So, What comics did you buy this week?

[Rollo Tomassi]

This was my lightest week in a very long time.

Avengers 5 featuring the 'wall of information' which has pretty much every upcoming 'Event' from Marvel for the forseeable future on it. Too bad DC did it first in 52 with Rip Hunter's chalkboard.
Secret Avengers 5 The secret retconned origin of Nick Fury's evil LMD dupe aka the new Super Villain leader of a retconned secret society thats way more evil and sinister then HYDRA.
Avengers Academy 4 "Get back in your cell. Or I will give you cancer." heh. This book is awesome.
Fantastic Four 583 You should be reading Fantastic Four. You really should.
Flash 5 ugh. This was the free book this week. I had 11, and was getting the 12th free so I picked this up. Seriously, I mean it when I said I was dropping it. 'Bore'y Allen is just a fucking tool.
GIJoe Origins 19 ohmigod ohmigod. A SILENT ISSUE. Featuring the most kickass Joe Benitez art of Snake-Eyes ever. The cover is awesome. The alternate cover is awesome. All the interior artwork is awesome. Seriously, I want to buy a second copy and remove the staples and wallpaper a room with the interior art, because its all Snake-Eyes being fucking awesome. No word balloons. No captions. Just awesome Benitez art. in fact, if they wanted to do an ongoing Snake-Eyes series without any fucking word ballons or captions and just Joe Benitez's art, I would pay like $5.99 per issue.
Green Lantern Corps 52 Sadly, now the weakest of the three GL titles. My comic dollar only stretches so far and I fell like this money would be better spent elsewhere.
Justice League:Gen Lost 10 Another good issue. Get a tiny insight into why Max is acting like king douchemayor. And also the Metal Men show up.
Shadowland:Moon Knight 2 Whatever interesting steps forward this book took last issue, it took them back this issue. Marlene loses the baby, and it turns out the badguy is Moon Knight's long lost brother. *sigh*
Thor 615 Fraction's first issue. From the solicits I'm kinda pissed they are bringing back Odin. Trying to shove books back into familiar patterns instead of breaking them out into new ones is what makes them become stagnant, boring, and ultimately canceled. Taking Asgard back to..well Asgard, and bringing Odin back seems like a step backwards to me.
TF:Drift 2 The best way to ruin a cool mysterious new character is to give him a boring backstory.
Uncanny X-Men 528 Hope finds her third new recruit. oddly, the most interesting part of the book was the Namor stuff. And that should have been in Namor's own book, since he's got an ongoing now.

[vynsane]

Thor 615 Fraction's first issue. From the solicits I'm kinda pissed they are bringing back Odin. Trying to shove books back into familiar patterns instead of breaking them out into new ones is what makes them become stagnant, boring, and ultimately canceled. Taking Asgard back to..well Asgard, and bringing Odin back seems like a step backwards to me.

except they'll need the book to be in tune with the movie when it comes out, so there ya go. better than having spidey don the black costume again because he's feeling all angsty about aunt may being shot so it coincides with the black costume making spidey all emo in the movie.

[Rollo Tomassi]

That's true. And the book was a decent read and Fraction's doing good work on IronMan so its not like I'm pissing on the book before I give it a chance.

I guess its just my ongoing malaise against death and rebirth in the Marvelverse. I'm surprised Odin stayed dead for 10 whole years.

[Diabolical]

Haven't picked up my pulls from last week, I'll just wait until Wednesday.
I did however pick up a few comics while visiting Cappy in Colorado.

Nemesis #1-3 (second printings of #1 and 2) - Good shit. The hype is pretty well deserved. Another reason to love Marvel's Icon imprint.

A few of the #1 for $1 from the various companies:
Hellboy - I though I'd read it, but apparently not. I though the movie followed the book a lot closer. Still good shit.
Invincible - Great read. I'd love to continue it, but only after I finish Y and get a few more Walking Dead trades.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Overhyped. May be because I'm not a fan of the flick (even though this is based on the book). It sure looks pretty though.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Another light week for me.

