A Descent into Dullness

Invincible continues to only have a limited amount of its titular character. Instead mostly focusing on Invinci-Bulletproof. And also what happened with Monster Girl and Robot when they trapped in that alien universe...

The creepiest part of Saucer Country isn't the possibility of actual aliens. But that the UFOologist stuff is based on real people...

The Shade moves into its final arc, with a return to London and Frazer Irving as the new artist...

With Resurrection Man slated for the next round of cancellation it looks like DnA is working to at least finish up their main story. Sadly, I think I'll have to consider Resurrection Man to have been similar to the relaunched Static Shock. Something that never really approached its potential...

After numerous prequel samples in DHP, Brian Wood launches the Massive. A post-apocalyptic oceanic scifi story...

And also from Wood is a new Conan the Barbarian. Still Harren instead of Cloonan on art. And the dude on the cover really, really, really doesn't look like Conan. But on the plus side Conan totally messes up a dude and his girlfriend does a number on some guards...

And lastly Knights of the Dinner Table has the Knights back on their regular campaign world after pretty much blowing up Bag World. Plus Tank helps to coach Crutch for another attempt to pass his GM credentials test. I'm always glad to see strips with Crutch in them...

Another very heavy week. And even though the store got shorted on the latest issue of the Wood/Cloonan Conan, they did get in the issue of Mouse Guard: the Black Axe I missed from a few weeks back. With the new weilder of the Black Axe having to go into the briar patch to face a killer fox...

I also got another unexpected issue of Lobster Johnson: the Burning Hand. I swear I manage to miss seeing this when checking the week's releases every time. Anyway, L.J. and his crew continue to face off against the mob's hired supernatural assassin...

The latest Resurection Man has Mitch Shelley encountering a pair of extra-normal investigators. One of whom may end up having the clues he needs to piece together his past...

The Shade concludes his adventure in Spain with demons vanquished, evil thwarted and fashion rescued...

I'm still on the fence about Paul Cornell's Saucer Country, but the various oddities and characters now look to be working into a more coherent story at least...

The Unwritten begins its new arc with a visit to somewhere and a team-up between the Tinker and Pauly the Bunny. Pauly is still a selfish asshole by the way...

Glory takes a look at future, but really it was the preview for the new Youngblood at end that draws my attention. Mostly just in showcasing how truly vast the difference in skill levels are between Ross Campbell and Rob Liefeld. Seriously, dude still can't draw feet or waists or arrows. Why would you make a super-team whose leader is an archer if you can't draw a fucking arrow?

Ungh. Right, back to good comics with the second issue of Saga. With lots of weird, alien bounty hunters and robots deadly plants and ghosts and a baby...

Over on Adventure Time with Finn & Jake are titular heroes refuse to give up in their quest to save the world from the Liche King and his super-magic bag of holding. Teaming up with Desert Princess and Princess Bubblegum and Lumpy Space Princess and Marceline and even the Ice King...

And finally a new Courtney Crumrin ongoing from Oni. And it starts with Courtney seemingly making an actual friend. Though that may be speaking too soon. Seriously, new Courtney Crumrin, in color even...

The Unwritten opens with Tommy still being given a Join or Die spiel by the Cabal. But his trusty allies are on their way to deal with the Evil Fanficcers that are sapping his magical might...

In addition to all the dwarf on dwarf make-outs, the recent Dungeons & Dragons comic also has a Beholder getting stabbed in an eye with a knife and a giant Momma bug-monster...

Resurrection Man is a decent enough "Hero Trapped in Arkham" story. Except I've got no idea what criminal act Mitch supposedly did to get himself sentenced there. And the crowd scene arts are fairly weak. Plus is there really a Gotham bad guy named Sumo? I mean was that part of the DCU really running low on plus-sized bad guys?

More Lobster Johnson: the Burning Hand. With our pulp hero tracking his gang boss prey to a health result. Where the massages come with some deep-tissue bullets...

Got a couple new books as well. First Kaboom's Adventure Time with Finn & Jake written by Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics. This first story features a return of the Lich King, as well as a back-up story with Treetunks and the Mystery of the Free Sky Cider...

And a new Conan the Barbarian series. With Brian Wood & Becky Cloonan adapting the "Queen of the Black Coast"...

Quick post on today's comics. So DC according to this latest issue of the Shade there was no JSA but at least Vigilante and Lady Fatal (seriously?) were active during WW2? Your new reboot continuity makes no sense! And thats ignoring the whole compression of all the Robins over a 5 year period. Oh well, at least this "Times Past" interlude has some fantastic Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone art...

Oh hey, new Lobster Johnson mini. With a plucky girl reporter even...

And lo the Cabal would fight against the new improved mystical might of Tommy in the Unwritten with the power of the unliscensed fanfic?

And Resurrection Man gets an all-new origin. Involving government black ops and Mitch being a giant asshole...

