So, What comics did you buy this week?

[Rollo Tomassi]

12 books this week. And an AvX freebie. Also, it felt like Marvel went with a different paper stock for their covers. I notice these things.

All Star Western 6. Hex meets Alan Wayne in Gotham City.

Avengers Academy 26. Skeevy teen billionaire philanthropist Jeremy Briggs shows up and tries poaching students. Way too much talking this issue.

Cap and Bucky 627. Haven't read it yet.

Fantastic Four 603. Holy crap, this comic is so damn EPIC. Galactis fights Celestials for the fate of Earth. And that's not even the big part of the story. Goddamn, this series rocks.

Cobra 10. Tomax, Serpentor, and Bludd plot to overthrow their new Boss. Meanwhile, the Baroness is killing the Cobra High Council on orders from aforementioned Boss. Also, "somebody" is still alive, but I'm not exactly sure who it's supposed to be.

Magneto: Not a Hero 4. Erik stops Joseph from killing a bunch anti-mutant protestors. But then he drops a building on their douche leader. Cause that's how Mags rolls, yo.

New Mutants 38. The NM return to Paradise Island to deal with Doug's 'dying' issues. Bird-Brain(zomigod! Remember him?!?) infects the team and Warlock won't let them leave or they'll infect the planet.

Marvel Index 7. Indexed hijinks of Frank and Logan. No Ghost Rider this month. He just couldn't hang in there.

Transformers RID 2. Starscream doublecrosses Ratbat and the other Decepticons who are planning to assassinate Bumblebee. Prowl stops Skywarp from taking the shot, and has Arcee kill Ratbat. Which puts Starscream in the position of becoming the head of the new provisional govt. Noice.

Venom 13.3 Mephisto dupes Red Hulk, Ghost Rider, X-23, and Venom into signing a pact with him. Oh, that won't end well.

WaX-Men 6. While Prof. Jackas-- er Logan and Quentin raise school funds at an interstellar casino planet, an alien bounty attacks the Killbo- er school to find Kitty Pryde...or someone else.

X-Men Legacy 262. After Dipshit (aka Prof. Logan) pawns Exodus off on Utopia, they have to try and stop him before he kills Scott Summers. Then Hope and the Five Lights show up.

[Diabolical]

This past week had only one book, The Dark Knight #6, featuring the reintroduction of Bane, who's all hopped up on a new form of Venom that makes him even smarter.

And since I had only one book I picked up Batman Versus Bane, reprinting Vengeance of Bane and Birth of the Demon for $10.

[anarky]

Don't have it yet, but I saw Atomic Robo Volume 6 was up for pre-order at Amazon, with a release date of March (no specific day in their info).

You bet your sweet bippy I ordered it. But I was especially happy to see the earlier TPB's available again; it's easier to recommend people check something out when they actually have a shot at finding it.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Only 8 books today (which was Leap Year Day!).

Amazing Spidey 680. Spidey and Johnny Storm fly into space to save John Jameson from Octo-zombies!

Avengers 23. Osborne continues to pester the Avengers.

New Avengers 22. Osborne continues to pester the Aveng--gosh I feel like I just wrote that. This Osborne saga has been going on for awhile.

FF 15. Okay. In what world is Katie Power now younger than Franklin Richards?!? Arrgh! Goddamit, Marvel Editors! Do your damn jobs!!!

Game of Thrones 6. Jon Snow settles in at the Wall. Ned learns his wife is in King's Landing. Danyraes gets nekked and fucks Khal Drogo in front of 10,000 Dothrakis. Bow chicka bow bow.

GIJoe ARAH Annual 1. In this $8 first IDW Annual, a rogue Crimson Guardsman tries to blow up an amusement park, and both the Joes and the Dreadnoks are assigned to stop him. Chocolate donuts and Grape Soda are mentioned. Too pricey for what it was.

Scalped 56. Waiting to read all of these when it's finished.

Venom 13.4. The four heroes bring the fight back to Blackheart. Venom becomes the new Ghost Rider.

[anarky]

So, they're reading our posts again, but mixed up Venom and Wolverine?

Somehow, in a day and age when comics are sold almost entirely to grown men and are packaged to sell in paperback form at the end of every story arc, the idea of a double-priced annual seems passe. Especially when it's $8. Christfarts, that's a lot.

That said, wonder if it'll be collected in a paperback with the other issues released around the same time.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

I'm sure it will be. For its gargantuan pricetag, it was only 40 pages of story.

[jjreason]

Avengers vs X-Men hype & bullshit x 11. Almost.

A vs X Program Guide (free)
New Avengers 22
ff15
avengers 23
asm 680
cobra 10
secret avengers 23
ff 603
game of thrones 6

[Rollo Tomassi]

12 books this week.

