What You Should Have Read #66

Comic Books Released Sept. 12, 2012

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS, SO PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!

Avengers Assemble #7 - First off, I'm dropping this title as soon as Bendis and Bagley wrap up their run. Bendis has not been wowing me with his Avengers work since AvX started. Marvel NOW, rather than serving as a jumping-on point, is providing me with a number of options for shorting my hold list. This series has been better than Avengers or New Avengers, but not by much. I think Bendis is leaving the franchise at just the right time, if not a bit late. There was a lot of ambiguity in the issue, and things just happening. None of the normal human Avengers died in the vacuum of space. Thanos used a cosmic cube to "destroy" cosmic beings then apparently became "reality." I did enjoy the art, though. Bagley's work is reliably pleasing.

Avengers vs. X-Men #11 - I had hopes for this series. High hopes. With the lackluster beginning, I was hoping it would end strong. My hopes were bolstered with a somewhat more engaging middle, but now, nope. Although it reads like two characters COULD have died, only one actually did. And you know what? Big whoop. Seriously, Professor X has been redundant for quite some time, at least as long as the mutants moved to Utopia, probably longer. He has no allegiance to Wolverine's "side" or Cyclops' "side." He no longer teaches or leads mutants. He's not fighting for tolerance or mutant rights. Hell, except for that Legion story a while back, I can't even remember the last time he showed up in a book. Sure, he's Scott's father figure, but even that's something that's been put on the back burner since at least Schism. The only way this would carry any weight for me is if there would have been a build-up sprinkled throughout AvX at least and ideally through some of the X-books. As it stands, the dude just falls down. Hell, I had to read the "AvX Commentary Track" on Comic Book Resources to confirm that he actually WAS dead. Other than Wolverine telling Hulk to throw him, there is no reaction other than people just standing around. Hell, Magneto being taken down got more of a reaction than Charlie's death. And really, how many times has Xavier been killed? And is it actually possible to kill one of the greatest telepaths in the Marvel Universe? Dollars to donuts he's alive somewhere on the astral plane, just waiting for the next big X-Men crossover to happen so he can return. So no, I don't like. It's cheap, it's easy, and really, it's sloppy.

Batman #0 - As much as I'm loving Snyder and Capullo's Batman, I think the gem of this issue was the back-up. It starts out as the "origin" of the Bat Signal, but we're also treated to a brief glimpse into the pasts of Tim, Jason and Dick...and it all comes back to the Bat Signal. I did like the main story, but I was a bit taken aback by Bruce's non-reaction to the death of the bank employees. I thought he'd at least berate himself a bit when he got back "home." Nope. Just more dead people in Gotham. Other than that, though, good script by Snyder and good-looking art by Capullo. Can't wait to see where the Red Hood Gang pops up after (or during?) the upcoming Joker story.

Journey into Mystery #643 - So, what do you really think is going on here? Is Loki back to his evil ways, or is this another scheme within a scheme within a scheme? Regardless of the answer to the former, I'm sure latter is still true. Whatever the reasoning and whatever the outcome, I'm ready to end my close association with the Asgardians. It was a fun and surprising run, something I never thought I'd buy regularly, but my interest is starting to wane, despite the best efforts of Mr. Gillen.

New Avengers #30 - Although Iron Fist was nowhere to be seen in this comic (remember when the covers teased a scene from the comic? A plot point? I miss those days), this was a passable tie-in to AvX. And really, it had as much to do with the main AvX story as this week's Wolverine and the X-Men. The ending was pretty predictable, and truthfully it was a long time coming. I'm okay with Luke quitting the Avengers and focusing on his family. What does a man with indestructible skin do after something like this, though? Private security? Security guard? Is he actually qualified to do anything? If Avengers Academy were still open I'd think he would make a good teacher. It'll be interesting to see where Luke goes from here.

