So, What comics did you buy this week?

[Rollo Tomassi]

Batman:Orphans 1 of 2 Set during a time when Nightwing was in Bludhaven and Tim was still Robin. A faux-Batman is recruiting young runaways to be his Robin and one gets killed. Interesting enough until it devolves into a Scarecrow story. Yawn. I did enjoy Carlo Barberi's art. It's cartoony in the Humberto Ramos style, but still good.
Batman 80 Page Giant 2010 oneshot A bunch of short stories. Haven't read it yet.
Brightest Day 15 *gasp* an entire issue devoted to a "dream" sequence that could have been told in a few pages, but we have to extend and milk this story for 25 issues.
Chaos War: God Squad oneshot A one off following Silver Surfer, Hellstrom, Venus, and Sersi surviving against the Chaos King. passable, but not great.
Daredevil 512 The limp dick ending to the Shadowland Saga. At least Black Tarantula survived.
Generation Hope 2 Not very inspiring second issue. I'm dropping this one.
Heroes For Hire 1 A corny catchphrase "Hello Hero, are you for Hire tonight?" (seriously? that's lame) and a doofy "twist" at the end (The PuppetMaster is the mind behind the newest H4H?!?) leaves me wilting. But I have faith in Dan'n'Andy so I'll stick around for a couple issues.
Iron Man/Thor 2 High Evolutionary is attempting to build a better god. I feel like they already tried this story in the 90s. but it was fast paced and fairly enjoyable.
Jonah Hex 62 Eduardo Risso draws this tale of Circus Folk.
Index of the Marvel U 8 More hijinks from Thor, Cap, and the Avengers.
Secret Six 28 It was VERY gratifying for Giganta to go all Pulp Fiction on DwarfStar. I was so pissed when DC killed off Ryan Choi, the New Atom, so seeing his girlfriend get revenge gives me a small measure of satisfaction. I feel like Gail Simone was getting a little meta and channeling Choi fans everywhere when she wrote that scene.
Shadowland 5 The finale. This was a festering booger of a series. Its sad to see so much hardwork for the past decade of making this character awesome again get snuffed in so short a time.
Superman/Batman 78 It was fun to read Joe Kelly basically channeling internet nerds everywhere in the perennial question of who would win between Bats and Supes.
Action Comics Annual 13 So we're supposed to believe a young Lex Luthor spent time with both Darkseid on Apokalips, and hung out with R'as Al Ghul? DC this is why your entire Universe is fucked.
What If...Iron Man oneshot A fairly basic premise where Tony Stark and Victor Von Doom switch bodies in college. Suprise, Doom(with Stark's brain) goes onto be a hero, and Stark(with Doom's brain) goes on to be megomaniacal jackass. Other than seeing a Green and Grey Doom inspired Iron Man armor and a Gold Doom armor with Red Cloak (Iron Man colors, get it?) this was a flat story.
Wolverine:The Best There Is 1 Ahhh...dammit. I was looking forward to a Charlie Huston penned Wolvie book. But I hate Juan Ryp's art, and about the time Wolverine started giving women haircuts at a dance club, I decided I wasn't onboard and I'm not getting issue two.

[Diabolical]

Batman & Robin #17 - Meh. Not crazy about the writer already. I may drop it real soon.

The Boys #49 - Still enjoying this one.

Deadpool Max #2 - Done. Tried it for 2 issues and don't really care for it. If they focused less on Deadpool's insanity and wacky hi-jinks and more on the darker, violent nature of the character this could be a decent title.

Gotham City Sirens #17 - About to drop this one also. Paul Dini was a far superior writer. I'm finding it harder and harder to give a shit about the characters.

Green Hornet #10 - The end of Kevin Smith's run. No interest in continuing with the new writer. Dropped.

I, Zombie #8 - A good, lighter read.

Shadowland #5 & Daredevil #512 - What a lackluster ending. Dropped for a while, as I have zero interest in Black Panther.


Looking at tomorrow's releases, I get a week off.
And I can use it after that mediocre week.

[Rollo Tomassi]

A small week with only 12 books.

