The final issue of Fantastic Four came out this week, following last month’s issue where Johnny Storm died. Jonathan Hickman has been writing FF since issue #570 and before that he wrote a direct lead in with his Fantastic Four: Dark Rein mini. What can I say? Hickman is writing the best Marvel U comic coming out. This issue damn near made me cry. The main strength of Hickman’s FF is the deep character development. Each member of the FF has grown, both by establishing important points from the past and by introducing new elements that propel the FF saga into the future.

In the first storyline, Reed Richards is faced with the ultimate expression of his intellect when he discovers a Multiverse Reed Richards Council who governs the universe on a level rarely seen even in the ever-cosmic Marvel U. Another Reed plotline is a carryover from the Millar/Hitch run where a bunch of people from the future harnessed the power of Galactus to travel back in time, leaving a giant corpse that Reed elected to hide deep beneath the earth. Now, however, the Silver Surfer has discovered the corpse and reported its existence to Galactus, who has come to earth seeking answers from Reed. Reed is then basically forced to lead Galactus to Nu-World, an artificial earth where the Galactus-killers from the future have been hanging out. Galactus proceeds to do what he does best: destroy the planet. The funniest part is that Galactus destroys the planet not because he’s hungry, but because he’s pissed off and want to kill all the inhabitants! Reed does manage to save a select few of the refugees from the future, most notably the Maestro, the evil Hulk from the future! Nice move, Reed!

Sue is also getting into some pretty cool intrigue as the new Ambassador to a rival Atlantean race that is getting all up in Namor’s business.  Hickman’s Sue Richards takes care of business, she doesn’t sit around waiting for Reed to pay attention to her and if she’s got somewhere to be, she just palms the kids off on Johnny and Ben and takes off. When she first goes with Namor to some negotiation summit with the other Atlanteans, you may be thinking that Sue is in for some major sexual harassment from Marvels first fishy mutant, but instead, she ends up politically outmaneuvering Namor, much to his regal dismay!

The children of Reed and Sue, Franklin and Valerie Richards have not only been developed to a large degree, but they have been joined by a mass of new members of the extended family: Dragon Man, an android recently reprogrammed by Val, some children from a newly discovered race of intelligent mole men, a few of the Power Pack kids, and Artie and Leech, who you may remember from the early days of the original X-Factor series. This ragtag group of kids, under Val’s direction, have basically started their own super group, the Future Foundation. This junior league FF cracked the problem of Ben’s monstrous appearance, allowing him to return to his human form, albeit for only a week or so per year.

Val’s character is perhaps my favorite, her intelligence plotline was introduced in the Millar/Hitch run but has gained full flower under Hickman’s direction. We now know that Val is smarter than her dad, which may put her in the running for smartest on earth. One cool thing Marvel has been doing in the last few years is introduce this Marvel U intelligence ranking, although who is in fact the smartest has not been revealed…yet. Val is a very new character but she has really developed fast and is sure to be a Marvel mainstay for years to come.

Franklin Richards has an interesting predicament: he feels threatened by his little sisters massive intelligence, yet he himself is most likely the most powerful mutant on the planet. A future Franklin and Val travel back in time and kick up a bunch of dust, reinstating young Franklins powers and dropping a bunch of knowledge on young Val and then promptly disappearing again, to an unknown but not very promising looking fate. Franklin also gets my award for most touching scene in the series, when he meets up with Spider-Man right after Johnny dies. Franklin confides in Spider-Man that he thinks he may have been able to save his Uncle, and Spidey tells Franklin about how his own inaction resulted in the death of his Uncle too. Very moving stuff, really, which is rare for a mainstream superhero book but it makes sense when you remember this book is all about family.

Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm’s character development in the series have generally advanced in tandem, with Johnny trying to draw Ben out of his shell, as it were, and Ben grounding Johnny in the larger family. They shared an especially touching issue when Ben is reverted to his human form and Johnny takes him out on the town. Ben’s transformation turns tragic however, when he is powerless to save Johnny from his untimely fate, turning back to stone minutes too late.

