So, What comics did you buy this week?

[Diabolical]

Wolverine 10. We find out what the "Red Right Hand" organization is. And why they hate Logan so much. Tunrs out he's killed loved ones of everybody in the group. So, shouldn't the ENTIRE Marvel Universe be part of this clique by now? But not a bad issue really.

So the loved ones of people killed by the protagonist get together to take down the hero? Sounds...familiar.

I picked up the last few weeks of stuff today.
Batman and Robin #23 and 24 - Not too familiar with the Jason Todd/Red Hood stuff, but these have been good. I like the Bruce/Jason flashbacks and the dynamic of one former Robin facing off against another (with the newest Robin in the mix also). All we need is Tim Drake in there. And despite being well established in comics, it is still tough to stomach Judd "Real World 3" Winick writing this.

Batman Arkham City #2 - While Batman investigates who is pulling the Mayor's strings, Harley helps Joker escape.

The Boys #55 - Hughie and Mallory finish up their longtalk about the origin of The Boys, and Mallory sheds a negative light on Butcher's motives. The slow burn toward the final issue (#72) begins.

Criminal: The Last of the Innocent #1 - Every time Criminal starts a new story I realize how much I've missed it.

iZombie #14 - The mysteries get deeper as shit gets stranger.

Gotham City Sirens #23 - Harley and Joker revel in the insanity as Arkham riots and the the rift between the Sirens grows.

Morning Glories #10 - Every time they reveal some stuff they go and toss in more weird shit and more questions.

Punisher Max #14 - I'm glad Aaron is really fleshing out more of the era between Nam and Central Park. That was something that I always wanted Ennis to do, which he did a little bit, but nowhere close to this scale. And I wasn't sure if Fury was really there or not either.

Rocketeer Adventures #1 and Rocketeer #1 I love the movie and have never read the comics, so I grabbed these.
Rocketeer Adventures is a bunch of short stories and pin-ups by guys with names like Cassaday, Mignola, Allred, Busiek and Ross.
Rocketeer is a $1 reprint of the original Dave Stevens comic.
My only complaint is that its published by IDW, and that's only because that makes it tough to do a Rocketeer/Indiana Jones crossover - how fucking awesome would that be?

Star Wars Legacy: War #6 - Some people die, some don't. 1990s Extreme(!) Shaggy Skywalker wins. Artoo and Ghost Luke are in a maybe 5 panels total. Who cares...its over.

[jjreason]

Alpha Flight 1 of 8
Amazing Spidey 662, 663
Avengers 14
Black Panther 519
Cap 618
FF4
New Avengers 13
Secret Avengers 13
Uncanny 537, 538. The end is nigh.

I've not been buying into the whole Schism thing, part of me is looking at it - one last kick at the x-can sort of deal... but mostly I'm feeling done with X-Men following the Uncanny announcement.

[Rollo Tomassi]

It was a small week. I ended up with 12 books, but I could've got away with only six. But I broke down and got three FI tie-ins, which upped my total to nine, and then I rounded it up to twelve to get an extra freebie. The last three books were random issues of DC books I hadn't read in awhile and thought I'd see what was up. Even though they're all ending in two months anyway.

Avengers 14. One of my Fear Itself tie-ins. I figured the last issue, although an FI issue, it didn't actually envelop in the main stories events all that much, so maybe this would be a similar issue. Not so. This is a pretty EPIC fucking issue. Ben Grimm is posessed by one of the FI Hammers. And he gets into a FUCKING BRUTAL fight with the Red Hulk that actually knocks down the Avengers Tower. Seriously hardcore.

Avengers Academy 15. I purposefully picked up this FI tie-in because this is the lowest selling Avengers book, but also the best, and one of the best books Marvel is doing right now. So I figured I should support, Events be damned.

Batgirl 22. Batgirl teams up with Squire over in jolly ole England and saves the world. Cheeky and fun. I am sad this book is going away. *sniffle*

Batman 711. Wow. think about this. Only two issues remain of this series. Wow.

