As I mentioned on Thursday I thought it was an excellent week of comics. You might have thought not much came out as Marvel and DC were both a little light but the Everything Else category really came through again with multiple winners which pumped up the week for me. But we are starting with Marvel as that’s what I usually read first.

And we begin with DAREDEVIL #502 and some Dark Reign thoughts. Master Izo is alive! That was quick. You needn’t have been worried. He’s a master at controlling his heartbeat and of course it would take more than one punch to put him down. Even if it was a super-punch! Wasn’t sure where they were going with the whole Daredevil as Lord of the Hand storyline, and it surprised me a little to see them tie the title so squarely into Dark Reign continuity. Norman Osbourn and his NYPD death squads are raising havoc in Hells Kitchen (or maybe New Jersey?) and only Daredevil and his Ninja army can stop them. Another good issue. Just thought the whole Dark Reign thing was winding down. Not winding up.

Which brings us to DARK X-MEN #1 (OF 5). Always forget that Dark means Norman’s team and the book centered around Dark Beast, Mystique and the rest of his X-clowns. Anyhow, someone was looking at their pull sheet in the store on Wednesday and asked me if the Dark Reign books were over and I said I think all we need is one more issue of Dark Reign Hawkeye and they are done. But no. DD goes Dark Reign. And Dark X-Men is a five issue mini that is obviously just getting started. Wasn’t a bad book but it felt out of place. Should have come out a couple of months ago. The Siege is coming. Norman’s got to go. And I don’t want to wait five months for it to happen.

Really liked VENGEANCE OF MOON KNIGHT #3 and I’m betting long time Moon Knight fans are just loving this series. Seems like old school Moon Knight to me. The Profiler and the Hood resurrect Moon Knight’s nemesis Bushman from the dead in order to take him down. Bushman requires an army. After a  scarecrow like character shows up, they break into Ravencroft Asylum. And proceed to give ice pick lobotomies to the residents and, voila, instant army. Look out Moon Knight! Bushman was cool. Got a little love story going. Threw in a little Spiderman action. Series is off to an excellent start.

So happy that the War of Kings is back. Although it’s now Realm of Kings and REALM OF KINGS IMPERIAL GUARD #1 (OF 5) picks up the story of the Shiar Empire from where we left of. Gladiator is the leader of the Shiar and boy do they know how to fight an insurrection. Send in the superheroes and kill them all! Ends up with Gladiator putting together a strike team to investigate the rift in space we saw in War of Kings. The Starjammers are going to help. Special guest appearance by Talon, he impersonated Councillor Araki of the Shiar and is up to no good, gotta love that!

All the Marvel Comics I took home in pre-read sort order.  Only twelve books this week.
PUNISHERMAX #1 – First read overall. Best book of the Week.
DAREDEVIL #502 – Best book of the Decade. And a many many time first read overall.
DARK X-MEN #1 (OF 5) – X-Men always slide to the top. Have to get my fix. And this was a big release. Nate Grey showed up at the end. Mystique was mimicking Jean Grey. And it was part 2 of the back up Hope story. 
CABLE #20 – Of course Bishop is still trying to kill Hope. Jumped a couple years in the future as Hope gets even older. And this is why I group comics together. After reading Dark X-Men with it’s Jean Grey references, and the back up Hope story, a rumor I heard over a year ago looks more and more like its going to happen. Hope may or may not be Jean Grey but one way or another I bet it’s how they bring Jean back.
X-FORCE #21 – Necrosha is helping but it’s still X-Force which means a lot of generic fighting and a very darkly colored book. Too dark in my mind. Banshee is back from the dead! It is interesting how they are portraying all the back from the dead characters. They are not zombies in any way, shape or form. They look basically like they did before they died, they remember who they are, and its more like they are mind controlled. Selene does raise all the dead mutants on Genosha. They gave a number. 1,652,106. A really big number. So much for only 198 mutants.
DEADPOOL #17 – X,X! Baby!!
REALM OF KINGS IMPERIAL GUARD #1 (OF 5) – Really 3rd Marvel of the week. Those pesky X-Books keep getting in the way. Can’t help myself.
VENGEANCE OF MOON KNIGHT #3 – And really the Fourth Marvel. Which shows how good this series reboot has been.
STRANGE #1 (OF 4) – Member when I said I liked Doctor Voodoo #1 cause it had the correct Doctor Strange vibe going on? Well, this issue was about a baseball game that has been compromised by evil entities and Dr. Strange used his mystical abilities to get hit in the head with a baseball. Incorrect!
SWORD #1– featuring Abigal Brand, Deaths Head and of course the Beast. Main story is they are going to evict all non-humans from earth. Back up story! Kitty Pryde update! Last we heard she was trapped in a bullet hurtling through space. And she still is.  And as Abigail explains to Lockheed,  they have been tracking her and they have determined that she’s alive but alas all rescue attempts have so far failed. Looks like Mr. Freeze may be able to help.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #611 – Cover was the best thing. One shot. Gauntlet starts next issue.
BLACK PANTHER 2 #10 – Hit or miss on Black Panther. But it had a Prelude to Doomwar banner on it and that was enough for me to take it home. Really was the end of the power arc. Tchalla’s got his mojo back and it looks like Namor was the one who blew up his plane. Not bad at all, but I would have to call it over written. There is good wordy and bad wordy. This is bad wordy. "The video feed is spotty, however,so we can assume that the onboard jamming system was interfering with it. The audio feed is almost completely unintelligible". You had me at the video feed is spotty.

