Not Daily

As we can see, I'm not doing well at the daily updates. I'll try harder. Two nights ago, Ben kept waking up every 2 hours or so, moaning and whining. I say "woke up" except that his eyes never opened, and I don't think he was conscious at any point.

So I was kinda a wreck yesterday.

Plus I promised Tzipora that I'd finally clean my room, which mostly entails taking 9 months worth of comics and properly filling them on my bookshelves.

This is a five hour job, sheesh.

Anyway, that's why no update yesterday.

Let's start off sorting through the comics for the week of 8/4 (Which, incidentally, was Ben's 10 month birthday, hooray!)

BIRDS OF PREY #71: A solid issue though the cover was a smidge deceptive. I'm also a little meh on the drama of the ending, but like I said, solid issue. OK.

DCCP: SUPERMAN: I don't think you're likely to find another comic book every again that features both Stan Lee and Paul Levitz writing. And I was quite surprised how much I liked both stories. Art by Darwyn Cooke and Keith Giffen also helped. But Stan's story was genuinely charming -- if the "Just Imagine" books had been this sweetly written, they coulda been a big hit. I mean "SUPERMAN! How did you find me?" "Hey, I'm Superman." is just fun. Very Good.

SWAMP THING #6: And so, the original mini-series ends. Actually, this is a decent way to end things, because the story could go virtually anywhere from here, yet there's at least a moment of potential happy endings for just about everyone. Good.

Y THE LAST MAN #25: Is this the first we've seen of Beth in 2 years? Anyway, another solid issue, though I'd really like to see a few things come to a head pretty soon. Good.

JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE #2: I don't think I like any of these characters, to be honest. And a book without likeable protagonists isn't likely to keep much of an audience. Eh.

CAPTAIN AMERICA & FALCON #6: I really liked the first half, while I thought the second half descended into nonsense. On the other hand, the "new" Falcon scenes were super excellent. Hard to grade this one because of the abrupt shift in tone, so let's split the difference to an OK.

TRAILER PARK OF TERROR COLOR SPECIAL #1: What's odd is looking at the line work here, some of these stories would probably look better in B&W.... Otherwise, this is sub-EC stuff, tremendously not scary, nor "trashy" like the title might make one hope. Eh.

EXILES #50: Cute set-up. Exiles is sometimes neat because you can do things that you can't do in the "regular" books. I mean, a precog is one of the most powerful of powers, isn't it? You'd rule the world in 6 months with that, it seems. But you can't do that in X-Men. Anyway, Good.

JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES #34: Top Notch "Big 3" story from Stuart Moore. Possibly my favorite single issue of this run. Very Good.

BATMAN 12-CENT ADVENTURE: Well, it's cheap so you can't really complain (though, as always, I find cursive captions to be a pain in the ass to read), and it is absolutely worth the money (and I don't mean that snarkily), but I'm pretty unsure if this works as an "intro" to the Bat books -- If I wasn't much interested in the bat-titles in the first place, the content here wouldn't be drawing me back, stunt pricing or not. OK.

DETECTIVE #797: The first "real" (numbered) bit of "War Games" and it is mosly a lot of running and shouting. *shrug* It's not bad, but I'm not at all excited about gang wars in Gotham. I kinda liked the back up story better, even though literally nothing happens. OK

FIRESTORM #4: I like the protagonist OK, but this is way too fast of a ride, with too little dealing with the "how does this all work?" question for my dollar. I sorta don't think this is going to make it out of the first year. OK.

ULTIMATE NIGHTMARE #1: I suppose the set-up is fine, but I breezed through reading this in less than no time. Looks nice, reads well, but super-fast. Let's see what #2 brings. OK.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #63: Very good and very strong up until Conners shows up. What was he doing there, again? Just a big "duh" moment. Good.

ULTIMATE X-MEN #50: Now with 20% more soap opera! Dunno, well told, but don't care. Eh.

X-MEN THE END #1: Wow. Really don't care.

That's all I gots read so far this week, more later.

-B

Sorry for delay

Sunday and Monday I had a store project I needed to finish and forgot about until zero hour. All done, though. I just got back from the store (doing THIS week's books), so let's wrap LAST week by talking about all of the BOOKS you should go and pick up and your local funnybook emporium when you stroll in tomorrow.