New Avengers 7 One of those classic Bendis "all talking" issues rife with humorous confrontations, including Luke Cage and his wife fighting about getting paychecks as Avengers, Spider-Man confronting Norman Osborn's former right hand Victoria, and the funniest BWA HA HA moment of the month, when Logan confronts his former paramour, Squirrel Girl(who is the Cage's new nanny) in a hilariously awkward yet civil moment hinting at a former relationship. I know how that sounds, but reading it I couldn't stop laughing for like ten minutes. This is another one of those moments where I wish I had a scanner.

Batgirl 16 Batgirl clears her name in a murder rap and gets an honest to god rogue of her own. Some super speed guy.

Detective Comics Annual 12 Batman Inc. goes to France in the first of a two parter with Batman Annual next week.

GIJoe Origins 22 Dave Lapham continues his story of a Cobra Recruit.

GIJoe ARAH 161 The first half is classic Hama urban warfare between some Joes in a VAMP, against a Stinger and HISS Tank. The second half showcases the PIT coming out of mothballs and why Stormshadow is the awesomest ninja evah when he breaks OUT of confinement deep within the Pit, and then back in. Then sits down in the cafeteria and has a sandwich. Just to show he can. Stormshadow:1 Entire JOE Team:0

Justice League Gen Lost 15 Max Lord's plans to humiliate and kill Wonder Woman for breaking his neck hit a teeny snag. She no longer exists! (So JMS' run on WW is good for something...

Red Robin 18 Tim travels to Russia, gets into a fight with another hot naked chick taking a shower. And then has to fight former teammate RedStar, who has regressed to one-dimensional Russian State Hero.

Shadowland After the Fall oneshot Follow up focuses on Ben Urich, Det. Kurtz, and Foggy Nelson dealing with the aftermath. Slightly better than the actual series, but still unrewarding.

Thor 618 How do you get Odin to come back to life? Apparently all you have to do is smash his coffin?!?

Transformers 14 Decepticons attack!!

What If...Wolverine oneshot Another boring What If tale where Logan was present when Bucky "Winter Soldier" Barnes killed his wife, chops his head off, and takes his future douchebag son to live with the monks in Tibet. And then the kid grows up to be a douchebag anyway (the old "it's in his blood" reasoning) and Logan kills him at the end.

Widowmaker 1 The follow up miniseries to BOTH recently cancelled ongoing books, BlackWidow and Hawkeye & Mockingbird. There's a new evil Ronin in town as well as a new evil organization that is killing undercover spies. A beautiful Jae Lee cover. And a pretty good read too.

----------------------------------

Tron: Legacy Preview Movie Tickets Not a comic, but I won a raffle at the comic shop for two free tickets to a preview screening next Wednesday.

I also rifled through the 50 cent bin and got JLI 56, I am an Avenger 1, Invaders NOW 1, Deadpool 27 and 28, and OneMonth2Live 1-5

[anarky]

The Transformers: Ironhide paperback arrived yesterday, and I read it.

I'm really torn on TF. The main title sucks, but the spinoffs are all at least decent. Ironhide, though it felt a tad incomplete (likely due to someone planning on picking up the plot later), was quite good.

Rollo, you say the main title has gotten better. I wonder if I should check it out after all and give it another volume.

Another interesting, though unrelated, IDW observation: I've noticed a lot of people bitching on message boards that the RAH "Return of Cobra" plot was handled too quickly. But when you look back at the classic Hama stories that people remember as these sprawling epics, they're normally less than five issues. Borovian gulag? Cobra Civil War? Battle of Springfield? All done remarkably more quickly than I remembered them being. It's not until you get around the 90s (issues, not numbers, though they're pretty close) that the main plots tend to get longer, and that's when folks mostly think that Hama was running out of steam. Even at that point, the best stories (Battle of Benzheen, Destro: Search and Destroy) are over pretty quickly.

The later issues also fit more cleanly into the TPB format, even if they weren't collected that way. Until the Snake Eyes Trilogy (nicely contained in four chapters, including the "prequel" in 93), I don't remember any stories described as "Part X of Y."