As I said above the Everthing Else category made the week for me as a whopping twenty books made it home.  And of course we start with Gravel. GRAVEL #15 was the first part of the third story arc (i.e. third trade paperback) and very easily could have been the book of the week. Gravel killed the minor seven. Then he killed the major seven. And I wasn’t sure where the story would go next but my man Warren Ellis comes through once again. Expanded the plot right on cue. We meet the new members of the minor seven although at this point there are only three of them. We meet our new antagonist Bible John. He’s killing people. And he introduced a whole government angle to the book as their representative comes a calling on Gravel to find out what his plans are now that he is king of the magicians. And, oh yea, Gravel is having some kind of psychic/lightning headaches which can’t be good. Gravel. Put the pressure on you a couple of times already. And will once again. Never lets me down!

We also got another Warren Ellis Avatar book this week. SUPERGOD #1 (OF 5). Lots of comments on the paper quality on Wednesday as it was a high gloss production which we normally don’t see from Avatar. I thought it was real good. It was all back story as we open the issue to see a city and/or the entire earth in virtual ruins. We learn that England was trying to create superheroes in the forties and it doesn’t go very well. We learn that India created a superhero and it really doesn’t go well. And it ends with the United States superhero getting introduced. Unlike Warren’s No Hero or Ignition City mini-series which were basically one plot books, Supergod feels like Mr. Ellis is interested in this one and there is a larger story that he wants to tell. Course it could be an everyone dies story. We shall see.

Onto WALKING DEAD #67. What’d you think this time? It was a three scene book!  Carl and Rick have a chat. Rick cracks me up. Sorry, we haven’t had a chance to talk lately Carl. Why did you kill Ben? No how’s it going, everything alright, hungry? Nothing. Cutting to the chase! Which I should appreciate. Pace rules! So Carl. Why did you kill Ben? Carl’s answer. You know why. And we do and yet Carl had to explain it to us…again. C’mon Mr. Kirkman the first nine pages were a recap! Second scene. Rick really needs to use the Radio. Bad. Uh-oh! No batteries. Ever. Nobody was talking to Washington. Ever. The scientist dude breaks down and confesses. Bad idea. Abraham almost kills him and I would think he’s now on borrowed time. Rick and his gang don’t take kindly to being messed with. Third scene. Rick and Abraham are talking about what to do next. They still decide to push on to Washington. Yeah! And a random new character walks up to them on the last page. So did I like it or not. I did. Another great issue.

All the comics in the Everything Else category that I took home in pre-read sort order. 

WALKING DEAD #67 – No brainer. Walking Dead comes first.
FABLES #90 – Vertigo is always near the top of the reading pile. Once again lots of stuff going on in Fables. All continuing to build into one much larger storyline. And as I had just read Walking Dead I had to count the "scenes" in Fables. I got 11 different threads in a 22 page comic. Like I said lots of stuff going on.
DMZ #47 – Matty Roth is rocking a death squad. And someone better find that atomic bomb. 
GRAVEL #15 – Never read Gravel first. Cause if everything else sucks (which was not the case this week) I know Gravel will always save me. Never lets me down!
SUPERGOD #1 (OF 5) – Back to back Warren Ellis.
CHRONICLES OF WORMWOOD LAST BATTLE #2 (OF 6) – Garth Ennis and Avatar. Really two books in one. Wormwood has woman problems. Girlfriend is pregnant.  And the only "person" Wormwood can turn to help is his talking rabbit buddy. Very touchy feely especially for the anti-christ but that part of the book was really good. As to the bad guy and his TV screen and him turning into some kind of snake pope at the end. It wasn’t bad but I felt a little lost. Not sure you were supposed to be able to understand it all. And I’m hoping Garth will clear it all up for me next issue.
STORMWATCH PHD #24 – This is really down the list for me as a core Wildstorm book. But lots of good stuff this week. Read it. Went whoa. That feels like the last issue. And it did say the end. So I checked, no more Stormwatch on the immediate horizon. Done for now. Bummer.
TERRY MOORES ECHO #16 – Always a quality read and highly recommend the trades. Julie heals Ivy’s kid of cancer and everyone gets current on past events.
JERSEY GODS #9 – I’m still reading it. Nobody else does. And I still like it. Started to lose me with the last couple issues but this one was much better and got the series back on track
STAR WARS PURGE SECONDS TO DIE ONE SHOT (OSW) – Hit or miss on the Star Wars books. Tend to read them in trades. But it was a one shot with Darth Vader on the cover and I couldn’t pass it up. Set around order 66. Didn’t wow me but wasn’t bad either.
GHOUL #1 – Steve Niles returns! Steve, where you been? Introduced us to the Ghoul and it’s a cop story. Trying to solve a mystery but first it looks like they might have to kill a bunch of demons. Good first issue. I’m in.
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LOCKE & KEY CROWN OF SHADOWS #1 – That’s my Wednesday night cut off point this week. I keep trying Locke and Key. This is the third mini-series. Gotta give it a you like it more than I do rating. 
TRACKER #1 (OF 5) – Top Cow! Moooo! It’s about hunting werewolves.
WITCHBLADE #132 – Remember when we got all those free Witchblade comics as part of the Top Cow Let us win you over program? It was way back in March. Issue 125. Started the six "War of the Witchblades" storyline. This issue had The Bridge part 1 of 2 and  I thought it was time to check back in to see if anything has changed. Nope.
TANK GIRL SKIDMARKS #1 (OF 4) – Tank girl is back!
RESURRECTION VOL 2 #5 – I’m almost done with this. Liked the first volume. The pace just needs to pick up for me to continue reading.
THE GOOD THE BAD & THE UGLY #5 – Wish they would do more Westerns. And War comics for that matter.
COMIC BOOK COMICS #4 – History of comics. Very long. I’m saving it.
AUTHORITY THE LOST YEAR READER – reissue of the first two issues of Grant Morrison’s Authority run. Read it before. Gonna read it again. New material starts Wednesday with the release of Authority the Lost Years #3.
JUDGE DREDD COMPLETE CASE FILES TP VOL 14 – Just wanted to give a shout out to Judge Dredd. One of my all time favorites and I collect the case file trades. Course don’t think I’ve read one since volume two but I got em!