In friendly alphabetical order (Or, at least, Alpha by Diamond listings):

B KRIGSTEIN COMICS HC: Yes it is pricey, but damnation, it's worth every penny. Krigstein was a genius, and even the slightest story in this big-ass volume is pure gold. My one quibble: despite it being in the first, biographical volume, I think they missed a big boat by not putting "The Master Race" in this edition.

BONE ONE VOLUME EDITION: Well, you probably can't buy it anyway. We got allocated at just over 1/3 of our order (*sigh*) and all of the rack copies sold out in like 10 minutes. Expect a much much longer thought on this in about a week in Tilting at Windmills over on Newsarama.... Either way, this is top notch comics by a top notch cartoonist, and some version of Bone should be in your collection. I can't wait until Ben is old enough for me to read this to him... (though, actually, it'll be the HC I'll be ordering once it is solicited. I left the SC at the store since we got allocated)

CEREBUS V 16: THE LAST DAY: End of an era, and this volume is worth it for the essay in the back, alone. Honestly, I think it explains a bit more than I had previously understood about the last few years. (Lester, read it before I come in on Friday -- should give us at least 30 minutes of conversation...) One of these days, if I ever find time, I'll write an essay about Cerebus as a complete work, but if you can find a better all-around cartoonist than Dave Sim, I'd like to meet him. The timing, the draftsmanship, the craft and care -- I don't really care if the whole thing ends on the biggest reductio ad absurdum ever, I don't really care if you don't care for his politics or his thinking (fuck, if George Bush could draw like this, I'd buy his comics too!), comics will be a poorer place for not having Dave Sim around, month-in, month-out showing us how to do it. Seriously, read Cerebus, you'll be better for it.

CRISIS ON MULTIPLE EARTHS V3 TP: Well, you know, I've always been a sucker for the JLA/JSA crossover, but, man, are these stinky-ass stories. ("TEPPY STRIKES BACK!") On the other hand, these stories suck so much they're actually great. C'mon, dude, THE HUMAN BOMB! Rocks out, with it's cock out!

FINDER V 6 MYSTERY DATE: Carla Speed McNeil is an amazing cartoonist -- kinetic yet compressed, mystical yet focused on human emotions. Why she isn't a millionaire is a mystery to me.

JIM WOODRING PUPSHAW & PUPSHAW: At $17 for what's effectively 16 panels (well, it is a Japanese import), you have to be a big Woodring fan to appreciate this. Thankfully I am. Plus I only have to pay cost, seeing how I own the store and all. But damn, if he can't draw and tell a reasonably compelling tale in those 16 panels....

KYLE BAKER, CARTOONIST V 2: An excellent companion to volume 1, though it feels a smidge light for the price point of $14.95. It's the week of excellent cartoonists, as you can see (it wasn't the comics what killed me, it was the books), and Baker is up there high in the firmament.

P. CRAIG RUSSELL'S LIBRARY OF THE OPERA V 3 HC: Yah, OK you could wait for the 6 weeks or whatever it will take for the SC to come out, I suppose, but I prefer to have a binding that will hold up for repeated rereadings. Loverly loverly stuff, and he makes the source material palatable to those of us who hate opera as it's own art form.

PAUL AUSTERS CITY OF GLASS: Finally this exquisite book of David Mazzuchelli's adapatation of the Auster story is back in print, and let me hear a fuckin' hallelujah! Despite the (very!) stiff competetition this week, this is the A #1 must have, bug-your-LCS-to-stock-it item of the week. Seriously.

POWERS V 6 THE SELL OUTS: The perhaps-ironically named first post-image volume. While it's begining to flag a bit at this point of the narrative, this is still sharper than 80% of the super-hero work on the market.

SAMURAI EXECUTIONER V1 : If you liked DH's presentation of Lone Wolf & Cub, you're also going to dig this story Koike & Kojima did before. I'm only about 10% into it, but it's reading just as well, to me.

OK, that's what I took home on the book side, at least.

See you.... tomorrow with the first part of this week's books!

(God, tomorrow already? Does this ever end?)

-B

Sharp, pointy teeth

Ben has 4 teeth. They are sharp. Very very sharp. Ben likes biting on things... especially flesh. We call him Nosferatu, sometimes. Ben also likes french kissing. He'll launch himself at you with his open mouth, trying to stick his tongue in your mouth, or failing that, biting your lips off.

Babies are vicious, vicious things. BEWARE!

Let's see if I can clean out the ol in box, and give a clean palate for next week.

