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As you can see, I took last week off. I was upstate for most of the holiday break and just didn’t have time to hit the comic store. It’s weird, I didn’t write the column and I can’t say that I missed it all that much. I think it’s just because this has been a very crazy end of the year. That and I don’t know if I have the time I need to make this as good as possible. Look at this, in only two weeks I picked up 8 DC’s, 2, of the DC subsets, 35 Marvels and 4 trades. That adds up to a lot and even though I have a steady job, other bills take priority over comics, like finishing up my Masters degree. Of course, I will never stop reading these things, probably just not as many. So, what does that mean for you? I am going to keep writing this. The Main Event stuff will stay the same. I will pick probably 4-6 titles a week and really give it a lengthy write-out, but the other comics that aren’t highlights I can’t write as much. I have been writing a lot in describing them and that’s what takes the most time. So, those will be a sentence, I can’t make it any longer for time reasons. They will still get points, 1 for readability and 0 if it is a total waste. I will still give awards every week just because it’s fun and I like ranking things, so that won’t change.
So after that long-winded intro, we have a lot to catch up on. I doubt this will be up by Tuesday afternoon, but I will try my best (and write as little as I can!). Let’s get started on the Double-Sized issue of TPL!
Spoiler Alert
The Main Event
-Batman #681- This is the final chapter to RIP, and after all the build-up, all the delays, we can finally say we know what happened. Or can we? Grant Morrison can never be characterized as a conventional writer and generally that works very well. Throughout his run on Batman we’ve built to this. Unfortunately, the comic leaves us with more questions than answers. We know that Batman is buried alive, we know that he escapes because of all the planning he’s done in his life, we know Joker gets away we know he Hurt, and it seems that Batman is blown up going after Hurt. So, where does this leave us? Is Batman dead? Will someone be going after the cowl (like the solicits suggest). I don’t know. I read this and I read a title like Captain America, and what happened when he died. We knew for certain that Cap was dead. The story surrounding it was much better and the death had a great impact. For a story that was promised to shake things up, we don’t really get an ending. I know it is part of the comics business to do that, since everything is serialized and continues on, but I just would’ve liked a more satisfying conclusion. With that complaining aside, this was still a really good storyline. We got to see more about the mythos of Batman than anything I’ve read in the last decade and by no means was this unreadable. Was it as great as it was hyped to be? Probably not, but still it was worth the point for being good. 1/1.
Marvel
-Amazing Spider-Man #579- Spidey saves everyone, as expected, Shocker gets away, and JJJ’s father disappears before JJJ can see him. I love the art of Martin on this title, and anytime he’s on it is gonna be a point. 1/1.
-Cable #9- Bishop has planted traps all over the world to trap Cable in the future as Cable is busy fighting cockroaches who run the US. I still can’t believe someone would green light cockroaches as viable villains, and this whole time-travel thing is now in over its head. 1/2.
-Captain America #44- Brubaker continues his awesomeness with Bucky getting caught in a trap by an old enemy he met back in his Winter Soldier days. Why aren’t you buying this? 2/3.
-Criminal 2 #7- Again, Brubaker continues his awesomeness with the story of Jacob Kurtz and how quickly his life goes downhill after realizing he was set up by Detective Starr. At the end of the day, Starr was murdered by Kurtz who then drives his car, with Iris in it, off a cliff. He’s as alone as ever and you feel bad for him, and this is noir storytelling at its finest. 3/4.
-Daredevil #113- Brubaker gets the awesome hat trick this week, as DD goes up against Lady Bullseye for the first time, and she’s just too good. DD does learn that the Hand wants to destroy his life and he know they mean it when Maya is checked out and White Tiger is killed. DD has always been one of my favorite titles, but this is the best it’s been since the days of Miller. 4/5.
-Guardians of the Galaxy #7- The 31st Century Guardians fall to the badoon which adds a backdrop to the current times, as the Raccoon leads a new team against a new threat of the usually harmless Badoon. This is the best intergalactic story-telling has been at Marvel, ever, and Abnett & Lanning are just reinventing this genre at the company. 5/6.
