A quick news recap!

Wow, I was of last week working on some music stuff and job hunting (still!) going out getting pissed and various other things. I flip open my laptop this weekend and the comics industry had gone mad with loads of breaking and exciting news, especially from DC. I'm sure you all know the big news stories by now, I'm just gonna post some of my thoughts.

First up the one I'm most excited about: Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne

I am SO excited for this. IMO "Batman R.I.P" is one of the greatest Batman stories ever. Morrison's whole run has been incredible. I just bought the companion to 'Batman RIP' (The Black Casebook), and the way Morrison references old story lines is masterful. His story shows why Bruce Wayne is and will always be THE greatest super hero ever. In 'Batman R.I.P' Bruce managed to fight off the greatest evil of all time, Satan himself in the guise of Dr. Hurt, and now in the next chapter of Morrisons masterpiece we have Batman battling through different ages in time to get back to the present Gotham City. Yeah i know this sounds a bit like a certain star spangled heroes journey from an opposing comics company, but I don't care, this mini series will piss all over that Cap mini, we're gonna have a pirate Batman for fucks sake! Did I mention Andy Kubert, the greatest artist of all time was involved too...! My head just exploded.

Marc Guggenheim to write 'Action Comics' in 2010

All I can see is "Thank fuck for that!". Rucka writes 'Detec' so he's the man and all, but the 'Action Comics' book has been shit since he's been writing it. I don't think its Rucka fault at all, he has to work with a bunch of different artists (mostly rubbish) and has been given some crap 'Superman New Krypton' bullshit storyline to follow along side James Robinson, and lame characters to work with. I like Guggenheim. I liked his 'Blade' series, I was one of the few who actually liked 'Young X-Men' and I dig his work on 'Resurrection' for Oni Press. Will he get 'Action Comics' to the height's that Geoff Johns did? Prob not, but I'll def give this a shot. 'War of the Supermen' seems to be the big DC event of next year, but I'm not too excited yet.

Free Comic Book Day 2010 - Marvel and DC titles announced.

DC:
WAR OF THE SUPERMEN #0
A war is coming, and all that stands between Earth and 100,000 vengeful supermen is one Superman! Special #0 issue featuring all-new material previews the conflicts to come!

Well it' free so that's a good start, but still... don't really care.

As for Marvel:
IRON MAN/THOR FCBD 2010 EDITION
Two of Marvel’s heaviest hitters like you’ve never seen them before! A major new direction for the Marvel Universe kicks off HERE – on Free Comic Book Day!

Again. Not. Really. Bothered. But it's free, so cool. I think Ill be checking out the other publishers more though this time around.

DC's Earth One

John's and Frank's on 'Batman: Earth One'. Sort of a dream come true for me. Since this teams amazing work on the Superman books I always wanted to see them try their hand at Batman. So I'm happy but... Earth One, the DCU's answer to Marvel's Ultimate line maybe, not too cool. I would have preferred them on a mainstream Batman title but I'll take this. I like the idea of this just being released as graphic novels too. Cool.

As for 'Superman: Earth One'... well we are just about half way though 'Superman: Secret Origins' and already they announce 'Superman: Earth One' which will no doubt again go over a new version of Superman's origin. I'm bored already. Plus it's written by J. Michael Straczynski who managed to bore me to death on 'Thor', 'The Twelve' and his 'Red Circle' titles. Pass.

Well that's it for now. Any of this news get you guys stoked?

More mini-reviews

Batman and Robin #5

A definite step down in artwork from last issue, the details and faces of characters didn’t look as good. Jason Todd is back to his red hair, oh and SPOILERS! it was him under the Red Hood. That was a bit disappointing for me as I thought Morrison was going to throw a curve ball in there and shock us with that one, but unfortunately no. I’m really not keen on the way Morrison wrote Jason Todd as being like a whiney kid in this issue, moaning that the helmet is giving him spots! I didn’t like that. I’m personally still holding out for Jason Todd to redeem himself as the good guy who died as a hero, but I don’t think it will ever happen (damn you Winick!). Scarlet however, the Red Hood’s new sidekick is a great new character, and this issue has a lot of focus on her, which is to its benefit.

