Well, i've got Halo: Reach to play, so i'll make this short. I know, only two years behind the times, but that's what happens when you're old. Typer195 got me a free copy, and i'm really enjoying it. I feel like the controls are better and it's easier to do headshots. Not that i still wouldn't be instantly killed by 9 years olds if i went online -- what? Oh, right. Comic books...

Avenging Spider-Man #10 - I know min had some problems with the fact that Ms. Captain Marvel's power levels seem to be ignored just to stretch out the story, and i agree with that but i think the writing here is generally fun, with the Robyn Hood robot being an interesting new political villain in the spirit of Firebrand or Flag-Smasher. I'd like to say that i've read the actual Captain Marvel book by now, but sadly we're having distribution problems again.

Avengers vs. X-Men #9 - As predicted, Wanyas and Bob (and the internet generally) did me a major favor by trashing this issue thoroughly before i read it. It's all an expectations game, folks. So clearly i'm going with "Not that bad". Some caveats... there's got to be an in-story explanation for Colossus being so dumb. Forget the water breathing whales; how else can Spider-Man manipulate the two Rasputins into fightings so easily (i'm taking it for granted that at this point Illyana is so evil she'll attack even her own brother in a bid for more power)? The Professor X bait-and-switch was disappointing and the Panther/Storm annulment definitely read like someone was checking off "unrelated significant event" from their to-do list, but otherwise... yeah. I thought the Spider-Man "everyone has their moment" bit was set up well, and Aaron wrote Spidey well. It's all a bit undermined by the fact that Cyclops - who in some scenes seems to still be the most reasonable of the Phoenixes - shows up in K'u'n L''un', so Hope won't have a chance to really soak up that "lesson", but whatever.

Daredevil #16 - We're definitely going a little darker with Daredevil. Even assuming that someone is setting Matt up, we're still getting back into familiar "terrible things happen" territory. Which is fine; just saying. The praise for this series has generally focused on it being a "fun" book that emphasizes DD's swashbuckler side, so it's interesting to see Waid not keeping the book firmly in that theme. I still like the book, and the bit of bonding with Pym was done well. One pet peeve of mine is how nowadays every super-character is also an expert in their non-super profession. Iron Man specifically said he called in Doctor Strange for his surgical skills. Ummm... really? A guy that basically gave up surgery several decades ago is who you go to? (I know, and don't care, that they've had Strange going back into surgery more and more in recent years. Even in his origin story, he was a good, successful surgeon, but that doesn't make him the best in the world, especially now.)

Peter Parker Spider-Man #156.1 - What's the story with the numbering on this title? Anyway, i'm a Roger Stern loyalist so i picked this up. And... well... look, at a basic level it's just a straightforward "Spider-Man saves some people from drowning" type of story. There's nothing wrong with a basic "Spider-Man does heroic stuff" story every once in a while. But... well... i mean, we know this was a 50th anniversary celebration, so it was going to be a bit referential. But going back to the warehouse where Uncle Ben was killed seems a bit much. And tying it into a Stern-written Brand plotline from 30 years ago seemed odd as well. I dunno. I'd like to see Stern on a regular title. I know he can still write; this is a guy that got me to enjoy Captain America Corps, for god's sake, even with the atrocious art. But this wasn't the greatest.

X-Factor #241 - I liked it. This is a very strange title but PAD makes it work. The only thing i didn't like is when Captain Deathlok called Dormammu "Smokey the Bore". I know it's an alternate universe character, but a universe where Captain America and/or Deathlok speaks like a generic Peter David character is one i don't wanna know about.

Avengers Academy #34 - I guess the Avengers Academy kids aren't reading the Avengers Vs. X-Men series. Because the Molecule Man's son's criticisms of that book were dead on, and anyone reading it would be happy to join him in order to end it. This is a great book and i sure hope that the very obvious fact that this arc is called "Final Exam" and the fact that Hazard and Mettle have been cured and the fact that Marvel is rebooting all their titles but nothing's been said about this one doesn't mean what i think it means. My one regret is that X-23 and Finesse's battle in the Savage Land wasn't expanded upon. That T. Rex has arms!

AvSM: by "distribution problems" he means Wanyas refused to give it to us so he could read it and then left the country.

     still don't care for the Dodson art. i mean, i would totally take Dodson over Guice any day since he can draw action sequences that human beings can follow. but i don't love it. something about the style or mebbe it's Rachel Dodson's inks that just make everyone seem really bulky. i can't explain it. i just don't care for it.

AvX: supposedly Colossus sealed of Avengers Academy in AvX #7. why do i have no recollection of this occurring? is it because i missed seeing it or because the art didn't make it clear that is what was going on?

     i'm going to assume the internet has sufficiently mocked Aaron and his editor and Marvel in general over the water-breathing whales. i just have to shake my head in sadness over it. and also ask the most important question - WHY WAS A PICTURE INVOLVING WHALES WITH LEGS IN A TINY TINY BOX?? who doesn't want to see a huge picture of whales with legs?
     Hope's starting to annoy me. the whole "why do i have to [insert teen whine]" makes me want to hang her upside down somewhere.

DD: Daredevil deciding he had to leave right now after finding out he'd been kidnapped 9 days ago seemed kinda weird to me. dude, you just had someone stomping around in your brain shooting off an EMP cannon to kill nanites that are still in your brain! i think mebbe you can take an hour or two to have a soda or something before rushing off to your civilian life. i mean, really, it's been 9 days. if you're missing for another 1 or 2 days, is it really going to make that much of a difference in terms of how you explain it to everybody?

     i'm going to go ahead and say that yelling at someone you think is having a mental breakdown and calling them a liar is totally the wrong way to deal with the situation. plus, it's really not all that crazy to entertain the possibility that Murdock's not lying, and he didn't really put a box filled with his dad's remains in his office desk. lots of crazy shit happens constantly.

PPSM: i don't really have anything to say about this issue. it was a fine issue. it wasn't something that made me say "hey! how come we weren't always getting this?" nor does it make me say "hey! let's get more!".

XF: heh. Tron references.

AA: you know, when the X-Men got their final exam, Professor X sent them off to fight Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants by themselves...in space. at Avengers Academy, they send you to the beach to get gawked at by the public. standards have seriously dropped over the years.

     holy crap! that T-rex does have arms!!!

     yay! X-23's wearing clothes! she's wearing a uniform that makes sense and not just a bra! she also didn't say a single thing the entire issue except to growl once.

Just to be clear, that Peter Parker Spider-Man was basically a one shot 50th anniversary celebration. There hasn't been a Peter Parker Spider-Man comic since 2003, and the last issue of the series was issue #57.

If you do some math and add the numbers from a previous series, that brings you to issue #155. So #156.1 makes no sense no matter how you do it.

But i just wanted to address the "how come we weren't getting this" or "let's get more" comments. There was nothing to get. So you're safe!