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Subscriber Empty Box Bonus week! If you’ve already been by the store this week I hope you picked yourself out something good. If you haven’t been by the store yet this week… what are you waiting for?! It’s an Empty Box Bonus week! And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, either A) check your email or B) the next time you are in the store just ask us about how you too can become a subscriber here at Cosmic Comix!
Nominees!
AVENGERS VS X-MEN #8 (OF 12) – The Phoenix Five is no more! I’ll let you read it to find out exactly what that means. Loving that Thor seems to be the only Avenger powerful enough to stand up to any of the Phoenix Five. He keeps losing, as he probably should, but you take away that Phoenix force and he has totally proven himself to be the strongest Avenger of all, as he probably is. Except for maybe Wanda. They sure do have her juiced up these days! Loving that too. Not so sure about Prof. X getting in on the act. What’s he gonna do? Stay tuned… Will mention UNCANNY X-MEN #16 also. (Or is that again?) Would have preferred for the books to sync up tighter, but Mr. Sinister sending Gambit bombs, Cyclops clones, a Cannonball army, and exploding cows against the Phoenix Five was quite enjoyable.
BEFORE WATCHMEN SILK SPECTRE #2 (OF 4) – Easily as good as the first issue and just a great book again. It is amazing that they are using all the ’60s hippie clichés without making them seem like clichés at all. Very well done. Really liked the gangster’s strategy. They don’t want to get the kids hooked on drugs. They want to give away LSD to the hipsters so that their brain chemistry is altered and all they want to do is buy stuff! Which I thought was very timely because in every DC comic this week, on multiple pages, there was a Converse shoe ad that said, “Leave your world. Enter theirs. Plug into DC Comics. And get drawn into the action.” Hmmmm.
COBRA #15 – Still on board the Cobra train. Still got the right vibe to it. Still a very good book. I’m just a little annoyed. I need my Cobra characters and it’s all about the Joe’s!
FABLES #119 – Gets even darker. Goodbye, Tiger! It’s dinner time! Therese looked like Baba Yaga chomping on that raw tiger meat! Cook it next time. Take some of these broken wooden toys. Build me a fire. And cook it next time! Never thought the island of misfit toys would turn this dark and never thought this story arc would get as good as it has.
FANTASTIC FOUR #608 – DAREDEVIL #15 (Iron Man is not that fast), JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #641 (Did you really kill Leah?), and X-MEN #32 (If it wasn’t for AVX you guys would be all over this book!) were all probably better and totally nominee worthy but Fantastic Four #608 I found far more intriguing. The Black Panther wants to be King of Wakanda again. His slinging hash in Hell’s Kitchen days are far behind him. Really thought it was a set-up, and a good one, to put T’Challa back to how he should be. Even tied it into AVX. And after reading this issue I’m thinking there has to be a Black Panther title coming out of the new Marvel NOW! lineup.
RACHEL RISING #9 – Wow. Just wow. Everything you thought you knew. You didn’t. Everything you thought might happen. Isn’t gonna. Wow. Never saw this coming. A great series takes an unbelievable twist. And wow. Just wow.
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #11 – It is Batman sidekick week. NIGHTWING #11, CATWOMAN #11, and BIRDS OF PREY #11 were all good again. With NIGHTWING #11, as usual, probably being the best of the three. But I’m going with Red Hood over them all. The quips were way down as we got more Starfire history and explanations. It really is good. And there was a totally hilarious moment that is too involved to explain. But I had to put the book down I was laughing so hard.
SAGA #5 – Was good as always. But what really surprised me was that I was really surprised by what happened. The dad whipping butt. The bounty hunter backing down. The Spider chick. If it was the best current series in the Top Twenty last month, after reading this issue, I see no reason why it should not hold on to its coveted position at the top of the charts this month. Every issue so far has been outstanding.
WONDER WOMAN #11 – Say what!? Well, lots of you guys have been telling me how much you like it, so I did go back and re-read the first 10 issues last week. And while I still have some concerns about the series. Brian Azzarello sure does write a jumpy book (I still don’t understand Lennox’s role in anything) and there are way too many characters involved. The plot does make sense. The story is interesting. Zeus is gone. There’s a power vacuum. Hera wants to kill all the bastards! And I guess I’m now on the Wonder Woman bandwagon? And speaking of Wonder Woman, she does take the starring role in JUSTICE LEAGUE #11 this week, I must say, after the bashing Justice League took on the last Conversation and on the website last week, this issue was better. Still not where it needs to be but definitely better.
X-O MANOWAR #3 – Easily the best of the new Valiant books. Glad Aric is back on Earth. Pace is moving along nicely. And I liked how they handled his return. Die, Roman pigs!
As to the Best Book of the Week? Saga #5 and Before Watchmen Silk Spectre #2 were fantastic. But there was only one truly WOW book this week and that was Rachel Rising #9. Wow! Was that good!
See ya!
Rusty