ROSETTA V2: Anthologies, as noted absurdly many times, are tricky things. Most are uneven (at best), but you can fault them little for trying, at least. I was more than halfway through this one before I found a piece I liked, but then it was like "Wow, this makes it alllll worth it!" -- Rosetta stacked the deck with three superb pieces in a row: Tobias Schalhen's (Probably spelling that wrong -- going from a handwritten note) excellent formalistic experiment of relating a conversation between two lovers who haven't seen each other in a long time against a set of disparate illustrations, Matt Madden's even better circling-viewpoints experiment of a woman who finds out her boss was once a porn star, and Jason Lute's piece. Concentrated comics goodness, and almost completely worth the price of admission just for those three. It's only like 10% of the book, however, so for the whole package, let's go with OK. Those three pieces, however, were Excellent.

LUBA #8: I've told you I don't "get" the Hernandez brothers, right? Superb storytellers, wonderful draughtsman, but there works never "speaks" to me. I have a little tiny amount of "indy cred", but they're my big weakness. I can tell this is Good or better work, but I don't care for it. Deal.

LAST TRAIN TO DEADSVILLE #3: There are days I think that Steve Niles is writing way too much, and diluting any real "brand loyalty" he may have created from 30 Days of Night. Hard to blame him, really -- he's been doing comics longer than I've been selling them, and he finally has a hit. If I were him, I'd probably strike while the iron was hot, as well. Thing is, it's usually better to pick one thing and do it perfect than to do 47 things "half-assed" -- this is why I run a comic book shop and not a comic book/anime/game/whatever store. I think Cal McDonald is Niles' best creation -- enough genre accoutrements to make it familiar, but a wide enough breadth of ideas fit very neatly into it's format. "Monster Investigator" is a great high concept. I think I'd rather see a monthly Cal comic than the 38 mini-series a month Niles produces. YMMV. Good.

WITCHES #4: You have to admire Marvel's stones for releasing this concurrent with Vertigo's Witching, and Identity Disk concurrent with Identity Crisis. Not thier brains, really, because this is go-nowhere, and be-dull-while-getting-there material, but thier stones sure. Eh

THE WITCHING #2: While meanwhile, I've found this an uneven start. The protagonist witch girl is too absurdly overpowered to be relateable -- but that's because she lives in our world. I have no problem with absurdly overpowered Lucifer or Morpheous as protagonists becase they're primarily concerned with thier own realms, y'know? There's a few great images in here, but I think this is merely OK.

CONAN #6: Wow that was a grim and very Howardian story -- the middle third lagged a bit, but this was a great wrap up. Very Good.

JLA: ANOTHER NAIL #3: Alan Davis does his own version of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and my is it good. I'm definately up for "JLA: A Third Nail", or maybe "JLA: The Hammer", depending. Hell, if Davis is doing it, I'm all about "JLA: Caulking Gun". Excellent.

NEW FRONTIER #5: I can understand you not being into superhero comics -- you have to read a lot to find the good ones. And I can understand you being a bit nervous about the $6.95 cover price (which is pretty absurd, yes), but, seriously man, this is the shit. I just feel a great soaring sense of wonder and hope as I read this book. Darwyn Cooke hit an enormous home run here, and you should absolutely be reading this. Excellent, and the Pick of the Week!

X-STATIX #25: Much like Kinetic #4 before it, I was really upset at myself for not having a blog when X-Statix #24 came out. Iron Man and Mr. Sensative having a nude grass fight? OMFG! Not only was it outrageous, it was outrageously funny, and a nearly perfect 21st century desconstruction of super-team battles. Six months too early to be a "Avengers Disassembled" tie in (with the extra sales), and then the book gets cancelled, and everything has to be wrapped up way too quickly, and the book ends on a fairly sour note. Ah well. Farewell to experimentation, mutant line, farewell! Good.

Bah, well I have a few more books to write up, but screw it -- that's enough typing on this week. Nothing particularly good in my remaining pack, anyway.

I'll be back tomorrow (I think) with the TP/Book list for the week....

-B

Behind

Gotta go to work in a few here -- Lester is on "vacation" (something about a nude midget chocolate factory?), so I have to go cover his shift. Curse you Lester, you infernal bastard!! I spend yesterday's shift doing "industry reading" Wizard, CBG, etc. There go my brain cells. So I only have 4 comics here to discuss. By tomorrow I plan to go over this week's trades, then take Sunday off and hopefully, Monday wrap up the last of this week's reviews just in time to get another pile of new comics.