3 out of 5

Cable #19

This is one of the worse issues in this Cable series I have read. It’s the continuation of what seems like a very silly story arc which sees Hope, Cable and Bishop battling against old X-Men foes the Brood, what the point is….I don’t know. There was some very strange stuff that I really couldn’t get my head around, for instance; Cable got swallowed by a giant space whale and Hope fights off a space shark with rockets coming out of it’s ass, all while floating in a giant green oxygen bubble in space! I think writer Duane Swierczynski may be on acid, maybe if I took some Id get it but you guys should def avoid this.

Oh, I should mention the art too… its pretty crap.

2 out of 5


Deadpool #16

This is the second part of the current story arc but you can easily jump on here, I did. All you need to know is that Deadpool wants to join the X-Men and we start this issue with Deadpool being refused entry from Cyclops. After being persuaded by Wolverine that it’s safer to have Deadpool under watch on Utopia and Dazzler pointing out the fact that calling Utopia a Mutant Haven but refusing Deadpool entry is a bit hypocritical, Cyclops decides to send Domino to invite Deadpool back. Hilarious scenes follow and Deadpool fans and X-fans should def give this a pick up. Highlight of the issue is when Deadpool dons his x-uniform he’s made and states “BOOM!... even has my name on the back!”. That cracked me up. Art is fantastic, and the cartoony element suits this book really well.

4 out of 5

Batman Annual #27 - Preview

Check out the first four pages of Batman Annual #27 HERE.

What's it about?

'Writer Fabian Nicieza and artist J. Calafiore present a tale of a murdered priest. A desecrated grave marker. A kidnapped child. A secret key. A mystery whose solution could upset the world order. For Batman and Robin to stop the rampage of a zealot named Amon, the Sixth Sinner, they first have to halt a deadlier foe intent on making sure Amon succeeds. To end the killer’s mad scheme, Batman faces Azrael, Death’s Dark Knight. “The Eighth Deadly Sin” continues in DETECTIVE COMICS ANNUAL #11 and sets the stage for this month’s premiere issue of the AZRAEL ongoing series. '

If your a fan of Grant Morrison's Batman run like me, this issue will no doubt have caught you attention as it continues the adventures of the new Azrael; Michael Lane, previously Morrison's '3rd Ghost of Batman'!

Matt's Mini Reviews

These books are weeks old now but I’m just catching up. As they are older ones, I’m sure I want be spoiling to much for you guys, so I’m just gonna do a quick ramble on what I though of each issue.


Batman and Robin #4

A real shift in art here as Philip Tan starts his arc. The panel lay outs are great, the coloring is dark and suits the mood of the book, Morrison picks up on various plot threads from his previous Batman work and I cant get enough of it. It’s like a long soap opera, he really is a complete master of the comic book form especially his work on Batman. Each issue needs to be studied like you would a text book, each phrase and action and re-action is there for a reason, nothing is included without lots of thought. Genius at work here, but that is just my opinion. The Red Hood & Scarlet were totally terrifying too, is the Red Hood Jason Todd? It certainly seemed like it at the end of this issue, but maybe there were some clues in there that it’s someone else?

4.5 Out of 5

Blackest Night #3

Wow, you got to feel for Firestorm after this issue, it was really messed up. That’s why Geoff Johns is so great. I love the use of other characters from the DCU, not just the GL’s. The Indigo Tribe make there presence known and it’s about time. A solid issue, good action and good character work, I’m sure all the goodness will continue to the next chapter.

3.5 Out of 5

Captain America Reborn #3

Some of the art feels really rushed on this issue. I am enjoying this series overall, but we need to be getting somewhere a bit quicker. There is a really cool action scene on the airplane where the Falcon stages a rescue of Bucky, probably one of the highlights of the mini-series so far. This series is good but I wanted the return of Steve Rogers to be great. 2 issues to go let’s hope it can get there.