[Rollo Tomassi]

I liked the Ironhide series better than regular TF at the time. The first 9 or 10 issues were slow going, but then it picked up.
FYI the Drift and Bumblebee minis were weak, so you can skip them.

I agree with you on ARAH. Fast story arcs are just the way I like it. Are you getting the issues as they come out? I recommend it. It is vintage Hama and you're going to feel 10 years old again. Even the dialogue is written like I remember it. Cobra Commander is perfect, using big obscure words while throwing tanties.

[anarky]

I have not. I wish I was, but there's no comic shop within 30 minutes. And the one that's 30 minutes away orders very light on Joe, and won't hold stuff unless you're a subscriber. I've got the first paperback coming as soon as it's released.

Agreed on Bumblebee. It sucked some serious ass. Haven't read Drift yet.

[Rollo Tomassi]

here's what I got yesterday.

Amazing Spidey 650 Dan Slott continues to have fun with "Big Time" and gives Spidey a cool new "stealth" costume (can't wait for the Action Figure!). Peter gets naked in front of his new co-workers, Balck Cat and Mary Jane guest star, and the Spider Slayer returns! hoppin' good fun.

Avengers Academy 7 Pym reverts to his Giant-Man persona yet again as the Academy tussles with the Absorbing Man.

Batman 705 Some cool new characters assist Dick in a beautifully drawn issue. oh, and now Riddler has a Daughter/Sidekick called Enigma. Seriously DC, this shit is getting outta control...

Batman & Robin 18 They try to pseudo-science explain why the villainess is capable of running around with a four inch hole in her forehead. Just bizarre.

Batman: Orphans 2 of 2 Muddled second issue with lots of phooey. The villain is some psychiatrist who was treating Hugo Strange and transferred his "I'm Batman!" psychosis. Cliched.

Birds of Prey 7 Batman guests as "The Death of Oracle" begins. Not as ominous as it sounds. They are retiring the moniker in some elaborate way to protect Babs from the Calculator and others who know her secret.

Black Panther 513 The first issue of the renamed DD book. Not sure how to feel about it. it doesn't feel like a DD book, or a Black Panther book. More like an amateur Batman clone. The writing was decent enough, and the new baddie is both realistic enough and yet still frightening to fit in the street level Marvel universe. It just sets my teeth on edge that both DD and BP had to be gutted as characters for this to happen. My sales-o-meter says this wont last past issue 525.

Brightest Day 16 Aquaman and Aquaboy(I'm calling him Aquaboy, because Garth was Aqualad) get into a fight. And Firestorm destroys the entire multiverse.

Chaos War 4 The penultimate issue. Just about everyone in the multiverse is dead and the heroes that are left have given up. Everyone except Hercules.

Chaos War: Ares oneshot Another forgettable oneshot.

GIJoe Cobra 11 Chuckles continues his descent into the ranks of Cobra.

Green Lantern 60 Hal fights a Parallax posessed Flash, and then Krona shows up and hooboy...

GL Emerald Warriors 5Guy's team finds out he's got a side alliance with Atrocitus and demands explanations.

John Byrne's Next Men 1 Byrne is a pretentious douche to insist the book's title have his name in it. No wonder he and his colossal ego can't get work at the Big 2 anymore. At any rate, I have a soft spot for the Next Men from way back and decided to check out his new series. 75% of it was recapping the entire first series, and then promptly flipped the entire series on its head. I'm intrigued enough to get issue 2.

Superman 706 Another fill-in issue. For the record, thats two fill-ins out of the six JMS has been on the book. Who, for the record, is also quitting the story before its finished. But the issue itself was good, focusing on Perry White dealing with issues of ethics and libel from an "upstart blog".

Thunderbolts 151 The long awaited origin of the Ghost.

What If...Amazing Spider-Man oneshot The best What If tale so far this year (which wasn't hard) asks what if Spidey had killed Kraven during Grim Hunt. Since Grim Hunt was an awesome storyline, this was equally compelling as Peter goes down a dark road.

Wolverine 4 In Hell, Logan finally meets up with the very first person he ever killed. His father. meanwhile, his demon posessed body is cutting up the X-Men, until Ghost Rider shows up.