Invincible and his new pal Dinosaurus are still working to make the world a better place. Just in time for Allan the Alien to show up with his plan for the Earth...

And finally Scalped has the FBI making their play against Red Crow while Shunka goes to settle things one last time with Dash...

Ok, given that I'm temporarily coherent. Or mostly so at least, lets finally get to looking at the final new comics pull of the year...

The Unwritten is another .5 issue, and according to Mike Carey it looks there will be at least two more months of these. This one ties in the "Epic of Gilgamesh" to the core concept of Leviathan and the conspiracy. I came up with a name for them didn't I? I thought I had, but I can't recall it...

Annihilators: Earthfall finishes up, with the Annihilators and Avengers working together to put a stop to the threat of the Magus reborn. And this also looks to be the end for cosmic Marvel from Abnett & Lanning. And new Rocket Raccoon stories. *sad face*

G0dland #35 finally hits, leaving only two issues to go. Adam Archer and Nicklehead together manage to save the Earth from alien armageddon. But the threat to the universe itself still remains with only two issues remaining...

And lastly Dungeons & Dragons shows that love among the dwarven-folk ain't never easy. Plus the Big Nasty is given a final page reveal. And a nice reveal for one of D&D's nastier beasties it is...

Ok, lets get to this big ol' stack. Beginning with Marvel and Annihilators Earthfall. Where now our cosmic dudes and the Avengers are working together to try to stop Space-Church and the Magus. I still love Ronan talking smack to Cap. Though I wish the art was better. Like the stuff in the Rocket Raccoon vs. Mojo back-up...

And then more Captain America team-up with the "bad" Thunderbolts group working with Cap and Namor to rescue robot Human Torch from original Baron Zemo. Which somehow leads to Namor and Satanna sharing a sexy, sexy bath together...

Avengers Academy has Pym needing some help with energy analysis of Jocasta's murder. So of course he calls up the X-Men to get Magneto to do it. 'Cause he's a good guy again right now. Leading to fun family times with Pietro and Quicksilver's protege Finesse. And props to her for being ballsy enough to attack Mags with a pair of fuckin' batons. Not the smartest move, but high points for guts...

Away from Marvel to Image with a new supers book from Paul Grist (Kane and Jack Staff). Featuring a teen hero named Mud Man. Who looks to have mud powers, natch. Not much just yet, but I'm hopeful given Grist's previous work...

Also a new Invincible, where we go back to space and Allan the Alien and Oliver. Where Nolan briefs Allan on what happened with the last of Viltrumites and Earth...

And now DC. Starting with Wonder Woman, with Brian Azzarello shaking up the status quo of Diana's origin. One that shakes her basic belief in herself and her family...

I'm still not sure about everything on the revamped Blue Beetle. Except for the whole making La Dama actually a bad guy in attitude. She always seemed to soft in the original for someone who supposedly had a hard-core reputation...

And then the Shade isn't dead. Which, of course isn't much of a shock. But for now he's off on a quest to find out who hired Deathstroke and wants to try and make him dead...

On the Vertigo side the zombie mini-apocalypse is mostly over in iZombie. Though both the Dead Presidents and the Hunter group are still lurking about. So Gwen's trying to lay low hiding in her crypt. And Spot attempts to date a dude...

The Unwritten takes a look back into the past, with stops in China's giant destruction of knowledge, some Hearst paper political cartooning and a certain Mr. Guttenberg. All as part of Tommy's Dad's journals and the search for the conspiracy's origin...

Scalped keeps racing to the end, with a couple players getting taken off the board. And Shunka and Dash moving to a confrontation...

And next up is a new Dark Horse Presents. The "Finder" story this time around is a ghost story. Plus a quirky little short piece from Fabio Moon. And a new "Beasts of Burden" story involving Midevil war dogs and a basilisk...

Dungeons & Dragons continues to examine the love lives of the dwarven folk. And how that involves hitting monsters with hammers. Kinky, kinky dwarven folk...

And happily a new Rasl. Not a huge amount of story this issue, but a lot of the life of Tesla. And I'm always up for more Tesla biography stuff...

Also the final issue of Comic Book Comics. Looking at the rise of the graphic novel, the arrival of the direct market and the boom and bust black & white and 90's speculator periods...

And finally a new Knights of the Dinner Table. Mostly Nitro and the PeeWees on the HackMaster front. With the Knights taking a break for a Halloween game of not-Call of Cthulu...

Seriously Marvel you can stop with the .1 and .whatever issues of books. I mean this Villains for Hire makes for a nice bridging issue between the previous Heroes for Hire and the new series. But there is no damn reason it couldn't have just been an issue #1...

I'm also not to crazy about this Sean Chen dude as the new penciler on Avengers Academy. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see more of Boulder/Butterball even if only in background shots so far. But he's supposed to be a fat kid. Dude doesn't even come close. Plus that group shot is way too cluttered and lacking in focus. But I do enjoy watching the Academy kids go a bit crazy and attack Cap and Luke Cage. In the same way I liked when Gladiator and Ronan were giving the Avengers shit during last week's Annihilators book...

