So, What comics did you buy this week?

[Diabolical]

I stopped and grabbed what I had pulled from the last 2 Wednesdays when I was in Florida.

Thankfully it was a pretty light 2 weeks.

Punisher War Journal Annual #1 - Meh, but at least Fraction didn't write it.
Star Wars Legacy #29 - Meh.
The Boys #24 - Good as usual.
Wolvergins #29 - Dammit, I forgot to send an email and drop it. I skimmed it and had no idea what the fuck was going on since it was part 3 of a crossover.
Marvel Apes #4 - Semi-meh, but had potential to be really fun (like the original Marvel Zombies).

[vynsane]

Invincible got here today, so I can finally see if vyn is right or full of shit. (I'm figuring probably right.)

the first volume is rather standard capes'n'tights fare, playing with some comic tropes, but beginning with issue 7 and 8, and definitely by the time 11 and 12 come around, you realize that you've been the victim of a red herring.

[Diabolical]

Batman: Cacophony #1 - Kevin Smith's return to comics. Good start, but like everything Kevin Smith, a bit wordy. Not sure about Walt Flanagan's art though. Its hit and miss.

Magneto: Testament #3 - Another great, yet sad issue.
My only real problem has nothing to do with the issue itself, but with Marvel's advertising department. This is the kind of story that shouldn't be burdened with ads (or at least so many). They are far too distracting from the story.
Very poor ad placement also. Without spoiling anything, the last page ends on a pretty somber note and what do we have on the inside back cover?
An ad for Wall*E.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Walt Flanagan only got that art job because he fellates Smith. Plenty of artists NOT in a position to tug Smith probably deserved a crack at a Batman LS more than that guy.

It's a light week for me (when I get over there)

Titans
Amazing Spidey
Cap Britain/MI13
Dark Tower
Stand
Trinity

Of those, only the Stand is what I'm excited for. Is that a sign to cut back my buying?

[vynsane]

last week:

in-store:
Savage Dragon 129
Venom: Dark Origin 4

in-mail:
Amazing Spider-man 576
Invincible Iron Man 7

this week:

in-store:
BPRD: The Warning 5
Fables 78
Black Terror 1
Brit 9
Savage Dragon 140 (two weeks in a row!!!)
The Walking Dead 54
Avengers Fairy Tales 4
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane 4

in-mail:
Amazing Spider-girl 26
Amazing Spider-man 576

[jjreason]

Let's see here, it's been at least a couple of weeks but things were light anyhow:

X-Men Legacy 218
Uncanny 504
FF561
ASM 576,577,578 (and I'm so far behind I don't think I'll be caught up on reading ASM within the next 6 months)
Magneto 3

[vynsane]

in the store:
Ex Machina 39
Invincible 55
Avengers/Invaders 6
Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. 35
Atomic Robo: The Dogs of War 4

in the mail:
Amazing Spider-man 578

and there's another issue of savage dragon AND walking dead out next week! fuck, that's crazy!!! also next week, one of the guys i was good friends with in college is releasing a TPB of his independently-published miniseries, Mr. Scootles. check it out at http://www.HCNoel.com - it's well worth it. i have the first three issues he did at comixpress.com but this is all 4 previously-released issues plus the release of #5.

[anarky]

You say it's good, eh? What's it about?

If the premise sounds good and you recommend it, I'll probably get it. $14 on amazon.com, and he has a sponsor link from his site so he'd get some sort of kickback from that.

BTW, I can read the overview at the site. But is it humor? I'm guessing so, but I don't immediately see any sort of preview button.

[vynsane]

You say it's good, eh? What's it about?

click links, lazy-head: http://hcnoel.com/scoot.html

okay, fine. don't click it.

When two college students watch a cursed film reel starring the forgotten 1930's cartoon character Mr. Scootles, they unknowingly set off a chain of events that could lead to Hell on Earth. Featuring a cast that includes a beautiful skirt-wearing demon, a bloodthirsty professor, a warrior angel, Judas, and the Devil herself. Mr. Scootles is a mystery-filled tale that is a tribute to the art of animation and its creators.

[anarky]

Yeah, that's why I edited it to ask about the genre. It looks like a cross between horror and comedy judging from the artwork, but I don't see any direct links to preview pages or anything.

[vynsane]

ah... i didn't see that... it's hard to categorize. it's not comedy per se, but has comedic elements. he put a preview on his myspace:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... =450453518

[Diabolical]

Punisher #64
Punisher War Journal #25

Spoilers ahead (if anyone cares), but both issues had a similar ending: the introduction of Jigsaw.
In Punisher, it was the first time he's appeared in the Max series, which I have mixed feelings about (even though the story has been pretty good).
In PWJ its the introduction of a new Jigsaw (since the old one was shot in the head just a few issues ago). This new Jigsaw is Frank's recent friend/cohort Stuart Clarke. Pretty lame, but that has been par for the course with this series.

[anarky]

So, they make a point to finally kill Jigsaw, then replace him within a couple of months? That's not pretty lame. That's incredibly lame.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I agree. And seeing as how Stuart Clarke was the replacement for Micro since Frank shot him in the head in Punisher MAX #6, it's all come full circle.

The same thing just happened in the X-books. Mr. Sinister was offed in Messiah CompleX, only to have the bikini clad Miss Sinister show up a few issues later wreaking havoc. So APPARENTLY that character wasn't as used up as you thought.

[anarky]

Miss Sinister?

If you needed more evidence Marvel was scraping the bottom of the barrel, that should be it.

I read on CBR's Comic Book Urban Legends thing that Mr Sinister was supposed to be almost exactly the same age as Cyclops, and it would come out that he was a Shazam type, where the flashbacks to the orphanage of Mr Sinister were actually a fellow orphan of Scott's transforming into this uber-powerful mutant. Only Claremont was kicked off, and either no one knew that was the plan or no one followed up on it. Claremont also planned for Gambit to be a traitor all along, and this had nothing to do with the "X-Traitor" storyline that popped up immediately after he was canned.

As lame as he has become, I still wonder how fucking awesome the X-Men books would be if he'd never been axed. Maybe if he'd stayed "practiced," he wouldn't suck now. And the stories would've had more steam for at least a few years, even if he did lose it in the late 90s the way he did in the real world.