Final Crisis #3 - Well, the one return was expected, but the other was a surprise!
Got a delayed copy of Reign in Hell #1 - I instantly love the ‘map’ of Hell presented. I don’t know that I’m keen on a few apparent continuity tweaks. I am glad to see Linda again, though.
The Hawkman Rann/Thanagar Special - It was a bit convoluted, but… it looks like they’re about to de-complicate Hawkman. I hope they pull it off.
I don’t always play in these threads. But it was a good week.
Punish War Journal - More of the same, I’m afraid. But it does get into the psychology of Frank Castle. That’s got some spirit to it.
Jack of Fables - The resolution of the Jack Candle western with Bigby laying down the law. Funny, I thought Willingham said their wouldn’t be crossover from the main Fable book or back. Yet here we are.
The Authority: World’s End - Man, am I glad I just ordered all the trades that fill in backstory. How DID the world get here, anyway? And where’s Jenny Quantum and the Doctor? Either of them could deal with this in about 30 seconds.
The Boys - We finally find out why America is embroiled in a War of Terror with Pakistan and why the Brooklyn Bridge is gone. The panic on the faces of The Seven is telling. I can’t wait for next issue. But I normally can’t for this one. I consider The Boys to be the best comic book out there right now.
Curses, they were out of Final Crisis, so will have to wait for me. 
Trinity is improving, for me. Much stronger in both stories, this time, now that things are happening. For my money, they could’ve just brought in Jason Blood to dialog all that crud and cut out the first few issues of set-up. Also, always good to see another gorilla-in-comics show up.
Supergirl I’m not really sure about. I like what I think they are trying for, with her character… but the execution just falls flat on its face in reading it. Random characters and plot elements show up and disappear without warning, while the storyline crazily jumps hither and yon with insufficient set-up. Frustrating.
Even though I gave up on the Rann-Thanagar thing, I got the Hawkman special. Not so sure about this development – Johns had managed to superglue his fractured origin into something that at least held together, even if it didn’t look pretty. Now they’re retconning it again, and looking like his angry “Hawk smash!” personality as well… which was about all he’s had going for him lately to distinguish him in the books he shows up in. That was kind of his thing – when he’s among the JSA mob, you can always count on Carter to want to thump somebody to solve the problem.
I didn’t buy the Authority this week. A post-Apocalyptic Wildstorm universe doesn’t interest me in the slightest. I had, up till now, ready ever Authority book I could lay hands on - but eh. Things change, I suppose.
Hawkman: Actually, Jim Starlin does this a lot. He got fired from Marvel for it. And he just screwed up Hawkman pretty damn badly. (DC characters have time traveled back to Hawkman’s era. Other DC characters of similar age have met Hawkman.)
Geoff Johns is gonna be piiiiiissed.
Patsy Walker: Hellcat. I just posted this in the wrong thread, but this is shaping up to be the best darn miniseries of the last few months. The art is simple, playful, but demanding. Read the background, stuff happens there, folks.
The body language of the characters, the back and forth, it’s like someone took She-Hulk and Harley Quinn and squished them together and made them play nice now. Good stuff.
Kathy Immonen’s writing is outstanding, easily matching the art.
Get it. Find #1, get that too.
The only way I can figure to reconcile the Hawkman stuff implied by Starlin is that we’re going to get a separate Katar Hol and Carter Hall.
Punisher War Journal: This arc has taken a while to get going and grab me, but I like Fraction and think that Chaykin was an inspired choice for this character.
Hulk: This arc has been a ton of fun so far and intriguing to boot. I’m dying to know more about the red Hulk’s identity and origin (though I don’t know if we’re going to be getting it anytime soon).
**The Twelve: **I’m consistently enjoying this series. It’s all character study, with very little action.
He did more damage to other characters - particularly Hawkgirl - than to Hawkman - at least one of his histories is implied as still valid. Hawkgirl’s history doesn’t fare so well, and quite a few stories featuring other characters are rendered invalid. (JSA going back to Khufu’s time, Black Adam knowing Khufu, Chay-ara, and Hath-set…)
This Hawkman being Katar, and Khufu/Carter being a separate being could salvage the above, but doesn’t seem to fit with what’s happening in the Hawkman special.
