I blind-bought this on good buzz. Honestly I'm not a huge Dennis fan, and his shenanigans can get annoying, but the book itself is beautifully put together, with a ton of archival material plus interviews with the creators and such. So I probably won't re-read this very often, but it's a really impressive package, and I'm tempted to get the first two volumes in the series just to support the release.

Don Rosa UNCLE SCROOGE & DONALD DUCK Library vols. 3 and 4.

I really need to move those Rosa collections to the top of my reading piles.

I went through a huge Rosa phase a few years ago when the stories were only available in random paperbacks. Now that I have most of the Fantagraphics volumes, I should go through them to see what I've missed.

I was browsing a used book store over the weekend and ran into something called Tex the Lonesome Rider, written by Claudio Nizzi and illustrated by Joe Kubert. So essentially a spaghetti Western with Kubert art! Turns out it's only $5.99 on Kindle so I read it this week. I'm a sucker for anything Kubert, but I thought the story was really interesting too, and over 200 pages. I guess the character has appeared in a number of stories but this is the only Kubert comic. It was also released under the title The Four Killers.

I just started Resident Alien Volume 1: Welcome to Earth! I'm about thirty pages in and I'm really enjoying it so far.

Annihilation Books 1, 2 & 3
(Drax the Destroyer 1-4, Annihilation: Prologue, Annihilation: Nova 1-4, Annihilation: Silver Surfer 1-4, Annihilation: Super-Skrull 1-4, Annihilation: Ronan 1-4, Annihilation 1-6, Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus 1-2)

I really love the Jim Starlin cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe and was eager to finally read Annihilation knowing that it's pretty popular and basically restarted Marvel's entire cosmic line. Unfortunately I was a bit underwhelmed. It's not a bad story by any means, although some of the lead up mini-series probably could have been skipped (Super-Skrull and Ronan I'm looking at you). My biggest problem with it all was just a generic war story and you could have swapped in just about any other characters and it would have felt the same. Missing was the cosmic wonder and mysticism of Starlin's stuff. Those stories felt larger than life. The characters were operating on a plane above and beyond human understanding. I've also always thought Annihilus was one of the stupider looking characters, which kind of diminishes his threat level for me, but that's nitpicking. It did hold my interest long enough to keep going into Annihilation Conquest and Guardians of the Galaxy and all that. Hopefully I'll enjoy it more now that I understand and accept it's not Starlin.



The Avengers: The Trial of Yellow Jacket
(Avengers 212-230)

This book is the bridge between the end of Jim Shooter's run and the beginning of Roger Stern's. The bulk of it revolves around the infamous story where Hank Pym hits the Wasp and is kicked out of the Avengers. I had never read this before but certainly was aware of its reputation. After reading it, I don't think it's quite the hit piece that so many people make it out to be. The story itself makes perfect sense given Pym's history and brings a dose of adult reality not previously present in the book (whether or not that's a good thing I guess is up to the individual readers). Honestly, I think Shooter's biggest mistake was a lack of subtlety in Avengers #213. Instead of making it clear that Pym had been under a ton of stress and just sort of snapped in the moment, he comes off like the jerkiest jerk-off who ever did jerk in that one issue. I think the rest of the story plays out fine and adds good depth to both him and the Wasp. Some of that may be thanks to Stern who is the one who actually finished the story. Shooter was struggling to keep up on writing duties after becoming EiC, which is obvious due to the number of fill-in issues sprinkled throughout this volume, and had to leave. The quality of the book noticeably jumps up a notch when Stern takes over. The rest of the stuff included is more or less middling, with average, at best, art. Of note is Tigra's brief run as a member (thankfully she goes away quickly) during which the big 3 (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor) learn each other's secret identities for the first time in surprisingly unceremonious fashion.

I have a lot of those "events" to catch up on. I've started both the Infinity Gauntlet and War of Kings omniboo, but not finished them, due in no small part to the difficult reading size. I probably have Annihilation too.

I started reading Blackest Night a few days ago. Up to Part 3 right now.

To me the beauty of the Annihilation books was that it brought all the Marvel cosmic characters together in the face of, well, annihilation. True, it's a war story, but one where the good guys are losing and even the cosmic big guns are kind of helpless. I liked the format of the minis, each featuring a different cast of characters. Also the cosmic universe was sort of a haven from the civil war shenanigans happening in the rest of the books at the time...

As for Pym, Shooter swears the way he scripted the panel was very different:

http://jimshooter.com/2011/03/hank-p...e-beater.html/

I actually don't have a problem with how that panel is drawn. It's more the way he out of nowhere just starts acting like a giant dick in the lead up to that panel. Had the progression of his breakdown been slower and more organic, I honestly think it would have played fine. Of course doesn't it all get retconned in secret invasion? I haven't read that yet, but I think I heard Pym is revealed to be one of the Skrulls.

I wish Marvel would put the Annihilation omnibus back into print. The original goes for serious money on the secondary market.

Really? I had no idea (if have something, I don't keep tabs on if it's oop or not). So now I'm weary of reading it in case I damage it or something.

The War of the Kings storyline (that's collected across 3 huge omnibuses) is a pretty good "cosmic" Marvel story as well.

I finished Resident Alien Vol. 1 and I really enjoyed it. I bought the other three volumes. I signed up for a free month of Comixology unlimited today. There's a lot of trades on there that I wanted to read, but was hesistant in buying them. I just started Chew Vol. 1 on Comixology.

Iirc, he was a skrull but he was replaced long after the wife beating part of it (and the Skrull Pym was the one who had the fling with Tigra resulting in a baby).

What? Was everyone married to a skrull? I remember when Alicia was revealed to be a skrull.

Yeah that, to me, will always be one of the lowest points of theFF, the whole Lyra the laser fist and future franklin stuff.

The Secret Invasion storyline basically revolved around a lot of characters having been replaced or manipulated by skrulls for some time.

Hawkeye, Vol. 2: Little Hits



Really enjoying this Hawkeye series so far. I think it would make a good movie or tv series.

After almost 20 years of not regularly reading comics, I got a Comixology Unlimited trial a few days ago. Last night I finished Planet Hulk. I’ve also read Locke & Key volumes 1-3 and the original Old Man Logan story within the last few days. Next up is World War Hulk, then maybe Invincible.

I just finished Hellboy, Vol. 1: Seed of Destruction


I really enjoyed it. I'm starting Hellboy, Vol. 2: Wake The Devil now.

Recently re-read Stray Bullets Hardcovers Volumes 1-3...Love this comic...I still feel this would make an amazing HBO series...Can't remember if this has still been optioned, but I know it was at some point back in the day...David Lapham remains one of my favorite comic book writers/artists...A TV series would be amazing...

Starting to re-read all of Rucka's Queen and Country graphic novels...Very diverse series and I love the rotating series of artists that they use...Would probably tie Transmetropitan as my favorite all-time comic series...

I just started Hellboy Vol. 3 The Chained Coffin and Others

I just finished reading Hellboy Vol. 4 and will be taking a break from Hellboy since comixology unlimited doesn't have Vol. 5 or 6.


I just started The Sixth Gun Vol. 1

I've always wanted to check out The Sixth Gun but never gotten around to it. Someone optioned it for a movie, though I believe that stalled.

I read a volume of Sixth Gun and liked it but didn't pursue more. I was also reading a zombie Western at the time called Rotten (RIP) so I might have wanted a break.