Andy Hunsaker Comic Reviews

AVENGERS ACADEMY #1-39

Secret Avengers #1 is staggeringly good. Kot and Walsh have swished a three pointer in the game of Marvel Now. They are, by far, in the lead.

TRANSFORMERS: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE #11

Penguin: Pain and Prejudice #1 is a fantastic piece of work which excels both in writing and visuals, and I can't wait to see how the rest of this series pans out. The only reason this isn't a 10/10 is that I will miss the vivid vocabulary of the more avidly alliterative apperception of the charcter. That's hardly fair, but hey, reviews rarely are, either.

This book is brilliantly dark and surprisingly emotional, bringing the Penguin up to the upper echelon of Batvillains who have a deeply compelling tale of how they came to be the monsters they are. It's the kind of thing he's needed for a long time, and as much as we'll miss the wackier aspects of the character as traditionally portrayed, the version of the Penguin Hurwitz is forging is closing in on the level of masterpiece.

This series is stunning, heartbreaking, maddening, and saddening. It's the kind of reintroduction into the New 52 that every Bat-villain deserved. Thankfully, at least one of them got it.

There's nothing quasi about this profundity.

The only thing that gave me pause about this issue was Mr. Knight referring to a hideout as just "a hide," which made me first think he was talking about someone's skin again, but that's so minor it's even beneath a nitpick, and I'm sure that's a thing in the UK or something. All in all, Moon Knight #1 is supremely entertaining and I hope Ellis gets a long run with this book.

1984 - 1991: Marvel Comics publishes The Transformers, originally intended as a four-issue limited series, but given the popularity of the concurrent animated series and the toyline that inspired it, Marvel kept it going. Bob Budiansky was the writer until issue #56, and his run has a lot of the unfortunate "introduce a bunch of new characters because they are also new toys we'd like to sell" mandates, but he also managed to do some cool things (issue #25, where Megatron goes insane because Optimus Prime is dead and he wasn't the one to kill him stands out as a great one) and have some weird fun with it (ahem... King Grimlock). These are the first comics I ever sought out and bought with my own money. These are the reason I'm here blathering about comic books today.

Darwyn Cooke is bringing his A-game. That's always something to see.

Cooke's illustration is as beautiful as always, and the stories unfolding in Minutemen are the most compelling of all of the Before Watchmen efforts. If you're going to read any of it, this is what you should read.

Cooke's storytelling is masterful, his art is beautiful, and Before Watchmen: Minutemen may finally put to bed my kvetching that this whole project is misbegotten. Yes, most of Before Watchmen feels pointless, and if they actually attempt an ongoing series, it will be unfortunate, but if Darwyn Cooke is involved, it's damn well worth your time. He may have made The Silhouette my favorite character in the whole canon.

It has Cooke's fantastically perfect artwork - particularly perfect for this retro series as well.

Early on in The Goon series, despite his flair for dark comedy and stellar artistic skills, one could have made the mistake of writing Powell off as just some shock writer trying to gross people out in inventive ways, and that this world he's created couldn't last very long without becoming pretty repetitive. How wrong you would be. These last two issues have firmly established that anything can happen in The Goon. Powell can make you laugh, make you squirm, make you cry and make you hurt. You never know what you're going to get anymore, and that's something to be truly admired.

We love our capes here at Crave Online, and we love our Red and Green Hulks, but how's about we all do ourselves some favors and branch out a bit more? I've got trades of Fear Agent and Morning Glories here waiting for me to have time to read them. What non-superhero books would you recommend to anyone? Let 'er rip.

So I say to you out here in comic-book land: pick up Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #1. If you've never read Transformers before, or if you haven't in years, give it a shot and let me know what you think. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but even though there are still a truckload of characters being juggled here, it's being done in such a refreshing and entertaining way with this concept that is so unassailably cool that it could actually hook in new readers and make some new fans. Let's hope so, because I'd like this to go on for a long while.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, folks. You want good, space-faring fun with a huge cast of kooky characters and interpersonal intrigue? How's about readin' about robots?

There are also some side plots back at the Lost Light - Swerve has a bar now, which is perfect, and Tailgate's confusion about the war comes into full focus as Rodimus and Rewind finally take the time to educate the guy on what he missed - and it leads to the realization that Cyclonus might not be the best friend to have. Roberts writes his issues densely, with plenty going on, but also with a lot of detail and information to keep readers up on what's going on without drowning them in canon. Even folks with a passing interest in Transformers should check out Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye. It's a great series that makes everybody an engaging character, and #4 is no exception.

There are also some side plots back at the Lost Light - Swerve has a bar now, which is perfect, and Tailgate's confusion about the war comes into full focus as Rodimus and Rewind finally take the time to educate the guy on what he missed - and it leads to the realization that Cyclonus might not be the best friend to have. Roberts writes his issues densely, with plenty going on, but also with a lot of detail and information to keep readers up on what's going on without drowning them in canon. Even folks with a passing interest in Transformers should check out Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye. It's a great series that makes everybody an engaging character, and #4 is no exception.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye and its sister series Transformers: Robots in Disguise are the best TF comics ever. They're dense, they're deep, they're challenging and they're funny. What more do you want out of your comics?

Nick Roche handles the art for this issue, and his style is fantastic, and so amazingly similar to the equally talented Alex Milne, Roberts' usual artist, that it's almost indistinguishable - and that's a highly impressive feat. Both of them were born to draw Transformers, and I hope they stick with it for a good long while, because Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye is the best series this fandom has ever seen. There's just SO much to see and SO much going on at all times.

Seriously. Best Transformers comic series of all time.

Seriously, take the time and make the effort to get into Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye. It's priority is making the lore the most accessible it's been, without being afraid of actually using it. Plus, it's just really goddamned entertaining.

There is so much wonderful density in plot and character to digest with each new issue of Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, and #10 is no exception. Roberts and Milne have both found their calling, and they must never stop telling amazing stories in this world. THEY MUSTN'T. Because this continues to be the book that makes me the happiest every month.

This book is amazing. Give it a chance, won't you?

So MTMTE #13 is a fun romp that's not brainlessly so. James Roberts continues to give me the book I'm happiest to read each and every month, and I hope he never stops.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #15 is a powerful book. The entire series is a godsend to longtime Transformers fans who have hungered for substance. You never know what is coming with James Roberts, and that's part of what makes this book a must-read.

Thank you, James Roberts, for giving us Transformers fans something to point to that will best explain why we love this mythos so much " something that's not cheesy '1980s stuff or offensively obnoxious Michael Bay movies. For as much as Bay seems to worship the concept of 'balls,' he'd never have the stones to introduce this kind of sensitivity into the proceedings. Roberts outshines him by far.

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye is just good comics. Not good Transformers comics, but good comics. Long may it rule.

We also have to talk about Alex Milne, the artist who manages to inject an immense amount of detail into the designs of these mechanoids, and colorist Josh Burcham, who is somehow able to decipher abnormal robot body parts in all these intricate black and white panels to know what bits should be which colors. This art is busy, it's kinetic and it's just as dense as the writing, and in that vein, it sometimes takes a few reads to figure out exactly what's happening. IDW takes some heat for the artwork on a lot of their licensed titles, but they do not skimp on Transformers: MTMTE, and that's what helps make this book the best TF fiction ever made.

My usual refrain remains true. Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye is the best we've ever had it as TF fans. In fact, some of us realize that the history of TF fiction and fandom may mean that James Roberts is a better writer than we deserve, but we never want him to leave. No pressure.

I say it every month. Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye is the best fiction in the history of the franchise. It's everything I wanted when I was a kid " it takes these awesome concepts and characters, knows what is awesome about them, and makes them into something, well" more, much more than meets the eye.

While this issue doesn't have the sheer joy of Transformers greatness that MTMTE usually has, the Dark Cybertron story has potential, and when Roberts gets a hold of the old continuity elements, he remembers to explain them and deal with them as if they're new to the reader. I've read all of the stuff, and I still need a refresher on the plots gone by from time to time. Still looking forward to Shockwave's master plan " it can't simply be in service of an old crackpot despot like Nova Prime.

Dark Cybertron hasn't been perfect, but it seems to be putting to bed a lot of lingering old continuity threads from the previous regimes, and MTMTE #27 is a confirmation that the past will soon be the past and we'll be heading off into completely uncharted waters, which is fresh, new, and inspiring.

All-New X-Men #1 is an interesting start, and it has the potential to be absolutely fascinating if it doesn't get too schticky or smugly glib with self-satisfaction. That shoe may indeed drop, but for now, the first one's hit the ground running.

Here's hoping that Beasts of Burden can get its on ongoing series, as it would certainly be a refreshing change from capes, and a much more palatable form for dark stories to take than we usually get in comics.

I want to hate these books and be all indie-cred about it, but I can't when they're this compelling. These first two books have been really good stories on their own. As long as I keep up the mantra that this isn't a prequel, but an alternate universe where life didn't turn out quite so miserable, I can enjoy comics instead of knee-jerk hating them. With apologies to Mr. Moore, I'll just quote Abed Nadir from Community: "I guess I just like liking things."

And I really hope they eventually do something together that's NOT a Watchmen spinoff. I'd like to take the guilt out of this pleasure.

I really want Cooke and Conner to team up on something else. Something new and wholly theirs so I can stop having reservations and just love the hell out of it. As it stands, I still kinda love this.

It's the same refrain I've had with each issue - Conner's art is breathtakingly wonderful and Cooke's story is highly compelling despite the ludicrous criminal plot. Say what you will (and I have) about the need for the whole prequel project, but this Silk Spectre series gets into your heart and screws around with your emo-stuffs. Just like good comics should.

If Tony Bedard is going to have Bones as a recurring character, then Blue Beetle will make its way back to my pull list. The fact that Booster Gold appears at the end, possibly to establish a new Booster/Beetle partnership like what he used to have in the Old More-Than-52 with Kord, is a hint that maybe it'll find a way to tide me over until Bones' next appearance, too. I'd rather read Bones' own title, but that's not happening, so I'll be fine with this. I do have to say that the revelation that there's apparently a TMZ for the superhero set is a horrible and smart idea at the same time. Because of course there would be, even if we hate it for smearing people we like.

The potential for great dramatic storytelling here is unlimited, and the DCU can keep presenting Deadman for as long as Jenkins and Chang want to keep bringing him to us. If the TV series is half this good, we'll be okay, and it'll probably be better than Smallville.

Read Deadpool: The Gauntlet. It's cool comics in computer-face form. And it's buckets of funsies.

If you're looking for a good, fast-paced ongoing mystery with elements of action, noir and the supernatural, odds are you'll enjoy Dream Thief. It's pretty freakin' cool.

It's just… cool. That's the word I keep coming back to, and it's hard to really nail that on your first try like Nitz and Smallwood have. There's a fine line there - if you try too hard, you just come off as lame and stupid like Gambit. But if you manage to ride that line and keep it from becoming obnoxious and cloying, you make fans of your readers. Dream Thief has done that for me.

Here's hoping that Beasts of Burden can get its on ongoing series, as it would certainly be a refreshing change from capes, and a much more palatable form for dark stories to take than we usually get in comics.

It's in those tense, tragic moments of action where the true-to-life drama comes through, even amidst the backdrop of giant supervillains and Nazi robots. And that's why tie-in stories like this will always be better than the main event - at least until those events stop focusing on the slam-bang to the exclusion of all else.

