So – Straight on into the comics, like a good little soldier…

COMIC BOOK COMICS 3 – Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey’s stroll down memory lane of comic book history touches on Frederic Wertham’s anti-comics crusade, the birth of the Comics Code Authority, plagiarizing Pop artists and more.  As always in a book by this duo the historical info is rich and entertaining. I can’t recommend this one enough.  BUENO EXCELLENTE!

TERRY MOORE’S ECHO 9 – Things take a surreal turn this issue with TWO dream sequences that both left me scratching my head more than saying “wow”.  The problem I have with this book is that every other issue seems like an exercise in decompression that leaves me feeling unfulfilled by the time i read the last page.  This is a book that might be better suited to reading in collected volumes rather than issue to issue.  GOOD.

HAUNTED TANK 3 (OF 5) – The forced racial arguments in this book are becoming more and more tedious.  I’m finding it harder and harder to care about this book, so don’t be surprised if I don’t keep reading until the finale.  EH.

EUREKA 1 (OF 4) – This is BOOM! STUDIOS new book based on the Sci-Fi Channel’s television program about a Sheriff in a town full of crazy mad scientists.  I love the show.  That fact, and the promise of in continuity stories, are what made me pick this up.  It helps that Andrew Cosby, one of the creators of the show, is hands-on for this adaptation to comics.  So the voices of the characters are spot on, and the mystery set up for the mini-series is something that I could conceivably see happening on the show.  Now that I think about it – a show with a bunch of mad scientists lends itself well to comic books.  And any fan of the show will have no problem establishing this to be set prior to the events of last season where one of the main characters died.  FANBOY FUN.

JONAH HEX 40 – Hex versus (basically) Hannibal Lecter in the Old West.  Do I really need to say anything else? FANBOY FUN!

HOTWIRE: REQUIEM FOR THE DEAD 1 (OF 4) – Despite what the solicitation for this implied – this book is only tangentially touched by the hand of Ellis.  Apparently, from the credits, he helped with the story.  Steve Pugh takes up the reigns  for the actual issue, and it turns out very well.  Pugh draws the issue as well as writes it.  The colors and mad ideas he fills this dense little book with are, like Cyndi Lauper said, beautiful like a rainbow.  Hotwire, the main character, is a Necro Police officer tasked with crimes involving the spirits of the dead. If for nothing else you should buy this for the colors that bring this world to life.  GOOD STUFF.

THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST 22 – This is the first part of ESCAPE FROM THE EIGHTH CITY storyline.  Iron Fist and the other six Immortal Weapons find and enter the Eighth Hell on a rescue mission to save those unfortunates who were condemned to Hell unjustly.  Things start right up with the gang being relentlessly beaten by demons and then we flashback to the events that led them to where the story starts.  If you jumped off the book when Swieczynski took over for Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction – you jumped too soon.  FANBOY FUN.

ADVENTURE COMICS  0 – This introductory special issue (only one buck!) could do a lot worse in the bang for your buck department.  You get a reprint of the very first Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes adventure, from ADVENTURE COMICS 247 (1958), as well as a six page Origins & Omens backup story written by Geoff Johns, that serves as a teaser to the upcoming Blackest Night crossover. At least – I think it is a Blackest Night teaser.  And therein lies the mystery of this book.  Just what is this book going to be about?  Originally the ADVENTURE COMICS title was a showcase for Superboy before it became Superboy and the Legion.  The six pager ends with a shot of the now deceased Connor Kent (aka Superboy) after the Guardian known as Scar tells us a tale about Lex Luthor and Brainiac.  So..is the book teasing us about Blackest Night?  Scar’s presence would indicate so, as does the shot of Superboy. Johns has said numerous times that the dead will return as Black Lanterns.  Heroes AND villains alike.  The reprint of the first Legion story leads me to think the new ADVENTURE COMICS might just be a showcase for yet another relaunch of the Legion into DCU continuity, but then why have that tantalizing shot of Superboy in the backup?  Is Connor Kent coming back as more than a Black Lantern? Is the new ADVENTURE going to be about Superboy AND the Legion?  I don’t know.  I’ve never been so puzzled by a book as I am by this one.  This might be one of the few DC events I’m looking forward to for the first time since COUNTDOWN really let me down by leading into FINAL CRISIS (which broke my little heart).  GOOD?

