A Descent into Dullness

New New Warriors with some Avengers attacking like jerks.  I don't like the current interpretation of Captain America as Commander Jerkass.  This is one case where I'd very much like to see the character move back towards the version in the film MCU...

Thanks to a friendly undead sorceror-king, King Conan gets the magic gemstone of McGuffin and heads back to his kingdom.  To gather a big ol' army for a royal ass-kicking..

Non-royal Conan the Avenger parts ways with his new witchfinder friend in order to take a job guarding a sexy arrogant princess.  Plus a nice speech from his dad in a flashback that a GM for old-school D&D can explain why barbarians won't adventure with wizards.  Because fuck wizards, thats why...

The Unwritten: Apocalypse has Tommy and his friends and family begin their quest for the Grail.  And Marionette lady and Ol' Man Killer make plans together...

Wonder Woman's eldest half-sibling, the Firstborn, continues to be a big violent, sulky baby even after conquering Olympus and Hades and I think the Ocean as well.  Next up, the Garden of Life.  Seriously, hes such an emo whiner...

Decided to get the singles for the new TMNT: Turtles in Time mini-series.  Mostly 'cause the first issue is done by Ross Campbell who draws an awesome Ninja Turtle and some great dinosaurs and brain aliens as well...

Aku's latest attack on Samurai Jack involves a gravity manipulating spherical robot.  You can guess how it works out...

In Adventure Time, PB explains to her people why they're all ghosts now.  And then Finn & Jake figure out how to defeat ghosts with ghosts thru the power of cooperation...

So it turns out the missing Prince Robot of Saga has been at the intergalatic whore house of Sextillion.  Which may be for the best as the social order in the Robot kingdom looks to be due for some shaking up...

Man, that is a lot of deaths in Invincible as Robot makes his play for global domination.  And I'm not talking nameless background people.  Like named, secondary characters.  Seriously when making plans, a sign they're stupid and wrong should be "How many of my closest friends will I have to murder?"

Malcolm Dragon continues in his father's footsteps of getting attacked by super-goons and then getting yelled at for the people caught in the spillover in Savage Dragon.  Plus his girlfriend's parents are still pushing her to date some nice Chinese boy...

Fatale closes in on its finale, with magic sex rituals and more revelations about Jo's past.  Awful, terrible revelations...

The Wicked & the Divine is a new series from Kieron GIllen and Jamie McKelvie.  The set-up here is that every 90 years, groups of "gods" reincarnate and hang around for several years, incarnated as teen-agers apparently...

And finally a new Alien Legion series from Chuck Dixon, Larry Stroman and Carl Potts.  Stroman's pencils look a lot tighter and more focused than the last thing I saw him do (probably a random issue of X-Factor).  Anyway, something Harkilon civil war something something refugees something.  All that matters as the Legionnaires of Nomad will be at the forefront wading hip-deep in the muck and blood before long.  I was dissapointed not to see the 'icks, who I'm pretty sure survived the last AL mini...

Been really slacking on these again.  Which does highlight how little DC/Marvel I'm buying as singles right now.  If I don't count Vertigo imprint books, its a single title from each right now.  Mainline DC just isn't putting out much I want to follow and Marvel's $4 per issue thing is becoming more and more of deal breaker.  Including on the title I'm still getting in singles, New Warriors.  I'm liking this relaunch.  The characters, Yost's dialogue, the High Evolutionary based initial arc.  All good.  But I still may switch to trade waiting like I'm doing on Superior Foes, Ghost Rider, She-Hulk and the Daredevil relaunch.  'Cause $4 for a 20 page book is bullshit...

At least from the Big Two.  I'm ok with that price point for twenty pages of transgender action/adventure for IDW's Samurai Jack.  Plus shinier paper.  Or even better, $4 for twenty-TWO pages like kaboom!'s Adventure Time and Adventure TIme: the Flip Side.  Four bucks for Finn & Jake mistaking a nucleur silo for a traditional dungeon?  Or teaming with LSP to try and rig a prom election to get a monkey to kidnap a lady painting?  I'm down with that...

Hunh, Wonder Woman is only twenty pages as well.  Didn't notice that happening.  Still its sticking at the three dollar price point.  Plus its more cross-title setting with DC, and WW mostly avoids the general ongoing DCU stuff...

