Avengers #1 - This was sort of a middling affair. Not bad. I thought the intro was a bit pretentious. The dialogue bland. But otherwise, fine and we'll see where it goes. I don't know how the idea of recruiting other Avengers to help out when the Movie Avengers are in trouble is some great innovation, but that's the post-movie world we live in.

Journey Into Mystery #646 - There's some sort of a recurring problem that I see where a writer begins on a series and immediately dives into, like, breaking the character down into some state of disrepair, i guess with the intention of showing us how they work under distressing situations and then building them back up. But it doesn't work. Look, we probably have about six issues worth of Sif stories coming to us before this book is cancelled. And we've really only seen Sif as a background character in Thor. So how about just six issues of Sif kicking ass and us getting to know her. Doctor Octopus finds a Norn Stone so it's Sif vs. the Sinister Six, or something. Then if that sells maybe we can do a character arc where she gets depressed and decides she needs to become a bloodthirsty monster and then realizes that's not going to work out for her. I'll also say that this story didn't seem structured very well. We had a nice rescue scene in the beginning and then she goes to visit Volstagg's family and the next thing we know she's all miserable and doing these desperation things. And dialogue that has a string of rune symbols interspersed with "blah blah"? What's going on here? If Sif's not into this, why is she doing it? I almost feel like i could ask the same about Immonen.

Thunderbolts #1 - Is that really Mercy? I thought this was pretty good, but it's Dillon art coupled with a "building of the team" plot so i guess i shouldn't be too surprised that i liked it. Seems like this will be fun, although i'm a bit surprised about General Ross lack of concern about killing civilians (even mob goons have rights, that's why Punisher is a quasi-bad guy that the Avengers are currently hunting down in another book).

Iron Man #3 - I was so sure that the lady with tendrils coming out of her head on the cover was Bad Guy Lady again, but i was happy to be wrong. Other than the cut & paste heads for Pepper and Tony, and the fact that Firebrand was just literally a naked lady that Land left for the colorist to sort out, the art seemed... not as bad? I am assuming that my knowledge of Vibro is out of date and he's supposed to look like a normal guy nowadays. The story was fine, too, but we all know it's a waste of Gillen.

Punisher War Zone #2 - This was ok, but you'd almost think that the Avengers would be ok with driving the Punisher out of the US. They've got enough going on, they made an effort to catch this guy, and he fled the country. Mark that down as a temporary win. I've seen super-heroes let more legitimate villains flee the scene. But again, this was fine.

The Awesome Machine Man and maybe sometimes a little about Red She-Hulk #60 - Now that they've updated the title to reflect reality, i have to admit i'm enjoying the book a little more. But it really does look like i'm going to have to get the rest of Hickman's SHIELD run; it's clearly not going away as much as (from the first trade i read) i'd like it to. The ending of this issue is an interesting development; for those who don't know, the (valid) complaint is that when a boy-person becomes a Hulk he becomes a big muscular monster, but when a girl-person becomes a Hulk she becomes super-sexy. And i know Parker is aware of that. So now that Parker has turned Betty into a true Hulk, what are his plans? Explain an in-story reason for her eventual reversal (the real reason being that Marvel thinks their audience is entirely composed of boy-persons who don't know how to find actual porn)? Keep her that way? Doesn't seem like that would be allowed.

Avenging Spider-Man #15 - This was fun. But were they telling me that Devil Dinosaur is girl? Or was Demon Dinosaur his girlfriend? And will there really be baby DDs now?

X-Factor #247-248 - "Multiple Man fights the ghost of General Lee in Las Vegas" tells me that Peter David wants to write a Deadpool comic, and i'd be more than ok with that. #248 was good, and seems like it's building towards something. Everyone will note that this book is floating towards the bottom of my read pile (ordered from lowest to highest anticipation, so that i end on a positive note), although i think the focus on Pip has something to do with that.

All New X-Men #3 And here we are at the very bottom of the pile but i'm questioning that placement. I don't know why we're adding something about Cyclops & Magneto's powers going haywire. It seems like a distraction and Bendis can't handle distractions. Keep him focused, editors! We wanted this series to be about the 1960s X-Men reacting to the state of mutant affairs in modern times. At the very least we'd like them to actually appear in the book. But we'll see where all that goes. That's not the real problem with this issue. The problem is a standard Bendis problem, but it's really exaggerated here: That was the White Queen? HAHAHAHAHA! "I appreciate the bust-out, fellas... but I'll see you in another life." Man, the Phoenix Force really affected her, huh? I kind of picture Bendis playing with a bunch of action figures but not even changing his voice when he makes the different figures talk. Well, i liked the first two issues so hopefully this was just a blip.

