Green Lantern Corps #28

The Lanterns figure out just what's going on with the rookie's families and the grisly murders being carried out by an unknown Sinestro Corps member. For some reason, however, the Lanterns have trouble believing that one of their members has a natural talent allowing him to speak to the dead. These are the same Lanterns who fly through space with power rings and take orders from little, all-powerful blue men... yeah... That aside, it's still a great issue and Guy gets a special visitor.

Read It

X-Men: Magento, Testament #1 (of 5)

Basically an origin story for Magneto, we follow his life as a child in Nazi Germany, just as the Nuremberg laws are enacted. The story has been told before, but it's nice to see a well paced, stand alone version. The story is told masterfully, and doesn't shy away from showing the crimes being committed. It's violent, it's brutal, and it's necessary to tell the story of one of the most well-rounded villains/anti-heroes of all time.

MUST HAVE

World of Warcraft: The Ashbringer #1 (of 4)

Alright, so I'm a WOW nerd, especially when it comes to lore. While we've known small details before this of the legendary blade Ashbringer, this book collects them all into a cohesive storyline, that will eventually lead to some hints on the reforging of the blade in the new expansion. The art is great and the story-telling is decent, although there are no 'holy crap' moments in this issue. I got a bit of a thrill from the book anyway, especially for the parts of it that you can actually see in the game via the time-travel instances.

Read It (if you like WOW lore)

Ultimate Origins #4

Wasn't this supposed to be an event? We were going to find out just how the Ultimate line is all connected and what the big secret is that started the whole superhuman saga. Well, we find out what it is this issue and all I can say is - duh. Is anyone going to be shocked by this "revelation?" I thought it was blatantly obvious, unless I'm missing something or had different expectations on what this secret link was going to be. The story is interesting enough (and I like the twist Bendis uses to explain the stone obelisks), but if the book is hinged on the revelation it fails hard. Still a solid read, but I'm getting very weary of these Ultimate limited series and am this close to dropping the entire Ultimate line except for Spider-Man.

Read It.

Amazing Spider-Man #571

And my love affair with "New Ways to Die" continues! The new Eddie Brock is a fascinating read and I legitimately don't know what he's going to do next, but whatever it's been so far has made sense. Norman Osborn can always hook, but he's back to his evil, calculating self and I love it. I never really care for Menace when "Brand New Day" started, but his interactions with Norman give him a bit of interest. Looks like May might find out what the F.E.A.S.T. secret is. And more Harry, yay. In case you couldn't tell, this new storyline is firing on all cylinders and is EXACTLY what a good Spider-Man book should be. It's got some great villains, some action, immersive personal stories shared among a diverse supporting cast and I await each new issue. Case in point, next week - Bullseye!

Must Have

Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers

Meh. What should have been an integral part of the Secret Invasion storyline has turned out to be nothing more than a passing blip on the radar. With both the Runaways and the Young Avengers having Skrulls on the team, you would think these teams coming together (as they do for every event now) would have some sort of major impact on the overall storyline. Yo would be wrong, sir. Come on! Hulkling was supposed to be the prophesied peacemaker between the Skrulls and the Kree and all we get is some lip service. It's not a bad three issues, it's just nothing at all important to the plot at large or even all that great to read. It's not terrible, it's just mediocre and nothing of real interest.

Skip It

Invincible #52

After the big number fifty of this title, I was unsure if I liked the new direction of Invincible (especially that costume). After everything that happened with Cecil and the introduction of the new sidekick, it was hard to see where the book was heading. Admittedly, I'm normally a major hater of child superheroes (they're a bit too cliche), but I LOVE Kid Omni-Man/Omni-Boy/Whatever he calls himself. He's not just Invincible-lite. Kirkman's quickly developed him into a major player in Invincible's world. This issue really brings back the newness and edgyness that made me fall in love with the series in the first place.

MUST HAVE

Secret Invasion #6

This issue starts off slowly tying in all the spin-offs into the main Secret Invasion saga. I was beginning to wonder how much those applied, and it's refreshing to see Bendis actually use little moments from each one in the main book. Too often, we see a lot of Marvel tie-in books all but ignored by the main title. Pretty refreshing. In addition to that, everything's finally coming full circle. I won't ruin anything for anyone, but if you've been following this from the beginning, it's safe to say your patience has finally been rewarded.