3 out of 5

Dark Reign List Daredevil One Shot

This surprised me and I liked it much more than I thought I would. Daredevil really is the human punch bag of the Marvel U. Just when you think things cant get any worse for him, he decides to play cat and mouse with Bullseye and as a result, Bullseye is let loose and able to blow up a huge building full of innocent families, just to give a big two fingers up at Murdock. Man that Bullseye is evil! There was a great twist at the end also, with Master Izo being captured by Ninja clan the Hand, sure to face the death penalty as one of Daredevils tests to become leader of the Hand. I hadn’t planned on picking up Daredevil now Brubaker had left, but Diggle MIGHT have just pulled me back in.

3.5 Out of 5

Mini reviews of X-Factor #48, Blackest Night: Batman #2, X-Men Legacy Annual #1 & Sword #19 coming soon.

Previews please!

Dark Reign: The List - X-Men - Preview

Batman and Robin #4 - Preview

Brave & Bold #27 -Preview

R.E.B.E.L.S #8 - Preview

Check out Streets of Gotham and Action Comics

Batman: Streets of Gotham #4

I love that freaky cover. Creeps me out. I’m sure the main story will be as good as ever, I just hope the Manhunter back up gets better this issue, it’s the worst back up story from DC I’ve read so far.

Check the preview here.

Action Comics #881

I’m not gonna be buying this, but if you guys want to see the preview before you step in to your stores tomorrow, check it here.

The next Batman & Robin artist is...

A new Batman & Robin artist has been announced to follow Phillip Tan’s arc on the title. The person in question is Cameron Stewart, who has previously worked on CATWOMAN and Vertigo’s SEAGUY.

I thought I wasn’t familiar with Stewarts work but after a quick look on the net for more of his previous stuff it turns out that his was the artist on The Other Side series by Jason Aaron. If you haven’t read it it’s a great Vietnam story about the horrors of war and the effect it has on soldiers, and more importantly here, it’s a really nice looking book. There is some fantastic haunting imagery in the book as the soldiers are constantly hallucinating and experiencing some frightening scenes. So basically I’m pleased with this news. Morrison obviously likes working with Stewart as they are already collaborating on Seaguy, so no doubt Morrison will write to Stewart’s strengths and hopefully the serious will continue strong. A cover sketch for Batman & Robin by Stewart can be seen above.

Blackest Night: Batman #2 - Preview

Nice preview over at IGN. You can check it HERE.

I wasn't crazy about the first issue, but Tomasi is a good writer and it looks like we'll get some Tim Drake action this issue too, so I look forward to reading this.

Mega mini reviews!

I’m so behind on my comic books because there has been so many I’ve picked up in the last couple of weeks I haven’t got round to reading them all yet. Due to that some of these reviews might be for older comics (I’ve lost track to be honest), but I want to try and do as many mini reviews as I can from now on so here we go:

Batman and Robin #3 - Review

Really really great. The usual thick layering of Morrison’s Batman work continues. Like his run on Batman, Morrison’s comics don’t always read that great as single issues but read together they are fantastic. Pyg as a villain is insanely sick and brilliant and my fav Batman villain for a long time. Quitely also does great work here (and I’m not generally a fan). Stand out scene was when Pyg had Robin tied to the chair and danced provocatively in front of him before Damian responds by saying “You just redefined ‘Wrong’” – Fan-fucking-tastic. Damian rocks.

4 out of 5

Detective Comics #856 - Review

The great work here continues. This really is one of my favorite titles. It is just so beautiful. Rucka pulls no punches when it comes to Kate’s sexuality and I love that. The story is intriguing, but discussion with the supporting cast can be a little confusing, if like me you had never read any story with Kate Kane/Batwoman before. Like Pyg in the pages of Batman & Robin another great addition to the villains of Gotham is the haunting Alice.

Finally The Question back up should not be ignored, this is the best co-feature DC is producing, and like the books namesake is a great little detective story.