-Hulk #8- Joe Fixit becomes Hulk again to fight Sentry and Ms. Marvel but the Wendigo threat is established as a combined front for them to attack and in the second story Rulk is attacked by a bunch of super-powered women. I think the two-story format helps this title out a lot, since now we get two completely different stories for the price of one and allows Cho to be a monthly artist on-time. 6/7.
-Incredible Hercules #123- Hercules and Cho separately uncover a plot by the Amazons to take over the world, and Herc must head over to the Axis Mundi (center of the world) to stop them from gaining power after stealing an all-powerful device. Fun story-telling, slick art, and a story deep in mythology makes this a solid addition to any pull-list. 7/8.
-Marvels: Eye of the Camera #1- The long-awaited follow up to Marvels sees that stories protagonist struggle with the heroes being around, the effect on his children, his questions about his job, and finally getting cancer. Well, that is certainly a plot that will hit close to home. This can’t recapture the magic of the original 4-parter, but this is starting off as an interesting 6-parter and I trust Busiek to lead this to good places. 8/9.
-Marvel Zombies 3 #3- Machine Man tries to make it back to Jacosta before she’s brought back to tell her that the Zombies have infected our MU and bad things are ahead, but he can’t make it after being taken down by Zombies. You’d think the Zombies would run out of steam but this is a new spin on the Marvel Zombie mythology and I can appreciate that. 9/10.
-Moon Knight: Silent Knight #1- This is the standard vigilante Christmas tale, as Moon Knight takes out two murdering thieves but sees that nothing but trouble lies in his wake and he gets his Christmas present from Marlene in the bedroom. I haven’t read this title since before the summer, but the intro page gives us a good idea of what’s going on and all we need to know. A decent story, but if you’re looking for a good Marvel Holiday Special type story, this is the wrong place to look. 10/11.
-New Avengers #47- We see how Luke and Jessica came to be, then Lucas finds out his baby’s been taken. I buy this and it’s $3.00 now, and I want to see something happen. This would be a good story as a back-up in an Annual or something but instead we have a full issue where the main thing is that Luke’s kid is taken. I know it’s the time we’re in where things are drawn out like this, but read a Silver Age comic and it has everything you’d need. A story, action, and running plots. I just haven’t liked NA since Secret Invasion started. 10/12.
-New Exiles #15- Invisible Woman shows up to exact revenge on Cat as Sage finds out Merlyn is behind the angst in her mind. This is the most I’ve enjoyed the title in some time, as some good fight scenes and a story that makes sense really helps out a comic. 11/13.
-New Warriors #18- The Warriors find that Iron Man has taken over the world, kind of a Days of the Future Past type story, but the real shocker is that Iron Man is actually Donyell’s brother and Night Thrasher is Tony Stark! That’s an interesting turn and coming off Secret Invasion, this is the best this title has been since its debut. 12/14.
-Nova #19- The Corps do good, the Worldmind is mad at Richie, and he gets really mad when he sees that Worldmind started a whole new corps (including Richie’s brother) against his wishes! This is the best Nova has ever been, ever, since his creation. 13/15.
-NYX #4- A new sniper makes her way into the scene, and she’s not affected by Kiden’s power. We see that who ever is behind this can control dead people, or is dead himself, and Cecilia Reyes of X-Men fame makes a cameo. Interesting, but its enjoyed best if you read the original first. 14/16.
-Punisher X-Mas #1- Punisher saves a mobster’s wife about to give birth from a rival mob but the twist at the end is perfect Punisher. Like Moon Knight, it was a dark story, but it was far better in terms of keeping Punisher in character and in terms of enjoyability and even its message. 15/17.
-Runaways #4- Nico tries to fix the scattered Runaways but they only succeed in letting their prisoner go and having the rest of the aliens descend upon them at the Runaways worst time. This is a title you can read again, especially after BKV left the title and it had a 5-issue delayed mess. 16/18.
