the vynsane asylum

Batgirl #13 - Babs fights Knightfall (...that fucking name...) and Joker's goons show up at her mom's place to shoehorn in some "Death of the Family" sales.

Batman #13 - "Death of the Family." The Joker returns, kills a bunch of cops and attacks Alfred. Not sure why people are saying Joker kills Alfred - he doesn't even hit him in the final panel (but there is a big wind-up with a crowbar).

Batman and Robin #13 - Bats investigates zombies. The art switches all off a sudden and Damien goes from kid to teenager mid-scene. Distracting.

Batman: Arkham Unhinged #7 - The history between Selina, Harley and Ivy is explored pre-Arkham Asylum/City.

Before Watchmen: Rorschach #2 - Rorschach nearly bleeds to death in a diner, then goes looking for those that beat the shit out of him.

Marvel Universe vs The Avengers - Continuing/Expanding the Marvel Universe vs Punisher and Wolverine minis, this time featuring mainly Hawkeye. I like that this is all Jonathan Maberry's writing as he seems to have a well-laid plan for all these interconnecting stories.

Space: Punisher #4 - Frank cuts off his own arm, summons the Hulk to kill the Watchers, shoots Bruce Banner in the head (after Hulk rips open his own chest to reveal Bruce inside him) and watched the universe go to shit. Seems like a pretty average day for Space Punisher.

Uncanny Avengers #1 - Alex confronts Scott, Logan gives Chuck's eulogy, Rogue and Wanda are attacked and Cap has the Marvel/mutant version of White Guilt.

A dozen overpriced floppy, flimsy, easily burnable funny books. Hey, I'm just saying...

New Avengers 31. Bendis' final four issues begin. Luke and Jessica are moving out of the mansion. A mysterious bad guy possesses Victoria Hand and then Captain Marvel.

AvX Consequences 2. Scott tries to get Logan so pissed off he'll martyr Scott. It doesn't work, but still some decent dialogue.

Daredevil 19. Matt finds out the mastermind who's been fucking with him for the last few issues is the Coyote. Who is really d-list villain The Spot but all badass now. Yeah. That Spot.

GIJoe ARAH 183. Like every issue, too much stuff happens to cram into a few lines. Cobra opens up a new fake town called Rancho Corba. Darklon makes it home and then heads to Trucial Abyssmia. Billy earns his final resting place with the Arishikage.

Snake Eyes/Stormshadow 18. The Arishikage clan tries stealing Conta money they were using to buy their own country.

Hawkeye 3. Another rollicking A+ car chase adventure from Fraction and Aja. This title is climbing to the top of my fave list. Highly recommended for all you haters.

Marvel NOW! Point One. Several short stories setting up some of Marvel's new ongoings. Including Secret Avengers, Young Avengers, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, FF, and Cable and X-Force.

Punisher MAX 5. Frank has a talk with a kid whose father Frank killed. Sappy.

Thor 21. Everything Burns conclusion! Loki talks the Manchester Gods into giving up Surtur's power. Thor uses the shadow blade to defeat Surtur and Odin regains his power. An epic, well crafted conclusion to BOTH series.

Venom 26. Minimum Carnage continues. Carnage doublecrosses his rescuers. Venom hooks up with the Enigma Force. Kaine meets the mysterious Redeemer. All in the Microverse.

X-Factor 245. Breaking Points ends. Alex leaves to join the Uncanny Avengers. Jamie and Layla decide to elope.

Uncanny X-Men 20. FINAL ISSUE. Gillen wraps up his stories. Magik removes Peter's Juggernaut powers and he swears to kill his sister the next time they meet. Unit tricks Danger into releasing him from the X-brig. And Sinister kills Kate Kildare and poses as her to go meet Cyclops in prison.

Last week:

Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan #2 - Doc explores the realities of what happened if he'd never turned into a blue nudist.

Before Watchmen: Minutemen #4 - Silhouette's murder has major ramifications throughout the team.

Catwoman #13 - "Death of the Family" prologue. Someone (probably Joker) taunts Selina as she gets involved in a crime involving large chess pieces or something.

Daredevil #19 - The Spot - or Coyote (whatever) - returns.

Untold Tales of The Punisher Max #5 - A realistic timeline screws this story up (or Frank is immortal). But, hey, The Punisher is in it for more than one page, so there's that.

Transformers: Regeneration One #84 - I needed toilet paper and didn't feel like making a second stop. Optimus Prime and Megatron suck each other off on every page.

This week:

Batman: The Dark Knight #13 - Bats overcomes Scarecrow's new fear toxin and prepares to whoop his ass.

Batman Incorporated #4 - The bat-posse saves Bat's ass.

Hawkeye #2 & 3 - Gonna look for #1 before I read 'em.

