This week in The Checklist, JLA takes us into Final Crisis, Amazing Spider-Man breaks the boring streak, and Ultimate X-Men shoots back into the upper echelon of comicdom!

Check it all out, agree, disagree, and tune into The Watchtower for more talk of these issues, and other issues!

(See how it had the double meaning there? Pretty awesome, huh?)

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #21
This is the first issue from DC to bear the “Sightings” banner, which is supposed to mean that it is a key part of the upcoming Final Crisis story. Does it live up to this billing? Kinda. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman get a new “secret” room to meet in. We see a hint of the return of the Martian Manhunter, and get a little bit of the backstory on Libra, the supposed orchestrator of Final Crisis. Nothing more than tidbits really, and at one point Superman refers to Ray Palmer as missing. Didn’t they find him in Countdown? I guess even Supes wasn’t reading that book.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #15
A quick issue, as the JSA kicks the CRAP out of the man they call Gog. What we learn though, is that his claims may not be all he says, and in a spectacular splash page, we find out the truth. There is also a preview of “what’s to come in JSA this year.” Clearly they are setting things up for an even larger story arc featuring the Kingdom Come characters, but is does raise the question of how this book will be affected by Final Crisis. I’m intrigued enough to stick with it.

SUPERMAN BATMAN #48
The penultimate chapter of “K” had a slightly more political tone to it, but in the end it wasn’t that bad. It could have been much better, but it wasn’t horrible. I would however like to declare a moritorium on all Doomsday-modeled characters in the Superman world. This most recent incarnation was infused with Kryptonite, which made him somewhat more interesting than his predecessors, but in the end still the same old schtick. Hopefully the last chapter of this oft-delayed storyline pays off.

SPAWN #178
This seems to be a week of standalone stories as this adventure finds Mammon pitting a new foe against Spawn: A Vampire. The Vampire wants nothing more than to die, but to do so he must first bite Spawn. What effect does a vampire’s bite have on the Hellspawn? We dont know, becuase they never get around to answering it. Frustrating. Hopefully all will be explained next issue.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #560
Aaaaaaaaaand she’s back! It was bound to happen, but who knew it would be this soon into Brand New Day! Message boards all over the ‘net will be alight with the last page of this week’s issue, in my 2 cents though it’s great!! And did you catch the title of the book she was reading? Classic!! Much better than last week’s snore-fest, and keeping the focus on the creepy new villian, Paperdoll, was much better than the “urban gymnast” of last week.

AVENGERS INITIATIVE #13
OK. So this was a cute little heart-warming story about a kid who wanted more than anything to play with the big boys in the Initiative. As a stand-alone story, not too bad. But as a series, I was hoping for a LOT more from this book. Maybe they are just taking a breather before launching into another storyline, but if so, they need to do it quick. This book isn’t strong enough to survive on it’s own, and only really works when coupled with another story (The Initiative, World War Hulk, etc).

CAPTAIN AMERICA #38
This is still one of the most consistently great books on the market. Brubaker and Epting’s opus continues in high gear, as we find out a bit more about the man Dr. Faustus and The Red Skull want to install as “their” Captain America. Longtime Cap fans will be very excited, and for the newcomers, the history behind the newest contender for the title of Captain America is clearly explained. This story is going to make for one hell of a graphic novel, but to be honest, I simply can’t wait that long! It’s hard enough waiting issue to issue for this incredible book!

FANTASTIC FOUR #557
Since Millar and Hitch have taken over this title, it has ramped up to be on par with Captain America and Ultimate Spider-Man, both of which are never-miss titles. This month’s issue is no exception, as the first arc of the run concludes with everyone’s favourite: giant robots! Toss in some romance, a little Thing-bred humor, and you have everything this classic foursome should be. Fantastic!!

INCREDIBLE HERCULES #117
The first of two Secret Invasion Tie-Ins this week, finds Hercules in council with the Gods of many different Earth Cultures. Since the Skrulls invasion is based on religious prophecy, they think that they should set out to battle the Skrull-Gods that are worshipped by the invaders. So the “Sacred Invasion” begins. Aside from developing the religious aspect of the Skrulls invasion, I don’t really see a need for this book. I wasn’t that happy when they gave The Hulk’s book over to Hercules, and once again the story here isn’t one that gets my excitement up.

MIGHTY AVENGERS #14
It’s really great to see this book sticking with a decent release schedule. This Secret Invasion Tie-In issue let’s us in on how the Skrulls plan to deal with the variable that is The Sentry. Bendis does a great job as always of weaving a story that fits perfectly into the larger scope of Secret Invasion. I was a little unclear as to the ending, but I can faithfully assume that all questions will be cleared up with time.

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #54
This issue wasn’t bad in terms of the story, and some great character developments. Unfortunatly, that was somewhat overshadowed by the terrible, terrible art. I can’t tell if it was on purpose, or if it was some kind of printing error, but the art looks like it was done with pencil crayons, and then not inked. There’s a wierd gloss on everything, that makes it look like I’m reading a photocopied version of the book. Like I say, it might have been an printing error, but it was really distracting while reading the book.

ULTIMATE X-MEN #94
Utimate X-Men is back! A new team of Heroes Writer Aron E. Coleite and penciller Mark Brooks take over as the X-Men deal with the aftermath of the Ultimate Apocolypse story. This is one of the best issues of this book I have read in a LONG time. Brooks’ pencils take me back to the early stories of this book, Coleite writes with the same edgy tone that he does in Heroes, and to seal the deal, we have the debut of Ultimate Alpha Flight!! If you have fallen off the Ultimate X-Men bandwagon, now is the time to get back on, trust me!!

WOLVERINE ORIGINS #25
Well. That was aggravating. This issue was only a half-issue, as the latter half of the book was dedicated to re-printing the origin of Deadpool… for some reason. It also plugged a new Deadpool series. Uh, they do remember it’s called “Wolverine” Origins, right? But I guess it makes sense to finish off a half-assed story with a half-assed effort. This book is rapidly becoming a very, very big disappointment.

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