A Descent into Dullness

And this week sees the end of two series and the near finale of a third. The latter being G0dland which has only an epilogue issue left after the penultimate confrontation with the forces of entropy. With Adam Archer and Maxim merging into the cosmic ADAMAXIM!

Also ending with a big cosmic finale is iZombie, as Gwen the Zombie comes up with a way to stop the Chtulu-ian big bad that doesn't involve sacrificing everyone she cares about...

And Rasl finishes up, more quantumly than cosmically. Plus we get to find out, finally, what the hell Rasl actually means...

Courtney Crumrin and her new friend manage to escape from the Fairy Kingdom. But then they've got to deal with the community of witches and warlocks discovering much of Courtney's previous escapades...

Avengers Academy is closed down and that leaves many of the former students at loose ends. The perfect time for the Alchemist to return with another job offer...

And Daredevil takes some to look into Matt's head. Literally, in this case, with Hank Pym shrunk down and smashing Doom's nanobots in Daredevil's brain...

This week includes the pair of titles I would have got last week if it weren't for a Diamond screw-up. Which was a new Snarked which has the return of the Griffon and an attack on the heroes by a Bandersnatch. And the second-to-last Rasl. Which is more inter-dimensional chases and crazy, dangerous weird science. And some kissing...

iZombie keeps on moving closer to its apocalyptic finale. And every character seems to be getting involved with lots of back-story dangling threads being wrapped up. Mostly I'm just happy Roberson will get to finish the book despite his split from DC...

Avengers Academy wraps up their participatory portion of the Avengers vs. X-Men cross-over. With a few more digs from Gage about how silly using fights as conflict resolution from basically allies is. Also Hercules gets to show off his thespian skills...

So Thunderbolts is now Dark Avengers. I guess in the hopes of boosting the sales on the book a bit. Plus it the current team is basically Osborne's most recent Dark Avengers team. Only two of which I recognize from anything Skaar, Son of Hulk as Dark Hulk and Ragnarok the killer android/clone as Dark Thor...

And finally Paul Grist's Mudman returns with a an actual super-villain fight. Where we see that being able to turn into mud is not the best power against the guy who controls water...

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...

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...