Shade #12 - This was an extremely verbose issue, but it did the one thing I've wanted since I started reading Starman, but I didn't think we'd get it with this limited series: The Shade's origin. This was a good story for those whose introduction to the Shade was this series. For those of us who consider Starman the best thing they've ever read, there were some great nods to the series. Charles Dickens. Culp. Piers Ludlow. Had Deathstroke not been included in the beginning of this series, I'd assume this was set in the pre-New 52 DC universe. As it stands, I don't see how it can be in DC's new continuity. The JSA never existed, so Jack Knight's legacy wasn't there. Don't care, though. It was a great series, and I hope we see some more in the future. We need to learn about Scathach. My only problem with the issue was the Shade's journal entries. Maybe it was just me, but the script was difficult to read. With the amount of writing on the page, though, I don't think any attempt at making it slightly more readable would have worked. It would have covered up too much of Gene Ha's beautiful artwork.

Uncanny X-Force #31 - This is by far my favorite incarnation of X-Force, and I've been around since the beginning. I really came down on Betty's side with this issue. Why not kill Daken? Just 'cause he's Wolverine's son? What is different about his situation? Like she said, they're ready to kill Evan because of what he MIGHT do, but Daken roams free despite all he's already done. Wolverine doesn't even like him, right? Doesn't think there's any chance of rehabilitation?

Wolverine and the X-Men #16 - This is a very loose tie-in issue to AvX, but that doesn't mean it's a bad issue. In fact, that might make it better. Killgore's takeover of the Hellfire Club is explained, and as much as I disliked the little tyke and his gang when they were first introduced, I enjoyed the story. A lot. I liked Emma and Scott's reaction to how evil the kids really are. I liked the prison break. I liked Killgore's origin. Yup, that means I liked the book.

What You Should Have Read #64

Comic Book Reviews 

for the Week of June 13, 2012

I thought this week’s issue of Amazing Spider-Man was a good ending to the “Ends of the Earth” storyline. We got some good scenes with Mysterio. The Rhino with nothing to live for was truly a man to be afraid of. Doc Ock, as always, was defeated by his own hubris. Two things stuck with me, though. First, the Rhino. When did the Rhino stop being stupid? He was always just muscle that screwed everything up. He wasn’t a joke because he was so powerful, but I always got the impression that he could barely string two thoughts together. He was always a lackey, and his Russian background was either forgotten or ignored. Then, after Brand New Day, he’s VERY Russian and seems to be of average intelligence. What happened? I hit up Wikipedia, and it mentioned a Tangled Web story where he regained his intelligence but ended up having it taken away because it ultimately bored him. So really, what happened? The other thing had to do with the ending. Who exactly was Spidey upset about? He said, “Someone died.” By my count, there are four characters who might have died during this storyline: two from the Ends of the Earth one-shot and two from this issue. I guess that’ll be explained in next week’s issue of Avenging Spider-Man.

There is very little I’m enjoying about the Avengers side of the “Avengers vs. X-Men” crossover. This week’s issue of Avengers did nothing to change that. My complaints against focusing on Noh-Varr remain: nothing has been done with him to get us to care about him. Now he’s not allowed back on Earth. Big whoop. Also, why was he accepted so easily by the Kree? He’s not from this universe. I really liked Grant Morrison’s Marvel Boy mini, but the character has just been absorbed into continuity and left to grow stale. I’ll not shed a tear if we never see Noh-Varr/Marvel Boy/Protector again.

On to Avengers Assemble, which I AM enjoying. Maybe I’ve just got a soft spot in my heart for Bendis/Bagley collaborations. Although I don’t necessarily like WHY this specific team of Avengers has their own book, I am enjoying the story. My biggest gripe with this issue specifically ties into this week’s Amazing Spider-Man. In it, Thor, whose mind was being controlled by Doc Ock, could no longer lift his hammer. But in this issue, Hulk, whose mind was being controlled by Thanos, COULD lift Thor’s hammer. Bit of a continuity gaffe there, considering I don’t think Hulk has lifted Mjolnir even in his right mind.

There’s not much I can say about this week’s Batman without spoiling something that probably shouldn’t be spoiled if you haven’t read the issue yet. Personally, I loved it, but I can understand how long-time Batman fans might be put off a bit. This is a BIG thing, and I think Snyder is doing a wonderful job at making this Batman his own. He’s also done a great job of pulling his version of Owlman over into DC’s new continuity. I can’t wait to see how this ends next month. I ended up getting the regular cover for this issue, but I thought long and hard about picking up the Rafael Albuquerque variant. With as much as I’m loving this book, though, I’ve decided that it’s good enough to warrant me buying a copy of each cover in the future, as long as the variant is being sold for cover price.

