I summed up Checkmate as this.. Seems Nick Fury got a new monthly title.. only it's in DC and he has a power ring now.

I'm really not feeling Checkmate either.

Checkmate is a lot like Queen and Country, only it has superheroes as the secret agents, and since I love Q&C, I'm enjoying Checkmate. It has that mix of political intrigue & espionage that I like, and I think it's interesting to see that side of the DCU.

I thought it was already solicited? I stopped reading the bookaround issue 20 or so. Just one of those things, but I really need to go back and catch up.

I've picked up the latest issue of The Walking Dead finally but this thing is so late now I've lost almost all interest in continuing with this title. It's still good but the releases are starting to frustrate me. Anyone else feel the same?

Yeah, if I remember correctly, it was supposed to be out already. Solicited long ago. Then I noticed they bumped it back "indefinitely" but I don't know if that means they aren't doing it or they just don't know how long it'll take to get it to press.

A little. I think it helps that it's a title that I don't wait for but always happy to read. If you're going issue by issue I can totally see how you could lose interest. The thing about the book that messes me up is there is so much going on and the characters are so vast, yet some are impossible to tell apart at a glance. I curse Tony Moore for ever leaving the book as he was PERFECT on it. The bastich.

Did anyone watch the Superman doc on AE last night? Didn't focus a whole lot on the Superman comics but what was there was interesting. Most of it hardcore people like ourselves know, but there were some surprises for me. I hope the DVD has more comic book history in it. I've heard it's extended.

If anything, the pacing of the book always leaves you on a cliffhanger. it's better to just read it in trades if you don't like the lateness. I read Invincible in trades, and it's rather annoying because they usually come out 6-8 months after the last issue concluded, while the Walking Dead comes out almost right away.

It showed up in my Gold Box at 40% off at Amazon this morning. I would guess it should be coming out shortly if that's the case.

At least, I hope so, since I had to order it.

Right on, Chew. Thanks for the update even if it's just a guess.

Hi, quick question for anyone reading Squadron Supreme. Who is the DC Counterpart for this Emil Burbank guy on the team? (He's the smart guy, who was introduced along with Shape, Nuke, and Arcana in the Hyperion mini).

If you are talking about #28, then that was without a doubt one of the BEST issues in a long long time. I had slowly been losing interest in the title (since it's been dragging a bit in the prison), but that last issue got me hooked again BIG TIME. What a shocker.

I love Q&C, but I couldn't get into Checkmate at all. I'm not a huge DC fan tho...so that might have been why.

It's been a while since I've read the original Squadron series, but I think he was Hyperion's arch-enemy, so he was pretty much Lex Luthor's counterpart. He was basically an evil genius scientist, like pre-Crisis Lex was. I really like the Supreme Power version of the character...he's such an arrogant jackass. I wonder how he'll take advantage of what he found out in the Hyperion miniseries.

Yeah, he was the Lex Luthor clone who later became a Dr. Doom clone Master Menace in the original limited series. He probably will fill in the team genius role now that Tom Thumb is an Atom clone and not a brilliant dwarf.

ARGH!! If anyone in this thread lives in NYC, and happens to read this in time, DO NOT open today's New York Post to page 3. They completely spoil what happens in Civil War #2.

don't go to yahoo.com either, as it's on their homepage

Ok, just got last month's comics in the mail... as usual, I'm a month behind. Urgh. And I still haven't finished reading 52 #3 or 4.

Infinite Crisis 7: I see where people had issues with the art, including that half-colored-in splash page. Ah well. DC loves to do those one-panel reveals... I distinctly remember the same thing happening in Zero Hour, when they set up a bunch of stuff that later got rebooted anyway. Ah, who am I kidding, I love splash pages where they show us stuff that's coming up. Though you'd think if the Big 3 were going to be gone for a year, they'd tell someone else about it. And what every happened to all the Villains? Was that resolved somewhere else? They better collect all those one-shots.

JSA Classified #12: Although the Vandal Savage storyline originally intrigued me, at this point, I'm wondering whether I should stop collecting this title altogether.

JSA 85: All I can say is that I hope the reboot gets this title back to the upper echelon. Ugh. And did anyone ever answer that question in another thread about the different Jay Garricks?

Supergirl 6: Not sure if it's because this book is running late, or I'm just not caught up on what's happening in Kandor, but I had no idea what was going on in this book. At all. Is this OYL or not? Who knows?

Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes 18: They should just cancel the other Supergirl book and stick with this one. Art was a little lackluster in this one, with Kitson only doing breakdowns, but it's still one of my favorite books.

Superman Batman 25: what a mess. If this had come out on time, before Infinite Crisis... well, it would've still been a mess. Nice art, though.

Superman Batman 26: Another mess, though this was probably inherent with the whole concept and the multiple artist writer thing. A neat thing to do for Loeb's son, though.

Teen Titans 35/36: Another book that went from one of my favorites to one I'm collecting in the hope that it gets better someday. I really, really dislike this team. I dislike the "new" Doom Patrol, though the take on their leader is interesting. The art is getting somewhat more palatable, but still is no contest to the earlier McKone issues. And I still don't understand why Cassie (and Superboy earlier) want to wear t-shirts and jeans as costumes. I mean, it's better than her earliest Byrne costume with the wig, but still. Is that to appeal to the kids or something?

Man, more misses than hits last month with the monthlies... though I can't wait to read the trades:
Carl Barks Greatest DuckTales Stories Vol. 1
Essential Off Handbook of the Marvel Universe vol. 2
Hulk Visionaries Peter David #3
JLA vol 19: World without a Justice League
NYX Volume 1
Y the Last Man vol. 7 (finally caught up on the trades!)

Quoting 'cause I completely agree on all these points. I gave up on both of the Classifieds and I eagerly await the JSA reboot. The OYL Titans title is just a bore to read now, I hope that changes quickly.

It seems a little odd, but most of the OYL titles that I was reading pre-Crisis have declined in quality (or at least, my interest in them) once they jumped ahead.

I just don't understand why they changed Titans so much.

When they killed off Young Justice and relaunched the Teen Titans a few years ago, it was my understanding that they did it to get the popular JLA analogs in there, and meld them with the "New Titans" cast of the 80s (I suspect they also changed the lineup to more closely approximate the cartoon lineup, but Johns denied that). Now the team is Robin, who acts less and less like a "teen" and more like Batman, a rebuilt and utterly confused Cyborg, Kid Devil (who was briefly seen in the pre-OYL Captain Carrot arc but was never to my knowledge connected with the core book) and Ravager. Oh, and maybe Cassie. and how could I forget the Wonder Twins? I do like that they acknowledge that the team is crap (through cyborg saying that they need to get the REAL titans together again, even though that came across as pretty cold), and the whole backstory of people being recruited and leaving the Titans during the 52 weeks because it wasn't a family, and Robin's been distancing himself from everyone. So there is hope. It's just that this book has been "meh" for a long time now... I liked the Captain Carrot story, mostly for nostalgia purposes, but that was never really tied into anything happening in the book.

I hope they fix this book before they start the spinoff...

Yeah, Titans is a weird one. I read the first 16 issues in one sitting and fell in love with the book, but now the chemistry between the characters is off. I just don't care about the new team though that can all change with the writing. It was just so good before and now it's just decent. It was my second favorite DC team book behind Birds or Prey, but I'm hoping the new Justice League can take that role now.

I can't believe how uneventful the end to CW 2 was. I actually really enjoyed the issue though. I did have the problem that not much seemed to happen and the one action scene was pretty boring. The pacing seems off. I can't decide if it's going too slow or too fast. I want to get to the war, but it just feels like the series is skimming over all the details. I guess that's just the way Millar tends to write. I also don't understand the focus on Spidey in the mini. JMS is handling Spidey's side of the story perfectly fine over in ASM.

Another thing I didn't understand is Tony saying that they're weeding out the kids, but the guy in the truck said they just have to register and they weren't banning them.

I thought Civil War was rather blase. It's not really an "event" so much as something that could be a 4-issue standalone miniseries. We all know the secret identities are just going to go back in the hole, and anyone who died is going to turn up alive.

So....the "major" event is Spider-Man taking off his mask at the press conference?

Wow. That was sucky. And not just because the media's picked it up (thanks for the heads-up earlier), but because Millar was hyping it months before..

It makes me wonder how ASM will pick up from that event. The intercutting with was a nice touch. I can't wait to see how they handle his full reaction to that event.

INVINCIBLE VOLUME 2 HARDCOVER NEWS

JULY 5th

Robert Kirkman wrote:

"The printer ordered the wrong enpapers and had to wait for NEW ones to come in.

Endpapers are that blank colored paper that is glued to the inside of the covers on hardcover books... just so you know."