What a week to be a comic fan!

Secret Invasion 7: one big fight..not too interesting though...it just went on and on..eager to see this conclude..the Skrull/Jarvis scene was pretty creepy though..7/10

Xmen 217: The new Hellfire club just looks silly...as does Mrs. Sinister..cant take the threats seriously and the whole Daken business is just lame..will probably skip this story and jump back into the regular story once this is done..5/10

DD112: Bru brings the kung fu action as the Hand takes on the Tarantula and Iron Fist..man can Lark draw Iron Fist..amazing...really digging the Lady Bullseye story..10/10

Cap 43: Bru makes Batroc cool as a threat from a past Invaders mission causes trouble in the present..a great little superhero espionage story...Luke Ross' art is good but not as good as some of his other stuff..still great all in all...9/10

Final Crisis 4: Morrison hits some cool beats here as GA makes a final stand...GL rallies the troops...Darkseid rises..but man the multiple (rushed) art just screws with the story..DC does not know how to plan an event comic..7/10

Superman New Krypton: a cool start to the Superman crossover...GREAT sequences by Gary Frank...im seriously intrigued by the story of the new Kryptonians on earth..some really cool set up as well as a interesting reveal of who the "general" is as he recruits Luthor in a fun scene...very promising story by Johns and Robinson...9/10

GiJoe 0: 3 small tales by Dixon, Hama and Gage/Costa - very cool takes on GiJoe..more realistic but still recognizable to old fans..ill be checking out all 3 series by IDW next year...9/10

Hellblazer 248: Constantine takes down his enemies..but a bit too easily..the ending was intriguing enough to make me want the next issue..so we'll see how Diggle wraps things up...8/10

Best 2 books this week - both so damn excellent I cannot choose which one is better:

Aetheric Mechanics : Warren Ellis latest little graphic novella..wow..what an amazing story...a familiar Detective in early 20th century England tries to solve the crime of the man who wasent there in a world where weird technology and strange foreign lands threaten England..its all eerily familiar and by the end of the story we find out why...an amazing murder mystery set in a cool sci fi world..twists and turns and Ellis at his best..BRILLIANT...10/10

Criminal 6: Brubaker just knows how to write dark crime comics...our protagonist just gets deeper and deeper into sh*t as his obsession with the femme fatale grows...what a foreboding atmosphere...you can feel the paranoia..the fear...the desperation..Bru's writing and Philips art just drag you into this world of a crime gone wrong...great twists as we get some answers in this penultimate chapter...this is what comics are all about...10/10

DC Comics

JUL080107 FINAL CRISIS #4 (OF 7) $3.99



Marvel Comics


AUG082333 CAPTAIN AMERICA #43 $2.99
AUG082343 DAREDEVIL #112 $2.99
JUN082411 ELEKTRA BY FRANK MILLER OMNIBUS HC $74.99
AUG082350 GHOST RIDER DANNY KETCH #1 (OF 5) $3.99
AUG082351 HULK #7 $2.99
AUG082376 NEW AVENGERS #46 SI $2.99
AUG082372 SECRET INVASION #7 (OF 8) SI $3.99
AUG082404 THOR TRUTH OF HISTORY #1 $3.99
AUG082390 THUNDERBOLTS #125 SI $2.99
JUN082413 TOMB OF DRACULA OMNIBUS HC VOL 01 $99.99
AUG082411 WOLVERINE MANIFEST DESTINY #1 (OF 4) MD $2.99

A huge week for me as well:

Aetheric Mechanics TPB
Thor: The Truth of History #1
Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch #1 (bought this by accident, but I'll give it a look)
Scalped #22
Criminal 2 #6
Hellblazer #248
Daredevil #112
Captain America #43
Usagi Yojimbo #115
Rasl #3
Invincible #54
H.P. Lovecraft's Haunt of Horror HC (Corben goodness!)

I picked up...

