the vynsane asylum

Thanks to Diabolical, I have now in my possession (and, of course, immediately read) Transformers Regeneration One #'s 84-85. Both Cover B's, keeping my collection fully vintage-styled natch.

Diabolical, you may choose to not watch the Blues Brothers all you want, and you're still all right in my book. I don't care what that asshole Antropov says.

Another dozen. Two more books creep towards their finales as three more debut.

Amazing Spidey 697. Spidey destroys the Goblin's secret weapons cache before the two Hobgoblins can get to it. Phil comes under Roderick's wing as apprentice Hobgoblin. Only three more issues to go!

Atomic Robo: Flying She-Devils of the Pacific 4. The Japanese are going to destroy 75% of North America with a super earthquake! Robo and the She Devils are gonna stop 'em!!!

New Avengers 33. Brother Voodoo is jumping into different Avengers' bodies, wreaking havoc. Dr. Strange issues him a magic challenge. Penultimate issue.

Batman 14. Joker blinds Alfred with ammonia. And gives Jim Gordon hemophilia. Then he reveals to Batman that he knows everybodies secret identities and they'll all be dead in 72 hours.

Fantastic Four 1. FIRST ISSUE. Fraction takes over writing. The mere fact that Hickman wrote the greatest FF run ever ensures this by default is a rebound run. Reed discovers his body is suffering molecular entropy. The Cosmic Rays are wearing off. So he decides the family should take a trip through space-time aboard Johnny's refurbished Negative Zone flagship. The only reason I'll get issue 2 is because this book is only $2.99.

Gambit 4. Cich blackmails Remy into stealing some telportation equipment.

GIJoe ARAH 184. Clutch and Rock'n'Roll are trapped in another fake Cobra town. Things heat up in Behnzeen as all the players converge on the Krytron Device sale.

Suicide Squad 14. Billed as a DotF tie in, but like last months Batgirl issue, twas a bait'n'switch. Frankly, I was more shocked to find out Deadshot is dead. If this was the real DCU and not the shitty ersatz fanfic version, I'd be upset.

Thor 1. FIRST ISSUE. Jason Aaron takes over. Thor fights a god serial killer in three different eras.

Venom 27. Minimum Carnage continues. The little Carnage antibodies escape the Microverse and invade the MU like tiny Symbiote Bed Bugs crawling over everybody. Creepy.

WaX-Men 20. Apparently I skipped issue 19. Angel recruits a shark girl mutant to the school.

All New X-Men 1. FIRST ISSUE. Brian Bendis takes over the X-Men books! Cyclops and his fugitive team are recruiting newly formed mutants from the post-AvX Phoenix Event. Beast goes back in time to recruit the O5 to come to the future. Hank McCoy has become such a hypocritical douche Uncle aTom in recent years. I know it's the fault of writers like Remender, but goddamn he's almost more of an asshole than Professor X now. What kind of smug condescending asshat thinks its okay to completely fuck up the time stream by bringing teenagers from the past into the future to confront themselves? What an utter moron.

Happy Thanksgiving, Chumps! Yet another dozen. One finale and 1.5 first issues. Enjoy my clever commentary. Also, comics are getting damn expensive and I find myself having to leave issues on the rack because I can't afford 20 books a week. That'd end up costing like $75. Ri-goddamn-diculous. So I left Iron Man and WaX-Men on the shelf.

Amazing Spidey 698. The twist ending this week made me yell "Holy SHIT!" in front of everybody. Its so fucking crazy, I love it. Only two more issues to go!!

Avengers 34. FINAL ISSUE. After 232 issues, Brian Bendis says goodbye to the Avengers. Janet Van Dyne is back. Hugs all around. Thanks, Brian.

Daredevil 20. A decapitated Daredevil is fighting new villain the Coyote. Yes, you read that correctly. No, I won't explain what that means.

Minimum Carnage Omega. The end of the Minimum Carnage crossover between Scarlet Spider and Venom. Spoiler! They defeat Carnage!!! Honestly, I was more confused by the fact Kletus Cassady has legs again. Is that a serious continuity fart or what?

