Shipping This Week! -- 05.07.07

Erk. I can't remember how Independence Day affects UK dates. I think Thursday is still Thursday.

Since this is short I might buy some House Of Meh spinoffs, but MORE NAZI DINOSAUR BOOBIES is the key this week. And the concluding parts of C:WiR and Ocean are welcome, since they both seem to have started about a year ago.

BATTLE POPE COLOR #1 [[old skool Robert Kirkman ultra violence]]
STRANGE GIRL #2 [[from the co-creator of Sea of Red: girl gets kidnapped by demons during The Rapture, ends up tending bar in Hell or some stuff, learns magic, yadda yadda yadda]]

DAREDEVIL VS PUNISHER #1 (OF 6) [[DAVID LAPHAM!!!]]
FANTASTIC FOUR HOUSE OF M #1 (OF 3)
IRON MAN HOUSE OF M #1 (OF 3)
MARVEL TEAM-UP #10 [[cover: elephant sitting on superdudes!]]
SHANNA THE SHE DEVIL #6 (OF 7) (MR) [[boobies??]]
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #79

DAREDEVIL VS PUNISHER #1 (OF 6) (I'm torn. I'm not sure I like either character, but I know I like Lapham.)

Just like in America!

Except they're my comics, not Huk's.

I went to the store today, unthinking, and bought the last issue of the OMAC project instead of walking in and out and looking like a fool.

(what, you guys didn't see Land of the Dead? oh.)

Hah, I'd forgotten kind of about the holiday. I was just saying in general, besides. But it looks like I lucked into genius, yet again!

Villains United #3: The Secret Six (who are no longer secret, but are still six) get tortured, along with readers.

JSA #75: Shit be fucked up.

Gotham Central #33: Everybody dies. And then they all lez up.

anyway

Villains United: even worse art than usual, monotonous and unpleasant storyline.

JSA: quite cool - would have been better if atom smasher had actually died

Hellboy "The Island" #1 - delicious art, story is more of the same (although a little more disjointed, probably because I couldn't remember all the previous storylines that were referenced), but I love all of the little *footnotes.

Planetary #23 - I dig it, although the "worst. rescue. ever." line was a groaner and I wish that just once Cassaday would show the Drummer holding his sticks correctly. :>

X-Men Unlimited - Sam Kieth drawing Wolverine is actually pretty sweet!

Zombie Tales - Zombies! Tales!

Runaways - continues to be awesome.

Still have Y and Batman: LotDK waiting at home.

Also enjoying HOUSE OF M a lot more than I thought I would, although I didn't get the Spider-Man crossover last week until The X-Axis explained the plot to me, whereupon I suddenly thought it was a really great idea. Even bought the FANTASTIC FOUR: HOUSE OF M thing, the first half of which is a very clever restaging of FF #1.

1) Scarlet Witch has reality-altering powers, goes crazy, fucks up the Avengers (see Avengers Disassembled).

2) Scarlet Witch ends up in Genosha under the care of Magneto and Xavier, but they can't keep her sedated forever.

3) All of the Marvel superheroes order in pizza and discuss whether they should kill or not.

4) Said superheroes travel to Genosha to do something about SW, but when they arrive she is "missing" and proceeds to plunge them into, yes, a parallel universe of her (their?) own devising.

A CRAPPY HOUSE OF M PRIMER (By SpideyFanMaryJHOTTson):

The Scarlet Witch (daughter of Magneto) was thought to be a channeler of "Chaos Magic". Instead, it turns out that she actually has reality-warping powers, powers so strong that she was actually able to become pregnant by an android and have kids. However, it was discovered that her kids weren't real, and were "figments" of her "imagination". That revelation, coupled w/ various other superstresses, caused SW to crack. As a result of her going beoooop, a couple of Avengers were killed, the Avengers themselves disbanded, and, once she was subdued, Magneto swooped in to take SW to Genosha (his current base of operations; a former mutant-oppressive state, now decimated, off the coast of Australia, IIRC) to convalesce.

In the following year (or so), the Avengers reassembled, and, with the help of the X-Men, discussed what to do about SW (as having a mutant w/ reality-warping powers under Magneto's watch might not be good for the world @ large) - whether killing her is necessary, or simply intervening and trying to rehabilitate her, or taking her out for a scone. The X-Vengers troop to Genosha to confront the SW, and then WHOOOOOOOSH WHITE LIGHT and folks unknowingly wake up in a world where (as far as readers know):

- mutants are the dominant species
- Magneto is top dog
- humans are tolerated at best

As for specifics, Spidey is a world-famous wrestler / movie star married to Gwen Stacy (w/ JJJ as his PR guy), and I forget what's going on w/ the other characters.

So it's still an alternate reality story, but what they really mean(t) is it's not an "imaginary story" in the "Superman and Lois get married and Mxyzptlk poses as Mr Belvedere to help raise their Super-Son, but then Brainiac poses as Teddy Ruxpin and sneaks some gold kryptonite into the house and uh-oh the Supermen have no powers now but Mxy uses his powers to trap Brainiac in the teddy bear body forever, so that sucks for him" sense -- maybe that means characters will remember it, too, and MJ will be all "yo, why were you married to Gwen?"

*going from Tom's description, I don't know jack shit about it myself