An odd week of comics. My DC girls — Supergirl, Zatanna and Power Girl — all shipped this week. Still like my women but none of them make the list today. No GI Joe today. Rolled a Snake Eyes. Cobra next week!!!! And you may be very surprised by some of my picks this week. I was. But they totally earned it. Onto the nominees!

AVENGERS #13 – Fear Itself tie-in. What can I say… I’m a sucker. Last time Mr. Bendis wrote a sit around and talk issue he got me. And he got me again as all the Avengers both old and new… sit around and talk for an entire issue. About rebuilding Asgard. And dating Thor. And eating eggs. And how Hawkeye now loves Jessica. Plus I thought the design of the book really played to Chris Bachalo’s strength. Loved it! Sucker!

BATMAN AND ROBIN #23 – Excellent. The Red Hood is back! And if you thought being cooped up in the same prison as the Punisher was problematic, forget about it, you do not want to be incarcerated with Jason Todd! Literally wacked about a 100 dudes in his short stay in Gotham City corrections. And then a lion, lizard and leopard broke him out of jail. Oh my!

BATMAN GATES OF GOTHAM #1 (OF 5) – Scott Snyder gets a co-story credit, rock-n-roll Batman stars and it was all about a bad guy blowing up bridges which have mucho history in Gotham going all the way back to 1881. Very good issue. But. But. None of that matters. Cassandra Cain showed up! Straight out of the blue! Like she had never left! I laughed and laughed. Only been waiting and wondering forever. And just like that she’s back.

DMZ #65 – The war is over! I repeat. The war is over! The series is not over! I repeat. The series is not over! They got a city to rebuild and five issues to do it.

FABLES #105 – Always. The North Wind and Bigby have a long conversation which ends with the North Wind deciding to take on Mister Dark again. Battle next issue. This issue Mrs. Sprat gets turned into a hottie. An evil hottie. But a hottie nonetheless.

ROCKETEER ADVENTURES #1 (OF 4) – Seriously?!?!? John Cassady. Mike Allred. Kurt Busiek. Mike Kaluta. Mike Mignola. And of course Jim Silke. God Bless the US of A!

SPIRIT #14 – Don’t normally read. Always take a peek. And when I peeked this week. Knew I had to read. And was not disappointed. Had a total… wait for it… Will Eisner feel to it. Just a “classic” Spirit story which I totally enjoyed. Plus it had to do with comic books and comic book art. And featured a very nice triple face punch!  Great issue.

TINY TITANS #40 – Don’t normally read. The cover got me. The Kroc issue! Absolutely hilarious. Tweets all week!

ULTIMATE AVENGERS VS NEW ULTIMATES #4 (OF 6) – Wow. Got some serious stuff going on here. Can’t wait to see how it all plays out. Ending was surprising. He could be dead. It is the Ultimate Universe.

UNCANNY X-FORCE #10 – Keeps cementing its place as one of the best comics being published today. Glad they told us why Archangel is acting the way he is. The Brazil women’s soccer team was hilarious. And didn’t even mind Dark Beast. Onto the Age of Apocalypse!

See ya!

Rusty