I’m enjoying Robinson’s Earth 2, but I’m LOVING The Shade. It’s not a superhero book, although there are powers and “good” vs. “evil.” It’s not necessarily an origin book, although we are learning things about the Shade’s past. What this IS is a great story. It’s a great character on a quest. This is also Robinson at his best. Like I said, I’m enjoying Earth 2, and I really think it’ll get even better as the book goes on, but that’s a book that HAS to have some high-adrenaline action to keep it moving. Not so with The Shade. It’s a bit of a wordy book, but that’s perfectly alright. The words draw you into the wonderful pictures that adorn each issue. This issue had wonderful artwork by Frazer Irving. The faces are full of expression, the backgrounds are wonderfully textured, and the pages are expertly set up. I did have to go back to see if we’ve seen Dudley before, because it seems like we should know him, but I guess not. It just seems as if this is the Caldecott that’s gone after the Shade. I can’t wait to see WHY ol’ Dickie was targeted by his…great great grandson? I also bought both versions of this book, the Tony Harris cover and the Frazer Irving cover. If I can buy a variant cover for regular cover price, I’ll usually go that route unless I just really like the regular cover better. But in some instances, I want to lend as much support as possible to a book, so I’ll buy the regular cover AND the variants. I want the Shade to get another limited series after this, so I’ll buy all the covers as long as my LCS makes them available for cover price.

The comic I was most looking forward to this week was Spider-Men, and it didn’t disappoint. I never thought there needed to be a crossover between the 616 Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Marvel Universe, but so far I like what little interaction we’ve had with the 616 Spidey in the Ultimate New York. Bendis is a great Spider-Man writer, and I bet I wouldn’t have enjoyed his run on the Avengers titles as much had Spidey not been included, and now he’s finally getting his chance to write a solo 616 Web-Slinger story. The biggest question for me to come out of this issue is how long Mysterio has known about the Ultimate Universe (and tangentially, when this takes place in relation to “Ends of the Earth”). The best thing about the issue was the short interaction between Peter and the mugging victim he rescued. Bendis was able to get his “poor taste” running gag in the issue, and that was a gag I’ve loved in the new Ultimate Spider-Man book. Is it wrong that I want the next issue to consist of nothing but 9-panel pages of Pete and Miles talking with each other?

Ennis is really cleaning house with this last storyline in The Boys. Two of the team’s supporters are now gone, either directly or indirectly dispatched by Butcher. Hughie and MM are starting to piece together that Butcher has finally cracked and that some superpowered shit is hitting an incredibly massive fan. This isn’t shaping up to be a happy ending for anybody.

There’s a LOT of stuff going on in Uncanny X-Force. You’ve got two separate people after Fantomex, and I think it might be safe to say that they aren’t working together. Nightcrawler and Wolverine have been brought down by clones of Omega Red, and Wade, well, Wade has some fun with homemade assassin program at White Sky. Then you’ve got some X-kids on a field trip in Genosha, and it looks like they’re being tailed by Sabertooth. Also, Kitty’s father was in Genosha when the Sentinels destroyed it? Why? And it looks like Amahl Farouk is still alive and kicking, and I’d like to see that explained. I was under the impression that that body of the Shadow King was dead and gone. Also, bonus points for the Arrested Development reference. That’s quite a bit to absorb, but it’s still less confusing that the Otherworld adventure from a few issues ago.

My back issue buys this week were Amazing Spider-Man #s 661 and 662.

It looks like next week is an all Marvel week for me:

Avengers vs. X-Men #6

Dark Avengers #176

Invincible Iron Man #519

Journey into Mystery #640

New Avengers #27

X-Factor #238

And now for something a little different. I subscribe to a daily emailer called Daily Steal. They usually have some damn fine deals, although I haven’t bought much at all from them. A couple of weeks ago, though, they had a listing for some comic books. The pitch was 50-65 comics plus a handful of trading cards with a total value of $500…for only $29.95! Plus, it was Free Shipping Friday! Now, they had some stock pictures of various ‘90s comics (the only one that I can recall was Superman #75), so I knew not to expect much, but I was curious as to what this site thought $500 worth of comic books looked like. And, worst comes to worst, I bought a bunch of comics for $.60/book.

