I haven't had much of a chance to read a lot of comics lately, & what time I've had I've been catching up on some novels, that's why I haven't posted lately. But I'm still picking up my haul every week, here is what I picked up today. . .

52 Week #52 - I fell behind around issue 40 so now I can read the rest all at once.

Checkmate #13 -As good as anything DC publishes.

Detective Comics #832

Exterminators #17

Green Lantern #19 - This Sinestro Corps story-line has me as psyched as Planet Hulk did. Except for the fill-in art this is one of my favorite superhero books right now.

Hawkgirl #63

Jonah Hex #19 - Another book that has become so damn good over the past 6-7 issues.

Midnighter #7 - The series is just good enough to keep me buying it, but not really impressing me that much yet.

Scalped #5

Showcase Presents The War That Time Forgot Vol 1 TP - Oh man this book is awesome, definitely my pick of the week.

Superman #662

Welcome To Tranquility #6

True Story Swear To God #5 -

Astonishing X-Men #21 - Really haven't been diggin' this book much at all. I know everyone keeps raving about it, I just find it annoying the way Whedon writes the X-men the same way he rights Buffy's scooby-gang.

Incredible Hulk #106 WOOO HOOO!! Let WW Hulk begin, I'm all for all the mini-series, one-shots & spin-offs, I can't get enough of this story.

Iron Man #17 - Man I hate this book right now.

Loners #2 - 1st iss was pretty good.

Marvel Zombies Army Of Darkness #3 - Awesome Nextwave cameo.

Ms Marvel #15

Runaways #26 - Pretty dissapointed w/ Whedon's first issue.

World War Hulk Prologue World Breaker - Sweeeeet.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer #3 - I think Whedon is way to cutesy with his Buffy-esque dialogue in this series, I mean every single sentence any character says is some kind of Buffy-ism, but I'm diggin the hell out of the plot & twists. However, I absolutely F'n hate, I mean cannot stand the shitty art in this book. This would be an amazing series if at the very least, they had an artist that could make the characters recognizable, sometimes I can't even tell how a person is suppose to be.

Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #16 - My guilty pleasure book.

The image of was a nice cap to that entire storyline in 52.

Sensational Spider-Man Annual #1. Amazing. If you feel Peter and Mary Jane shouldnt be together, this book will change your mind. A great personal story, and slow change of pace. And the distant shot of Spidey about to come through the window was great.

52 #52 - "Ive got a question. Are you ready?" hell yeah baby bring it on!

This is by far the strongest, and yet the weakest of all the X-men books. It's the strongest because the art is spectacular, consistent, and timeless. The writing is fast-paced, entertaining, and filled with pop-culture nuances without feeling overly dumbed down.

However, the storytelling is wildly inconsistent, allies and enemies don't make sense, and it is increasingly obvious that Whedon is living in Morrison's shadow, only with none of his creativity. There's supposed to be a larger storyarc here that somehow ties everything together, but it's so weak and ham-handed that it really gets lost in the moment.

In other words, to love Astonishing X-men you must only see the trees, and never pull back to the forest.

The art didn't bother me in issues 1 and 2, but it took a major cartoony downturn in this issue. Now if that had been saved for just the dream sequences, I could have tolerated it, but it kept popping up throughout the book. A character would go from looking normal to looking like an Americanized anime character.

The story really took a turn for the worse also. Or maybe I didn't enjoy it as much because the art sucked so bad that it tunrned into a chore to read instead of something enjoyable.

Just finished Wasteland. I must've been tired and cranky last night when I read the first half, because the second half of this trade fucking kicks ass! It's fantastic. Can't wait for the rest of the story...

The only things I've been reading lately are Essential Moon Knight Vol. 1 and Showcase Presents Shazam. My single issue readings are dangerously low.

Got my monthly shipment in. My pull list seems to be getting smaller and smaller:

52 weeks 48 to 51: Put my thoughts in another thread. Overall, i've enjoyed the title, just a little peeved that the collections are cheaper and have more content, so I'm waiting on Countdown.