Game of Thrones 11. Catelyn and Tyrion reach the Aerie and meet Cat's incredibly obnoxious bitch of a sister and her tit sucking little brat. Hopefully somebody tosses her out of a tall tower at some point in the future.

Snake Eyes/Stormshadow 19. Target SnakeEyes continues. Stormshadow realizes Snakes has been double crossing him the entire time. He's pissed.

Hawkeye 4. Hawkeye assassinated a terrorist. There's a tape that shoes him doing it. Clint has to go to an auction and bid on the tape before it embarrasses him, SHIELD, the Avengers, Captain America etc. Hilarity ensues.

Indestructible Hulk 1. FIRST ISSUE. Mark Waid is the new writer. Banner applies for a job with SHIELD and beats up the Mad Thinker.

Journey into Mystery 646. Sorta First Issue. Sif headlines the book now with a new creative team. After Gillen's excellent Kid Loki run and the heart wrenching conclusion last issue, this book read like static on a TV with no reception. I think I'm gonna drop it.

Transformers RID 11. Starscream and Prowl have been carefully moving pieces around for the last twelve issues. Then, on the final page, somebody comes and knocks the board over and smashes it. His name is Megatron. He just stumbled out of the wastelands.

Transformers MTMTE 11. Rewind finishes telling his Shadowplay story about Orion Pax and his Senator friend who has remained unnamed until the final page. Who it is/was is a doozy, so I won't ruin it here.

X-Factor 247. After Jamie and Layla elope to Vegas, the Lincoln impersonator who married them is killed by a Zombie Robert E. Lee who's killing Civil War reenactors. Like ya do. Natch, Madrox and Layla have to stop him.

Haven't posted in a month.
Here we go:

4 weeks ago:

A+X #1 - Two bullshit short stories. One and done.

Batgirl Annual #1 - Babs and Selina fight/help a chick Talon in a "Night of the Owls" leftover.

Batman: The Dark Knight #13 - Bats continues to be tortured by Scarecrow.

Batman Incorporated #4 - The Batman Inc team comes to Batman's rescue. Or something.

Fatale #9 - You know, I'm not sure I read it yet...

The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom 3 - I know I haven't read this one yet since I somehow missed #2.


3 Weeks ago:

Batman: Detective Comics #14 - Penguin "saves" Bruce Wayne's life and it leads Bats to Poison Ivy and the two are captured by Penguin.

Before Watchmen: Moloch #1 - Seemingly unnecessary origin.

Daredevil: End of Days #2 - Urich continues to investigate DD's final word.

Deadpool #1 - DP is recruited by SHIELD to hunt zombie presidents. Fun.

Iron Man #1 - Something about Extremis being sold to the highest bidder.


2 Weeks ago:

All New X-Men #1 - Cyclops recruits new mutants to his cause, pissing off Storm. A dying Beast goes back in time to do some recruiting of his own.

Batgirl #13 - Babs discovers her psycho brother is alive and comes face-to-face with Joker, and he proposes to her.

Batman #14 - Alfred ain't dead (duh), Gordon can't stop bleeding (thanks to Joker), and Joker tells Bats he knows his secret identity (and his whole Bat-crew) and that Bats will kill them all in the next 72 hours.

Batman and Robin #14 - Batman and Robin fight the zombie people, which is connected to Joker somehow. Damien nearly gets fired as Robin.

Batman: Arkham Unhinged #8 - Killer Croc's Arkham Asylum/City origin.

The Boys #72 - Final issue. Epilogue to the series picks up 6 months later. Fun, twisted, fucked up ride. Sad to see it go.

Marvel Universe vs The Avengers #2 - Doom shows up, claiming to have a cure and is willing to share it if the world bows to him. He single-handedly whoops the heroes asses, then takes out a shitload of the infected. The heroes bow to Doom.


Last Week:

Catwoman #14 - Joker screws with Selina's head regarding her relationship with Bats.

Daredevil #20 - DD faces off with Coyote or Spot (or whatever).

Deadpool #2 - DP hunts the zombie presidents with the help of Ben Franklin's ghost.

A Game of Thrones #11 - No clue. Haven't read an issue in months. Not sure why I'm still getting it. Completest mentality perhaps?