X-Factor 212 Thor and X-Factor invade Hel to rescue Pip the Troll from Hela and her undead legions. With lots of snappy patter as only Peter David can write.

Uncanny X-Force 3 We get backstories on Apoc's new Horsemen as they continue to womp on the X-Force. I'm almost rooting for these guys.

[Rollo Tomassi]

A big 20 book week. I had 18 and got two extra to qualify for the "free" book.

Secret Avengers 8 Steve Rogers gets outplayed by John Steele and his girlfriend gets captured as a result. And thankfully they gave Shang-Chi's dad a name that isnt a legal snafu. Although the new name isnt a style of mustache either, so its win/lose. FU MANCHU! Hey, everybody, FU MANCHU! FU MANCHU!

Batman Annual 28 A continuation of Detective Annual, Batman recruits his French Batman Inc operative,the Nightrunner. Making him an Algerian immigrant is kinda cool.

Batman Inc 2 And over in B,Inc Batman recruits his Japanese operative. Soon, all DC books will just be characters who work for Batman in other countries.

Black Widow 8 One of the two extras I picked up. It was the final issue.

Chaos War: Dead Avengers 2 Te dead Avengers continue to fight against the Grim Reaper. Dr. Druid is still an asshole. How did that guy ever make it on the team? Oh, and on a tangent, how has Tony Stark never done time for killing Yellowjacket? Just kinda swept that under the rug, Marvel?

Fantastic Four 586 Sets up the big death issue next month. And I can honestly say I'm excited for it. Not the death part, but the fact that Hickman is crafting such a finely tuned Epic story here. All four members of the team are in precarious situations at the end of this issue, so who dies is very much up in the air. Susan is captive of the elder Atlanteans. Reed is racing to save the inhabitants of Nu-World before Galactus consumes it. And Johnny and a depowered Ben are facing incoming hordes from the Negative Zone. Marvel puts out a lot of crap and mediocrity, but this book is not any of those. I can't recommend this book enough to all you doubters.

Flash 7 The other extra I picked up. The first six issues were dull, dull, dull and I had dropped it repeatedly. But this issue was the first interesting one I've read in awhile. Mostly because if focused on the Rogues, specifically Captain Boomerang. Flash Cracker Barry Allen wasn't even in the book.

Green Lantern Corps 55 The Weaponer schools the GLs, everybody finds out Ganthet is working with Atrocitus (much like they discovered Guy was working with him last week in GL:EW) and then the entire Sinestro Corps shows up on the last double splash page(s). I gotta admit, when Tony Bedard took over I was meh about this title, but its gotten better with each issue.

Green Lantern Larfleeze XMas oneshot Larfleeze thinks Santa is real. And writes him a Christmas List. Then killjoy Hal Jordan shows up and explains Santa is ficticious. Asshat. And in a metatextual kinda way, hypocritical.

Iron Man 33 The end of the bloody good Resilient story. Leads into the Iron Man 500 next month.

Justice League Gen Lost 16 The JLI vs the Creature Commandos. And Batman is finally getting a clue about Maxwell Lord. Lets just say he's got about three puzzle pieces out of a hundred, but its a start.

Legacies 8 Focuses on the Reign of the Supermen, Az-Bats, and Hal becoming Parallax. Nothing special.

Namor 5 Flashes back to Golden Age Namor and his connection to a new Junior X-Man named Loa. Y'know for there being "No More Mutants" new ones sure do conveniently pop up a lot.

Punisher In The Blood 2 Ugh. What the Fuck, Remender. I give you a chance and...seriously. Aside from getting almost half an issue of the two Jigsaws blabbing about what the fuck ever. Maria Castle is your new bad guy?!? FUCK. YOU. FUCK. YOU.

Teen Titans:Cold Case oneshot Flash's Rogues. Deathstroke. What's not to love?

Thor: Wolves of the North oneshot A tale of the 10th century Thor ( or one of those really old centuries, you go back far enough they're all the same anyway, right?) Anyway, Thor helps a viking village fight Hela and her death hordes. And then he shags the Viking Pricess at the end. Well played, God of Thunder.

