My apologies for being a little absent from posting this week, but I have been up to my neck in stuff getting ready for the release of No Reason #0, and there’s been so much stuff coming out of San Diego this past weekend, than it’s been hard to stay on top of it.

Fear not though, details on No Reason #0, as well as a full wrap on SDCC are coming, as well as a fun story about my National TV Debut! Yep, I’m not quite done beating that one to death yet.

But for now, here’s this week’s Checklist, and be sure to tune into The Watchtower this week when we talk with New Era Caps about the latest and greatest in comic headgear!

WAR HEROES #1
The back of this book features a quote from Mark Millar’s Ultimates partner Brian Hitch that is something to the lines of “we should have done this as Ultimates 3.” Now, barring the fact that a 7-year old drawing with fingerpaint would be better than the current Ultimates 3, Hitch is spot on. This story of superpowered soldiers was a great book. Marvel missed out by not giving Millar a chance to get this one out under their banner. The art was great, the story was fresh and intriguing, and I can’t wait for Issue #2!

UNCANNY X-MEN #500
Yeah, I wish that I could say this is a bold new direction for the X-Men, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it. “Manifest Destiny” has started out like most X-stories, buried in continuity and marred by attempts to keep up with all that’s gone on in the X-world in the last couple of years. Also, I understand the need to pair up big-name creators, but having Brubaker, Fraction, Dodson(s) and Land all on the same book, trading off pages and whatnot, just makes for a very disjointed feeling. Also, I wasn’t sure if the changes in art were supposed to mark points in the story, or if they were just happening randomly. The redeeming factors would be the gorgeous covers, in spite of the fact there were half a dozen of them.

ANGEL: REVALATIONS #3 (OF 5)
This book continues to rocket along and make one of the most irrelevant X-Men interesting. The art, as always, is incredible, and barring the appearance of the typical “bad” priest character, the story has been what Ultimate Iron Man I should have been. It’s hard to make characters that come from well-off backgrounds interesting without some kind of tragedy (Batman) but this book manages to do it, and do it with style.

HACK/SLASH SUICIDE GIRLS ANNUAL
OK. I know what you are thinking. Normally, I wouldn’t even consider buying this shameless piece of T & A, but we recently met some Suicide Girls at the last convention we attended, and they were both really cool chicks. So with that in mind, I gave this book a shot. It was actually much better than I thought it was going to be, with a solid story and decent art. Sure, it was mainly about shameless co-branding, but if it works, it works. I actually might check out some Hack/Slash trades after reading this annual.

TWO-FACE: YEAR ONE #1 (OF 2)
This book was a huge disappointment. It was literally a Crib-Sheet version of Two-Face’s origin in The Long Halloween (literally the same characters, names, and events), and it wasn’t’ done very well. The story was choppy, the art looked rushed and clearly this was just an attempt to cash in on Two-Face’s appearance in The Dark Knight. Ooops, spoiler alert!

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #23
Amazo? Wow, it’s 22 issues ago! Didn’t we already see this story? I recall liking it then, but I’m pretty done with it at this point. Also, we are spending way to much time on Vixen. I understand that she’s an excuse to draw a bum, but I need a little more story please. Shouldn’t this book be touching on, I dunno, Final Crisis?

NEW AVENGERS #43
This Secret Invasion tie-in continued the fight in The Savage Land. We find out what life is like for some of the Skrull-Doubles, and we get one big reveal (or confirmation if you are smarter than me) of the people currently locked in battle in the Savage Land. I thought that this was a great book, telling a crucial part of the story. Now, some people would ask why that part of the story wasn’t told in Secret Invasion itself, but I like that the whole scope of the story is big enough that the tie-in issues actually mean something.

AVENGERS INITATIVE #15
All that said about New Avengers #43, I thought Avengers Initiative was completely missable. We learned the identity of another “good” Skrull, and someone’s 3-D glasses get mess with, with hilarious results! Not really a great issue, and I can’t help but wonder how many “good” Skrulls we’re going to run into. They’re pretty boring.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 9:07 pm and is filed under Reviews, The Checklist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.