Marvel
Marvel had a pretty good week. They had the Book of the Week in Captain America #28. They had a B+ average over 5 books.

Captain America #28 - Wow! This was really really good. This is certainly one of the best books on the shelf month after month. I'm really excited to see where this goes.

Rapid Fire

1. What the hell is in that letter? I have to know and I have to know now.


2. Is it weird to find Sin attractive? (The character not the concept)


3. How many people is that guy going to hypnotize? damn


4. Nick Fury is the shit. We need him back "above" ground.


5. Silencers (the opening scene) was awesome. I love the dialogue and I love Bucky's internal narrative.

This was really amazing. A+

Ultimate Spider-Man #111 - This was a fitting send-off for Mark Bagley. This was an amazing, funny, touching, and interesting story. Bagley will go out on an incredibly high note. I've had a lot of admiration for Bagley for a while now. It's true that he's not in my small group of favorite artists, but I respect him a lot because his art is above average and the book always comes out on time. Bendis really gets Spider-Man. A

WWHulk #2 - This was pretty good. The story was a bit wonky in places. The art was as well. I'm still in and I'm still excited but this particular issue could've been a bit better. B-

WWH Front Line #2 - The first story in this is really good. The second was barely readable. The third was kind of amusing. It's worth it if only for the first story. B

The Initiative #4 - This issue was ok. I'm kind of getting fatigued by reading the same stories over and over and just having them be a bit different. This had good points though. The art was terrible. Absolutely disgusting. C

Image
Image had a light week. They brought it though. They were the Publisher of the Week with an A average.

Sidekick Summer Spectacular #1 - This book is really funny. I wish that there were a Sidekick ongoing. This issue had everything that you could possibly want: bondage, transvestites, retarded superheroes. A

DC
DC had a mixed week. They had the Shit Book of the Week in Black Canary #2. They maintained a B-/B average over 7 books.

Robin #164 - This story was really good. It's the setup for the fight that will begin in the next issue. It should be cool. I'm even starting to kind of like Killa Nilla.

A little.

A real little.

Don't push it that's as far as I'm moving on that one.

Speaking of things about the book that I'm never thrilled about, let's talk about the art. I can describe it in 1 word: shitty. It's seriously bad. This issue would've gotten an A if not for the art. B

All Flash #1 - If this is any indication of the level of quality that we can expect during the Waid run then all of us that are reading it should be very happy. This was a great story. I LOVED what he did to Inertia. I'm interested in Wally and what happens next. The art was good but jumpy with the artist shifting.

Can anyone fill me in on the imagery from the last few pages? I was kind of lost. A

Amazons Attack #4 - This was ok. I'm beginning to tire of the story a bit. It feels to me like it could be over by now but it just isn't. Woods continues to underwhelm on art. B

Countdown #41 - This was ok. It wasn't their best issue yet. I'm still very happy with it overall though. Dennis Calero's art was pretty shitty. It kind of takes a lot to stand out as a 'bad' art week on this book and this did.

I really liked the Rogues stuff. They need more pages immediately. Their story fascinates me.

Someone needs to kill Jimmy Olsen. Absent an upcoming death, I may be forced to become a comic book character and kill him myself. Jesus Christ! Who cares?

Mary Marvel is the shit and deserves WAAAY more than 1 page. Hey, let's give her Jimmy Olsen's pages! Who's the person watching her through the purple crystal? Anyone???

I liked the Monitor Jim, Donna Troy, and Jason Todd stuff. I don't like that they've named Monitor Jim "Bob" though. I'll choose to ignore it.

I hate the whole Holly Robinson "Hangin' with Ms. Quinn" storyline. It just isn't interesting to me.

The Karate Kid needs to wax off out of my conciousness. I don't care about him at all.

The backup story about the Multiverse was cool as usual. I'm going to miss these when they switch over in a few weeks.

I'm left feeling that there are a lot of elements of Countdown that I really like and some that I'm not into. It seems that my opinion of each issue depends on the mix of the two.

C

Black Canary #2 - Yeah, I don't know about this one. The first issue was entertaining enough. This issue though - not so good. I'm rather annoyed with the writing and the art.