You may be asking yourself, “Is that all?” What? Isn’t that enough?!! The FF have got it going on and it doesn’t look like Hickman is going to let up anytime soon. A lot of people are wondering, is Johnny Storm really dead/really going to stay dead? I don’t know, but I will point out that the series is ending with issue #588, which could mean this new FF series could very well run twelve issues, then revert to the original numbering for issue #600. That would also be a nice neat thirty issues, not including the Dark Rein mini, which in this day and age is a very respectable run. However Hickman has stated that he’s only getting started and has quite a lot more in store for Marvel’s First family, and I for one, am a True Believer!

-Ronald Rosebud.

With Ellis’ sci-fi bent, he seemed like a natural fit to take over  writing chores on Astonishing X-Men after the Joss Whedon/ John Cassidy run ended. However, the first story arc, Ghost Boxes, suffered from Simone Bianchi’s complete and utter lack of action in his art style. After this first disappointing arc, I was pleasantly surprised to see the new storyline with artist Phil Jimenez hit the ground running at a breakneck pace.

 I’m very happy with the new direction toward action-packed mayhem in this arc, with aerial battles, organic sentinels, undead mutants, and Cyclops and Wolvie blasting and slashing everything in sight, we’re getting more action here from the “main” X-team than we have in a long time.

The other Ellis book I like right now is another Marvel title, although this mini takes place in the post Ultimatum Ultimate universe. In Ultimate Armor Wars we are treated to Ultimate Tony Stark at his best being equally drunk and super smart while he pursues his errant patented technology. This title reminds me of Nextwave, with its strong humor streak and over the top technology.

So there you go, Warren Ellis rocks.

-Ronald Rosebud.

Blackest Night #5:  Wow, it’s almost like Geoff Johns read my reviews of this series so far and put the whole ROYGBIV lantern crew on the first page of this book just to make me look like a dumb jerk!   Honestly, I’ve never been so happy to be proven wrong.  This issue pretty much had everything I’ve been waiting for, securing Blackest Nights’ position as a true comics event, not just a sprawling spectacle made to vacuum our pocket books.  I can’t wait to see where the story goes next now that the Lanterns’ plan already failed and the JLA heavy-hitters have all become Black Lanterns.  And is anyone else more than a little suspicious about Necron referring to “Bruce Wayne” with quotation marks?  There are sure to be major revelations down the line as to what exactly is up with ol’ batty bats, but I’d wager they’ll be revealed in Morrisons’ Batman and Robin series…  But I digress…  bottom line, Blackest Night is a great story with spectacular art and universe-altering relevance.  Highest Recommendation!

Green Lantern # 48:  One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is that this book rocks even harder than Blackest Night.  This issue gives us some really nice character moments between the different Lanterns as they form an uneasy alliance.  Between my fascination with the various Corps leaders and my love of Doug Mahnke’s art, this is easily my favorite book coming out these days.

Flash:  Rebirth #5:  Well at least something finally happened.  I’m marginally interested in the new Impulse, but other than that this series has failed to sell me on the Flash.  This was the best issue so far in a mediocre series that successfully sets up a new status quo for more Flash comics that I wont bother to read.

Detective Comics #859:  I think Greg Rucka actually outshines J.H. Williams in this issue.  Batwomans characterization throughout this series has been pretty darn great, but as of this issue I love her.  Comics first tactfully conducted gay superhero continues her origin here in a story that pretty much demands I buy the deluxe edition hardcover the day it comes out.  Instant classic, no joke.  People will still be talking about this run in 20 years.

X-men Legacy # 228:  I haven’t followed this book since it became a journey into the mind of Professor X after that cross over that I can’t remember the name of.  After reading this issue, I’m not really sure what the current focus of this series is at all.  The art was pretty decent but the story was inconsequential.  If you ask me, it’s a pretty lousy time to be an X-fan.  As for me, I’m an ex-fan.