Iron Man 505. The third FI book i got. Much for the same reason I got Academy. This book has been consistently good since the beginning and I didn't want holes just because of an Event. And it continued to rock, Grey Gargoyle has devastated Paris. Detroit Steel shows up to help Tony and he gets killed as well. By the end of the issue, a morally defeated Iron Man checks in with his team and scoth tape repairs to his broken armor. But infinitely more compelling is that he takes a bottle of alcohol with him when he leaves. Its moments like that that make this book so damn good.

Outsiders 39. One of the extra DC issues I got. Uhmm..Markovia is under attack or something. Whatever. Didio can't write very well.

PowerGirl 25. The second DC issue I bought. Power Girl has a talky with some guy who must've been a baddie or something and "threatened" Gotham. But mostly is was talking. And the artist kept drawing PG with square bewbs.

Supergirl 65. The third DC issue. Supergirl is now posing as Lois Lane's fake niece and also her assistant at the Daily Planet. She poses as a college recruit to suss out why some brilliant studnets are dissappearing, and meets a bunch of cloying college student cliches.

Teen Titans 96. In a story thats gone on far too long, the Titans keep fighting some big stupid alternate reality "god" or something. utterly boring.

X-Factor 221. Feral is back and she's a ghost! And she's trying to get Shatterstar and Rahne killed.

Uncanny X-Men 538. Somehow Kitty got her throat sliced while she was intangible, and that fixed her intangibility problem so she's normal again. And the Breakworld guy gets defeated and decides to join a refugee neighborhood in SanFran.

X-Men Prelude to Schism 3. The Cyclops issue. Again, Paul Jenkins current stuff is kinda dull. And this constant referring to a threat without letting us know what the threat actually is is very frustrating.

[jjreason]

A few to report for this week:

Cap 619
Secret Avengers 14
Fear Itself 3
Journey Into Mystery 623
Mighty Thor 3

I also shopped around a bit for late issues of Batman & Action, but then I said to myself "no, I'll buy into stuff a certain amount, but not this much" and left them there. Action 900 being $5.99 US cover may have played a role in that.

[Rollo Tomassi]

12 issues (okay 13, but one was two copies of the same book). No EVENT books this week. I'm awesome. The reading this week was less than stellar though.

Captain America 619. Natasha helps Bucky break out of the gulag while Steve and Nick Fury find answers to the conspiracy that put him there in the first place. this entire series seems academic considering Bucky's fate over in FI.

Carnage 5. Spidey and Iron Man confront Cletus in this final issue. Yet another new symbiote character is made named Scorn, and Carnage escapes at the end so we can get a sequel series in the fall.

Cobra 2. A few more Joes get Codenames so they can get killed off in the great faux-Joe purge that is the Cobra Civil War. But Serpentor continues to work his juju behind the scenes.

Snake-Eyes 2. Alpine gets wounded and Helix and SnowJob have to choose to between getting him down out of the Himalayas or trying to rescue a captured SE.

Incredible Hulks 631. Haven't read it yet.

Namor 11. Final issue. Namor's time travelling son from the future convinces his mother to not hook up with Namor so as to save all the Atlanteans and the X-Men. Which leaves Namor all alone, the cold ruthless leader of his people.

New Mutants 26. New Mutants continue their search for Nate Grey.

Outsiders 40. Final issue is a bunch of double splashpage montages covering all the iterations of the Outsiders comics since 1984. More than a little nostalgia wanking here, and not very much story. but then, its Didio writing.

Superman 712. A fuckin' fill-in issue featuring Krypto. Seriously, DC, you've only got a couple issues left of a 70+ year running magazine and your burning off your shitty inventory issues? This is why I'm not buying any of your shitty books in September you tossers. Thanks for coasting for three months.

Ultimate Spidey 160. I bought two issues of this so my son can have one when he comes over next. The Hyping of this "Event" was not equal to its execution. It was like the Death of Superman story without the impact. Peter fights Green Goblin to the death. Peter says "I..I did it, I saved you." before dying cradled in MJs arms with Aunt May looking on. Weak. Sauce.

Wolverine 11. We meet another member of the RedRightHand. This one a woman whose father AND husband were killed by Logan at different points in time. Honestly, I can't begrudge her having a beef with Wolverine after that. If some douche came and killed my dad in front of me when I was seven years old, and then showed up thirty years later and killed my husband the exact same way, I'd probably join a club trying to kill the fucker myself.

