the saga of the SHIP, Feb. 20, 2008

For me:

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #10--the last hurrah of Pérez
INCREDIBLE HERCULES #114--more labors
MIGHTY AVENGERS #9--who will win? oh, wait, we know already

We're back to the light weeks, I see.

Runaways, I guess (it's still Whedon, right?)

Has Marvel said whether Incredible Herc is going to carry on as an ongoing series or if it's going to play out long enough to wrap up WWHulk loose ends and then be cancelled? It just doesn't seem to me that Herc is worthy of his own title, unless they're going to use him as Basil Exposition in every year's Big Mega Blockbuster X-Over Storyline.

I would say the same thing about Ms Marvel, except, you know, TITTAYS. And the Bendis influence on her characterization makes her potentially more interesting. (YMMV obv)

Brave and the Bold, Checkmate, Programme, Spirit, Incredible Hercules, The Order, and this Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death thing.

DRIFTING CLASSROOM VOL. 10
IMMORTAL IRON FIST: ORSON RANDALL AND THE GREEN MISTS OF DEATH
THE ORDER #8
RUNAWAYS #29(?)

Decent week - I suspect I've forgotten something, though.

Brave vs Bold and Spirit???

a little over a year ago, I was spending as much on comics in one week as I now do in one month. Kinda desperately waiting for Final Crisis just to get the blood flowing...

The fact that you yearn to spend more money amuses me.

i am running out of cookie jars

Wow, this week is terrible!

Runaways, The Programme, Ultimate X-Men. Amazing Spider-Man. Not really excited about any of that.

REX MUNDI DH ED #10: Potentially. I'd rather read Zero Killer.
UMBRELLA ACADEMY APOCALYPSE SUITE #6: Possibly.
BRAVE AND THE BOLD #10: Unlikely.
LOVELESS #22: Wha? I thought this ended last issue?
SPIRIT #14: Erm. Probably not.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #551: Actually, likely.
HULK #2: Less so.
RUNAWAYS #29: Absolutely.

So... Amazing Spider-Man + Runaways. Everything else is incredibly iffy depending on my mood.

Actually, I think I'm dumping Spidey.

You know, Marvel had a nice thing going when they had an X-Men comic out every week and the plot was being advanced with every issue. Just saying.

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #4- This one is way late, but so far not much as happened other than busting down an OMAC.

BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #13- I'm kind of interested in this one. As I stated a week or two back, it is referencing a good Mike Barr/ Mike Golden 80s annual story dealing with a character called the Wraith.

SUPERMAN BATMAN #46- I'm read up to #43 on this title. I think I tend to like this title more than most people.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #18- I kind of hope they start focusing on some other characters as every issue being about Speedy and the second rung gang isn't getting it done and some stuff needs to start happening.

I tend to think other than the jokey JLA, it just doesn't seem to work as well as the Avengers. I also got the first two Morrison JLA trades and I thought they were kind of meh. It doesn't probably help that he has the reject version of Superman, Green Lantern, etc. and the artwork is average at best, but I hope the later stuff he does is 'great', considering some of the hype I have read on that book.

I'll probably also eventually get the current issue of Catwoman, as I started reading from about the time she blew the Black Masks' jaw off. I've still got about ten issues to read and then a few more to get caught up to present. Going from what I have read, it is a pretty good title both for writing and artwork.

Oh yeah, I've been picking up a 52 trade paperback a week. I'm three issues into the third TPB. So far that has been an OK read and has some real fun stuff, especially some of the scenes with the mad scientists on the island. I can definitely see why it was popular.

I also got caught up on the whole Green Lantern/Green Lantern Corp titles last week and I am read up through the Sinestro War. It was a pretty fun read. I think this whole thing definitely seems to reference Englehart and Joe Staton's run on Green Lantern from around the first Crisis, as a bunch of stuff references back to 80s Green Lantern stuff (Mogo etc.) The GL book was pretty good back then, so I am good with Johns' kind of resetting things back to that period.

I'm also caught up reading Superman and will probably get caught up on Action this week. I have to say that I am liking both of the main Superman books. I haven't read the Legion storyline in Action, but I have liked about everything since One Year Later in both books.

That Legion story in Action is probably the best thing Geoff Johns has done so far in his career.

PAUL GOES FISHING - woohoo!

see how much new stuff is in the Sam & Max trade, if it's mostly pinups will feel gouged paying $30-ish for three one-pagers

I used to be a Geoff Johns hater. Now I'm starting to really like about half of his stuff. I think what converted me was the Tales of the Sinestro Corps special with Superman Prime. And I'm really looking forward to seeing where that Action story goes, too. Plus: DC Universe #0!

CATWOMAN #76
EX MACHINA #34
FLASH #237
SPIRIT #14
SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL #12
HAWAIIAN DICK #3
HULK #2
INCREDIBLE HERCULES #114
IRON MAN #26
ULTIMATE X-MEN #91

I think.

I really liked Johns's Flash run, especially Ignition--which had absolutely gorgeous art. There were some nice things in his first JSA stuff, and GL: Rebirth was pretty cool. There's some recent bit (talking about Morrison on Final Crisis) where Didio says that Infinite Crisis "nearly broke" Johns, which may explain something. But it's also worth wondering if Johns's fast rise to "Wizard Hot Writer" didn't have something to do with him almost always being paired with above average artists.

Well, for better and worse, Johns seems like he's the only DC writer on a regular title with some sort of forward plan. (Even if he has to be typically gratuitous about it with his "trailers.")

I mean, he's essentially doing widescreen-style comics with a homely, nerdy DC-spin -- but there's an obvious curiosity and enthusiasm there, even when he doesn't pull it off, that I don't see in any other of DC's titles right now.

Also, less body part ripping these days.

Grendel
Checkmate
Spirit
Iron Fist
The complete omaha the cat dancer vols. 1-5.

Spot the ridiculously obvious lie!

Geoff Johns = DC dbl agent deployed to fuck over loverly Marvel Comics (eg his TERRIBLE issues of the Avengers) - see also: Agent Loeb

PAUL GOES FISHING = excellent news!

Spot the ridiculously obvious lie!

CHECKMATE!

The lie is that I can afford to buy comic books.

When I was in Mtl last fall, I tried to find Paul comics in original french, but there were none to be had!

GF did the math and I have spent 1 downpayment on a house on comics in the last 5 yrs.

Paul Goes Fishing - this is related to Paul Goes to Summer Camp, yes? Because that was lovely.

I think the order is Paul In The Country, Paul Has A Summer Job, Paul Moves Out, Paul Goes Fishing.

Canadian news: Colin Mochrie was in front of me in the queue at the comic store, buying about $200 worth of comics. Should I tell TMZ?

Paul Has a Summer Job--that's the title. Great stuff.

Batman Vs Superman