Grades: Heroes Themed
A – Kristen Bell sexy treachery
B – Mr. Bennett one-finger jujitsu
C - Nathan Petrelli unibomber beard
D – Micah pseudo jeri curl
F – Claire’s bf creepy stalking

Thunderbolts #117 - Co-book of the week
I have loved the series more with each issue and I love the build up in this arc.  Ellis has slowly been making Penance more of an interesting character and I really dug Doc Samson’s therapy session with him, as well as getting a look into Samson’s utter disgust with the Thunderbolt members. Deodato’s art of the unflinching shots of Robbie was awesome and effective. The pieces are being set in place for things to just completely combust internally and I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

Grade: A

Countdown #27
Pretty solid issue overall. Either Jason Todd is the complete jerk we usually think he is or doing the “I’m going to infiltrate the bad guysâ€? routine.  I’m choosing the latter, though the end with his acceptance of Monarch’s proposal left me curious to see how this turns out.  While I’m not really a fan of his, he seems to have the most personality compared to Donna Troy and Kyle Rayner, so I don’t mind him taking a lead in the story. Shadowpact fighting Mary Marvel and Eclipso gave us some nice action, but doesn’t really do a whole lot in the end to advance her story. The Rogues meet up with Two-Face was nicely leading into the upcoming Salvation Run, but they really need to lay off the gay jokes.  Did anyone else hope that Two-Face was just going to pull a pair of scissors out of his pocket? Someone unchain them already! Bonus points for the layout/art of the Two-Face origin in the back.

Grade: B

Daredevil #101 - Co-book of the week
Kudos to Matt Hollingsworth for some greatly colored backgrounds that made me actually stop and look closer at the shading behind some of the initial Milla headshots. I was a little let down by issue #100, but I felt that this issue nicely picked up the story.  The unraveling of Matt was compelling and nicely offset by the slower (but just as emotionally compelling) moments of his visits to Milla during the night. Overall, I had a great time with this issue, but it was the shocking last page introduction of The Hood into picture that took it up a notch.

Grade: A

Green Arrow: Year One #6
Part of me is glad this was the last issue of the mini-series. Jock is a wonderful artist, but I didn’t find myself super drawn into the story. Maybe I’m just not a huge Green Arrow fan.

Grade: B-

Green Lantern Corps #17
The multiple artists on the issue was a killjoy and I can totally understand the rising body count of unknown soldiers not really doing it either.  Overall, I still love the Sinestro Corps storyline, but here’s my big request: Show us the fights that matter! The Anti-Monitor fight was one panel (if it’s over) and they’ve now teased Superboy Prime fights in both the last GL and this issue.

Grade: B

X-Men #204
A nice reprieve before Messiah Complex kicks off.  Mike Choi’s art was a welcome change from Mr. Ramos, but I don’t really like how he draws men with long hair (Gambit, Sinister) – makes them look like effeminate Asians. The splash page of Rogue and Gambit was pretty though.  Endangered Species…is over. Amen.

Grade: B-

The Poison Daisies for Rilo Conan Simpson Episode!

"Kwok uses big words," Conan the Barbarian apparently grunted while playing the 6th hole at the neighboorhood mini-golf.

A little earlier treat for you all, since I'll be on the road this weekend.

-Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight
-Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson
-The Simpsons and Conan demos for Xbox 360
-Pushing Daisies with Pol from the Fuzzy Typewriter Podcast
-America's least attractive city?
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Grades: Office-Themed
A – JAM
B – Concussion Dwight
C – Bankrupt Michael
D – DWI Roy
F – Chaffing Andy

JLA #14 - Co-book of the Week
As I’ve begun reading more DC titles, I feel like JLA (and JSA) are really hitting the spots that the X-books did for me back in the day with the big superhero brawls and action. Yeah, this arc isn’t brain science, but I’m more than adequately entertained by McDuffie’s run so far.  I got a huge kick of the panel where Superman just flies into the Injustice League base and chucks Parasite into the next galaxy. (And yes I laughed at the same joke in WWH: X-men. Twice.)

Grade: A

Captain America #31 - Co-book of the Week
I’m making my way through the Omnibus and I’m just completely won over by this series now.  The WWII false flashbacks were cool, but I was more interested in the scenes of Tony, Falcon, and Black Widow figuring out what’s going on. The end was a nice cliffhanger although I’m not really worried by it. I used to wonder how long this series would go without Steve Rogers; I don’t really think of that anymore.