X-Men Legacy 251. Rogue and Magento's team continues to hunt down Legion's rogue psyche mutants.

[Diabolical]

Batman: Arkham City #2 - In disguise, Batman infiltrates the crew of both Joker and Penguin to see how eager both sides are to control the new Arkham City, but he is no closer to finding out who is pulling the strings in Arkham City.

Batman Incorporated #7 - Batman help Indian Native American Batman or something.

Gotham City Sirens #24 - Batman and Catwoman help quell the riot Harley and Joker start in Arkham, as does Ivy.
With the way things play out I assumed that this was the final issue. Apparently not, as there are still 2 more to go before the DC reboot.

Marvel Universe vs Wolverine #2 - Picked up on a whim because I liked MU vs Punisher. Seems like this may be a prequel to that series, as the virus (or whatever it is) first appears with Spidey.

Rocketeer Adventures #2 - More Rocketeer fun by guys like Mark Waid, Darwin Cooke and Geoff Darrow. Hopefully IDW follows this 4 issue series with an ongoing series.
And like I said last time, I want to see a Rocketeer/Indiana Jones team-up mini-series!

[Rollo Tomassi]

Another 12 book week. So much Flashpoint BS on the racks! Oye. I skipped a couple things I was planning on buying because of the way they were "packaged". The Iron Age mini series ended up being $4.99 per issue, and they had an Avengers issue and Captain Britain issue. Both said 1 of 3. Had I not done a little fact checking first, I would have assumed they were two different mini series. In fact its the same issue with completely different covers. So fuck that. And did I mention it was $4.99 an issue. No. I also skipped a Captain America oneshot when I realized it was a reprint of sme early Tales of Suspense issues wrapped in a framng story. Also $4.99. Again, no.

Amazing Spidey 664. Spidey and his crime fighting buddy, Anti-Venom team up to FINALLY blow Mr. Negative's secret identity. Peter "comes clean" with Carlie about being Spider-Man's tech guy.

Young Avengers 6. Wanda is back. Tearful reunions and whatnot. Everybody conveniently forgets she's a murderer and stuff. The X-Men show up at the end.

Detective Comics 878. Batman survives an Orca attack (not the villain that Robinson killed, but an actual killer whale.) And we find out Jim Gordon's son is a creepy ass killer.

Captain America: America's Avenger oneshot. Handbook style book with lots of Cap's villains and heroes. Haha. Remember Vagabond? She's in there.

FF 5. Evil Reed and MoleMan blow up Old Atlantis. On the last page, Blackbolt is ALIVE!

GL Emerald Warriors 11. Guy Gardner saves an alien space hottie, who turns out to be a baddie who tries to steal his ring. So he punches her. Read like a filler issue. Oh wait, everything DC puts out for the next three months is filler.

Incredible Hulks Annual 1. The finale of the Identity Wars crossover started in Spidey's and Deadpool's Annuals. "Ghost Spider" (Ghost Rider crossed with Spider-Man) is a cool concept.

Incredible Hulk and the Human Torch oneshot. A Marvel Vault story from 1986 drawn by Steve Ditko. Originally meant to be a Marvel Team-Up issue, it was a cool look at a lost unpublished work from 25 years ago.

Transformers: Heart of Darkness 4. Galvatron battles Nemesis Prime posessed by the Dead Universe. Then Dovetails nicely into the "Infestation" mini series explaining how Galvatron showed up there and got rebuked by Optimus. Sets up the coming Chaos storyline. Overall, a pretty good mini that fills in gaps in the grander TF Universe.

Wonder Woman 612. Immediately after I read this I couldn't remember what had happened in the issue.

Uncanny X-Men 539. Ugh. Dammity damn damn. No sooner do I mention Frank Bohannon, the Crimson Commando over in the EiC topic, then they use him as a villain in the new Uncanny X-Men book and Wolverine kills him. Fuckity fuck douche shit ass.

X-Men Prelude to Schism 4. Blah blah blah. The X-Men are facing some undeafeatable thing. i wonder if when you finish Schism and come back and read this book if it will suck less.