SECRET INVASION #7 (OF 8) SI -- Meh. 5/10

FINAL CRISIS #4 (OF 7) -- I actually think I understood the story this issue. Huh. I found the transition between artists to be seamless. Not bad, but still not great. 7/10

FAMILY DYNAMIC #3 (OF 3) -- I really like this book BUT it is clear that is was written as an ongoing. As a mini it just fails. The good guys arrive to fight a villain on the last page of the last ish of the mini. Wha? 6/10

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #574 -- I'm not a Kitson fan, but this stand-alone issue was okay... the equivalent of a "very special episode of...". The intentions for this issue were well-placed, but it didn't really move me the way it could have. 7/10

CRIMINAL 2 #6 (MR) -- Yes. 10/10

NEW AVENGERS #46 SI -- Again, not bad and better than recent issues of New and Mighty. The focus here was on the Hood and his band of not-so-merry men. I liked the big reveal on the last page re: the source behind the Hood's hood. 8/10

Haven't read these yet...

RUNAWAYS 3 #3
THOR TRUTH OF HISTORY #1 -- Alan Davis baby! Flipped thru it and its looks purty!
DMZ #35 (MR)
CAPTAIN AMERICA #43
DAREDEVIL #112

Suprised at the reactions to SI. Across the net, people seem pretty impressed. (even surprised at how much they liked it).

Haven't gotten it yet.

What I picked up:

Army of Darkness #14 - We'll see where they're going with this book, I may pick it up, I may not.

Captain America #43 - Definite "Must Read" every month.

Fear Agent #24 - This is a good book.

Hulk #7 - Wasn't planning on picking this up, but Art Adams does the art for the first story so I'm in.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #34 - Definitely a "Guilty Pleasure" book, but it is entertaining.

Thor: The Truth of History - Alan Davis one-shot, I had to pick this up.

What I'll pick up within a few weeks:

Amazing Spider-man #574 - New Ways to Die is over, how will they follow it up?

In all fairness, while I still don't feel the issue was very good, my reaction is probably more to the mini as a whole. Frankly, I think I'm spent on these huge crossovers. I'm realizing... fool me once shame on you, fool me a dozen or more times shame on me. I give myself 5/10.

FINAL CRISIS #4...........Liked it.Don't see how the good guys are going to win, especially with all the aspects of Kamandi's World that are starting to pop up.(spliced Animal creatures,mindless Humans,Command Bunker D,Superman gone missing,Global Peace Agency).Some very touching scenes.

Captain America #43......... liked it.Still no sign of Cap though

NEW AVENGERS #46...............have no idea why it was in my pull list,but I took it anyways...not bad.

Invincible #54 ................liked it


AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #574 .............odd that they are copying "Doonesbury"

SECRET INVASION #7............It was ok.Does the upcoming Dark Reign mean that the Skrulls win?

Based on the Embrace Change ads (little Skrull girls eating ice cream and giggling with little human girls), I would say... like Rob said.

Secret Invasion just seems so padded and poorly executed. I prefer the 90s big extravaganzas to this thing. It just doesn't really hold together well.

Picking up Saturday.

DMZ #35
Hellblazer #248
Northlanders Vol.1 Sven the Returned TPB
Scalped #22
Fear Agent #24
Warren Ellis Aetheric Mechanics
Criminal #6

BTW, I didn;t meant SI was well-received. It just seemed like this issue "Surprisingly something happened and it was cool" was.

No takers on the new Vertigo Unknown Soldier? It looks kind of interesting. I thought I try it out.

HULK
Captain AMerica
Secret Invasion
Final Crisis
Thor One Shot
Criminal

It definitely looked interesting to me, but I'm trade-waiting.

To this, I would say: nay. Howzabout: something happened and it was kinda dumb.

I'm intrigued by this Warren Elis book you boys picked up. Hmmm.

Cranky - its AMAZING..honestly one of the best this week (tied with Criminal)..its a murder mystery and a sci fi story witha great twist...all the characters are familiar and we its no coincidence that they are...the alternate title was "THE MAN WHO WAS NOT THERE"...i think you'll dig it buddy.

Just Cap, Invincible and Fear Agent for me this week. I'll be picking them up on Sunday, however.

I'll flip through Final Crisis, but the last issue just turned me off so much.

Nice to hear Bendis gets to crap all over another female Avenger.