Countdown impressed me this week with a number of small, nice touches.
She-Hulk was okay, but I don’t think I’m staying on board for the long run. I miss Slott’s work.
X-Men - Art is so not suited to action scenes. Had NO idea what was happening in the first few pages (thought Pred X had eaten Bishop, for instance).
On the other hand, surprisingly good wrap-up. Pixie kicks ass, and lives, so I’m very happy, with that.
I guessed the kid was Rachel/Mother Askani back when Cable started going after her and after this issue, I’m pretty sure I’m right. Female, red hair, has the locket with the picture of Scott and Jean, and important for Cable’s future? It all fits.
Countdown - Eh. Kind of annoying. Don’t like Jason, don’t like Batman-51, don’t like Prime. Don’t like Kyle a whole lot at this point, either. The colourist made a huge mistake, at one point, making it look like Batman was snarking at himself. Queen Donna was kind of awesome, though.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one confused by the miscoloration-as-Batman frame in Countdown. I tried sorting it out by seeing if the cowl had ears, but I think the frame cut 'em off anyway. It was nice to have one where things actually happened, though, and jettisoning the other (dull) plotlines from this issue really helped with that.
Annoying that next issue is Heel-turned Superboy Prime vs. Heel-turned Captain Atom-as-Monarch. They payoff for ruining those two characters just hasn’t been worth it.
Blue Beetle was great, LSH was solid (Fruit Boy, heh), and Teen Titans was… um… not. If I didn’t know otherwise, I’d think this is where all those out-of-work soap opera writers are at.
I actually bought two Marvel books this week! I’m shocked, really. Astonishing X and the Young Avengers thing with Patriot. Fortunately, reading these threads had kept me updated enough to understand what was going on in the latter.
I have to disagree on Countdown. When juggling many different storylines, I like to see a number touched on every issue, and this issue was purely the Monitors vs Monarch war (wih Prime thrown in just a little). We haven’t seen Piper in ages, the revealation about Jimmy was a few weeks ago as well, and we’re left hanging where the Mary and Holly storylines just intersected. This issue was a decently-written book-length fight scene, but as part of the overall “Countdown”, I was disappointed.
Legion is OK, the recruits (especially Fruit Boy) are great, but I’m not yet excited.
Crime Bible rocks. Obviously, Renee is going to resist Flay’s temptations in the next and final issue, but the way he’s always a step ahead of her is great.
Blue Beetle gets more and more awesome, as does Wonder Woman.
I’m enjoying the story, but I’m starting to get annoyed with the dialogue.
OK, expanding the repertoire of fake swears is…not necessary, since, at this point, sprock, grife, and nass are pretty much as transparent as their real-world equivalents or ‘!@#$’ are, but not a bad thing. But he’s not doing it well.
Florg, zork, and cruk just aren’t as good as the existing words, and they’re not near transparent, yet, so the number of uses of ‘florg’ is just intrusive. And, sprocking annoying.
Also, Virus is essentially just Infectious Lass - same power, same lack of control. I can’t decide if I’m disappointed they didn’t work in the reference, or happy they’re not slaving themselves to old continuities. More the former, since I adore Infectious Lass.
Forgot to mention, about Crime Bible - the coordinates Flay gives Renee at the end are just north of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Does that have any particular meaning in the DCU? Is Ra’s Al Ghul from there, or something like that?
Teen Titans - Story’s not bad - I like the soap opera tone. Art, though… I don’t know if the fault lies primarily with Igle, Jose, or Palmiotti, but everyone looked so OLD - Tim, Cassie, and M’gann looked like they were in their 30s…Rose and Eddie (primarily due to the white hair) looked like they were in their 50s. Jaime’s mask made gauging his age difficult, but he looks subtly WRONG in this style. (That might just be because Hamner and Albuquerque’s styles are so similarly stylized - but on the other hand he (unlike most of the characters) looked ok last issue, and that was a different style, too.)
Blue Beetle - Pure awesome, but that goes without saying. I like how the time travel (via the Bleed!) was handled. Having seen solicits for later issues takes away some of the suspense and impact of the last few scenes, but still…whoah.
not that I know of…
I actually think she’s slightly more effective immediately than Infectious Lass since while its everyone around her it didn’t sound like it was as long term or debilitating as Lass. It would be like having someone on your team who blows up; a bit inconvenient if they use it wrong but they’d come in handy.
