This Week In Comics

Batman 668
Wow a real detective story? Morrison continues his strong stories. This one again centers on all the "cheap" imitations of the real "Batman". A welcome reprieve from the Gotham villains, which Morrison really hasn't exploited. Missed the art normal art team. Not a big fan of J.H. Williams' art. Interesting page layouts but poor follow through as the advertising really interrupted the flow. Interesting to see what happens.

Astonishing X-men 22
Once again Whedon shows that he is the best X-writer in the last 15 years. Amazing storyline, captures the imagination, strong characters, and unbelievable cliffhangers. Whedon has a thing for really beating down my favorite character. This one really leaves Cyke floating into oblivion. First he loses his optic blast, now he is floating into space, but at least he is still the leader, always the leader. Some great lines in this one, Beast's line about, "You know, I thought I'd have a lot more fun if I ever got to say this...that's no moon." and Wolverine's "Good Luck, Summers". That last one is the essence between Wolverine and Cyke. The dueling egos, the constant professionals, the love of the same woman, the constant sparing between two great heroes but in the end the endless respect that both have for each other. Good stuff...good book...not happy about only 2 issues left :-(

Captain America 29
Big week two incredible storylines. Brubaker is doing a tremendous job telling a complex tale and keeping it interesting. I really need to get his first 24 issues! Anyway Winter Soldier plays his card but gets trumped (for now), Stark is realizing that SHIELD is a giant mess and a sinking ship, and hey we even get Natasha doing her best imitation of Spidey. Kind of a linking issue...no real eye openers...but another piece of the puzzle to ponder over.





Ultimate Spider-Man 112
New artist! A welcome site...I was getting tired of Bagley's art...not that it wasn't a heck of a run but it was getting dated. Immonen adds some life to the characters. A new perspective, a new starting point. The story seems a bit fresher...some of the previous series were getting a bit drawn out. Anyway not much to report, a lead off story laying the foundation of the spidey and the goblin.






X-men 202
Reading all the x-books for the endangered species back story makes me realize there are too many mutants running around. When you read Astonishing X-men you get the point...there are 6 tight characters with a good team dynamic. Some of these other books just have too many mutants running around. No dynamic just we have these important characters that should be in a book but their not so let's throw them in. This issue has the new x-men in it which just makes it all the more busy. Aren't they busy with Magik? Ughhhh. At least we have Mr Sinister...he is always a good baddie.



New X-men 41
Well the quest for Magik is completed...yet no Magik at least not one that isn't still in Limbo. Of course what the x-teams don't need is another character but it was a nice diversion to see an old school mutant. This issue we got a surprise panel of spidey and Dr Strange. How about that? And a nice appearance of the astonishing group even though they are light years away in space...can't we sort of have some continuity. How about some book cancellations and get the core X groups together. Really two x-teams and a new mutant type book is all you need. Readers do appreciate some continuity (even though we now that Wolverine has a personal time dilation device which allows him to be in all the books simultaneously! Ha). Anyway the quest for Magik story was a bit disappointed. For 4-5 books all we did was establish that Magik is around and now she is in charge of limbo. No real character developments...pretty weak.

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Batman 667
Another interesting direction for Morrison's Batman. Have to give him credit, he is moving the character is an interesting direction. I imagine with 667 issues writer's have a difficult time moving a character in new directions or ideals. The last couple issues with is son, Damian, and the 666 issue was actually pretty good. This new storyline of different batmans in each country is pretty interesting. Good start off...have to give Morrison credit for taking famous characters and keeping it interesting...I loved what he did with the X-men which really lead to Weddon's run.




New Avengers 33
Another new direction, the bomb that was two issues ago, Elektra a skrull, has basically led to two issues of whining superheroes freaked out about who is who. Bendis then brings in the Hood which I have never heard of (ahh just read the wiki entry and it a new character...whoopee...don't care). Wish Bendis kept moving in the skrull direction instead of taking these side streets. Also the art is getting old...come home if I went chicken scratch I will do my own drawings!





