What You Should Have Read #9

After weeks like this one, good comics are a necessity. Please please please let this be a good comic week.

Absolution #6
Action Comics #885
Amazing Spider-Man #617
Booster Gold #28
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #31
Dark X-Men #3
Die Hard: Year One #4
Invincible Iron Man #22
Jericho: Season 3 #2
Marvels Project #5
Nation X #2
R.E.B.E.L.S. #12
Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #2
S.W.O.R.D. #3
Secret Six #17

This looks like a mostly so-so week, but there are a few heavy hitters in there.

After last week’s Suicide Squad issue, I’d probably say that Secret Six is tied with Invincible Iron Man for most anticipated book of the week. Nothing else inspires me.

Stuff That I Loved

S.W.O.R.D. Well, this was an extremely pleasant surprise. I really was not expecting this comic to be my favorite of the week. After two issues of reading a slightly above-average comic with a nice quip here and there, the third issue steps up and delivers a wonderful issue. First off, the cover was awesome. Lockheed with guns, by John Cassaday. Nice. Second, Gyrich is effective, if not totally predictable. This allows both Beast and Brand to anticipate every thing he does, even if they can’t do much about it. Third, Beast is shining here. This issue is his and he just owns it. What a wonderfully enjoyable book this was.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8. After some fantastically average issues, it takes the creator to give is something exceptional. Whedon is back for an issue, and we get Buffy flying, having an incredibly awkward (from her side, at least) conversation with Xander, having an incredibly touching conversation with Riley, and beating up some goddesses. I guess when you’ve defeated one, defeating more is a cakewalk. And what exactly is a cakewalk? Let’s hope the good momentum from this issue carries on into the fallout of the little war that was just fought.

Amazing Spider-Man. I take back what I said two books up. THIS was my favorite book of the month. I’ve never particularly cared one way or the other for the Rhino. He was just muscle. Hell, but best story I read with him in it was a Spectacular Spider-Man issue where Harry Osborn (pre-BND, natch) hired him to torment Peter. I think the only other thing I read that attempted to flesh out his character some was the Deadly Foes of Spider-Man mini where he attempted to get the Rhino skin removed. This, though…I felt like I knew him, and like Peter, I wanted him to have some sort of happiness. So far the Gauntlet is doing a great job of breathing some new life into Spidey’s classic villains. Let’s hope the payoff is as good as the buildup.

Stuff That I Liked

Secret Six. Wow, maybe I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to enjoy this issue, but it was a bit of a letdown. And really, it was everything I expected after last week’s Suicide Squad issue: nothing but fighting. The quips were great, as usual, but I just didn’t feel any urgency in any of the confrontations.

R.E.B.E.L.S. An excellent issue that considered the Blackest Night detour as just that, a slight detour. But now the title is back on track, and Dox has the gang retrieving the components for his weapon that’ll bring down Starro. This is NOT a team book. This is a book all about Dox, and all the “team members” are just chess pieces in his game.

Marvels Project. I think I expected more spectacle with the “first” appearance of Captain America, but I guess this story is more about the Angel than him. As with other comics this week, it was really a solid issue, but I just didn’t get into it all that much. I think I just need some more of the plot lines to come together.

Invincible Iron Man. Wow. I couldn’t even fully get into THIS book, one I look forward to every month. I think it’s just that the book is missing the awesome, sure-of-himself Stark and we’re getting side characters and fever dreams. It wasn’t bad, just not awesome…except for the art. BEAUTIFUL.

Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard. Too much politics (ANY politics is too much for me) and not enough action in this crossover. It was nice to see Quasar again, but I thought he was already back on Earth at Project: Pegasus. The Fault just isn’t striking me as much of a threat, not like the Annihilation Wave or Vulcan. C’mon, let’s get to some carnage!

Booster Gold. The Blue Beetle backup brought this up from Meh to Like. The Booster stuff was good enough, but kind of impotent. What can happen? He’s not going to change anything. The Beetle stuff, though, that felt like the series again. I hadn’t been all that thrilled about the backups since they started, but this one nailed it. I would much rather have had the Blue Beetle book continue with Booster backups

Absolution. A decent ending to a decent little mini. With this being an Avatar book, I wasn’t expecting the bloodless ending. I had really expected the book ending with Alice killing John, but I like this ending better. If nothing else it leaves it open for Gage to tell more stories.

Stuff That Was Meh

Nation X. (The saving grace of this issue was the Martha/Quentin story. Other than that the book was a boring mess. The Northstar and Gambit stories were just awful, story AND art. Looks like I’m done with this mini.), Jericho Season 3: Civil War. (Works better as a TV show.), Die Hard: Year One (Similar to Jericho, this works better as a movie. The movies are totally ridiculous and fun; this mini wasn’t.), Dark X-Men (I’m just ready for Osborn to be gone), and Action Comics (If I’ve done my math correctly, if you take all of the regular issues of Action Comics, the Zero issue, the 1,000,000 issue, and all of the annuals…this is the 900th issue of the book. I think that’s pretty impressive. Moreso than the story inside.)

Stuff That I’ll Never Ever Ever Read Again

Nothing this week. Whew.

What You Should Have Read #3

Okay, let’s see what’s on tap for this week:

Absolution #4

Blackest Night: The Flash #1

Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #1

Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love #2

Dark Avengers Annual #1

Deadpool Team-Up #898

Fall of the Hulks Alpha

JSA All-Stars #1

Marvels Project #4

Nova #32

Siege: The Cabal #1

Supergod #2

Superman: World of New Krypton #10

Thor #604

Torch #4

Uncanny X-Men #518

X-Force Annual #1

Stuff I Loved: The X-Force Annual was half awesome, and half meh. Funny enough, it was the X-Force stuff that was meh. The Deadpool story, on the other hand, was crazy cool and fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the way he got around Cyclops no killing order.

