A day late, but not a dollar short this week, ’cause here we are with The Checklist!

All-Star Batman & Robin finally makes its way onto the shelves this week, as well as new Secret Invasion and Ultimate Spider-Man offerings.

Runaways proves once again why Molly should rule the Marvel universe, and a surprising outing from the Superman/Batman team.

Be sure to check out this week’s edition of The Watchtower for more news and reviews, and check back later this week for full-series reviews of Ultimates 3 and Universal War One.

ALL-STAR BATMAN & ROBIN #10
So after all the hubbub about recalled books and poorly printed profanity, this book certainly lived up to the hype. The art was breathtaking as always, even though it seemed like Miller held back a bit (in spite of the infamous profanity) and wrote a book that was very close to a more “typical” Batman story. I loved Batgirl’s part in the story, and how Miller is expanding his Year One/Dark Knight Returns universe. Great book and I love that it’s great for completely different reasons than its Superman counterpart.

NEW AVENGERS #45
This issue let us in on how the Skrull infiltrators dealt with the House of M storyline. I found it interesting that the House of M was referred to as only being a year ago. I guess Marvel time is slow time. It was a pretty good, and if you were paying attention, I think it totally set up who is going to make a dramatic return to save the day in Secret Invasion.

AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #17
So the “Shadow Initiative” leaps, er, crawls into action in this issue, as they attempt to assassinate the Skrull Queen in the guise of Spider-Woman. Only (Surprise!!) she’s a double, and not the real Queen. Didn’t we see this last week in Might Avengers? And since Reed Richards built his Skrull-Ray, do we care that 3-D Man can tell who’s a Skrull? Also, there were no Skrull recipes, which was a bit of a bummer.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #42
This is it! The final issue in the final arc of the epic Death of Captain America story. I’d say that this issue set up probably another year of storylines with the New Captain America. It was a pretty epic fight, and the ending bummed me out a bit, but I think that was just because this story has been so great that I didn’t want it to be over. I can say this though. Steve Rogers is still dead, and kudos to Ed Brubaker for making his death not only meaningful, but giving meaning to his legacy in these great stories.

FANTASTIC FOUR #560
You know what’s strange? The current “Death of The Invisible Woman” story in this book is very similar to the story in Ultimate X-Men/Fantastic Four Annuals out this month. This one is better written though, and in spite of its somewhat predictable swerve featuring Sue Richards, it was still a pretty great book.

RUNAWAYS #2
Terry Moore and Humberto Ramos continue to breathe life into the latest Runaway’s re-boot. We learn more about Karolina Dean here, and Ramos and Moore prove once again why Molly is the greatest character in the Marvel U. I’ve always been a fan of Runaways, but this creative team takes the book back to what made it great, and completely renews my interest with every issue.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #126
I trust Brian Bendis a great deal, but even he slips up every now and again. I was kind of confused by this issue, and mainly by my disappointment in this issue. So Peter becomes Venom, fights the Ultimates, and then… wakes up in bed? Then when he asks what happened, Nick fury says “Don’t worry about it.” Kind of a gyp to the reader, but it has set up a very interesting turn of events surrounding the Venom suit and its implications on the world stage. So one thumb up, one down for this issue.

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #52
OK. This book has been really bad for a long time. When I heard that the next storyline was going to feature the “Li’l Leaguers” I rolled my eyes along with everyone else. In the end though, I have to say, I was wrong. This issue featured some of the most emotional moments I’ve read in this series yet, and I found myself really responding to the book. It was also very funny, and I think as an overall story, really well written. That said though, I think that this story should have been an oversized one-shot. Something to set it apart from the mediocre storytelling so far.

Related posts

• The Watchtower Extras - Secret Invasion! (3)
• The Starting Gun - Secret Invasion #1 (1)
• The Checklist - Week of Sept 15th (0)
• The Checklist - Week of June 9th (0)
• The Checklist - Week of June 2nd (0)

Tags: All-Star Batman, Captain America, Fantastic Four, Runaways, Secret Invasion, Ultimate Spider-Man

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 12:01 am 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.