The Unwritten gang continue to try and make their way across broken London while avoiding the constant war stories.  But they do find out that Pullman is behind the whole thing, all part of another plot by him to try and slay the Leviathan...

Charles and Edwin and Crystal manage to avoid damnation and death and such in Dead Boy Detectives.  And someone gets to burn down their school.  Sure it was accident.  Mostly an accident...

Knights of the Dinner Table sticks to concentrating on the ongoing return of the uber-sword story.  With Brian and Sara getting an offer from said mad sword...

I'm pretty sure I missed an issue of Pretty Deadly at some point here.  Because there is otherwise an awful big jump in the story before it reaches the climax of this first arc...

In Invincible Universe, the Lizard King learns a valuable lesson.  Just 'cause you alter a person's DNA to make them a reptile, doesn't necessarily mean an alignment change.  And then IU goes on hiatus.  Again.  Hopefully when it gets started again it will have the same title.  I'd say even money on whether or not that happens...

Fatale picks back up with Jo and Nick and soon enough everything is all obsession and murder and stolen magic eyeballs...

This issue of Prophet gives some back-story on plant person Hiyonhoiagn and his race the Kinnian.  Plus..well plus the normal hard to accurately and easily describe scifi weirdness...

I'm starting to wonder if Police Chief Higgens' drive to arrest Lobster Johnson is entirely in the cause of Law & Order...

King Conan returns to the sea in pursuit of the Heart of Ahriman, gets captured by slavers and meets some old friends amidst the rowers.  And just like that Amra the Lion is reborn...

Empowered: Internal Medicine is another one-shot.  With Warren teaming with Brandon Graham on this one.  Graham is pretty damn amazing drawing Emp and Ninjette doing super-surgery on an alien spaceship baby...

And another one-shot from Dark Horse, this time Beasts of Burden: Hunters & Gatherers.  With the animal guardians of Burden Hill facing off against an invisible giant lizard monster.    And ending with an alliance between the Crows and the Rats.  Who still have their Rat King...

And finally a new Dark Horse Presents.  The main things interest for my in this one would be the "Nexus" story, a Kel McDonald Revolutionary-era balloon crossing of the English channel and the monstery mystery story involving kids teamed with the ghost of Davey Jones...

Saga finishes up its first big arc and goes on a brief break with remarkably few casualties.  Which is to say, new casualties...

I'm still on the fence with the Saviors, James Robinson & J. Bone's secret alien invaders book.  But that is a strong team worth giving more than a couple issues too, to see what they're building towards...

I wasn't expecting that betrayal in Invincible.  Though Ottley seems to be slacking a little on some of the pencil work...

Pretty Deadly finishes its set-up and I'm definitely intrigued by its cosmology to want to see more.  Something I'd been pretty hesitant of from the first couple issues...

Volume Two of the Unwritten starts off with a couple fables and visits to various talking animals of a Wonderland, Narnian and 100 Acre Woods varieties.  And then a return to the "real" world...

Its always good to get a Wonder Woman issue where Chiang does all the art not just the cover.  And Olympian family continues to put the Dis in dysfunctional...

Samurai Jack's quest for a piece of the time travel thread leads him to a frozen land with a cruel and selfish un-aging queen...

The Adventure Time 2014 Winter Special presents a variety of winter tales.  With magical sweaters and snow and fire dogs and ice and Lemongrab and ice cream...

The Brian Wood Conan the Barbarian comes to close with a Queen's funeral and a pile of dead monsters...

And finally some Dark Horse Presents with some Hellboy, Nexus and Alabaster.  And Roman dragon fighting, crime noir and apocalyptic invasions...

Only one book this week, balancing out the nine from last week.  That one to start the month is a Le Bruiser focused Invincible Universe.  Le Bruiser being the GotG's super-powered pug dog...

Starting off last week's pulls is the new D&Dish Rat Queens.  Which is basically one of those semi-humor What Happens When You Play D&D drunk things, just with an all female group.  Reminds me a bit of Skullkickers, except I actually find this one funny...

"Jane" over on Fatale continues to inspire and destroy the band that has taken her in.  And serial killer Wulf starts to study up on the secret world...

Two things sum up what makes Saga so wonderful this time around.  Someone pukes on the baby.  And Lying Cat + Slave Girl Sophie...

Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard has a dragon hunt and mole friendship and the danger of too awesome hats.  Plus the cover is as amazing as always (it involves musicians and ghosts)...