Here are my unbox videos from this purchase. Don’t expect this to ever happen again, because I generally don’t like these types of videos, but I wanted this experience recorded for posterity. And spoiler, there was nowhere near $500 worth of comics in this badly packaged box. Every single issue included would be lucky to find itself in a quarter bin at any reputable comic shop.

Also, huge apologies for the bad synching between the audio and the video. I have no idea how that happened.

What You Should Have Read #59

Reviews for Comics Released May 9, 2012

Between my new issues and a handful of back issues, this was a big week for me. Let’s get right to the reviews.

Bendis and Bagley together is usually a no-brainer for me, but I’m getting very tired of Bendis and his Avengers, but that’s something I’ll get to with my New Avengers review. I’ve got no problems with Bagley’s art here. It’s solid and clean, and it’s what I expect from him. He’s not a superstar artist, but he’s dependable, and you always know what you’re going to get. I’m giving a bit of an internal eye roll, though, that this title even exists. I mean, I get the reason for it, but titles created solely in order to cash in on something rather than because the creators want to do a particular story, well, I find that those tend to come off as a bit flat and emotionless. This team of Avengers consists of the characters from the movie, including Maria Hill (no Cheese…excuse me, Agent Coulson…yet, but I’m sure he’s not far behind). Hell, even the last page smacks of MOVIE CROSS PROMOTION!!! That said, I’m enjoying this title more than either of the other Avengers titles at the moment. Just because I don’t like the reason for something doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the finished product.

  

I’ve never been able to get into Batman as a solo character. I loved what Morrison and Waid did with him during their JLA runs, but I’ve never been able to get into any of his solo series. I decided to give it a try with DC’s reboot since I liked both Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Although I enjoyed the first issue, I just couldn’t keep with it so I dropped it. After reading nothing but rave reviews, I decided to pick it up again this week, and I double-dipped by picking up the previous issue so I could get in on the ground floor of “Night of the Owls.” Dammit, looks like I’ve got to go back and pick up some back issues, because I’m officially hooked. I like that Bruce, while still a genius detective, is pretty damn tough. He’s a fighter, and not the kind who uses specially place nerve punches to quickly take out an opponent. He’s a brawler. I’m also enjoying the back-up stories with art by Snyder’s American Vampire cohort Rafael Albuquerque. Issue eight had an Alfred-focused story, and issue nine focused on Alfred’s dad. I’m loving this bit of history, and it makes me all the more eager to snatch up issues two through seven (my buddy bought the hardcover collection yesterday, and I’ll probably borrow that before I can pick up the single issues) of the series to see what else Snyder has done with Batman’s world and Gotham. It makes me think about James Robinson’s Starman, and that’s high praise indeed, since it’s my favorite series. If Snyder is going to continually give us a history lesson and make Gotham an actual “character” (and not just a dark collection of warehouses and alleyways) like Robinson did with Opal City, then sign me up. I do hope I can enjoy the current storyline without having to get the other tie-in issues. So far it looks like I’ll be able to. The flow between issues eight and nine was smooth, and a small blurb let me know that I can read about one of Bruce’s side missions over in Detective Comics, but it didn’t look like it had any bearing on the thread that’s running through Batman. So yay! I’m reading a Batman book, and that brings my New DC tally up to three!

I wasn’t able to hit up a comic book store last weekend to participate in Free Comic Book Day. Had it been the weekend that my kids’ mother had them, then I totally would have, but it wasn’t, so I couldn’t. My LCS had a few copies of Dark Horse’s contribution, though, and I grabbed one on my way out of the store. A Serenity story written by Zack Whedon? Yup, I’m in. And it was pretty awesome. It was short and sweet, and it really captured the voices of all the characters. I could totally see this as the opening of a new episode…and now I’m sad. The Star Wars story was good, too, but it felt extremely similar to the Serenity story.

I’m always surprised that enjoy Journey into Mystery so much. I’ve never been a fan of Thor or his supporting cast, and while I tended to enjoy J. Michael Stracyznski’s series, I was never really blown away by it. Kieron Gillen makes everyone so likeable, even “villains.” This issue gets a smidge confusing, but it’s explained away well enough. It’s part two of a crossover with the New Mutants (almost as bad of a name Cougar Town) that began with last week’s Exiled one-shot. There are a bunch of plotlines coming together, and it’s neat to see them all lead back to the same place. As excited I am to finally be involved in Batman’s world, I’m also excited to be learning about this new-to-me corner of the Marvel Universe.