4.5 out of 5

Red Circle: The Shield #1 - Review

Ummmm…. It was okay, But I was expecting more after the last issue (The Web) that was pretty good.
So the story goes that the main character is injured in the army. The US government then save his life by attaching liquid armor to his skin that can be absorbed into his body. It allows for super strength and flight amongst about a hundred other things. It’s basically really ridiculous. The little story hook is that the Shield’s father is actually alive (when the Shield believes him dead) and appears to be connected in the background of the Shield project some how. An average read. I’ll try the first issue or so when the regular series hits but I’m not too excited.

2 out of 5

Dark Avengers #8 - Review

Cyclops as the new mutant Messiah! A bit hypocritical really, as at the end of this issue the X-Men raise their ‘Utopia’ island from the sea and declare they want mutants to be separate from humans on the main land, but isn’t that what Magneto did with Asteroid M and what the X-Men are meant to fight against? Anyway, I loved this issue, the best of the cross over so far. Emma and Namor show their true colors to Osborn, which will lead into the big fight finale one-shot between the Dark Avengers and X-Men. It was played well, and rocked. Fraction did a really good job on this issue. All I want to know is what happened to Beast? He sort of disappeared in the middle of the issue, I hope we find out in the next chapter, he looked so sad with his little cat eyes.

4 out of 5

Wolverine Origins #39 - Review

Romulus is here! Finally this is what I have been waiting for. This title was pretty shit form day one but ever since Dark Reign it’s been pretty good. This was a chapter where a couple of big X-Men villains die. Romulus, for those of you who haven’t been reading this book, is the mastermind behind every shitty event in Wolverines life, ever. How are connected? Why has Romulus been doing this to Wolverine? Not sure yet. But he looks like he could be Wolvie’s dad or granddad or something. GIVE ME THE ANSWERS NOW! Or at least next issue… please!!!!!

4 out of 5

Check back tomorrow for mini reviews of Blackest Night Superman #1, X-Men Legacy #227 and more!

Megan Fox is Catwoman in Batman 3!?!

(Just imagine that body in the cat suit!)

According to British tabloid the Sun, Megan Fox will be in the role of Catwoman in Nolans Next Batman movie. How accurate is this? Who knows? But I woudn't count the Sun newspaper amongst the most reliable sources when in comes to movie news. Most of the news they print is rubbish, slightly entertaining, but mostly rubbish nonetheless.

So what do you guys think about Fox as Selina Kyle, she certainly is one of the most sort after actresses in Hollywood at the moment and I think if Catwoman was to be in the next Batman, I've got no probs with Fox in the role, and Nolan done an amazing job with the first 2 films so I trust his judgement, unless he's just thinking with his dick!.

Late (if you live in the US) DC previews

So I’ve been bit slack this week at posting all the previews for this weeks books, seems there has been a lot. I know these comics were released yesterday in the US, but for guys like me who get there comics a little later, these DC previews still might help you with your purchasing decisions this week. Just click the title of your choice to be taken to the preview:

Detective Comics #856

Wonder Woman #35


Superman #691

BATMAN: THE WIDENING GYRE #1

More Mini Reviews - Last weeks books

Uncanny X-Men #514

A good chapter in this cool little cross over. Summers steps up and starts putting teams of various X-Men in tactical positions for the final show down. Emma’s true involvement with Osborn is still unclear to me. The Daken/Bullseye ruck was fun, it’s only a matter of time before that really boils over. The art and coloring are really great, writing too, but I would like to see more of Dark Beast and the captured mutants to find out what’s going on there. Hopefully that will be explored next chapter.

Blackest Night: Batman #1

Ummm… I was a bit disappointed with this. It was okay but I think after two great chapters in the main Blackest Night series I was expecting more of the same big action and dark horror, but this didn’t really have it. It mainly sets that up for next issue, and there was too much focus on Deadman for me, and him jumping from body to body. He could easily been given a co-title. Not sure if Tomasi’s writing of Dick and Damian was right for me either, I know the action will be coming next issue, so I look forward to that.

Red Circle: Inferno #1

Really nice art, sketchy and dark, but no real story of how Inferno ended up the way he is, or why he looks completely different when he changes to Inferno (i.e. goes bald and grows a moustache!). Could have been another chapter of Hangman as he was featured a lot, and used well, though the extent of his powers seem unclear. I’m not sure on this series. First issue is all origin for Hangman, this issue has none at all for Inferno. The Web is featured next. Lets see how that issue turns out, but this one is probably another pass.