Hawkeye #4 - Read issues 2-4 since I don't need to read #1 (still waiting on a new printing to come in). Great shit. I love the fairly self-contained stories. Very Ocean's 11 meets James Bond vibe with a bit of Brubaker's Criminal (especially the art). Who is this Matt Fraction guy, 'cause it sure ain't the same one the that fucked up Frank Castle.

Iron Man #2 - Tony stops another black market version of Extremis. Possibly my last issue.

Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom #4 - Still waiting on issue #2.

Only 8 books this week. I left the second issues of Thor and Uncanny Avengers on the rack. One final issue and one first issue this week.

New Avengers 34. FINAL ISSUE. Bendis ends his run on Avengers after eight years. Doctor Strange fights the evil Brother Voodoo and regains the title of Sorceror Supreme. Cage sells the mansion back to Stark for $5. He and Jessica leave to raise their baby. Sadly, Victoria Hand remains dead. The back of the book has a cover collage of every Bendis issue of Avengers, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Dark Avengers, etc. Thanks for the run, Brian!

A+X 2. Rogue and Black Widow fight a sentinel. Kitty Pryde and Iron Man fight Brood. Meh. Dropped.

Captain America/Black Widow 639. Theyre still traipsing around some alternate dimension. Cullen Bunn is an unexciting writer. Only one more issue to go.

Cobra 19. More Oktober Guard shtuff. Ronin gets stabbed.

FF 1. FIRST ISSUE. Behold Mike Allred's glorious art! Reed invites Scott Lang to take over the Foundation while he and the F4 are jaunting through space time.

Gambit 6. Cich forces Remy to steal Excalibur from Dr. Hussain and MI13.

Venom 27.1 A Point One issue. Recaps Flash's adventures for the first 27 issues. Then he has a talk with Pete and former schoolmate that he bullied. They tell him he was an asshole in high school. He decides to move to Philadelphia.

All New X-Men 2. Hank brings the O5 into their future. Everybody else tells him what an obnoxiously bad idea that is, including the O5. Scott discovers he's now a badguy, Jean finds out shes dead and the school is named after her. The two Bobby's meet face to face. Good stuff.

Got Fairest Vol. 1 and Saucer Country Vol. 1 today in the mail.

I got G.I.Joe Vol. Doeventheyfuckingknowanymore: Deep Terror and Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland last week. The Fables GN was a bit disappointing, probably the weakest Fables tale I've read (and it's REALLY disappointing to reveal that Frankenstein's monster comes from our world, not one of the Fables homelands). Deep Terror, on the other hand, was much better than I expected it to be, though the Scarlett/Helix catfight was a bit much. I can even live with this Mainframe and this Scarlett being an item. I hope Mindbender's time-bending element doesn't get abandoned in the relaunch.

Truth is, I'm actually kinda hoping Snake Eyes eats a grenade in this world. He's not the same mysterious loner you can't help but like; Dixon's never really thrown us any info to make us give a shit about him. He almost reminds me of the way the Mystery Men describe the Sphinx before they meet him. "He's terribly mysterious." "That's his power? He's mysterious?" "Terribly mysterious." "And I heard he can, like, cut guns in half with his mind."

12 books this week. It started out as 9, then I added one. Then I was in a quandary of either adding two more or putting two back. I rounded up. I couldve stuck with the original 9, but hindsight is 20/20. Anyway, two first issues this week. One was great, the other atrocious.

Amazing Spidey 699. The penultimate issue! "Doctor Octopus" has the Sinister Six break him out of prison so he can find "Spider-Man".

Avengers 1. FIRST ISSUE. Hickman starts his what I can only assume will be epic run by having the core team(the movie squad) get their asses kicked by a new villain on Mars, and Cap recruits a whole new team.

Detective 15. Third time I've been roped in by what is advertised as part of the Death of the Family Event and has NOTHING to do with it. Poison Ivy and Clayface get married and go on a crime spree. One of Penguin's flunkies renames himself Emperor Penguin.

Daredevil:End of Days 3. Urich continues to try to figure out Matt's final word. He visits Elektra, Typhoid Mary, and Echo who are all soccer moms now.

Deadpool 2. One of the two I bought to round up. Wade and the ghost of Ben Franklin fight zombie Teddy Roosevelt.

