So, What comics did you buy this week?

[anarky]

I actually think the DD armor would've looked better with a black bodysuit with yellow and red highlights, and the armor itself in black with some silver highlights. Absurd, possibly, for a guy in his position, but a nice update of the original.

[Diabolical]

The DD armor would have worked much better if it wasn't intended to be a permanent change.

Here is an alternate cover for Shadowland #1 with the new costume.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Amazing Spidey 637 The Finale of Grim Hunt was epic. Cassandra "Madame" Web dies right after imparting her "sight" on Julia "Arachne" Carpenter. The returned Kraven begs to be killed by "The Spyder" only to have young Ana "Arana" Corazon and Julia stop Pete at the last second. Then Kraven goes to the Savage Land, breaks his wifes neck, and sets up shop with the kids. And Kaine is resurrected as the new Tarantula. A worthy successor to the original Kraven's last Hunt story and one of the better Spidey stories since the OMD/BND fiasco.
Young Avengers 1 Okay, I know this is technically titled Avengers: Children's Crusade but its really Young Avengers. The YA look for the missing Scarlet Witch with Magneto. The Avengers have issues with this, so natch a confrontation is brewing.
Avengers Academy 2 Spotlighting on Finesse, who may or may not be Taskmaster's daughter (sweet fuckall does EVERYBDY have to be a legacy character nowadays?!). This book is shaping up to be a fun read.
Batman 701 Picks up right as R.I.P. ended but before Final Crisis. It reads like Batman talking to himself. It's Grant Morrison, so that should tell you everything you need to know.
Birds of Prey 3 Gail Simone is a consistently good writer and the mystery continues. Who is the White Canary?
Daredevil 508 The tagline for Shadowland is "Matt Murdock dared evil. And lost. Dared Evil is just Daredevil with a space in it. If thats how and why they came up with this whole Shadowland crossover..man thats just insipid.
G.I.Joe Origins 17 Zartan's origin continues.
Iron Man 28 I like the idea iof Stark trying to start a car company that uses repuslor tech, but you know this story will end in disaster because nothing like that exists in the real world, and fundamentally changing the auto industry and the cascade effect that would have on the rest of the economy would change the Marvel universe into an unrecognizable entity. its the saem reason Reed Richards can't cure cancer.
Justice League: Gen Lost 5 Winick is really hitting his stride with this book. The death of Rocket Red was very poignant.
Superman 701 JMS begins his run as Superman walks across America. A suprisingly touching issue.
Thanos Imperative 2 havent read it yet
Transformers 9 After the Spike-centric shmaltz issue last minth, i was worried. But this one introduces a bit of political intrigue that I enjoyed.
X-Force Sex and Violence 1 Exactly what the title implies. Domino and Logan get in the middle of an Assassin's Guild and Hand ninja fued. And also bowchickabowbow.
X-Men Second Coming 2 The finale of Second Coming told in four parts. Says good-bye to Cable and Nightcrawler. Sets up the new X-Force series (with Wolvie, Angel, Deadpool, Psylocke and Fantomex on the team) and FINALLY new mutants start showing up on Cerebra. A great ending to a great crossover.
X-Men Hellbound 3 Having nothing to do with the man Second Coming crossover plastered all over the cover, this series was kind of a letdown. yet another foray into the world of Magik and N'Astihr and S'ym.
X-Men Heroic Age OneShot Three intertwined tales focusing on 1. Cyclops discussing the role of the X-Men with Steve Rogers in the new "Heroic Age" 2. Beast and Runaways' Molly discussing 'extinction' and 3. Hope getting a check-up by Reed Richards and igniting a curiosity to find who her parents were. She was born just a few months ago, Marvel U time, but her entire city was decimated on her birthday including any relatives she had and then she spent the next 18 years of her life time traveling with Cable. Not a bad read, but not spectacular.

[anarky]

Both Rollo and I checked all the booths selling new comics at Comic-Con (and I think there were maybe three, no joke, sad as that sounds) for GIJoe #156. We were repeatedly told, "We didn't bring it." Yeah, why would you bring comics to Comic-Con?