Wolverine: Origins # 42:  I guess since this book started out crappy it’s no surprise that it still sucks 40 issues later.  Wasn’t this series supposed to chronicle Wolverine’s past now that he remembers who he is?  I’ve read a handful of issues and I’ve never learned a new thing about Wolverine other than that you could release a book called Wolverines Runny Turds and it’d still sell.  I guess they finally revealed Romulus while I wasn’t reading this book and yet somehow I don’t feel like I missed anything at all.  This issue features the Hulks stupid son and the Silver Samurai and I can’t be bothered to write another word about it.

Hulk #17:  I read the first ten or so issues of this series on a loooooooong train ride a year or so ago and couldn’t believe how bad it was.  Well, guess what?  Now it’s even worse!  How they got 17 issues out of a series that’s all action and no content is beyond me.  The new big mystery surrounds the identity of Red She-Hulk, but I don’t even care who Red Hulk is anymore (although I’m still sure he’s Clay Quartermain).  This series lone saving grace used to be the art of Ed McGuiness, but now we’re stuck with Ian Churchill.  Ick!  Not only have I always despised his scratchy doo doo renderings, but now he’s “experimenting” with his style (or more likely following editorial commands to ape McGuinness) which results in something unintentionally resembling a Mad Magazine-esque satire.  Churchills incompetent renderings more closely resemble Hilary Barta than Ed McGuiness, making this book even more of a self-parody than it used to be.

New Avengers #59:  I quit reading this book after feeling burned by Secret Invasion and being bummed by the loss of Leinil Yu, and yet somehow I read this issue without feeling like I’d missed anything.  Luke Cage is in trouble and the outlaw Avengers band together to save him, just like they did last year and the year before that.  Like most of Bendis’ work, this series is easily digestible but ultimately unsatisfying, but at least Stuart Immonen turns in some very lovely drawings.

Ultimate Spider-Man #4:  So I’ve got this kind of love/hate thing going with Ultimate Spider-Man.  Given that it’s (relatively) self-contained and maintains creative teams for significant periods of time, I always wish I liked it enough to follow it, but every time I read it I feel so damn annoyed.  Like New Avengers and everything else I’ve ever read by Bendis, it’s got a nice, page-turning pace and some interesting story points, but it’s just trying so hard to be hip and clever that I can’t get with it.  Can Bendis write ONE conversation that isn’t full of quips, repetition, (parenthesis), and a continuing back-and-forth exchange of tiny word balloons?  Can someone tell the artist that teenagers are no longer sporting baggy jeans and long bangs (just once I’d like to see an artists attempt to draw hip youngsters do something else than point out that he himself is neither young nor hip).  Will this series last now that Ultimatum has turned off even more members of the Ultimate Universes dwindling fan-base?   I don’t know the answer to any of these questions, but I don’t really care, either.  The only thing I really want to know is why Ultimate Spidey’s head is drawn so big.  It’s REALLY weird looking!

Spider-man Clone Saga #2:  After all the hooting and hollering I did over issue #1, I didn’t even see this issue when it came out.  Ronald Rosebud kinda ruined it for me when he hit the nail on the head with his observation that this series is a re-visitation of something that wasn’t worth reading in the first place.  Maybe if it was kitschier or more self-aware it could be worth the price of admission, but it’s a little too uninspired to successfully exploit my love of crappy ‘90’s comics.  Speaking of which…

Image United #1:  Talk about your guilty pleasures!  The all-flash-and-no-substance crew from ’92 returns to do comics first creator owned jam book in an experiment that is sure to gradually lose everyone’s interest over the course of its 6-issue run.  Other than sporadic check-ins with Savage Dragon, I haven’t kept up with any of these characters in over ten years (have they even been publishing these guys in that time?) but apparently I haven’t missed much.  A lack of backgrounds and disinterest in storytelling muddy up what little narrative there is:  When the heroes are gathering to team-up against Overtkill, are they standing right near him or are they somewhere else entirely?  I can’t tell because everyone is always hanging out in empty parking lots or hatchy color fields.  Apparently there’s a new Shadowhawk and a new Spawn, and yet somehow I do not miss the old ones.  The real winner here is Jim Valentino, the most untalented idiot to ever cash in on crappy comics.  Talk about being in the right place at the right time!  This guys drawings feature the same lack of schooling in anatomy and perspective as the other “artists”, but with none of the flair.  Naturally, this book features several soulless cash-in gimmicks, with like 9 different covers and comics current worst trend, a $3.99 price tag in exchange for a lousy back-up story that no one will even read.  I love to hate this book, but will I buy #2?  Stay tuned!