GIJoe ARAH 185. The Benzheen team gets captured. Clutch gets brainwashed.

Hawkeye 5. Part two of "The Tape". I can't believe how much ass Fraction is kicking with this book.

Punisher War Zone 2. Black Widow decides she's gonna bring Frank in. But after she trails him for a month and he kills a bunch of slave traders, ivory smuggler and rapists, she decides Eh, maybe he's not worth bringing in. So Cap says Thor is up next.

Thunderbolts 1. The other FIRST ISSUE and the other extra I picked up to get to a dozen. Awful. Awful. Awful. Awful. Awful. Awful. Awful.


Awful.

Transformers ReGen One 86. I won't spoil. But another fine issue. Damn, Wildman still rocks.

X-Factor 248. The team reunites as the Hell on Earth war creeps closer.

All New X-Men 3. Cyclops and Magneto rescue an unpleased Emma. We find out Scott, Emma, and Erik's powers are all wonky post-Pheonix Force. Ad the O5 confront Scott's revolutionaries during another recruitment drive. Good stuff.

And in case it wasn't made clear...

Awful.

Awful. Awful. Awful.



Annnnnnd...Awful.

READ MY LIPS. NO. NEW. MARVELS.

Since a GIJoe and a Transformer issue didn't show up this week, it screwed up my initial purchase plan. So I ended up with ten books and was in the same quandary I had last week whether to round up or round down. I ended up putting the Amazing Spidey Point One issue back(because it was more of a Morbius issue 0 than a Spidey book) and ended up with 9 books. I also skipped that wretched Avengers Arena book like the plague. Fuck that shite.

Atomic Robo: Flying She-Devils 5. Then finale of the latest Robo adventure.

Batman 15. Bruce goes to great lengths to assure Dick, Tim, Barb, Jason, and Damian that there was NO WAY Joker could've snuck into the BatCave several years ago. I mean there's no way. Seriously people, it couldn't have happened. No way. No how.

Batman & Robin 15. The first Death of the Family tie in that actually ties in. Damian decides to find Alfred on his own and gets his little ass kidnapped by Joker. Again. Stupid little dumbass.

Cable and X-Force 1. FIRST ISSUE. Cable recruits Domino, Forge, Nemesis, and Colossus to be his new badass Mutant Revolutionary Force to get up in the Jackbooted Avengers' grills. Too bad it's $3.99 and I'm not getting issue 2.

Fantastic Four 2. Reed and team decompress their first adventure so that it hasn't even started by the end of issue 2.

Scarlet Spider 12. Kaine is roused out his drunken stupor to beat up some jewelry thieves. This book is fun.

Transformers RID 12. Megatron is back. Bumblebee is all "Kill that fucker!"

Transformers Spotlight: Orion Pax. Orion does a prisoner trade to get hostage Ratchet back from Bludgeon. Things go awry. Pax has to beat some ass.

Winter Soldier 13. Bucky tries to assassinate Daredevil, but DD is never really in any danger. Because lets face it, DD can kick ass circles around Bucky everyday and thrice on Sunday.

Also got a Marvel calendar and NOW! freebie primer comic which had previews for Avengers, New Avengers, Cable, Avengers Arena, Thundebolts, Superior Spidey, Young Avengers, Morbius, and Wolverine.

Got in the mail:

iZombie Vol. 4 (still need 2-3 to read 'em)
Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow Vol. 1

Amazon is having a 10% off a $100 purchase special right now. I think it's invite-only, but I got an e-mail about it. I'm trying to put every trade paperback pre-order I can think of in my cart (well, the ones I want, anyway). Lots of Joe and TF stuff, obviously, and some Vertigo. Hawkeye's in there as well, Rollo. It's about $250 right now, but it'll be 10% off that, plus their pre-order price guarantee will be in effect (and the expensive TF books will drop by about $5-9 each), and they don't charge until stuff ships, and quite a bit won't be until April or later... just trying to come up with other shit because I may as well get it cheaper if I'm getting it anyway.

Unfortunately, DC is not exactly on the ball with soliciting their Vertigo stuff lately. By my calculations, at least one more volume of American Vampire, Fables, and Fairest should be solicited already.

I lied & did buy Marvels.