This is my life. Week in, week out, over and over again.

BATGIRL #54: That was kinda cool -- the story actually turned on her illiteracy, and something mean was said. Good.

CAPER #10: A little too over the top, but there were some good one-liners here -- I can't see this being sustainable for 44 more pages though? OK

METAL HURLANT #12: Anthologies are usually pretty uneven, but I thought this first MH published under the DC co publishing deal was pretty solid from cover to cover -- as a a first, I don't think there was a story here I didn't enjoy. This was as good as Heavy Metal once was, decades ago. Good.

PLANETARY #20: Damn damn damn fine stuff. We finally meet the Thing, and take him out all at once. Barrelling towards a conclusion -- one uglier than we expect, I suppose. Excellent.

That's it for now -- be back soon.

-B

Strong!

Something they don't tell you about babies -- the little beasts are STRONG. Ben can easily haul 150% of his weight, and I'm scared he'll figure out what a fulcrum is.  The real problem, though, is that they have NO IDEA they are strong -- they use their full strength all of the time because, well, why wouldn't you? Me and Tzipora have little welts all over our bodies when Ben has given us a hard pinch while trying to climb somewhere.

While I'm going to try to review "everything" for the next few weeks, once I've cycled through a whole month, I'll probably drop back to "items of significance". Are you liking this format, by the way? Should I change anything? Add publisher credits, maybe? Opinions!

SINGULARITY 7: Ben Templesmith's new book and it's really pretty to look at. Sure, the story is pretty much a warmed over 21st century Dawn of the Dead meets Terminator, and, yes, his scripting is a little overwrought in places, but it's damn fine to look at, and the story problems don't get in the way of enjoying it. I also like that he's using a brighter palette than in 30 Days of Night -- this is Good stuff.

TAROT #27: And we veer ever closer to Bondage Fairies territory.  I'm continually stunned by the contrast of the messages of the comic compared to the ones in the editorial section. Reading Tarot always makes me feel like I'm a robot in "I, Mudd"... "But if you are telling the truth, then it must be a lie, but if you are lying, then you must be telling the truth. Norman.... coordinate! *fzzzt*" Awful, but I don't think you can judge this on the same scale of a real comic...

POWERLESS #2: It's a What If...? story, I guess, but it suffers from too-many-ingredients-itis. Honestly, less is more, and having this span the entire Marvel Universe-yet-not just gives me a headache. Nice art by Gaydos, but I didn't care about a single page of the 22. Eh.

BATMAN #630: While "last stand in the Batcave" is a good idea (and not one especially overused, really), it's probably better to save it for something of more significance than the (*shudder*) "Scarebeast". I suppose it's a stab at trying to solve the "Wait, what the fuck can we do with the Scarecrow, anyway? He's a sub-one-trick pony!" problem, but turning him into a version of the Hulk who says "Are you scared yet"? Nah, not the path to have gone. Other than Wagner's covers, I've really disliked this arc. Awful.

LEGION #36:  Something bad happens, something else bad happens, another bad thing happens.... did Gail steal Bendis' notes for Avengers? Waiting for motivations, or rationales or something to make it a mystery or a story rather than just a series of events. Part of the problem is that events are too big -- any humanity becomes a sidenote, rather than the focus like good fiction. It's not badly done, no not at all, but it sorta feels like plothammer more than anything else. OK.

AVENGERS #500: See Legion #36. Though I'll also say that I think the coloring was way too dark because on top of "busy" artwork, it's often difficult to tell what's going on. OK.

USAGI YOJIMBO #77: Stan Sakai is a master cartoonist. And he gets better at his craft every year. Simple, clean storytelling, action every few pages, honest humanity, and a strong eye for humor and terror equally, it's hard to say there's a better comic being produced each and every month than Usagi. If people want to do comics activism, here's an excellent book for you to start with. Excellent.

NAUGHTY BITS #40: And this would have been a good one too, but unfortunately this is suddenly the last issue. That's a damn shame because Roberta Gregory is not only a fine cartoonist, but she's produced 40 issues which is a whole lot better than most "indy" books could hope for. I also really liked Robert Triptow's gay wedding comedy in the back of the book. Very funny stuff. Very Good.

