What I think of things, below the cut...

ANGEL & FAITH #10 : Oooh, ooh, nice Chris Samnee artwork inside. Yes, very pretty, and Christos Gage continues to nail the voices and characters of this Buffy spin-off. I continue to feel that this is a far stronger book than "Season 9", and this stand-alone issue is a great example of same. VERY GOOD.

ANIMAL MAN ANNUAL #1: I remember, once upon a time, when DC Annuals would be indispensable objects -- wrapping up "The Judas Quest" or important Swamp Thing plotlines, or even changing the status quo of a series entirely, like with the Firestorm one. Ah, those were the days! Despite being billed as a tie in the the Animal Man / Swamp Thing shared plot thingy, this doesn't feel consequential even a little bit. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe this will be, in hindsight, a key chapter, but it sure didn't seem like one as I was reading it on Wednesday. I also don't especially like the changes to Moore's elemental cosmology, or the retroactive "red elemental" changes that this story balances upon. I thought it was nice looking, but ultimately very EH.

BATMAN ANNUAL #1: And this one I just hated. Hated hated hated. Mr. Freeze's Batman-Animated origin was a perfect blend of tragedy and misunderstanding, and villains who don't especially think they're villains (and CONVINCE THE AUDIENCE OF SAME) are, for me at least, the strongest kind of antagonist. So, to remove that tragic underpinning, and to make Freeze just another looney reduces the character dramatically. Now, I will stipulate that the Nora plotline could only go so far, and that, in many ways, it rendered Freeze with a strong "Sell by" date: either he cures her disease, or he doesn't, but you've got, what, maybe 10-12 stories, MAX, to do that with? BUt I still wouldn't have wiped the issue out in this manner, where you're effectively saying "we've been lying to the audience", rather than adding some new detail or knowledge. This is the first Bat-failure for me, from Snyder, and it tastes oily in my mouth. AWFUL.

GRIM LEAPER #1: Expectations are a weird thing. I thought the plot description of this book sounded intriguing, so I picked it up with a "I'm going to very much like this", and then I really didn't like it, and about at the 3/4 point I thought "I really DISlike this", and then we got to the love story and suddenly I started liking it, partly because I told myself I didn't. So yeah, Deadman meets Quantum Leap, maybe? But that's the uninterestingly executed portion, and it doesn't become interesting until you meet the second leaper The two halves washed out for an OK, for me.

STAR TREK TNG DOCTOR WHO ASSIMILATION #1: IDW needs editors who can help shape the pace of a story a whole lot better -- much like the Trek/LSH comic the story doesn't really start in this issue (or, at least, until the last page) -- there's a lot of blah blah about a federation colony... but who care about them except as a plot device? Why are 8 pages being wasted on them. then we effectively watch the end of a Doctor Who episode (and it looks like a fun one), before we get to a meeting that is just bound to be the first entire half of the next issue of "wacky misunderstanding", and by the time everyone is on the same page, and the antagonism actually starts, as it relates to the protagonists, the series is going to be halfway over. *sigh* I generally like JK Woodward's art, but it seems far too insubstantial for this story. Shame, I really wanted to see this one work. OK

SUPERMAN FAMILY ADVENTURES #1: That's just crazy cute, and any sub 9-year old should love this comic to utter pieces. I know Ben did. I say GOOD and Ben says "EXCELLENT!!!" (yes, with those exclamation points)

WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #11 AVX: I really really like Nick Bradshaw's art. So much so that I almost don't even care that this isn't so much a story as "what happened between panels x & y in AVX #n". Hell, I'm even wiling to overlook Hope mimicking Logan's powers and popping out METAL CLAWS. Urf. Hm, maybe not that last one, since that doesn't make no sense. Anyway, doesn't matter -- pretty pretty pretty stuff, and the art lover in me says that makes this GOOD.

That's it from me, what did YOU think?

-B

(Oh, and new digital on the store this week:

AMERICAS GOT POWERS #2 (OF 6) BETTY & VERONICA FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #225 BLOODSTRIKE #28 BOMB QUEEN VII #4 GHOSTBUSTERS ONGOING #9 GI JOE SNAKE EYES ONGOING #13 GRIM LEAPER #1 (OF 4) HAWKEN #4 (OF 6) LIL DEPRESSED BOY #11 MONOCYTE #4 (OF 4) NEXT MEN AFTERMATH #43 PETER PANZERFAUST #4 ROGER LANGRIDGES SNARKED #8 STAR TREK ONGOING #9 STAR TREK TNG DOCTOR WHO ASSIMILATION #1 STEPHEN KING JOE HILL ROAD RAGE #4 (OF 4) TRANSFORMERS ROBOTS IN DISGUISE #5 WALKING DEAD #98 ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS ANNUAL 2012