The Dark Man is fucking stupid and boring and I refuse to say anything else about the Unwritten until this fucking cross-over ends...

The major event of this Young Avengers is less the cliffhanger at the end then three conversations with Mother at the beginning...

Any pull list that includes some new Empowered is a good week.  And the most recent one-shot, EMpowered: Nine Beers with Ninjette is pretty fucking fantastic.  Because its a Ninjette focused story.  Plus Warren's latest art partner, Takeshi Miyazawa, is both one of the best he's worked with and a perfect fit for a ninja story...

King Conan continues on his quest to retake his kingdom.  Along the way he bloodily destroys some dudes, rescues a noble damsel and finds some allies in a religious cult...

For some reason Dark Horse Presents decided to bring back the "Blood" by Neal Adams.  Its totally incomprehensible and also crazy ugly.  Maybe its the colorist Adams is working with.  On the other hand, while I'm not sure how interested I am in vampire overrun Earth of the Strain I am very interested in seeing more ex-luchador El Angel de Plata and his decision to strap silver crosses to his fists...

Quick thoughts on comics from the 12th is easy enough, there weren't any.  No one put out any single issues that week I was willing to spend money on.  Oh well...

After that we'll start with some Invincible and the return of Angstrom Levy.  And his attack on Eve, who can't use her powers for fear of hurting her baby.  Creepy...

Wonder Woman is all big brawling.  With Lennox and Diana piling on their eldest sibling alongside Orion.  All happily drawn by Cliff Chiang again. Plus the Millwall Fight Song.  American sports teams should have club songs...

I am not a fan of extended dream quest storylines.  Especially if they don't actually change anything.  We'll see if the current arc for Conan the Barbarian avoids that pit...

The 25th issue of Dark Horse Presents has got some Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a Matt Fraction time travel short story and Andrew Vachss scifi in comic form and new  Trekker and Nexus and some other stuff.  Good stuff but I could wish for some more Finder, Resident Alien or Concrete...

This current week was a huge haul of double digit comics.  Starting with the Massive making a call on the flooded and abandoned NYC...

Then Tim Truman gives Conan and Zenobia a Meet Cute in King Conan.  Plus Conan punching a dude so hard his skull collapses...

Prophet is still very much Prophet with the far future scifi weirdness where even Troll can be cool and interesting...

Fatale is back to the modern story.  Though thats only long enough to set up for 90s flashback and a serial killer and Jo and a has been rock star/bank robber...

The latest Knights of the Dinner Table concentrates on the Knight's regular game and Crutch's Crime Nation game.  Both of which remind that Brian is both a player I wouldn't want to game with and also often a shitty friend...

The oversized 50th issue of the Unwritten is part of a cross-over with Fables.  Which lets me know I jumped off that book just in time...

More happily is a new Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard anthology.  With a story by Stan "Usagi Yojimbo" Sakai in the first issue...

Young Avengers starts off its next arc with former YA-er Speed and former X-kid Prodigy punching the clock at a crummy entry level job together...

And Daredevil has his final confrontation with mastermind-class Bullseye.  I mean final until someone decides to use Bullseye and works out how to fix him from his current fucked up condition confrontation...

And we finish with Adventure Time, where Finn & Jake & Ice King finish off Ice King's dungeon and move on to one built by Marceline's dad...

Last week's Dark Horse Presents didn't have any of my favorites.  No "Finder" or that pseudo-Pokemons one or "Resident Alien".  Does have some new "Nexus" which is nice.  And a couple supers variants that I like...

Though a Bunny doth reign in the Hell of the Unwritten still a quest shall be completed.  Er..lo or something...

So it seems that Invincible's dad is the long lost King of the not-Kryptonians.  Probably why he has one of the best moustaches...

You know what death you're probably not expecting in the Massive when your job is helicopter pilot?  Getting eaten by a shark.  I mean given the bizareness of the world enviroment you probably should.  But I think its safe to say dude did not see that coming...

The Young Avengers' Marvel Boy and Ms. America could have a contest over who's parents (who died for their mission) are the bigger undead jerks.  Probably Noh-var's, since the Kree are like space Elves when it comes to being giant buttheads...

So according to Invincible Universe's artist Phil Nauck, he's hoping to get to do every character in the Kirkman 'Verse piles on every 3rd or 4th issue.  Dude apparently really loves doing multi-page crowd scenes...