And perhaps its me but only Fruit Boy, Sonar, and Kid Calculus seemed to have abilities that wouldn’t be helpful to a superhero team. I probably wouldn’t want some of the others on my team but they weren’t complete losers like so many other Legion Rejects (no modern Double Header?).
I picked this one up the other day, and yeah, I was wondering if the team had suddenly become the "middle aged titans".
It reminded me of an issue of the "New Mutants" way back when, that used an artist that depicted everyone as about forty pounds heavier than normal. I think that the comics companies do this every now and then, to make people appreciate their normal stable of artists.I suspect that the Kid Calculus guy is going to turn out to be very useful to the LSH, actually – they need someone to sort out their finances, and Brainy’s sure not going to stoop to doing that. If Garth was a little more on the ball, he might’ve realized that someone who’s good at numbers could’ve been helpful at sorting out his numbers-related budget problems.
It doesn’t bode well for adult Rachel making it back from space. That character can’t catch a break.
During the build-up and up until the end of Messiah Complex, the writers and editors were adamant that it was a new character and not a rebirth, reincarnation, etc. Now they are saying “Well, as of right now she isn’t but we can’t say if future writers will stick to that.” Makes it pretty clear that she is going to be revealed as a resurrection, rebirth, etc.
I recently got a chance to read the first 4 issues in Matt Fraction’s Punisher: War Journal and am definitely enjoying (even though I’ve heard more than one person complain that Fraction seemed to somehow dumb down Frank). Anyone happen to have any recommendations for more Punisher books I should look for?
I’m just glad the Young Avengers are back in some form. It’s been years (almost literally) since they had any titles to themselves! 
I really liked Astonishing X-Men, especially the big reveal at the end:
“It’s not a missile…it’s a bullet.”
But it’s so frustrating reading a comic written by Joss Whedon; the issues are so far apart I can never remember what’s going on. I have no idea, for example, when Danger was convinced to help the X-Men instead of killing them; for that matter, I don’t even remember her coming to the Breakworld with them.
Hellblazer #240 was noteworthy because…holy shit, #240? That’s 20 years! Has any other horror comic ever run to this many issues? Unless some of the EC comics came out weekly, I don’t think there’s even a contender. How has the book survived this long, when even parent comic Swamp Thing has had several failed runs over the same time period? Has it really remained profitable over all this time?
I’m pretty “meh” about Jim Shooter’s new run on Legion. Bringing in lame-ass tryout “heroes” reminds me of Keith Giffen at his worst, and Lightning Lad is being written as too dumb. Is Shooter here for the indefinite future, or is this a limited run?
I think Shooter’s there for as long as he wants to stay.
I also think he invented the Legion Try-outs, didn’t he? 
Not that I think you want a real answer but…
Beside the fact that their very first appearance featured Superboy trying out for the Legion (written by Otto Binder) the first time we see open try outs is the first appearance of the Legion of Substitute Heroes which was written by Edmond Hamilton. That was in Adventure Comic #306 with a March 1963 cover date, several years before Shooter took over the book.
Not even remotely. Open try-outs were featured in both of Supergirl’s attempts to join the Legion (Action # 267 and then 276), they were seen in Adventure # 301 (which resulted in Matter-Eater Lad’s membership) and in Adventure # 305 (which resulted in Mon-El’s full membership). And I may have missed one or two others from the pre-Adventure era. Ultra Boy’s first appearance (Superboy # 98) was as part of his try-out, but I don’t believe an full open try-out is stated or implied in that issue, though it might have been retconned as such.
NERD FIGHT! (Cues up Amok Time fight music…)
The Action #267 issue was not an “open try out” (by which I mean the Legion has apparently announced that they’ll check people out and we get a scene of multiple people attempting to join). Supergirl is sought out and specifically invited to try out, much like Superboy was in the first Legion appearance. Similarly in #276 they approached her and asked her to try out.
I will concede the Adventure #301 issue, though, since the Legion is approached by a group of people who want to try out. I overlooked it while I was scanning through the issues trying to figure out which one was first. That makes the creator of Legion try outs as no one less than Jerry Seigel himself.