Here 'tis. Pretty good week. Some of my future installments may be delayed - as my local comic shop of the last decade is closing. There will be a rough transition to a new store - which I honestly like better, all things considered.
52 was interesting this month. The secret of Ekron revealed!
I got Civil War 5. I’m not following all of the million or so affiliated books so the damn plotlines choppy as hell for me. I hope there’s a compiled trade paperback out there somewhere in the future. And I truly dig the artwork.
Shadowpact #7. Things get crazier. And funnier. Were I Nightshade I would have squeezed hard.
The Escapists #5. One of the greatest books available right now. The story is moving along and our writing/drawing friends and getting into strange and dangerous territory. I feel for the characters and empathize strongly.
Shadowpact was decent this month. It looks like there might actually be a direction to the story shaping up.
Civil War #5 and New Avengers - how can a crossover event be so poorly written in its main miniseries, and produce such an interesting side-story in New Avengers? Sigh.
Ultimate FF is still deep in weird territory. I like the concept behind Ultimate Thanos, but I don’t know if I care for the execution.
Birds of Prey #100: Has Barbara ever come out and said “Yeah, I’m only recruiting women” and why? I mean, from a reader’s perspective, it makes perfect sense, and comics certainly need to have more female characters at the forefront, but it makes a bit less sense considered in-character. You’d think making the best team possible would trump feminist “making a place for women” concerns. Why ask Wonder Woman and not Superman?
Manhunter seems an odd choice. Doesn’t she, uh, kill people? I don’t read her book, but my impression was that she’s closer to the Punisher than Batman. I love Big Barda, but she never seemed the type to do an elaborate disguise to me. The absence of Black Canary still grates (even with her backup here, which was decent, not great), since her reason doesn’t work considering that she’s joining the JLA. And I know Meltzer can’t handle her as well as Simone.
Superman/Batman #1: Fun. Liked the twist at the end. And the circle of plagiarism is complete!
Checkmate #8: The combination of superheroics, political drama, and cloak and dagger works so much better than I would have guessed or hoped.
52 Week 28: The Space sequence seemed a bit muddled. Loved the bit with the “Tornado Man”.
Green Lantern Corps #6: Ranx is cool.
Aquaman Sword of Atlantis #45: After meandering a bit for the last few issues, this story is finally pulling itself together. Hopefully Busiek can keep this up for the rest of his run.
Astonishing X-Men #18: Good twist. Like the bit with Hank, although I doubt he’d take the time to get dressed.
Yeah, there’d better be a good reason for that. The only thing I can think of to change things quickly enough would be if Sin dies, which seems a bit harsh… but considering DC’s happiness to kill people off in this, not all that unexpected.
Anyway, Birds of Prey was cool. It does seem like Manhunter might be the new main character, though Gail’s said it’s going to be more a revolving door of heroes rather than just a replacement for Black Canary.
52 - I despise Lobo, so that whole sequence uninterests me, even though it’s setting up for something new. Batwoman is pretty cool. And pretty much confirmation of Renee’s new role.
**Civil War ** - Cool issue. I liked Daredevil’s line. Oh, and FINALLY, Peter! Took you long enough. Anyone know who the redhead with the phone (presumably) betraying Cap’s group is?
Could someone spoil Astonishing X-Men? They didn’t have left any in stock grumble grumble.
[spoiler] Cyclops shoots the rest of the Hellfire club. Blindfold gives feral-Hank a ball of yarn. Danger and Ord are in the mansion and fight with Armor girl (I forget her name) and Wolverine, until a suddenly civilized Beast grabs them both with a giant magnet (attuned to affect every metal except Adamantium). Turns out the yarn was laced with pheromones and drugs Hank and the Professor designed to unlock Hanks higher reasoning.
Best Lines:
Wolverine: Quit whining Kid, I got eaten today.
Beast: yes, about that…
W: Forget it.
B: I can’t begin to apologize.
W: Pfft! That’s what friends are for for.
B: I’m fairly certain it’s not.
Scott gets Kitty to rescue Emma from the Earth, and explains that the Hellfire club was never here. They were all projections from Emma, driven by guilt and a suggestion by Nowa that was placed in Emma’s mind the last time they tussled. Nova orders Emma to transfer her from the blob into Armor girl, while Scott tries to talk her out of it. She says, to Nova or Scott, we don’t now, “Go to Hell”, just as Danger and Ord charge in. Suddenly, everyone is beamed aboard a SWORD spaceship en route to Breakworld.
BAck at the mansion, Blindfold predicts that “not all” of the X-Men will be back. [/spoiler]
Thanks, both of you. 
Checkmate - I can’t wait to see who the new White King’s Bishop will be.
GL Corps - Not bad, not bad… I think the White Lobe reference is another nod to the Alan Moore story.
Birds of Prey - Gail Simone did a Newsarama interview, basically saying, IIRC, that Babs was more comfortable with female operatives. I did like the breakout and the mix of heroines, and that last few pages - nice re-use of a character name.
52 was pretty good. So the emerald eye is Oan in origin after all? Not a surprise, really. I loved Adam Strange’s rant. Particularly the end. “One more @%?!#& twist.” Kind of sums up every “lost in space” storyline, doesn’t it?
Supergirl continues to give us more insight into her past. She’s definitely “not your father’s Supergirl.” But what about Argo?
Cable/Deadpool - Not bad.
Omega Men - Art sucks. Story meh.
Supergirl was interesting, yes.
Robin was a ‘very special’ issue, but it actually came off okay.
I haven’t been following Civil War—has Billy Jack showed up to kick Iron Man in the face, yet? :rolleyes:
No, but:
THe Punish came and shot Jack’O Lantern in the head
I haven’t been reading Civil War, and have a month’s backlog of comics to read anyway, but if Marvel put Billy Jack in Civil War I would definitely start picking it up.
That should read The PUNISHER
Somedays I really suck :smack:
The writers have turned Captain America into Billy Jack… :rolleyes:
My other acquisitions this week are Invincible, KODT, and Bomb Queen II.
One Quick question, In Civil War #% The Daredevil that is taken to the negitive zone, is that Matt Murdock, or Danny Rand aka Iron Fist?
Unfortunately, we haven’t been told directly, and the cross-title continuity for Civil War is screwed up beyond belief.
I’m mostly certain that it was Iron Fist as Murdock is currently traipsing around Europe.
As for the rest…
Civil War #5: Didn’t suck. Lack of stinger moment at the end was a nice change. Just sort of nudged the plot forward. Not sure about Peter not busting through the window though. Sure it was a funny visual, but he threw Wolverine out of one of the windows before he went through The Other story and had his powers upped. Good to see him acting in character for once though.
Also, it was a bit of a bummer to see the Punisher back in the spandex outfit again. I’m surprised that there wasn’t more outrage at the idea of Team Stark using known killers as foot soldiers, or at least over the mind control aspects. Instead it was Punisher = Bad
New Avengers: Nice to see Tony get pegged for once.