A little confusing. I will admit I had to go to wikipedia to clarify a couple things after I read this. But besides that this is a great read. Old characters that you haven’t seen for a while make a reappearance, new interesting characters show up. I can’t wait to see where this series is going.

After a long wait, it doesn’t disappoint. The artwork for Iron Man and War Machine are truly spectacular and the story is as gripping as ever. I wait in anticipation for the next issues.

Before I even opened the cover, I was very impressed with the quality of the paper and how nice and glossy the cover was. The story was fun and the art was great on the eyes. The story, while not very complicated, was still good and is able to sneak some really good character development right as it starts.

Atomic Robo is a very funny character, and I would love to see an Atomic Robo action figure some day.

Very fun issue. Tatsu and Buffy have a very entertaining conversation, a seed is planted for future issues (rogue slayers with guns O_O), and an awesome fake-out near the end (about 13 pages into the issue). Also worth mentioning, I’m continually amazed by the value of this series; nice quality paper and longer than average.

It’s an….interesting read. It’s also completely ridiculous. I would say it’s a little too silly. It’s kind of odd because I find the Tek Janson cartoons on the Colbert Report very funny. They could have taken the script from almost any of those episodes and ended up with a much better comic.

As much as I hate to give anything Stephen Colbert-related a less than superb rating, there is nothing really spectacular about this issue. The writing wasn’t all that funny; thank goodness Stephen Colbert didn’t actually write it, then it would be even more depressing.

I’m sure what I’m about to say isn’t going to be very original. I’m sure it’s been said over and over again. I’ll admit the premise is an interesting idea. The problem is that it’s completely insane. Okay we get it, Aunt May was an important figure in Peter’s life. We understand that she was taken in a horrifically violent manner. But here’s the problem (it was even addressed by Mary Jane in this issue and completely disregarded by Peter): Aunt May is an elderly woman. It’s sad but it’s true. She’s lived a long and fulfilling life. It’s really sad that they decided to have Peter be completely unable to deal with this loss. To such a degree that he would give up his relationship with Mary Jane. I just hope this is just something temporary (I was hoping that it would be similar to House of M. Something crazy and entertaining that goes back to normal with only a few lasting repercussions).

This was kind of an anticlimactic ending to the story arc. Interesting things definitely happened and we get to see a little more of the Seven (the Deep is a lot less lame when he’s not at a conference table debating action figure profit percentages). But most importantly, this issue leads us to the next story arc that I’ve been waiting for: BACKGROUND STORIES!! They’ve been hinting at origin-like stories about the Seven, the Boys, the Lamplighter, and Compound V. I’m excited.

Kick Ass was enthusiastically recommended to me by some friends and it has been pretty popular among the Heavy Ink community. I can see why people like it, but I just found it to be a little too brutal for my tastes. Sometimes it’s fun to read about characters you can’t feel sympathy for; I just didn’t enjoy reading this.

Rob Osborne is a great writer. I would hate to see Lord Zango in less capable hands. In this issue we find out some various powers that certain individuals have. The reason that this caught my attention is that this wasn’t actually the focus of this particular issue. I can think of writers who would want to immediately list everything that their character can do right off the bat and then go from there, but Rob actually has woven it into the story seamlessly so that when certain powers are used, it’s completely unremarkable (within the context of what’s going on). I think that is amazing writing, I’m really eager to see where Rob is going with this series and I think Zango has the potential to be an absolutely tremendous series.

I’m glad that those ‘southern accents’ weren’t permanent because that would have been cliche (and too reminiscent of Firefly). Instead I was pleasantly surprised by the characters and the artwork was very fitting (I can’t wait to see these characters in color in the next issue). The only thing that worries me is that Contract has already started with the over-endowed female pin-up shots, so I really hope that this isn’t a continuing theme.

In anticipation of the new movie, I bought as much Indiana Jones comics from HI as I could. This included the two Omnibuses which contain comics originally done who knows when. The first thing that made me happy was the art. They actually chose a real artist to do this series!! The omnibuses were pretty good, but the art was lacking greatly. They were done it that old style where if someone was standing in a shadow, they were covered in tiny lines to show that.

The story hasn’t hit it’s stride yet, but I’m very hopeful for upcoming issues to remedy that.

It is of my opinion that Neil Gaiman is the antichrist of comic writers. Where ever he goes, he leaves a trail of destroyed titles in his wake. Not to say that he’s a bad writer, far from it. The problem is Neil Gaiman is such a good writer, no one can follow his act.

I’ve seen it happen before. He wrote a mini-series called The Books of Magic and it was great, but then the series continued on into a mediocre title by John Ney Rieber. Luckily the first sequel to Marvel 1602 was pretty good, but Marvel 1602 Fantastick Four by Peter David was just plain boring.

Finally, we are brought to the Eternals. Neil Gaiman wrote a pretty good story (even though it seemed to peter out near the end); and now we’re left with this. Honestly, when I read this series, I’m just bored. I’m going to give it a couple more issues to surprise me, but it’s not looking good.

Wow, just wow. This was one of the best comics I’ve read in a very long time. It’s just hilarious.

