Plenty of books I liked this week, but you are only getting nine nominees from me today. Could have squeezed more in but when I was going back through the pile it became readily apparent to me that these nine were head and shoulders above the rest this week. Poll should be interesting. My vote goes to Luther Strode #5, but I’ll be surprised if it wins ’cause not enough of you read it. You should! I think Winter Soldier #1 has an excellent chance to win the poll. And I’m very curious how the very unusual Animal Man #6 fares. Anyway. That’s for Friday!

Nominees!

ACTION COMICS #6 – Okay, Mr. Morrison, let me see if I got this straight. Some nimrod used a teleport rifle to fire a microscopic lead pellet into Superman’s brain. And inside the pellet is some kind of tesseract space that is big enough to hold a couple dozen people. And the Anti-Superman League and the Legion of Super-Heroes get into a big ol’ fight inside the pellet in Superman’s brain? Sweet! Or as Superman put it… AUUGHH! Loved the teenage Superman/Pa Kent rampaging bull flashback, too. Down, boy!

ANIMAL MAN #6 – We interrupt your normally scheduled broadcast to bring you the Adventures of Red Thunder! He’s an out of work, divorced, drunkard who likes to dress up like a superhero. Pretty much an older version of Kick-Ass. And much like Kick-Ass, Red Thunder ends up in the hospital beaten to a pulp. Shut up, Clown! CRACK! It was great. Not what I expected at all. The surprise issue of the week. And the art by John Paul Leon was equally as good.

FATALE #2 – It’s so good that even though I didn’t remember exactly what happened in issue #1 (there is a lot going on) as I was reading issue #2 everything started to come back to me even without the aid of any recaps or flashbacks! So well done. Just draws you right into the story. Bad cops. Newspapermen. A sexy, seemingly immortal chick. With some demons thrown in for good measure.

INVINCIBLE #88 – I did re-read all of the Invincible trades a couple weeks ago. It’s even better than I remembered! Really holds together well. There are so many little bits thrown in throughout the series that work so well in the overall scheme that may have gotten lost between issues or between huge fights. The Starship Enterprise being one of them. Well worth a second or even third read. And the main thing that jumped out at me this issue, having just read the trades, was this: there goes Cecil, and even more specifically Robot, screwing things up again! Can you buffoons not stay out of Invincible’s way? If you continue to interfere you just might get Invincible shot in the face with a deadly virus!

RACHEL RISING #5 – Lots of violence in comic books. We all know that. I’m so used to it, it barely registers a reaction anymore. That dude getting his head stuck in the elevator and then watching the little girl press the button to send the elevator on its way down… that was wild… then the elevator door opens to reveal the severed head and the little girl walks out leaving a trail of bloody footprints behind her… that was wild. Glad my green cover was back. Not that it matters. Just made me happy. Pinky swear!

STORMWATCH #6 – Stormwatch HQ exploded at the end of last issue! And continued to explode for the first 10 pages of the book! Then Hawksmoor made a deal with the Daemonite artificial intelligence running the station to put it back together! Voila! Everything is back to normal. Except for A) seems the US military spotted the previously undetectable space station and B) now the space station has an attitude. As you command, foul unbeliever.

STRANGE TALENT OF LUTHER STRODE #5 (OF 6) – Wow. Talk about violent. It was off the hook. Writer Justin Jordan even talked about it in the back of the book. Lots of violence in comic books. They cranked it up. So we would feel it. Consider me felt up! Although I would like to add: it’s that kind of book, and even the cranked up violence of this issue felt “correct” for Luther Strode. I totally recommend Luther Strode. But it is not for the feint of heart. The Petra fainting sequence was fantastic. Don’t know if I’ve ever seen that done as well. That eyed rolled up in the back of her head! But, the best thing about the issue was how Petra (the girlfriend), Pete (the nerdy sidekick) and even Mom all stepped up to the plate, with varying degrees of success, during the fight scenes. If you gotta go down, go down swinging!

UNCANNY X-MEN #6 – Can’t believe I like it as much as I do. Should have more faith in Kieron Gillen. But I can’t believe I like a spin-off throw-away plot from X-force dealing with a newly created bubble world and featuring a War Machine wanabee villain as much as I do. Bunch of cool bits. Magneto shredding his helmet into nana-edged shrapnel comes to mind. Plus, I’m always up for some Juggernaut Colossus these days. And I’m even interested in the history and evolution of said bubble world. Really enjoying Uncanny since the reboot.

WINTER SOLDIER #1 – Was exactly what I thought it would be. Was exactly what I wanted it to be. Bucky Barnes. The Black Widow. KGB sleeper agents. And action galore. Loved the art. Loved the story. Loved that they brought the Red Ghost into it. Loved the giant machine gun-toting gorilla! Plus it’s gonna end up being a Doctor Doom story which is just a bonus. Read it up!

See ya!

Rusty