Chapterhouse February 2017 Solicitations

As usual, First Comics News lives up to its name and is the first site to make the Chapterhouse solicitations available. If someone else does it any faster, by all means draw my attention to it, but I have yet to find another site that does.

Now then...What's going on...

ALL NEW CLASSIC CAPTAIN CANUCK VOL 01 TIME CHASE
DEC161505
(W) Ed Brisson (A/CA) George Freeman 

The Classic series continues will all new adventures of Captain Canuck! Lost in time, Captain Canuck must face aliens, cavemen, Mr Gold, and the new threat of Criterion as he tries to return home.

Ed Brisson (The Violent) teams up with Canuck veteran George Freeman (JLA, Star Wars) to bring you what Graphic Policy calls “A great collection that’s worth the price of admission!” 

Collects All New Classic Captain Canuck #0-4. 

In Shops: Feb 22, 2017
SRP: $19.99

Nice. The third issue of ANCCC was released last week, I believe. Chapterhouse must be fairly confident that they'll get the fourth issue out soon if they are planning to release the trade paperback.

That will be it for Classic Canuck, at least for the time being, sadly. But the supporting cast of the current version will continue to be featured in...

AGENTS OF PACT #2
DEC161502
(W) Kalman Andrasofszky, Blake Northcott (A) Federica Manfredi (CA) Bella Rachlin 

The Chapterverse continues! Barely functioning as a team yet, and the Agents are already outnumbered and outgunned by an army of souped-up Equilibrium agents headed by the Steeltown Hammer! 

Who can even the score? Spoilers: it’s Kebec. 

In Shops: Feb 22, 2017
SRP: $3.99

When I first saw that cover, I believed it was fan art. I may have even referred to it as such on social media, which makes me feel like a dumbass now. Ah well. How the hell was I supposed to know? Unless it started that way and Chapterhouse chose to use it.

In any event, for those of you perhaps newer to this little universe, that would be Fleur De Lys on the left, of Northguard fame. A character by the same name (Manon Deschamps, that is) appears in the Northguard but is significantly older. So there are two possibilities:

1) The cover is not at all indicative of the interior content and simply a pinup. That could well be, artist Bella Rachlin used the pinup hashtag in her Instagram post displaying that same image.

2) Someone else is wearing the suit. The Northguard guard character is significantly different than the original character, the same could be true of Fleur De Lys. And Chapterhouse leaves precious little material unused. So this is something to look forward to.

And finally, we have Freelance...

FREELANCE #2
DEC161503
(W) Jim Zub, Andrew Wheeler (A) Vaneda Vireak (CA) Alexander Perkins 

The Chapterverse continues! 

On the trail of the murderous Apollyon, Lance and his team are led on a journey that takes them from beyond the Nanisivik Rift to the rooftops of Istanbul. 

Debuting in this issue: the mysterious Sidika! But is she friend, foe, or something else entirely? 

Pulse-pounding action, wit, intrigue, and globe-trotting romance as one of Canada’s original heroes is reborn for the Chapterhouse era! 

In Shops: Feb 22, 2017
SRP: $3.99

I admit that I'm not quite into this book. I know that its connection with the other Chapterverse titles will be revealed over time, and hopefully grow, but so far it doesn't grab me. I also personally detest this art style (preview page below copied from, of course, First Comics News).

Not saying it's bad work, just not what I personally enjoy and not what I was expecting.  Nonetheless, I'll get the book and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

My concern now is that when the Chapterverse was announced, it was promoted as being a whole universe for $8 a month. That's OK, but it would suggest that we're not getting any version of Captain Canuck until May at the earliest. That's a long way to go without your flagship character, but we can look forward to his triumphant return. Hell, we've waited much longer between Canuck books in the past, haven't we?