What If...Dark Reign oneshot Another good What If tale where Clint Barton actually succeeds in assassinating Norman Osborn, and the fallout of that.

Wonder Woman 605 Phil Hester takes over from the lazy arse JMS (four issues? that's it?) and whaddya know, its the most interesting issue in the series yet. I was gonna drop this, but now I'm sticking around for at least another issue.

X-Men Legacy 243 After I read this, I actually sided with Hellion. So seeing Cyclops and Rogue act all holier than thou, armchair quarterbacking the events after the fact perturbed me. Omega Sentinel went on the fritz and tried to kill a half dozen X-Men, including Magneto, Colossus, and Hope. And Hellion didn't use kid gloves in taking her down (rightly so, she's an Omega Sentinel people.) but then he gets dressed down for not coming up with a different solution. Him getting in Scott's hypocritical ace was gratifying.

Uncanny X-Men 531 The X-Men continue to get the sniffles, the X-Men not in quarantine meet the "new" genetically spliced humans posing as Angel, Iceman, Beast, Cyke, and Marvel Girl. Oh, and Fantomex drops Sebastian Shaw out of a plane a mile up. Because Fantomex doesn't know that Shaw's power is to absorb kinetic energy. How much kinetic energy is created from a mile high impact do you suppose? Whoops!

I also dug through the 50 cent bin again and found some cheap, but recent issue including the first issue of Daken and the first two issues of Klaws of the Panther.

[Diabolical]

Last week and this week:

Batman & Robin #18 - Meh. I'll finish this arc, but if the next one isn't any better, I'm done.

Highland Laddie #5 - Good character building/development in this mini series spin-off that won't bog down The Boys.

Star Wars Legacy: War #1 - A mini to finish up after the sudden cancellation of the ongoing.

Punisher: In The Blood #2 - Rollo, did you not figure out who that was in the first issue? I thought it was painfully obvious (and monumentally retarded). The rest of the issue was ok. I liked seeing Frank getting back to business and cracking skulls for his intel. The Jugsaw(s) stuff wasn't bad, but it dragged on for too long.

Morning Glories #5 - Still waiting to get issue #1...This shit had better be worth it.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Another big week.

Atomic Robo: Deadly Art of Science 2 Robo moonlights as a private eye/vigilante. I missed issue 1 of this series, so now I have to try and track that down as well. I'd be perturbed if this comic wasn't so awesome. "Guns."

Avengers 8 Steve Rogers and the rest of the Avengers find out about the Illuminati! The chickens have come home to roost, y'all!

Batman:Dark Knight 1 David Finch's vanity project gets off to a decent start.

Detective Comics 872 Scott Snyder's run on 'Tec continues its creepy descent. And did you all know Commisioner Gordon's son, Barbara's brother was a killer/villain? I did NOT know that.

Captain America 613 Bucky's trial continues. Red Skull's daughter makes some crap up about Bucky that makes him looklike a badguy and the press eats it up.

Carnage 2 The Carnage symbiote finds a new human host. This one is female psychiatrist. This has been a good series so far.

Chaos War X-Men 1 Claremont and Louise Simonson take a random assortment of dead X-Men and throw them into Chaos War. Thunderbird, Banshee, Moira MacTaggart, the two dead Stepford Cukoos(Esme and Sophie), and a bunch of Multiple Men. I'm going to attribute any readability to Simonson.

Deadpool Team-Up 886 I liked last months issue I gave it another shot this month and enjoyed it again. I feel I jumped on this bandwagon too late because I think this one is getting cancelled soon. DP teams up with IronFist.

Flash 8 Reverse Flash AKA Professor Zoom gets spotlighted in this issue. Once again, vanilla chump Barry Allen wasn't in it.

GIJoe 25 Holy Crap! Not only does the entire Joe team mobilize for the first time in the new series, but the last page made me pee my pants! I don't even wanna spoil it!

Green Lantern 61 The Spectre and Atrocitus get into a fight over their sociological mandates, and Spectre's "Eye for an Eye" comes up short.

Heroic Age: X-Men oneshot Much like the "Heroes" and "Villains" handbook style oneshots before it, this book delves into Steve Rogers assessments of all things X-Men.