This is how engrossing and emotionally engaging an event book should feel. Too bad it's relegated to a tie-in, but as long as it's here in some capacity, we can't dismiss Fear Itself entirely.

Artist Goran Parlov works well with Ennis' machismo, and the fact that Fury's one eye never seems to be open beyond a squint give him that Clint Eastwood swagger that works so well in stories like this. Marcus Johnson Fury is for the kids and casual fans, but the star of Fury: My War Gone By #2 is the Nick Fury for adults. Honestly, we like him that way.

Garth Ennis can tell a fucking story.

Pulido's artwork here is fantastic. Pop-art styling, funky layouts and even taking the time to illustrate Kate faces in her own dialogue boxes, which makes it feel like an indie-comic auteur's work, not the combined efforts of letterer VC's Clayton Cowles and colorist Matt Hollingsworth alongside Pulido. The artists that work on this book are mightily thorough and anything but workmanlike. I don't know what Hawkeye did to earn this treatment, but he's got it, and it works for him. And her. It works for all the Hawkguys.

Of course, next issue is bringing us Young Avenger Kate Bishop as a potential sidekick, so that might not stick as an idea. Then again, she's just a good archer, too. The lack of powers and lack of punisher-style gunplay could really make this a unique book. We'll just have to see how long this respectable restraint lasts.

The two of them are teaming up to intervene in some shenanigans involving the Ringmaster and a bunch of high-end criminals who are planning to rob other criminals by distracting them with a fancy circus act. While Fraction drops in some amusing bits (like a Daily Bugle headline that reads "EVERYTHING AWFUL Oh God Somebody Do Something"), the first time he's actually made me laugh out loud comes from Barton's perception of Ringmaster's appearance.

Fraction and Aja are just nailing it in this series, and it's a damn good time reading comics.

Anyway, this book has it all. Drama, pathos, yuks, bad romance, bad guys who always say 'bro.' What are you doing if you're not reading Hawkeye? Missing out, that's what.

Whether Burton or Bishop, Hawkeye continues to be one of the best titles Marvel cranks out. Fraction, Wu, Aja and Hollingsworth are a revolution.

I never had much interest in reading about Red Sonja before, but I do now. A writer you trust can work wonders with characters you once dismissed.

If you've ever been curious about Red Sonja, this is the series to read.

Red Team gets right into the meat of the vigilante fantasy wish fulfillment that permeates pop culture, but with an ominous tone that makes us remember that we need to be careful what we wish for.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Garth Ennis can tell a fuckin' story. This one isn't as soul-crushing as Fury: My War Gone By, but it sure as hell ain't a walk in the park, neither.

Science cults, man. There's a bit of that over in Archer & Armstrong this week, too, where brainiacs obsessed with destroying the universe and leaving a peaceful void form their own cult of nothingness and actually succeed " well, they think they do, anyway. A.I.M. may not be obessed with the absence of all that is, but given Forson's screed against greed, we can see they've got some kind of high-minded agenda and that they won't be bought off.

While we're very excited to see Marvel's first live action prime time television series since The Incredible Hulk ended in 1982, there are some things that comics can do that TV can't - and that includes stuffing each episode full of movie star superheroes. Secret Avengers is the place to be.

Thank you, Secret Avengers, for giving danger cred to my favorite diabolical nerd cult.

Secret Avengers is back on track. It makes me look forward to how this is going to spin into Spencer & Jonathan Hickman's Avengers World.

Secret Avengers is an intense book thick with intrigue, but which isn't afraid to spend some time having Taskmaster mock guys named Todd.

Especially since it's being replaced with this.

*The f-bomb is tastefully replaced with ampersands and dollar signs in the actual book. I just like profanity.

All in all, I'll gladly recommend The Private Eye to others, and big props to Vaughan and Martin for getting each issue formatted perfectly for your preferred reader - the CDisplay interface has never been easier, and it's a pleasure not to have to do the annoying little scroll-up-and-back you would have to do for standard digitally-scanned comic pages. Check it out, won't you?

The black and white art from Ekedal is pretty well done, managing to bring home the horrors of war without the striking colors of it. The eyes we look into in each panel are very real, and the level of detail in the backgrounds and each face is quite impressive. I don't know if it's made me smarter, but Think Tank is a pretty cool book, and well worth your time to check out.

It's a strong debut issue for Thor: God of Thunder, and the idea of a deity-focused serial killer is an interesting one. We'll see if Aaron can stay on track with this compelling set-up.

Butch Guice is also jumping ship, which sucks. His art has been the backbone of Winter Soldier. Nobody pencils noir like Guice. There is always a mood set within the panel, there’s always a sense of natural movement to the characters. Guice’s so good with character forms and faces that he easily draws specific emotional reactions out of the reader. Graced with an ability for action movement, plus the style and control to make each beautiful pencil count. His presence on Winter Soldier will be sorely missed.

It's a good read. It'll make a great trade paperback.

It's a good read. It'll make a great trade paperback.

We know Jonah Hex will be continuing on after the reboot, visiting Old Tyme Gotham City and all, but this story feels like a chapter near the end of the book. We'll have to wait and see what changes, if anything, in the story of this iconic and surly gunslinger. Let's hope it ain't much.

This 100-page extravaganza is a big, deliciously meaty feast of storytelling, just in time for Thanksgiving. Dig in.

Steve Epting's artwork is solid as always, too, as well as his inking team working to make things moody when they need to be, bright when they should be and touching when Ben Grimm gets his groove back. If you're a fan of the classics, you can't go wrong with hopping onto Fantastic Four #601. If you think you're too cool for that, enjoy your gooey murderfaced symbiote. We'll be over here havin' fun.

Everything's coming to fruition, and it's a big ballistic BA-BOOOOM of an impact when it does. This is the kind of fun you don't get in any other Marvel book, and chances are it'll read even better in trade form. It's not easy to jump right in, but try it anyway.

It's a touching but not trite story about love and family with moving moments from artist Steve Epting, plus it's a giant god-fight with Franklin Richards cutting loose with his mind-bending power. It's a very satisfying conclusion to a huge saga that's beyond the comic book norm, and those don't come along very often. Enjoy it while you can.

No wonder he's Aunt Petunia's favorite nephew.

Fantastic Four #607 is a very interesting set-up to what I hope is a revitalization of the Black Panther concepts, and thus maybe we can get a spinoff series restarted once again - hey, maybe that's even in the cards for Hickman's future plans once he leaves the FF proper. We can only hope. If anything merits Hickman's high-minded approach to storytelling, it's the legendary, ancient culture of Wakanda.

This book sits in your gut and makes you feel its drama. This are certainly not the old Avengers.

New Avengers #7 is highly charged for a what could be considered a "breather" issue full of talk, and Deodato's art is just fantastic. His Doom is perfect and T'Challa's barely contained anger towards Namor is palpable, as is the dark mood that pervades everything. This is the best Avengers book going right now - it's weighty and bleak, but really damn good.

That right there is some alien bastardry that you can't wait to see smacked down. Hickman has earned the trust that he will deliver that in a very satisfying, yet non-pandering way.

Hickman's writing remains enigmatic and learned, and what it lacks in entertaining dialogue it makes up for with aspiration and heady thought. Simone Bianchi does an admirable job of translating these ideas into a vacillating tone of hope bookeneded with despair. New Avengers is by no means a fun book, but it is darkly compelling, and it makes us fret about what the lasting impact of these soul-staining events will have on our iconic heroes.

Not that he needs to - Uncanny X-Force should sell itself by now, regardless of spoilage - and nobody's going to complain about AoA Nightcrawler being around. He was one of the cooler parts of the original crossover anyway. Yeah, it might be lame to trade the pious Kurt Wagner for the dickish Kurt Darkholme, but he'll need to be dickish to stick around with this team of cool jerks.

Uncanny X-Force is a damn good read.

Overall, Uncanny X-Force #25 seems to be celebrating the landmark issue by stripping things back down to basics, and shedding some cast members ostensibly to make room for new blood. Remender's corner of the Marvel Universe is still quality stuff, and hopefully he can build back up to something just as epic as The Dark Angel Saga.

Uncanny X-Force seems to be back in the right form. It's even making us feel sympathy for Apocalypse, considering he's in altruistic teenager form being ruthlessly mocked by the other students at Wolvie's school. The dark underbelly of the X-world is where it's at.

Uncanny X-Force #35 is a great final chapter in a truly epic (in the legit sense of the word, and not the everyday erosion of the meaning of the word now used to describe fails and socks) saga. Remender, much like Jonathan Hickman, is a guy who writes big and ends well. I'll miss this book, and I'm as surprised as anyone that we went out on a happy note.

Everybody in this issue is simply likeable, which is more than I can say for Justice League.

The Shade is a delightful book, even when it deals with crimes of a hideous nature. It has a vocabulary and is not afraid to use it, and that's to be commended. And yet, it deflates itself whenever there's any inclination toward pretentiousness. It's just good reading.

Overall, X-Club #1 is a fun book that should appeal strongly to those of us who love B-listers, and who will like to watch the pomposity of Marvel's Merry Mutants being satirized to their faces. Aspiring to be Warren Ellis is a noble goal.

So get X-Club #2, then go back and get X-Club #1, and then continue to buy the rest of this miniseries until they make it an ongoing. This, I command.

Nowhere Men #1 instantly clicked for me, and if you give this Image book a shot, maybe it'll do the same for you.

These first two issues have been so well-crafted and intriguing, though, that I doubt that somewhat-overused genre element is going to be a hinderance at all. We have no idea what happened to the people who made it through the warp gate, or to those left behind on the space station when things went kablooey. We have no idea what's going on with Ellis' coma, where the hell Walker is, or what ugliness Grimshaw has planned. All this did was give us a touchstone to hold onto while exploring some really captivating new ideas. Calling it now: Nowhere Men is going to be the Saga of 2013 - the book all your cool friends tell you you should be reading.

Nowhere Men is still something you can step up to on the ground floor. Get after it, folks. It's going to go to some interesting places, never you fear.

There's so much to see. So much to enjoy. So much to love about Spider Island. Thank you, Mr. Slott, for restoring our faith in the ability to tell epic stories without sacrificing character or charisma.

Slott continues to be a master of pacing and tension and fun and enjoyment. Read Amazing Spider-Man.

"This is our day, gentlemen. The day the Sinister Six reigns supreme." Something about that declaration is inspiring. Dr. Octavius referring to his compatriots - including a guy made out of sand, a guy wearing a fishbowl on his head and a guy in a rhinocerous outfit - as 'gentlemen' lends a quiet dignity to their collective madness, and the only way Amazing Spider-Man #683 could make me happier would be letting Mysterio kick a little more ass.

Amazing Spider-Man #684 is a great read all around, all the time. It's entertaining, it's high adventure, it's funny, it's smart and it's part of a series that's got everything you want out of comics - fun on every darn level.

As usual, Humberto Ramos and his highly-charged kinetic style might very well be contributing to just how breathless Slott's stories become, because his work is just so damn dynamic and energetic. Hell, in this issue, he even gives Slott a cameo. The Amazing Spider-Man #685 once again proves that it's possibly the most consistently and thoroughly enjoyable read that Marvel Comics puts out, and you're missing out on plenty of exciting adventures if you don't dig in.

I can't say enough good things about Dan Slott, and you've heard/read them all before anyway, so I'll just say he's still kickin' it with the densely packed and entertaining scripting, while Stefano Caselli's art is plenty great, too. Amazing Spider-Man #686 is good stuff, and anything that makes you actively root for Mysterio is welcome in my book.

