So, What comics did you buy this week?

[RoIIo Tomassi]

They don't mention his name, as the final page of the comic is the reveal, and it's just Tomax looking at a bunch of surveillance footage of him at various ages. But still. Sweet.

[Diabolical]

I haven't posted anything this month yet, so I may be missing a few, but so far:

Avengers Vs X-Men #3 & 4 - Meh.

Batman #8 & 9, Batgirl #9, Batman & Robin #9, Batman: The Dark Knight #9, Batman: Detective Comics #9 and Catwoman #9 - All Night of the Owls. What a confusing clusterfuck this is turning out to be. It jumps around too damn much. "To get the full story of what Batman does between 1:05am and 2:13am, pick up Batman Whatever #9." When the collect this story it really needs to be in chronological order.

Batman Incorporated #1 - Grant Morrison starts another Batman story that doesn't make a lot of sense, and ends with some schmuck sniping Robin in the head.

Batman: Arkham Unleashed #2 - for expansion of the Arkham City story.

The Bionic Man #9 - Steve escapes but he's too late to stop the assault on Washington DC.

The Boys #66 - Things heat up as they start to wind down.

Daredevil #12 & 13 - DD goes on a date and finally takes care of the megadrive, further making the Spidey and Punisher crossover more pointless.

Fatale #5 - Finally read the series. Good, but still a bit disappointed by Mr. Brubaker and Mr. Phillips, as it isn't as complete a story as their previous stuff (Criminal and Incognito).

Fury: My War Gone By #1 & 2 - Ennis' tale of MAX Fury in 1954 Indochina.

IZombie #25 - Gwen makes a tough choice as Xitalu approaches.

Punisher #11 - Frank and Detective Bolt take on some zombies in a fill-in story.

Serenity/Star Wars FCBD - Great little Serenity story, meh Star Wars story.

This week:

The Incredible Hulk #8 - There was a guy with a skull on his chest on the cover. Waste of $3.99.

The Rocketeer Adventures 2 #3 - More fun stories by various creators.

Batman Annual #1 - Night of the Owls tie-in. Mr. Freeze escapes Arkham for his beloved Nora and his origin is...altered.

A Game of Thrones #8 - Haven't read it yet. In fact, I don't think I've read the last few. I probably should drop it, as I really don't need a third version of the same story.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I skipped that Hulk issue. The cover looked awesome though. It was probably the best thing about it. Here's what I got.

Amazing Spidey Annual 39. Pete gets erased from existence by one of his Horizon Lab cronies. Read like an overpriced inventory issue.

FF 18. Johnny Storm takes the FF kids on a field trip to the Negative Zone and hold Democratic Elections. Where they vote Annihilus in as a write in candidate.

Game of Thrones 8. Littlefinger warns Ned to trust noone(which, as we all know, he doesn't listen to) and starts piecing together why John Arryn was murdered when he visits Gendry in the blacksmiths shop.

Snake Eyes/Stormshadow 13. Snakes rejoins the Arishikage Clan to kill Zartan. But also to secretly start killing Red Ninjas.

New Mutants 43. The end of Exiled crossover with JiM. I read the whole saga. Great story. People who buy TPBs miss out on hilarious recap pages.

Transformers RID 5. Sky-Byte arrives on Cybertron and offers impartial commentary on the Autobot/Decepticon paradigm of the new provincial govt and the inherent distrust it's built on.

X-Men Legacy 267. AvX tie in. Rogue and her team fuck up Iron Man and his Gestapo douchevengers. Yay team X-Men!

WaX-Men 11. AvX tie in. Pointless fight between Wolverine and Hope and the ShiAr Death Commandos that takes place at some point during AvX 4. Also, Iceman beats the shit out of Red Hulk, and Gladiator shows up looking for his son.

------------

And here's the dozen books I got next week on June 6th. Which is the anniversary of D-Day. Suck it, Nazis!

AvX 5. The Pheonix Force arrives and pulls a switcheroo. Instead of possessing Hope, it possesses Cyclops, Emma, Namor, Piotr, and Illyana. Things just got interesting. Also, Romita's last issue. Thankfully Oliver Coipel takes over.

Avengers Academy 31. AvX tie in. Shaw turns up to rescue the X-Kids. There's a big fight. A big fake fight.