Anyway, I got some freebies at the Con, including American Vampire #1 from DC. (I later saw a booth selling it for $30. I didn't realize until that point that it wasn't a new issue.) I only went to the kiddie and Vertigo sections; the lines for the other areas were kinda long, and I didn't have a hell of a lot of time to spend in line.

From the Red Five booth (which was out of the FCBD Atomic Robo by the time I rolled in on Sunday), I got Volume 4 (5? the newest one) in singles, and trades of Neozoic and another series they tossed in for free. (Goofy name aside, and I really do think more folks would take them seriously with a different name, they seem like really nice fellers.)

And just now, I found Barnes and Noble's website has almost all the IDW Speed Racer trades for less than $4. I got four that I didn't find last year at Comic-Con (1, 5-6, and Racer X 1--not sure if there's a 2 or not for Racer X) to make up for free shipping. (They used to offer 10% off and free shipping on all orders placed through AAA's website. Now it's just 10% off, and you still have to spend $25 to get free shipping like everyone else.) I know that's not the entire Speed Racer series, since I recall seeing at least one other book at Comic-Con Sunday (but couldn't remember which ones I had). However, it looks like they've changed covers on some of the reprints, so maybe it is.

[Diabolical]

Green Hornet #6
Punisher Max #9
Daredevil #508
Gotham City Sirens #14
Batman: The Widening Gyre #6 - After a few questionable moments, holy shit, what an ending!

[Rollo Tomassi]

i've been running behind for a few weeks because of the 'con, so here's three weeks worth of stuff all in one go.

What I got three weeks ago

Amazing Spidey 638 The beginning of "One Moment in Time" the sequel to OMD that shows why PP and MJ aren't hitched. Not starting well. Who is this red headed whiny bitch and where is MaryJane? I swear, Quesada can justify anything if he dispenses with previously established characterization.
Avengers 3 This series has been hellbent full throttle since issue one.
GIJoe ARAH 156 had trouble tracking this down (as anarky noted) but it was worth it. I got cover B which had a kickass Snake-Eyes cover.
GIJoe Cobra 6 Meh to this Serpentor story. Which isnt the same OH GOD Serpentor SUCKS! But really...meh.
New Mutants 15 As displaced as their wrath is, I sympathize for the soldiers abandoned in Limbo (with a capital "L" as in the place magik and N'astirh are from).
Red Robin 14 Damian throws Tim attitude and Tim must beat his little nine year old ass down. Unfortunately, they do it in Crime Alley and this makes Dick angry.
Thunderbolts 146This new direction is still finding its footing.
Web of Spider-Man 10The conclusion of the great Extremist story arc. Too bad he died at the end. He was the first decent new Spidey villain in awhile. Aside from Mr. Negative.
X-Factor 207 Supposedly had a big ending. If you consider Rahne being knocked up "big" then it was.
X-Men Phoenix Force handbook Whattya want? its a handbook.

What I got two weeks ago

New Avengers 2 Mystical mumbo jumbo involving Drs. Strange and Voodoo.
Secret Avengers 3 More mayhem on Mars as Steve Rogers dons the Nova helmet.
Batman Return of BW 4 Wild west Batman vs Jonah Hex. I'm sure it all makes sense in Grant's head.
Brightest Day 6 Finally we are getting some answers.
Fantastic Four 581 Time travelling adventure as only Hickman can bring you.
GIJoe Hearts and Minds 3 Brooks continues to score. not as good as last issue, but this is still a fantastic series.
Green Arrow 2 Well, I was going to drop this, until Ollie got an arrow in the head on the last page. Only to see how he gets out of it will I buy issue 3, but then I will drop it because they went there already.
Green Lantern 56 This was worth it for Larfleeze's banter alone.
Green Lantern Corps 50 This series has been weaker since Tomasi left.
Justice League Gen Lost 6 Capt. Atom time travels into the future to see what havok Max hath wrought. And then comes back to kill him. Good. Max is a prick.
PunisherMax 9 This Bullseye story has gone on too long.
Thor 612 Thor in Hell! I feel like the series is treading water until Fraction starts his run in a couple issues.
Wolverine Weapon X 15The end of the Deathlok arc. I was actually intrigued by the reversal of the computer brain being the pacifist and interested in learning about humanity, and the human brain being the bloodthirsty killer. Finding out he was the "leader" in the future wasn't a big twist since they had been telegraphing it since the third issue.
Wonder Woman 601Don Kramer draws the new costume way better than Jim Lee did, and the whole story is too early to tell whether its good or not. but what it ISN'T is the story that puts WW back on the map. Another fail.
Uncanny X-men 526"Five Lights" begins. Hope goes and meets her maternal grandmother and a back up story that leads into Avengers: Childrens Crusade (aka Young Avengers)
X-Men Legacy 238 Rogue, Magneto and some of the kids go to India.