Amazing Spidey 644. A decent issue, but I'm so fed up with Joe Q's weeklong justification/explanation for OMIT over at CBR and the letters page just reminded me of it and I have a general loathing of all things Spidey because of it.
Atlas 5. The final issue. I can see why. This is the fourth time they've tried to jumpstart this series in the past five years. And it tanks quicker each time. Clue in Marvel!
Avengers Prime 3. Thor, Cap, and IronMan in Hel. The Norse Hel.
Captain America 610. The conclusion of the Zemo arc. Its good, but I still maintain there's too much padding in this book. This couldve been told in two issues instead of four.
GIJoe Hearts and Minds 5. The weakest issue of the series. The Cobra half was good, but the Blowtorch short got too cerebral with the cro-magnon stuff.
GIJoe Cobra Special II. A decent first story about the (new?) Chameleon. But then we got more than half the $5 issue devoted to a prose story from the upcoming book. Not happy.
Green Arrow 4. Goddamit. This was the freebie this week.
Namor 2. Although were still tying into the stupid Vampire X-Men plot, I appreciate them attempting to focus on the Atlantean element of Namor's story. And Olivetti's underwater art looks fantastic. He's much better suited for this book than when he was on Punisher.
Secret Warriors 20. Hickman is fantastic. Only 7 issues left of this series.
Valkyrie Oneshot. An alright read which focuses on Brunhilde's return to life after the events of 'Ragnarok' in Disassembled seven years ago.
WonderWoman 603. Wow. This book is just swimming in mediocrity since JMS took over.
X-Men Legacy 240. Carey continues to delight with his mature, enthralling story arc starring Rogue and Magneto. This is the best X-book right now.

[Diabolical]

Gotham City Sirens #16

Franken-Castle #21 - It's over! It's finally over! The last few pages are actually pretty good, which acts as an epilogue where Frank announces his return to New York in an almost MAX like scene.

[Rollo Tomassi]

So its over as in 21 was the final issue and they put it to sleep like an unwanted dog at the pound over?

[Diabolical]

So its over as in 21 was the final issue and they put it to sleep like an unwanted dog at the pound over?

Yes and no. The Franken-Castle story is over. He only appears as that monstrosity for the first 3 or 4 pages. The rest is regular Frank struggling to regain his sanity with the help of his monster buddies,

Next month is the start of a new series "Punisher:In The Blood." Crappy title, but if they get him back on track like the last few pages of Franken-Castle #21, then I'm ok with it.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Another light week. Huh. I don't think I'm cutting back on titles so I feel like eventually I'm gonna have a $100 week or something...anyway


Avengers Academy 5. This issue focuses on the publicity whore Striker. Good fun series.
Batman:Hidden Treasures one shot. A $5 issue with a "lost" Bernie Wrightson story and a reprint of an old SwampThing/Batman story from 1973. Good, but not worth the fiver.
Brightest Day 11. Interesting Firestorm developments (and great art!) But the rest of the book was meh.
Chaos War 1. I enjoy it when writers Pak and VanLente bring their 'A'Game. And Amadeus Cho is one of the funnest characters Marvel has created in the past decade. I especially enjoyed the 'tweet' page (in lieu of a oh so 20th century letters page) at the back of the book.
GIJoe 23. The Joes are coming to realize Cobra has the M.A.S.S. Device and CC is having Stormshadow tying up loose ends. Awesome SS cover.
Marvel Index 6. More Avengers, Cap, and Thor issues from years past. Starting to get into issues that I actually have so that's even cooler.
Secret Six 26. Bane's team invades Skartaris(the world of The Warlord, remember him?) And the other team goes to stop him. Solid stuff DC's best title right now? Possibly.
Shadowland Spiderman oneshot. Spidey and Shang-Chi vs Mr. Negative. Nothing spectacular here.
SHIELD 4. Honestly, you'd have to read it to understand it. Suffice to say its Hickman and that's not a bad thing. I can say Leo DaVinci, Nostradamus, and Isaac Newton are SHIELD agents and hear you say 'fuck you, that's stupid on principle' but really, check it out before you condemn it. Compared to a lot of the drivel on the stands today, this is good stuff.
TF:Drift 3. Got a little better, but still too talky and not enough awesome. Overall, I think you can skip this entire series.
Wolverine 2. Jason Aaron continues his deconstruction of Logan's universe. This time Yukio is killed and little Akiko barely escapes. And Logan is fighting everyone he's ever killed in Hell.
Uncanny X-Force 1. Giving Remender a chance for now. And Opena is just a gorgeous artist, so that tipped the book into the buy pile. So far the only real standout character is Fantomex. The other four just seem to be ciphers/shadows of themselves. I really don't care about Betsy and Warren's 'relationship' and Wolvie and Deadpool have long since become parodies of themselves.

[vynsane]

i got four comics this week. that was two weeks' worth of books. granted, it should've been five, but i couldn't find 'savage dragon' because i still don't understand the shelving conventions used by midtown comics.

those books were...