Slott writes so densely, and so urgently that he tends to leave you a little breathless, and it's hard to imagine the goofy bits with Mysterio at the beginning are in the same issue as this grisly demise of a cult favorite character like Sable. It's possible he's got a plan to get her out of there, but since he's been building this story for years now, the last great plan of Doc Ock, it had to have a lasting effect somehow, since burning the world is apparently the Phoenix's job over in Avengers vs. X-Men. The art from Stefano Caselli is also top notch, bringing the kinetic energy of Humberto Ramos' work without the distended angles, so it may be a bit more palatable for mainstream appreciation.

Amazing Spider-Man #688, the next chapter in a stellar series of consistently great comic books. If you're not reading this book, I don't know what your problem is.

Slott's reputation is that of a light-hearted storyteller, and there's been a lot of that in Amazing Spider-Man that's kept it so much fun for so long. However, he's not afraid to get into the macabre, either, and that's on full display in Amazing Spider-Man #689. It's still got the dense, entertaining writing that so characterizes him, but the wide range of themes and tones Slott can ace really makes us believe that Spider-Man is in the best hands possible, movie or no movie. The comic book has always been where it's at, anyway.

All in all, Amazing Spider-Man #692 pretty cool anniversary issue - we get some pathos, some comedy, and a big, thick ol' mess that Spidey's gotten himself into and will have a hard time extracting himself from. It's what Spidey's all about. Let's hope those Marvel NOW goons don't decide to yank Slott from Spidey for the sake of a stunt.

Amazing Spider-Man #693 is interesting even while being off-putting, and Slott's walking a very tight rope with keeping it that way while featuring a character as annoying as Maguire. Let's hope he keeps it going with Part 3 next time out, because we REALLY want to see this brat learn a lesson or twelve.

The art from Giuseppe Camuncoli is much more realistic than the kinetic, angular work of Humberto Ramos, but it's still solid stuff, bringing the energy when needed. The players in the game here - two different Hobgoblins, the Bugle, the Labs, Stone, Kingpin, Madame Web - are all leading up to something interesting, and Slott, and Gage, for that matter, are the kinds of writers we can believe when they say they've got things cooking that will knock our socks off.

As a swan song to 50 years of Amazing Spider-Man, #700 does delve into a lot of what makes Peter Parker tick, what makes Spidey Spidey, and proves that strong core character is powerful enough to reform a supervillain once they truly understand it. I can't say this issue knocked my socks off, due to all the unanswered questions and my very real concern that an Otto/MJ skeeve-fest is in the offing, but it is a bold effort, a daring move and it will all probalby turn out just fine in the end. It's not a grand finale. It's just a new story arc. Let's roll with it.

There's something about groups of sorta bad guys trying to be sort of good that's just appealing - evidenced by the fact that Thunderbolts, Secret Six and Avengers Academy are often in my pull file, and I've just binged through John Ostrander's original Suicide Squad run. The intrigue of never knowing who to trust keeps things taut and involving, and with Parker being Parker, you generally have no cause to worry it'll change for the worse, no matter what the House of Ideas higher-ups throw his way.

Best time to be a Transformers fan. Provided you only read comics and buy toys and don't bother with those loud movies.

Long live IDW's Transformers universe. This stuff is great, and again, not just 'great for Transformers.' These are great comics, period.

So something out there in the strange natural phenomena of Cybertron is forcing groups of mechs to become gestalts? Will the same thing happen to Ironhide and the Dinobots (since Grimlock is over in MTMTE and unavailable to make it a pure Dino-thing)? It's hard to say right now, but Barber's doing a really good job at setting up mysteries and intrigue, and that's why we love it.

MTMTE tends to be the more entertaining book, possibly because it has the luxury of focusing on a raucous group of vagabond adventurers on a quest throughout the galaxy, and thus has the freedom to be funnier. RID has the heavier weight of being analogous to real-world sociopolitical problems in tense, fragile societies in the Middle East. Sure, it's about giant robots, but treating them like real people has been key to the success of these two IDW books, and while RID might not be as flashy, it's still a really great factor in the evolution of this franchise beyond just toys and shooting.

The next issue promises to be even more explosive than this one, capping off the big first-year arc of Transformers: RID with GIANT ROBOT FIGHTS. Well, Transformers are already giant robots, but Devastator and Superion are gestalts, meaning EVEN GIANTER ROBOT FIGHTS! Also, everything's going to come to a head, the future of Cybertron will be forever affected, and more characters are probably gonna die. Hoo-boy.

IDW's licensed properties tend to be a little hinky when it comes to the art, but not the Transformers books. Andrew Griffith does a fantastic job rendering these giant mechs, and I hope he and TF: More Than Meets The Eye's Alex Milne never stop. If MTMTE didn't exist, Transformers: RID would be the best Transformers comic of all time. As it stands, these two books together make fans of legit, non-Bay Transformers pleased as freakin' punch. They've raised the bar, and here's hoping they both keep going at this level ad infinitum.

Dark Cybertron has been a bit of a mixed bag so far, but Chapter 9 in Transformers: Robots in Disguise #26 is where things get seriously epic. Multiple writers and artists have made for a good but not always fluid read, but now we've got Andrew Griffith back in the saddle, and he's one of the few guys who I've often said was born to draw Transformers. Also, it's got a city punching another city many times.

When Batwoman is on, it's really damn good. Batwoman #0 is one of those times.

Batwoman #1 has helped me do a complete 180 on this character. Where once I thought she was just another cheap knockoff, now I see the truth. This book is going to be stellar.

It's already a pretty hefty web of intrigue being woven here, and with art this beautiful and ideas this intriguing, we have to cross our fingers and hope that enough people are noticing, and this is going to be one of the New 52 that lasts a long, long time. The only quibble is this 'look, Kate, you're the only person in the world with this ashen-alabaster skin, and Batwoman has it, too, along with the same shade of shock red hair.' Which is likely just an artistic choice to make her stand out to the reader, but still, it has a feeling of Nightwing, where if you're trying to kill Dick Grayson and fail, then a minute later, a guy with the same exact build and look in a domino mask comes after you - he's not Dick's protector, he's Dick. But hey, comic books. That's the stuff you take with salt grains.

There's no way anybody has any idea where this story is going besides Williams and Blackman themselves, but it's an involving and breathtaking ride to wherever they're taking us.

The main thing to take away from this is, while we'll certainly miss the treat for the eyes that Williams' art is, Reeder is certainly no slouch, and she does a great job of maintaining the mood and tone that has been established with this series. Thus, Batwoman is still good stuff.

Batwoman feels like it's back in the saddle again - not that it was ever really off. It still feels like a breath of fresh air for the series, though, and come on - Batwoman and Wonder Woman. That's gonna be a cool team-up no matter how you slice it.

Batwoman #13 shows Willians and Blackman back in top form, and it's a refreshing change of pace from most superhero fare.

Batwoman is one of the biggest reasons to buy comics at all, with it being an overall feast for the eyes. But one of the best things going in the medium is hampered a bit by the digital format. The best comics work best as actual hard-copy comics. Could it succeed in a digital form? If designed differently, perhaps... but then it wouldn't quite be Batwoman.

Maybe now, Batwoman will get to punch Owlman in the face at the end of Forever Evil, but I'm not sure her greater involvement in the New 52 at large is worth the loss of Williams & Blackman. If nothing else, though, hopefully Director Bones of the DEO will step up to the plate in a big way, too. It's hard not to root for a cigar-chomping guy with invisible flesh to show up more often.

This is just a good, fun adventure in classically-styled crimefighting. Bring on the mystery.

And Mystery Men is just a damn cool book. Give us more.

This is a good series. Enjoyable, entertaining, flush with potential and quite simply cool. Marvel had better make absolutely certain there is a future iteration of this team.

Also of note is what Gage does in "After School Special," aka the AA letters page. In it, he prints a long and relatively even-tempered letter from a Kentuckian objecting to AA #23 and Striker's coming out, believing that "alternate lifestyles" should not be portrayed in a comic aimed at teens because he feels it to be a political issue rather than a human issue. Gage then writes an equally long and even-tempered rebuttal explaining why he's so very, very wrong. Let's do this kind of thing more often, world. I'm looking at you, 24-hour news channels.

Gage's writing is completely engaging, as usual, and we like all of these people. The art from Karl Moline is also pretty sharp, doing a very good job at juggling this huge cast of characters and managing all their expressions deftly. Avengers Academy is one of the best things Marvel has going for it right now, and the fact that they can publish stories like this that completely undercut their blockbuster endeavors without fear speaks well of them. There's room for all kinds here - and there's no better illustration of that than Avengers Academy, where all kinds mingle free and relatively easily.

Avengers Academy #29 is a great way to tie in with the AvX event without selling out to it. This book is all about characters we like, and if Gage can do with the X-Kids what he does with the AA crew, I may have to start looking into those X-books, too.

There's just always so much going on with Avengers Academy that it's one of the first books you want to read when a new issue is in your stack, and AA #30 is no exception. It's just compelling character drama, the kind that can make an iffy "event" good.

And as usual, the acidic Hazmat has the best summation of the crux of the problem:

WIth Avengers vs. X-Men taking an interesting turn, Avengers Academy #32 takes a step back from lightly satirizing the entire concept and brings us a small-scale personal conflict that certainly serves to illustrate the much larger issue about the Phoenix Five being the absolute arbiters of right and wrong for the entire world. Gage has proven wonderful at this sort of thing, and as always, we look forward to the next issue.

This is a great book. I recommend it to everybody.

Read Avengers Academy while it lasts. It is great.

But overall, Avengers Academy #38 is just a blast, because it's all about characters bouncing off each other, and we comic fans love that stuff - to the point where it's slightly dangerous that we connect with these fictional people like they were our real friends, which makes us that much more upset when their book gets canceled. But Gage is such a class act that he even makes us feel better about it in the letters page - he's heartbroken that the book's going away, but he's happy to see these characters have caught on well enough that other writers want to take them on.

Avengers #12 is a very welcome chance to take a step back and process what's been going on so far in this book, and the lasting changes to Marvel's Earth it seems to have brought about. It stimulates the brainmeats without bogging us down with stoic unfamiliarity. Plus, with Hickman bringing in not only Garokk but the High Evolutionary, two essential components of that classic X-Men annual from yesteryear, dare we hope that he has plans to bring forth the forgotten son of Colossus in some fashion? Or maybe Terminus, who may seem more in line with big ideas in general? I'm surely planning to stay tuned to find out.

Avengers #18 somehow accomplishes the feat of amplifying the threat level the team is up against while simultaneously letting us breathe a little bit by seeing them get proactive and take the fight to the jerks, even if it doesn't go so well for them. It's only the first issue post-Infinity #1. We didn't expect them to win.

That... could have repercussions down the line. And I'm on board to find out what they might be.

Here's where Simone shines - dealing with twisted people. The shinola is hitting the fan, business has picked up, and when the Joker's involved, the stakes are always at their highest and we never know how things are going to shake out. That's going to make every book Death of the Family touches something you need to read. Batgirl #14 is no exception.

Overall, Batgirl #19 is a very strong return with a flourish for Simone, and we're glad to have her back. Perhaps we hadn't appreciated her prior run as much as we should have, but now we've seen how bad it can get, and we'll trust her instincts going forward.