Dark Avengers 175. Formerly Thunderbolts. I got it to round up to 12 and see what the new direction was like. Pass.

GIJoe ARAH 179. The end of the Blue Ninja invasion of Broca Beach.

GIJoe 14. Scarlett's team are forced into the mines and plan their escape.

Hulk 53. Checked in with the Red Hulk book to round up to 12. Hulk, Machine Man, Alpha Flight, and the other Hulks explore a Mayan Pyramid in northern Canada and get attacked by Mayan Gods. Because its the end of the world or whatever.

Iron Man 518. The new mysterious Iron Man fights pirates off the coast of Somalia, while Tony feigns ignorance at a press conference announcing his retirement.

Thor Annual 1 oneshot. Thor and Silver Surfer get mixed up in a power struggle between two Cosmic Entities called Scrier and Other. Galactus how's up and beats ass.

Journey into Mystery 639. Otherworld(Capt Britain's pocket dimension that holds all of England's magic energies) is attacked by Steampunk gods. Asgard is forbidden to assist because of some theological red tape, but they send Loki and Leah in as unsanctioned help. Goddamn this book rocks.

Winter Soldier 6. We find out what the last of the 3 sleeper agents has been up to for the last 12 years. He tracks down Fred Davis(the 2nd Bucky from the 50s) and kills him as a message to WS. Poor Fred.

X-Factor 237. Rahne is all mopey(honestly when ISN'T that bitch all mopey?) so Terry and Lorna take her on a road trip to visit Madrox's dupe that's a Reverend.

Uncanny X-Men 13 557. AvX tie in. The Gen Hope kids go see villain robot Unit about Hope and the Phoenix Force. He tells them his evil master plan, then wipes their memories. Magneto, Storm, Psylocke, and others wait and recover while the main battle is happening on the moon. The Pheonix Five (see AvX 5 above) return to Utopia at the end.

[anarky]

GIJoe: A Real American Hero, Vol. 4

BTW, I read some spoilers on the altered Freeze origin. Wow. That's just fucked up. Next thing you know, they're going to change Riddler's origin so that he was a computer programmer who was fired... because he skullfucked his boss's mother's corpse and posted it to YouTube.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Whoopsie. Missed last week. So you get a double helping of succinct, snarky comic round up.

6/13
Amazing Spidey 687. The grand finale of Ends of the Earth. I sat down and read the whole arc in one sitting. It was awesome. Spidey makes the hard choice to let one person die in order to save 7 billion. Which he will now carry the guilt of that one death moving forward in typical Spidey fashion.

Avenging Spidey 8. Epilogue to Ends of the Earth. Flashback tale starring Doc Strange and Silver Sable. Spidey reminisces about the person that died in the ASM issue above.

AvX:VS 3. Colossus beats up Thing on the Moon. Magik beats up Black Widow on the moon. And they both speak Russian. Which the AR App translates for you. Nifty! So, after three issues, we're tied up at 3 wins apiece. Except two of the Avenger wins were horseshit.

Avengers Assemble 4. Thanos gets the Hulk to beat up Thor with his own hammer. They blow up the Helicarrier on purpose. And the Guardians of the Galaxy show up!(but not the REAL GotG. Them new poseurs.)

Captain America 13. Cap fights the new Scourge(who is secretly Dennis Dunphy).

Cap/Hawkeye 632. Cap and Hawk conclude their fight against the alien zombie dinosaur Symbiote hordes.

Fantastic Four 607. The FF travels to Wakanda and hangs out with T'Challa and Suri.

Cobra 14. Flint recruits a female ninja chick named Ronin on the team. Nobody trusts Tomax.

Untold Tales of PunisherMAX 1. Another one of those Punisher stories about some schlub and then Frank shows up in five panels and kills everyone at the end.

Scarlet Spider 6. SS is becoming the recognized hero if Houston. Ana Kravinoff attacks Kaine in order to figure out who the important people in his life are.

Transformers RID 6. Orion Pax is bopping around the universe, totally carefree now that he's no longer Optimus. And gets pulled into an adventure involving Shockwave.

------------------------------

6/20
Age of Apocalypse 4. GoodKnight releases Banner on Logan as a distraction so they can destroy Dark Beast's reanimation vats.