Onto DC Comics and it was all Batman and Blackest Night for me this week. Couldn’t believe the Blackest Night spin offs sucked me in but they did.

Really liked REBELS #10. L.E.G.I.O.N was always one of my favorites but I’ve been hit or miss on the new series.  Really tied it into old L.E.G.I.O.N continuity and I liked Stealth as the Black Lantern du jour. Lyrl Dox, Virl’s kid, gets captured and Starroed. The Sinestro Corp shows up. Stealth kills one of them and the ring goes looking for a replacement. Who does it find? Virl Dox. Who has now apparently joined the Sinestro Corp.

Booster Gold I don’t normally read but it had Blackest Night on the cover and that was enough to get it brought home. And I was pleasantly surprised with BOOSTER GOLD #26. As I said I haven’t been reading and had no idea what’s been going on but I didn’t feel like I had missed anything. It was all about Ted Kord dying! That I remember. And Blue Beetle got upgraded from co-feature to co-starring. Both Rebels and Booster are two part Blackest Night stories so obviously one more to go.

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #42 is usually a you like it more than I do book. And while there was no way I read every word in the issue, Patrick Gleason gave us an awesome centerfold and a great pin up page which totally got me to pay closer attention. The OA Green Lantern Corps Central Power Battery is under attack! And poor Kyle Raynor sacrifices himself to save everything! Don’t fret. Death is almost irrelevant in DC Comics right now and the ring said, there was a moratorium on sentient ring replacement, so nobody gets Kyle’s ring and I’m sure he will be back at some point. Mama, can I eat the Lanterns heart now?

All the DC Superhero Comics I took home in pre-read sort order.  Ten books this week.
BATMAN AND ROBIN #6 – Always first read. Revenge of the Red Hood part 3 and end of the story arc. And my love/hate relationship with Grant Morrison and Batman continues. Damian was shot 5 times in the back! Can’t feel his legs. He’s paralyzed from the waist down! So much for cross title continuity. Or do you faith that Grant can make it work?
BATMAN #693 – Guest stars galore! Alfred, Black Mask, Huntress, Commissioner Gordon,  and the Riddler. A bomb exploded and the Riddler said all Jack Nicholsony, I’m Back! No more Mr.Good Riddler?
BATGIRL #4 –Stephanie Brown’s goes on her first patrol as Batgirl. Stephanie may be a little lame but she’s not that bad. Just thought she has more experience than they gave her credit for.
RED ROBIN #6 – Much better. All League of Assassins issue. Which works much better than the Robin hunting for Batman story.
BATMAN DOC SAVAGE SPECIAL #1 – First Wave begins. And I didn’t come close to ordering enough.
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #42 (BLACKEST NIGHT) – Mama, can I eat the Lanterns heart now? Great line.
REBELS #10 (BLACKEST NIGHT) – Indigo rings!
BOOSTER GOLD #26 (BLACKEST NIGHT) – Orange rings!
SHIELD #3 – to be honest I didn’t give it a fair shake this week but I may be done with the Red Circle.
TITANS #19 – just looking!

Fini! Conversation tomorrow. Can’t wait to hear what everyone has to say as the past three weeks have been loaded with quality books. See how many we can touch base on for you.

See ya!

Rusty