Last issues mainly, or getting very close to last issues - even ASM is done after one more.

My plan moving forward for floppies is severe. I'm going to try & work with the lcs to transform many of my floppy runs into tpbs of other runs I'd like to have for reading - this like old GIJOE & TF, that just don't exist in "easy to read" format under this roof currently. Many moderns Marvels will be traded, as will many runs of books like Preacher that I just won't read again.

I read spoilers for ASM #700 and it sounds retarded.

Since my last post (all clumped together, since I have no idea what came out when):

A+X #2 - Rogue and Black Widow rub muffs or something, while Kitty Pryde and Tony Stark fight Brood things. Lame. Done.

All-New X-Men #2 & 3 - Beast bring the original 5 to the present, who confront current Cyclops, Magneto and Emma Frost (all 3 of whom have powers going wonky, thank to the Phoenix). Still fairly solid.

Avengers #1 - When the main team gets its ass handed to them and captured , Cap recruits a new team...you know, kinda like Giant-Sized X-Men #1. Garbage. Done.

Batgirl - Joker toys with Babs and her mom and Babs agrees to marry him.

Batman #15 - Bats doesn't believe Joker knows the bat-family's identities and has to convince the crew Joker has never been in the Batcave. And a Joker/Riddler back-up story. Death of the Family has been an interesting story so far, especially in this main title.

Batman and Robin #15 - Robin tracks Joker to a zoo and gets caught. Joker tells him how useless he is and how Batman's allies have made him weak.

Batman: The Dark Knight #14 - Batman and Scarecrow fight, Scarecrow escapes and attacks Gotham in a blimp full of fear gas.

Batman: Detective Comics #15 - Posion Ivy is saved by some douche calling himself "Emperor Penguin." Poison Ivy has also been controlling Clayface and Bats figures it out.

Batman Incorporated #5 - Fuck if I know. I meant to stop buying it.

Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan #3 - Doc figures out how he screwed up his real timeline and fixes it.

Before Watchmen: Comedian #4 - Eddie in 'Nam.

Before Watchmen: Ozymandias #4 - Adrian meets the Kennedys and the Crimebusters.

Before Watchmen: Minutemen #5 - The Minutemen's final mission and Nite Owl discovers the child killer Silhouette was looking for.

Before Watchmen: Rorschach #3 - Rorschach nearly falls into a trap and almost goes on a date.

Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre # 4 - Laurie discovers who she wants to be/ is meant to be in San Francisco.

Daredevil: End of Days #3 - Sure are a lot of red-headed kids around Matt's old flames.

Deadpool #3 - Doctor Strange gives Wade a hand with the president zombies.

Fatale #10 - Still need to get caught up...

Fury: My War Gone By #7 - Nick goes to 'Nam and meets a guy named Frank...

Hawkeye #5 - Clint tracks down the tape of him assassinating a guy. Shockingly good, fun series.

Iron Man #3 - Tony tracks another Extremis being used by a drug dealer to heal his daughter's cancer. Boring. Done.

Punisher War Zone #2 - Black Widow tracks Frank all over the world, but he gives her the slip. Cap decides to send Thor in next.

Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom #2 - Finally came in. Just gotta read 'em.

Thunderbolts #1 - Thunderfucks is more like it. Ross recruits his team, including Frank, who is tied up and surrounded by dead bodies, which begs the question: who killed everyone? Couldn't have been Frank 'cause he's tied up. There should be at least one more guy alive that tied him up. There was no indication that Ross did it.
Oh, and fuck you Steve Dillon. I'm tired of your artwork.

Transformers: Regeneration One # 86 - After one Transformer killed the other one last issue, the survivor skull-fucks the dead one for the entire issue. Weird.

Uncanny Avengers #2 - The team works on their public image while Rogue and Wanda try to escape from Red Skull (who stole Xavier's brain).

Diabolical wrote:Transformers: Regeneration One # 86 - After one Transformer killed the other one last issue, the survivor skull-fucks the dead one for the entire issue. Weird.

FUCK!! SPOILERS!!!

I just placed a huge fucking order with Amazon. They had a "10% off a purchase of $100 or more" offer going on, so I canceled every pre-order that hadn't shipped, pre-ordered everything again, pre-ordered everything I hadn't pre-ordered that was listed, and pre-ordered several books for the wifey.