We're past the time when I felt I was reading Batgirl more out of loyalty to Simone than I was out of genuine enjoyment of the book. Batgirl #23 has confirmed that all (or maybe just most) bets are off, and we don't know how far into the rabbit hole we're going to go.

Much has been made of Waid's lightening up of Daredevil after the years of needing a stiff drink to cope with reading each miserably dark issue, but DD #16 shows he's not afraid of those depths, either. Samnee and Javier Rodriguez continues the generally brighter look to the series, with clean lines and crisp coloring even when dealing with pitch blackness. They just continue to craft involving stories in this book, and it's well worth all the Eisners it won.

Just like we can probably trust Dan Slott to find interesting things to do with Superior Spider-Man, we can trust Mark Waid to deal with The Big C with the appropriate grace and sensitivity to realism.

ber trades on historical realities for its fiction, although Gillen freely admits that he's certain hardened World War II experts would catch things he's missed or messed up. He also stresses that he's not Garth Ennis, whose knowledge of war minutiae is legendary. Gillen's focusing more on the conflict between humanity and the atrocities they are capable of perpetrating " what that does to a person, and the struggle to keep one's soul in the savage madness of it all. He's right about this not being a book to "enjoy." But it's certainly a book worth reading.

Gillen's story remains heavy, and this installment is particularly tense, and he also continues to seemingly apologize for writing any of this in the afterword, reaffirming his desire to find a way to tell a World War II story ethically. White's art remains dark and unflinching " not perfect, but he certainly goes for broke at crucial moments, like showing us the way to kill Panzermensches is putting a bullet in their eyes. ber continues to impress, while giving the reader an ugly, unsettled feeling in our guts, reminding us that despite all the hay made from it in fiction everywhere, war remains hell.

Infinity #1 isn't something that knocks us out with its first issue, because Hickman isn't that kind of writer. Hickman is a builder himself, and he's letting us see all the threads he's weaving first. Infinity is not a front-loaded book like most event books tend to be. Instead, Hickman is likely orchestrating it so, for once, the last issue of an event series is the one that knocks us out.

The stakes are very high in Infinity, as is the body count so far. We often complain about character death used as a shock tactic to try to make event books seem more important, but our faith in Hickman is strong enough that if he goes that way and kills someone we actually know, this story is thick enough with intrigue and legitimately-crafted cosmic menace that it will feel earned instead of forced.

Light broke through Hickman's heavy darkness in Infinity #4, and a whole new world of Inhumanity has opened up. Enemies are broken but not beaten. Anything remains possible, but for now, the dead are being Avenged.

And that brings another 'perhaps' to mind as to why I haven't fully accepted Saga - perhaps it's just that I'm more interested in the ancillary characters than I am in the main protagonists, Marko and Alana. They're cool enough to like, but not quite enough to love. At least not yet. Vaughan has earned all the time I'm going to give him to try and change that.

You shouldn't have that issue. Therefore, if you pick up Saga, you'll probably love it like everybody else does. I'm sure I'll get there eventually. I mean, it's about a goat-guy and a fairy-lady and a ghost babysitter flying a rocket-tree through space and evading TV-headed royal robots and spidery-lady mercenaries who make sex tapes with their merc lovers. And giants with crusty ballsacks. What's not to like, really?

Brian K. Vaughan has certainly given Saga legs, balancing the tense threatening bad guy jerk-attack issues with familial drama such as what's going on in Saga #8, working with a limitless galaxy of possibilities with this story. Literally anything can happen, and that's a lot of the charm. I do like having no idea what to expect on each page. I was not expecting a seahorse-guy, that's for sure. But he evens out the crazy with easily identifiable character work, examining longstanding ancestral hatreds and just how hard it can be to open a mind up to a better way.

The complexity of this story keeps us guessing, as we never know what we're going to see out of Saga. Fiona Staples will draw anything Vaughan concocts, and she'll go all out doing it.

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples once again create a great new layer on this story, crafting strong dramatic tension and leaving us with a cliffhanger that won't be resolved for a few months, as the book will be going on a short hiatus. Hell of a way to leave us hangin', though. Prince Robot having a TV for a head is the reason I stuck with the series long enough to learn to love it, as it inexplicably took me a while to settle in, but I'm on board now, as well we all should be.

Vaughan's compelling cast of characters are back in good form, and Saga's return is a welcome one. Sure, it was only a few months, but hey, I missed it and I'm glad it's back.

Superior Spider-Man has been some of my favorite Spidey business in ages. I can't wait to see how it all comes to a head.

By the by, the art from Ryan Stegman is odd, because it doesn't seem like the stuff he was doing in Scarlet Spider. Instead, it feels like he's trying to ape Humberto Ramos. That does make for some decent continuity with the old book, but Stegman should really just be Stegman. I mean, Stegman is good.

Perhaps if the people very put out by this whole story arc can start reading here, bypassing all the ick, they might be hooked enough to check in for the long haul. Perhaps.

Overall, I'm firmly on board with Superior Spider-Man now that the whole creepy vibe has dissipated. I'm really looking forward to Otto taking on big-time Spider-villains.

Slott's story is kind of fascinaSlott's story is kind of fascinating. As much as I miss standard Spidey shenanigans, this is a compelling and unsettling look into the mind of a villain who is doing something villains never do " live the lives of the heroes they hate most.

Superior Spider-Man #11 is exciting, tense and, given Jameson's deeply personal stake, somewhat emotional - and this is just the beginning of the arc.

In the meantime, we get this weird, bizarro-but-brilliant version of Spider-Man that may not technically be superior, but is highly engrossing nonetheless. Also, Giuseppe Camuncoli's Lizard looks amazingly weirdo scaly.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say this book is actually superior to the ol' Amazing Spider-Man, but it's relentlessly fascinating entertainment. Our familiarity with the characters has been turned on its ear, or maybe dropped on its head, and there's a sense that all bets are off, and we have no idea where this is going (beyond, of course, the likely return of Peter Parker in time with the movie sequel next year). Imagine what happens if the Goblin turns out to be Harry Osborn again, and Spider-Man straight-up kills him without hesitation, because Ock couldn't care less about Peter's friendship. Or maybe this will turn out to be Gabriel O'Hara, the Goblin 2099, and that's why Spider-Man 2099 is going to come into town thanks to the Age of Ultron effect.

This is good stuff. I have every confience that it will continue to be good stuff to the point of being great stuff.

Aside from that nitpick, Spidey Now! vs. Spidey Later! is hitting all my fanboy buttons right now.  I can't wait to see how this all plays out.

Giuseppe Camuncoli's art is solid as usual, and Slott continues to make this book goddamned fascinating, constantly reordering and redefining Spider-Man's universe - or 'undoing the web,' as Jessica Carpenter puts it - by shifting the man at the center of it to his absolute archenemy. Make no mistake, the Green Goblin has been displaced as Spider-Man's worst foe. Dr. Octopus has now earned that honor in spades. The debate will rage that the death of Gwen Stacy tops anything Otto has done so far, but Otto has killed Spider-Man himself, taken over his body and destroyed nearly all his relationships, and it's more than likely that somebody close to Peter is going to die before the dust settles. There's nothing the new Goblin Kingpin of Crime can do to best Doc Ock in this competition.

Superior Spider-Man is the most consistently enjoyable superhero book Marvel's putting out. Two times a month, every month, always a blast. God bless Dan Slott.

Yeah, this whole aspect of Superior Spider-Man is the one thing that I have to willfully suspend some disbelief to go along with - but it's not that hard, because the rest of the book has been so entertaining. Things are getting ugly right now, though, as the friends and family of Peter Parker are throwing down the gauntlet, and Otto doesn't ever take that well. Humberto Ramos is going hogwild, as his exaggerated, hyperkinetic art style is perfect for tentacled goo-monsters like Venom. It's hard to gauge the full impact of this issue until we see what Slott and Gage are building to, but I'm optimistic. With the Green Goblin mucking with Hobgoblin's business, Venom rampaging and the Avengers stepping back in, we seem to be leading to a gigantic clusterfudge of epic proportions, and it's time to brace ourselves for more controversy from the Spider-squad. I'm ready for it.

Superior Spider-Man may be telegraphing its end, but if you can read it without plugging into the comic book publicity machines, you'll enjoy it even more as it speeds headlong towards its undoubtedly loud, crazy, and messy finale.

*Oh, and the letters page reveals that a new Spider-Man 2099 series is likely in the works for later this year! Hot damn! Dare we dream that Peter David returns to write the character he created two decades ago?

Slott’s run on Spider-Man has not only been iconic, it has redefined how we look at the character. This is on the same level of greatness as Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns. It’s just that damn important.

Superior Spider-Man has been a highly compelling work, but its time runs short, so cherish what we have left.

See you soon, Otto. Somewhere. And the lessons you've learned here will make you very interesting whenever you resurface.

The Red Hulk wakes up at the end of the issue, and we're promised that Omegex action that had to be put off for Fear Itself, but after this issue, there's no way MODOK can stay on the back burner for very long, and being a complete mark for the big brain, I may be biased, but I'm on board for the long haul.

We don't know. But Zero/One is a fascinating creation, and Parker can be trusted to keep her fascinating and off the beaten supervillain path.

There's just so much going on in this series, from cosmic heroics to small interpersonal drama all with the fate of the world on the line in both subtle and thunderingly obvious ways. It's all compelling, involving, stressful and tense at the same time. It helps to be a Hulk nerd, I suppose, to really appreciate getting this deep into the life of Thunderbolt Ross, but for a Hulk book, Parker's definitely not afraid to stray away from the smashing. That's where the most interesting stuff happens anyway. Let's hope it stays that way.

I do really like this book. It can get a little dry at times, but Red Hulk #50 isn't that at all - it's got a lot of good character stuff and it's great for the Hulk nerd in all of us to see a guy with complete control of his alter ego because he's got no warring personality traits - he's all focus, he's all mission, and he's pretty damn badass. So jump on with Red Hulk #50 - it's a different sort of book, and it'll give you a good Hulk to distract you from the questionable stuff Jason Aaron is doing with The Incredible Hulk.

Overall, it's going to take some effort to get up to speed with FF. It's intellectual and only very subtly emotional. But if you're tired of the same-old same-old, this should be worth that effort for you.

We won't know until Fantastic Four #604. But we do know that Franklin Richards is a really good-hearted kid, and his character has been developed enough to know that we really care about what happens to this little guy. That, in itself, is an accomplishment, considering he was once completely untouchable.

We love these guys, too, Mr. Hickman, and we tend to forget that in the greater hype that surrounds the movie stars and event books, but we have to thank you for reminding us why these people are Marvel's First Family, and why this can be considered the World's Greatest Comic Magazine. Or at least one of them. The beauty of this FF #23 reminds us that, in this post-modern age of bitter cynicism and detached irony, the happy ending is now a daring choice - and one that's more than welcome.

There is actually some foreshadowing of the impending return of the Savage Hulk in Pak's Heart of the Monster swan song, as the Green Goliath is repeatedly refusing to let Bruce Banner out, despite Amadeus Cho pleading for him to get some help in figuring out how to end this wishing-well malarkey. For the most part, though, this is just packed to the gills with chaos, carnage and calamity, and it seems to be exactly what the Hulk needed after watching his ex-wife run off with one of his archenemies.