(Marvel Knights) 4 #8:  As a comedy it falls kinda flat (The Watcher bookends were wretched), but as a character piece it's OK, I guess. In a week I'll have forgotten I've ever read it, though. Eh.

CATWOMAN #33: Not quite a fill-in, but it feels like marking time because of next quarter's crossover. It's a solid-enough story, but in the end it doesn't feel like it matters much. OK

SLEEPER V2 #2: This on the other hand, worked like a charm. "Now can I stop breaking your heart?" Wonderful stuff on both an action and human level. Very Good.

OK, time to go off and work at the store! Restock, hurray!

-B

Ben's asleep now!

The best part of him climbing up on the shelf is that he doesn't have the foggiest notion of how to get himself down, so he'll start crying about that, and I haul him to mother earth, and what does he do? Yeah, try to get back there right away. He understands there IS gravity, but he doesn't quite get how it works yet....

Still, I got him down for his afternoon nap, so back at my in-box....

KINETIC #5: There were a couple of books that really REALLY made me wish I had a column during the hiatus -- issue #4 of Kinetic was one of those. Wonderful quiet story about the reactions of his mother as her world shatter and changes around her, and all of her preconceptions are discarded in a moment. Kinetic started really slow, probably too slow, but it has really come into its own now, and is one of the most emotionally satisfying comics on the stands. This is "the next Sleeper" or "the next Runaways" -- the kind of book no one is reading, but they really should because they'd just love it if they did. Very Good.

FANTASTIC FOUR #516: I liked the first part of the arc, I thought the second was OK, but here at part three, I think it should have been a done-in-one. Nothing wasn't said here that wasn't said last issue. Eh.

SUPERMAN #207: This book is running the trajectory almost exactly opposite Lee's Batman run -- started strong (though less so than we anticipated), but it's bleeding readers every issue. I kinda don't even think this will be Top 10 by issue #12. Far too much blabity-blab talking about stuff that only tangentially matters ("faith" is a great topic for Superman to undertake -- setting it in this context robbed it of almost all of it's real-life human resonance). After six issues of Batman and 4 of this I think it's fair to declare what we all guessed going in -- Azzarello really doesn't "get" how to write super heroes. (which is fine, not everyone should / does)  Lee is a great artist, but the underlying material is so unremittingly dull and oddly paced that I just have no interest in this. Eh

SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT #12: And so the stealth reboot ends. I sadly found the whole thing to be a bit preposterous, and largely unnecessary -- this last bit of Luthor's big master plan was just dopey, and wrapped with a real whimper. Plus, trying to fit it into continuity with the offhand "You know Luthor will find a way to beat the charges" just hurt my tiny little head. I really don't think this added anything new or majestic to the legend, so foo. On the other hand, the last two pages, though slightly torturously arrived at, where a really touching bit of "closure" on the K-side. I liked that so much that I'm going to be a big softie and give the whole thing an OK.

FUTURAMA #18: Reasonably funny (Go, Ian Boothby, go -- how come I'm the only reviewer who ever says what a fabulous writer this guy is?), but doing extended storylines in a quarterly comic book is really a bad idea. Good.

DC COMICS PRESENTS HAWKMAN #1: I really thought the first three of these (Batman, Adam Strange, and GL) were really awful, so I'm glad to say this one was pretty charming. The Cary Bates story (w/ Byrne) brought back Earth-Prime (Did Cary "invent" that? I have strong memories of him starring in a JLA one... but I'm not sure if that is the first one) and the Kurt Busiek (w/Simonson) one had a decent Silver Age "feel", and ended on a sweet note. This isn't great comics, but it's decent stuff, and the strongest of the batch. OK.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #3: Joss has, I think, found his legs (fingers?) with the characters -- some razor sharp characterization, and some really fun scenes (Scott and Nick Fury aboard the Helicarrier, or the excellent Danger Room sequence) made this issue crackle. This is the first time I think I've ever found Scott an agreeable personality, because too often "all work" = "boring dick". Not here. This is great stuff, and I think I might even like this better than the mad-wild Morrison run. Excellent.

Right, that's it for the mo... gotta read more, but since Ben is asleep and Tzipi is out, I'm going to go grab an hour of City of Heroes instead. Probably a bit more tonight.