All Star Superman 7: Haven't read it yet, though I'm sure it's great. This is the last issue I'll collect monthly, as the first HC was solicited so soon after the last issue collected in it came out.

Civil War TP: I read all the negative press around this ending before I got a chance to read this, so I'm not sure if the book really is that bad or if I've just been influenced by outside sources before even giving it a chance. I think it would've made more sense to me in the Ultimate universe. The "trigger" event with the school children seems to happen every day in the Marvel Universe, not sure why it was such a big deal this time, and I mirror all the minor nitpicks (the Watcher showing up, Captain Marvel's unexplained cameo, the anticlimax, the heroes having no qualms working with villains, the Thor misdirection, etc., etc.) Was it just me, or did everyone else expect the ending to have Stark and/or Richards secretly replaced by Skrulls or something? Even if the government does train superheroes, who's to say that similar accidents won't happen (like what Thorbot did)? Argh, it's over anyway.

Justice #11

Justice League of America #7-8: Wait, they give me like 5 issues of them picking heroes, and then they don't even use that? It's just whoever happened to be there? I'm a huge Legion fan, though I have no idea how they'll reconcile this with the fifty other versions they've come out with since then. And since when did Clark get superpowers as a kid and go join the Legion? Ah, an old fashioned split into subteams team-up.

Justice Society of America #5: Why no blurb on the cover about the crossover? I almost read this before JLA. Still love this series.

Supergirl 16: okay, stuck it out, hopefully the new writer is good. Or maybe I'm just deluding myself again. This actually made some sense as a story, though I'm not sure if we're supposed to believe that Kara and her dad are crazy, or if the ghosts are real. I guess I can throw away the past 10 or so issues.

Supergirl and the Legion 28-29:

Teen Titans 45: This crappy version of the Titans just got their butts kicked, but it looks like the big boys are back.

Wonder Woman 7-8

I feel like a sucker for continuing to buy Supergirl, but I guess I remain an optimist on this title.

I was shocked to find out that JSA #5 was part 2 of the JLA-JSA crossover. It was a good thing I have read JLA first. I am liking the Shane Davis artwork, it's reminiscent of early Travis Charest artwork before Travis finally found his own groove.

Buffy #3 was okay, but not as interesting as I had hoped.

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely can do no wrong on All-Star Superman.

I'm catching up on Civil War. I know many have disliked this event, but after reading the "Road to the Civil War: TBP" I was excited to see where it all goes, so today I picked up "Civil War, Civil War: Frontlines, Civil War: Fantastic Four, Civil War: Amazing Spider-Man, and Civil War: Thunderbolts" all TBPs.

Any suggestion on further reading of CW?

I want to prepare for WW Hulk in TBP form.

I guess DC just loves to hate Supergirl, judging by fan reaction.

For some reason, DC and Marvel have really lost their cohesion. Marvel is probably not as bad because some small corners of their universe is telling a good story (Annihilation and Planet Hulk --> WWH). DC on the other hand seems like it really wants to destroy every good book and property it owns right now:

Superman/Batman: this book has gone downhill so fast that it almost makes me regret that it ever came to life in the first place. Amazing potential here, and it's just wasted.

Nitewing: Have not read it for some time now but I find the whole concept deplorable now.

Outsiders: This book has been impossible to follow. It was a great sleeper title for a while that didn't accomplish too much but still told great stories (much in the same vein as Marvel's New Mutants/New X-men). Now it's just a mess.

Teen Titans: This title is really what hurts me the most. I thought fans of Young Justice reacted a little too harshly to the reboot into TT but since then, it's been a great title. The Titans Tomorrow story was brilliantly executed superhero fare. Since OYL it's just been creepy and disjointed.