What I got last week.

Amazing Spidey 639 OMIT continues. Soooo...all it took to save the mortally gunshot wounded Aunt May was a little CPR? Who needs Mephisto? This story stinks.
Avengers Prime 2 I have no idea whats going on, but I like the banter.
Batgirl 12 hadn't picked this up in a few issues and thought I'd check in. Its actually a good title. Steph and Babs finally defeat Calculator and recruit his daughter Wendy (as in Wendy and Marvin) as Oracle's new "sidekick" Proxy.
Brightest Day 7 It continues.
Captain America 608 The dastardly Baron Zemo starts a smear campaign against Bucky be revealing to the world that the new Captain America also happens to be a former Soviet Assassin known as Winter Soldier. The shit just hit the fan, y'all!
Darkstar/Winter Guard 2 Wrapped it up too fast for my tastes.
Ender in Exile 3 I'm a completist.
GIJoe ARAH 157 This book is so awesome. Its like I'm 10 years old again.
Jonah Hex 57 and 58 A buddy of mine sent me a bunch of Jonah Hex books with a LARGE collection I purchased at the beginning of the year. After I read them I have a newfound love for the series and bought a bunch of the issues I was missing at SDCC. So I bought the two newest issues off the rack because I'm now collecting it.
Official Index to the MU 4 Read about the antice of Avengers, Capt. America, and Thor in the 70s. Hilarity ensues.
Marvel Universe vs the Punisher Sort of a Punisher meets '28 Days Later'. I'm a big fan of Goran Parlov's art particularly when he draws Punisher so this is all good for me. Plus, theres a lack of decent Punisher books right now because of fucking FrankenCastle. Fuck.
Red Robin 15 To throw Vicki Vale off the scent of his (and therefore Dick Bruce etc) secret identity, Tim "takes a bullet" and is now going to traipse around in legbraces and crutches for a year while he's "recovering". Oh, and apparently he's engaged to Lucius Fox's daughter. WTF?
Secret Six 24 I'm not sure what this dream sequence issue was, but it was set in the Old West and it was awesome.
Secret Warriors 18Dugan goes before congressinal hearings and tells them they are all pussies. Dum Dum Dugan rules. (But shouldn't he be like 80+ years old by now? He served in WWII gadammit)
Shadowland 2 This book is severly underwhelming. not the least of which is its covers.
Shadowland:Bullseye The same goes for the one shots for the series.
The Stand: Hardcases 3 Holy crap. Theres only like 12 issues left! This book has been the epitome of excellent.
Transformers Ironhide 4 Seeing Metroplex save the day was awesome. The fucker is MASSIVE.
The Rage of Thor one shot A oneshot by Peter Milligan about Thor trying to find humanity in the mideval/dark ages. A good read. I quite enjoyed it. Buying oneshots is always a crapshoot because sometimes its just inventory filler crap, but this one was great read.