New Mutants 20 Zeb Wells begins his endgame story before he leaves the book. The X-Menare rushing into Limbo to rescue the NMs but Magik is playing an entirely different game and using everyone as pawns.

Secret Warriors 23 Only four issues to go before the end of the series. We find out what Druid Jr. has been up to. Here's a hint: push-ups.

SHIELD 5 I'm still confused by this book. Apparently Howard Stark and Nate Richards got transported 600,000 years into the future.

Spider-Girl 2 Well, DROPPED. What started out as a potentially fun book, just drove right off the cliff by KILLING OFF Spidergirl's dad in issue two. C'mon Marvel, this book was facing an uphill battle as it is, being a new series in a shitty economy. I guess I'll find the remaining few issues in the quarter bin at next years comic con, because I predict this one gets cancelled in six issues.

Teen Titans 90 Damian continuesto acclimate to his new team.

Ultimate Spider-Man 151 I bought this for the boy because he wanted something to read. I'm not caught up on the Ultiverse At All.

What If...? 200 Asks what if the bad guys won Seige? And answers it well. Also had a back up tale written by Stan Lee himself (which was great). An interview with Roy Thomas on how What If got started to begin with (which was fun and interesting and great). A reprint of the Frank Miller What If Elektra had lived issue (which was great). And two page cover montage of all 200 issues of What If and how they got there. Including the first series of 47 issues, the second series of 114 issues, and all the oneshots they've done since 2005. Excellent book. With all those extras its probably my fave of the week.

Widowmaker 2 The espionage tale starring Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Mockingbird continues.

X-23 4 Laura and Gambit team up after Laura kills the pimp of a girl who tried to lure her into being in his stable. And the Miss Sinister character shows up. God, what a douche idea. Mr. Sinister with tits in a slutty costume.

I also got some Teen Titans Go! issues for the girl.

[Dr. Mcdiddlepants]

I am literally squeezing my sausage waiting for your newest post on comics this week. Thanks for making me okay with the giant pile of books in the corner I have not read, I never have to now, I can just read your posts and pretend like I know what I am talking about with these 2 a-holes I know that love comics, Justin and Ian. You should come over sometime.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I am literally squeezing my sausage waiting for your newest post on comics this week. Thanks for making me okay with the giant pile of books in the corner I have not read, I never have to now, I can just read your posts and pretend like I know what I am talking about with these 2 a-holes I know that love comics, Justin and Ian. You should come over sometime.

Dr. Mcdiddlepants! How are you?! You never write, you never call. And Ian has forgotten more about comics than you will ever know. Be humbled that he has graciously take you under his wing. I need to e-mail him and get his thoughts on Axel Alonso as Marvel's new EiC.

But now for this weeks books. For some reason, books didn't come out until Friday, but Diamond forgot to tell everyone. At least in this area. The retailers were all "where are our books?" and Diamond was "oh, their delayed because of the holidays. did we not mention that?" Whatevs.

Adventure Comics 522.DC has this theme on all its covers this month. A white background with an iconic shot of the hero of the book (or heroes if its a team book) and instead of the title, they have the characters symbol. Its a cool look so I decided to try a few more DC books than I normally buy. This was one of them. Adventure is a Legion of Super Heroes title which I hardly follow, because I had no idea Mon-El was now a Green Lantern in the 31st century! Wow!

Avengers Prime 5. The series ends with a bang and Steve and Tony are 'hug it out, bitch' friends again.

Young Avengers 4. Scarlet Witch is preparing to marry Dr. Doom until the Young Avengers show up and explain who she is/was. Then the Avengers show up and they're a big monkey wrench in everything. So the Avengers, Magneto, Young Avengers, Dr. Doom and all of Latveria are throwing punches and Wolverine decides he's gonna kill Wanda for that "No More Mutants" thing. This book is outta control. But in a good way.

Azrael 16. Another DC Cover purchase. Michael Lane died last issue (I had no idea) and Ras Al Ghul brings him back. Then he turns down Bruce's offer to join Batman Inc. This book is getting cancelled in two issues anyway.