I am disappointed in the current storyline in New Avengers. I assume there will be a decent payoff, but wow, Bendis is not doing his best work here. First of all, there is not a single appearance by an Avenger, new or otherwise, in this book. At least we got a panel or two of Iron Fist last issue. Between the Kree stuff going on in Secret Avengers and the K’un L’un stuff going on here, it looks as if the mythology of the Phoenix is being rewritten as to have a larger connection with the mystically cosmic part of the Marvel Universe. I guess that’s okay. It’s something you have to come to grips with in comics. Retcons happen. The Kree stuff makes sense. This, though…this just feels forced. And hey, let’s throw Leonardo da Vinci into the mix, too. Jonathan Hickman’s S.H.I.E.L.D. was confusing enough, but it mostly existed in a vacuum. Sure, Nathaniel Richards and Howard Stark showed up, as did the Brood and Galactus, but I was okay with that. The story, while trying to give S.H.I.E.L.D. a larger history in the Marvel Universe (unnecessary), was surprisingly insular. It didn’t (at least it hasn’t yet, and I don’t know what additional plans there are for the series) have any interactions with any regular Marvel characters and instead dealt more with inserting various classical thinkers and scientists into Marvel’s history. One of the main characters was da Vinci, and now Bendis has brought him over and shoehorned him into this crossover. After the wonderful Osborn stories, the past two issue of this series has really killed my enjoyment of the title. This storyline is back-up material at best.

Wolverine and his hit squad are having a hard time of late. This is a team that shouldn’t work. The characters don’t work well together. There are too many conflicting personalities, ideals, and motives. But writer Rick Remender does a wonderful job of smoothly making this dysfunctional team succeed where they have to. I love Deadpool here, more so than in his regular series. I like him playing off of other characters rather than just his internal monologues. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it, he and Fantomex need a spin-off road-trip mini-series. The team is down to a skeleton crew for this issue, but Wolvie isn’t worried since he’s assuming the mission will be a cakewalk. Of course it doesn’t turn out like that. After a bit of a confusing stumble with the Captain Britain stuff, I’m back on board with where it looks like this book is going: massive murder, moral conflicts, and the eventual wringing of hands and pulling of hair.

Wolverine and the X-Men is still my favorite post-Schism X-book. It’s weird to see Wolverine in the role of headmaster, but it works, and the kids are all amazing. There’s a bit of dissention in the ranks this issue, and it doesn’t seem forced at all. Jason Aaron does a good job of explaining why certain characters make certain decisions. So far I’m enjoying this little slice of the Avengers vs. X-Men crossover than anything else happening with it. I also like that Aaron isn’t abandoning current plot threads to focus on the crossover. We still get a good dose of Angel and Genesis and even a bit of Quentin and Idie.

I also picked up a couple of back issues for my collection, and I picked up a few issues for my oldest son. We sat on the floor of my comic book room (read: my walk-in closet) bagging and boarding our new issues. I got him Justice League Adventures #s 2 and 3 and I ended up getting:

Amazing Spider-Man #656 (Captain America 70^th Anniversary variant cover)

Amazing Spider-Man #665 (I Am Captain America variant cover)

Amazing Spider-Man #671 (my favorite cover in quite some time)

Justice League Adventures #1 (it actually came with my son’s grab pack, but I kept it because of the Alex Ross cover)

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #4

Here are the new comics I’m expecting to get next week:

Shade #8

Locke and Key: Clockworks #6

Amazing Spider-Man: Ends of Earth #1

Avengers #26

Avengers vs. X-Men #4

Fantastic Four #605.1

Invincible Iron Man #517

New Mutants #42

Thunderbolts #174

X-Factor #236

What You Should Have Read #56

Thoughts on Last Week’s Comics

Amazing Spider-Man #678 – Spidey sees the future and realizes he’s the only person who can prevent the destruction of New York. It’s a really good story, but the best parts are the Peter Parker moments in the beginning. Once he gets his Spidey duds on, things move incredibly quickly to an uncertain conclusion. Good issue, but I can’t really say if I’ll like the story as a whole until it’s finished.