CRAVE ONLINE RATING: 8/10

So Pak's run comes to an end with the next issue. Will it turn out that Betty's wish was to separate Bruce Banner from the Hulk, and that's what will set up Jason Aaron and Marc Silvestri's run starting with the new Incredible Hulk #1? Sounds like a plan, but with how crazy unpredictable Pak's swan song has been, it's better not to venture a guess at all.

On behalf of Hulk fans everywhere, we salute you, Mr. Pak, and you'll be missed.

Everyone's always said that Static Shock was cool, and thanks to the New 52, I finally know why. This book is energetic, upbeat, snazzy and engaging so far, and here's hoping it keeps up in the future. Take advantage of the new #1s and hop on board this one, if you like good-time comics fun.

It was a tall order, trying to get people to give a damn about Legion, but Spurrier's done an admirable job with X-Men Legacy #1. The art from Tan Eng Huat is decent as well, if a bit jagged in its expressiveness, and the colors from Jose Villarrubia also really help to differentiate the weird world in David's mind from reality. It's certainly worth checking out to see if you can get into it.

This is one of those books that's likely going to need a lot of support to keep going. Sure, it's got X-Men in the title, but its central character is a really weird one, and we as comic fans tend to like weird characters well enough to enjoy their existence, but we tend not to gravitate toward their books, sadly. Let David Haller be one of the ones to defy that rule.

X-Men Legacy #7 is fun times, folks. Hop aboard this weird-ass space coaster. You get a tale of a young dude trying to find his place in the world mixed with the inner-mind story of a man trying to carve a path to sanity, or at least stability.

X-Men Legacy might be my favorite X-book going right now, and it's set up a fascinating set of circumstances that I've got no clue how Spuirrier plans to resolve. The writing is entertaining, interesting and provocative, and the art might finally be on its way to catching up with it.

So X-Men Legacy #15 is interesting and solid, but my head's still spinning about all the tension build-up swerving into a few nice moments and a sudden bang to end it all. It's left us a bit unhinged. Just like David. And if there's anybody I wouldn't mind seeing him going after, it's the smug thing that was once Cyclops.

But there's still time to catch it while he's doing amazing things with David Freakin' Haller, of all people. X-Men Legacy ain't over yet, and the conclusion promises to be richly entertaining.

It's good reading, and highly recommended. So long, David Haller.

We tend to like these kinds of stories that start with 'the heroes have lost and lost hard, and this is how they figure out how to win again.' We didn't particularly enjoy it in Dark Reign, which dominated everything and went on for an interminably long time, but in its own self-contained, quickly-released book like Age of Ultron, it's much more palatable and much more interesting. This is the first event book in quite some time that I've actually enjoyed.

Web comics are not the fringe things they once were, and the internet provides a great opportunity to get your work out there while cutting out red tape and middlemen. Bird & Brar are doing just that with Al'Rashad: City of Myths, and it's very much worth your time and it's quite accessible, to boot. As they explain in their very short "About" section: "What you need to know before reading: this is a comic about a fantasy world. Everything else you can figure out."

Astro City is a nice place to visit. It's good to see the gates are open once again.

If you want some Avengers fun without the complications, look no further. And start with Avengers Assemble #9.

So, sure, I've crammed a Captain Marvel review into this Avenging Spider-Man #10 review. They're so closely intertwined, though, that it feels natural, and they're both in support of Carol Danvers as the new Cap, which feels so cool that it should've been done a long time ago. The AvSM two-part tale has been a lot of breezy fun with a nice emotional twist at the end. It's good comics.

The result so far is that I'm interested. I can't say I'm excited yet, but I'm interested. Let's see what trick is pulled in Superior Spider-Man #1.

I can't believe I care about Kaine. Yost is a miracle-worker. And Avenging Spider-Man should be an interesting ride for as long as he's in control of it.

Overall, Spider-Man's books right now are a one-two punch of twisted goodness. My reservations at the start about this whole Freaky Friday switch have been put to bed, and I'm really fascinated with learning how it's going to turn out.

Avenging Spider-Man may not get to define what happens in the ongoing saga of Superior Spider-Man, but it is giving us a very intriguing picture of the everyday functioning of Otto Octavius in the world of superheroes to which he is not accustomed and ill-suited. While I will enjoy it when Peter Parker comes back eventually, we know he'll have the lions share of all Spider-Man stories in perpetuity, give or take a clone or two, so I'm content to watch this unique look at a different kind of wall-crawler for as long as it continues to unfold. It's disconcerting to read a Spider-Man who hates all the good guys and is a completely arrogant ass, but it's pretty entertaining, too.

By the end of Avenging Spider-Man #21, we're somehow rooting for Evil Spider-Man to get one over on the good guys, and Yost managing that is a remarkable feat. Go team Spider-Man.

… man, it's really hard to stop doing that. But then again, why should I? You just don't get this kind of rollicking frolicking in comics anymore, so it's a gas when you get a book wherein the last panel of the story involves the Dynamic Duo staring out at the reader, with Robin simply exclaiming "Gosh!" over the congratulations offered him for his fine work. Parker is nailing the dialogue and making us chuckle, chortle and cherish the madcap magic of Batman '66.

Anyway, aside from that and the awful incorporation of the mass murder of young girls stacked in a basement in the continued SVUing of popular culture, Batman: Earth One is a solid read, if a dark and ugly one, with interesting canonical tweaks and the potential for more to arise - with D.A. Harvey Dent and new Mayor Jessica Dent ripe for some new stories. But it's Gary Frank who makes it all work.

Anyway, aside from that and the awful incorporation of the mass murder of young girls stacked in a basement in the continued SVUing of popular culture, Batman: Earth One is a solid read, if a dark and ugly one, with interesting canonical tweaks and the potential for more to arise - with D.A. Harvey Dent and new Mayor Jessica Dent ripe for some new stories. But it's Gary Frank who makes it all work.

But it still has to be the Watchmen of an alternate reality to be acceptable. This entire project would likely have been a little better received if they'd conceived it as such, rather than a straight prequel. It would have served the purpose of exploiting these characters without directly trying to change the original story. Sure, Alan Moore still would've thought it sucked, but fans could likely swallow it much more easily.

The visceral response to Bloodshot #1 might be what hooks you into the new Valiant. I think it's enough to make me stick with all the books for the near term.

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Acker & Blacker (Bigger & Blackerer?) get points for actually trying to quantify this whole issue canonically, which was really probably just one of Way's writing-style affectations rather than any big plan to have the extra voice in Wade's head mean something. However, they seem to see Wade as more of a surly bastard rather than his trademark wack-a-doodle before the merger, although that might just be to differentiate him from Madcap a bit more, and to make their moody conclusion more resonant. Still, it's a cute, twisted little story that befits an Annual, and they've got good gags " like Thor accidentally killing people and hurriedly claiming "They died warrior's deaths!" " and the art from Evan "Doc" Shaner is suitably balanced between comic booky and cartoony.

Here's a swell chance to jump on board the Wade Train once again if you'd checked out for a while. Let the Good Time Charlies roll!

It's also worth noting that the appearance of this Butler character, who has apparently been randomly harvesting Deadpool's organs for who knows how long, might be a sign of some of that compelling drama coming back as well. Regardless, they were able to make me laugh at a guy getting sacked, which you'd think is the lowest form of humor. But no! It works on so many levels!

I do like the psychological drama that comes out here, there's something definitely creepy about Butler, and Declan Shalvey's artwork is pretty kinetic and interesting - never a dull moment with this guy. My hopes for a Deadpool revival - a complete one - are ever rising. I'm actually interested in his story and not just waiting around for the next gag. This crew seems to know what's up.

The end of this big arc gives us a new lease on Deadpool going forward, and he's actually in the good graces of both Wolverine and Captain America, who have borne witness to his emotional breakdown and can both recognize his potential as a legit good guy. Whether or not he'll manage to follow that path is anyone's guess, but with Duggan & Posehn at the helm (and editor Jordan D. White apparently protecting the best parts of Wade's history, according to the letters page), it feels good to be able to call myself a Deadpool fan again with confidence. It's inspired me to want to re-read their entire run from the beginning - including killing all those zombie presidents.

Sure, these are gimmick issues, but Deadpool comics should always be a place where gimmicks can feel right at home. Is there more to come? Will we get a Golden Age issue where Deadpool punches Hitler? We can only hope these folks have more madcap hijinks up their sleeves.

Mike Hawthorne seems to be having a fun time with the art, which serves the story well. His work is very bright and crisp, and sometimes he gets to draw three Deadpools in painter uniforms smacking each other around like the Three Stooges, or Preston as the Virgin Mary to Wade's sombrero-sporting Baby Jesus. Working on a Deadpool book has to got to be a dream job for the artist, and if it ain't, it should be.

The resolution of the Agent Preston In Wade's Head should come next issue (as evidenced by the great Watchmen reference on the final page), and after that, the whole Gauntlet business is going to jump to the print book, because Deadpool's getting married to Shiklah in issue #27, and that's gonna make for some seriously madcap hijinks. Seriously madcap! Wait, no, not Madcap, that was the annual. Just lower-case madcap.

Yes, I know, when has that stopped us before? Touché. How's about we let it stop us here, just this once?

Extermination #1 has me on board for the long haul, with absolutely no reservations. It's going to be messed up and dark, but it'll be amusingly so, and black comedy is wonderful when done right.

What started as a neat concept - what if a superhero and his archenemy were alone in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and had to work together to survive scary monsters - has become a more detailed subversion of the entire superhero genre, while seeming to celebrate some of the more ludicrous conventions at the same time.

Hop on board the Extermination train, which certainly doesn't sound like something anybody should recommend to anybody, but trust me. It's a fun ride.

Extermination is a very cool book full of action, malarkey and subversive undermining of the whole superhero genre, while at the same time celebrating how fun it can be. Go get it!

The Fraction FF era is so far off to a really cool start. It's a great time to hop on board what is surely a great space-time coaster.

Fraction's having fun, and this time, unlike his Defenders, it's fun we can all enjoy.

Matt Fraction is doing entertaining work here " I particularly enjoyed Blarrgh The Unliving " and he's also working with old continuity and keeping it real, which I respect. Putting She-Hulk back in what might be the most real relationship of her life is a nice way to avoid the usual temptation writers have to just play around with her penchant for promiscuity (not that there's anything wrong with promiscuity in general, as long as it's done responsibly). Fraction is having a lot of good old-fashioned yet new-fangled fun in the FF universe. Let's hope he keeps it up.

Of the two FF books, it certainly seems like Fraction has a clearer vision of what to do with this series than the main Four. It's a wild and woolly cast of weirdos, and I really like it that way, dummy! YANCY STREET.

Harvest is a dark, twisted and interesting tale. A volatile mix of life, death, drugs and powerful people doing very bad things.

Lieberman is constructing a pretty involving story, keeping the kid-angst to an effective minimum and making us come around to liking Dane after the first issue painted him as such a walking catastrophe. It's redemption in progress, and the art from Colin Lorimer is greatly suited to it, with its very subtle colors within a mostly black-and-white look. It's a dark book both in subject matter and moody aesthetic, but Harvest is certainly a story worth your time to check out, should that pique your interest.