-B

Crazy baby

I'm watching Ben today while Tzipora is off shopping -- the kid is a little dynamo, trying to get into little nooks and crannies where he shouldn't be. There's only so much baby proofing you can do, and there's always some place he shouldn't be. His latest thing is to rip apart the CD collection... which is on a shelf under the TV, abotu 4 feet off the ground. Yet the little terror manages to crawl up there with no real problem. Quickly, a few more books while I've distracted him with some shiny keys!

WALKING DEAD #9: Like I said, I need to cleanse my palate every few shitty comics. Glad I picked this one. Gripping, human story by Kirkman, and fabulous art by Adlard. The book took a quantum leap forward (and it was already really good) when Charlie came on board. That little reaction sequence on the bottom of page 10 is good, chilling comics. Excellent.

Damn, he's bored with the keys already and is hauling ass into my office trying to rip up this week's funny books.....

Let's try this one-handed with the baby in my lap.

EXCALIBUR #3: We keep selling out of this, which surprises me -- this is the worst of Claremont's excesses, with few of the charms. The supporting cast makes "Nudge" from Doom Patrol look like a fully formed character. 3 issues in, and there's still no real explanation of how (and why!) Mags is back. Poop. Awful.

Ok, Ben is squirming too much, this isn't working... back later

-B

The first 2.0 reviews

Didn't get much read last night, but let's see what I have so far. (Just about the only way to get through all of the comics for the week is to power through the "bad" ones first, with the "good" ones acting as the carrot. Bear that in mind.)

(Though, I do need to intersperse a few "good" ones in the middle to reset my palate)

ROGUE #1: I'm not sure if Rodi really "gets" how Rogue's powers work, or if they're changing it for this series, or if the editors are so overworked they don't care, but I kept getting super annoyed by the dumb stuff like her absorbing Remy's blindness, but not Juggy's heart attack. The core of the story, once you get past that, isn't so bad, but this is a really unnecessary book I think. This is the dark side of "Reload". Eh.

DOOM PATROL #2: #1 was a complete and utter train-wreck (nested flashbacks? I thought Johnny knew how to tell a clear story?) but this one was a lot better. I really enjoyed the first 5 pages, with the "revised" origin of Negitive Man (Though.... Rita is a flight technician and not an actress? Muh?), but then we went back to the dumb vampire leftovers from the JLA story. Thankfully it wrapped this issue. I really really REALLY hate the "new" characters, and I hope they die quickly. And I absolutely did not understand the last 2 panels -- was there an extra "not" or maybe one missing or something? Still, this was at least competent, and, perhaps, now that the "Crucifer" story is done maybe this can go somewhere fun. A low OK

GREEN LANTERN #179: Huh? Major Force has consistently been portrayed as an insane psychopathic killer -- he murdered Kyle's girlfriend, for god's sake, and chopped her up and put her in the fridge -- so why the fuck would John Stewert be defending him? That makes zero sense. Zip. Zilch. Unlessssss...... Marz had 4 issues schedualed and only 3 issues of story. Awful

VENOM VS. CARNAGE #1: It's written by Pete Milligan so I was hoping for at least a little wit, and cleverness. Nope, none of that here. The art was kinda nice except it looks like it printed way too dark, such that there's panels I can't tell at all what is happening (Nor can I read the captions in some palces with white-on-black and white-on-red), and there's some wonderful peril to a pregnant woman, which is always charming to read. On the other hand, there's a tit-alicious apearance by the Black Cat which doesn't appear to have anything to do with the story (wouldn't that be cool if it doesn't? She just showed up every 12 pages or so to show her breasts off so there could be some sex with the violence?), and some 12 year old boy, somewhere is going to be very happy for that. Or a 42-year old cat's ass man. Either way. The old CBG used to say something like "If you like this kind of thing, you'll like this" which is probably fairly accurate in this case. I don't like this kind of thing, though, so Awful from me.

JLA #102: The "Everyone Cries" arc continues. This issue: the Flash cries! It's not *bad* per se (Actually, it's well told), but I can't take 4 more issues of this -- wake me when it's over. OK

CITY OF HEROES #3: I love how the comic really has no relationship to the game whatsover, and doesn't really work as a comic on it's own. The only bit I leked was the War Witch in the astral plane thing at the very end, but that's not worth $2.95. You get this free if you subscribe to the game, which I suppose is a nice gesture, and almost certainly places this book in the top ten of circulation of American comics (the game has "well over" 100k subscribers) Anyway, Awful

Hrm, Ben's awake, time to take care of the boy. Back with more, later....

-B