-Secret Invasion #8- We have reached the end. I don’t want to go too far into it, since the heroes defeat the Skrulls, Norman Osborn is the one that everyone (i.e., the public) sees as the great savior, SHIELD is done, Stark’s a joke and Norman and his villain illuminati have taken over. Interesting concept, but I don’t know if through all the tie-ins and months of things going on it was worth it financially. This main title was good, but all the periphery titles makes SI a little tough to follow at times. 17/19.
-Secret Invasion: Front Line #5- Urich’s wife is dead, life goes on, Norman’s in power. Front Line was a great concept during Civil War that lost some of its luster during World War Hulk and can finally be put to sleep after this yawner. 17/20.
-Secret Invasion: Inhumans #4- The Inhumans take out the Skrulls and Black Bolt is saved. Started off well, but I guess I am SI’ed out and I tried to rush through this as quickly as possible. 17/21.
-Secret Invasion: X-Men #4- The X-Men defeat the Skrulls by introducing the Legacy Virus and promising an antidote only if they leave. Can we finally say SI is over? 17/22.
-She-Hulk #35- She-Hulk and the women battle the Russian supers only to have them reach a truce for the good of those affected by the earthquake and Shulkie gets an invitation to meet the ruler of that third world country. Girl Power at its finest? This was an inoffensive story, more of a social commentary than anything else. Not bad, though. 18/23.
-She-Hulk: Cosmic Collision #1- This is the best She-Hulk story I’ve read since Slott was on the title. Here She-Hulk and other female heroines have to stop an evil cosmic character hell-bent on killing ALL heroines. This was just really well-written, being both deep and witty at the same time. Recommended. 19/24.
-Skaar Son of Hulk #5- Skaar fights and defeats the Shadow Priest. This is just great fighting action, and nothing more. If you enjoy the dark mythology of the Red Planet you’ll get an even deeper appreciation of what Pak is doing. 20/25.
-Ultimate Spider-Man #128- Ultimate Carnage is absorbed by Venom, and now he is super powerful. SHIELD wants him, but Latveria and Doom gets him first. I liked the super-Venom and even after 126 issues Bendis is keeping this title a must-read. 21/26.
-Ultimate X-Men #98- The X-Men deal with the onset of the Ultimatum Wave as Dazzler and Nightcrawler are dead and they plan a counter-attack against Magneto. Rogue breaks free on her own and goes to Weapon X for help. If this is the end, they are going out on a high note. 22/27.
-Weapon X: First Class #2- The PG rated origin of Wolverine from Weapon X continues. The real reason to buy this is the Deadpool backup which features some funny stuff. 23/28.
-What If? House of M #1- This awesome issue shows what happens is Wanda got rid of all powers instead of all mutants. Red Skull would try to take over the world with the Cosmic Cube but we learn that heroes aren’t defined by their powers but by their character, and even without powers the characters we know and love are still heroes. The Runaways back-up that will run through all 5 of these is creating something special, too. Highly Recommended. 24/29.
-Wolverine: First Class #9- Wolvie meets with Shang-Chi to learn a little more about himself, and it pays off. Nice to see Shang-Chi again. The All-Ages titles usually trump the ongoing stories as for the most part they are self-contained and can be enjoyed without really knowing huge backstory or history. 25/30.
-Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #2- Some old girlfriend has a gang that beats up on Wolvie and he goes to an old master for help. I’m not into this story. There’s only so much they can milk Wolvie’s new memories and old exes wanting revenge. 25/31.
-Wolverine: Origins #30- This was awesome, as Daken finds out the truth, takes out Shaw, and teams up with his father to seek revenge. This will be a really cool father/son team-up that will ensue. 26/32.
-Wolverine and Power Pack #2- The Pack come to the X-Mansion for a day and have to fight the Sentinels. Always a fun time to be had with these Pack titles. 27/33.
-X-Force #9- X-Force and Domino find the Legacy virus in the hands of some Marauder clones and then face some Orphan-Makers. Proudstar continues on his spiritual journey and now Ghost Rider makes an appearance. Good enough to be enjoyable. 28/34.