Brian Michael Bendis is probably my comic book idol. I love the way he writes. I read (almost) everything he puts out. It’s not that he’s usually doing anything groundbreaking or anything, it’s his dialogue. It’s the same reason I liked Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 30 Rock and West Wing. The dialogue. I have loved Ultimate Spider-Man since issue #1. I remember where I bought it and where I read it for the first time. 140 and some odd issues later and I still love it. The only thing I DON’T like about this book is the art. It’s not bad, it’s just that Mark Bagley drew this book for more than 100 issues, so he left a mark. Then Stuart Immonen stepped in to finish off the first series, and he did a wonderful job. But then we’ve got somewhat of a different direction on this new series. It’s almost faux Manga. It’s like at any moment the eyes could get huge and exclamation marks could start popping out of characters’ heads. I’m just not a fan of Manga or any derivative of it. But lucky for me I read this book for the words and not the pictures.

Oh look, another BMB book. When Osborn’s Cabal showed up at the end of Secret Invasion, you knew that no matter how long Marvel drew this out, it wouldn’t last. Hell, the Illuminati didn’t last, and they were all heroes. It was understandable to see Emma and Namor go first, since they’ve played the good-guy game for a decent amount of time. Frankly, though, I’m surprised Doom even showed up in the first place. He is NOT a team player. But he’s always planning something, and it was nice to see that he didn’t send along JUST a Doombot to Norman’s little meeting. After Avengers: Disassembled, Civil War, The Initiative, Secret War, and Dark Reign, I’m really excited about this next chapter. But since it is Osborn, I hope Spider-Man has a very important role in his downfall.

“My name’s John Steele…I kill Nazis. Who the hell are you?” What a great line. I’m really enjoying the Marvels Project look at the beginning of Marvel/Timely’s Golden Age heroes. I’ve heard of most of the characters, but I’m only familiar with the big three: Captain America, Human Torch and Namor. And I guess Nick Fury, too. And nowhere on the cover does it mention a connection to Dynamite Entertainment.

Stuff I Liked: Uncanny X-Men was good. I’m glad there wasn’t any Greg Land art in it. Dude just doesn’t do it for me. I’m curious as to what’s up with the Void. That’s not a subplot I ever expected to see in an X book. And didn’t the last issue of this book come out last week? Schedule, people! Stick to a schedule!

Torch is fine. I wouldn’t consider it a must-read, but I’m enjoying it for more than just the Alex Ross covers. The thing that I don’t understand, though, is the Dynamite Entertainment connection. Do they own all of the non-DC Golden Age heroes now? They’re reviving tons of them over in Superpowers, and the Avengers/Invaders mini also carried a DE tag. Are they just letting Marvel use the characters? What gives? Can somebody please explain this to me?

Thor was a good read, but I’m still a little miffed at last week’s non-finale. I think Kieron Gillen is doing a very good job picking up where Straczynski left off, and Billy Tan’s art looks a lot more refined than when he was doing New Avengers. I’m hoping for a pretty big battle next issue, but battles with Doom usually end up in destroyed Doombots rather than a beaten Doom, so I guess we’ll see.

So Fall of the Hulks: Alpha introduced us to, what, the 3^rd secret group in the Marvel Universe? First the Illuminati, then the Cabal, and now these guys? I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, it just seems like a lot of secret groups. Anyways, this was a history lesson that showed us what this group of geniuses was doing during various points in time while the group tried to amass the lost library of Alexandria. I’m not sure yet what all that had to do with the Red Hulk at the end, but it was entertaining.

I enjoyed Blackest Night: Flash a lot more than Wonder Woman. Since we’re getting plenty of Flash in the main mini, this mini is also showcasing the Rogues. Since he took on Flash years ago, Geoff Johns has made the Rogues part of the Flash, not just villains he (Wally or Barry) fights every now and then.

I kind of liked that it looked like John was going to get away with it in Absolution, but I also liked it when his girlfriend realized what had been going on. It looks like Avatar can put out some quality straight-up superhero stuff rather than just the deconstructionist stuff that Warren Ellis loves to do.

Stuff That Was Just Meh: Superman: World of New Krypton (I’m enjoying the Earth-side tales from the epic rather than the Kryptonian ones), Nova (I hate when the beginning of a new storyline feels like I’ve been dumped in the middle of an ongoing storyline), JSA All-Stars (although it’s nice to see some actual combat training, I think it’s something that could have been addressed in the main book), Deadpool Team-Up (not funny at all, so what’s the point?), Cinderella (I love Fables, but this story isn’t holding my interest all that much), and Blackest Night: Wonder Woman.

Stuff That Was Weird: Supergod. Okay, despite what the narrator claims the Chinese “god” fashioned all the guards, officers and scientists into, that’s just a giant penis with some incredible disturbing sperm spewing from it. Ew.

Stuff That I’m Not Sure If I Liked or Not: Okay, I think the last page of Dark Avengers Annual needed to come out AFTER the conclusion of Captain America Reborn, so, y’know, SPOILER ALERT! And Noh-Varr gets a power upgrade? Wasn’t he pretty badass before? I definitely don’t like the new costume. This was probably one of the weakest BMB books I’ve read lately. I did like Chris Bachalo’s work, though.