Punisher: War Zone #1 - Spidey convinces Cap that Frank needs to be taken down for good. Wolverine warns Frank The Avengers are coming for him.

Wolverine Max #1 - Curiosity. I always though Marvel should do more Max titles and Wolverine seemed like a no-brainer. Amnesiac Logan wakes up in the aftermath of a plane crash at sea and kills a shark with his claws after getting his legs bitten off. Being the sole survivor, he is a media sensation, but quickly heals (legs regrown) and escapes the hospital. Flashbacks show him struggling to control his rage and meeting a fellow named Victor.

Wolverine Max #1 - Curiosity. I always though Marvel should do more Max titles and Wolverine seemed like a no-brainer. Amnesiac Logan wakes up in the aftermath of a plane crash at sea and kills a shark with his claws after getting his legs bitten off. Being the sole survivor, he is a media sensation, but quickly heals (legs regrown) and escapes the hospital. Flashbacks show him struggling to control his rage and meeting a fellow named Victor.

So, a shark bit through Wolverine's adamantium laced leg bones in order to sever them? And was this before or after Wolverine sank to the bottom of the ocean and drowned? Because that's been established as his kryptonite(the weight of the Adamantium makes it impossible for him to swim, and water in his lungs kills him because his regenerative powers don't do jackshit against drowning). But of course that kinda shit gets routinely forgotten by dipshit editors and writers because Mark Gruenwald died and nobody knows anything at Marvel anymore.

Oh, and the Hawkeye stories are all stand alone, so you don't have to read 1 to understand 2 and 3. In my opinion, the first issue was the weakest of the three. And once you read them, try and convince anarky to get them the next time he goes to get his Transformers comics. He will love Fraction's Hawkeye as much as he loathes Hawkeye himself.
I said over at CBR I think the new Hawkeye series will get the Eisner next year for Best New Series, if not Best Ongoing. I'm calling it right now.

Tell you what--if you recommend it that highly, I'll check out the trade. I've given up on finding TFRG1 at the stores around here. (But Diabolical has been kind enough to pick up toilet paper for me, so I won't have the full delay going on. I just wish the solicits didn't mention so much; I've got to avoid them as well, even though it means missing out on the bitching cover art. )

Diabolical wrote:Punisher: War Zone #1 - Spidey convinces Cap that Frank needs to be taken down for good. Wolverine warns Frank The Avengers are coming for him.

I was wondering how Wolverine would play into this, having no justification to condemn Frank for his actions, and having been on relatively good terms with him in the past. Wonder if Frank will get a "you're going to jail or being on a team with Elektra" ultimatum?

A baker's dozen this week due to a splurge on the cool cover of Wolvie MAX. Lots of Marvel series wrapping up this week.

Amazing Spidey 696. Hobgoblins fight each other over some silly Macguffin Key that Spidey stole from the Kingpin. Only 4 more issues to go.

Avengers 32. Bendis is winding down his decade long run on the Avengers titles by wrapping up all his loose plots. Today, we discover the Wasp is alive in the Microverse.

AvX Consequences 3. Cyclops beats up some inmates trying to shiv him. Stark doesn't get religion. Hope sets out to find Cable.

A-Babies vs X-Babies oneshot. Adorable, yes. But trifling, storywise.

Cap/Black Widow 638. Cap, and the two Black Widows continue to fight in the garbage-verse.

Captain America 19. FINAL ISSUE. It's touted as The Final Issue, but really it's just the latest in a long line of final issues. Although it IS Brubaker's final issue after like 100 books across three series. Cap has a final chat with the crazy 1950s Cap about what it means to be Captain America. Brubaker had a solid eight year run on this book, most of it excellent. Bummer to see him go.

FF 23. FINAL ISSUE. The companion finale to the main F4 book. Adult Franklin and Val say their goodbyes in a touching sendoff to Hickman's magnificent run on this book.

Gambit 4. Remy and his new squeeze(who finally gets a name after four issues escape from giant Incan Gods they unwittingly unleashed last issue.

Cobra 18. The Oktober Guard wipes out a bunch of Cobras. And Tomax completely schools Flint in a meeting. Hilariously making the Joe look like an incompetent chowderhead.

Iron Man 527. FINAL ISSUE. Fraction wraps up his lengthy six year run on Iron Man. Tony decides he's been through a lot over the last few years and goes into space to clear his head and get focus. Kind of a limp last issue.

Punisher War Zone 1. Just like Diabolical said. Let me add that whoever scared off Greg Rucka in favor of Daniel Way over at Marvel needs to be neutered and then fired. Dumbasses.

Journey Into Mystery 645. Technically not the FINAL ISSUE, because a new creative team starts next month with Lady Sif as the star. But for all intents, this is the incredible finale of Gillen's Kid Loki Epic. Absolutely heart wrenching and amazing at the same time. In heartily recommend you all find these issues, either in TPB or in floppies in the back issue bins(then you can experience the delightful recap pages which probably aren't in the collected editions) so your faith in Marvel still making good comics can be justified. Comics this good only come along once every few years. It's sad to see it end.