Brightest Day 17. DC Cover of Firestorm. Deadman (no longer dead) is shagging Dove (from Hawk &). Then he finds his 98 year old grandfather in a nursing home. Firestorm and Hawkman and Hawkwoman also pull some shenanigans.

Doom Patrol 18. Yet another DC cover purchase. Not sure whats going on with Doom Patrol, other they seem to be working for Wonder Woman's nemesis Veronica Cale. Decent read, but I'm out of my element storywise.

GIJoe Origins 23. Dave Lapham ends his run as the Mad Monk is immersed in the Cobra hierarchy. A satisfactory story once all the pieces were in place. I might have to reread it.

Green Lantern Corps 55. Dammit. Already had this one.

Iron Man/Thor 3. Diablo (who would've thought he'd be an interesting villain?) tricks Iron Man and Thor into fighting each other. Then tricks his "boss" the High Evolutionary into giving him the power of the Destroyer. in other words, he's a wily one.

Jonah Hex 63. A DC cover. Jonah tracks down a kiddie rapist and removes his eyes.

JSA All-Stars 14.Another DC purchase. Damn, there are some people who I don't even recognize on the team. But overall it was a decent story that moved along, and had some nice personal stories on the side. For not having a finger on this books pulse, I was able to enjoy it, which is the sign of a good comic.

Marvel Index 9. More antics fro the Avengers, Captain America, and Thor. For example, did you know the Avengers fought what was basically the Dinobots in Avengers 295? Thor even remarks, "there is more to these things than meets the eye." Now I have to dig that one up!

Superboy 3. Another DC cover purchase. The first issue left me tepid, so I didn't bother with 2. And 3 was much the same as 1. Other than Connor suggesting to Bart a Superboy/Kid Flash race for charity.

Thanos Imperative: Devastation oneshot. The follow up to Thanos Imperative. Cosmo (who would think a telepathic Soviet dog in a spacesuit would ever be the main character in a comic in 2011?) recruits the Cosmic heavy hitters Gladiator, Quasar, Ronan, Beta Ray Bill, and Silver Surfer into a Guardians of the Galaxy 2.0 called the Annihilators. Well written, funny in just the right spots, and beautiful art (especially the Silver Surfer), this book sets up the new Annihilators mini series.

Transformers 15. This series is really getting on a roll after a weak first year. We go backwards narratively to discover what happened to Megatron after his demise at the end of All Hail Megatron. Where his new body came from (thanks you Shockwave and Soundwave). Where all those Megatron guns humans are using (like the one that killed Bumblebee) came from. Good stuff.

X-Factor 213. Darwin leaves the group. Rictor confronts Rahne about her baby that ain't his and the fact she didn't "turn him gay". And Pip the Troll joins as X-Factor's new receptionist. And as always, PAD turns in some great dialogue. "Good lord did a distillery blow up in here? Just my breathing the air in here might count as falling off the wagon." says Theresa after the teams finds Rictor three sheets at HQ.

[Diabolical]

This week, which was Wednesday for me (no delay at all), was just one book:
I,Zombie #9

Last week had just four:
Nemesis #4
Incognito: Bad Influences #2
Gotham City Sirens #18
Batman: The Dark Knight #1

[Rollo Tomassi]

A big week with 20 books, 13 of which were the DC Cover Series.

Amazing Spidey 651. Spidey puts his new "Tron" looking stealth suit to use, fights the new Hobgoblin(who is really former good guy Green Goblin, Phil Urich as a crazy bad guy), saves Black Cat from Kingpin, demolishes Fisk Tower in the process(Wow!), and also a back up story featuring Mac Gargan back in the Scorpion Armor teaming up with new and improved Spider-Slayer Alistaire Smythe. Whew! Dan Slott is firing on all cylinders.

Batgirl 17. DC Cover. Stephanie teams up with Damian and goes undercover at a school to stop middle class kids from being kidnapped en masse. Then she takes him to a Bouncey Castle.

Batman&Robin 19. DC Cover. The conclusion to the Paul Cornell three parter.

Birds of Prey 8. DC Cover. Calculator's goons get the jump on the BoPs as the "Death of Oracle" story continues.

