Best to Worst of Last Week

All in all a lot of really entertaining books this week. Image certainly launched some good titles and two books that I was contemplating dropping turned in their best efforts to date and kept my interest going. Only one book got dropped and that was a new Marvel mini-series.

Action Comics #857 – The conclusion to the Bizzaro storyline by Johns, Donner and Eric Powell as artist. I hate the Bizzaro stuff as the dialogue is impossible to read and I imagine a nightmare to write. What sold this book for me were Eric Powell’s art and the relationship of Superman and his father Jonathan Kent. A really great arc and one that I would buy as a hardcover if they add some extras to it.
Crawl Space XXXombies #1 (of 4)- Just an out and out fun book. If you told me mixing a Zombie story with a group of 70’s porn stars would be so damn funny and entertaining I would not have believed you, but this was a really good opening. Crawl Space is the overall title of a planned series of mini-series doing different horror stories.
Blue Beetle #20 – Another excellent issue that was only parenthetically tied to the Sinestro War as a yellow ring shows up for Peacemaker. Jamie continues to shine as a young hero who tries to do the right thing and succeeds.
Walking Dead #43 – Normally I get this as a trade, but was told to read this issue and I’m glad I did. Kirkman brings back the governor and really sets up the battle between the two groups of humans. Kirkman really pays off long time readers of this and Invincible.
Hellblazer #237 – John Constantine is outwitted by the bad guy at the end of this arc. John manages to at least shut down part of the operation, but ultimately loses. Diggle continues to keep thinks interesting as we now have a foe who appears to be Constantine’s equal at least.
Criminal Macabre My Demon Baby #2 (of 4) – Cal McDonald is trying to save the child of satan, from the devil and the church. His aide de camp (who is a zombie) is one of the better supporting characters in comics. When he ask him to distract the police watching his apartment he picks up a mailbox and throw it at the cop car, priceless.
Green Arrow Year One #6 (of 6) – An action packed slam bang winner of a series. A great ending showing Ollie at his best. One of the top mini-series of this year.
Potter’s Field #2 (of 3) - Very nice. Liked that this book continues with the unexpected and has John Doe up to his a** in danger.
Uncle Sam and The Freedom Fighters #2 (of 8) – This series is so well done. Last issue focused on the Red Bee and still told an overall story, this issue focuses on Phantom Lady doing a Lindsay Lohan impersonation and still telling an overall story.
Proof #1 – So Bigfoot and FBI Agent Ginger team up to fight supernatural menaces. Another concept that sounds interesting, but also a possible total miss. This was not, obviously the writer and artist have put a lot of effort into this book to make it both fun and tell a good story.
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Fear Agent Last Goodbye #4 (of 4) – A good ending of Heath’s origin. Heath apparently destroyed seven trillion of the enemy who attacked Earth, but did not know the attackers were not representative of the population.
Neozoic #1 – See my review on this book from before. Dinosaurs and kick ass woman in an Earth that could have been. Very good start to a new series.
Green Lantern Corps #17 – The Sinestro War is just so well done and this issue is no exception as the war moves to Earth and the action just keeps on coming. Sodam Yat the daxamite GL is given the power of Ion to and next issue Ion vs. Superman-Prime.
Superman/Batman #41 – Really enjoying this arc of Superman/Batman as Superman is under Darkseid’s control and Batman is fighting to save him and being caught up in Bekka’s spell. The Batman/Bekka love affair has been great.
Teen Titans #52 – Really enjoying the future titans stuff, but I must say the addition of Blue Beetle to the Titans mix maybe my favorite part. Sean McKeever keeps Blue Beetle very true to his characterization in his own book.
Thunderbolts #117 - Good issue, the group attacking the Thunderbolts is cool, the whole dynamic in the book with all the characters is played out very well. Only complaint is it moves a little slow.
Tales of the Sinestro Corps Superman Prime #1 – Another great issue that enhances the main story and still does not force you to buy this to understand the main series. Superman-Prime is shown as way too powerful for my taste, but all in all very entertaining. The back up “Tales of Sinestro Corps” by Johns’ protégée Sterling Gates was well done and appropriately creepy.
30 Days of Night Red Snow #3 (of 3) – Concluding Ben Templesmith’s three issue tale of Vampires and Nazis in Russia. Love Templesmith’s art work and the story was well done.