Baltimore Plague Ships #3
Tom Strong And The Robots Of Doom #5
Amazing Spider-Man Vol 2 #644
Powers Vol 3 #6

the week before that i picked up two weeks' worth of books due to being on vacation

Fables #98
Walking Dead #77
Avengers Vol 4 #5
Nemesis #3
Secret Avengers #5
Amazing Spider-Man Vol 2 #643

i don't even know what i picked up before that. i've yet to read most of them. i don't know what's happening, i'm not consciously cutting back, but find myself caring less about any but the TOP books like 'invincible', 'walking dead' and anything from the extended 'hellboy' universe. i have a backlog of spidey books a mile long - i feel like thrice monthly is just too much.

i guess my interest in LEGO truly is overshadowing my interest in comics completely subconsciously.

[Diabolical]

I, Zombie #6
The Boys #47
Deadpool Max #1
100 Bullets #1 (for $1)

Deadpool was an impulse buy. It was ok. Deadpool was barely in it.
It felt like the writer was trying to emulate a Garth Ennis book. I liked the art, but it just wasn't right for the book - too much of an indie style.
Could have easily been a regular, non-Max title, since it felt like the language, gore and nudity were done for the sake of language, gore and nudity.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Yeah, I thought Kyle Baker was an odd choice for a DeadpoolMAX artist. I almost got that book instead of the Batman oneshot but I figured if I change my mind next week there'll still be copies whereas the Batbook only had three copies the guy ordered so if I didn't snag one I'd never see it again. Especially in todays market where ALL books have ridiculously low print runs.

[Diabolical]

Just Green Hornet #8 and Shadowland #4 this week.

[Rollo Tomassi]

My week was huge. 25 books.

Amazing Spidey 645 Origin of the Species continues as Spidey looksfor the missing kidnapped love child of Norman Osborn and hisson Harry's ex-fiance. A child who also happens to be a purebred Goblin.
New Avengers 5 More mystical hokum and nonsense.
Return of Bruce Wayne 5 Bruce investigates the murder of his own parents.
BW The Road Home: Batgirl,Red Robin, Batman & Robin,Outsiders oneshots Bruce Wayne is back! And superpowered!
(Untold Tales of) Blackest Night oneshot Left out bits of the original series. I liked the bit where the Rainbow Raiders all drank Kool-Aid.
Ender in Exile 5 The final issue. Next up is the Formic Wars, which sounds intriguing.
GIJoe Origins 20 A special issue written by Dave Lapham about recruiting Cobra foot soldiers. Lapham makes it good.
Green Lantern 58 A Blue Lantern is recruited.
GL Emerald Warriors 3 Guy and his teammates causing ruckus.
Iron Man 31 More corporate intrigue in one of the best Marvel books on the racks. Do yourself a favor and read this series.
Iron Man Titanium oneshot A couple cool stories (including one by Adam Warren!) and a couple mediocre ones in this anthology oneshot. But it had an AMAZING kickass cover of Titanium Man standing over IM so I got it.
Jonah Hex 60 Brian Stelfreeze does the art in this issue. This book is as good as the movie was bad.
Justice League Gen Lost 11 The JLI fight the Metal Men who've been reprogrammed by Max.
JSA 80 Page Giant oneshot A bunch of single stories. None were exceptional, especially for the $6 price tag.
Knight and Squire 1 Oi. Paul Cornell does the British version of Batman & Robin. Except the entire thing takes place in a pub.
Shadowland 4 Elektra and the rest of the heroes take the fight back to Daredevil. What a letdown.
Shadowland Blood on the streets 3 This on the other hand was great.
Superman 703 Can anyone tell me the difference between the bullying the perp at the beginning was doing, and the "intimidating" Superman was doing hanging the guy upside down at 15,000 ft? Two wrongs don't make a right, Super-Hypocrite.
Thanos Imperative 5 Didn't read it. Gonna read them all at once.
Thor 616 Wow. Fraction is doing good things with this book. And Hollingswort on colors and Pasqual Ferry on art is beautiful. Color me impressed!
Transformers 12 Bumblebee gets blown up.
Warlord of Mars 1 So I got this because it was only a buck (which is why I have 25 books this week instead of 24 which is divisible by four as in buy 3 get one free) But I gotta say, He's not Warlord of Mars in the first issue. Ever. He's just coal miner John (or whatever it is he was before he got sent to Mars) and they're setting up the Tars subplot on Mars at the same time. So, technically this should have been like an issue Zero or something because nothing happens. But I'll try anything for a buck. And I did.

[anarky]

Scott Pilgrim Vol 1 came in the mail a couple of days ago. I haven't had a chance to read it; every time I try, my daughter thinks it's a kiddie book because of the art style and wants to read it.

These are all so heavily discounted at Amazon that they're in the $3-$4 range. If this one's good, I'll use the rest of the series to round out the requirement for free shipping on future orders.