Avengers #21 – This issue went by WAY too quickly. We get at least a glimpse of everybody, but they’re all getting their asses handed to them. It’s not very reassuring. No Osborn, either. I guess he was busy over in New Avengers.

Avenging Spider-Man #3 – Are these Asgardian mole people? Their language “looks” Asgardian, or what I seem to recognize from Fear Itself and the Thor books. Rock trolls or something? Doesn’t matter, I guess. This story was kind of tricksy. It wasn’t so much a Red Hulk/Spider-Man team-up but instead a Spider-Man/JJJ story, and a pretty good one, at that. I’ll admit, I was skeptical when this title was first solicited, but this was a good start. I’ve always enjoyed the various Spider-Man team-up books because the character works so well with other heroes. He’s like super Jerry Lewis to everyone else’s super Dean Martin. I love that analogy. Feel free to use it, but give me credit. ;)

Daredevil #8 – The relaunch of this title has been solid. Not crazy-awesome-good like it was when Bendis was writing it, but still good. The crossover with Spidey? Also good. I like how it wasn’t just cobbled together just to get these three (can’t forget Black Cat, can we?) characters together. No, it flowed nicely from events happening in both books. The kicker for me in this issue was when Spidey discovered Matt and Felicia. Man, that was heartbreaking, and it’ll stay with me for a while. I’m assuming it’ll stay with Pete, too.

Fables #113 -  This is a filler issue, but really, are any issues in this series TOTALLY filler? Even the ones that seem ridiculously out of place? No, I imagine the sorcerer king will show up again, as well as either the porcupine or the witch who cursed him. Maybe even the turtle. It was a good enough issue, but rather plain all by itself. I’ll be more excited about it when I relive it after the eventual pay-off.

G.I. Joe #9/G.I. Joe: Cobra #9/G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes #9 – These two books have been great at showing how each side has acted during the meteoric rise of Cobra, but now they’re starting to overlap more. Really, this could have been one book/title. That’s not a slight against the story or the books themselves. I’m impressed how everything is flowing and coming together. I know that Cobra eventually has to lose, but right now I’m enjoying their successes.

Invincible Iron Man #512 – Not a lot of action this issue, but tons of set-up. Set up for all the bad guys: the main one, the lackeys, and the ones who don’t even know they’re bad guys. Tony thinks his world is in the crapper now? It looks like things are about to get exponentially worse, and that always makes for entertaining storytelling. I love the idea of the Stark Resilient Lifearmor. It also makes me think, Marvel could have quite an event in the future, the kind where everyone becomes an Iron Man. House of IM instead of House of M. Iron Island instead of Spider Island. Crisis of Infinite Iron Men instead of…whoops, wrong company, but you get the idea.

Moon Knight #9 – I’ve said before that I’m a Bendis whore, but it’s a somewhat selective whoring I practice. Anything new? Sure. But I haven’t read EVERYTHING. I don’t read Powers. I wasn’t that into the guy when it started hitting shelves, and I just haven’t gone back and picked up the series yet. I want to, though, especially with the TV show ending up on FX…assuming the pick up the reworked pilot. Anyways, not everybody can hit a homerun each time they’re up to bat is what I’m saying. Moon Knight is one such not-a-homerun. I was about to drop the title, then I read that’ll it’ll be ending with issue #12, so I guess I can stick around for a bit more. My biggest gripe with it is that it isn’t fun. The same schtick is being used over in Deadpool, and it’s being done better. MK’s voices aren’t clever (even Spidey) or insightful or anything. They’re just there to narrate things. That’s just boring.

Thunderbolts #169 – I’m enjoying this trip through time. I was less impressed with the Jack the Ripper stuff than with the Invaders stuff, but this Camelot story, especially after reading the last few pages, looks like it’ll be awesome. I find it hard to believe, though, that either Fixer, Centurius, or Moonstone don’t recognize the name Black Knight or his weapon. He was a pretty important Avengers for God’s sake.

Ultimate Spider-Man #6 – Good, solid story. I like that, this isn’t a story about Spider-Man, it’s more about Miles. Just like the first series (Ultimate, at least) was always more about Peter than his alter ego. The only thing I don’t like is the new Scorpion. I say new because you might not remember it, but there was already a Scorpion. He was a clone of Pete. Now, I’m not saying that I have any love for him, but Bendis couldn’t think of a new name for this new guy?