Grade: A

Countdown #28 - Crap book of the week
The Piper/Trickster origin story illustrated by Van Scriver was awesome and I loved the layout of it. As for the actual issue of Countdown, it was ok, but a drop from the better issues of late. The Jimmy Olsen story doesn’t bother me as much, but the moth-person seemed really dumb.

Grade: D+

Captain America: The Chosen #3
I really am not sure whether I find this series interesting or dumb. The art by Mitch Breitweiser is awesome and seems to be in that dusty vein like Alex Maleev. But the story is really where it starts to go off the rails. Captain America is sick and dying and learned to mentally project himself everywhere? And he can draw really good? Is that even Steve Rogers?  Being of Marvel Knights, it’s out of continuity, but it’s on that verge of being a little out there for me.

Grade: B-

The Fuzzy Crossover Episode!

"It made me cry more than a beatdown by the Hood," Tigra said while enjoying dinner at Avengers Mansion.

Pol from the Fuzzy Typewriter Podcast joins us for the manliest of all manly discussions. Ok, we talk about tv, movies, and comics that made us cry. Please don't beat us up.

Be sure to head over to the Fuzzy Typewriter for the second part of this crossover!
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Grades: Buffy Themed
A – Angel era Buffy
B – Nick Fury Xander
C – Confused Willow
D – Werewolf Seth Green
F – Token love interest Riley Finn

Green Lantern #24 – BOOK OF THE WEEK

From the opening spread of Superboy Prime leading the Sinestro Corps charge to Hal and Kyle tearing out of Parallax – I LOVE this event! My only one gripe is that the event ends next issue and I wish there was more coverage of the war.  Maybe it’ll be covered in the GL Corps or the Sinestro Corps one-shots, but I wished for more fight scenes with Superboy, Cyborg Superman, and not to even mention the Anti-Monitor. I want to see them tearing it up and getting torn up by the superheroes, not all these random lackeys wearing yellow. Really though, that stems from my love and desire for more of this series.  Art by Reis was great!

Grade: A

New Avengers #35

A very interesting issue of the Hood consolidating the super-villians. Now where’s my Marvel Universe handbook? The Hood seems ready to mess up the superheroes, but I feel like there’s a disconnect between Bendis’ version and BKV’s version.  Bendis has him much darker and ruthless and I’m wondering if we’ll ever get to explore that in-between time. Also, I wonder how Marvel’s going to get around all these super-villians knowing identities and families after all is said and done.  I smell ret-con!!! I also wonder how much this issue was influenced by Frank Cho taking his sweet time with Mighty Avengers.

Grade: B+

Runaways #28

This book still comes out? Michael Ryan’s art seemed a whole lot better this issue and I’m enjoying Whedon’s direction with this arc now. I’m not sure how I’d feel if Gert comes back.  Molly’s “He makes you do chores?â€? comment was classic.

Grade: B+

Countdown #29

I thought this was a pretty solid issue again giving ample time to most arcs, though I really need a DC universe handbook supplement to tell me about Lord Havok (which I only recognized thanks to the ad in the book) and the Newsboys Legion.  Why are Piper and Trickster still tied together?  Can’t someone just shoot or cut that thing off?

Grade: B

New Warriors #5

Please tell me that Black Panther is Night Thrasher! That guy must be working on commission, with all the books he’s popping up in.  Also, I know most of the team is old X-men, but someone needs to just put in some Checkmate-esque intro page so that we know who is who.  Oh, and Night Thrasher disbanded the team. Decent issue, but not great.

Grade: B-

The Singular Torso Shock Episode

"mmmmmmmmmm. Kwok. muaaahhhhhhhhhh," a Big Daddy was overheard mumbling while attending an ice cream social.

-Mae - Singularity
-Torso by Brian Michael Bendis
-What's wrong with Bioshock
-Ostrich pride killings
-Questions from the forums
-Our last hour
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Grades: Sickness Themed
A - That sickness where you cough up money
B - That disease where eating pizza is the cure
C - That fever just bad enough to stay home from work
D - That flu that has explosive diarrhea as a symptom
F - That sickness you don't tell your parents about

Buffy #7 - Book of the Week.
I'm glad these are fictional characters, because else I'd have to worry about BKV being a stalker. He REALLY has a handle on these characters, especially Faith, and proves that his last issue wasn't just a fluke. The twist at the end was an added bonus, showing that this arc isn't entirely separate from the rest of the Buffy-verse.

