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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Captain America 28
Another good story line. Had to go to wikipedia to figure out what exactly is the story behind all of this and I quote, "the Red Skull was assassinated by the Winter Soldier under the orders of Aleksander Lukin, and one of the Skull's henchmen, Crossbones, broke into the facility and kidnapped Synthia (Skull's daughter). Crossbones tortured Synthia to break S.H.I.E.L.D's conditioning. After he succeeded, she entered into a relationship with him, and - with Synthia now calling herself simply Sin - the two went on a killing spree. They later reunited with the Skull, now living inside the mind of General Lukin (However, before he died, the Skull used the Cube to transfer his mind into Lukin's body, leaving the two men stuck together "like rats in a cage." Well there you have!






Ultimate Spider-Man 111

Filler issue...although we do get a sneak peak of Stuart Immonen's pencils starting in issue 112.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 5

Must be filler issue month. Joss does a one shot. Not really my thing...enjoy continuity. Vaughan starts his mini next month.

New X-men 40
I want to love this book...but the characters are too diverse and the art makes it difficult to determine who is who. Have to hand it to Claremont...he was lengthy but he always tried to write a book as if this was someone's first. A fine line for most comic book writers but they need to remember that every issue could be someone's first so ensure you give a little background so we don't get lost. Anyway love the characters but there are so many it is difficult to figure it all out. And this is my 4th issue...aghhhh

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Another strong issue. I need to track down the previous issues before 25 to try and get a better feel for the characters. The Winter Soldier, Falcon, and the SHIELD Agent. I think each issue would fit stronger in a context. This one is basically about the Shield. Winter Soldier wants it, Tony Stark wants to keep it. Learn a bit more back story on alliances and who Winter Soldier knows...I like the future potential team-up Black Widow and Winter Soldier. Good ongoing series with good writing and good art.









Conclusion to this arc...whoopee...not all that strong of an arc. I think Bendis basically wanted to write all these characters (and why put Moon Knight into the Ninja outfit that is in his Avengers books?) I am sure Bendis thinks it is cute but I find it annoying. Let's be a bit more subtle with our little inside jokes. Anyway a nice little spidey high and mighty speech but basically nothing exciting. A boring arc...I much prefer Bendis stays with the spidey mythos...again I never thought King Pin was a spidey villian. Let's get back to Peter, MJ, and the coolest villians of any comic character.

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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.

Captain America - RIP

Okay they broke Batman's back, he came back, they killed Superman, he came back, they killed Colossus, he came back, they killed Hawkeye, he came back....are you starting to get the picture? Gimmick? Possibly but the issue was good...very emotional. Not for sure if I liked the whole Civil War thing but I do think that putting Capt A and Iron Man against each other was a good touch. Two dynamic figures with definate histories. With the finish of Civil War, they really had to move the character forward and this was a logical step but still it was Capt America! He's the man...to see him shot...that was tough. Definately provides a point forward, but will they cheapen it by bringing him back? Wouldn't it be nice if they let the character move on? Why cheapen it? Let the character move on and allow it to move the mythos forward. Hopefully Brubaker has something up his sleeve...I would like to see the Capt kick some Iron Man butt! Oh yeah the whole downfall of America and Capt America...please don't go so deep.