Rumour from various retailers in town is that Diamond, at long last, will take into account holiday Mondays, and adjust the shipping schedule to accommodate. This means, no more “books are in on Thursday.” And it only took them decades to get around to it.

One more thing – Spider-man never actually fights Wolverine in the comic. It should have been called;

What If? Spider-man and Wolverine Vs. A Lot of Spies #1

So, has the Marvel crew decided that Uatu is stupid or something? I just got the new What If? Spider-man Vs. Wolverine one-shot and two things popped out at me.

1) The book just assumes you know the original story. A 20 year old story. Admittedly, you get some background, and you don’t HAVE to know the original story, but What If comics used to always tell you what issues they were talking about.

2) Where the hell is The Watcher? Isn’t he, like, supposed to be watching all this somewhere? Nope. This one went down without him. I noticed in the other, recent What If books, that he’s heavily downplayed in some of the stories.

You know, Alex Ross made do with The Watcher – even found a way to make him purposefully creepy (instead of just generally creepy.)

But I guess those days are over – as Marvel embraces the idea of a multiverse more and more, I guess a guy who can see them doesn’t get to play any more.

<font class="plain_title_big">I'm having a little trouble here. Besides the obvious, and contradictory cash-in of having a "final days of" storyline for a character we saw shot dead in the Summer, there's another elephant in the room for the Captain America: The Chosen series.

That would be the fact that it's being written by the guy who created Rambo.

I have not read first blood, but assuming the movie is close, then I can see the plan. Post traumatic stress suffering Vietnam vet has a run in with a powerful and corrupt small-town sheriff. You can see the concepts involved - extraordinarily trained, war weary soldier stands up for what's right - translating over to Captain America.

The trouble is, the guy has written a lot of books since then, including the one that became the movie that made Rambo the character everyone remembers - ass-kicking extension of Regan-era foreign policy.

So.

I'm going to have to check these books out now, if only to see if they're continuing to molest the corpse of Captain America.
</font>

I had a mild shock recently, while watching an old episode of M*A*S*H.

And you can too. Please, lick your fingers, then touch them here.

I was at the local shop, perusing the new crop of toys. 15 tall talking Daleks. Nice. The Shazam Marvel Family action figures. Nice. The 8" John Horus action figure, from Warren Ellis' Black Summer series.

WTF?

This picture does not convey enough information, but it'll help you see what I'm saying.

The John Horus action figure is essentially an Aquaman MEGO doll in a cheap John Horus outfit. I say "essentially" since it doesn't say "MEGO" anywhere on the box. I looked. Hard. But I know that head. I know those boots. I know those pants and jacket. Those are totally MEGO.

Dear lord.

So, Hulk is gone, Sentry is gone... I think that makes Hercules the toughest tank going. If Thor were a little more in the game, it would be a toss up, but he's not around much right now - plus, he was always kind of toe to toe with Herc. If it weren't for that ghey hammer and lightnin' thing...

Anyways, judging from the back of the latest Marvel issues, I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of the the mythological strong man.

Hercules is here, so raise a mighty cheer!
At the might of, Hercules!

Actually, I've known for awhile, but this is the first official word (plus, screenshots.)

Don't read this, go read this.

I know it's not comics related, but... GHOSTBUSTERS VIDEO GAME!

World War Hulk #5
Finally, a real fight. Heavily steeped in "who we are and the choices we make", but a fight nonetheless - better still, it looks like they corrected their error of there being two Strongest One There Is. But I will say no more, except that I've never liked Bob. Not a bad wrap up, but like all things Marvel these days, it's mostly a set up to get you to buy a bunch of new titles. Son of Hulk. Red Hulk. Gamma Corps. Just... (shrug)

I small tale for you - gather round.

I'm at my local shop, and a friend calls. When I say where I'm headed, he asks me to check for copies of Thor Visionaries Walt Simonson, volumes 2 and 3. No prob, I say.

Prob.

I ask, and while they have volume 1 (as does Heavy Ink) and volume 4 just came out, they didn't have 2 and 3. Nor would they, as they weren't being reprinted.

So, I can get hooked on 1, and never be able to fill the gap until 4. Or I can pick up 4, get hooked, and never be able to complete the collection.

Wha?