-Billy Superstar

Detective Comics #858:  This was yet another fantastic issue in Rucka and Williams’ instant-classic run.  It provides some back-story on Alice, the villain from the previous arc who was revealed to be Batwoman’s not-dead-after-all sister.  This was the first issue in which Rucka’s writing wasn’t completely overshadowed by Williams’ artwork.  Regardless, the issue looks as good as ever, although Williams’ visual homage to Batman:  Year One makes the inevitable statement that nobody is as good as Mazzuchelli.

Blackest Night #4:  Don’t get me wrong, I like Blackest Night…  the story is interesting enough, and everyone who’s working on it is doing a great job, but all the really cool shit that I’ve been waiting to read for two years is happening in the Green Lantern series. Blackest Night seems to be focused on telling the story of what happens on Earth during this big space cataclysm while providing neat explanations about who the Black Lanterns are and what their plan is.  This has all been interesting enough, but I really didn’t go into this event wondering what Mera and the Atom would do when the Black lanterns showed up.  I’m starting to feel like this series is aimed more at hardcore DC fans, which is actually commendable even if it’s less gratifying for guys like me.  I hope that JSA fans were exhilarated when that guy who wears a black mask and wristbands got his heart ripped out.  After I Wikipedia’ed Necron I was pretty excited by the revelation that he’s the big force behind all this scary stuff.  I’m pretty confident that this series is going to pan out well, but if the Blue and Orange and Red Lanterns never show up I’m gonna be disappointed.

Green Lantern #47:  Not that it’s not already apparent, but I am completely loving this series.  The Black Lanterns fight the Red Lanterns!  The Green, Yellow, Indigo and I think it’s Violet Lanterns all team up and fight the Black lanterns.  Then the Orange Lanterns fight the Blue Lanterns, and finally the Orange Lanterns fight the Black Lanterns before getting attacked by the Red Lanterns.  And even though it’s exciting enough to make me sound like I’m seven years old when I write about it, there’s also some pretty heavy characterization in there, too.  Topped off by Doung Mahnke’s fantastic artwork, this series feels more like the main event than a tie-in.  It’s all about Green Lantern, y’all.  Green Lantern.

-Billy Superstar

 Grade: Lame

 Green Lantern #46: Onto greener pastures! We have a big old fight scene on Zammoran, and an awesome team up begins to gel between Hal, Carol, Sinestro, and Indigo-1. Main Events: A lot of exposition dialogue between Hal and Carol. Identity revelation and subsequent indoctrination into the Black Lantern Corps of the couple who powers the Pink Lantern’s power battery, the release of that Predator thing the Girl Guardians were trying to keep under wraps, the showdown between Mongol and Sinestro, more dead surprises, beaucoup awesomeness! Blackest Night sub-series continue to plug along and dish out that whole dead loved ones rising and trying to rip out the hearts of surprised heroes. That leads us right into Blackest Night Titans #2, which was fairly dope, because Donna Troy’s zombie baby tries to eat her! Everyone loves a zombie baby, and all the resurrected dead are totally awesome and ready with the one-line zingers!

