Andy is busy, busy, busy working on all things Cosmic Madness, so I’m helping him out today. He needs a good 20-plus nominees for the Best Book of the Week poll! So I submit to him five DC comics and five Marvel comics for inclusion in the poll tomorrow.

BATMAN AND ROBIN #7, ’cause Batman manned up again and Damian showed us his perfected two-finger jab; BATGIRL #7, ’cause Barbara seems to have finally womaned up; BATWOMAN #7, ’cause y’all love it; GREEN LANTERN #7, ’cause y’all crack me up with your Geoff Johns/Green Lantern negatism while I enjoy it immensely; and SHADE #6, which doesn’t make my official list today only ’cause it was a middle chapter and I expect the climactic conclusion next issue to be as awesome as the last issue.  

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #1, ’cause it was a fun, easy to read, enjoyable story for both new fans and old fans not wanting to get bogged down in Marvel continuity while still showcasing the current Avengers lineup; AVENGERS #24, ’cause Iron Man summed up Norman Osborn to a tee: "Osborn, you unbelievable ass! You turned yourself into a super-adaptoid." FANTASTIC FOUR #604, ’cause it was the ending to Jonathon Hickman’s multi-year story; SCARLET SPIDER #3, ’cause it’s a good book that y’all are buying like hotcakes; and X-MEN LEGACY #263, ’cause Rogue, Pixie and Rachel Grey are all great

I enjoyed them all. Plenty more space available if you want to throw out a nominee or two of your own.

My official nominees and my ten best books of the week are

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 9 FREEFALL #7 – Easily wins the best surprise/twist of the week. Won’t give it away here but I never would have guessed it! Have to see how it plays out but potentially changes everything. And now I want to read Season 9 from the beginning again!

CONAN THE BARBARIAN #2 – Way better than issue #1. Great narration throughout by an actual narrator. Conan doesn’t talk much, he’s too busy fighting! And Conan killed a boat load of pirates. Literally. 

INCREDIBLE HULK #6 – Featured the best single page of the week. Banner vs. Hulk. Or more precisely 600-caliber elephant machine gun loaded with gamma-dipped armor-piercing ammo vs. STOMP! Or anti-tank grenade launcher with anthrax-laden shrapnel vs. SMASH! And I thought the ending was great. Ka-BOOM! Have to see what happens this time around.

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #635 – Took a trip down memory lane as we see how the events of Fear Itself traumatized a wide variety of people into fear-induced comas. Little Loki is trying to save them before Nightmare can harvest their dreams. That is what Nightmare does. But Little Loki has a plan and a trick or two up his sleeve. That is what he does. But as good as the actual issue was, and it was very good, the first page recap in and of itself was enough to get it nominated by me. Cadaver Thor? Cadaver Thor! Awesome!

RAY #4 (OF 4) – Ended real well. The big bad villain has decimated the city and killed the Ray’s girlfriend’s father. But the Ray saves the day and gets the reality altering villain to go back and erase all the bad things he did. Which you could call a classic deus ex machina (otherwise known as a cop out) but I thought it worked really well here. A happy ending was had by all and I was glad that the Ray got another shot at meeting his girlfriend’s parents for the first time. He needed it!

SAGA #1 – Was excellent. Could actually live up to its name. Scope is potentially huge. Centers on a war between two alien races, one of which lives on the planet, one of which lives on that planet’s moon, but sprawls across the galaxy. Featured five or six different prominent alien races. Had a side narration by the little baby you see on the cover but she was writing it like maybe a 20- or 30-year-old. There was lots of stuff going on. It was good. You should read it.  

SAUCER COUNTRY #1 – Was also good. New Mexico Governor Alvardo is taking a run at the presidency. She gave a rousing speech at the end about how everyone in America is an alien, i.e. immigrant. Double meaning cause the books gonna be about aliens… only the little green kind.

SUICIDE SQUAD #7 – The origin of Harley Quinn! She broke the Joker out of Arkham and he threw her into his favorite vat of green slime. Thanks, Harley! She didn’t mind, she loooves the Joker. I loved Amanda Waller blowing Lime’s head off. About time she carried through on that threat. And the Deadshot/Harley sequence at the end was fantastic.

THIEF OF THIEVES #2 – Andy gave you a highlight. Gonna be a slow build. It is a Robert Kirkman jaunt. Half the book takes place in the past. It is a Nick Spencer jaunt. But I’m totally in. 

WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #7 – Gets nominated again. And it wouldn’t surprise me if it wins the poll again! Thought turning the big bad bounty hunting brood into a big bad extreme zoologist brood was a great idea. Humans eat processed junk. Brood eat humans. Starsharks eat Brood. And Galactus eats us all! It’s the circle of life, baby, and he just wanted to make sure our cute little Brood was growing up properly. He got his wish. KILLEATKILLKILL! And the Bamf’s. And Krakatoa. And the diamonds. And Wolverine getting his legs put on backwards. Just another high quality issue. 

But I will be going with SAGA #1 as my Best Book of the Week. Think you should read it. But only if you like non-superhero books. Well worth checking out if you’re looking for something new to read without capes.

Now, if you only read books with capes and you’re looking for something new to read, I don’t want you to feel like I’m leaving you out today. Read AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #1. Also well worth checking out if you’re looking for some straight up superhero action. 

Cosmic Madness rolls on! The sweet sixteen commences in about four hours. Best Book of the Week poll goes up on Friday. Vote it up!

See ya!

Rusty