And Larsen does some experimenting with page layouts on Savage Dragon with an issue that basically checks in with numerous characters...

Daredevil tries to take a day off while Foggy waits for his latest medical tests. But he's got to deal with an unknown group attempting to recreate the exact circumstances of the accident that blinded and empowered him...

Moonstone and Skaar are stuck dealing with crazypants Ben Grimm, while the rest of the Dark Avengers attempt to pass thru crazypants Spider-Man's territory...

Over on Saga Marko and his mom track down Izabel just in time to get off the hatching egg-planet. And for Marko's ex to piss off the gigantic baby space monster...

Wonder Woman spends some time with her brother War again, as the pair go off to try and get Zolo's demigod baby back from Hermes and Demeter. Plus the First Born dude fights a sea serpent/shark monster thing...

Adventure Time has Finn and Jake and Marceline sort of fighting an army of robots to get to the undead-ish hacker behind corrupting BMO's program. And a backup story with Finn and Jake beating a devil/ogre thing by Josh Lesnick. And another backup by Chris Schweizer where Finn becomes the Princess of Rad Hats...

Conan the Barbarian follows Belit into her desert homeland and then gets drafted into some army to attack some fortress. Where it looks like Belit is hanging out anyway. So Conan will probably be killing a bunch of dudes pretty soon...

The stand outs for the most recent Dark Horse Presents would have to be a new "Finder" chapter, Shannon Wheeler's supers parody/prison story "Villain House" and "The Day the Saucers Came" written by Neil Gaiman and drawn by Paul Chadwick...

The main focus for the Knights of the Dinner Table is a mixer thrown by Patty at Hawg's. Mostly as an attempt to get a few people to sign up for Crutch's new gaming group...

From this week we have what looks to be not only the finale for the current volume of Courtney Crumrin. But for the series as a whole, with Courtney and her uncle concluding their problems with the Witch/Warlock community...

The second issue of Young Avengers has Billy & Teddy confronting the "person" masquerading as Teddy's mom. Which gets them grounded into a pocket dimension prison. Leading to a rescue by Kid Loki. Who makes them pay off his diner tab. And then a trip to Asgard. Where a new parental problem emerges...

The Unwritten has zombies vs. vampires vs. umm..creepy nun/puppet makers. Plus ghostly make-outs...

I'm not exactly why the Kapital's crew decide to smash up things on the oil rig/town. Or pretend to betray their captain. Or why the one dude maybe steals a nuclear Chinese submarine? But yeah thats all stuff from the Massive. Oh and someone has cancer!

And finally Prophet. Where the John Prophet clone army is preparing to retake Earth and the rest of the galaxy for humanity. Even if most of humanity isn't really very human of late. Except for the regressive savages living in the wilds of Earth...

Since this week had no shipment 'cause of Holidays, lets finally get around to last week's comics. Starting with Dark Horse Presents. The returning Dark Horse series this time around is "X", which was a gun-killing vigilante type from their Comic's Greatest World launch back in the 90s. Also some more "Resident Alien" and that Pokemon-parody "Gamma". Oh and a bit of "Mind Mgmt" by Matt Kindt, the regular series I keep seeing getting talked up...

And a happy surprise, in that I'd forgotten it was coming out this month, in a new Empowered one-shot. With Emp having to deal with sexy nanotech malware. The deadly danger of one of her teammates fapping material...

Daredevil finishes up with the whole Spot/Coyote thing. And then has a confrontation with Foggy over how easily his friend turned on him...

Saga sees Marko and Alana still spending time seperately with his parents. Plus a visit to when the two first met...

Brandon Graham's Multiple Warheads continues to be all full of crazy cool Brandon Graham-ness...

Marceline joins Finn & Jake for some video game fun in Adventure Time. Plus a Susan Strong back-up by Zack Giallongo...

The main focus for the Unwritten this time around is Tom in the Underworld, where he meets a pair of kids he's met before. Though thanks to all of them having drank from the Lethe, they don't recall one another...

And finally Wonder Woman goes looking for another of her siblings and ends up meeting Orion of New Genesis as well...

Two weeks worth of comics because..well because..um..because shut up thats why. Yeah, thats why...

Starting with some Courtney Crumrin, with Courtney and her teacher on the road and battling the hunters of the Council...