[Rollo Tomassi]

My buy pile this week swelled from 8 books to 12. I could've got by with only 8, but I decided to pick up an extra book, the Cap/Thor issue. Which then made me cave and pick up Vengeance 1. And then I got Thor 3 and the Titans Annual to round up and get the extra freebie. But all told it was a very good week and every issue was enjoyable. A rarity lately.

Batman & Robin 25. The Conclusion of the Red Hood/batman/Robin team-up. The three Robins have to set aside their diffeences to rescue Jason's protoge Scarlet. Lots of bickering and opposing viewpoints on the nature of crimefighting. This is how I like my Jason Todd. A prick, but not a psychopath. Finding the chinks in Bruce's Black/White altruistic philosophy and exploiting them. Having him as a flawed anti-hero whose redemption is jussst out of reach from Bruce and the rest because of their own unwillingness to compromise makes for great storytelling.

Captain America & Thor: Avengers! oneshot. A couple of stories written by Fred VanLente and drawn by the inestimable Ron Lim. Both stories are set in the "movie" universe. Cap is in his film uniform (drawn by Lim is awesome) and the Thor story is a quasi-prequel to that film. I suspect these were pitched as separate issues and then decided to bundle them after the fact. But the Lim art is what got me to cave and go over 8 books this week. It was worth it.

GIJoe 3. Zartan (confirmed in the preamble paragraph on the inside front cover) and Stormshadow kill a few more non-essential Joes, sabotage the nuclear reactor that powers the Pit and then escape in a jumprocket. Scarlet, Mainframe, and Brain attempt to stop the reactor from melting down and destroying $100 Billion worth of Joe Equipment but fail, and one of them succumbs to radiation poisoning in the attempt. The Pit is destoyed. The Cobra Civil War continues...

Jonah Hex 69. The penultimate issue of this excellent series. Jonah tracks down his father who's been gut shot by four nogoodniks trying to claim jump his goldmine. As they sit in the desert sun, Hex Sr. and his boy have a conversation. Well, the dad does most of the talking. Jonah is just watching his no good bastard father waiting for him to die. Then he buries his dad in gold and pisses on the grave.

Official Avengers Index 15. Finishes up the series thru the New Avengers issues.

Red Skull:Incarnate 1. A counterpoint to the Magneto:Testament series from a couple years ago. In this five issue series we follow a young Johann Schmidt on his rise to becoming the Red Skull. beautiful David Aja covers. Apparently in the early 1920s Germany, orphanages had modern refrigerators.

Secret Six 35. The penulitmate issue of THIS excellent series. Bane decides that breakng the Bat's spine is not the same as BREAKING him, since he's still around and still surrounded by people who follow him and love him. So the team decides to recruit the Penguin and finish the job. I'd have problems with them reverting Bane to a stright up villain just because he's gonna be in a movie next year. but considering DC is fucking itself in its entirety come September, this is a minor speedbump. And since this entire series has been completely awesome and will go down in history along side Watchmen, DKR, Fables, Preacher, and other assorted tales that transcend the medium, I will overlook it. I will miss you Secret Six.

Mighty Thor 3. Picked this up just to make 12 books this week, but was suprisingly more enjoyable than the last two issue. Thos and Silver Surfer smack talking each other (and SS resorting to cheap shot) was fun. And the scene where young teen Loki breaks into Sif's sleeping quarters was added seemingly just to show to us that Sif sleeps completely nude, and when awakened she goes for a sword and not a sheet to cover her modesty. Bonus nekked Sif.

Titans Annual 1. it was either this or Spider-Girl 8. The Titans fight the JLA and Slade outthinks them once again. I still hate Eric Wallace's writing but this was passable as far as the dreck I'm used to reading from him.

Transformers 21. Chaos begins! Hot Rod returns to Earth and hands over the Matrix to Optimus. Optimus decides to leave Earth and go confront Galvatron (whom we all know to be acting benevolent in the HoD series) about taking over Cybertron. But he leaves Bumblebee in charge on Earth because something shady (we aren't told what) is brewing. Transformers gores Bi-Weekly starting this issue and ends with issue 125 in December. 125...I am SOOOOO intrigued!!!

Vengeance 1. I have no idea what the hell is going on. But its got a teenaged In-Betweener. A new Teen Brigade led by Rick Jones. A young latino Miss America. Magneto. Knighthawk and She-Hulk on a new Defenders team. And a bunch of other stuff. Not sure what the hell is goin on, but its got my curiosity piqued enough to get next issue.