Overall, Inhumanity is interesting, it does what it needs to do to catch new readers up to speed, and it has me hooked to see what unfolds, and the first issue has prepared me to accept that the classic version of the Inhumans as created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee back in 1965 is probably gone for good. Now, your pizza guy could be an Inhuman, and oh, what a great point-of-view character he'd make for an Inhumans movie"

Loki: Agent of Asgard promises to be a very fun book, one where we root for a classic villain determined to recast himself in a different life and shed the trappings of the big horns. You can bet this will also be a blueprint for a future Tom Hiddleston solo film franchise, too.

Manning has made his hay in the short story realm, with books like Nightmare World made up entirely of 8-page stories, each with different artists and of vastly different tones, but given the fact that he had through-lines connecting all of those stories to a greater whole, he proved that you don't have to sacrifice the long arc to keep with self-contained short stories. He has an impressively economical way of getting into your gut and finding buttons to press to get your attention and twist your feelings around. Love Stories (To Die For) is the perfect vehicle for his brand of writing. I'm very much looking forward to more of it.

Yeah, that's probably too much to ask. But don't doubt that Atwell could carry that film if it wasn't. Agent Carter is a fun treat which could lead the way for some female-led Marvel films (Captain Marvel seems a popular choice) and, if nothing else, it gives its title character the send-off she deserves. My only concern is that I'd hate to think that Marvel might've blown their Bradley Whitford wad, and now he won't be able to somehow make it into a future Marvel movie as somebody like Henry Peter Gyrich or The Master of the World or something.

There's nothing inherently cheesy about the world of Eternia - it's a great blend of science and sorcery, a really colorfully interesting fantasy realm. If DC can manage to actually make a Masters of the Universe ongoing series that puts He-Man himself as far in the background as possible, we might just have a really good book on our hands. Even Fisto is cooler than He-Man. Keep that guy off-panel. Make his disappearance a back-burner mystery that Duncan, Mekaneck and Buzz Off occasionally give lip-service to as they struggle in the war against Skeletor's army and Hordak's legions. Masters of the Universe #1 is a great start - let's we can get more like this.

The art from Lan Medina is pretty great, dynamic and cool, and the script is compelling less because of Carnage and more because I can't wait to see how Flash and Kaine deal with each other. They don't cross paths until the last page here, and the story will continue in their individual titles. It's a crossover that makes sense, even if it's a smidge forced. Minimum Carnage Alpha is a good set-up for what's to come - which I hope involves the two new spider-dudes on the scene killing Kasady dead.

Scott Wegener's art also helps Atomic Robo pop, with its bright, clean look that has a hint of a Mike Mignola style, but none of the broody shading - in fact, the only real darkness comes when it just makes for a cool image, like Robo's big blue eyes glowing through the black. It's the kind of art I enjoyed so much that I was frustrated with how long it took me to get my brain in the right place to like the book. But eventually, I did, and if you're into slam-bang action with a lot of pizazz, Atomic Robo Volume 1 won't steer you wrong. Plus, there's a lot more Robo where that came from, which I'll be seeking out tomorrow when I make my Wednesday comic run. I've heard Volume 2 kicks it up a notch!

Planetoid #1 is worth checking out, and chances are The Slab is going to kick things up a notch when we get to see that place.

Rocket Girl is a very fun, energetic ride, about a girl who's perfectly happy with jumping back in time, setting up shop, and fighting crime with her jetpack while rolling her eyes at adults trying to figure her out. Montclare and Reeder don't seem to be in any rush to slow things down with an origin story. Instead, they've jumped right into the fun and said "let's just watch a teenage girl who means business chump the world for a while, shall we?"

Rocket Girl is kind of a blast.

Shadowman #1 is another solid entry in the Valiant Comics superherouniverse. Go team!

Six-Gun Gorilla promises to kick it up a notch next issue, now that the title character has made his showy entrance by blowing some heads clean off. You might want to get in while the gettin's good.

Stokely's artwork is cartoony, but once you settle into it, it serves the story very well, because it's highly emotive and extremely detailed. Six-Gun Gorilla is the kind of book that will read best when collected, so don't hesitate to pick up the trade when you can and follow Blue's metafictional quest to accept his pain and save his universe from a life of desperately grasping for emotional engagement through rubbernecking at the suffering of others. It's a book that has defied expectations, truly provoked thought, and maybe helped a person or two not be so frozen by potentially negative outcomes that they never actually attempt anything that would qualify as living a life.

Starlight #1 is a great start to the Millarworld universe. Let's hope it lives up to the promise.

Storm Dogs is cool. I'm on board to see where this adventure takes me.

The concepts are cool and intriguing, the art is fairly snazzy and DnA do know how to work in large-scale interstellar settings. The Hypernaturals #1 is far more approachable than any Legion of Super-Heroes book I've ever read, and it already seems to have an undercurrent of compelling drama that tends to be lacking from LSH (at least what little I've read in my attempts to get into it). These heroes aren't quite shiny and happy, but they're aspiring to it, as far as we know now. Definitely worth a look.

While it's a bit dry at times, that's pretty much what you'd have to expect from a tale set in the stuffy old London of this era. It helps set the mood and tone required for this story - it wouldn't be quite right if it wasn't so austere. However, it likely won't remain so for very long, once the class warfare kicks into gear and we start to get more of the history of the societal structure. The New Deadwardians is certainly worthy of your attention, should you choose to investigate further.

Culbard's art is very clean even when its depicting fllth, and it's refreshing compared to so much of the muddy art we see in a lot of these stories dealing with darkness and creature mystery. Abnett's made us like and respect Suttle despite his prim standoffishness, and set up this post-zombie society in an interesting fashion. The New Deadwardians is an interesting read if you'd like a less obnoxious take on the classic undead tropes, so check it out while it lasts.

The New Deadwardians is a good series, with bright and clean art from I.N.J. Culbard, even if his heads seem misshapen a lot of the time. There's still something enjoyable about it. Worth a look, for sure.

Thankfully, we're not losing the original cast of characters we all know and love, as their spirit world adventure looks as though it'll unfold right alongside Janine & Co.'s amusing attempts to fill their shoes. If that remains the case, The New Ghostbusters #1 just added another layer of fun to these paranormal investigators, and gave them some welcome gender diversity, too. Plus, Venkman in space. Sort of.

Now that's a series waiting to be spun off. Even if it feels a little cheesy, these are still compelling characters we like and hope to read more about. Let's also hope JMS and Weston can team up for that, too, and keep it on a tighter schedule. Now that The Twelve is done, it remains a cool, interesting series playing with Marvel's Golden Age, and let's hope that it can somehow live on and forge some connection with David Liss' Mystery Men, too.

The Victories is a five issue minieseries. Whethar it's going to focus on a different "Victory" each issue, or follow the story between Faustus and the Jackal, I don't know. But it starts off pretty darn solid, and certainly very gruesome and rough-edged. If that's your thing, so might The Victories be.

Overall, though, Transformers: Dark Cybertron has been an interesting epic, full of dark twists, new surprises and hope for the future. The franchise is in great hands. At least as far as comics go. The movies… yeesh.

Go read Who Is Jake Ellis? first, because Where Is Jake Ellis? drops you right in the middle of things and doesn't really bring you up to speed. Once you do, though, you'll be glad you did, because it's just a very cool read with a good sense of pacing that never really drops into anything trite.

Overall, Wild Blue Yonder #1 is entertaining and quite forgivably derivative, and it sets an interesting stage for what promises to be some quality adventure storytelling,

And yet, even the jokes here are pretty good - particularly Aunt Petunia's Favorite Nephew Benjamin J. Grimm aka The Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing fighting Sunspot and not knowing who he is, then asking "you still got the guy with the giant maggots around?" That's just fun. So why is Aaron's Hulk so bad? I couldn't tell you. Just be glad that Wolverine and the X-Men is good right now.

The panel after the screening was pretty much a love fest, and although they basically said we have to wait until Comic-Con in San Diego to learn what their slate of films is for 2014, they did suggest that they were working on an Aquaman film - although it wasn't quite clear whether or not they were joking. We also heard that Bruce Timm is taking a hiatus from DC animation work to create some original material, and that we'll likely see The Riddler show up somewhere before 2015.  So you've got that to watch out for, too.

GREEN LANTERN #17

Anyway, it's not the Secret Avengers you knew thus far, which were pretty cool and who we'll miss, but if you can handle the tonal shift towards high adventure, you're gonna like Warren Ellis' take on the team.

I'm certainly a fan of Remender and I look forward to his run, but I'm also really enjoying the compact and decidedly badass stories Ellis is giving us with his quick run. Great for new readers to hop on, too.

Remender always brings us interesting stories, though, and he does have an eye for canon as well, so it will bear keying into Secret Avengers #27 and beyond to see how this shakes out and eventually leads Carol to become the new Captain Marvel.

Overall, Remender's one of my go-to scribes in the House of Ideas these days, and while I'm sad he's leaving Venom, Secret Avengers promises to keep up the good work.

Remender always serves up intricate plots with a darkness pervading them - making one wonder if he'll have to lighten things up a little in his upcoming Uncanny Avengers - and his stories are often compelling journeys through the murkiness of moral quandaries. Matteo Scalera's art in this issue leaves some to be desired, feeling rushed in spots while excelling in others. But Secret Avengers is just cool, and promises to get cooler the more it trucks in supervillain society.

In the meantime, let's just be glad that she's fine. And she's Wanda.

Avengers: The Children's Crusade has been one of those series you wish for. Putting right what once went wrong. It's been said that it was designed to end at the same time as X-Men: Schism and Fear Itself, which should be next month. So hopefully we won't have to wait nearly as long for #8 and #9 to give us this full story, so we can find out just what the future of the Scarlet Witch will be. As it stands now, though, some of us are just glad that she actually has a future to wonder about.

CRAVE ONLINE RATING: 7.9/10

Now let's just hope some of the creators involved with Avengers vs. X-Men have read this series and respect its tone and message about what they're about to do before plucking out its characters and plugging them into their fight card. If it feels just as contrived as it sounds, those of us who read Avengers: The Children's Crusade are going to have that much more difficult a time swallowing it. However, considering the pre-sale numbers are going through the roof for AvX, they likely don't care all that much.

They're in charge of a small crew on a ship with limited resources, sailing waters that have gone from charted to uncharted very recently. In its maiden voyage, The Massive is shaping up to be a very tense ongoing story, full of desolation, mystery and danger. There are no zombies or anything supernatural involved at all, but given the tone and post-civilization setting, one could make an argument for calling this The Sailing Dead.

Despite it all, the crew of the Kapital still have purpose. They still have goals. They still want to make the world a better place. And more of The Massive would do just that for those of us in this particular reality.

The Massive has been one of my favorite books of the year - one that I look forward to each month. It's just really damn engrossing.

So The Massive #15 is a confusing issue, with a sort of anticlimactic 'uh, okay?' ending to a tense story surrounding runaway nukes. I can't rightly say whether or not this is a stumble or just another building block for Wood's world. Garry Brown's artwork is decent, and Jordie Bellaire's colors really help him excel with environments and backgrounds, moods and tones, even if faces aren't always the best. Still, this has been such a solid book so far that it gets the benefit of the doubt.

The Massive is a book that will likely read better when collected, although one imagines you can say that about any comic book series ever. But in this case, it's a lot about tone and mood, and disrupting that on a monthly basis can have a deleterious effect. But when the trades come, check it out.

As much as I dread what Winick sounds like he's doing with Catwoman, I highly anticipate him doing great things with Batwing. The setting is a breath of fresh air, but it's got enough familiarity working for it to make it easier to get into. Now, it's just up to the world to support it, and it damn well better be ready for a successful book set in Africa. It's about damn time.

