the vynsane asylum

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!

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.

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.

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).

Diabolical wrote: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.

Rollo Tomassi wrote: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.

Rollo Tomassi wrote: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.

Rollo Tomassi wrote: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).

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.

Rollo Tomassi wrote: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.

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.

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

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?).

vynsane wrote: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?).

All of Millar's plots can be distilled down to five year old fanboy wankers What If? questions. And Wanted's "revelation" on the last page was basically a big Fuck You to comic book readers. "I get pussy every night and all you fucks do is masturbate and read comics like this one. Losers." But I digress.

Here's what I got this week.

Avengers 4 its like Bendis took every issue of Official Index and Handbook to the Marvel U, threw them in a tree shredder and dumped the contents into this story arc. I mean, now Killraven showed up! Fun times continue.
Batman 702 Wow. I actually found the idea behind this issue intriguing, even though its completely whacked out of Morrison's gourd. Batman is trapped in a puzzle in a box, where the code to unlock it and escape it are specific sequences and occurences that have to happen throughout time. Time. Like time since the dawn of variety. It's like the ultimate detective problem. A head scratcher, but compared to alot of Morrison's whacked out shit, it kinda made sense.
Captain America 609 These Cap issues are stories that could be told in one or two issues and Bru stretches them out for four, which makes them less enjoyable.
Fantastic Four 582 years from now, people will reminisce about how awesome Hickman's FF run was. There will be debates as to whether Hickman's was as good as the Lee/Kirby era. And you could be reading it as it happens. And you're not. Which is a damn shame.
Flash 4 I needed another book to round out my free issue quota. Still think Barry is a boring twat.
Green Arrow 3 I needed to find out how Ollie survived getting shot in the forehead with an arrow before dropping this book. I assumed it would be something stupid like the forest bringing him back to life. I was wrong, it was even stupider. Galahad (yes the actual Galahad from King Arthur fame) saves him or some bullshit. DROPPED.
Justice League: Gen Lost 8 The team goes through all the trouble breaking into Checkmate to find Max and he's not even there. Rocket Red's Communism Rant to stall for time is hilarious.
Legacies 3 found the issue I was missing.
Namor The First Mutant 1 Sadly, a tie in to the Vampire bullshit going on over in he X-Men books. But I have a soft spot for Namor.
Punisher MAX: Happy Endings One Shot Frank was hardly in this issue which focused on some accountant douche who gets a taste for vigilantism. Weak. Skip it.
Secret Warriors 19 Damn. Gabe Jones gets his head chopped off. Another member of the Howling Commandos goes down fighting. This book is awesome by the way. And I think its run ends in just a few issues.
Shadowland:Blood on the Streets 1 These SL tie-ins are actually better than the main book AND the Daredevil stuff. This one has Shroud, Misty Knight, and Silver Sable dealing with Hand Ninjas and mobsters. Handled very well.
Shadowland:Moon Knight 1 Moon Knight is gonna be a baby daddy. He finally knocks up Marlene. Sadly, some guy who wants to be the new Avatar of Konshu comes and beats the shit out of her.
Superman/Batman 75 Giant sized issue with a Frank Quitely cover suckered its way onto my list.
Superman Secret Origins 6 What a letdown. Waiting NINE MONTHS for the final issue of this series was NOT worth it. Shame on you Geoff Johns.
Thor 613 Gillen's penultimate issue had some good moments including the final page. Although this book is just treading water until Fraction starts his run in a couple months, this issue wsn't bad.
Wonder Woman 602 I am underwhelmed by this series attempt to reboot Wonder Woman to be worthy of the Trinity.
X-Factor 208 Ha ha! So Rahne(she of the pious Catholic upbringing) stumbles in on her ex-boyfriend Rictor in the act of pulling down his pants for Shatterstar. Then outright lies and says the baby she's carrying (which is actually the child of some Asgardian Wolf Prince who was killed over in X-Force) is Rictor's. This dysfunctional X-Team Book RULES.
Astonishing X-Men 35 being a bi-monthly title, thie story lines in this book take forever to get resolved, and even though I enjoy Warren Ellis' witty banter amongst the team, I expect epic storylines similar to the high bar set by Whedon and Cassaday, and this finale just went limp.
X-Men Legacy 239 on the other hand has a very mature thoughtful storyline going and I especially enjoy the characterizations and interaction between Rogue and Magneto. those two have a history and while Carey doesn't beat you over the head with it, he does recognize it exists and utilizes it very effectively. color me surprised that this is the best X-Book right now.

Rollo Tomassi wrote:Punisher MAX: Happy Endings One Shot Frank was hardly in this issue which focused on some accountant douche who gets a taste for vigilantism. Weak. Skip it.

Agreed. It's pretty much par for the course with these Max one-shots. I end up regretting almost every one.

Other than that I picked up
Gotham City Sirens #15 - This is the 4th issue without Paul Dini writing and the series is really suffering under Tony Bedard's horrible scripts. This shit is Matt Fraction levels of bad.

Bedard also recently took over GreenLanternCorps after Tomasi moved over to the new EmeraldKnights book and GLC has also suffered from it. I think Bedard was also writing Teen Titans when I finally dropped it, but it was so long ago I can't remember. It was either him or McKeever.

Oh. I also picked up the free Wolverine Saga giveaway, which is a primer for the new Wolvie book in the fall, as well as the Gay Wolvie Jr. series and also the X-23 book.

It basically recapped the entire run of the recently ended Wolvie:Origins book and Oh. My. God. What an epic clusterfuck of stupidity has been unleashed on Logans continuity. Apparently the Hudsons are related to him on his mother's side and the last half of the series killed off Omega Red, WildChild and any other supporting character he ever had before a big anticlimactic fuckall with Romulus and GayWolvieJr. I'm almost inspired to track it down and read it firsthand because the cliffnotes here only hint at its abominableness. Seriously, if you happen to be in a comic shop anytime soon, pick it up (its free) and marvel at how the House of Ideas has [ABUSED] its golden calf in this horrifying 50 issue crapfest.

And then fondly remember how JJ and I were all gungho about the book when it first debuted. Tee hee. That didn't last long.