 Grade: Dope

Superman: Secret Origin #1: I like this Geoff Johns penned miniseries way more than Flash: Rebirth. It’s a rare event when an origin story isn’t some bland back story in the last few pages of a regular issue, and aside from that, isn’t just a listing of facts and events everyone’s already heard before. SSO paints a picture of an adolescent Clark Kent, not only dealing with growing up, having crushes, and trying to fit in, but having to deal with these rite of passage events along with the sporadic emergence of his superpowers. It is also a great set up issue, the ordinariness of a boy growing up in middle America town can seem boring, yet this stable background allows for a grounded reaction when his alien origins are revealed, and make them seem all the more extraordinary by comparison. Our cast of characters is set up, with Flash, Lana, and even Lex all making appearances. We also have the origin of Superman’s first costume, and the super teen’s reaction to this is as you would expect, especially when you see him in it. It is great to see the Man of Steel as the awkward, imperfect teen he once was.

 Grade- Anti-suck!

 North 40 #’s 1-3: Fairly enjoyable but nothing spectacular. Retread scenario of two high school outcasts accidentally summoning a great, Lovecraftian evil into their hick town. Everyone mutates, getting fire breath, extra eyes, sea urchin eyes, going all vampire and eating their family. There’s a good guy who got the superest powers of all, a sheriff who has to do right, and a wise old witch of uncertain loyalties. It’s not bad, but anyone who’s ever read Stephen King or John Saul might experience some lackluster déjà-vu.

Grade- Zzzz

Peace out!

Franklin Firestar.

Amazing Spider-Man #609. Sometimes the new, mostly weekly Spider-Man series is good, but sometimes it isn’t. This issue is pretty dull. Kane and Paladin are not characters that need revisiting.

Dark Avengers #10. I keep reading this comic, but it’s not very good. In this issue we are reintroduced to the Molecule Man, one of the coolest characters in the Marvel U. I’m sure like so many potentially good ideas introduced by Brian Michael Bendis, this one will ultimately disappoint.

Dark Wolverine #79. I’ve cooled a little on the temporary focus on Daken, Wolverine’s son, in this series. It’s still pretty good, but this issue lacked the focus of previous issues in this story. However, I’m still pretty sure that Daken is a good addition to the X-family.

Next Week (10.28.09)     

Adventure Comics #3.

Blackest Night #4 (of 8).

Detective Comics #858.

Last Days of Animal Man #6 (of 6).

Superman: Secret Orgins #2 (of 6).

Fantastic Four #572.

Ultimate Avengers #3.

Ultimate Armor Wars #2 (of 4).

New Mutants #6.

X-Men Forever #10.

X-Factor #50.

Make it Man-Thing!,

Ronald Rosebud.

Nothing else good came out this week. The new Web of Spider-Man sucks.

Next Week:

Azrael #1.

Blackest Night Superman #3 (of 3).

Final Crisis Dance #6 (of 6).

Amazing Spider-Man #609.

Dark Avengers #10.

Dark Wolverine #79.

Invincible Iron Man #19.

See you next week kids,

Ronald Rosebud.

Spider-Man: Clone Saga #1:  I don’t know what it is;  nostalgia, residual collectors fever, stupidity, hypnosis~whatever it is, I’m disturbingly compelled by these out-of-continuity re-visitations of really horrible comics from the ‘90’s.  I made the mistake of passing on X-men Forever; at 4 bucks a shot twice a month, it seemed like too much of a commitment for something with such high potential for being awful.  Now that I’m lamenting that decision, I realize that the potential for awfulness was exactly why I wanted it in the first place…

Spider-man:  Clone Saga is a “director’s cut” redo of the worst Spider-Man comic of all time.  It’s written by the same guys who stunk it up the first time, and it’s drawn by some guy who’s entire artistic development was inspired by beating off to issues of Witchblade.  It’s an uncut, un-interfered with (editorially) retelling of what the clone saga “should have been.”  It’s the most unconditional guarantee of a completely awful pile of crap since…. I don’t even know what…  the original Close Sage, I guess…