Whoah! That's a lot of previews!

Cover to Deadpool #13, gotta be a contender for cover of the week

Over at CBR we have the following Marvel previews for comics on sale 12 August.
Click the links below to be taken to the preview of your choice.

Cable #13
Captain America Theater Of War: To Soldier On One Shot
Deadpool #13
Dominic Fortune #1
Incredible Hercules #132
Lockjaw and The Pet Avengers #4
Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #14
Marvel Divas #2
Ms. Marvel #43
Pride & Prejudice #5
The Marvels Project #1
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1
Uncanny X-Men #514
Uncanny X-Men: First Class #2
X-Men Forever #5

Ultimate Avengers #1 preview can be found over at IGN here.

I’m looking forward to this. I haven’t liked any of the previous Ultimate titles that much but the art looks great and I’m a fan of Millar’s writing, most of the time. Plus the story sounds good (spoilers on!). From what I know Cap goes AWOL after finding out the Red Skull is his son! The rest of the Avengers then have to hunt him down. Sounds really cool to me, and I love the Red Skull twist.

IGN also has a nice 8 page preview of Daredevil #500. Including a back up story with art by David Aja, as seen above! That makes me very happy. Check out the full preview here.


Over at Newsarama they have a preview (art only) for the upcoming mini-series NOMAD: GIRL WITHOUT A WORLD #1 here. I know Flips the Page will be dying to see that if he hasn’t already.

Finally over at DC’s The Source you get a preview of Batman #689 here. Great cover by Andy Kubert as always. It’s a shame he’s not doing the pencils instead of Mark Bagley.

You also get a preview of Red Robin #3 here.

I’m not a fan of the artwork on this title so I was please to also find out at the Source that “Starting in November with RED ROBIN #6, Marcus To (Aspen’s Soulfire) will step in as the new ongoing artist on RED ROBIN, taking over for Ramon Bachs, who steps over to launch AZRAEL with writer Fabian Nicieza.”

So the good news is that Red Robin gets a new artist, the bad news is that Bachs steps over to Azrael, a series I’m looking forward to. Hopefully I’ll prefer his work on that title.

That’s wraps up previews day I think. Thanks for all your comments this week, they’ve been great. Seems I’m getting around 300 hits a week on my site and that is fantastic. I’m really glad people like to keep coming back to my little blog and I love chatting with you all and reading your comments.

Please also check out the other site I write for; A Comic Book Blog if you get a chance. There are lots of great writers and articles over there and is definitely worth a look.

Have a great weekend guys. What will you be up to? I’ll be reading loads. I've got the Ghost World tpb to read, I’ve also bought lots of old Detective Comics issues really cheap this week. Ones written by Alan Grant, who is one of my fav Batman writers, so I look forward to reading them and trying to catch up with my other huge stack of comics I haven’t got round to reading yet, all the while trying to avoid doing work in the garden that my girlfriend wants me to do!

-Hex

Matt’s Monday Mini Reviews

These are going to be mega mini reviews of some of last weeks comics that I’ve read. The rest of my stack will receive the mini review treatment tomorrow.

X-Factor #46 – Peter David is the man. This is just a great read every time. This issue included; time travel, cyborgs, Sentinels, men still kissing & women fighting (but no kissing). Another solid issue for X-Factor fans.

Dark Avengers #7 – Written by Matt Fraction, continues the Utopia story in good, if unremarkable fashion. One point of note though (Spoilers on!) – Beast possibly losing his blue fur!?!?!?!. Not sure how I feel about that. He has been the blue fur-ball for as long as I can remember, maybe he needs a change back. Guess we’ll find out next issue. Oh and Luke Ross is in on art unfortunately.

Blackest Night #1 – Awesome horror tale featuring all your fav DC characters back from the dead as super villain zombies! Hunting for flesh and all those capes who have escaped death’s clutches! Beautiful art by Ivan Ries (the coolest Elongated Man has ever looked!) and classic Geoff Johns goodness. Get it; this series is going to be huge!