Uncanny X-Force #20 – I’ve got problems with the issue, and that makes me sad. I’ve loved this series, but bringing in the Captain Britain mythology put a hurtin’ on my noggin. That and the muddy art. It’s weird. The art is good, even beautiful, with individual, smaller panels. For the big panels, splash pages, or double-page spreads, it’s just muddy and confusing. But back to Captain Britain. I read Excalibur for about three issues during the X-line reboot of the early ‘90s, but it never grabbed me. Because of that, I never got into Brian or his history. I’m hoping this isn’t too confusing for me.

Wonder Woman #5 – Well, that’s surely an interesting form for the god of the seas to take. I like it. Why assume that all the gods are humanoid in form? This was the only DC comic (Well, regular DC comic. Fables doesn’t count.) I got this week. I’m enjoying it, but it’s not because of Wonder Woman. It’s the story and the people around her, and I worry that that might eventually lead me away from the book. With Aquaman and Deathstroke, I’m enjoying the characters and what they’re doing. Not Diana, though. I just can’t get into her, and I feel like not enjoying the character that the book is named after will eventually wear me down. 

Also, in case you've forgotten: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas bills here and an unsure/shaky work situation. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!

What You Should Have Read #54

Thoughts on Last Week’s Comics

Animal Man/Swamp Thing #s 5 – These aren’t main DCU books, these are old-school Vertigo books, and I love them both. As much as I’d like to see some of these non-JLA characters and books stand on their own for a bit in this relaunch without crossovers and team-ups and stuff, Animal Man writer Jeff Lemire and Swamp Thing writer Scott Snyder have done a wonderful job of weaving The Red and The Green together. I think that NOT having a crossover would be a disappointment. I like how this is shaping up to be a battle between the kids, Maxine vs. William, with probably the obligatory Animal Man vs. Swamp Thing superhero misunderstanding as an undercard.

Avengers Annual #1 – Gabriele Dell’Otto was a wonderful find for Marvel, and it pains me that he hasn’t been used as much as he should be. I’m guessing it’s a speed thing? He’s my new Alex Ross, which is a pretty poor comparison considering their styles are so different. Dell’Otto doesn’t drip with realism like Ross does, but he’s got energy. Now, you know I love Brian Michael Bendis, but I was expecting more from this issue. I was expecting a battle royale, but I guess we got all our fighting from the New Avengers Annual (with just a bit here). All this annual seemed to do, though, was set up more stuff. So the world is going to start looking at the Avengers with a bit of mistrust? They’re going to turn into the X-Men? If anything, I expect Beast to do exactly what Simon asked of him. He took Cyclops to task, why wouldn’t he do the same thing with Steve or Tony?

Avengers Academy #24 – Too much hand wringing and self-justification from Reptil to really make this issue enjoyable. It was the brief interpersonal moments that barely saved it.

The Boys #62 – Looks like everything is about to hit the fan. I’m enjoying the ride that Garth Ennis is taking us on with these amoral superheroes, but I REALLY want them to get their asses handed to them, every single one of them.

Defenders #2 – This was a rather quick issue. The Defenders get their butts kicked, they get captured, they escape, and they hear the “villain’s” plans. That’s a lot of stuff for 22 pages.

Thunderbolts #168 – Really, who would have thought that Luke Cage would have been such an important fixture in the Marvel Universe? This issue felt like filler. Luke is trying to round up some of the Raft escapees while Songbird and Mach-V have it out with some suits. Yeah, kind of boring, since Luke spends most of his time in his own head. I’m hoping we’ll get more action or quasi-villainy next issue.

Uncanny X-Force #19.1 – So X-Force isn’t actually in this issue. This is all a set-up for the Age of Apocalypse…mini-series? I don’t think it’s an on-going. I know UXF writer Rick Remender isn’t writing the mini, but as long as it keeps the quality that this issue brought to the table, then I’m going to enjoy it.

Villains for Hire #2 – Like Purple Man, I’m not buying the Misty Knight thing. Something else is going on. As good as the writing is, though, it’s getting really tough to care at all about what’s happening to these fourth-rate villains.

Also, in case you've forgotten: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas bills here and an unsure/shaky work situation. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!