Batwing is good reading. So read it.

Batwing is still good stuff. One hopes it doesn't fall by the wayside due to lack of attention.

All in all, if we have to Americanize Batwing in order to keep it around, I suppose I can swallow this. Palmiotti said at Wondercon that the new Batwing was going to be much more international and not confined to one region. While I'll lament the loss of the African focus, an intercontinental effort may still be pretty worthwhile. I think J&J can make that happen.

Overall, The Superior Foes of Spider-Man #1 kicks a new, fun series off to a bent-in-the-head sort of start. Given Spencer's talent for intrigue and skullduggery, this could pan out into something stellar.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man is perhaps a bad name for this book, making it seem like a cheap tie-in to the Superior Spider-Man gravy train and maybe mandating that it can't go any longer than that does without some kind of new nomenclature, but the book itself is a nice look into the everyday lives of the colorful criminals of Marvel's New York. We tend to love these guys as concepts, but Spencer is showing us who they are as people… and even though they're fun to watch, they're not all that likable.

Spencer's dialogue is very entertaining, and it's obvious he enjoys juggling hair-brained schemes and criminal shenanigans like this. It's always a good time when great writers take obscure characters and just have a ball with them in ways that make sense. Plus, Steve Lieber's artwork is a lot of fun, imaginatively detailed and very much in the David Aja Hawkeye vein, which gives this book a very contemporary and snazzy feel. You just feel like you're reading something cool when you open up Superior Foes of Spider-Man, so you should do that. Read it. Keep it going. Because small-time supervillains in a world of big-time superheroes is always an engaging juxtaposition. It's fun, it's funny, and it looks great. What more do you need out of a comic book?

Superior Foes of Spider-Man is going to need a new name soon, once Superior Spider-Man gives up the ghost. Maybe they'll become the Amazing Foes of Spider-Man. The Spectacular Foes... the U-Foes, no, wait, that's taken. Okay, I'm taking suggestions, but also suggesting that you should be reading this book if you like morally ambiguous good-time comics.

Stegman's art is also pretty stellar, and manages to make Kaine look like Peter Parker just enough to invoke the spectre of great power and great responsibility, especially while he's looking in the mirror and regretting his evil past. With Stegman knocking the art out of the park and Yost refreshing old concepts and distilling them to their coolest forms, Scarlet Spider is a series to check out - chances are the best is yet to come.

That's why this series works. It's entertainment with a fresh edge.

Yost has kept Scarlet Spider consistently entertaining in its completely reckless anti-heroic action. Artist Khoi Pham isn't quite original SS artist Ryan Stegman, but he's not too shabby when it comes to expressive faces. If you're not on board with this series yet, get there. The impending crossover with Venom will most likely be a wild festival of what not to do when you're trying to be a superhero.

I love that there's a foul-mouthed Spidey. I love that there's a Spidey who'll empty a gun into bad guys if there's a gun handy - and in Houston, there's always a gun handy. I love that there's a Spidey who is looking for every chance he can take to avoid a hard slog toward doing the right thing, and looking for boundaries for that stupid sense of responsibility he hates - whatever lines he can possibly draw so it doesn't extend to every damn situation that comes up. It feels different, fresh and it's really damn entertaining.

Scarlet Spider has been a very good book about a morally-compromised character trying to fight the good fight anyway. Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that Dan Slott wanted a piece of that action in the flagship book. However, we can't help but feel Superior Spider-Man is biting off too much of Scarlet Spider's niche. Hopefully, they can make it different enough that one won't doom the other.

Anyway, Scarlet Spider is a neat series, and it's not afraid to get dark - and it does so without being simply for the sake of darkness. You should read it.

Scarlet Spider doesn't get a lot of attention " the current massive Otto Octavius stunt draws the focus, and it's well-deserved " but it's a cool little book, separate from everything else and making a go of doing its own thing, much like Flash Thompson was doing as Venom in Philadelphia. Sadly, it's all coming to an end for Kaine with issue #25, canceled right alongside Venom. We'll miss both of these books.

The Movement #1 is instantly fascinating, and with a trusted voice like Simone at the helm, there's little chance it will squander its potential. I look forward to seeing just how broken these characters are when we really get into their heads. It's hard to drop a new book with a cast of all new characters and get us interested in investing in them from the get-go, but Simone's got the moxie to pull it off. To some, I imagine it may come off as heavy-handed, but what is any superhero book if not a heavy hand smacking down the jerks du jour? It's not going to remain as simple as it may seem on the surface " of that, I'm quite sure.

The art from Freddie Williams II is pretty solid, if also a little murky here and there. Strong where it needs to be. It might take some time and some doing, but there's enough to like about The Movement that we can bear with it during its growing pains.

Overall, The Movement is certainly moving along fast. It has likable characters and a backdrop of chaotic civil unrest that feels painfully relevant. It may not have quite hit its stride yet, but the foundation is solid. The groundwork is there. The future is promising.

So Ennis and Campbell have hooked me for their first story arc, and in my experience with Ennis, that usually means he'll hook me for a few more.

The Shadow is a series that may be better read in trade form, but it's only four issues in - you shouldn't have a hard time hunting down the previous three, and I would recommend that you do.

The Shadow #5. It's Ennis writing tales of bloody comeuppance. That's always worth a read.

All in all, this is a series I'll be sticking with, if Remender can keep from resorting to busting out the slobber-monster every other issue, as the slobber-monster is the least compelling aspect of the current situation. And slobber monsters just feel outdated in comics anyway. Keep the damn tongue in your mouth and tell some good Flash Thompson stories. That's the guy I want to know more about.

As we head towards Spider Island, in which Venom is supposed to figure rather significantly, it's looking as though we can bet on Dan Slott handling the high-adventure side of the event, while Remender shows us the disgusting and horrifying side of life with everybody in Manhattan getting crazy spider-like abilities. It seems like a good balance... and we'll need the one to cope with the other.

I never thought I'd be this interested in the life of Flash Thompson, and I also never thought I'd care that much about a symbiote, but here we are. The improbable is still possible, and Venom is just a really cool book you should all check out.

Venom #13.3 crystallizes this arc and makes it finally feel like more than just a weird diversion. The art from Julian Tedesco and the colors from Dommo Sanchez Amara really work well together with really creepy demonic imagery and the fiery discomfort of the netherworld. My only problem is Mephisto actually saying that something is "made of awesome and win." I am not ready for that to be actual dialog from a metaphysical demon. Maybe in 20 years, it'll be the norm, but I can't accept that outside of internet memes yet. Stop that.

This whole arc seemed like a diversion at first, but really picked up intensity and is now this really dark, ugly chapter in the dark, ugly histories of all of these pseudo-heroes.

It's a really cool issue to read, progressing the plot to a fevered pitch, and the art from Lan Medina is pretty snazzy in its madness. Venom remains one of the cooler books out there, about a fascinating train wreck of a hero.

Thanks for a great run, sir, and for perhaps the best chapter in the history of symbiote stories.

Venom #38 isn't bad. Just kind of rote.

Shit's going down in the Mignolaverse. Hellboy's dead (he's still dead, right?) and most of the B.P.R.D.is down and out. And I'm back on board to find out what's next.

Yeah. This book is going to be fun. Wild, crazy fun. Miéville's ideas are golden from the get-go, and we can only imagine how much zanier they're going to be as the series wears on. The art from Mateus Santolouco has a great dark and freaky vibe to it, with some imaginative layout work and an energetic madness to its style. Dial H #1 is definitely weird fiction of the most palatable kind. Strap in, and let's see where this head trip takes us.

If you like the weird stuff like MODOK and the Bi-Beast, you'll probably enjoy the heck out of Dial H.

It's hard to believe something as inherently perplexing as Dial H exists within DC's New 52, but it does, and you should buy it so it will continue to exist there. It may be an acquired taste, but it's well worth the effort so far.

Dial H is a really nutty book that will likely read better when collected in trade form, but I love that I never have any idea what to expect from it.

We never have any idea where this book is going, and it will likely read better if you read collections to get whole story arcs at once. But Dial H is certainly worth your time to experience - and I'm looking forward to seeing if this has any actual effect on Flash comics.

It's just fun, which is what the Fantastic Four should be.

Overall, though, there's a lot crackin' over here in Thunderbolts, and we can only hope the hammer nonsense wraps up soon and these creators can get back to their real stories.

As far as bad guy teams bordering on goodness go, Thunderbolts isn't quite Secret Six for me, but it's not trying to be either. It's still a lot of fun and surprises that'll keep you guessing as to who's going to lean which way each month, and you can't ask for more out of a book than that.

Hopefully, the actual Thunderbolts won't be lost for long, and the Dark Avengers stint will bring in some new eyes who will then be schooled in compelling moral ambiguity that doesn't need 'Dark' tacked onto it like this was 1993 or something. In the meantime, Thunderbolts #174 is a great send-off to the Fixer, a character who absolutely encapsulates that ambiguity and goes out chock full of it.

According to editor Andy Schmidt, the Chaos storyline is hoping to iron out some continuity kinks from all the stops and starts this series has had, but things don't bode well for that when Beachcomber appears alive and well after being nearly lobotomized and deemed nearly unsalvageable by Soundwave's meddling back during the Spotlight: Blaster issue. So let's hope Costa can iron out his own scripting kinks and Chaos will be something as epic as they want it to be.

And it'd be a hell of a climax for Chaos. Lets hope Roberts gets to run wild on his way to that point. If that's where he's going.

Come on, man. Megatron vs. Galvatron. Both with power levels amped to insane levels. This is gonna be fun.

Overall, it's a really good beginning - one that can probably be ascribed to an author adapting her own work to a different medium, knowing how to get the essentials out there to keep readers hooked. Alabaster: Wolves is a five issue series, likely adapting each one of the short stories in the original book. Hopefully, they hang well together as one full tale, and even if they don't, well, Dancy's had her one chance, and she certainly didn't let us down.

Overall, it's a solid next effort and I'll certainly be reading the rest of this five-issue miniseries. Dancy is a compelling mix of down-home earnestness, savage ferocity and sullen misery, and we still aren't entirely sure what her angle is. Ostensibly, she's a monster-slayer out to protect reg'lar folk, but is she mistaking a demon for an angel in her holy quest, or is there other stuff going on here? Hopefully, we'll find out soon. There's plenty of promise that it'll be a cool revelation when we do.

The interactions between heroes are so much more interesting than the big events these days, and important little character pieces like this are what carry us through when we get bogged down by hazy plotting. Guys like Gillen can help us make sense of it all.

It's disappointing that Gillen is managing to make me an X-Men fan just in time to see him stop writing X-Men. Let's hope the Marvel NOW X-books can rise to Gillen's game here.

Great little story here, with the potential to turn into a great big story - which seems to be the case with Infinite Comics these days, considering that Deadpool: The Gauntlet (another series you should be reading) is introducing someone Wade Wilson is going to marry. Daredevil: Road Warrior is surely be setting up some things that will come to fruition in the West Coast Daredevil adventures, and you'll want to get on board now - because Infinite Comics are cool, Mark Waid is a good writer, and Daredevil is always a great read.

Then again, we've been led to believe all this time that Wade was going to get hitched to Shiklah, but then a mysterious vampire lady with an umbrella obscuring her face shows up to wrangle the vampire hobos, and it brings to mind the big Issue #27 wedding photo and the obscured face of Wade's bride, so there could be a bridal shell game happening here. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it. Deadpool: The Gauntlet has been a fun ride either way, and of course it takes a succubus to find Wade attractive!