The art - There are several panels where Wonder Woman looks like an alien. People's head just don't hang in such opposition to the flow of their bodies. Merlyn's eyes change color on nearly every page. Does he have magic eye color changing powers that I don't know about? Black Canary looks like Victoria Jackson in several panels. This would be fine if it weren't in stark contrast to the cheesecake-ish panels where she's entirely ripped. In still another group of panels, she looks like a cross between Paris Hilton and Gwenyth Paltrow. Honestly, I could nitpick the art for another two pages. Let's just say it sucks and move on.

The writing - My apologies to Tony Bedard's parents, this isn't going to be very nice.

Is it really necessary to hammer home what a sexist prick he thinks Ollie is in the flashbacks? I think it's pretty clear. The ass-grabbing comment was unnecessary. Ollie is incorrigible, but he's not a jerkoff.

Also in the flashbacks, he portrays Ollie as very bumbling and I'm not really interested in that picture of him. I like the competent Ollie that we're used to. The scene where he has all of his goofy trick arrows spread out on the floor and he's fumbling around for the right one is insulting.

The scene with the League of Assassins is terrible. There is so much hacky exposition that you could actually choke to death reading it. It just sucked.

Then, the League of Assassins invade Sin's high security school for bad kids(really) to kidnap her and she kicks all of their asses at the same time. This isn't nearly enough of an amazing feat for an 8 year-old so she ended the scene by beating up the police and crying.

Then, she gets kidnapped by Merlyn dressed up as Ollie. Oh by the way, Merlyn has an entirely new eye color again when he kidnaps Sin.

This was not good by any stretch of the imagination. I care about the characters so I'm inclined to continue with it but I'm uncertain about it.

F

JLA #11 - Holy shit! I nearly dropped this book because of how bad it has been. This issue was amazing.

Meltzer's writing is spectacular here. The basic story is that Red Arrow and the Chicken Lady (how could I possibly remember all those characters' names?) are trapped in the rubble of a fallen building that also happens to be under water. The narration and the dialogue felt breathless, disorienting, and at times desperate. I know just what he was going for and I picked it up as he laid it down.

The art in this was fanF*ckingTastic. Seriously, the pencils, the colors, and the layouts were world class. I don't think that I've felt this positive about the art in a single issue since Maleev did New Avengers #26. A

The Spirit #8 - I love Darwyn Cooke's stuff so much that if he wrote and drew a book called "Fred gets beaten with a pipe wrench for 22 pages," I'd read it. This is so funny and so pretty. I love the schlocky goodness of it all. They save the city and their own lives by UNPLUGGING the nuclear bomb. That's hysterical - I don't care what anybody says. A

DC Comics
DC had a very mixed week. Despite having the Book of the Week in JSA Classified #27, they had only a C average. Teen Titans was the Shit Book of the Week and Wonder Woman wasn't far behind it. Amazons Attack was pretty great, but Countdown was only middling. What can I say? Some had it and some didn't.

JSA Classified #27 - I loved this issue. I have the hugest man-crush on Ted Grant. Holy fuck! How cool is he? This story was awesome from start to finish. I loved the sequence in the beginning with Ted in high school and the whole thing that happened to his parents. How fucking sad was that! No wonder he's so tough and mysterious. I loved the scene in the bar where he was beating the fuck out of everyone in sight to get to Joe the Slob. He's so badass! And then, the strip club scene. That was awesome! He had the funniest line of the year. He was talking about having gone to the strip club before and he says: "Hey crimefighters gotta unwind, right?" Laughed. My. Ass. Off. I liked his silly fight with the Brutal Brothers and the douchebaggery of the Sportmaster. I loved, loved, loved the fact that he equated the Sportmaster with his father and gave him a second chance. I was blown away by how great the ending was. The final scene is Ted at his father's grave telling him that he doesn't forgive him but that he's beginning to understand him a bit better. Awesome. All around awesome. Perfect story from Frank Tieri.

The art was also nice. A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Amazons Attack #3 - This was good. I wish that I knew which order to read all of the crossovers in though. It's kind of annoying when I start with this one and get tipped off on plot points from WW and TT. I liked it though. I'm very interested in the next installment of this. The art was good but nothing spectacular. A-

Wonder Woman #10 - Some stories end with a bang and some with a whimper. This one ended with Jodie Picoult leaving a steaming pile of shit on the kitchen table. This just sucked. It wasn't as bad as her earlier issues. I didn't even find it insulting - so that's new. The ending though was so manufactured and melodramatic that Picoult should be fucking ashamed of herself. Honestly, I can see now how she works for Lifetime. The pencils also sucked. F

Teen Titans #48 - It's been quite some time since I've seen art this bad. I have a proposition for all of you. If you meet or happen to know Al Barrionuevo, I need you to ask him this: do you draw with your penis? It's like he has no control over the pencil. It looks like he slapped ink on something and crudely smacked it into paper over and over until he could begin to see what it is.