Savage Dragon steps away from Earth for a bit to check in with Dragon/Kurr's people in space. Where we fond that the titular lead is, once again, not quite as dead as everyone has been thinking...

Next we have Invincible making a big change in his life. In a way that he hopes will make the world better, but won't exactly be the best move for his own popularity and as a way to keep people's trust in him...

Then its Static Shock. I actually like this one a bit more than the previous ones. Mostly because Virgil starts showing up his new rogues as the second-raters they are. Plus a bit more on the weirdness of his duplicated sister...

And lastly we've got the final issue of F.E.A.R. Agent. Its been a long, sometimes super-confusing trip. But it all comes to a climax here, with Heath making one last try at making everything right...

Only three books this week, all DC/Vertigo. Starting with the next issue of the Resurrection Man relaunch. With Mitch Shelly plug the holes in his memory. At the same time being chased by the Body Doubles. Who are like characters from a CW pseudo-teen drama. If the drama was about gun-toting violence-crazy killer elites...

Also the first issue in James Robinson's new the Shade miniseries. Apparantly each issue will have a different artist. This first issue has the excellent Cully Hamner. And the issue references stuff from Starman and Cry for Justice. Yet has the nuDC version of Deathstroke show up. Which is confusing since nuDC doesn't have a JSA. Seriously, how does the Shade's backstory and face-turn work without a JSA? Since that should mean no Starman or Starman-legacy. Or..argh. This makes my head hurt even more then there still somehow being all four boy Robins...

Last up is the Unwritten. Where Tommy gets to spend some quality time with his previously unknown half-brother. Which of course involves some fighting, just like regular siblings...

A relatively large pull this week, with Marvel seeming to decide to double down for the month. Starting with a 163.1 issue for Thunderbolts. The placement of these .1 introductory issues seems pretty random. But Parker manages to put together both a recap on the series and a fairly solid issue for the ongoing story. A brief Spider-Man cameo even serves to highlight how well Parker is at capturing individual and distinctive characterization...

Next up is a sort-of finale for Heroes for Hire. With Moon Knight, Silver Sable, Paladin and Stingray all being brought in to revisit the Hook drug trade. Leading to a well done appearance by Namor. After this the book moves to being a Spider-Island tie-in mini or one-shot. And then its due to return as Villains For Hire. Though I'm unsure how much Marvel really needs two bad guys as protagonist books...

And then, just one week after the last issue, another perfectly executed Daredevil from Waid and and artist Marcos Martin. This issue Matt fights a couple of lions...

Picked up two nuDC books this week. First off the new Blue Beetle. I've never been a big fan of writer Tony Bedard. Nothing negative, he was just always one of those guys writing a couple C-list books that I didn't follow. But I've got to say that, so far anyway, he's managed to recapture what made the original John Rogers run so good. And still add some personal touches as the book relaunches as a clean reboot. And artist Ig Guara is not too shabby either...

I also picked up the new Wonder Woman on the strength of Brian Azzarello writing and Cliff Chiang on art. Azzarello seems to be doing a more urban fantasy/horror take on the concept. The bit with the summoning of a pair of monster assassins is especially creepy...

On a lighter note a new Darkwing Duck finishes up the election story line. With Dark and his allies taking down the apparent master mind behind the recent super-villain attacks. Or have they?

And finally an especially strong fourth issue of Dark Horse Presents. No Concrete, but still a great Finder short and another solid episode of Chaykin's crime noir Marked Man. AND a new Beasts of Burden story, the start of a new supernatural thrillers Criminal Macabre and the Adventures of Dog Mendonca and Pizzboy. PLUS a brief but gorgeous Age of Reptiles piece. Really, this is the best issue so far of this new volume...

My shop got shorted on the new Casanova - Avaritia sadly. But they said they'd make sure to pull me one when it comes in later in the week so thats ok then. Did get one of the nuDC books, Static Shock. It has Virgil living in New York instead of Dakota. And being remotely mentored by Hardware which is cool. He also has two sisters and both parents which is definitely a change from the animated show. And I think one from the Milestone series. Its being written by Scott McDaniel, who I can't recall from anything else and John Rozum, whose excellent Xombi relaunch ended just last week...

iZombie continues on with Gwen's secret monsterism being exposed to her monster-hunter boyfriend. Plus the whole town under attack from brainless zombies. Another issue with damn near every character getting at least a little face time...

Over to Marvel, the Thunderbolts escapees find themselves somehow having traveled back in time. To WW2. Where they end up teamed with Captain America and Namor fighint Nazis. And I must say there are few things finer then seeing Namor shouting Imperius Rex while smashing Nazis...

Over on Heroes for Hire I still hate Kyle Hotz' art. But I love how Elektra explains her ability to sucker the Purple Man into thinking she was mind-controlled. "I'm a ninja". Like duh man...