One of the best weeks of comics I’ve seen in awhile. Not even gonna talk DC today, did that yesterday. My DC nominations for the week are BATMAN AND ROBIN #1, GREEN LANTERN #1, RED LANTERNS #1 and of course SUPERBOY #1, which I thought was the best of the bunch. Heck, I don’t even have room for X-MEN LEGACY #255 or UNCANNY X-FORCE #15 today!

Although I still have five Marvel nominations for you today, plus five from everywhere else…

AMERICAN VAMPIRE SURVIVAL OT FITTEST #4 (OF 5) – I believe the last four times I have seen Ken Farnsworth, producer of Cosmic Comix Conversations, he has mentioned to me how awesome American Vampire is… and if it has the Ken seal of approval… you know it’s awesome!

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 9 FREEFALL #1 – Thought Angel and Faith #1 from a couple of weeks was very good. Thought Buffy #1 this week was even better. Whatever you thought of Season 8, you need to try Season 9! It’s off to an excellent start.

CRIMINAL LAST OF INNOCENT #4 (OF 4) – We’ve been talking about this series for the last four months. Comments like, "If this ends well it will be the best Criminal arc of all time," have been heard on multiple occasions. Ended great. Jumped ahead in time and almost read like an epilogue. Cleaned up every imaginable plot thread. And it earns the title of best Criminal story to date.

DAREDEVIL #3 – Best issue of the series so far. And issue #1 won the Best Book of the Week poll the week it came out! Klaw was great. As was the bar scene at the end. Matt and Foggy are at the bar having a drink. Two hot chicks approach. My girlfriend and I were just asking ourselves… aren’t you Daredevil? Matt says to Foggy, “I really want to say ‘yes’ don’t I?” to which Foggy replies, “Yes, but if you do. I guarantee one of them is a supervillain, so please don’t!” And yet the action scenes were the best part of the book.

FEAR ITSELF #6 (OF 7)  – Absolutely fantastic. And I know you like it ’cause we are selling more copies of Fear Itself than we have of any comic series in a long, long time. Iron Man threw himself in a boiling cauldron of uru! And the final battle is imminent. Can’t wait!

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #627  – Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Mephisto walks into a bar… and a great comic is born! Little Loki does not appear but the Living Tribunal, Nightmare, Surtur, Merlyn and the Olympians all make an appearance. And it was all about what these powerful entities in the Marvel Universe think about the battle between the Serpent and the Asgardians taking place in Fear Itself and how it affects them. Very interesting. Not what was expected. Something a little different. And if you are a fan of the nuts and bolts of the Marvel Universe… a must read.

NEW AVENGERS #16 – The best of all the Fear Itself Bendis talkies! And I’ve liked them all.

PUNISHERMAX #17  – Homeless Part One. And the last time Punishermax started a story arc I picked it as the best book of the week. This issue was just as good. I need a gun. I got six bullets. Now I have five. Nice T-Shirt! The Hand putting Kingpin in his place was great. Elektra was awesome. The Mrs. Fisk twist was perfect. And now Frank has two guns and 13 bullets!

SCALPED #52 – You know I loved it. It’s Scalped! The silent, bandaged up Dash was awesome! As was Red Crow. He’s going legit! If he survives. Have to see about that. Actually will have to see if anyone survives at this point, as the awesomeness that is Scalped will end with issue #60.

SEVERED #2 – Even better than issue #1, as the story really seemed to come together this time around. Set in 1916. A boy leaves his adoptive home to find his biological father. He’s hoboing across the country. Nice period piece with something sinister lurking in the background. Scott Snyder (American Vampire, Swamp Thing, the old Detective Comics, the new Batman, which comes out Wednesday) is proving once again that he knows how to write a quality comic.

Now you might be thinking, "Wow, Rusty, you are really throwing around the superlatives today." Yep, I am. And I will repeat. One of the best weeks of comics I have seen in quite some time. And it made me do some thinking. Because you don’t have to like the same comics I do. Plenty of fish in the sea. Read what you want. Like what you like. And don’t be afraid to tell us what you like! But… but… if you didn’t like your comics this week (and I hope you did), you just might be reading the wrong comics! 

See ya!

Rusty