Intro, schmintro! All I got is nominees today! 

AQUAMAN #9 – Although Aquaman is one of my favorite characters of all time, I haven’t been nominating it as of late. And while I continue to enjoy it — art is great, always has some cool moments — to be honest I’m not sure it’s worthy of a nomination again this month. Pace needs to pick up! But y’all keep voting it up for Best Book of the Week. It’s placed first or second for four consecutive months! So I’ll get ahead of the curve today and nominate it for you! Vote it up!

BATMAN INCORPORATED #1 – Easy nomination. Grant Morrison and Batman. I loved it. Was curious to see how Grant would alter his pre-New 52 story in the post-New 52 DC Universe. Leviathan is still around but mentioned Dick Grayson was Batman and a few other tidbits that I thought were enough to incorporate (ha!) it into the new DCU. Liked how the story actually focused on a down-and-out villain looking to score big by killing Damian. Careful what you wish for! Lots of the issue took place in a slaughterhouse. Blood and guts galore. Which all led to the panel of the week. Bat-Cow! Udder-ly fantastic! Ken’s new favorite superhero animal! 

BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #9 – Night of the Owls tie-in! Judd Winick told a great story about another Talon, his history, and how it all ties into Haly’s Circus. We’ve seen the same general plot in many of the Night of Owls tie-ins this month. Still impressed that Haly’s Circus is being so well woven into the Owl’s (and Gotham’s and Batman’s and Dick Grayson’s) history and I really enjoyed my Month of Owls!

CAPTAIN AMERICA #12 – Easily the best Marvel book of the week and their sole representative on my list today. The art by Patrick Zircher really makes a difference. Of course, Ed Brubaker can write a great comic and I really like how this new Scourge storyline is playing out. What they are doing with Henry Gyrich is interesting and the way they are incorporating (ha!) D-Man into the story is fantastic. Hey. If we ever do the goofiest characters of all time in Cosmic Madness, D-Man might just win!

CHEW #26 – Awesome as usual. "Space Cakes" part one! Focused on Tony’s brother Chow Chu and his sister Antonelle “Toni” Chu. Toni biting both her boyfriend and Tony was great. It’s how she’s able to read the future. Her boyfriend ain’t gonna make it (although I’m sure biting him didn’t help) but Tony’s gonna be A-OK. Chew always gets the little things right and I loved the hospital management signs. Hospital not responsible for any bad stuff ever don’t sue us. Wash your stank hands. Ill tempered glass. Bed pans do not double as soup bowls or do they? Now in the back of the book, whoever is answering letters, called it a quiet issue. Which I don’t really agree with. But also said it’s the calm before the storm. Works either way for me. And if you want the storm to start early go dig out your copy of issue #27 which came out last year. A reprint with added pages comes out next month and Secret Agent Poyo #1 comes out the month after that. Can’t wait! Poyo! BAM!

COBRA #13 – Ah, Rusty. You continue to doubt. And Cobra continues to amaze! What a perfect reset to the title coming out of Cobra Command. GI Joe has moved into a Las Vegas Casino! Was heavy on the Joe angle, but it was mostly Chameleon, Firewall and Lady Jaye, all of whom have been featured in Cobra before. Loved Duke recruiting Ronin. What they did with Tomax was great. And I thought I read the moment of the night when Chameleon chucked her purse at Tomax in disbelief and surprise but two pages later after Flint explained what Tomax was doing there I actually read the moment of the night! Four bullets to the chest! Awesome! Ending was interesting too. Really like were it’s headed. Never doubt Cobra! 

HERO COMICS 2012 – Benefit book for the Hero Initiative. Helping comic creators in need. More than enough reason to pick up a copy. Plus you got a Kevin Eastman Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle story, a Red Star story, which was super hot years ago but we haven’t seen in quite awhile, and Dave Sim (Cerebus) did an Elephantmen story that I thought was fantastic. So we will be adding both Cerebus and Elephantmen to our Trade Paperback section this weekend! And don’t be afraid to support the Hero Initiative! 

I VAMPIRE #9 – Great cover! Bite. Prey. Love. Andy finally get one right! Did jump ahead about a month from the Rise of the Vampires crossover which I thought worked well. Andrew Bennett and his vampire army are now camped out in Utah. The crowd is getting unruly! Cow’s blood. Yeeech! And Mary has had enough. Meanwhile Tig and the Professor travel to Germany to hook up with the Van Helsings! They have one sweet brigade of bombers and are flying toward Utah as we speak. 

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #9 – Jeff Lemire (Animal Man, Sweet Tooth) comes on board as the new writer and it was the best issue of the series so far. Didn’t ignore the events that happened previously but gave us new intro’s for the characters (Constantine, Zatanna, Deadman, Black Orchid, Andrew Bennett) and really felt like a number one issue. Featured Steve Trevor from the Justice League. Felix Faust was the bad guy. And I loved how Constantine was the “leader” and all he did was smoke one cigarette after another! The story flowed, the plot was very well laid out and the ending was fantastic. Onto the House of Mystery! 

RESIDENT ALIEN #1 – I will give another shout out to Resident Alien. Highly suggest you read issue #0 first but this issue was equally as good. It’s not complicated. It’s not fancy. It’s about some murders in a small country town. And it’s a really enjoyable read.

Before I declare my vote for Best Book of the Week, and no it’s not Aquaman, for the record my Best Cover of the Week was the photo version of True Blood #1. Although I have no idea what Rogue is doing in a True Blood comic. Don’t you have some Avengers to fight? (Who is this Anna Paquin you speak of?) And yes, Steve, I ordered you one! 

See what wins the poll this week. Saga #3 was a worthy winner last week. My pick probably won’t cause I’m going with Cobra #13. Again! You really don’t know what you’re missing. Could come down to a Chew #26/Batman Incorporated #1 battle. But sometimes y’all surprise me. Poll tomorrow. Podcast on Sunday. Talk to you then.

See ya!

Rusty