Brian wrote on his blog that he’s confused. First people wanted the story to slow down, now they’re saying to speed it up. I have no idea who these people are and what is wrong with them. I think people were just spoiled by the first run of Atomic Robo and didn’t actually know what “Slower” would mean if put into effect.

In my opinion, Atomic Robo works out well in either style. I enjoyed Dogs of War as the return of the character we all know and love in a plot that takes longer than the span of a blink to finish.

Don’t let any of the negative hype talk you out of picking this up. You’ll look back and regret it if you do.

Before I read this issue, I was honestly considering deleting my subscription for this title. All the issues were good enough, but it never seemed like they were going anywhere.

Then I read this issue and for some reason it got me excited about Red Hulk again. His fight with Thor really put him in perspective of just how strong and powerful he is. And of course of how much of a dick Red Hulk is (which is the best part). This title is at a crossroads that could make or break this series for me. I think the big issue is Who is Red Hulk? Is it someone we already know or is it a new player? Either way is fine, as long as it’s done correctly. That’s the kicker. If his true identity is unveiled in a lame way, then it will just drag down all the cool stuff this series has accomplished.

This issue reveals a lot in a very short amount of time. We finally get to see what happened on 9/11 in The Boys world and we finally get to see all of the original members of the Seven.

Anyone can write a scene with the team working together and have everything go right; it takes real talent to have one thing after another fail completely and show just how messed up this team is. We really get to look deeper into the characters of Homelander and Queen Maeve and see how their biggest failure affects them.

This was a tremendous issue. I really wish this title came out more often.

Here’s the thing, it wasn’t bad writing. It actually interested me a lot. It reminded me of a female, mild version of Kick-Ass and I liked this version of it. The one problem was that nothing really happened. If it wins the Pilot Season, then I would be very interested in seeing where this series is going. The only requirement for this is that it actually has to go somewhere.

The whole “Don’t judge a book by its cover” axiom really comes to mind. I was under the impression that this would be set in medieval times but I was pleasantly surprised.

The only problem I had with it was that the first 3/4 of it was summarizing what he had already done in previous issues. To me, Pilot Season is about giving new comics a chance decided by public demand. I kinda wish he had just started over instead of just starting where he had left off.

About a week before this issue came out, Newsarama.com had a pretty scathing review up on Runaways 3 #1. I read it and I was pretty uneasy to whether I should even order this series or not. In the end I decided to get it and I’m glad I did. The points the Newsarama.com made were still valid, but I think they blew it way out of proportion.

The biggest issue was that Joss Whedon was taking too long to finish his run on Runaways so Terry Moore had to start writing before Whedon had finished his story arc. So some character development that was put in the end of Whedon’s run isn’t in Moore’s writing yet. Hopefully now that Whedon is done Moore can catch up with the story points.

So far things are going in a direction that I like. My only problem with this series so far is the art. The action scenes are barely comprehensible. Especially on the second page, bottom left panel. What the hell is happening right there? Chase is on Xavin’s back for some reason? I don’t know but it’s way to muddled for my tastes. My second problem with the art is Nico’s character design. Is Ramos aware that it’s possible to draw an character of Asian descent without having super-slanted eyes? The art for Brian K. Vaughan’s reign on Runaways was top notch. I just hope the art in this series improves a bit or I’ll have to wait for it to grow on me.

My only problem with the actual story itself is that it seems that Karolina’s and Xavin’s relationship issues seemed really forced. There was no indication throughout the entire issue that something was wrong, and yet apparently there is. Just like how Joss Whedon just decided that Nico and Victor were going to break up just because some random dancing chick caught his eye. None of these break ups make any sense!! Have any of these writers actually been in a relationship?

EDIT: Okay, it explains things a little bit at the end of issue 3. I’ll be pissed if Karolina and Xavin don’t get things patched up though.

I really like where this and Green Lantern are going. The build up for Blackest Night has been amazing. It would be very easy to stumble and just make all the various lantern sects be just multi-colored carbon copies of each other, but we’re getting insight to every single new lantern that is introduced. I really liked how Miri was able to become a Star Sapphire, it showed great writing.

I’m definately psyched for everything leading up to Blackest Night.

The story was decent. The focus was on Peter and Mary Jane while the villain of the story took the backseat. It was a little annoying because I feel that the villain story wasn’t very fleshed out and I’m really not sure what happened there at the end. But overall a pretty good story.

What knocked what would have been a 4 star issue to 3 stars was the art. This has possibly been the most fugly art I’ve ever seen in the Ultimate Universe. This art was even worse than Kaare Andrews’s art in U. X-Men #23 & 24 (it was super cartoony, bleh, not matching the feel of U. X-Men at all). It clearly states that Peter and M.J. are 15 (which I wish they would bump up a year or two, because they’ve been 15 for a while now…) but they look five. In an art style that is way too anime (in a bad way) for my tastes, Peter and M.J. look like toddlers. For the sake of the Ultimate Universe, David Lafuente never works as the artist again.

There was never any doubt of what the result would be in the Mongul vs Arkillo fight. Arkillo was Kilowog’s foil anyway.

