Just read the entire Bendis run of Uncanny and All New Xmen, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy. Absolutely no reason for there to be not one but two crossovers between Guardians and All New, and that last one, Black Vortex, was all over the place, not to mention the whole out of nowhere Kitty and Star Lord thing that just never rings true (I'll always be a Kitty and Colossus guy I think). Gorgeous art, especially from Immonen, though. I mainly read it to get caught up before I dive into Death of X.

I also should say that I love Marvel Unlimited. I read most of this in hardcover format but there were a lot of side issues and backstories I wouldn't have had access to if not for MU. If you're trade waiting already, you're probably more than 6 months behind which makes it all the more worthwhile.

I've been reading the new Absolute Infinite Crisis edition. It includes a new preface from Grant Morrison proclaiming Geoff Johns' greatness. I kind of wish they would have had George Perez or Jim Lee draw this series. There is nothing wrong with the art by Phil Jimenez, this is more of a personal preference.

Great read.

But Jimenez is practically a George Perez clone. I would think if you like one artist, you should like the other.

The Absolute edition with its bigger size really places the art front and center. I don't have a real problem with his art, it uses nice layouts.

I picked up Red Thorn 1 in the recent DC sale. I liked the Scottish setting and the art, but it was a little heavy on the fantasy for me. I might pick up more later if it's on sale.

The LCS is having a "Customer Appreciation Sale" with 50% off all shelf comics/GN so I took advantage of it to finally pick up:

Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer


I read it as soon as I got home (I wasn't about to put it at the end of my 2+ year backlog). It was quite good and entertaining. I've never read the original story and am only familiar with the character through the Disney animated movie. From what I remember it was true to that story while adding some interesting bits. It is especially humorous that Pinocchio has to lie to make his nose grow to snap it off and kill a vampire.

Splinter of the Mind's Eye. I forgot the story since it's been decades since I read the actual novel.

Does the whole book have art in that cover's style?

That would be cool, but the interior is more cartoony.

I had watched the "Unrated, Extended" version of "The Wolverine" a few weeks back, and was spurred to rent some "Wolverine" trades from the County Library.
"Wolverine: Origin" is a competent story that really didn't need to be told and I feel diminishes the character somewhat. On the other hand, "Wolverine: Origin 2" (reading it immediately after the first series) didn't work for me at all on any level.

I also read "Superman: American Alien" by Max Landis. The stories are well-written but it gets a little tiresome reading "Elseworld" stories that are yet another take on a familiar character's origins. I also disagree with the decision to hand off the art assignments to a different team for each issue, -it never really gelled for me in that sense, but perhaps that's because I didn't care for the anime-styled art direction they chose.

There is some fatigue from reading the nth Elseworlds comic featuring Batman or Superman. It's a fresher concept for less-heralded characters.

I finally got through the cinder block also known as the JSA Omnibus v.1 this past weekend. I had read most of this material before, but it had probably been close to 10 years, so it felt fresh. I don't have much else to say other than the series is as good as I remember it. It's just a really nice collection of traditional super-hero stories without the need for deconstruction or grim and grittiness. While the book is heavily steeped in DC history, it never felt impenetrable to me (a Marvel guy) the way these things sometimes can. In fact, Johns and co. do such a wonderful job of making the crazy JSA continuity accessible, that it's actually a big part of what I like about the book.

One negative regarding the book itself (other than it weighing at least 300lbs.) is that some of the material is clearly out of order. The JLA/JSA Virtue and Vice OGN, along with the JSA: All Stars mini are included at the end of the volume after JSA #25. That's fine, except both stories were published long after that point and really should have been included somewhere in the middle of v.2. The stories themselves are mostly self-contained, so it's not a huge deal, but there are a few somewhat significant changes to the team roster that might not make sense if you're unfamiliar with the material. Also, I continue to be mystified by DC's unwillingness to provide issue numbers for the comics included. Covers and credit pages serve as defacto chapter breaks, but nowhere are the issue numbers referenced other than in the indicia. But even then, there's no indication of what order the content is presented. Maddening.



Despite being a fan of Ed Brubaker's other collaborations with Michael Lark and Sean Phillips, somehow Scene of the Crime flew completely under my radar until now. This is a straight up modern day noir detective story that I enjoyed quite a bit. If you're a fan of Brubaker or modern day film noir, it's worth checking out.

I agree 100% with you on DC's occasional practice of not including covers as chapter breaks. It's like a conspiracy to keep readers from knowing which issue they happen to be reading.

Johns' JSA is definitely a fun read that touches on lots of DC history. Now you just have to read Volumes 2 and 3.

Already started volume 2, the contents of which line up almost exactly with the time when I was buying the floppies. Since I'm almost positive that I only read each issue once on release week, I know that I haven't read these stories in 13 or 14 years. I stopped with the floppies when JSA ended and Justice Society of America was launched, so volume 3 will be totally new to me.

Read a tiny bit of JSA back in the day, enough to know that I'll likely love the whole run. A read-thru of it is on my to-read list, along with a zillion other books. With titles like that my OCD compels me to read it all in order, with possible prep reading of earlier series, so the task becomes almost too monumental to start. Trying to change that quirk in me, but in the meantime there are more than enough smaller runs or self-contained series to keep me busy.

I know the feeling. I stopped buying new comics in 2006 and have been trying to catch-up on Marvel via Unlimited for a couple of years now. Rather than just read the important and/or good stuff, I'm compelled to read EVERYTHING. I feel like I've been trying to bridge the gap from Civil War to Secret Invasion for over a year now. What's worse, every time I read something that has a reference I don't understand, or even one that I should know but might have forgotten, I find myself going backwards and reading older books. Of course that just means it takes even longer to make any progress and by the time I do, I've forgotten everything I read before I started going backwards. It's a seemingly endless cycle, but I'll get there someday.

I've been reading a lot of Brubaker lately, picking up Velvet, The Fade Out, and Kill or Be Killed in the recent Image sale. Kill or Be Killed is kind of a weird concept--a demon forces a guy to murder "bad" people in order to stay alive himself--but the characters are really interesting. The problem is I bought the four $1.99 issues, and then they go up to $3.99, which won't be awesome even on sale.

I also got some Fatale so I'll probably get to Scene of the Crime sometime too. Is that just a one-shot GN?

I just finished "Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade" by Miller, Azarello, and Romita Jr. Good-looking, well-produced volume, and it read well while it read smoothly, the ending felt abrupt. I see that it's a prequel to "The Dark Knight Returns", but it feels like a rather expensive anecdote rather than something that deepens or changes my understanding of the original.

It's a 4 issue mini-series. There's also a standalone short story from a Vertigo anthology that was meant to preview the series, all of which has collected in a single volume. Note that while originally published by Vertigo, the collected edition is from Image.

I have been burning through the Astro City trade paperbacks. I'm currently on volume 6.
Amazing stuff...

Sweet Christmas, I'm almost done this volume.

The first few Astro City trades are amazing. My signed Confessor hardcover is still one of my most cherished books.

Alerting readers here that the first DC Rebirth trades are showing up this week. DC is putting them out before the hardcovers this time, they will come out months later. So trade-only readers that have been waiting to read some Rebirth comics, now is the time.

They should be on Hoopla too.

Digital Rebirth volumes are a couple bucks cheaper on Amazon than Comixology.