Black Panther 514. Well, I gave this "series" two issues. But when your hero fails to prevent several deaths, including one of your own employees, despite you being the BLACK PANTHER, it just doesn't ring true. Its like this writer is writing a new amateur hero wannabe, and not King T'Challa. Fail. Also, how do people not recognize Luke Cage when he walks into a restaurant? He's a mainstay of New York AND an Avenger. "Some big guy came in..." says the character. I don't buy it. An I'm not buying this anymore.

Booster Gold 40. A DC Cover. The first half of the book nicely recaps Boosters origins (I'm assuming for new readers buying the book for the nifty cover) and then gets kicked out of his favorite Coffee Shop in the last half. Then Rip Hunter tases him to take him back to the 25th century for stealing all his hero gadgets in the first place.

Chaos War: Dead Avengers 3. Final issue. Doesn't really finish the story, which will be wrapped up in Chaos War 5.

Daredevil Reborn 1. I almost forgive Andy Diggle for Shadowland because of this book. Following a scruffy, disoriented Matt through New Mexico, he gets involved in a town full of redneck buttholes up to nefariousness. I enjoyed it. This is what the regular DD book should have been doing.

GL: Emerald Warriors 6. Another DC Cover. Kilowog and Arisa tell Guy to shove it after he explains he's been cahooting with Atrocitus. So Guy on his own fights the new baddie (who is in fact Krona) and then new Ion Sodam Yat shows up possessed by Krona and proceeds to kick Guy's ass.

Heroes For Hire 2. Silver Sable and Ghost Rider are this months HFHs as they track down demon tainted guns. And Paladin begins to suspect not all is kosher with Misty Knight.

Justice League: Gen Lost 17. A DC Cover featuring Blue Beetle. Very Nice. Max Lord manipulates Checkmate into getting shut down and also manipulates Power Girl into attacking Captain Atom for "killing" Magog. Epic fun continues.

REBELS 24. DC Cover. Not one of my usual purchases, but apparently this is the book for loose end cosmic characters in the DCU. Comet, Starfire, Adam Strange, and Lobo are all the team.

Red Robin 19. DC Cover. Tim and Anarky are in a CGI subconsious realm fighting some baddies. Not sure, kind of silly and confusing, but seeing Lonnie back in his Anarky robes, even if it was only in his mind, was nice.

Secret Six 29. DC Cover. This is a continuation of an Action Comics issue I didn't buy. But its got Lex Luthor and Vandal Savage in a power struggle, a bomb on the verge of detonating, and the Six stuck in the middle as always.

Spawn 200. I haven't bought Spawn in 15 years, but if a guy can take his independent comic book series to issue 200, I'll knuckle down and buy a copy. Haven't read it yet, but flipped through it and pretty much the same stuff as 15 years ago. Al Simmons, Malebolgia, the Clown etc.

Teen Titans 90.Ugh. I did it again. Already had this one.

Superman 707.DC Cover. Wow. So stalwart reporter Clark Kent/Superman actually forbids his wife from publishing a story about power plant ground contamination because they've been paying the EPA off to not have to upgrade safety protocols. His reason? The plant might close and good people will lose their jobs. This story just reeked. REEKED. Also, Superman is on his walk through Iowa, and clearly JMS has never been here, so that also stuck in my craw. And FYI, Iowa does not share a border with Kansas, you flyover fuckstick.

Titans 31.A DC Cover. I only bought this because it has my man Deathstroke on the cover. I read it and am happy I was correct in not supporting this title after they killed off Ryan Choi. It's just a dismal sad book that delights in violence.

WidowMaker 3. I'm sorry to say they revealed Ronin's identity and what was turing into a clever behind the scenes mastermind, deteriorated into a cliched cackling monologuing villain.

WonderGirl 1-shot. A DC Cover. Again I bought this for the cover. The story inside was fairly pedestrian. Not bad, perse, but not really neccessary.

[Diabolical]

Just two books this week:

Daredevil Reborn #1 - Agree with Rollo's assessment.

Batman and Robin #19 - Mediocre end to a mediocre story. Hopefully this isn't the quality we can expect from now on or I'll be done soon.