So what’s the appeal?  Let’s just be real:  most superhero comics suck.  I know that they’re our soap operas, and they create some sort of contemporary mythology and blah blah blah, but, really, a lot of the times you read comics because it’s a cheap thrill and it gives you a nice little dose of schlock between real life responsibilities.  Occasionally you get something that really transcends the genre and qualifies as art or literature or whatever, but more often you get Wolverine with all his skin blasted off.  And that’s fine.  But I guess what’s been bugging me, the thing that’s prevented me from buying mostly everything Marvel puts out lately, is this weird sort of in-between.  I want my good comics to be good and my bad comics to be bad.  So now that we have Bendis sitting in the Stan Lee chair, my feeling is that what we’re getting is a lot of bad comics that are almost good, which just doesn’t quite work for me.  Secret Invasion and all this Dark Reign crap…  to me it’s a lot of good ideas that aren’t paced well or thought through;  good comics that never reach their full potential.  And I don’t want almost good comics.  I’d rather have bad comics, or, in this case REALLY bad comics.

One things for sure: I got what I paid for.  Boy does this comics suck!  So far it doesn’t do much that the original didn’t:  Aunt May gets sick, which inspires Ben Reilly (Spider-Man’s clone) to return to New York (he somehow wasn’t concerned by her last 25 heart attacks, but after this one he feels the need to rush to her aid).  Meanwhile, Mary Jane is knocked up and doesn’t quite know how she should feel about it.  So, a few American Idol references notwithstanding, so far we’re pretty much seeing what came before…. But that’s bound to change as the series progresses, right!??!

Stay tuned!

So, I don’t know.  Maybe I just miss the tone of the comics that were released when I was a teenager, even though they were completely awful.  Maybe I’m just desperate for a Marvel comic that’s not part of some giant, multi-title crossover.  Or maybe I’m just one of those people that’s still bitter about Brand New Day and feels like this out-of-continuity series is more “my” Spider-Man than the current run…  But, really, I think that I just love to hate on crappy comics, and this, my friends, is the Stanley cup of crappy comics.

I’ve talked to Ronald Rosebud about this before…why are we willing to re-read Scott Lobdell’s entire Uncanny run just to rag on it for hours afterwards?  Why am I so eager to borrow my friends run of “Emerald Twilight”?  Ol’ Ronny boy said something that really made sense to me;  “hating on crappy comics is a form of gossip.”  It’s so true!  Reading “Youngblood” is like finding out that your sister’s pregnant again or that your Uncle got fired… Maybe it makes you feel better about yourself, or maybe it’s just thrilling to spread bad news.  Whatever the case, embrace your love of crappy comics!  Read Spider-Man:  The Clone Saga!  You WILL regret it!

In other news, I also picked up:

Green Lantern #46:  This issue totally ruled.  Mad Space War took place, some nice character stuff, some REALLY good Mahnke art.  The usual.  I have to say that the GL book is telling a better Blackest Night story than Blackest Night is.  But I’m not one to gossip, so you aint heard that from me.

-Billy Superstar.

Batman and Robin #5. Here we are, still struggling through the terrible art on this arc. Ban the Tan.

Batman Annual #27. I normally dismiss Annuals as useless stand alone stories, I think they are pretty lame more often than not. However, this year the Batman and Detective Comics annuals feature the new Azrael, whose new monthly is coming out next week. The new Azrael is one of the three cops that were trained as potential Batman replacements that were introduced early in Grant Morrison’s Batman run. Now, he has the Suit of Sorrow formerly owned by the League of Assassins, then Batman. The new Azrael has been mostly handled by Fabian Nicieza, who wrote this Annual and the three-part Azrael mini that came before it. So far, so good for this new Batman supporting character.

X-Men Vs. Agents of Atlas #1 (of 2). I figured this for a throw away mini, but this first issue is rad. The Agents of Atlas, if you don’t know, are a group of Golden Age Marvel characters that have been reestablished into continuity in the last few years. To make a long story short, they are a bunch of good guys whose leader has inherited a evil secret society that they now try to utilize for the greater good. So the gimmick is, they are good guys who always seem a little shady to our more conventional heroes. Hey, that’s Marvel as you like it, right? I know I love that classic misunderstanding dynamic that has furthered oh-so-many-Marvel-plots, don’t you? Anyway, here we see that the Agents of Atlas have to steal Cerebra from the X-Men, with the best of intentions, of course. Let the fun begin!