Uncanny X-Men 540. My one and only FI tie-in this week. because the series is ending soon and I'm not dropping the last few issues because of a crossover I'm boycotting. Cyclops and the Mayor trade quips about Mutants in SanFran. A subplot from out of nowhere (well, from New Mutants but if you haven't been reading that series since issue one, whats happening here makes no fucking sense. And they don't bother to give you any context about in this issue, not even a recap so FAIL there) involving Magik, Colossus and Kitty fills up a lot of the issue. And Juggernaut possessed by whatever from FI is stomping towards SanFran to destroy it.

[anarky]

GIJoe 3. Scarlet, Mainframe, and Brain attempt to stop the reactor from melting down and destroying $100 Billion worth of Joe Equipment but fail, and one of them succumbs to radiation poisoning in the attempt.

Omigod!!! Scarlet, Mainframe, and Brain, and one of them dies? Oh noes! Which one doesn't make it? The suspense is killing me. I'll be so sad if it's Brain.

IDW is sorta "damned if you do, damned if you don't" here, I suppose. If they do like they did with Bazooka, people get pissed because he didn't get enough buildup when he dies the same issue he's introduced in. If they introduce new Joes, it's too obvious they're cannon fodder.

No joke, here's what they ought to do: introduce Cool Breeze, Shooter, and Mangler as three new recruits going through Joe training at the same time. But build each of them up and never kill them. Because everyone will expect the three Joes from the Marvel run who were introduced just to die to, well, die. Bonus points if they go through training with Lt. Falcon, Dodger, and Cross Country, at least one of whom is wacked in the second appearance, and the other two die within a year. Just to really fuck with everyone's heads by killing the guys who were lucky enough to survive bloodbaths in the original series.

[Rollo Tomassi]

To be fair, Brain was a more prominently featured Joe in the IDW-verse than most old school Joes. He's been around since the early issues of the first series and had the 'nerdy exposition' role in explaining MASS devices and other various shit. So it was a little bit more dramatic than some of the 'name them right before they get shot' Joe deaths.

[anarky]

Yeah, but you name three and say one dies, and only one was created for IDW, so it's sorta a no-brainer.

Still, I think using the throwaways from the Marvel/Devil's Due run and making them long-lasting, important characters would be an awesome mindfuck to the readers (in a good way). Admit it, if Cool Breeze showed up (sans weird armored arms) and was acting like a pompous kid the way he did in his Marvel appearances, you'd bet money he was going to die, right? Hell, an even better one would be, if they were willing to part with Dusty (which I think, even given Hasbro's weird hard-on for killing Bazooka lately, is unlikely), to have Dusty, Sneak Peek, and Mangler go onto a mission into a hostile Middle Eastern nation... and Dusty gets killed.

[anarky]

Sorta like if, in Ultimate X-Men, the original team had featured Morph and Thunderbird, and both survived long-term.

[Diabolical]

Punisher Max #15 - The tension builds as both the current Frank in prison story and the flashback years between 'Nam and Central Park chug ahead toward next month's finale.

Captain America #1 - For all the jerking off people do for Brubaker's Cap, I didn't think this was all that amazing.

Batman: The Dark Knight #3 - I started to read it but quickly realized I had no clue what the fuck was going on, since it was so long since #2 came out.

[Rollo Tomassi]

A big week with 20 books, and an extra 10 out of the 50 cent bin. I ended up with 4 Event Tie-ins for various reasons.

Amazing Spidey 665. Peter stands up Betty Brant on their standing Friday Night Movie Buddy date, and she gets subsequently mugged. Which sets off his Uncle Ben/Gwen Stacy Spider Guilt sense. Then May and JJJ Sr decide to move to Boston and sell the Queens home where Peter grew up. The one that blew up and then Harry went to considerable expense to rebuild and then give to May as a gift. Ungrateful old cow. Pete's a high falutin' inventor type with scads of patent money comin' in. Couldn't he have just bought the house?

New Avengers 14.FI tie-in. Didn't read it.

