadly
9. The Wake
10. Astro City
11. Dead Boy Detectives?
12. Coffin Hill?

As well as the handful of extraneous tie-ins to Battle of the Atom, the six-issue miniseries Sandman Overture, the one-shot The Witching Hour, and yeah, I'm trying out the Harley Quinn solo, if just to let DC know that there's an interest in a book about her, even if it ends up (as I suspect is likely) being that the book they release isn't something I want.

Feel free to comment on whatever. Or...don't?

Cheers!