This Week's Pulls

The Amazing Spider Man #547

Grimm Fairy Tales : Return to Wonderland #5

Friday the Thirteenth : Bad Land #1 0f 2

JLA #17

The Messiah Complex parts 9-12

Superman #672

Suicide Squad #5 of 8

Star Trek TNG : Intelligence Gathering #1

If you aren’t reading Spidey right now you need to start. He’s been one of those titles that I’ve been skipping over for years now, mabey grabbing this months copy at the supermarket if it looks good but not following very consistently. The “One More Day” arc changed all of that. Now that we are into the follow up “Brand New Day”, I can’t get enough. It’s actually a GOOD thing they are publishing this weekly right now because I’d go nuts if they weren’t. Marvel hasn’t put everything right from Civil War yet, but they have taken Spidey in an interesting direction and I have no complaints so far. Waiting to see what’s going to happen with Harry Osborne alone is killing me. Here’s hoping they don’t go shark jumping.

Grimm Fairy Tales is a pass. I keep hoping this series will pull itself together and become more than a T and A title. Reminds me a lot of Image when it began. Once in a while they have a good take on a classic fairy story, but it’s all just buried amongst these poor women who are going to end up with back problems in the near future.

Now can someone explain to me why Wild Storm keeps putting out Friday the 13^th stories but not Nightmare on Elm Street ones?? I mean, I’m enjoying adding to my horror collection, but I’d really rather seem more Freddy than Jason. At least there’s Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash this month (I need to track down last months too). Pass on this. It’s a quick 2 parter, and if you are a fan of Jason you might like it, but the writer is trying to parallel another story here, Jason’s actions mirroring a jealous indian husband of a hundred years ago. It’s perhaps a little to high concept for the subject matter, and it’s not treated well.

This Month’s JLA is actually a nice read. The title has never been all that good since the relaunch. There seems to be little action and even less story about the JLA itself. This issue though, this is the best issue of Suicide Squad I have read in a long time…oh wait; this is JLA…

Seriously, why is the Squad better written in JLA than it is in it’s own title? Especially when John Ostrander (the creator and original writer of SS) is back on it? That aside, this is really more of a set up issue (I hope. I thought that about the last issue and it turned out to be just a wasted filler space). I think this can springboard us into a really good story arc. It’s already made me want to go hunt down Salvation Run. One suggestion guys, can we PLEASE see more of the big three? I lost interest in JLA before the reboot because it was not longer about Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but rather it was the Green Arrow show guest starring Hawkman and Black Canary. The whole point of Grant Morrisons’s JLA was to change it back from being a group of second stringers to being the powerhouses of the DCU. Since the reboot I’ve still mostly been seeing second stringers featured.

Still that IS a great picture of Black Lightning on the cover.

I’m not going to list off all the X-Men titles involved in the Messiah complex, since they all seem to mesh together anyhow. I’m using the covers that are on sale at the Grocery Store (where I buy most of my comics) and I think these move the chapters along nicely.

I came into this story late, but it’s not hard to figure out what’s going on. Cable is done well in this along with surprising and strong characterization on Gambit. We’re near the end of this arc so if you haven’t been already following, you may want to wait and pick up the trade paperback (you KNOW this storyline is going to get collected).

Superman is another one of those titles I occasionally pick up at the market. It’s been so uneven across all the titles that I can’t bear to read it often. This looks like a decent story. The action is good and the art is spectacular. I’m not going to announce a turning point yet, but I’ll stick around for the next issue.

Suicide Squad finally seems to have found a direction. The excitement I felt when this title was first announced has all but vanished after four issues that were practically nothing but set-up. Finally we are seeing a story develop. Admitted I don’t really like Rick Flag and the fact that much of this series has focused on him bores me. The intrigue is beginning to pick up though and it’s almost feeling like the old days. It’s a pity though that Ostrander didn’t at least keep a few elements from Keith Giffen’s run. There were some good points there. The banter between Deadshot and Killer Frost weas fun and I really liked the idea of Sgt. Rock being one of the field commanders. Still it’s a nice line up with some familiar faces and a few new ones that make sense. The Squad seems very active in other parts of the DCU so we’ll see if there’s more to be had after the mini series ends.

There’s a TNG book on the list but I think we’ll save that for Sci-Friday