So there you have it. Three weeks worth of books. now that I'm caught up i'll try to be more regular.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Batgirl 13. Stephanie Vs. Clayface.
Birds of Prey 4. The White Canary's identity revealed. Turns out its noone.
Daredevil 509. Shadowland continues. Meh.
Lady Deadpool one-shot. I don't know why I bought this. I have no idea who this chick is. And after reading it, I still don't.
GIJoe 21. Another actiony awesome-fest.
Green Lantern:Emerald Warriors 1. Guy Gardner stars in his own series (kinda).
Iron Man 29. Pepper Potts gets her Rescue Armor back.
Justice League:Gen Lost 7. The team disguises themselves as Rocket Reds and attack Checkmate HQ.
Superman 702. Superman's walk continues.
Thanos Imperative 3. Cosmic adventure continues.
Transformers 10. Finally a big battle and a shocking last page.
X-Force Sex and Violence 2. More hot sloppy sex between Logan and Domino. Also lots of ninja killing.

[Diabolical]

Daredevil #509 - DD should stand for DoubleDouche, because the character has been more bastardized than a Matt Fraction Frank Castle.

Dork Wolverine #89 - Only bought it because it's a FrankencAsshole crossover and I only stuck with this dumbass story because it ain't gonna last too long (even though 1 issue was too long). I figured if I can make it through Angel Punisher, Black Punisher, Ray Stevenson Punisher and Matt Fraction Punisher, I can ride out this latest wave of mental retardation.

Sin City #1 - Just a buck under Dark Horses One for One promotion. O think this is the 3rd time I have it. Oh well, still awesome.

Aliens vs. Predator #1 - Also a buck. It's safe to say I won't be going back in time 20 years to pick up the rest (or a more recent trade/omnibus).

[Rollo Tomassi]

Daredevil #509 - DD should stand for DoubleDouche, because the character has been more bastardized than a Matt Fraction Frank Castle.

And as the final insult, they are cancelling his series after the crossover has ended.

Dork Wolverine #89 - Only bought it because it's a FrankencAsshole crossover and I only stuck with this dumbass story because it ain't gonna last too long (even though 1 issue was too long). I figured if I can make it through Angel Punisher, Black Punisher, Ray Stevenson Punisher and Matt Fraction Punisher, I can ride out this latest wave of mental retardation.

Wow. You bought a shitty book because it was a shitty tie-in to a shitty ongoing series. Did you see Remender is doing a five issue mini-series with the supposedly regular Punisher back?
----------------------------------


Here's what I got this week.

Amazing Spidey 640 OMIT continues. This whole story has been a turd of a misfire. It's bad justification for weak editorial mandates from unclever creative people.
Avengers Academy 3 Another brilliant issue marred by the T-Bolts crossover. Since this part of the "crossover" is two issues, and the T-Bolts issue is one, you get a recap and closure in that book to events which we won't read about until next month in this one.
Secret Avengers 4 You'd think an awesome premise like the Avengers fighting Serpent Crown devotees on the surface of Mars would be more exciting than what actually went down. At least Deodato draws pretty pictures.
New Avengers 3 Holy crap, between this book and Avengers , Bendis is pulling out all the stops canvasing the Marvel Universe. in this issue, the long dead Ancient One (mentor to Dr. Strange and dead many decades) is back and he's EVIL! Fun fun stuff.
Brightest Day 8 Uhmmm...I read it and now I can't remember anything memorable from the issue. Oh yeah, there's another Martian (Like J'onn) but this one is evil.
GIJoe Origins 18 The conclusion of the Zartan origin. Decent.
GIJoe Cobra 7 The origin of CrocMaster. better than the previous two issues. Serpentor is still in this one, but as a peripheral character.
Green Lantern Corps 51 The last page is awesome with everyone saying the oath and recharging their rings in the dying body of Alpha Lantern Boodika.
Legacies 4 I missed last issue because of ComicCon, but this one has the Teen Titans in it.

