Two Cows Get Hard.

It was announced that Top Cow is going to produce nice hardcover editions of both Mark Millar's Wanted and J. Michael Straczynski's Rising Stars. While the former is a six-issue series that with extras included will only push the total page count to 200 or so, the latter is a 24-issue magnum opus, creating a massive hardcover with heft and weight. In both cases, it can be assumed that the nice and sturdy final product will appropriate be used to beat the creators to within an inch of their lives for making the products so damned late... dear god we waited almost two years between issues of Rising Stars.

And yes, I know there were legal issues and personal problems between the Cow and the JMS but somebody's gotta take the fall for it and I guess it's gonne be JMS. After all, I don't think the fanboys are gonna recognize Top Cow's legal team at the next convention, but they can find that pony-tailed Marvel sell-out. And while they're at it, maybe they can ask him why Supreme Power is essentially the same story with someone else's character, but it reads much better. And when's our next Babylon 5 project... that's what we're really all waiting for. And ask him why if they've given Peter Parker the natural ability to generate webs, it's still coming right out of his wrists where his artificial webshooters were? Was it so he would still look cool swinging through the city? Seems too much of a coincidence to me. Shouldn't it be coming out his butt? And yes, I know he didn't write it but still. He should've. Spider-Man swinging through the city shooting webs out of his ass. Now THAT's a comic book.

Note to fanboys. If the Rising Stars hardcover collection premieres at a convention, please bring a wagon because it's going to get heavy. And no, it's not gonna help you score with that chic in the costume over at the ADV booth. She's here for the paycheck and isn't impressed with your man-boobs or your homemade Namor costume. Nice try, though.