MUST HAVE

Secret Invasion X-Men #2

It's odd that the X-Men have been the one team seemingly spared the skrull invasion. Yeah, this IS "Secret Invasion X-Men" and they ARE fighting off the skrulls in San Francisco, but I just find it odd that there were no sleeper agents in this team. Even Wolverine was a skrull a while back, so why didn't they think to abduct him again (especially with Logan's power to be on every team at once)? And Professor X was an Illuminati for crying out loud! Alas, I'm getting sidetracked. The story is pretty decent, and it is really cool to see all the different X-teams come together to tackle the invasion. The only real gripes I have are the "big reveal" (which I just mentioned) and the weird Nightcrawler side-story.

Read it

Batman Confidential #21

After what seems like forever, Batgirl's long chase to get back her dad's notebook is finally over. Though, apparently, it takes more of her costume being ripped to do so (Seriously, it got kind of ridiculous...you'd think batcostumes wouldn't rip so much.) The story is...interesting, but it took three issues longer than it really should have to finish; however, I did like the rapport between Batgirl and Catwoman. Still, in the end it wasn't really worth it.

Skip it.

House of M/Civil War #1

It's not the Civil War you know, it's how Magneto rose to power and the life he lead up to it. Surprisingly, it's pretty decent, but considering it's within a continuity that doesn't exist anymore; it seems more than a bit pointless. If you love the House of M stuff, it's probably worth it. For the rest of us, it's not.

Skip it.

Big Hero Six #1

After reading this issue, I actually thought "Wow, Claremont wrote something recently that wasn't so agonizingly painful that I couldn't finish it. This actually doesn't suck." Don't let that fool you, though; it may not suck, but it isn't the most interesting first issue of a new mini-series. It has enough back story to clue in readers who haven't read the previous mini-series, but it doesn't really have a hook to keep readers interested in the current one. Sure there's a fight and cool tech and a spy thing going on, but even with all of that, there isn't much of a pull. There wasn't really a story to keep me interested, it was just another "Here's a team and, look, they can kick ass! Yay!" (Though I did find it interesting that a spy-type person who apparently lost an eye was named Furi...)

Skip it.

Spooks: Omega Team #1

Spooks is basically a combination of two of my favorite things: the supernatural and G.I. Joe. This should come as no surprise since the book is written by Larry Hama, who has given us some great Joe stories over the years. The team (who could easily be mistaken for action figures) find themselves investigating the disappearance of soldiers in the Middle East. It seems that Lilith is hoping to reenter our world to cause trouble. While the horror elements are fairly tame, Spooks offers military adventure, action, and plenty of banter. My favorite character is DX, the team's resident eccentric who wears a high-tech mask complete with a "third eye." The art by Tim Seeley is detailed and dynamic, but nothing we haven't seen before. Above all else, Spooks is a fun read, so if you like G.I. Joe, I'd definitely recommend it.

Read it.

House of Mystery #5

I love the concept of the House of Mystery, and it should provide fertile ground for some truly terrifying stories. When it comes to horror, however, this house is unfortunately empty. Now that the first arc is over, we know what Fig's connection to the house is. Why it took five issues to get there is beyond me. This title is obviously written for the trade. The book utilizes the concept of stories within stories, which sounds cool, but none of them have been at all interesting or relevant to the main arc. If anything, the stories told in the middle of each issue (along with different artists) have taken me right out of the continuing storyline. Vertigo has been going downhill for a while now, and with titles like this, I wonder if the imprint is losing its relevance. The House of Mystery revival could have been a horror tile worth talking about. Instead, it isn't even worth mentioning.

Skip it.

Final Crisis: Revelations #2

First, let's get this out of the way: I am not a fan of the current main Final Crisis book. I find its pacing spastic, the story is borderline incoherent, and it single handedly created a continuity mess with all of the other DC books. Second, I also find the idea of an anti-life equation incredibly ridiculous and it should be trapped within the confines of 1970s wonder-drug induced inanity. Seriously.

loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + self-worth ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ misunderstanding x guilt x shame x failure x judgment n=y where y=hope and n=folly, love=lies, life=death, self=dark side

Oh yeah? Well I know my calculus: it says you + me = us.