Final Crisis - It’s fun watching the wank in other communities about Mary Marvel, but I really enjoyed the issue. That last page was something. I’m getting more and more convinced Barry’s going to sacrifice himself again, to prevent it from happening. Wondie getting infected with the ‘Kamandi’ disease before getting Anti-Lifed was unexpected, but it works for me. The bit with Clark and Jimmy in Lois’s hospital room was heart-breaking - and a bit scary… I think the Monitor’s appearance at the end might be how he avoids being Anti-Lifed.
Supergirl - Loved this. Kara’s trick in dealing with Dolok was quite clever. And I really like her future costume.
Eternals - Well, this is getting confusing. What is Ajak’s game, I wonder.
Trinity - So now we know the mystical reasons for stealing the stuff. Trinities within trinities. Superman’s ‘foundation’ item is pretty obvious - a chunk of kryptonite. Wonder Woman’s foundation item is a little harder to figure out, but something from Themiscyra is the obvious choice. It’s her ‘foe’ item which is hard to figure out…her ‘iconic’ foes are harder to find that Superman and Batman, and iconic items or concepts from them even more so. Possibly something from Cheetah - a snippet of fur, maybe? The Dreambound are pretty awesome. Sun-Chained-in-Ink has a cool name, but isn’t very interesting, but Primat, Swashbucker, and Trans-Volitional Man are all very cool. (I want to know what Swashy’s backstory is…we saw the other three getting recruited, but he came pretty much out of nowhere.)
Robin - The Bat just has no idea how to handle his sidekicks, and associated characters, does he? Really enjoyed the issue. The scene where Tim and Dick were discussing Tim’s new costume, especially the mention of the exploding mask. (Except for the panel where the speech balloons were reversed.) Niceiza writes these characters well (both here and in Trinity). I’m wondering where RIP, Trinity and Final Crisis fit, relative to eachother - if Trinity and FC are after RIP, that takes a lot of the impact out of it (since Bruce is fine)…if RIP comes later, though, I’d expect some mention, at least of FC. Since RIP and FC are both primarily Morrison’s, and Nicieza is involved with both RIP and Trinity. I guess if it matters, it’ll be sorted out in the end. Right now, I’m just curious.
Nightwing - Not a lot to comment on, but it’s a Batman: RIP tie-in, according to the cover (not sure how this story will tie in, but…), so Dick accidentally killing a bunch of bats on the first page made me giggle a bit. I don’t know if Tomasi intended that, but it was funny (in a dark way).
Tengu, exactly what I meant. The collateral damage is nasty, there.
I don’t have my comics yet, but good lord, Starlin’s messing up Hawkman again? They finally got all (well, most) of that shit straightened out in JSA.
Which is kind of ironic, since Hawkman ended up in the position he’s in lately, due to being collateral damage from Crisis. >_>
I splurge-ed.
Astonishing: Ellis feels like he needs time to warm up, here. And I don’t like the art *at all. * He really did some jumps with the team.
Manhunter: Weird flashbacks and the arts again feels a little off. And by the end too damn many costumed people. I like it when she’s a little outside the regular circles looking in and a name showing up is a event.
Hellcat: Ditto. She’s just so fun and cute. The whole conversation was kinda hard to follow, but I liked it anyway.
Invincible Iron Man: Again, I bitch about the art and know not why. I’m getting crotchety. Fun stuff though.
Favreau’s Iron Man: Very fun. If they did Fing Fang Foom like this in a movie I’d go see it.
I liked the conversation being hard to follow. It’s not like Patsy was following it either.
And I liked how the cat went ‘bored now, gonna catch that bird’ instead. Subtle, but… hellcatty.
You hear about Warren Ellis writing for Dead Space?
Hmm. But Castlevania? They’re really desperate.
He’s also written a GI Joe animated movie coming out. That bothers me, actually.
Yeah, the art’s been horrible in Manhunter ever since it restarted. The only characters who look their ages are Sandra and Iron. And they’re not looking as well preserved as they usually do - or most of their contemporaries. Kate looks as old as them. Jaime looked as old as her in the last issue.
Well, OK, the Dylan scenes look good. But anything with Kate or Ramsey, or Oracle…
Onto the story… the scene where Thor ran into the street is intriguing.
Well, if Kate is Hugo Danner’s great-granddaughter… does this mean the Gladiator powers are sex-linked?