Lots of anticipation for Avengers vs. X-Men brewing. Still not quite there yet. NEW AVENGERS #23 expanded on Skaar’s undercover mission and the Dark Avengers got their butts kicked. To be continued in Avengers vs. X-Men #1. AVENGERS #24.1 brought the Vision back into the fold and featured a pretty cool Magneto/Vision fight. To be continued in Avengers vs. X-Men #1. AVENGERS VS X-MEN #0 featured a Scarlet Witch story in the front and a Hope story in the back. To be continued in Avengers vs. X-Men #1. All endings. All preludes. All leading up to Avengers vs. X-Men #1 this coming Wednesday. I really hope the series is good. Fingers crossed! 

Nominees! And the "indy’s" kicked the crap out of the spandex crowd this week.

ANGEL & FAITH #8 – "Daddy Issues" part three! And you know you have serious daddy issues when your long lost dad’s sole reason for showing back up in your life is to ask you to kill someone! Poor Faith. Don’t worry, Drusilla has the answer to all your problems! 

COBRA ONGOING #11 – Fantastic. Great ending to the Cobra Command arc. Not only wrapped up each character’s (Major Bludd, Tomax, Baroness, Cobra Commander, etc, etc) current situation perfectly but put them all in a perfect position for whatever may come next. Best sequence of the entire week was Baroness biting down on the cyanide antidote pill, then releasing the cyanide poison, and Chameleon giving her a big fat kiss to try and survive. Loved it.

CROSSED BADLANDS #2 – Ah, Crossed. The first series by Garth Ennis was great. The two subsequent mini-series not by Garth Ennis were horrible. Well, Garth is back and Crossed is back. Not one Crossed (aka crazy undead zombie lunatic) was even pictured in the issue. It was all about people trying to survive in a post apocalyptic world and the hard choices one must make in order to survive. All talk. All good. 

FF #16 – Spandex! And while I have been enjoying Fantastic Four far more than FF recently, the FF’s epilogue to the whole Galactus, Celestial, Franklin Richards, Jonathan Hickman run, was much better than the Fantastic Four epilogue issue. Got to see them rebuild the Baxter Building which was cool, they introduced a new headquarters in outer space, and the Dr. Doom ending featuring the Infinity Gauntlet was awesome. Can’t wait to see what they do with that.

I VAMPIRE #7 – "Rise of the Vampires" part two!  JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #7 was "Rise of the Vampires" part one and you should read it first. But I Vampire was much better. Did sorta go biblical with Cain. So using that name does make a little more sense now. And Cain is absorbing all the magic in the world which is where Justice League Dark comes into play. Loved the Andrew Bennet in limbo all white pages. Loved when Mary went turbo vampire. Loved the double page spread expanding on Cain’s origin. It was great.

MORNING GLORIES #17 – The entire issue was virtually all a conversation between Jade and Ike who were sitting on a balcony waiting for Casey and her teacher to disappear/transport/teleport/escape from the school. Of course, in the grand storytelling style that is Morning Glories, Casey and her teacher disappeared two issues ago! But the conversation was great and really added another layer to the overall story.

NEW DEADWARDIANS #1 (OF 8) – Andy gave you a highlight. Actually a very accurate recap. Vampires and zombies in Victorian England. Didn’t really lay out too much of an overall plot but it was a very interesting concept and a nice first issue.

SCALPED #57 – The most amazing thing about Scalped is here we are three issues away from the end and all they are essential doing at this point is wrapping up storylines… and yet… and yet… I continue to be surprised at what actually happens. It’s amazing. It’s Scalped! 

ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES #8 – Spandex! After launching the Hulk into the Children of Tomorrow’s city last issue (which didn’t really work), the President has now decided to launch an all out nuclear attack against the city this issue. Sorry. It ain’t gonna work either. Best single page of the week was Reed Richards confronting the Hulk. Scale was perfect. And the most amazing thing is you know evil suped-up turbo evolutionary Reed could take him!  

WALKING DEAD #95 – Cover was great. Thought Rick was gonna lose his other hand! A stumpless Ricktatorship? That would be awesome. Rick, Jesus and the crew did arrive at the new settlement. And quite the settlement it is. Things seems to be progressing smoothly until a man named Ethan shows up. And then of course Rick has to butt his nose in… "What?" Welcome to the Hilltop, Rick! 

Would like to mention some of the spandex books of the week. Don’t want them to feel too left out. AQUAMAN #7, BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #7, SUPERMAN #7, VOODOO #7 were all good. As were AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #5, DAREDEVIL #10, MIGHTY THOR #12, and X-MEN LEGACY #264. Honorable mentions all around. Just couldn’t break the top 10 this week.

I will be going with Cobra #11 as my Best Book of the Week. Just ended great. Although I am concerned once again about my beloved Cobra. They keep mucking with it but with the exception of one issue (and we’re talking about almost 50 issues total at this point) they haven’t missed a beat. Issue #12 is being billed as an epilogue to the whole Cobra Command story arc and it looks like Chuckles will be involved in some way. So I’m sure that will be awesome. While Issue #13 is being billed as an all new direction for Cobra and it looks to be starring Flint and an underground GI Joe team. Say what? It’s called Cobra. Not GI Joe. Please remember that! 

See ya!

Rusty