Omega Flight #5
OK well you knew my excitement 6 months ago when this came out and well now its over. Yippee...really a horrible way to kill a decent ideal, Marvel. Come on, Alpha Flight has always had a place in Marvel X-lore. It was a decent book with good characters. This looked like a worthy restart but seeing the storyline cobbled together to fit a 5 book mini-series really made this just awful. Not pleased! Now I guess they will be in Marvel's new weekly book coming out in September? We shall see...what a big disappointment!




Powers 25
A new storyline! Alrighty I've been following Powers since issue 1 and I knew Deena got powers but from a powers virus? Guess I'm a big dummy and never picked up on that...how well. What is great about Powers is Bendis and Oeming don't take the book too seriously. I mean they screw with their characters but the book is willing to go pretty much anywhere. It is Bendis's playground. I mean who could get away with the Monkey issue? Now this one (ohh it's got a facelift...more pages...stiffer paper, yup stiffer!) has the a 2 page spread of Walker doing what a million year old man does. Go figure. Anyway will be interesting to see how the Walker/Deena conflict pans out.

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I had given up on Morrison's batman but with the last issue I decided it was still worth my while. This was kind of a filler issue leading up to "666". Is it any wonder that Batman's son is named Damien? Any Kubert's art continues to rock...great batman artist.








To be honest I have no clue what is going on with the X-men., I bought this issue with the big event 200 coming next month. No clue who is on the team other than Rogue, Cable, Cannonball (and his sister?) and some other girl. Hopefully they can pull these teams together and make it coharent for the rest of us....







Part 4 of the Ultimate Knights storyline and ho hum...nothing terribly exciting. I'll mention it again...the kingpin is not a spidey villian. Let's move on...and let Bagley move on as well. This book needs some new blood...and some new stories.








Is Bendis writing too many books? This book is going nowhere...who cares about a new Ultron...let's make it happen. We are already in Book 3 and nothing exciting has happen except for a naked ultron. Whoopee...I'm done with this one.








Well after the death of the Captain, I had to discover the scoop...the dream of every writer...kill of a character to get new readership! Well I fell for the trap...always liked the Captain but never seemed to get into it. The gritty style is a good start. It will be interesting to see where it goes.








This story comes and goes. This issue is not too exciting.

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Yawn, ask me if I care? Is this the pax-Whedon? Did he bring us this far along only to go out with a whimper? This issue isn't terribly compelling as the last few really haven't been all that exciting. Guess this underlying storyline that has been running through all the issues really isn't all that memorable. I mean "Beak World" and the return of Colossus, and then Colossus is the one to destroy the world? Is this like Jean Grey lite? Well shouldn't complain...once Whedon goes...no more X-men for me...unless they find a decent writer again!

Is this a comic? Or did DC become a short story publisher? Is this suppose to be some leading edge new world thing? Alright, Grant Morrison, is a fantastic writer but this is a comic...let him write a short story elsewhere. I couldn't bring myself to get through this. My excitement for Grant's Bats is slowing dwindling....good bye

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Justice League of America #2 is Brad Meltzer's second issue into his run. Second issues are always tough because you start off with a bang then it leads into the dreaded second issue where the author has to bridge the gap. It is the ultimate bore because in this issue you have to actually explain where the storyline is going to go. Brad does a good job although it seems he is taking alot of liberties with the audience knowing alot of historical background. Beyond the Big 3 I have no ideal who the heck is Redd Tornado so basically I'm lost....



Issue 100...Wow! An impressive run that Bendis has put together. The Clone Saga seems somewhat forced to me...trying to tie into the normal Marvel universe. Good tie in to the overall saga but I was hoping for a bit more out of a momumental issue unfortunately it only leads to more questions. Not for sure where this is all going but I am sure Bendis will have a surprise for us...

Grant Morrison's Batman is okay. Not for sure where is he taking this...I have always trusted Grant on giving a good story so I will give him a chance. Batman having a son is interesting let's hope it doesn't fade away into typical comic sleight of hand trick.











Total filler issue...they need to find some continuity otherwise this comic is done..