Then a one-shot return to Marvel's zombie Earth for Van Lente with Marvel Zombies Halloween. And a survivor story with a holiday appropriate guest spot...

Next Daredevil reveals the mastermind behind the whole Matt-is-crazypants plot. And while I can always appreciate a good D-level villain reinvents themselves tale I still am amazed that Daredevil figures out who it is without ever even thinking "vampire". 'Cause I totally would have gone with vampire...

the Dark Avengers face off against the returned full team of Thunderbolts. They don't come off so well. Especially as that includes a re-empowered Cain Marko...

Saucer Country is past the world/mythos building to get back to the focus on the joint presidential race/x-files investigation...

Decided to at least try out the new Sword of Sorcery title from DC, since Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld was always one of those off-genre bits of the DCU I've been curious about. Its a decent if somewhat stereotypical lost heir to the magical kingdom thing. Still its a hard sell at $4 for 20 pages with the "extra" value of a re-imagined Beowulf back-up story....

Wonder Woman begins its new big story arc with Diana and her allies, including a banished from Olympus Hera, looking for allies amidst Zeus other demi-divine children...

Glory and company set off from her base to begin searching for her little sister, Nanaja. Who is basically Glory with all the brakes taken off...

And then we've got Savage Dragon with more alien invasion aftermath for Malcom and Angel Dragon. Plus some more violent overreaction by the new Overlord...

Then its this week starting with the Unwritten. And Tommy goes on a walkabout back into the world's of fiction by after hearing the Australian whale origin myth of Kondili...

I also grabbed the A-Babies Vs. X-Babies one-shot. 'Cause Skottie Young and Gurihiru writing and drawing half the Marvel Universe as brawling babies is too adorable for words...

Over on Adventure Time Finn & Jake engage in multiple time trips and crazy Princess Bubblegum science-ings in order to get back to the status quo they started from...

The majority of the Knights of the Dinner Table cast is still at Garycon. Where we learn that Felicia Day is so magical she can even overcome Brian's near crippling shyness around women he's attracted too...

And then a doubleshot of Brandon Graham. First off with the scifi crazy awesomeness of Prophet. And then a different kind of scifi crazy with the return of his Multiple Warheads series. Which is totally crammed with visual puns and concepts, much like his King City. MW follows Sexica, former alien organ smuggler and her werewolf boyfriend Nikou as they go on a road trip in search of a new life and home...

After that Invincible wraps up the Flaxan/Robot/Monster Girl story. Relationships are rebuilt, secrets are revealed, secrets are kept, love is confessed and awkward sex is had. Not necessarily all by the same people...

And finally a new Dark Horse Presents. With "Finder" getting the main cover this time around. Plus a "Mr. Monster" story that features Munden's Bar...

First up I went and grabbed Godzilla: the Half Century War off the older racks. This is the Godzilla book from IDW by James Stokoe, who does the sublime Orc Stain. There is at least one other Godzilla ongoing, but its kind of crap from what I've seen of it. Stokoe's book is pretty darn sweet...

Next up is the Scalped final issue. Some people die, some people step into new roles and on the Rez not much changes at all. Still a few characters manage to find some kind of redemption of a sort...

The Unwritten has Tommy giving a speaking engagement and meeting up with the remains of Tommy cult. As well as Detective Patterson, Danny the Reader and the unicorn...

The latest Courtney Crumrin is mostly flashbacks to the back-story for the tragedy of Skarrow the Changeling...

The comic portions of Knights of the Dinner Table step away from the various campaigns to focus on Gamer's Court and Bob's trial. Though there is a nice moment where Nitro basically tells Skip and Hard8 to basically go fuck themselves over trying to exploit his kid's table gaming group...

Jake & Finn are now stuck in their near future on Adventure Time thanks to messing around with Bubblegum's time machine. And the near future is all messed up with the evil robots...

More flashbackery as Invincible continues to cut between the current Flaxian invasion and Robot and Monster Girl's long sojourn on their home world...

And finally Dark Horse Presents. Not my favorite installment of the anthology series. Yeah, Carla Speed McNeil's "Finder" bit is always great. And its always nice to see some new "Nexus" from Baron & Rude. And Nate Cosby & Evan Shaner's "Buddy Cops" and Mike Russell's "Sabretooth Vampire" are pretty darn funny. But most of the rest of the stories or chapters are mostly meh. Sadly including the latest for "Ghost" and "Aliens"...