Quality week of comics. Ten of the 20 titles in the Cosmic Comix Top Twenty rankings shipped this week. Here’s six to get us started. FF #7, featuring the awfully talkative Black Bolt, MIGHTY THOR #4; featuring Galactus and the Silver Surfer; UNCANNY X-FORCE #12, featuring a lot of kissing in the Age of Apocalypse; X-MEN LEGACY #252, featuring Legion and his personalities; INVINCIBLE #81, featuring a lot of talking, even by Invincible standards; and DETECTIVE COMICS #880, featuring one crazy, very whacked out James Gordon. Daddy, when I grow up I want to be just like… the Joker! All six have won Best Book of the Week at some time or another in the past. Liked them all again. Nominating them all again. All good series. I like them. You like them. Enjoy!

Also liked my FLASHPOINT once again this week. LOIS LANE AND THE RESISTANCE #2 (OF 3) with Grifter as the leader of the resistance is great. They killed Hawkgirl and the rest of her Amazonian hit squad! Even gave us some Team 7 history. PROJECT SUPERMAN #2 (OF 3) rounded out the story of Subject Zero also know as Kal. Still waiting to see how he ties into the overall picture… Meanwhile over in HAL JORDAN #2 (OF 3), Hal gets into a dog fight with invisible Amazonian aircraft! Don’t know how he saw them… but with a little help from Carol he was able to take them out! Good thing he survived, President Obama has chosen Hal to drop the Green Arrow nuke on merry old England! Target date? August 31! Mark your calendar! Flashpoint #5 ships. Justice League #1 ships. And the new DCU begins!

What? What’s that? You want even more nominations. Why certainly. Here they are.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #666 SPI – The prelude issue. Still not totally sure what Spider-Island will bring us. This issue touched on every aspect of Spider-Man’s life and served as a great catch-up/recap as we head into Spider-Island part one next issue.

AMERICAN VAMPIRE #17 – Also a Top Twenty series. This issue was basically a running fire fight between a squad of GI’s and a horde of vampires. And as I was reading, as the pace built, I kept reading faster and faster and faster… totally got my adrenaline pumping! Forget about rock-n-roll Batman. Got me some rock-n-roll vampires! Loved it. And this is probably the fourth or fifth time I’ve said this about American Vampire, but this series just keeps getting better and better.

CAPTAIN AMERICA AND BUCKY #620 – Wondering how they were gonna do a Bucky book, you know, since he’s DEAD! The answer? Flashback to 1935 and give us a Bucky Barnes origin story. Will be a five-issue flashback which should give the events in Fear Itself a chance to play out before we get back to current continuity with Bucky. Liked the updated origin. Instead of the "comic relief" sidekick of the ’60s, we see a far more polished and capable Bucky Barnes who earns his place as Captain America’s partner. Thought it was excellent.

COBRA ONGOING #3 – Top Twenty! Alas, I will never be Cobra Commander…

CRIMINAL LAST OF INNOCENT #2 (OF 4) – Top Twenty! If you want to kill your wife, and Riley does, all you need to do is get your recovering addict best friend to fall off the wagon and provide you with an alibi. Harsh. Dude. Harsh.  Still totally diggin’ the Archie flashback pages! Always been a very good series and yet this arc could easily turn out to be the best one yet.

FABLES #107 – Top Twenty! Fables takes a break after the climactic conclusion of the Dark Man saga last issue. Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise, Echo) steps in as the guest artist for this one-shot titled "Waking Beauty." And yes, it is about Sleeping Beauty. Nope, she doesn’t wake up. Some very violent yet agreeable goblins steal her body and burn down a castle. Loved it.

JOE HILL THE CAPE #1 (OF 4) – Should probably mention that it’s a mature readers title only because it is and it is not mentioned anywhere on the cover… anyway… ”The Cape” stole a grizzly bear from the zoo and dropped him like a bomb into a cop’s car! AHHHHHURKKK! RRHHH! Lunch time! Hilarious. And sequence of the week.

SECRET AVENGERS #15 – Gave it a shout out yesterday as it’s not a title that we usually talk about. Give it a whirl.

And finally a note. The final issue of SECRET WARRIORS #28 came out this past week. So sad. Although I was happy to see the word caterpillars used in it. But really the only reason I’m even bringing it up is because of what Jonathon Hickman wrote at the very end of his goodbye on the last page. Oh, one last thing, if Brian Michael Bendis ever calls you up on the phone and asks if you want to write a book with him featuring Nick Fury..say YES. It’ll change your life.

See ya!

Rusty