Wolverine MAX 1. Splurged on an extra book this week. Ugh. My mistake. The art looks like Paul Pope's art and Kyle Baker's art fucked and had a down syndrome art baby. Ghastly. And a shark bites off Logan's legs. Yup, apparently shark teeth can bite through Adamantium now. Fuck you, Jason Starr. And fuck whichever editor didn't do their job. It's tough to tell these days because every Marvel comic has an assistant editor, an associate editor, an editor, a group editor, an executive editor, an Editor in Chief, and a goddamn Executive Producer. Do your jobs, assholes!

Took a fairly last minute trip to Detroit Fanfare today.
Disappointing compared to last year - location, guests, layout, vendors.
I'm going to try for Motor City Comic Con in May. I've heard good things about that one.

But I did pick up some trades for $5 or less.

Alias Volume 4 - The Jessica Jones Max title. I've been curious about it for a while, so I nabbed this one for like $2.

Batman: Gothic - I thought I remembered someone (here?) saying it was a good one.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special #1 - Loeb & Sale on Batman was enough for me.

Daredevil: Battlin' Jack Murdock - DD related, and reminded me of Magneto: Testament in terms of being a realistic tale.

Fray - Joss Whedon.

The Punisher Movie Special - The '89 movie adaptation. At least this version has the fucking skull.

Spider-Man and the Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do - I've been missing one issue of the series forever, so I grabbed the trade for about the price of the last issue.

Spider-Man: Reign - Another one I missed an issue of, so I snagged the trade.

I confirmed with my lcs that I'm done with any series restarting at 1. I guess I've purchased my last issues of Avengers and FF, with DD and Amazing soon to fall. I'm not sure how I feel about it, kinda like heaving a heavy, sad sigh I guess. It's been a long run with some good highs, some bad lows and an overwhelming feeling of "ho hum" over the past 5-6 years. Part of me wonders if WoW ruined comics for me somehow.

Are you getting the final couple issues of Avengers in the upcoming month? Or are you just stopping today with only two issues left?(four if you were getting both New and Regular). And I don't think DD is restarting, at least they've not mentioned it yet. So are you just leaving off around the time Spidey ends regardless of which issue it's on?

More Than Meets the Eye Vol. 2

Holy. Shit. This book is fucking awesome.

Love the DJD. I was sort of thrown for a loop by their story, though. They wasted Black Shadow pretty fucking quickly. Black Shadow was a Phase Sixer, like Sixshot, and his intro here indicates he may have been even more badass than Sixshot. Overlord was, IIRC, considered to be a Phase Sixer but declined. Overlord fucking wasted Garrus-9, including Fortress Maximus.

And Grimlock, even being practically brain-dead, beat the shit out of them. This puts Grimmy in a power class far beyond what anyone suspected, and we already knew he was pretty high up there. This also means Grimlock could probably take down Fort Max in the IDW-verse (not a given, since Overlord wasn't alone), and that Last Stand of the Wreckers didn't even need to happen since all they needed to do was wake up Grimlock.

It also puts Shockwave into a new power class, since Shockwave is roughly Grimlock's equal, or maybe a little more powerful.

Really liking the layers of story we're getting here. I can see another few subplots already hinted at, and the absence of that sort of thing in favor of "write for the trade" is what turns me off from a lot of current superhero titles. The DJD will be around for a while, clearly, and what's up with the weird bio-ship the scavengers found, and why was Grimlock in there, and intact? What the fuck is Overlord doing in the basement of the Lost Light? And how is this going to play out with Fortress Maximus onboard and going fucking mental at the sight of blue Transformers? (I'm going to bet that Misfire's crew winds up on the Lost Light, and the DJD come gunning for them, Drift, Grimlock, and probably First Aid and Ambulon as well, and wind up taking out Overlord--he clearly wasn't acting on Megatron's behalf in LSOTW.) The subtle revelation of what "1984" means is pretty telling, and there's another clear indication that the crew will be dead in the near future if the future isn't changed somehow.

Only gripe: the (second to?) last issue in the collection refers to a conversation from the MTMTE annual. Both the IDW-verse TF annuals and the GIJARAH yearbook are MIA. The tfw2005 forum hints that the MTMTE annual will be in Volume 3 for some reason (maybe to fit the two chapters of the DJD/Grimlock story in one trade?), but what of the others?

Only eight books this week, including three final issues and one new one. Hey, didja hear Disney bought Lucasfilm? I wasn't sure if y'all had heard...

Avenging Spidey Annual 1. Calling it an Annual is just an excuse to charge $5 instead of $4. Spidey teams up with Thing. And by "Team Up" I mean make out. No. I'm not joking. Spidey and Ben Grimm kiss in this issue.