Astonishing X-Men #31. I didn’t even know this book was going to come out. After the boring run Warren Ellis did with Simone Bianchi, I figured Astonishing may get dropped or get an all new creative team. Instead, Ellis continues writing chores and Phil Jimenez steps in as artist. One thing the previous arc by Bianchi lacked was action, but with Jimenez we get a huge increase in the pacing and action. Here we see ships being blown out of orbit, and a non-stop aerial battle that leads up to the cliffhanger ending where our heroes face a big ol’ meat Sentinel. I hope this newfound momentum keeps rolling, this was a fun issue.

Irredeemable #7. Irredeemable is the best Mark Waid comic coming out, and Mark Waid is one of the best writers in the business, so check it, Irredeemable is fresh.

Next Week:

Blackest Night Batman #3 (of 3).

Booster Gold #25.

Detective Comics Annual #11.

Green Lantern Corps #41.

Red Robin #5.

Godland #29.

Web of Spider-Man #1.

X-Men Forever #9.

Uncanny X-Men #516.

Until next week,

Ronald Rosebud.

Final word on Blackest Night 3- Great art, a major revelation pretty soon in the series which means that things can’t be that easily wrapped up.  Read- more woe on its way.  Also, that new Firestorm inside of old dead Firestorm is going to make for some deus ex machina moment yet to come!

 Green Lantern #45- Awesome!  I was not a super fan of Doug Mahnke at first, but he is really growing on me.  And it was great to watch the two main love points of Hal’s life duking it out ( former romance and bromance), especially as when this sort of fight scene happens somehow the two antagonists also end up doing these psychological breakdowns of themselves).  So we have Carol Ferris and Sinestro slapping each other as they throw out personal details about their lives and take assessment, trips down memory lane, etc.  We find out Carol is somewhat unsure of her role as a Love Lantern, and that the Zamorrans have some sort of master plan for her, and that at one point, Sinestro loved Abin Sur’s sister, cool!  Everyone enjoys a good humanizing the villain moment.

Green Lantern Corps #40- Carnage on a grand scale as we see the resurrected Lanterns totally ravaging the Corps’ current roster, a rebellion smacked down, and our various Lantern faves having to kill or blast away at former lovers, friends, and deceased family members.  Pretty intense!  

Dark Avengers #8/Uncanny X-Men/Dark Avengers Exodus #1- Another pointless Marvel miniseries.  Without going into too much detail, the White Queen was really just an inside job, the mutants are rescued, there are too many for the Dark Avengers to kill, Asteroid M is resurrected as some sort of Cuba for mutants, and the White Queen has to stay in diamond form because she has a piece of the Void (Sentry Dark Phoenix) in her like, mind now, and it’s shaped liked a little black S on her forehead. 

Who cares?  Mutants always end up with some sort of refuge that inevitably gets blown up, so no status quo change there, Cyclops and the White Queen can’t bone anymore, unless he has a ruby quartz johnson, which means problems in their relationship, so status quo maintained there, and the world in general hates mutants, status quo stays where it has been since like, God Loves, Man Kills, in 1984.  

You want to know the best thing to come out of this?                    

X-Men Legacy Annual #1- Emplate’s back!  Man, he is such a creepy character, a weird jagged hair mouth hand mutant who fed on his own sister!  Reading this took me back to those like, first 12 issues of Generation X, with the kids with the freakish powers (ripping off skin to morph, too much skin, hole in torso filled with psionic energy, diamond hard skin in bondage costume) plus that cracked out moody Chris Bachalo art, that series rocked initially!  Well, he’s back, all creepy and looking to eat mutant bone marrow, and is attacking the new X-Men island with his floating lighthouse!  I heart this annual, and the art by Daniel Acuna is like if I could draw LSD hallucinations with pastels.  Taking the straw that was Utopia and turning into digestible gold. 

More later on North 40, Flash Rebirth, Fables, and the last days of Ex Machina…

-Franklin Firestar.