I had a pretty good week with 14 books that maintained a B+ average. The Publisher of the Week was Marvel. The Book of the Week was American Virgin #16. The Shit Book of the Week was All-Star Superman #8.

DC
I had 7 DC books with a B average. They had the Book of the Week in American Virgin #16 and the Shit Book of the Week in All-Star Superman #8.

American Virgin #16 - This is an outstanding book. It's slowly becoming one of my favorites. Adam Chamberlin's journey is exceptionally interesting to me. This is the second issue of the latest arc which turns his spiritual and metaphoric journey into an actual journey. He's traveling the world with a girl that he met a few issues ago and he's trying new things. I'm really into the concept of this book and the things that it makes me think about. And further, how could you not love the Iron Phallus festival? I really like Becky Cloonan's pencils. A+

Countdown #43 - This was the best issue of Countdown so far. I've really enjoyed Countdown so far so fact says a lot. I loved Bart's funeral. It was emotional, touching, and very well done. The video of him was a nice touch. I think that it's really easy to get dragged into this horrid maudlin place with a death/funeral/remember the life stories, and the team at DC skillfully avoided it. I genuinely enjoyed the shifting perspectives during the funeral. I think it was a cool idea and was executed quite well.

I'm intrigued by the Jason Todd, Donna Troy, Monitor Jim (I don't know his name) story. Why do they need to find Ray Palmer? Someone? Anyone?

Jimmy Olsen needs to die next. Sadly, I care so little about him that he could have a "great death" and it wouldn't really hold my interest.

The Rogues needs to stay together. They don't want to have to look for coke. They should just stick with Mirror Master.

Hey - where was Mary Marvel? Huh, huh? Where'd she go? I don't like that she was missing.

Why do I care about Holly Robinson? How can she spend this long away from Mr. Cooper? Why is Harley Quinn an Amazon now? Is she with the Amazons? I think so, but what the hell do I know?

The backup was good as usual.

The art had some problems as usual. A

Y The Last Man #57 - You ever read something that you want to talk about but you can't because you know half the damn people that read it do so in trade? This is my problem here. So, no need to scream "SPOILERS" because there won't be any. I will say that Vaughn sure knows how to gather large piles of shit to throw on the fan. Excellent. A

Scalped #7 - This was probably the best issue of Scalped so far. This story was told from the perspective of Chief Red Crow. It was an interesting approach. It was also a risky approach. Red Crow is one of the "bad guys", but Aaron told the story from his perspective and actually shed a lot of light on who he is. It could've been a disaster as it's easy for stories like this to fail miserably. Jason Aaron may be relatively new* on the comics scene, but I can see a future ahead of him.

* He doesn't even have a wiki page yet. I just checked.

The art is still a bit troubled. A-

Black Canary #1 - This was pretty good. It was interesting enough to keep buying it. The art didn't blow me away or anything but overall this was good. B

Detective Comics #834 - This was surprisingly decent. I didn't really care for the first half of this story but the conclusion was far better than it. The art was touchy in places. B-

All-Star Superman #8 - Wow! What a piece of shit. I seriously had to force myself to finish this. I flipped through the book 3 times while I was reading it just to count how many pages were left. I hate Bizarro and the Underverse and the whole dumb concept. You need a fucking decoder ring to understand the dialogue. Quitely's pencils were excellent as usual, but not nearly enough to save it. F

Marvel
Marvel had an awesome week. I had 5 of their books and they had almost an A- average. They were the Publisher of the Week.

Fallen Son Captain America #5 - This was really great. I had read it already last week so I wanted to read it again and grade it and review it in the context of this week's books. I am certainly glad that I did. This issue was the Cap funeral issue. The speech by Falcon was very touching. The words by Tony were as well. Very nice finish Mr. Loeb. Cassaday's pencils were fantastic, especially on the spreads. A

Punisher MAX #49 - This was really good. This was an interesting new twist on the usual "find bad guys and then kill bad guys" storyline. I enjoyed it quite thoroughly. It was very intense. A-

Daredevil Battlin' Jack Murdock #2 - This issue was a bit of a drop off from the first issue but this was still very good. It seems like Wells really gets it. Jack Murdock's self-loathing and shame seem realistic and (frankly) warranted. He also captures the tension between the Murdocks and the parallels between them very well. The art was pretty good, there were some spots that didn't work well, but overall the pencils were well done. A-

Ms. Marvel #17 - This is a really fun book. I enjoy reading it. It isn't exceptionally deep or anything, but it's a good time. The art is good. A-

Dark Tower #6 - This series has been really great. I'm excited to see the next and final issue but will also be sad to see it end for now. The art is utterly amazing. Jae Lee and Richard Isanove may compliment each other as well as any other penciller and colorist that I've ever seen. A-

Runaways #27 - This was ok. I'm not overly-enthusiastic about Whedon's arc to this point but I'm sure that he'll turn it around. The art was horrible all around. The pencils and coloring just sucked. C

Image
I only had 1 Image book this week and it got a B.

The Astounding Wolf-Man #2 - I'm a bit torn about this. Part of me loved it and wants to ramble on about how cool it was, and another part of me wants to point out that this is Invincible with a werewolf. It's cool though. I'm in for the foreseeable future. Jason Howard's pencils are enjoyable. B