Batgirl 23.In the penultimate issue, the new Grey Ghost is killed by the armored baddies Steph has been fighting since the first issue. She calls in some of her teen girl buddies (Supergirl, Miss Martian, Bombshell, and Stargirl) to even the odds. It occured to me this is probably the last hurrah for many of those heroes since they're being shuffled off to retcon heaven in a couple months. And Steph finally discovers the bigbad behind it all. Her father. The Cluemaster.

Detective 879. Commissioner Gordon and Barbara don't buy that James Jr is adjusting to society and taking his meds, so they do a little off the books investigating and figure out the kid is going to poison all of Gotham's babies with baby formula laced with psychopathic drugs. Also, one of the creepiest versions of the Joker ever escapes. A great issue.

Birds of Prey 14. DC gives us a two part fill in for the finale of this series. Some WWII Nazi scientists are trying to get revenge on Zinda and the original Lady Phantom.

Booster Gold 46. Flashpoint tie-in. Again, the only one I'm getting. Booster fights against Doomsday in the alternate timeline.

Captain America 1. Cap fights against Hydra in WWII! And also hangs out with DumDum Dugan and Nick Fury at Peggy Carter's funeral in current times. It's almost as if Cap has a feature film coming out and Marvel's new slavemasters who run things said make the comic like the movie! Or else you're all fired!!!

Formic Wars 7. The people of Earth launch two desperate attacks against the Formic mothership as the first series comes to its cliffhanger conclusion.

FF 6. Some retconning of the end of War of Kings (Blackbolt has five wives? Whut?) and what is basically an extended flashback of the Supreme Intelligence 10,000 years ago fill this issue. The FF never even show up. If this was your first issue of FF, I sincerely doubt you'd ever pick up a second.

Ghost Rider 1. A new female Ghost Rider is chosen from a cadre of candidates who've apparently been training in an Incan pyramid. She then easily dispatches BOTH Deathmask and Blackout in a few panels (to show how tuff she is!) and then gets her ass handed to her by the big baddie from the FI Event. I did NOT like how this new GR was chosen. It seems oppositional to the spirit of the character. And then its insulting to take two of Ketch's primary rogues and have them go out like bitches in just a page or two.

Green Lantern 67. The delayed conclusion of the War of the Green Lanterns. Hal saves the universe. the Guardians get peeved at him because he didn't "follow orders" (which if he had followed the orders the universe would've been destroyed) and revoke his Ring. Also, during the battle, Sinestro "overcame great fear" and was thusly rewarded with a Green lantern ring. So Sinestro is the new GL in the new September relaunch.

Green Lantern Corps 61. In the fallout of the GLWar, John Stewart and a new trainee must stop a fued between some alien races.

New Mutants 27. The New Mutants save Nate Grey from Sugarman. This series is boring.

Punisher MAX 15. What Diabolical said. I liked it. I still don't like Dillon's woodfaced, stiff bodied art.

Red Robin 25. Robin fights and/or teams up with Cassie Cain, now going by the insipid title of Black Bat, wearing a cheesy fanfic looking costume.

Superman 713. A schmaltzy schlockfest where some rube convinces and emo douche Clark Kent why Superman is so awesome and loved by everyone inthe world, after Clark decides to hang up the tights.

Teen Titans 97. After a way too long story arc, Solstice is introduced as the newest Titan. Ironically, with the Sept reboot we'll probably never see her again.

Journey Into Mystery 625. Young Loki perfects his gamesmanship as he manipulates both Mephisto and Hela in this tangential FI tie-in. One of Marvel's best series right now.

Wolverine 12. Didn't read it yet.

X-Men: Schism 1. The beginning. My suspension of disbelief allowed me to accept that a ten year old could assassinate his father in the backseat of a flying limosine over the Himilayas. But not that a board of directors would listen to a ten year old's spiel and agree that HE should be in charge of a successful arms manufacturing company and not the father.

And the 10 books I got in the 1o for $5 bin were 4 issues of Captain America in fine condition.
Godzilla:Kingdom of Monsters 1
Herc 1
Hulk 32
Ultimate Spidey 157
Venom 2
X-23 9
None of which I've read yet.

[jjreason]

I got prologue to Schism 1-3 & Legacy 250 while I was out of town. Now I need to go get my new stuff, it's likely been 3 weeks ><.