X-Force #8 - Well, i'm glad for the change in artist, if only so that a certain someone may judge the writing without having to get past the computer generated art. Right? C'mon, this is good stuff. It makes great use of past X-stories, even really bad ones. I thought the way they handled the Vanisher, setting up little ambushes in each of his safehouses, was pretty clever as well.

Avengers: The Initiative #18 - Min blew the ending of this for me, but i thought it was the Skrulls that would kill Devil Slayer so there was still some surprise when he just keeled over. Probably more of a surprise than if i had just read it without spoils. So has "Thor-Girl" always been a Skrull? I was thinking about how this book has more or less been hijacked by the Skrull Kill Krew, but i don't have a problem with it. It really should just be called Marvel Universe and let Gage and Slott write about whatever characters they want.

Nova #18 - I hope it's not too late to make Can O' Quasar a power-up in Ultimate Alliance 2. Great visualization of the Worldmind as well. With 20/20 hindsight that's exactly what he should look like (and maybe even has appeared as such in old issues), but i had always kind of thought of the computer as female. I'll have to go back and re-read this series with this warped old Xandarian's voice in my head now. Min demanded that i tell her where the new Nova Corp at the end of this issue came from, as if Abnett & Lanning are consulting with me as they write their plots (most writers should, by the way, but i'd let these guys run on their own; they're doing fine).

Hercules #122 - This book is so much fun it was kind of a buzz kill when the Atlantean soldiers got killed. The grinning Hercules panel, and Cho's subsequent face, were just hilarious. This continues to be a super-great book, maybe even my favorite at this point, despite all that nipple biting on the cover.