Fall of Cthulhu #7 – Was told I’m the only person at my comic store getting this book and that is a crying shame as this book is creepy and horrifying in subtle and overt ways.
Robin #167 – A fill-in story by a writer I have never heard of (Brandon Thomas) that was really well done. Robin is out fighting crime and on edge as it is an anniversary of his father’s death.
Streets of Glory #2 (of 6) - Good issue and you can Ennis putting all the pieces together for this western tale.
Madam Mirage #3 (of 6) – This issue saved this book for me as the back story for the character was revealed and now I really enjoy the character a lot more. Even the girl who plays Madam Mirage said she is impossibly endowed, but by putting to context of the story out there I’m more vested in what happens.
X-Men First Class #5 – Always an entertaining read. This recounted the X-Men first run in with the Hulk. A lighter toned book that is a nice change of pace from so many of the darker and more dramatic toned super hero stoires.
Gotham Underground #1 (of 8) – Nice start as we see a lot of Gotham’s super villains being captured by the Suicide Squad. This is part of many mini-series that DC has building up into Final Crisis. The whole event feels more organic then Infinite Crisis did as the lead-in mini-series for that felt forced to fit Infinite Crisis.
Ultimate Spider-man #115 – Immonen has made this book his own and the layouts and action that he drew this issue was great. The story of Kitty Pryde going into save Peter was terrific.
Flash #233 – Nice to see Freddie Williams take over as artist and glad this first arc is over as I really did not enjoy the alien menace. The best part of this story was Wally dealing with the JLA and the back up story featuring Jay Garrick.
Doktor Sleepless #3 – Another book that saved itself from being dropped by me by revealing some of the back story surrounding the central characters. I’m not locked into this book yet, but I’m willing to continue with it for a couple more issues.
Daredevil #101 – I thought this was a good issue as you could feel DD’s desperation about Milla, but when the Hood showed up at the end, it really hurt this book.
Gen 13 #13 – The best issue of this series to date as the characters are really shown to be each others family. Gail Simone really never writes a bad issue that I have read. Even on books like Gen 13, where I’m not invested in the characters, I appreciate the stories that she tells.
She-Hulk #22 – Peter David’s first issue and it was an okay start, but a lot of set-up and appears as Jen and She-Hulk are now separate entities. David has earned my trust so I’ll hang on for a few issues.
Loveless #20 – Second to last issue in this series apparently (or maybe it is bi-monthly now), either way it is ending soon. The book just has a great feel to it, but with such an obtuse story telling style and change in artist, it was doomed to failure.
Countdown #27 – Feels like this series is starting to become something worth reading again. Jason Todd apparently switches sides and takes out Donna Troy. I still think he is from the Crime Syndicate Earth and has been posing as New Earth’s Jason Todd.
JSA Classified #45 – This arc about J’onn J’onzz and his telepathic fight with a remnant of his brother has gotten more interesting as each issue progresses. Looking forward to its conclusion.
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Annihilation Conquest: The Wraith #4 (of 4) – The series fell a little flat for me as it ended. I guess the Wraith’s powers just seemed too perfect to stop the Phalanx’s weapon.
X-Men #204 – All set-up and treading water waiting for the Messiah Complex story line to begin.
Authority Prime #1 (of 6)- An okay start to this mini-series, but it is all set-up. Wildstorm really seems to not be able to pull their act together to keep any consistent momentum on their main super hero team.
Superman #669 – The “Third Kryptonian” turns out to be a “who” and even worse “who cares”. Also Rick Leonardi’s style does not suit what I like to see in Superman.
Wetworks #14 – This series is ending after next issue and I really won’t miss it. The opening nine issue arc took to long to grab reader’s attention and then the series floundered after that.
Foolkiller #1 (of 5) – Overall it was not horrible, it just did not cut it. The scene showing a bunch of lacrosse players raping some girl and then being killed for it, just came across like the writer is the only idiot in America who thinks the Duke players were guilty. Ultimately I almost hung on to this title, but if the first issue of a mini-series causes me to think that many negative thoughts it needs to be cut, so I dropped it off my list.


Well that wraps up another week. Halloween is this week and I’m never failed to be amazed at how celebrated and how much money is spent on this “holiday”. Plus I think that the holiday has been totally co-opted by adults and should remain the province of children, but that is just my opinion.