Batman: Streets of Gotham # 2 – Best ‘Batman Reborn’ title so far (along with Detective Comics). Features a great cast of villains; Firefly (setting the city ablaze), Black Mask (new crime boss of Gotham) and Hush, who in this issue escapes from Batman’s prison and decides to give all of Bruce’s money away! This creative team is making exactly the type of Bat book I love. Highly recommended.

Wednesday Comics # 2 – Loving this series. Reads a bit quick but the huge newspaper format is so fun and every story is drawn beautifully. Highlights were; Kamandi, Strange Adventures & Hawkman. It is pricey at $3.99 but it’s def worth a look.

Action Comics # 879 – I’m still picking this up every month but it’s just ok. I decided to keep at it as I have faith in Rucka to produce the goods (and this issue was better) and I wanted to check out the Captain Atom back up feature which was strange but good. Basically it was Atom sent to take out load of Lord of the Rings extras! I’m intrigued. As for Nightwing & Flamebird they went up against General Lane’s goons in another action packed story. I’ll be back next month.

DC annouce Superman/Batman animated Movie

The news broke yesterday of another straight to DVD animated movie from DC entitled Superman/ Batman: Public Enemies, due out in September. This is based on the first Superman/Batman story arc buy Jeph Loeb. This story has been reported on a few sites but so far the site I have found with the most details on the release is Major Spoilers.

Check out the full article here: http://www.majorspoilers.com/archives/17491.htm/#more-17491

I will probably be buying this on the 2 disc format. I just hope its better than the comic it’s based on which was pretty poor.

Monday Mini Reviews – 22/06/2009

Batman: Streets of Gotham # 1
– 4 out of 5

Ill just come out and say it first, yes surprisingly this is best Bat book so far of the 'Batman: Reborn' line. I can hear the Paul Dini fans laughing and yelling ‘I told you so’ and they would be right. Like most people I think I was most excited about Morrison’s Batman & Robin #1, which was good, and I’m looking forward to where that is going but Streets of Gotham for me has topped that for an issue no. 1 and setting up my excitement for the series.

Firstly this issue had a big cast, between Gordon, Harley Quinn, Firefly & Batman & Robin, each of these characters were touched on and written perfectly. The art and coloring is fantastically dark & gritty, which is what I want in a Bat book, and while being… I hate the word but cartoony, it still retains an edge.

The story picks up pieces from Battle for the Cowl, with the mention of Black Mask, the Arkham break out, city in ruins etc etc and takes lead from there. Firefly is the bad guy to watch in this issue. What he does is totally evil and shocking and is how a Bat villain should act. The way this book is written by Dini reminds me of Alan Grants great work on Shadow for the Bat and some of the early 90’s Detective Comics and Batman issues, i.e. street level grit, new villain of the week, while still dealing with Gotham cities residence personal struggles, and I love that.

It was totally unexpected that I liked this issue as much as I did as I didn’t really care for Dini’s recent work on Detective Comics. It was okay but I never liked the cast of characters he used and the types of stories that were told. This book in a way is a continuation of Detective but with a new cast that will hopefully be continuing the style of the old school story lines. If it does continue in this manner I’m on board.

With regards to the Manhunter back up, I can’t comment on it that much yet. It was only about 10 pages and pretty much just setting up the main character moving to Gotham. We will see where this goes but I’m not going to complain at some extra pages in my comic.


X-Men: Origins; Gambit
– 3 out of 5

This was pretty much only going to be bought by die-hard Gambit fans, and I knew that, but if that is the case then at least give us something new please, not just a collection of all the stories we know squeezed into one issue. This should have been a mini series, and the origin could have been explored in much greater detail with more of a chance to get to know Gambit as a character.

The time line for this issue is basically from Gambits marriage to Belladona up to where he meets and saves a young Ororo, but not too much in between. We basically have Gambits meeting with Sinister & the Marauders Massacre. If you know the history of Remy like me this is fine, but if you were a new reader you may well get lost.