Grade: A

Green Lantern Corps #16
The Corps series is just like a super fun battle. The Corps getting to use lethal force almost made a close pick for book of the week. I only had a few nitpicks with the issue, one being that Kilowog's fight with the Sinestro baddy didn't really get fleshed out.

Grade: A-

Countdown #30
I agree with all the praise for this issue and am digging the multiverse traveling. The issue really benefited from spending extended time on one story. I think I'm just not a fan of Jesus Saiz's art.

Grade: B+

Uncanny X-Men #491
The Magneto appearances were nice and sadly the highlight of this issue. Thankfully this arc is over as Masque and the Morlocks really didn't do much for me. Still, a better issue than some in the past.  Bring on Messiah Complex!

Grade: C

The Baby Episode!

"I can't wait until Papa Federline lets me listen to Kwok Talk!" Jaden Spears supposedly said while watching an episode of Dora the Explorer and eating a candy bar.

A real random discussion of the good and bad of babies and "crying" caused by Nintendo.
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Grades: Wendy’s Themed
A – Frosty
B – Spicy Chicken Sandwich
C – ¼ Single Burger
D – Cold baked potato
E – Sewer smell at the register

Avengers: The Initiative #6
This was an incredibly frustrating comic, in the sense that I’m not sure whether I liked it or want to pretend that it never existed in Slott’s pretty fun run on the series so far.  One minute I thought it was garbage, the other I thought it was pretty good. Weird. Let’s evaluate:

Good:
-Getting to see the “at-home� Gauntlet
-The classic “who-dun-it� feel of the book
-The New Warriors beef between Justice and Rage
-Uy’s art at some points: His action scenes are somewhat interesting

Bad:
-Uy’s art at some points: I have no idea who Justice was kissing (finally relieved to realize it wasn’t Cloud 9)
-What the freak is up with the ending?
-Tigra

Grade: C

Captain America – The Chosen #2
Mitch Breitweiser can draw beautifully, but I’m really not sure if I like the series so far. On some level, I feel cheated because Captain America isn’t really the central focus of the story (so far), which is ok, albeit somewhat confusing and hasn’t done much for me so far.

Grade: C+

The Immortal Iron Fist #9
Love the tournament story, could do without the Hydra sub-plot. I absolutely love any time Luke Cage and the Heroes for Hire show up in the book. If Brubaker and Fraction wrote Heroes for Hire I would buy it no matter how many tentacles were on the cover.

Grade: B

Batman #669
Well, the Club of Heroes plot comes to end in a satisfying but not overly exciting manner.  Overall, I did like the arc, which thankfully showcased the lovely art of J.H. Williams III. However, I do have one knock against him in that he may create very creative frames, but I felt that they were confusing at times to follow what was going on.

Grade: B-

The Spirit #10
I thought this was absolute garbage.  The parodies of YouTube and radio personalities just seemed way too easy and not something I would have expected Cooke to explore. Mix that with a somewhat ambiguous ending and this is oddly my crap book of the week.

Grade: D-

Green Arrow: Year 1 #5
Jock’s art is pretty – ok, I concede that now. But the story doesn’t seem to have much meat to it. Thankfully, there is tons of action here to make it enjoyable.

Grade: B

Countdown #31
Crime Society – awesome. Joker backstory – awesomer. Mary Marvel kills some folk – awesomerer. I’m curious what the Mr. Mxyzptlsfjlskdjflks story is all about.

Grade: B+

X-men #203
Lot of action with the Mauraders, but this definitely felt like a transition issue where not too. Thankfully tons of stuff happens here, instead of the snail-paced Uncanny series. I was getting into the action and thought to myself, “Wow, there’s a lot of pages left, so more cool stuff is coming!� But then I realized it was Endangered Species.

Grade: B+

Justice League of America #13
Wow wow wow wow! Such a fun issue! I’m sorry McDuffie for all the hate mail I sent you after Fantastic Four.  And Benetiz’s art certainly adds to the fun feel of this arc. Pick of the week.

Grade: A