Age of Apocalypse 1. The depowered Jean Grey and Victor Creed team up with the last surviving mutants to battle Weapon Omega(aka Wolverine) the heir of Apocalypse. Written by Dave Lapham.

Amazing Spidey 681. Spidey, Johnny Storm, and Col. Jameson try to save a bunch of astronauts on a space station burning up in Earth's atmosphere!! Classic Spidey/Torch banter.

Avengers Academy 27. Guest starring the Runaways! yay! Lots of teen snark as the two teams size each other up. And then Molly punched Mettle, and it reminded me of the time Molly punched Frank Castle in the nuts and that made me laugh. Hee.

Young Avengers 9. SERIES FINALE. Well, that only took like two years. Stature dies. Iron Lad kills Vision Jr (which cements his destiny as Kang) and the team decides to disband. Meh.

Hulk 49. Hadn't checked in with Red Hulk in awhile. He fights Ikaris of the Eternals over a "Marvel Misunderstanding".

Venom 14. The end of the 'Circle of Four' arc. The Hulk/Venom/Ghost Rider guy beats up Blackheart and Johnny Blaze sucks hell out of Vegas and back into...well, Hell. I JUST got that this arc was an homage to the "New FF"

Villains for Hire 4. Misty explains how she, PuppetMaster and Paladin duped everybody with their shenanigans, and all the Super Villains get hauled off to jail.

Winter Soldier 3. Bucky and Widow break into Doom's place to tell him he's being framed for an attack on the UN by a rogue Doombot controlled by Lucia Von Bardas.

Wolverine 302. Ooh! Art Adams cover! I was gonna tell you about the whole Hand/Yakuza power play and how Sabretoothe, Mystique, and the new Silver Samurai. But then I got distracted thinking about how Akiko was an infant when Wolverine saved her back in Uncanny 190 (early 80s) and now she's got boobs, even though she should be younger than Franklin Richards. And my continuity rage kicked in.

X-Club 4. I missed last issue, but apparently multi-dimensional Nazis trapped some cosmic creature and it accidentally knocked up Danger. And Madison Jeffries and Danger are like the 4th or 5th Robot/Human couple in the Marvel U.

Uncanny X-Men 552 8. Namor shags some Squid Queen to broker peace. Juggosus juggs out to save Magik. The X-Men set up Tabula Rasa as an Area 51 type preserve. And Magneto schools Psylocke. Heh heh. yeahhh.

WaX-Men:A/O 3. Quentin regrets sticking Prof. Logan and Armor in his mind construct as Wolverine's berserker body hunts him through the school. Prof. Rachel Grey prepares to stop him.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

If you used the old "This is the first letter I've ever written to a comic..." ploy over and over to get your letter published, I wonder how long it would take for them to wise up to your strategy?

[RoIIo Tomassi]

12 books this week. And an AvX freebie. Also, it felt like Marvel went with a different paper stock for their covers. I notice these things.

Marvel switches Cover Stock. I TOLD you I notice these things.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I got 13 books this week. I had 14 on my list, but two GIJoe titles from last week that hadn't shown up were on the rack this week. So I decided to whittle it down to 12 books and left Captain America, Hulk, and Scarlet Spider on the shelf. Then I realized that Transformers wasn't in my pile and asked about it. My comic guy only ordered two copies and had pulled both for another customer who is a completist and wants every cover. Which I had no problem with because he can reorder it. But I mentioned I hoped he would be able to get in Cover A, and he decided to just sell me the cover I wanted, and he'd reorder the second cover for the other guy. So I wound up with 13 books instead of 12.

Avengers 24. The Osborne insanity finally concludes. Osborn turns himself into a Super Adaptoid and ALL the Avengers overload him with their powers. Madame Hydra starts a new Hydra with Osborn's Hammer leftovers.

Avengers Assemble 1. New book by Bendis and Bagley starring the stars of the Movie, but in continuity. They're taking on the umpteenth version of the Zodiac.

Battle Scars 5. Marcus and his dad finally meet. The bad guys poke out one of Marcus' eyes. Which made me roll mine. That's not subtle at all Marvel.

Carnage USA 4. Venom shows up and beats Carnage silly. Them Scorn whips up a sonic machine to wipe out all the Symbiotes. Which just leaves psychopath Kletus Cassady with a legless Flash Thompson.

Fantastic Four 604.
"It signaled a new day--A future...regained.
For if we live. There is hope.
And if we hope. There is tomorrow.
And if tomorrow...
Then...forever"

This issue made me weep.

