A big pile and running late, for various reasons, so we'll try to be quick. It starts off negative but this was actually a pretty good pile.

Free Comic Book Day 2013 (Infinity) - That's your free comic book day offering? Really? 10 pages and i couldn't tell you at all what Infinity is going to be about, except that some aliens feed Thanos some delicious looking Brood snacks. Pretty sure we can skip it. And the preview of Marvel's "first" original graphic novel is even worse. 4 pages of Captain America doing push-ups and drinking coffee? Guys, a preview doesn't literally have to be your first few pages. It should be a representative sample of what your story is about. At least i got that Logun's Run Thanos back-up; it seems i actually didn't have that although it sure seemed familiar.

All-New X-Men #11 - We tried to drop this book but there's no stopping it. God, the visual design for Young Iceman is now bugging me to no end. Aside from that, i'm shocked to see this pick up immediately where last issue left off since the fact that Young Angel was already revealed to be the guy who defects in other books. Jumping forward - maybe just showing the Brotherhood's raid and then having the Avengers encounter actually happen this issue - might have convinced me that something was actually happening in this book and gotten me to reconsider the decision to drop it. As it is, though... agonizingly slow!

Secret Avengers #4 - Ok, things are moving this issue. I thought this was pretty good. I'm getting paranoid and thinking that Luke Ross included the 5 panels of Maria Hill and Daisy Johnson standing side-by-side just to shut me up. One thing i didn't love was the fact that SHIELD takes it for granted that Iran has nuclear weapons and would retaliate with a nuclear strike if AIM's ruse worked. Maybe in the Marvel Universe it's a fact. But in the real world that's the kind of thing that can get us into another dumb war. Real world politics aside, i enjoyed the black ops stuff and the story seamed more streamlined than last issue.

X-Factor #255 - Now Tier does want to fight the Hell lords. I think everyone agrees that this story could have been condensed by quite a few issues, but i see the words "To be concluded" at the end of this issue so we're in the home stretch.

Iron Man #9 - I don't know why he's 30ft tall but i enjoyed Death's Head and i'm really really happy to see Eaglesham on art. The footage of Stark's father is intriguing - does Tony know about his father's SHIELD/Illuminati stuff? Will this relate to that? I am interested. "You may need a drink." is pretty funny, too. Looks like Eaglesham is staying on the book for a bit so this may go from the book you love to tolerate to the book you love.

Wolverine #3 - This is getting good. Interesting hodgepodge cast Cornell has assembled. Victoria Van Frankenstein! Marcus H. Harold! (Gonna have to beef up my Harold H. Harold descriptions on my timeline project.) A Damage Controller! Plus: Jelly Mandroids! I was annoyed by the pacing of this initially but maybe because we're deeper into the story i'm liking it more, and giving Wolverine characters to interact with, including Fury Jr., helps as well. Oh, and obviously Alan Davis art.

Uncanny Avengers #8 - Ok i'm going to try to shut up and enjoy this story for what it is. I'm hoping Sunfire's little self-realization moment with Thor ends that arrogant nonsense. This issue is also helped by some actual exposition and information. I practically saw a footnote to Remender's X-Force series but at least there's an acknowledgement that this story is building on stuff from there. I was surprised to learn that the Apocalypse Twins "looked an awful lot like Archangel"; i would have never guess that by looking at them. It's still a time travel story which is never a favorite of mine, and i still find the forced Avengers/X-Men conflict - and especially the "they have to learn to get along to win" contrivance - pretty poorly done, but definitely feeling a little more favorable about this issue.

Avenging Spider-Man #20 - Great. Storywise, loving everything about it. Doc Ock's confidence and the way his Spider-Conscience kicks in at the end. Artwise, i thought it was pretty nice but was it just me or does it start to fall apart at the end, especially that last page?

Uncanny X-Force #4 - Enjoying this too. Interesting art, especially in the dreamscape. Psychic Owls. A nice moment for Psylocke. Puck is fun (if a bit more rowdy than my take on his character).

Red She-Hulk #65 - Us old people just learned the expression YOLO, so the introduction of the Yologarch is very timely. Very much enjoying every aspect of this. One really minor thing that i think starts to address my one nagging issue about this series: when Machine Man says that destroying Mt. Rushmore is a "great idea if you want to enrage your father", RShulk interrupts with a "Yeah!" as if she just thought that was the greatest idea ever and MM wasn't being snarky at all. So the idea is that we're seeing Betty going through almost a previously suppressed rebellious teenager phase, which could be interesting and eventually get to some real issues of being the daughter of a career military widower. "I sometimes pick up on cosmic rays and crap." was funny, too.

Indestructible Hulk #7 - Great fun. Adjusting to Simonson's current style and while i still prefer classic Simonson there's a lot to appreciate here. Storywise, it's great.

For some reason, I keep forgetting that you want to drop 'original' X-Men.