Layman may have hooked me onto another Bat-book with Detective Comics #15. Maybe the more I read of him, the more likely I'll be to take another crack at Chew.

Overall, it's an interesting effort from Layman, and certainly a respectable one, but I'm not sure how much confidence I have in Detective Comics going forward.

Manifest Destiny #1 promises to be some really solid storytelling, focusing on a time when the world was still a mystery to those who thought themselves above it, and a world which too often valued the pioneer spirit above basic human decency.

Manifest Destiny so far has been about as pleasant a diversion as a book full of gruesome unpleasantries can be. Time will tell it if unfolds into something more than that. The potential is surely there.

It's a good start for Talon, although that costume on the cover is highly suspect. It's dangerously close to being one of those '90s headwrap things I hate so much, but funky cool goggles help balance that out. The jury's still out on that, but it's obviously designed to show us that owls don't always have to be creepy.

It's not the most exciting issue, but it's cool, and this is certainly a solid foundation for what's to come. I'm just not sure I like the design of the Talon costume. Maybe it'll just take some getting used to, but I'm a vocal opponent of the '90s headwrap, and this is dangerously close.

The Answer #1 has me hooked for the next few. And it's more fun if you imagine Exclamation Point Man's punches make the same sound that exclamations points used to make on The Electric Company.

The story is fast-paced and oddball, the dialogue is amusing and engaging, the mysteries are plentiful and the art is kinetic and very expressive. The superhero stuff is fun, but it's secondary to the mess Devin's getting herself in with full cognizance of it's messiness. I enjoy how quick on the uptake she is, and I also dig how far out there the Answer seems to be. It isn't THAT far, really, but he just comports himself with a casual weirdness that makes us really wonder what the heck the deal is.

It's the Gage story that makes this issue a great read, though. He loves these characters as much as we do, and he likes to use lots of them at the same time. The more, the merrier, I say.

Astonishing X-Men #50 is a pleasant enough set-up for the big deal next month, even if it's nothing crazy exciting. Get on board, perhaps you'll enjoy the ride.

The much-ballyhooed gay wedding goes off without a hitch. Karma at least waits until after the reception has started before doing... something gross to Ol' Woofie. Having tuned in to check out the hype machine, I'm not sure if I'll continue reading this title now that the big event has happened. It's a good enough book, but aside from being the host series for a social landmark, these last two issues haven't really jazzed me, which may just be a purely aesthetic response on my part. Your mileage may vary, of course. It's a place to get something you don't really get in most other superhero comics. If you dig it, keep on digging it.

It's not Rick Remender's book by any means, but this hearkens back to the origins of X-Force with the big freaky-eyed tactician doing mysterious things and people just glomming into him as he goes about taking care of business. I'm looking forward to finding out the Colossus angle before I offer any final judgment on Cable and X-Force, and in the interim, I hope to hear some entertaining science-bickering between Forge and Nemesis.

Overall, this is a decently entertaining book that seems to be approaching a stride. I'm looking forward to the next insane adventure, and to the fate of Piotr Nikolievitch Rasputin, considering the drastic step he takes at the end of Cable and X-Force #5.

Regardless, thanks to Hopeless and Bunn for maturing Colossus once again after he was torn down to nothingness. Cable and X-Force remains an entertaining read.

It's fun. It's cool. Soy's art, again, is very hit or miss - sometimes cool, sometimes excessively murky - but it's a good time to be had here with Captain Marvel. I'm stickin' with it.

Maybe it's just a matter of growing accustomed to different art styles, but I found Captain Marvel #11 to be a pretty enjoyable issue. The characters are engaging, the interplay is fun, and whereas I never really had much stock in Ms. Marvel, I find myself actually caring about Captain Marvel. As in, I'm worried about her getting evicted. When I start to get emotionally attached to characters, you've done your job.

After another touching scene between intrepid Kit and the intrepid Carol at the end of the issue, the new Ms. Marvel, aka Kamala Khan, is briefly seen in Jersey City, and we get a hint of her shapeshifty powers when she looks partially steroidal. We'll get plenty more on her in the near future when she gets her own book, and it's up to us to make sure the perception that comic fans are hostile to women is put to bed forever. I'm planning to give each of these female-led books at least three issues before I decide whether or not I'm on board for the long haul, and I hope you'll do the same.

Still, Young Avengers #1 is fun for the most part, and it should get better once it finds its footing. It's just unfortunate that the first issue in the new era isn't really any kind of knockout.

Young Avengers is a pretty fun and funky book so far, even when it threatens to get a little too hip for its own room. Then again, it's a tough call sometimes to tell the difference between something seeming a bit "clever" and my own responses tending towards the jaded and disdainful. Despite that occasional question, this series is good stuff.

Seriously, if you can pull off a line like "the laws of physics can kiss my ass" and make us believe it, we don't need much more out of our comic book heroines. Young Avengers isn't mind-blowing or anything, but it's always right on that cusp of being a total blast.

*bias against Hal Jordan freely admitted. He's just the most boring GL of all time. Yes, I'm including Ch'p.

If you'd told me last year that the Kyle Rayner book would be my favorite Green Lantern title, I'd have scoffed. But here we are. Green Lantern: New Guardians #6 - stuff's actually happening, and it's bright and shiny and the most interesting ringslingin' goin' these days.

So far, it's a reasonably good start for the new creative crew handling the Emerald Knights. They're getting back to they're actual damn jobs, they're realizing Hal Jordan is impossible to love, and they're dealing with the fallout of some catastrophic storytelling, even if it's becoming even moreso. Green Lantern: New Guardians #9 is all right by me.

Mighty Avengers is a really fun book, and you should read it if you like awesome super-hero action.

Overall, though, Mighty Avengers is jam packed with entertaining superhero action. Read it, support it, and make sure that nobody can make the dumb argument that non-white characters can't sell a book.

So check into Mighty Avengers, because it's a damn good time featuring a nice mix of very popular characters and folks you don't often see - including a Blue Marvel team-up with Hauptmann Deutschland, The Captain America of Germany. That happens in Mighty Avengers #4. You know you want to see that.

Al Ewing keeps things crackling with dialogue and well-thought-out storytelling, while Valerio Schiti gives us a very impressive look at just how capable White Tiger is as she tears through Power Man, Iron Fist, Luke Cage and She-Hulk with an almost stunning ease and a certainly kinetic look. Mighty Avengers continues to be the place to go for the more traditional, banter-filled, character-based superhero team action while Jonathan Hickman's main Avengers book deal with really heavy world-ending plots. It's a great, fun book and it's worth your time.

CRAVE ONLINE RATING: 7.9/10

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents ain't that lovable, either, but it's a damn sight better. Too bad it's only a 6-issue limited series.

Green Lantern Corps is a great launching pad for the kind of GL adventures you actually want to read about. Why is there such a clusterfuck on Earth? Space is a massive place, and a lot more time should be dedicated dealing with stuff out there. It's refreshing to see these cool Green Lanterns realize that and go about their business without whining about bills. And although Gardner seems like a more chill guy, he's not without some obnoxious behavior, so Tomasi should have plenty to work with, as it can't be too long before his two leads are butting their hard heads against each other.

The "Wrath of the First Lantern" storyline hasn't been the best, but I enjoyed the deep look into the mind and new origins of John Stewart in Green Lantern Corps #18. I'm hoping he'll remain somewhat relevant in the outcome of it all, but it's looking as though All Things Defer To Hal Jordan's Infallible Greatness will be how this all plays out. Yawn.

As of now, it looks like Green Lantern Corps is the book you'll want to check out if you want to read about actual Green Lantern business rather than all the internal bickering and spectrum slapfights. It's not bad.

Just a little, though, and if we give them the benefit of that doubt, "Lights Out" is a unique and interesting challenge for the Green Lanterns to face, with every element of their mythos being systematically destroyed. Oa is gone. Their Central Battery is gone. Every use of their power kills their environment and hastens the end of all life, and their leader is a bull-headed jackass who sucks and is bad and is dumb. How do they adapt? Do they adapt at all? I can't wait to find out.

AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #12

Overall, A Voice in the Dark blends the killing of people with the coming of age and the slicing of life. The first issue sets up the players in what's sure to be an unsettling game. It's taking its time unfolding, with a mild undercurrent of tension that's sure to ratchet up quickly as we watch a person who wants to kill people dealing with a caller who wants to kill herself, which is where the first issue leaves us. It could become something very compelling once it gets its legs.

So how's Gambit? Well, he's certainly not offensive yet. Having Logan run him down like a dumb child helps deflate some of that lame LeBeau "mystique." and making it seem like he's stumbling into something way out of his league also negates that 'too cool for school' malarkey that made him so unappealing. So Peter David and his talent for interesting character work may actually be able to do the unthinkable - make me like a book that stars Gambit. That is some of the highest praise I can offer.

Archer & Armstrong #2 is fun stuff. Nothing super-hilarious, but I am duly entertained. I must clarify that I haven't read the original Valiant Comics, and a reader did point out last time out that this seemed like a rehash of stuff better told in the previous incarnation. I can't speak to that, but I'd be interested in hearing what other old Valiant readers might have to say about it. As a newbie, though, it's a good time.

Jae Lee is back on art duties, so the rejoicing never ends. This is magical stuff, really unique and exciting. Lee has touches of Norman Rockwell and Alex Toth, but never loses his original eye. Dealing with dark subject matter, Lee brings a texture of nightmares to his panels. Things are foreboding, especially with Batman and Huntress, and Superman becomes elemental, almost primal. Nobody works in the way Jae Lee does, which is something you can’t often say about comic book artists.

In essence, Batman: Death By Design feels like the movie serial era of Batman, complete with the old-school Bat-computer with knobs and gauges and the like, and as such, it's really pretty cool that way. Kidd's script does explore some interesting architectural ideas and ramifications while drawing inspiration from reality, but the star of the show is Dave Taylor, as well he should be. The classically styled visuals, the slick look of Exacto, and the very inventive designs bringing Gotham City itself to life will definitely be a treat for your eyes.

Black Widow #1 is a solid start. Let's hope they can find a way to give a supporting cast to a woman who makes a point of supporting herself and no one else.

BlackAcre #1 is a solid start. It remains to be seen if it'll manage to balance the gritty action with interesting social commentary, or if it'll become more of a standard common vs. wealth struggle. It's worth checking out.

BlackAcre has the potential to be a very interesting examination of the dichotomy between the haves and have-nots. Or it could just be the standard kind of post-civilization turf-war fare, but given the opening of the first issue in the re-civilized future, I'm guessing Bordreau is going somewhere specific with all of this, and I'm on board to find out just where that might be.

BlackAcre is an engaging series from Image worth checking out, even if it's a little hard to take a character named Kellogg seriously as a power player. All it does is make you want Frosted Flakes.

So... yeah, time travel confusion, and Walsh's art works well, even though it feels like the same style that's in every third book these days. It's cool enough to warrent a look, though. I'll be getting #2.

Iffy nomenclature or not, it's a volatile mix of questionable personalities - and that's what makes Thunderbolts comics so much fun to read. This one is no exception - especially with the tagline at the end saying "Next: DEATHDEATHDEATHDEATH." Something tells me 'Toxie Doxie's going to run out of moxie.