The story was not so great. It seems like Amazons Attack is beginning to hurt the books around it. The mini itself is good, but the ripples it's causing in the pond seem to be on the verge of knocking the boat over. This issue starkly contrasted the greatness of the last. F

Countdown #44 - This was good. It was a bit weak compared to some of the previous weeks but overall I enjoyed it. The History of the Multiverse backup was fun again. The stuff with Monarch and the Foreskinner needs to go away, it's just dumb. The Mary Marvel stuff confused me a bit but I did like what I got. It would be interesting to hear someone summarize it and who all they were talking about. The Jimmy Olsen stuff was weaker than it's been and that's really saying something. The Rogues stuff was cool. Why is Holly Robinson with the Amazons? That is who they were right? C

Marvel Comics
Marvel had a mixed week with a C average. They had the Shit Book of the Week in Thunderbolts #115.

X-Men #200 - I've got a question for all of you. Are the doctors messing with my fucking medication again or is Jean Gray on the cover of this book? I'm almost certain that she's dead. I'm pretty certain about that. It's one thing when the cover doesn't happen in the book, and it's another far worse thing when the cover has DEAD PEOPLE on it. She didn't die last week. It has been a while. Theoretically, the X-editors know right?

Onto the story, or as I call it - the problems. This story sucked. I would honestly rather have my scrotum fastened to the side of a moving train with a nail gun than ever read anything with Gambit or Cannonball in it. This has the extra special benefit of having both of them as well as Rogue in all of her famed "mah" glory. Luckily, she seems to die at the end of the issue. This is a problem too because she was killed by Mystique (whom Iceman fucked - ick). Seriously, Mystique as the leader of the Marauders? She's evil again? Yeah, I get it. People don't change. Stop trying to tickle my ass with a feather.

The art was damn near a capital offense in both the main story and the backup. F

Thunderbolts #115 - So it was bound to happen. Much like the soap in a Turkish prison, this book is DROPPED. I'm not helping Ellis pay his rent with superhero stuff anymore. Sorry, but I just can't do it. I nearly quit reading it in the FIRST PANEL. Really though, I did. Venom said this:

"I want to rip bite their heads off and shove my tongue down their neck holes so I can lick out their hearts."

How fucking hacky is that? Honestly, if not for Transmet and a few other things, I'd be demanding that Warren Ellis' computer, typewriter, and all other equipment that can be used to write scripts be destroyed. I want to lick out your heart because I'm the '90s. Hrrrmmmmmmm.

asshole

It wasn't necessary to turn Bullseye into a vegetable. They set up this whole "prisoner in his own body thing" that was really lame. It reminded me of the video for Metallica's One. the main difference being that I wouldn't say: "If I had arms I'd kill myself"; I'd actually say: "If I had to keep reading this, I'd kill myself."

Fuck this shit. F

Ultimate X-Men #83 - Christ Jesus, who drew this mess? And the coloring? Did they use a Charcoal-infused LiteBright? Blech! The story was better than the art. Of course that's similar to being the smartest kid in Special Ed - it's not much of an accomplishment and it's not much to brag about. D

World War Hulk Front Lines #1 - I'm glad that I picked this up. This is far better than Civil War Front Lines at this point. Way to go Jenkins. B+

World War Hulk X-Men #1 - Apparently Christos Gage's name is Greek for "I can't write for shit." It was a mistake to pick this up. I should've known it. It was terrible, just terrible, from start to finish. When did the Hulk pick up witty banter? I've missed his quips to this point. On top of this, the story wasn't very interesting and was incredibly heavy-handed. I felt like Gage thinks of me as a 6 year old. F

Cable & Deadpool #42 - Is Cable dead? I really hope so. He needs to go away. The parts with Deadpool were great. C

Black Panther #28 - This was disappointing. I like Black Panther. I talk about it month after month. This story just wasn't that good. D+

X-Factor #20 - This was really great. I enjoyed it. Month after month this is one of the best books on the rack. A

Criminal #7 - Excellent. Ed Brubaker is bound and determined to supplant Bendis in my mind. He's doing a fine job of it. I cannot wait for the next one. Sean Phillips' art was good. A

Daredevil #98 - Great as usual. Brubaker is the man. Lark's pencils were great too. A

Image Comics
Image had an awesome week with an A average. They were the Publisher of the Week. Each of their books contended for Book of the Week. Sadly, none of them made it.