Sarcasm aside, Final Crisis: Revelations, Final Crisis: Rogue's Revenge and the should-have-been-Final-Crisis-labeled Last Will and Testament are some of the best comic books I have read in recent history, with their rich character development, satisfying plot advancements, and gleeful surprises and reveals.

Final Crisis: Revelations #2 continues to explore the post-Gotham Central relationship between Crispus Allen (the Spectre) and Renee Montoya (the Question). These former partners find themselves head to head when God calls upon the Spectre to take the life of Renee, which she, understandably, isn't too chuffed about. What follows is a fantastic exploration of faith in the DC Universe. Screw Darkseid, Dark Side, or whatever the frak he's calling himself these days. The DC God (well, the God that the Spectre works for) is one scary dude, or dudette.

People warned me that this book may be too complicated if I hadn't read Gotham Cental, which was just not the case. It was easy to follow and I immediately felt drawn to the main protagonists. The only part that I struggled with was not knowing the identity of the villain that becomes *minor spoiler alert* Cain.

One of the more interesting aspects of this book is that it's showing the events that have been set off in the main book. Whereas the main book reads as if you're always arriving too late for the party, this book is fully entrenched in the Final Crisis event, and we finally get to see the anti-life equation's effect on humanity. I still think the idea of the equation is stupid, but at least it's good set up for things to come. And yes, Batwoman makes an appearance in this issue, and yes it's totally worth it to find out what happens between her and Renee.

MUST HAVE (go back and pick up issue #1 if you have to...and then pick up Gotham Central in trade!)

Deadpool #1

I have a systematic way of reading comic books, with the oh-my-god-I-can't-wait-to-read books in one pile, the buy-out-of-habit pile, and then the trying-new-things pile. It's pretty amazing that this week, I got to review a book from each pile (FC: Revelations #2 was in the first, Ms. Marvel #30 in the second, and Deadpool #1 in the last pile). I picked up Deadpool with some knowledge of the character via his Cable and Deadpool book, but I've never actually been a huge fan.

Let me start off by saying that Deadpool #1 is not a solid issue. There are some jokes that made me laugh (the reoccurring "oh $#@!" from the Skrulls, for example) but a lot of them just feel forced. The art is nice to look at, but the rest of the book consists of Deadpool fighting Skrulls (yawn). There's the very obvious twist at the end that everyone already knew about due to Marvel's insistence on spoiling plot details in their press releases, but that's about it. For now, I say skip it. It may get better eventually, but based on this one issue alone, I wouldn't recommend it.

Skip It

Ms. Marvel #30

Ah Ms. Marvel. I'll forgive that horrid Greg Horn cover (just who are you supposed to be, anyway?) and the last two pages of the book which pretty much reveal that the entire Skrull Invasion was nothing more than a minor inconvenience to everyone. OK, maybe I'm reading too much into it but seriously, it says "several months later..." and...well I won't spoil it for you, mostly because I have no idea who the antagonist is at the end. Anyway, enough about the last two pages, how did the rest of the book read?

It's pretty clear that there wasn't a main consensus between all the Marvel writers on the fine details of the Skrull invasion. Let me bring up the fact that Ms. Marvel is currently out of action in the main Secret Invasion book (Nick Fury blasted her into submission...unless that was a Skrull? Bah, whatever, let's assume that was the real deal). She was taken out easily and then overwhelmed by Skrulls. Now in this solo-series, we see the complete opposite: she's kicking everyone's ass. Fine. Whatever.

But then we are introduced to the Super Saiyan Skrull (whose power level is presumably over 9000). Yes, logically it doesn't make sense that all of a sudden a more powerful version of a Skrull exists (even more powerful than a Super-Skrull) and that Ms. Marvel (who is supposed to be dead or unconscious, remember?) has time to go to Ryker's Island to fight this thing for an entire issue. So why didn't the Skrulls send these Super Saiyan Skrulls to be at the forefront of the Invasion? See, that's where Ms. Marvel takes a break from breaking continuity for all of its worth, turns around and gives us a big wink. Oh my gods, what a twist! It turns out that this Skrull is different because...well that would be spoiling it for you.

It's a quick read that really doesn't do any service to the Secret Invasion at all. Instead, the main points in this book are made to propel Ms. Marvel further into her own book's storylines. It's mildly interesting in itself, but again, I would not recommend this book if you have a penchant for wanting things to make sense.

Skip It