Avengers Academy 32. AvX tie in. Pheonix Five Emma is destroying all the Sentinels on Earth. So when she shows up at the Academy to get rid of Juston's pet Sentinel, X-23 objects and there'll be a big fight next issue.

New Avengers 27. AvX tie in. Hope is in K'un L'un. Iron Fist brings in Spider-Man to train her after they see a vision in a scrying pool.

AvX 6. The Phoenix Five bring about Pax Utopia on Earth by ending all wars, fighting, and providing plentiful crops and free energy to everyone. This pisses Captain America and the Avengers right off, so they climb into ExMachina looking jet packs and go to kidnap Hope off the new jumbo sized Utopia. In the end, Hope volunteers to leave with them.

Daredevil 14. Dr. Doom(okay,technically his regent) douses Matt with a gas that takes all his senses away.

Snake Eyes/Stormshadow 14. SE attempts to assassinate Zartan but kills a dupe instead.

Iron Man 519. Tony Stark deals with the fallout of Spymaster's infiltration of Stark Resilient, and steps down from the company. Then he gets attacked and the new Mysterious Iron Man shows up to save him.

New Mutants 44. The Defenders(Doc Strange, Silver Surfer, and Iron Fist) show up and tell the NM they are going to cause a multiverse ending event in the next 72 hours. Then they just tell them to be careful and figure it out or whatev. No big whoop.

Punisher 12. Frank gets serious about recruiting Rachel into the War.

Journey into Mystery 640. Loki convinces King Authur and Capt. Britain he can be a double agent and infiltrate the Manchester Gods' "Urban Pantheon". When he gets there, Master Wilson convinces him progress is good and Loki thinks he may be on the wrong side. THIS IS MARVEL'S BEST BOOK EVERY MONTH. YOU SHOULD BE READING IT.

Winter Soldier 7. The Sleeper Agent abducts a former Red Room scientist in order to separate and trap Natasha.

X-Factor 238. The team sits around and there's a lot of talking. Rahne decides to go look for her demon baby.

Uncanny X-Men 14 558. AvX tie in. Mr Sinister has created an underground society populated entirely of Sinister clones living in an ersatz 19th century village. He awaits the inevitable clash with the Phoenix Five by having an army of Madelyn Pryor clones.

X-Men Legacy 268. AvX tie in. Frenzy is sent into Central Africa post-Phoenix Five to supress warlords deprived of all their weapons. We get her origin fleshed out in the process. Very moving story.

Astonishing X-Men 51. Lovely Wedding Ceremony in Central Park issue.

[anarky]

Got Infestation 2 Vol 1, Cobra Command Vol 1, and More Than Meets the Eye Vol 1 in the mail this week. Unfortunately, it appears that I was misled and neither Joe or Transformers actually appear in Infestation 2, and I can't be bothered to give a shit about the other stuff.

Also checked out Neil Gaiman's Signal to Noise from the library.

[Diabolical]

Somehow I missed DD #14. Dammit.

The last 3 weeks here:

Avengers Vs X-Men #5 - More fightin'. The Pheonix is disrupted by Iron Man so it enters Cyclops, Emma, Colossus, Namor and Magik instead.

Batman: Detective Comics #10 - Batman takes on Mr. Toxic, whoever the fuck that is.

Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 - Yeah, I bought it. Big whoop, wanna fight about it? And you know what, it wasn't bad. Darwyn Cooke's got a good rep, as do most of the peeps doing this Watchmen stuff, so I'm going to give it a chance.

The Boys #66 - Shit gets crazier and bodies keep dropping.

Fury: My War Gone By #3 - More 50's era Fury war fightin' goodness leading to this new country called Vietnam or something (sounds made up to me).

IZombie #26 - Xitalu arrives and people are about to get all kind of dead.

------------

Batgirl #10 - Babs fights some new enemies or something.

Batman #10 - Bats gets to the bottom of the Court of the Owls...and I can't remember how the Night of the Owls actually ended.

Batman and Robin #10 - Cocky Damian challenges all the former Robins, taking on Tim first.

Batman: Arkham Unhinged #3 - More Arkham City stuff, this time a bit of history between Joker and Penguin.

Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #1 - Laurie's teenage years, training and rebellion against her mother. Liek Minutemen, it wasn't bad.