The Walking Dead #38 - This was excellent. The entire issue was awesome. I loved it all. I especially loved the tension in it. I spent most of the issue on the edge of my seat like I would in a horror movie repeating "get the fuck out of there" over and over again. Charlie Adlard's pencils were awesome as usual. A

Invincible #43 - This was a really great issue. I loved it. The stuff with Mark and his brother was really cool. Also, the issue ended with Atom Eve making a direct play for Mark. They could be together soon. That's so cool. I've been hoping for that. The art was cool. A

The Nightly News #6 - This was a fitting and spectacular ending to what has been a tremendous mini. I urge all of you to buy the trade. I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed this. Hickman is refreshing and original and I cannot wait for Pax Romana or Red Mass From Mars. A

Dynamite Entertainment
Dynamite had a B average this week. I only had 1 book from them. 1 is still more than usual.

The Boys #8 - This was good. I'm enjoying it. I'm glad it's back. Ennis' story is developing and intriguing me. I was a little bugged by some of the content as it relates to the treatment of the gay characters in the story but Ennis did make an effort to redeem it in the end. I'm stuck between saying it was too much too late and saying that it's a story about bad people and unsurprisingly they behave in ways that many people wouldn't be proud of.

Robertson's pencils are great. B

DC Comics
DC was the Publisher of the Week with an A average. It was one hell of a week from DC. They also had the Book of the Week in Fables #62.

Countdown #46 - This was really good. I liked it with a few notable exceptions.

Liked

1. The Jimmy Olsen stuff (most of it)
2. The Mary Marvel stuff (most of it was excellent)
3. The Rogues are always a lot of fun
4. Ths stuff with the Monitors and Donna Troy and Jason Todd

Disliked

1. Darkseid's assitant's name was Sleeze. It was just a bit hokey and dumb for me
2. Mary Marvel has to fight a DEAD BABY MONSTER - yeah seriously, a dead baby monster. Apparently, Palmiotti and Gray are gearing up for their new gig writing lyrics for Cannibal Corpse
3. Forerunner is a terribly designed character and that scene didn't really end either

The art was better than it has been. B+

Green Arrow #75 - Holy crap what a way to go! This was an amazing issue. I will miss this book, but at least Winick knows how to craft an ending. Ollie is out as the mayor of Star City, the recall election has been called off, Ollie's mayoral advisor has been made the mayor, Nocerta has been screwed, Deathstroke has been defeated, the Star City wall has come down, and Ollie proposed to Dinah. It was an action packed and amazing issue. The art was pretty great as usual. A

Fables #62 - This was an extremely good issue. I love this Flycatcher storyline and I'm glad that it will continue without Boy Blue. I had worried that it might die prematurely for lack of his help. In this issue, Fly hooks up with the Foresworn Knight and gets his magic armor, the sword Excalibur, and becomes a knight. He will be traveling back to the homelands to take his kingdom back with magic that makes it impossible for him to lose unless he becomes impure. I also really enjoyed the Prince Charming scenes where he gave Hansel his ultimatum to the Adversary. It was a great scene and it showed Charming's strength of character. I really enjoyed it. The art was great as usual. A+

DMZ #20 - DMZ is such an astonishingly good book. It really delivers issue after issue. I can't even imagine reading it in trades. I can't wait 6 months to get more story. It's just so great. I think that the artist on this was a fill-in but there were only a few spots where it was easy to tell. Overall, awesome as usual. A

Marvel Comics

Marvel had a B+ average for the week. The average was dragged down by the only bad book in my stack today. It was the suprising Shit Book of the Week in New Avengers #31.

