Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24 - Other than the fact that this basic story has been done before (Rick Jones/Marlo) and the fact that there was a lot of filler, and the fact that i don't like where this is probably going, i didn't see anything actually wrong with this issue. I thought Dr. Strange was written well, and i liked the tie-in reference with a previous Strange appearance in JMS's Spider-Man. The art is really good (except i don't like Peter's face). But hey, did we pay the extra $1 for the partial reprint of an issue of Tom Defalco's Amazing Spider-Man?

Spider-Man/Red Sonja #3 - This definitely is better now that the action has picked up. You can't go wrong with Kulan Venom.

Fantastic Four #550 - I finally figured out why i don't really enjoy the FF anymore: Reed Richards isn't enough of a dick. Reed should be written as the quintessential 1960s super-scientist. Arrogant, dismissive, distracted, smoking a pipe. A real father-knows-best sort of character. I'd also like to see the Thing be written less as a cute, loveable guy and more of a somewhat unstable monster, but i know we're too far gone to go back to that. Reed, however, should still be a jackass. None of this has anything to do with this issue specifically, however. McDuffie throws a lot of great ideas at us and even sort of thematically ties up his run by bringing Gravity back.

Nova #7 - Mavel should do more events with related mini-serieses(eses)focusing on minor characters. I say this because i'm enjoying Nova as part of Annihilation Conquest, but i still don't want to read an ongoing Nova series after Conquest is over.

Punisher War Journal #12 - Another single issue story which was just fine. I have to admit something: you know how there were two sets of narrative captions, one for the Punisher and one for the stupid bug thing? I didn't read the bug thing's captions. Also, the venom suit was a cool one-time idea, but i'm uncomfortable with the possibility now that these suits can just be built any time now.

Runaways #28 - This was good, although i'm starting to feel overwhelmed by the number of new characters and factions that we're dealing with here. Maybe if it came out more often i'd have the story fresh in my head from one month to the next. Also the quality of the art seemed to vary a lot from page to page. Some pages looked really good, but sometimes characters looked really wooden and expressionless. I double-checked but there was only one artist, so i'm not sure what's going on.

New Avengers #35 - Hmmm. Kulan Venom. Punivenom. And now Wolvervenom. Except... Wolvervenom was not actually in this issue, was he? The cover lied to us. What we did get was still good, though. A "real world" look at what a Masters of Evil might be, and it also serves to explain where all the bad guys went during Civil War. I wish Yu's art was better so i could clearly pick out who all the villains are*. Also, it's definitely hard to reconcile the Hood who appeared in Beyond with the one who beats up Tigra this issue. Easy answer: it's a Skrull! More probable answer: He's a guy that knows how to get along with people but that doesn't mean he's not an amoral thug.

*Best i can do:

• Jigsaw
  
• Some guy in crusader armor
  
• Nitro
  
• Griffin
  
• The guy in the blue and green costume with the hood and mustache. I feel like i should know him.
  
• Tigershark?
  
• The girl in the blue and purple outfit wearing a black jacket over the costume.
  
• Chemistro
  
• Mr. Hyde?
  
• Mr. Fear?
  
• Purple Man?
  
• Grey Gargoyle?
  
• Mandrill
  
• The U-foes
  
• The Wrecking Crew (back from Canada already? Or haven't left yet.)
  
• Armadillo (back from the MODOK's 11 story already...?). (And how did a guy that appeared in like 2 issues of Gruenwald's Cap and then reformed wind up getting used in so many places recently?)
  
• Controller
  
• Is that the Boomerang in the red and white costume behind the Purple Man? That's not his classic costume but i think he did have a costume like that.
  
• Constrictor
  
• Fixer
  
• Mentallo
  
• Is that Sunder from the Morlocks? No, he's got a skull-white face.
  
• Who is the guy that looks like the Red Skull? Buddies with the Sunder-looking guy. I'm betting they're from Gruenwald's Cap.
  
• The Answer? Really?
  
• Blackout (90s Ghost Rider Blackout, not Marv Wolfman's Blackout)
  
• Guy in the turquoise body armor and brown hooded trenchcoat
  
• Gimpy-guy
  
• Guy in the white and purple costume with the horns.
  
• Wizard
  
• Madam Masque
  

Actually, it seems my problem with identifying the villains has less to do with Yu's art and more to do with my own lack of familiarity with some of these minor characters.

Overall, happy to get seven good comics in a week. Keep 'em comin'.