AvX Consequences 4. Hope meets up with Namor while looking for Cable. Storm finds Colossus and Magneto hiding out and has words with both, but decides not to turn them in. Wolverine has another conversation with Scott in prison and Scott decides its time for Magneto to break him out. I smell a New Brotherhood being formed. And it smells awesome. Fuck you, Avengers.

A+X 1. First issue of a new team up book. Each issue has two ten page stories featuring one A teaming up with one X. First story is WWII era Cap and Bucky joining a time traveling Cable to fight a time traveling descendant of Trask from building Steampunk Sentineld for Hitler. Second story has Dale Keown art (awesome!) Hulk and Wolverine fighting evil Maestro Hulk and Old Man Logan from the future. Again, Dale Keown art. Awesome.

New Mutants 50. FINAL ISSUE. The NMs have a barbecue and wrap up all their loose plot threads. Lots of guest stars.

Thor 22.. FINAL ISSUE. The aftermath of Everything Burns. Odin is pissed that Thor tricked him into saving the Nine Realms from Surtur last issue and puts him on trial (Pshyeah. Dick Move, Thor. Wanting to save everybody.) Thor wins the trial and everybody is happy. We find out Freyja is prego with Odin's baby.

Transformers MTMTE 10. Rewind's story of the events leading up to the War continue. These TF books are pure sensational wrapped in amazing and drizzled with awesome.

Winter Soldier 12. Brainwashed Bucky is trying to kill Daredevil as Wolverine and Hawkeye try to stop him. I see now that this story arc is Brubaker's Goodbye to Marvel. I heartily approve.

X-Men Legacy 275.. THE END OF AN ERA. Never again will ANY Marvel comic reach a number this high without cheating. Ever. In this FINAL ISSUE Rogue and Mimic stop a super powered prison riot.

A dozen more issues this week. One final issue and two more First Issues from Marvel NOW!

Avengers 33. Second to last issue of Bendis' run. The big guns are trapped in the Microverse rescuing Wasp, while the rest of the team waits in Central Park.

New Avengers 32. Bendis' other series is also close to wrapping up. Doctor Voodoo's dead brother is getting revenge for his brother's death. Victoria Hand and Daimon Hellstrom both die this issue.

Avengers Academy 39. FINAL ISSUE. I've been a big fan of this underachieving series and it went out on a classy high note as the kids "graduated" to Reserve Avenger status and most of the subplots were wrapped up. It sucks this book is getting replaced with MurderPorn.

AvX Clnsequences 5. Cyclops breaks out of prison with Magneto and Magik's help. And leaves a tasty "fuck you" letter to Logan and the Avengers. I'm so happy.

Avenging Spidey 14. Ugh. Spidey teams up with Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy. Why? Why did i get this? I knew better.

Daredevil: End of Days 2. Ben Urich continues to uncover the mystery of Matt's final word. He visits Matt's ex, Milla(who seems to not be blind in this book?) and then runs into Elektra at Matt's funeral.

Deadpool 1. Start of absurd new hijinks in this FIRST ISSUE. Wade fights zombie presidents!

GIJoe 19. Target: Snake Eyes continues. It's a three way battle on a Cargo ship filled with bullion as Cobra, Arishikage, and Joes all shoot at each other in the middle of the ocean.

Iron Man 1. Another FIRST ISSUE. Maya Hansen is killed and Extremis is let loose again by AIM selling it to the highest bidder.

Scarlet Spider 11. Kaine, Venom, and Carnage all continue to fight each other in the Microverse as Minimum Carnage continues. They don't, however, meet up with the Avengers who are also in the Microverse(see above).

Transformers ReGen One 85. I won't spoil it, but a couple major characters die.

X-Factor 246. Pip the Troll takes center stage in a solo story. But then he gets shot between the eyes at the end. Not a good week for supporting characters. Four of them died this week.

I will get the ends of the current runs. My comic shop guy said he wasn't going to automatically save any new #1s for anyone, that we would have to ask for each one we wanted - I basically told him I was out, to which he replied with a sad, knowing nod. Guessing I'm not the only one having made this choice.

DeckardSmith wrote:Transformers ReGen One 85. I won't spoil it, but a couple major characters die.

Thanks for not spoiling it.

I'd almost be willing to put my mortgage up on a bet about who two of those characters are.

Speaking of which, maybe I'm wrong, but didn't Ratchet fight Megatron more often than Prime did in the classic series? I know he actually beat him more (three times, all of which Megatron was presumed dead).

Read Saga Vol. 1. And did a search here and didn't see any references to it, other than when I was asking about it a few months ago.

This is a fucking awesome comic book. Great things are in store for this title, I can feel it. Go read it now or you're a Flornbi.