New Avengers #31 - I'm not sure how to go on this. The issue itself had some great moments. The banter between Hawkeye and Spider-Man was funny. I liked the competitiveness. The story was interesting. I'm afraid of what it means though. If Jessica Jones' baby is a Skrull and Elektra is a Skrull then it's only a short hop to there being a full-scale behind the scenes Skrull takeover. I'm afraid that they will use it to roll back the SHRA, the Initiative, and a bunch of other things. It almost feels like there's an inevitable team-up to save the real Tony and Reed coming. Jones' baby might not be a Skrull though and it may not mean that. I may be overreacting. The art sucked balls again. Leinel Yu should get a job illustrating anime. People would appreciate his speed lines there. D+

World War Hulk #1 - This was awesome. I'm not usually big on the gigantic fight issues. It really worked here. The Hulk and Iron Man had one of the greatest fights I've seen. The Hulk really fucked him up. It was so awesome when Tony injected him with the nanobots, took him down, and shot missles at him and it just PISSED the Hulk OFF. Oddly, Romita's pencils were a bit off in a few places. They were good overall but I really don't like the way that he draws the Hulk. This was a lot of fun. So great, looking forward to #2. A

Cable & Deadpool #41 - This was really good. I was surprised. I was kind of dreading it because I knew that Cable was in it. It was awesome though. The Cable parts weren't that great, but they didn't completely suck like they normally do. It also helped that all of the Deadpool scenes were hysterical. I love Nicieza's Deadpool and I really hope that Cable is the "major death" in the X-Men event. This book needs to be just Deadpool. The art was the same as always, neither great nor terrible. A

Nova #3 - This was awesome. I loved it. This was the second half of the story of Nova's time visiting Earth. He fought the Thunderbolts and more or less won. He fought with his parents. He met up with Penance, who was in New Warriors with him as Speedball. That was a very interesting scene. I've been complaining that they're not doing enough with Penance and I was happy to see this. Penance asked him to join the Initiative and he decided to leave the Earth instead. I liked the art. I am worried though that this will begin to suck with him going back into space. I'm going to try to keep the faith though because I never expected this book to be any good in the first place. A

I tend to be a bit hard on movies. There have been thousands of them made. I've seen hundreds myself. There are usually so many that have done what they're trying to do better that I can't help but negatively compare the movie to the ones that have come before. This was not an issue with The Queen. I had the pleasure of watching it last night and I can say that I've seen few do what they tried to do better. It was absolutely astonishing in a variety of ways.

The Queen tells the story of Tony Blair's election, the death of Princess Diana shortly after, and the period of mourning leading up to her funeral. The story is told magnificiently. The script was written by Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Last King of Scotland. It was directed by Stephen Frears. I mention the writer and director together because the story is so well done. The pacing was magnificient. The performances that the director got out of his cast were incredible. I'm actually kind of interested in seeing the script for this because I'd like to see what the contributions of each were. Has the writer written in all of the subtext that can be read from the faces of the actors that the director is directing? Is it there under the surface and the director has just pulled it out? I don't know the answers to these questions but I am quite interested. The symbolism of the deer was quite moving.

The acting was superb. Each player in the movie was incredible.

Helen Mirren played Queen Elizabeth so expressively. You could literally gather as much from her face as her lines. There's an array of unspoken, understated strength and conflict that she was able to successfully emote without saying a word. It takes a lot to sell a performance as a largely known living public figure and she sells it. I believed it every second of the film.

Michael Sheen was fantastic in the role of Tony Blair. Many of the same compliments that I've paid Helen Mirren also apply. So many things come through in his performance without actually being said. You can tell that he's a guy who respects the monarchy because it's a tradition and it's part of being British. This is why he tries again and again to save the Queen from herself. You can also feel how utterly unprepared he feels for all of this in that he's just taken office and all of this happens.

James Cromwell was astounding in the role of Prince Phillip. Phillip is somewhat reknowned for being a douche. Cromwell's Phillip was a perfect douche in every way imaginable.

Alex Jennings played Prince Charles and did a hell of a job. Prince Charles isn't traditionally a sympathetic character. You would think that this would be even more true in the telling of this story. However his performance, and the writing, actually made me feel for the guy. I didn't hate him for the first time in my life. Was he still a calculating asshole? Sure he was, but he did a good enough job to make me forget how much of an asshole I've always thought that he was for at least an hour and a half.

This was an excellent movie. I actually plan to watch it again soon. If I were to grade it, I would give it an A+.