WAR OF KINGS: DARKHAWK 1 (OF 2) – I can’t believe Marvel suckered me into buying a comic book with Darkhawk in the lead.  Me and my stupid interest in the War of Kings….grumble grumble…  As a bonus, this issue also includes a reprint of Darkhawk’s first issue from way back in 1991, when comics sold like hotcakes even if they sucked as bad as Darkhawk as long as they had that magic number one on the cover.  Rereading Darkhawk I found that I was correct in my assessment that it did stink.  The lead-in story was OKAY, but that reprint is still AWFUL and always will be.

PUNISHER 2 – Not as much big ’splodey fun as the first issue, but still decent.  OKAY.

SECRET WARRIORS (aka NICKY FURY: AGENT OF NOTHING) 1 – This is NOT what I was wanting or expecting.  When I picked it up I was expecting to see Nick Fury leading a team against Norman Osbourne.  What I got was Nick Fury more or less devoted to a supporting role and the team leader is one of those heroes that Bendis threw into SECRET INVASION with no concern whether you read his Avengers books or not.  I did not.  The thing is that now that I’ve gotten to know the characters a bit more – I don’t care about them at all.  EH!!!

AGENTS OF ATLAS 1 – This is the book I was looking forward to the most this week.  I’ve been building it up in my head for months now.  I made it no secret that the AoA mini-series from 2006 was one of my favorite Marvel books in forever.  It still is!  That book was just goofy fun.  So this book, by the same writer, would have to be as good as that, right? YES!!!  It was a lot of fun.  The whole gang is back for more action, and it picks up right where the last book left off, with the added twist being that Marvel is now under the whole Dark Reign thingamabob.  In the first half of the book the Agents of Atlas begin to manipulate things to their benefit as they try to work around Osbourne, but the second half of the book is a retro tale of the Agents from the 50s when they ran into a Canadian soldier named Logan.  AND THAT IS WHY I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!  It is literally bursting with fun retro adventures AND modern action and intrigue with plenty of quips provided by a talking gorilla, a human robot, a man from Uranus with a flying saucer and a secret agent named Jimmy Woo.  BUENO EXCELLENTE!!

SECRET SIX 6 – Holy Crap!  I never expected THAT.  ***SPOILER ALERT ACTIVATED*** This big shocker of this issue was that Deadshot just casually wipes out the rest of the team and takes off for Gotham with the card they’ve been contracted to deliver.  I said last week that Black Adam is my favorite villain in the DCU, but Deadshot (and Deathstroke) run a close second.  So to see him just casually begin taking out the rest of the team was more than this fanboy could handle.  ***SPOILER ALERT DE-ACTIVATED*** I can’t wait to see where Gail Simone takes this next issue.  FANBOY FUN!!!

FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF THREE WORLDS 3 (OF 5) – At this point I wish DC had not been so greedy by throwing the F.C. label on this book, which obviously has nothing to do with the actual Crisis in F.C.  If it did – they would have rushed it out, or held F.C. until it was done.  Thumbs down for that DC.  Thumbs up to Geoff Johns and George Perez, who made this the best issue so far and a longtime Legion fan’s greatest wish fulfillment brought to light.  Seeing all the various characters interact with their respective doppelgangers was fun enough, but to see so many of my favorites from Legions past in action again (XS, Gates, FERRO!!!), was more than worth the wait.  And seeing Superboy Prime go on another of his legendary kill streaks again was long overdue.  CAN. NOT. WAIT. FOR. ISSUE 4!!!  BUENO EXCELLENTE!!!

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON EIGHT 22 - Steven S. DeKnight was pretty much wasted on this issue.  He does an adequate job, but no matter what they try to do with them I just do not like Kennedy or Satsu.  I by this book because it says Buffy.  Sure, I love the supporting characters as much as anyone else, but Kennedy just annoyed the Hell out of me on the show, and if I wanted the adventures of someone that has only appeared in the comics I would write my own fanfic.  EH.

THE BOYS 27 – Well.  Now we know what Garth Ennis, a native of Ireland, thinks of America’s Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations.  GOOD STUFF.

CROSSED 3 – That was just wrong.  Even for Garth Ennis, that s*** was wrong.  GOOD STUFF.