Flash: I never expected this book to survive after Johns left. I dropped it almost immediately after he left expecting a quick downhill slide. I was correct. Despite looking forward to the reboot, I only find myself heartily dissatisfied, and i'm sure many share my sentiments. But it's sad to see a title like this that had 2 great writers with 2 meaty, excellent runs filled with cohesive storytelling and real weight to the characters just disappear.

what really irks me is that DC's goal was to recapture the magic of the silver age with a modern sensibility. Since then it has only driven down the same path that has plagued the modern age since the beginning of time - endless relaunches, excessively violent storylines with no emotional weight, and circular stories that lead nowhere and accomplish nothing.

Incredible Hulk #106
World War Hulk: Prologue(World Breaker)
Daredevil #96
Mighty Avengers #2
Amazing Spider-man #540

Wow, seriously. Allstar Batman and Robin.. This guy is writing/Directing the Spirit? Seriously?

Frank Miller needs to just stop already. He's become an old walking sperm bank that just needs to stop writing anything now.

I flipped through it, and I had to pick my jaw off the ground because that issue was just so ghastly bad and sad.

For some reason, I thought that issue was either brilliantly masochistic or horrifically immature.

I didn't even bother looking at it - I gave up on it months ago. On a related topic (comic delays), Ultimates 2 #13 came out! Haven't read it yet and can't remember what had been going on anyway. Good times

Same here, I have to go back and re-read Ultimates 2 1-12 again to figure out where we are...How long has it been since issue 12 about a year?

That fold out spread in Ultimates 13 was a bit much, but I guess that was the point of it.

I guess they had problems at printing with such a large fold-out, which is what contributed to the delay (along with Hitch's slowness).

Started reading Essential Spider-Woman Vol. 1. Still haven't been to the shop to pick up my comics since late March.

Ultimates was really not worth the wait. With Loeb and Mad! on Ultimates 3, I'm going to drop it. It looks like it's nothing more than 616 Avengers with the changes they are doing.

Your LCS will hold your books for you that long? My LCS wants reserves to be picked up somewhat regularly and I can understand why, they already paid for the books and while they sit in your folder they don't make any money....IMO I think reserves should be picked up at least once a month...

Sure. I've been buying from the same guy for quite a while now, so he has no problem holding stuff for me as long as I need. I think the longest I ever went without picking stuff up was close to 4 months. If it's been a while I usually shoot him an email to let him know I'm still alive, and will be in sometime soon.

It is like a 50-60 minute drive to the place, so he knows I really don't want to come in every other week. It's a great place, and I like hanging out for a few hours and talking to the owner when I go, so I don't want to switch to online buying or finding a closer store.

I know he does get some losers in there, who reserve a bunch of books, and he never ever sees them again. That would suck.

This was my haul this week:

BPRD: Garden of Souls #3

Batman #665 - I finally got around to reading the last 3 issues. I loved the text-only issue with the Joker, and I'm kinda digging the new plotline. My only complaint is that a lot of it seems like a rehash of the Hush storyline from a few years ago.

JLA #9

Ex Machina #28 - Another solid issue, nuff said. If you're not reading this series, then you need to start. Now.

Action Comics #849

Ultimates 2 #13 - Like most of you I couldn't remember what was going on in the series. I went back and reread issue 10-12 and was able to understand what was happening. The story wasn't all that great as this issue was pretty much action cover to cover, but what great action it was. The artwork was simply amazing - not worth waiting 9 months for, but still great. I'm just glad this series is finally over with so that I am now completely done with the Ultimate universe.

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 - I was only able to read the first 2 issues of this when it came out monthly, but I couldn't find the last 4 issues anywhere. I can see why the series was so popular - it's got a fantastic story, great artwork, and some wonderful characters. I highly recommend this series to comic fans everywhere; It's a quick read, but a book that you can read again and again. I can't wait for the next part of the series - Winter 1152 - to start next month to see what happens next.

Anyone read Nova? The first two issues have been great!

Was anyone even reading Annihilation? that was some great storytelling. The best in years from Marvel.