The Week in Comics

Because I'm trying to ramp up to writing something productive for my work in progress (WiP), and because I have nothing better to blog about (not strictly true - I've been on vacation all week and I feel freaking great), here's evidence that I shouldn't be reviewing new comic book releases.

All of the books listed here were purchased from Third Eye Comics, my regular comic book shop in Annapolis, MD. If you live in Annapolis and you like comic books, you will want to go to there. If you live in Annapolis and you like those shirts Sheldon wears in The Big Bang Theory, you will want to go to there (they have scads). If you live in Annapolis and like manga, you will want to go someplace else, probably online (sorry Steve).

And here we go:

• Brightest Day #5: This issue is a winner just to see Aquaman take on BP (who go unnamed in the comic, but come on). There's also some stuff about a guy named Deadman trying and failing to raise the dead, and Hawkman and Hawkwoman facing off against animal men, and you stopped paying attention because you haven't been following the series, haven't you. You see that link up there for Blackest Night? Maybe you should go read that first.
• X-Force #13: Okay, so the world's mutants have all been sterilized or turned human and there's only been one mutant born since that happened, and her name is Hope, and she went to the future for awhile but now she's back but now a robot named Bastion is trying to kill her and all the other mutants and oh God don't get me started. The art is really pretty and if you've been following the X-Men recently you'll like this issue, otherwise run.
• Irredeemable #15: Superman turned evil! Lex Luthor took over Jimmy Olsen's indestructable body! The Justice League teamed up with the Devil to take him on and in this issue they get smacked around real good. Except, y'know, all the names and faces were changed, because this isn't a Superman comic. Still, really good series, go get the trade paperback and read it from the start.
• Shadowland #1: Finally a first issue! Daredevil (not Ben Affleck) has taken over as the Kingpin of New York, and it's getting to him. His friends try to keep him on the goody-two-shoes path, but... well, they're a bit late. This should be a good story, but I don't care about Daredevil enough to be interested. If you like him, enjoy.
• Secret Six #23: Six DC villains you've never heard of (except maybe Bane) get caught up in a "The Most Dangerous Game" scenario, and things get bloody. Decent filler.
• Batman and Robin #13: Forget about Joel Schumacher, okay? You should be reading Grant Morrison's Batman stories, period. This is not a good issue to start with: go find the Batman and Son trade. If you are following the series, it continues excellent in this issue, go get.
• Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier #1: Captain America has passed the name onto his sidekick, but he's keeping busy as the new super-spy of Marvel Comics. In this book, Steve's tracking down a scientist threatening to sell the super-soldier serum to terrorists, but nothing goes the way he expects. This looks to be a good spy series from Ed Brubaker, who's been telling great Cap stories for years now.

I've been at this for half an hour and I'm running out of steam. Here goes the final push:

• Amazing Spider-Man #636: Grim Hunt, part 3. The resurrected Kraven the Hunter (read: insane big-game hunting Russian with super-strength) gets himself oriented, acts loopy, and challenges Spider-Man to hunt him down for killing his clone. Yeah... it's cool if you're following the series.
• X-Men #1: Curse of the Mutants. It's the X-Men versus vampires, and they're already taking casualties. This promises to be fun.
• Red Robin #14: If you liked Robin in the Nineties, he's got a new name and he's fighting the current Robin, who is Bruce Wayne's kid. Actually pretty good, but not if you're not following the Morrison stories. Sorry.
• Batman Beyond #1: If you liked the cartoon you should like this. Good to see Terry McGinnis again.
• Brightest Day: The Atom Special #1: Does what I suspect are some rewrites to the Atom's (aka Ray Palmer's) history to set him up for a new story-arc that I don't care about, because the Atom's successor (Atom aka Ryan Choi) just died for no good reason and the writer couldn't be bothered to even mention it, and there's no relation between this issue and Brightest Day and I feel ripped off.

Enough already, I'm done. Cripes. Go get some Green Lantern graphic novels if you want something fun to read, or almost anything by Warren Ellis. I'm never doing this again.