Untold Tales of The Punisher Max #1 - Just like countless other one-shots, a story about a guy, how he gets into trouble and his run-in with Frank. Blah, blah, blah.

------------

Avengers Vs X-Men #6 - The Pheonixed X-Men saves huanity from itself.

Before Watchmen: Comedian #1 - Eddie Blake hangs out with the Kennedys, fucks and kills Marylin Monroe (at Jackie's request), then is purposely sidelined while JFK is assassinated. Another good one. Suck it, haters.

Catwoman #10 - Catwoman tries to save junkies and whores that are being abudcted. Her new buddy betrays her.

Punisher #12 - Frank sets Cole-Alves straight.

[anarky]

Batman: Detective Comics #10 - Batman takes on Mr. Toxic, whoever the fuck that is.

Lemme guess, a new villain who won't stay around too long once his creator is gone, since Bane and Harley are the only Bat-villains from the last, what, three decades to have any real staying power.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 - Yeah, I bought it. Big whoop, wanna fight about it? And you know what, it wasn't bad. Darwyn Cooke's got a good rep, as do most of the peeps doing this Watchmen stuff, so I'm going to give it a chance.

Like many "Events"(Flashpoint, Fear Itself, etc) I'm sure I'll find many of these down the road and enjoy them much more because I paid a quarter instead of $4. I second guess the market and predict which shit probably got heavily ordered. Fer instance, Spider-Men. I'm skipping the first meeting between 616 Petey and Miles because comic shops probably ordered more than usual and will have leftover copies in six months. I feel that's VERY true of all this Watchmen BS. Truthfully, I could probably be saving myself a shit ton of money on AvX as well, but sometimes I'm a sucker.

[Diabolical]

Hey, wait a sec...didn't Watchmen say (or imply) that the Comedian killed JFK?

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Hey, wait a sec...didn't Watchmen say (or imply) that the Comedian killed JFK?

The film implied it. I'm not sure the comic did.

[anarky]

Isn't there something, like a background detail in one panel, that hints at it? Or am I mixing up film and book here?

[Diabolical]

I'm pretty sure the film showed it. I just can't remember if the comic did or not.

EDIT: via wiki:

"Before Watchmen: Comedian #1 rewrites the character's backstory further; it is revealed that Blake was close personal friends with Robert and and JohnKennedyas well as Jackie Kennedy; this contradicts the main Watchmenseries, which cast Edward Blake as a close personal friend of, and assassin for, Richard Nixon. The mini-series reveals that Blake was responsible for the murder of Marilyn Monroe (ordered by Jackie Kennedy, behind her husband'sback) as well as revealing that,despite strong innuendo from both Blake and Ozymodias , that he did not kill JohnKennedyandwas attempting toconfrontMolach when he found the villainwatching the live coverage of the assassination, including Kennedy's death.

[anarky]

Being friends with Nixon wouldn't necessarily contradict being friends with Kennedy. Though they were political rivals, they were actually good friends.

[anarky]

I checked out and read Alan Moore's Neonomicon. Just saw a new comic by Moore on the shelf and figured I'd take a gander.

Uh, yeah.

I'm not getting all the glowing reviews. I'm not even getting all the folks who are saying it's a masterpiece of horror. There's some downright cartoonish brutality, and, well, that's about as far as it goes. I don't quite feel like I wasted an hour, but I'm not going to be remembering this one a year from now except maybe in the "I think I read that, and it was just barely okay" sense of the word. Anyone else had written this, they'd be paying to host their own website if they wanted others to read it.

If I hadn't kept up with Moore's descent into madness and you were to show me this and say, "This is by the guy who wrote Swamp Thing, Watchmen, 'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow,' and The Killing Joke," I'd call you a liar. The fellow's lost what greatness he had, even moreso than Chris Claremont or George Lucas could begin to dream about.

I'd wonder why this had to be set in a parallel universe (they celebrate Farrakhan Day and have fax booths instead of phone booths, but that's as far as that goes aside from a hint that interracial relationships might be illegal... which is dropped and contradicted pretty quickly), but, really, I think he's just trying subconsciously to mimick one aspect of Watchmen because it certainly isn't important.

Congratulations, Mr. Clevinger. You're still the only writer I know of to reference H.P. Lovecraft in such a way as to not suck balls.