That crazy guardian is definately getting creepier and creepier every issue. This issue is a great set up for things to come.

This was a great issue. Kyle Rayner is my favorite human Green Lantern, so it was nice to see things going his way. I’ve read a lot of complaints that the little side stories with Guy and Kyle (such as the opening of their bar on Oa) stall the plot but I like these side stories. I think they add depth to our favorite characters. Mongul’s side of the story is mostly filler, because honestly we’re just waiting for a showdown between him and Sinestro.

The build-up to Blackest Night keeps getting better and better!

Wait…what? A storyline about a higher power plucking heroes and villains, pitting them against eachother in gladitorial battle for their own amusement? Seriously? Not to mention the trainwreck of the idea that was picking people from different parts of time.

I get that Jeph Loeb is going in a different direction with this title, a kind of “tongue in cheek” motif following the very dramatic World War Hulk, but this was a barely tolerable issue. Can we get back to finding out who Red Hulk is? Maybe a Dark Reign tie-in? Seeing how this series completely ignored Secret Invasion…

Not Jeph Loeb’s greatest work.

It’s the 600th issue of the Incredible Hulk!! And the result is … meh. For some reason someone out there in the Marvel Corporation decided that all legacy celebration issues must be a compilation of stories. This is stupid. The only reason I gave this 4 stars is because the first story was really good. It was actaully a continuation of the Red Hulk storyline and shed a little light on what the heck is going on (Yay! A-Bomb is back!). Everything else was crap. The second story by Stan Lee was complete crap. I think Stan Lee has gone senile. I don’t care if the existance of Marvel as we know it exists because of him, that type of garbage shouldn’t have gotten past the editor. The next story was something about Lyla which I really don’t care about at all. Finally, the little cartoon involving Green, Red and Blue Hulk!!!! They need more of these. All in all, they shouldn’t have made this oversized and they should have only used the the first story and the cartoon at the end.

Wow, this issue was really disappointing. When I read the solicitations for this, I was excited for Superman-Batman to actually be in continuity for once, and how can a team up between Bizarro and Man-Bat not be awesome? We find out how in this issue. They spent the whole time leading up to the confrontation between those two and Solomon Grundy that barely anything happened.

One thing I did like though is that when Black Lantern Solomon Grundy reads Bizarro’s emotions, the color is opposite of what emotion he’s actually feeling. That’s the kind of stuff I was looking forward to with this issue. Hopefully #67 which finished up the Blackest Night tie in will be a little better.

This issue was pretty awesome. Basically, in the same way Bendis used years and years worth of story to support Secret Invasion, we’re shown a team of villains (all of massive intelligence) who have been working behind the scenes a long time to set stuff up. They haven’t shown us who Red Hulk is yet, but at least they’ve shown us the group responsible for his creation. Another positive, this is the first time I’ve ever been able to take M.O.D.O.K. seriously. Great writing in this issue. I hope the whole event is this good.

Wow, the first Batman And robin comic that wasn’t awesome. The first problem was bringing in Knight and Squire. Ugh. For some reason Grant Morrison likes these two.

The whole Lazarus Pit was an interesting idea, but it comes out of nowhere and seems tacked on. It just seemed like Grant Morrison just didn’t even try on this issue. I hope this isn’t the start of a trend.

Spider-Man and Deadpool need to run into each other much more often. Spider-Man #611 was one of the best issues of Spider-Man I’ve ever read. The two personalities together creates an atmosphere of sheer comedy. They should visit each others’ titles at least once a year.

This one is better than the last one. Knight and Squire are still in it, but not as annoying. The huge draw of this issue is that it REVEALS SOMETHING MONUMENTAL. SO MONUMENTAL that it would be a crime to spoil it here. All I can say that it’s the answer to a question that has been bothering me since the end of Final Crisis. I’m honestly surprised DC didn’t make a big deal about this issue. Normally when something this big happens, you hear about it months before it actually comes out. Marvel practically tried to make a holiday for the release of Captain America Reborn #1 and this one slips under the radar?

Bleh. When Hit Monkey showed up in Deadpool, I figured this would be marginally entertaining (It wasn’t). They story was so bland and cliche that you would think that they would have spiced it up some with some humor. Instead, it takes itself way too seriously. Which makes it really boring. If this was the best origin that they could think of for Hit Monkey, they should have just left it a mystery. If you want to read something involving Hit Monkey that’s actually fun, then check out his three issue appearance in Deadpool.

Wow, considering how funny the series has been, this issue was really sub-par. It doesn’t have to be boring like this with E-List characters. Check out issue #899 with Hercules which was one of the best Deadpool material I’ve ever read.

The writing is perfect. Warren Ellis once again does a spectacular job in creating a story that is immediately gripping to anyone who picks this up that doesn’t require an immense understanding of what has been going on in X-Men continuity lately. Which is the whole point of the Astonishing lines and it does a great job. The only negative for me is the art. There are times when it’s okay, but mostly I do not like a lot of the character designs. They’re just bleh. Hopefully I can get used to it as the series continues.