Avengers: i found this issue to be just full of pretentious speech-making and not all that interesting. i know they want to use the movie characters cause apparently comic book readers forgot all about the rest of the Marvel Universe characters after watching the Avengers movie (we all know the movie didn't create this huge group of new readers who we need to coddle by only using characters they're familiar with), but if i were Cap and putting together a team to go into space to confront something/someone capable of shooting bio-bombs at earth, i'm pretty sure the super spy and the sharp shooter, while fine people with fine skills, would not make the cut. was that sentence too long to parse? you take Hawkeye, but Ms. Captain Marvel is a second stringer? hrm.

JiM: i agree with fnord12 that we all know this book is getting cancelled soon. so, instead of doing fun "Adventures of Sif" stories where readers can get to know her and see what she does when she's not being Thor's sometimes girlfriend with a sword, we're just going to go ahead and make her a psycho killer. that's very empowering. thank you, Kathryn Immonen. score another point for strong female characters.

TB: i don't really understand what's going on here with this team. i laughed when fnord12 showed me the promo art. there's no way these people would work together. General Ross with Elektra and the Punisher? stop it.

i think what they did is they said "who wears red?" and that's how they picked this lineup. i'm waiting for something super fantastic to happen to convince me that i'm going to be interested.

IM: either i'm getting used to Land or he's toned down his porn tracing or the inker & colorist softened this up, cause i felt this issue was less awful than the previous two.

i disagree with fnord12 on Firebrand, though. i think she was two naked ladies put together. cause, otherwise, Firebrand's got one ginormous head and teeny tiny arms and legs.

Punisher: i had problems with the art - specifically the fight scenes. i couldn't tell if it was slightly exploitive or just poorly drawn fights. fnord12 says it's just my usual dissatisfaction with any fight scenes (which is totally untrue. i think those choreographed and filmed in HK are great. i dunno why i'm the only one who cares about actually being able to see the fight instead of a messy blur of limbs.). there were a couple of panels during her fight with the Punisher where the Widow was drawn in poses that emphasized boobage or stuck her ass up more than necessary. but it wasn't super bad, so it could just be me being sensitive. i just know they'd never draw Spider-Man landing from a flip in that pose.

RSH: i noticed they had to abbreviate her name in the recap in the front of the book. a sign that her name is clearly too long.

i know fnord12 is a completist but i cereally don't care what all this SHIELD stuff they're referencing from Hickman's run is about. i'm satisfied with learning what i learn from reading the comics i have. i have no pressing desire to slog thru Hickman's stuff just to find out about something that will probably piss me off in the end, anyway. i am happy in my ignorance.

when i turned that last page and saw what Red She-Hulk had turned into, my first thought was "finally. they got a female hulk right!". but i know as well as anyone that we can't possibly draw women like this long term. boo.

Avenging Spider-Man: so...my biggest problem with this book was that there was no way Moon Boy could carry all of those eggs by himself in 1 trip while running from Demon Dinosaur. there were like 6-8 eggs in vats. how could he possibly carry more than 1, given their size relative to him?

i'm fine with some mad scientist named Brainchild creating mutated dinosaurs in the Savage Land. i'm ok with Spider-Man swinging on his webs that connect to nothing. but Moon Boy escaping with those eggs is too much for my suspension of disbelief.

X-Factor: i think the art goes really well with Peter David's dialogue. the scene with Shatterstar and Lorna where she face-palms him? that's perfect!

ANXM: forget about the White Queen's out of character dialogue. what about Magick? i don't see her interspersing her words with "uh" and "So it's what you'd call a fixer upper" seems way out of character.

i hate time travel stories. i hate that they are no longer following the rule that you can't move back and forth in your own timeline. Marvel can't even keep timelines straight when we're just dealing with the present. now they have to fuck up shit from the 60s, too? jackholes.

Min's Avengers comment reminded me that i wanted to say "If you've got Captain Universe and Hyperion on your team, you probably don't need Spider-Man and Wolverine".

I suspect that Moon Boy has 12 APs in Juggling Large Objects.

Or i guess i should say that his Juggling Large Objects ability is Unearthly.

FASERIP!

FASERIP!