-X-Infernus #1- We return to the story of Magik who is brought back to this world when Pixie stabbed Nightcrawler and brought out the soulsword he had in him. It seems Belasco’s daughter wants to take over Limbo. This was built up to in the New X-Men story and the other magic one-shots. This is looking to be an interesting story, but probably only for Magik fanatics. 29/35.
-X-Men: Manifest Destiny #4- We see stories of Nightcrawler (who is upset over Kitty’s death), Cessily, and the Iceman story with Mystique. The Iceman stuff isn’t going anywhere, but the other two stories are worth it. 30/36.
DC
-Batman #682- Last Rites starts with a retelling of Batman’s early career and a Final Crisis tie-in with Batman hooked up to a machine powering some Clay-Men. This answers NO questions from RIP and it isn’t even related, and we need to go to the next big Morrison vehicle, Final Crisis, but the early look at how Batman came to be will be good for younger fans. 2/2.
-Batman Gotham After Midnight #7- Batman finds the detective cop, dead, finds Killer Croc, but that’s all a diversion for Midnight to kill the mayor. Midnight is the best new Bat character in a long while. 3/3.
-Birds of Prey #124- The Birds take out those crooks from the Flats as Babs confronts the Joker. I liked this title, but it’s dropped as of now for monetary reasons and this was just an unspectacular finale to the arc that was running. 3/4.
-Justice Society of America #21- Read the Kingdom first, then come here to read the epic battle between the JSA and Gog. Gog is just an awesome villain and this is the best title by DC being published now. 4/5.
-The Kingdom #1- Citizen Steel just wants his life back since Gog is granting other people’s wishes, but Sandman makes a startling discovery, Gog is literally becoming one with the world and this is not good news for anyone. Again, the best story being published by DC right now. 5/6.
-Superman #682- The Kryptonians capture all the villains Superman has fought, killing humans in the process, and Supes is not happy with that turn of events. The storyline is progressing well, and I wonder how Supes will deal with these new Kryptonians and some of their rogue ways. 6/7.
-Trinity #26- Tarot sees the world is going crazy, we see the origin of Konvikt, and it is now a fact that there isn’t a bad issue of Trinity through the first half of the story. 7/8.
-Trinity #27- Konvikt is brought aboard as the third member of the evil Trinity, and the back-up tale shows the evil army being assembled. A Sun Chained In Ink is just a cool villain, as is the whole evil Trinity thing. 8/9.
Vertigo
-Northlanders #12- Ragnar hunts for the man who has been killing the Vikings but can’t quite get a grasp of what he’s all about. This continues being awesome. 1/1.
Vertigo
-Project Superpowers #1/2- This freebie copy continues the story by showing the funeral of Dynamic Boy who resurrects at the end. Yeah, he’s a robot. 1/1.
Awards
There will be two winners for each this week, one representing the last week of November titles and one being the first week of December titles.
-Book of the Week- Wolverine Origins had a really satisfying conclusion, and really wins for lack of great stories the last week of November, while What If was just kick-ass, with the alternate story of House of M, and easily wins the first December award.
-Disappointment of the Week- Our first winner is New Avengers #47, and I think I made my feelings known in the review of it. I think I’m just sour on all the Secret Invasion and their tie-ins. It got to be just too much, ya know? On the other hand, we have Cable #9. I don’t know, I can’t explain it, but I just think it is beyond silly with these human cockroaches. I like the underlying plot of what Bishop is doing, but roaches?
-Cover of the Week- The first is the awesome JSA #21 cover, showing that Jay Garrick has become the Flash that we’ve seen in Kingdom Come thanks to Gog. The second would be Moon Knight: Silent Knight. This is one of the best Crain covers I’ve seen in a while, as it doesn’t look too overdone like some of his Ghost Rider covers were. Crain also breaks the 5-cover winning streak that Alex held.
-The Bottom Line- This was just a lot of comics, and I am freaking worn out. I can’t rest though, as it’s Thursday and I’m picking up the new batch of books tomorrow and that needs to be started. Sigh, what a long damn week.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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