A Descent into Dullness

Only a pair of books to finish out the month. Mudman has investigating into a mysterious woman, attempting to work out how the hero's mud powers work and a cute girl...

And also from Image more Prophet. With original Prophet and his alien plant buddy searching out the various lost pieces of their old comrade-in-arms Diehard. And lots of weird alienness going on as usual...

Another big pull week. Starting with some more Fatale. With more spooky dudes, violent cops, murder and lots and lots of smoking...

And then Paul Grist talks about how he hopes his teen-super comic Mudman will be the financial success that Jack Staff never managed to be. Don't get wrong, its looking to be a very nice little quirky cape comic. But aside from having a much tighter and smaller cast from his previous quirky British cape book I don't see what will really make it jump out from the rest of the supers comics out there...

Like Invincible where Mark is no longer at risk of dying from the alien plague, but secret revelations about his family history may put the truce with the Viltrumites at risk anyway...

Savage Dragon has its own alien invasion going on, using the bad guys to Larsen's Vanguard character...

Daredevil is one of those .1 type issues. Meaning its partly jumping-on character and story background. Plus set up for a DD/Spider-Man/Punisher cross-over. Which means into two books I don't buy. Still Waid and this issue's artist Koi Pham deliver another gorgeous and sharply written bit...

Avengers Academy wraps up its Runaways guest spot with another super-brawl, this time during a visit to the Savage Land. And happily only involving a much more tightly focused cast list. Plus I don't actively hate the art. Its not great or anything, but still...

Man, has it really been FIFTEEN years since "Heroes Reborn" and Thunderbolts debuted? Fuck I'm old. Anyway this time around its classic original T-bolts vs. rogue time-tossed T-bolts...

And finally iZombie uses a past mission by Dead President Kennedy to give a taste of the coming doom. With guest artist Jim Rugg of Street Angel and Afrodisiac. Though I was sad to hear that this title will be coming to a close in another four issues...

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...