New Mutants 16 Okay, so I've been reading comics for a quarter century now. And my first major comic crossover was the Inferno saga running through the X-books. At the end of that story, there were 13 mutant babies that were used to open the pentagram dimension hole that allowed all the Limbo nasties to come into Manhattan and wreak havoc. Afterwards, Freedom Force (the Brother of Mutants led by Mystique working for the US Govt) "rescued" the infants and when asked by the X-Men and the New Mutants what happened to them they sinisterly replied, "they are being looked after". And this was never followed up on and it has ALWAYS bugged me. What happened to those babies? And in the intervening 23 years, I've always assumed that is was resolved in some mini-series I never bothered to read or during the 8 years I stopped collecting in the mid 90s. Or in any case, they got depowered during M-Day or whatever. But it has always bugged me. So the LAST page of this issue just made me fucking SQUEEEEE like a ten year old and as far as I'm concerned, Zeb Wells the writer has earned a lot of leeway in his future writing endeavors. Because those babies have been trapped in a Govt installation in Limbo and are now all grown up (thanks to the time differential between Limbo and the "regular" marvel Universe) and are a fucking bad ass super villain team. I LOVE IT. FuCKING AWESOME.

M.U. vs the Punisher 2 This issue was okay, I'm still fucking excited about the New Mutants issue.
Shadowland:Powerman 1 A new PowerMan is introduced. As far as tie-ins go, this issue was pretty good and my interest is piqued.
Thunderbolts 147 Read the Avengers Academy review above. This issue resolves the storyline to that one before its done. Plus the art is kinda sucky and this new team just doesn't have a good dynamic yet.
Web of Spider-Man 11 MaryJane and Black Cat team up to save Spidey in the penultimate issue of this series.
Wolverine: Weapon X 16 Final issue. And what could have been a decent eulogy to Nightcrawler focusing on his friendship with Logan over all these years, ends up focusing on Kurt's "faith" (which is a relatively new concept in the comics and feels forcibly retconned into earlier stories.) and the art was subpar for such a story. in all a weak final effort from Jason Aaron.
Uncanny X-Men 527 Hope continues her recruiting of the Five Lights. This time a super speedster from South America.

[Diabolical]

And as the final insult, they are cancelling his series after the crossover has ended.

I heard. Bastards. But much like the Punisher books, I'm sure it'll be back soon enough.

Wow. You bought a shitty book because it was a shitty tie-in to a shitty ongoing series.

Yeah, my stupidity isn't lost on me.

Did you see Remender is doing a five issue mini-series with the supposedly regular Punisher back?

No, hadn't heard that. Hopefully he brings it back to what he was doing when he first took over.

I picked up:
Highland Laddie #1 - Another spin off mini of The Boys, this time focusing on Wee Hughie as he takes a break from The Boys (or quit, I'm sure it'll be explained in the next issue of The Boys) and heads home to Ireland.

Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher #2 - No real surprise who "Patient Zero" is - we were indirectly told in issue #1.

Star Wars Legacy #50 - Nothing gets wrapped up in the final issue. That will have to wait until the mini series in December.

Usagi Yojimbo #1 - Dark Horse's #1 for $1 series. Missed the other $1 #1 issue that came out (and I forget what it is).

[Rollo Tomassi]

Yeah I heard Mark Millar is rebooting DD with a new #1 this fall, which is even shittier news than it getting cancelled in the first place.

[vynsane]

Yeah I heard Mark Millar is rebooting DD with a new #1 this fall, which is even shittier news than it getting cancelled in the first place.

in bizarro-world. millar kicks ass.

at least my subscription to DD ends with the last issue, so i don't have to worry about renewing or getting a shitty 'filler' copy of another title.

[Rollo Tomassi]

No in bizarro world, Millar still sucks ass, but in that world his mother didn't fellate him all through his adolescence like she did in the real world. Thats the difference.

[Diabolical]

I haven't read much by him (I think), but I really liked his Marvel Knights Spider-man run and Kick-Ass.

[vynsane]

all's i gots to say is wanted, nemesis, super-man: red son, ultimates 1 and 2 (ultimates 3 was awful, but that was jeph loeb's fault: what the fuck has happened to you jeph loeb?).