The art by David Yardin is absolutely gorgeous and the highlight of the issue. The writing work by Mike Carey is solid but one thing that does grate on me when he writes Gambit is that every other sentence is said in French!! Now hear me out, I know Gambit grew up in the French quarter of New Orleans but we read in English and I don’t buy a comic to not understand what I’m reading. Now I have this beef with Carey as he writes WHOLE sentences in French, I have been a Gambit fan since his creation and from what I remember other writers would throw in a ‘chere’or a ‘mon ami’ from time to time, which is fine as these are obvious words that most people know which give the character an identity and personality, but not whole sentences please.

Anyway, rant over. Average story, beautiful art, but for die-hard fans only.

Superman # 689 & Gotham City Sirens # 1 Previews

Over at DC the blog they have posted 7 page previews of Mon-El’s next adventure in Superman and the new Bat-family book from Paul Dini. Above is the nice variant for issue 1 by J G Jones.

Link here: http://dcublog.dccomics.com/

Monday Mini Reviews

Really good week for comics. Here are the first titles I read and what I thought of them:

Amazing Spider-Man # 597 – 5 out of 5

Best Spider-Man book I have read since……… I can’t remember when. I was a bit disappointed with the last issue but this really steps it up a gear. Spidey throws down with Daken who works out he is not Venom, and basically the fight is awesome. Harry shocks readers by proving he will do anything to get on his fathers good side (we presume to later stab in the back to steal the Goblin serum cure for girlfriend Menace) and there is a nice shocking and violent ending, where the game is pretty much up for Peter and the next issue I hope we will see how evil Norman can really be. I could not fault this issue in any way; both writing and art were fantastic. Loved it.

X-Factor # 44 – 4 out of 5

Again this book continues to impress month after month. Another great ending another and another great twist in this amazing story. Peter David I think writes to best dialogue of any comic book writer today. His characters are smart and funny, and you fall in love with every single one of them. They are characters of today, modern and young and relatable (in a mind space sort of sense), but put in extraordinary circumstances. My only problem was that the story of Jamie in the future has not really moved on much in the last few issues, and apart from Jamie and Layla’s relationship, not much is explored further here. Also the story from last issue with the cliffhanger ending dealing with Rictor & Strong Guy and Jamie’s Dupe was not touched on at all. I was looking forward to seeing where that went. Guess I’ll have to wait and see until next month. Overall though another fantastic issue.

Batman # 687 – 2.5 out of 5

Hated the cover to this issue, the JG Jones variant I wanted was too expensive for me too, but on with the story. This issue pretty much pointed out that Battle for the Cowl was totally unnecessary; I mean I thought Battle for the Cowl was okay and a fun ride, but this is the issue that actually deals with Dick deciding to take up the mantle of the Bat. Not much really happens accept for Dick contemplating continuing Bruce’s legacy, and deciding that if he does it has to be in his own way. The artwork by Benes is decent and the emotional moments where Alfred expresses his feeling about the loss of his ‘son’ to Superman were written and drawn beautifully. Winick did a good job overall with the characters. The reason I can’t give this more than 2.5 mark, as it was a pretty good issue, is that I am pissed at the way DC have handled this issue and Battle for the Cowl as a mini. DC could have easily put out one oversized issue compacting both stories and saving the readers money. Having said that I am looking forward to the next issue and where Winick takes this story.

Deadpool # 11 – 5 out of 5

I just really enjoyed this as it was just so much fun. The jokes were laugh out loud and even though sometimes corny and obvious Deadpool as a character gets away with it. This issue pretty is much a continuation of the Bullseye vs. Deadpool dust up with a psychotic butcher thrown into the mix for Deadpool to deal with in a rather gruesome way. There are also some very funny flashbacks of the two main characters as children at school which were hilarious. Paco Medina’s pencils are just great and so much fun, I think he is just really suited to this book. Lots of action+ lots of laughs = great issue. Next issue will see the conclusion to this arc and the way this book is written by Daniel Way I wouldn’t be so sure that Deadpool will come out the victor. Can’t wait.