The Joe Kelly Watch

(or "Just what is he up to after leaving DP?")

I was going to look at the "Crappiest X-Man" on the market this issue, but thought I'd put that off, because former Deadpool writer Joe Kelly is getting up to some interesting stuff. By the way, it's another poster special, click on the M.Rex and Superman pick for bigger versions

Joe Kelly has been a busy boy since leaving Deadpool for other projects and while I will always look upon his time penning Deadpool with a wistful sigh, some of his new projects look downright spectacular!

MACHINA REX:
Machina Rex (or M. Rex) is starting this month and looks like the pick of the lot. It's futuristic and wacky, following the adventures of the young boy Rex, who's bloodstream is infested with Nanobots that can manifest his every wish! From the preview this looks really promising and has much of Kelly's humour that you should be familiar with from his Deadpool days.

This book is to be a monthly, released through Image, written by Joe Kelly (of course) and pencilled by Duncan Rouleau. It's Kelly's first creator owned project, which should make even better! Check this out, it's sure to be a classic

ACTION COMICS: SUPERMAN:
Joe Kelly has also taken up the regular writing chores on Action Comics (starting form issue #760). He's joined by penciller German Garcier, who worked with previously on Uncanny X-Men.

I never really pictured Joe Kelly as ever being involved in a project like this. Superman just seems so distant to the characters he's worked on before. But, suppose it's a recognition of what a great writer he is. The first issue of his run is okay, from what I can tell. This is the first Superman comic I've read, so I don't really have much to compare with. All the same it's easy to read and the art is beautiful, I really like Garcia's pencils (though his Superman often looks baby-faced and cute). Pick this up if you want, I'll probably get for a few issues and see how it turns out.

STEAMPUNK:
This title is the newest to join the Cliffhanger banner (home of hits like Battlechasers) and again is written by Kelly and pencilled by Chris Bachalo. The plot and pretense is a bit more unclear than Kelly's other projects. It involves some sort of dark alternate past to human history and features a main character with a steam engine for a heart. This book seems mainly Bachalo's idea and to tell the truth, I don't know whether I am impressed by him or not. Some of his work on the X-Men was good and other stuff just looked messy.

This will probably be worth checking out. Though I will be interested in seeing whether this can meet a monthly shcedule or not. It should be appearing in shops early next year.

Other Projects: Besides these books Joe Kelly has written 2 Heroes Reborn one-shots as part of the Doomsday event at Marvel this month. They're titled Remnants and Rebel. These might be interesting, as long as it doesn't require the reader to buy the othe 5 comics in this event to make sense of the story. Joe has also expressed interest in writing Spider-man in the future.

So, there you go, that's what Joe Kelly is up to now. If you loved his work on Deadpool and miss him, then you can check him out in plenty of different projects.

By Spidermad