Comic-wise, here's the lot, which mostly won't be shipping for months:

Dominique Laveau, Voodoo Child Vol. 1: Requiem
I've heard this isn't especially awesome, and the last couple issues may be orphaned, but the subject matter sounds intriguing, and Denys Cowan should make it worth checking out.

Fables Vol. 18: Cubs in Toyland (Fables (Graphic Novels))
Goddamn, DC/Vertigo is really inconsistent with their solicits. This was the only volume of either ongoing Fables series that was on Amazon. (Better than American Vampire, though, with not even a single unreleased volume solicited.) Meanwhile, Saucer Country Vol. 2 was up, though the first came out like a week ago.

Danger Girl/G.I. JOE
The art looks sweet. The story looked only decent from solicits, but it was cheap enough to check it out. Unfortunately, it's a hardcover, but Hearts & Minds proved IDW loves to solicit things as a paperback, change to hardback a few weeks before release, then never release a fucking paperback.

G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero Volume 6 (G. I. Joe (Graphic Novels))
Speaks for itself. I don't give a flying fuck that the entire team (both teams, in fact; all four if you include the Dreadnoks and Iron Grenadiers) have to be in their 60s.

G.I. JOE: Cobra - Son of the Snake (G. I. Joe (Graphic Novels))
G.I. JOE: Target Snake Eyes (G. I. Joe (Graphic Novels))
I have no clue what order these go in. You know what order they go in? The order they ship. That's the only sense I can make of IDW's Joe paperback numbering (or lack thereof).

G.I. JOE: Disavowed Volume 7 (G. I. Joe (Graphic Novels))
The Devil's Due series. It was hit and miss, but it seems more palatable to get with a definitive end already in sight. I should've figured out which earlier volumes I'm missing and tacked them on here to save a buck or two, but I didn't.

G.I. JOE / Transformers Volume 2 (G. I. Joe (Graphic Novels))
G.I. JOE / Transformers Volume 3 (G. I. Joe (Graphic Novels))
The Devil's Due crossover (at least the first two installments, and maybe all four). I only read the first. It was pretty cool. And there's that sorta annoying "completist" thing.

Hawkeye - Volume 1: My Life As A Weapon (Marvel Now)
I ordered a fucking Hawkeye book. This had better be as good as you said, Rollo, or I'm going to fly to your house and stick my dong in your mouth while you sleep every night for a week, then not tell you where that bad taste comes from. You know, what all the Marvel villains do to Hawkeye every night.

iZombie Vol. 2: uVampire
iZombie Vol. 3: Six Feet Under & Rising
Got Vol. 1 when Borders shut down, and Vol. 4 just arrived. Now I can read the whole series, which looks pretty cool.

Nowhere Men Volume 1: Fates Worse Than Death TP
Recommended by the same guy who turned me on to Saga, so fuck yeah I'm getting at least one volume.

Saga Volume 2 TP
Bloody fucking amazing book so far.

Saucer Country Vol. 2: The Reticulan Candidate
Just got Vol. 1, and haven't read it, but figured I could cancel this one if it sucks.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Micro-Series Volume 2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 4: Sins Of The Fathers
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 5: Krang War
I'm kinda digging the IDW take on the Turtles. What I'd really love are the classic series. The IDW reprints are such a huge clusterfuck, I imagine they're going to re-do them in a few years (like they did with Joe and TF), so I'll get them then, when they're done right.

Transformers Classics Volume 5
Transformers Classics UK Volume 4
Transformers: Regeneration One Volume 1
Transformers: Regeneration One Volume 2
The original world. With this volume of Classics, all four are by Furman. This means that, for the first time, all the volumes currently solicited are among the greatest comics of all time. Because fuck the haters, Furman + giant robots from Cybertron = fucking amazing.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye Volume 3
Transformers: Robots In Disguise Volume 2
Transformers: Robots In Disguise Volume 3
The only TF comic on par with, if not better than, Furman's work on the property.

The Walking Dead Volume 18 TP
Some zombie kills a dude and skullfucks him the entire issue. Weird.