New Avengers #51 - It's cute. It's real cute. From the Coma Girl to the Wiccan/Strange moments the book bubbles up with the cute. I actually mean that as a compliment. Long story short, good character moments and a smooth transtition from arc to arc is what's in the book. And it's a good thing. I still don't care for Billy Tan's pencils, but Immomen (SP?) is coming. Look you could have a ten year old with a learning disability, or me (I'd be worse...I draw for shit), on pencils and it would still be a top seller.
Mighty Avengers #23 - The last page reveal is almost worth the price of admission. That said, this is the most Avengers-y book you will read. It's got the old school villians, wierd line-up and Jarvis that the old school fans want. I was more of an X book kid, but who wasn't, so some of the charm is slightly lost on me. That said my more recent turns towards obsessive fanning have allowed me to gain more of an appreciation. I like Dan Slott, but I'm going to give it another arc before assing judgment on it's continued reading.
Avengers the Initiative: Reptil: Nothing that wrong with the book as far as art or writing, but I could care less. It's just that simple. I have literally nothing more to say. It's servicable, but may be solely for completists. That's really it.
ASM #589 - A pretty good one and done. And those don't really pop up that much in the era of writing for trades. The art is solid. The humor works as well as it ever does. And...yeah. Perfectly good one and done. Not going to change the world, but you could do a lot worse.
Iron Fist #24 - Another damn fine one and done. Granted, I always hate when they break up the arcs like this, but I get two Iron Fists in a month so it works. Sadly, the book is done after #27 so.... I will say, yet again, the guy who writes this book (I am not goint to try and spell that name) did a damn fine job doing what looked to be the impossible and keep the quality up. Good stuff. You will be missed.
Crossed #4 - A solid twist on the zombie concept. And also, a book that would probably gross out the vast majority of people. What with all of the ass rape and cannibalism. Yep. They're kind of zombies, but way more twisted. That's it. Ennis at his Ennisiest. Says it all. Good pacing and tension as well. Just throwing that in there. It's not all about people eating and forced soddomy here.
Squadron Supreme # 9 - Yup. This book has been on kind of a down turn since the start of the reboot. I get the whole "Let's throw in the Marvel analogues" thing, but the point of the book was moreso "DC analogues dealing with slightly more realistic geo-politics." Not straight up cape and tightery. That said, I prefer the original direction and tone. And, Gary Frank is a tough act to follow. Supreme is on borrowed time with the pull list.
FF # 565 - It took me literally three minutes to read this from cover to cover. It's not dreadful. And the Cthulu-esque thing looks neat, but it's kind of a forgettable little story thrown in as a palete cleanser between arcs. Quaint looking villagers with a horrifying secret plotline with jet packs and the Thing. As far as those stories go it's a decent one because of the team, but it isn't on the same level as the rest of the run.
Messiah War 1 shot - Thus continues my love/hate relationship with X-Force. I love that they bring back obscure characters that the casual fan has to ask me about at the store (because I'm petty). At the same time, a lot of those characters are forgotten for a very good reason. I love the overall mean spiritdness of the whole Marvel line post Ellis on Thunderbolts. But, I hate the fact that certain characters are only written that way in this book. I love the interactions with Vanisher, but I still think he looks silly. Anyway, um, right. They are certainly going places with this one. Actually this whole Messiah mishegasse (SP.)/ revisionist history thing started out as a cool idea. But...Stryfe. He's been dead since I was in middle school, and with good reason. People hated him then. Apocolypse? He fought Dracula for fucksake. He was originally going to be The Owl for fucksake. He's a really vaguely defined character who hails from the school of generic 80's design. He's got a giant A on his belt in case he looses it. And that's it, really. The problem that I have with this book is on a plotting level. And that my main concern is that I don't think that the creators behind it haven't been able to seperate nostalgia and quality creations from each other. If Whiz Kid shows up with his magic wheelchair to save the day I'm done.
Guardians of the Galaxy # 12 - Still a damn fine book. I didn't have a problem with the C story that other outlets did. It's a solid read.
Captain America #48 - It is the most consistently engaging book published since it's relaunch. It's got a great continuing narrative. IT consistently has great, fitting, art. And it's got characterization to spare. If you read cape and tight books you should read this one. And it's actually gotten better with Bucky at the helm.
Thunderbolts #130 - Deadpool is the new Wolverine. Plain and simple. I just had to throw that out there. Um, it's alright. I prefer Paco Medina's art in the Deadpool monthly, but the art here is fine. Thunderbolts B is still pretty good. No, it's not as good as the Ellis/Deadoto book, but it's still a fairly entertaining read every month. The bar was pretty high going in and I think they're doing a pretty good job keeping things up there as far as quality. It's middle of the road. Fun, and still getting pulled.
X-Infernus #4 - This could have been done in 2 issues or a 5 dollar one shot. That's the problem. There just wasn't enough story here to justify four issues. Pixie and Magick want their souls back. Witchfire wants them to bring back Elder Gods. Good triumphs, but Pixie looses another piece of her soul. Magick is back, but sans soul. There you go. (I don't consider it a spoiler because of the...she's on the New Mutants cover. They spoiled it three weeks before this.)
Life and Times of ucas Bishop - Revisionist history with questionable art and a four dollar price point. It's unnecessary, and frankly, if you wanted to get into the Bishop back story they should have done it seventeen years ago when people were really interested in the whole X-traitor thing. all this book has done is make many years of past stories either not make sense or incredibly creepy (he went on a date with his grandma dude.)
Where's the DC? I read JLA 30 in the store. It was pretty good. I could care less about the Battle for the Cowl one shots. I'm sure it's a lot of staring and wondering if Gotham can survive without Batman. Which is what all of the titles post RIP have been anyway. Also, DC doesn't put out a whole lot of books these days.
Predictions - It's between Doom, Hood and Wiccan for the Sorccerer Supreme. It's probably going to be Wiccan, though, eventually. The good guys have to win one. Pretty much, if it goes Doom or Hood there's too much of a disparity between sides and relative power.
So, is Ms. Marvel 1 dead? She seems to be on covers for New Avengers for the next little bit. Although, time tables never synch properly in comics.
That's about it.