GIJoe ARAH 176. There is too much happening in this issue. Blue Ninjas disguised as Fred VIIs. Broca Beach Invaded. Baroness saves Snake Eyes and Stormshadow. And Cobra Commander calls Mindbender an "alopecious aasvogel". Awesome.

GIJoe 11. Cobra Command continues. The new Boss sends BATs into the war zone. And BATs are way more serious in the IDW continuity.

GIJoe Infestation 1. Some wacky Cobra scientist releases the Infestation in Cobra's underground loony asylum.

Punisher 9. Holy fuck. Frank recruits Rachel into the war. The only thing cooler than her saving his bacon with the sniper rifle was the scene at the end.

Journey into Mystery 635. Loki, Leah, and Hellstrom fight Nightmare.

Transformers:MTMTE 3. Haven't read it yet. But I'm assuming it's Arrested Development levels of funny.

WaX-Men 7. Broo goes berserk and fucks up a dude who's trying to attack Kitty Pryde. Prof. Logan gets his ass handed to him by an intergalactic casino bouncer.

X-Men Legacy 263. Ha! I love it. Hope and her "child soldiers" from Utopia show up and save Prof. Logan and his "students" from Exodus, thus proving Scott's position to be the correct one, and Logan's position to be WRONG WRONG naive and WRONG!!!

[Rollo Tomassi]

9 books this week. I picked up the final issue of Gen Hope, and didn't feel like rounding up to 12 books.

Formic Wars: Silent Strike 4. The Formics return to protect their Mothership, leading to final battle next issue.

Generation Hope 17. FINAL ISSUE. Hope does battle with her former student Zero to the death. MOD EDIT. THAT'S NOT THE ACTUAL ZERO, BUT AN USURPER WHO IS A TETSUO RIPOFF. FRANKLY, IM OFFENDED. Everybody else makes up. Leads into AvX.

Snake Eyes 11. After killing a bunch of ninjas, SE accepts Stormshadow's offer to infiltrate Cobra.

Iron Man 514. Tony is forced to wear a governor on the IM armor, which Justine Hammer turns on at just the wrong moment. The Mandarin/Stane/Hammer master plan continues.

New Mutants 39. Doug suits up in Warlock armor to fight the reanimated Ani-Mator. Fans of early 80s comics will geek out at this.

Thunderbolts 171. Songbird goes on vacation and gets kidnapped by D-list villain Dr. Dorcas. She kicks his ass.

Wolverine 303. The end of the Yakuza/Hand war. Sabretooth sets himself up as the new Far East Crime lord with Mystique, Silver Samurai Jr, and Deathstrike as his Lietenants.

X-Factor 233. Madrox and Layla fuck in a morgue drawer. New team leader Havok takes the team up against an anti-mutant militia camp.

Uncanny 553 9. A prison breakout from the SWORD satellite forces the X-Men and Avengers to team up and save the planet from various aliens. Basically Keron Gillen is just revisiting all the characters he created for his SWORD ongoing series that lasted five issues.

[Diabolical]

Last Week:
Fatale #3

The Punisher #9 - I like the idea of Frank taking on a partner/protege, rather than yet another Microchip-type.

Batman and Robin #7 - Batman saves Robin and beats the shit out of Nobody, then Robin kills Nobody.

Batgirl #7

Essential Punisher Volume 3 - My LCS had a sale and I got it for like $10.


This week:
Kick-Ass 2 #7 - Leaves a cliff-hanger for Kick-Ass 3, which I doubt I'll read.

Rocketeer Adventures 2 #1 - Wasn't even aware this was coming out.

Catwoman #7 - Catwoman decides to start stealing cars. She gets busted by the cops and is saved by Spark, a generic 90's looking guy.

Batman #7 - Batman examines Talon's body and discovers the Court of Owls reanimates the dead to become one of many Talons, and this particular one is Dick Grayson's Great-Grandfather, and Dick was scheduled to become one eventually...until Bruce stepped in and interfered when Dick's parents died.

[anarky]

Batman and Robin #7 - Batman saves Robin and beats the shit out of Nobody, then Robin kills Nobody.

Batman #7 - Batman examines Talon's body and discovers the Court of Owls reanimates the dead to become one of many Talons, and this particular one is Dick Grayson's Great-Grandfather, and Dick was scheduled to become one eventually...until Bruce stepped in and interfered when Dick's parents died.

Jesus fuck. Why does no one at DC seem to realize that what they're doing to Batman is considered sexual assault and carries stiff penalties in all fifty states, even if Alaska makes you pay for your own kit to have it investigated?

[Tom Foolery]

Batman and Robin #7 - Batman saves Robin and beats the shit out of Nobody, then Robin kills Nobody.

If nobody got beat up and nobody died, then what's the big deal? Did they even leave the Batcave? Why even bother dressing up as Batman?