New Comics: September 23, 2009

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #606: A GREAT cover by J. Scott Campbell is just the start. This issue features the long awaited return of the Black Cat and a surprise appearance of Diablo! Alright so, Cat is after a book and Spidey doesn't know why. He just had to deal with 3 women all wanting his attention, one of which would also like to pummel him, and adding the feelings he has for the Cat just makes things more entertaining. The first scene in Parker's apartment where his roommate, his co-worker and Mary Jane all come at him is golden. Almost makes you wish he were fighting the Sinister Six, at least that would be easier!
In another part of the story we learn Black Cat's powers of...bad luck(? I never understood that) are back and almost kills Spidey. He finds her on a 'job' which means she's stealing something. Turns out to be a book from the office of the new owner of the DB! (Formerly the Daily Bugle) What's the book got in it and who wants it? That's the mystery and does it tie into The Gauntlet? Don't know but the issue was one of the most entertaining this year!

FANTASTIC FOUR #571: The cover of this one is sweet. Reed Richards with the Infinity Gauntlet standing on the body of Galactus! What does it mean? Well, Reed has been contacted by a Council of Reeds from different realities. they have decided to get together and fix, well, everything. Some have Gauntlets which apparently only work in the reality they are from others are just really damn smart, just like our Reed. While all this is going on, Sue is getting more and more upset with Reed's distancing of himself, she has no idea what's going on, and Franklin is preparing for his birthday party! Reed learns that Doom is quite possibly the worst thing in the Universe and that the Celestials are really mad at the Council! This issue alone blows away that last year and a half of this series!

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #18: The Guardians are still trying to find their way to their own timeline. The Fault and Warlock's tampering of it, which has turned him into the Magus (!) have knocked them out of step with time. In many ways this felt like a filler issue, kind of just explaining what's going on while everyone was in the reality from Marvel's version of "The War Of The Worlds" really fun though!

MARVEL ZOMBIES RETURN #4 of 5: World War (Zombie) Hulk starts here! Earth Z is having a hell of a time with this whole Zombie thing. Zombie Spider-Man is trying to fix things but Zombie Giant Man is making things much worse. He's taken out the Inhumans who in turn have attacked Hulk returning from "World Without A Hulk." The heroes are learning something is very wrong but it may be too late as Zombie Hulk has attacked and turned this world's Sentry into a Zombie...kind of interesting when you think back to Marvel Zombies #1 where it was Zombie Sentry that started it in that world. Next up: Avengers Dismember! So far this was my favorite issue of this series!

NEW AVENGERS #57: I'm really hoping something is going to happen soon. Last issue the New Avengers all lost their powers...this issue they deal with that, most get their powers back but it seems like Cage is having more trouble than the rest of them. His heart is apparently not able to deal with things and he's having a major heart attack. That is pretty much the bulk of this issue...here's hoping something happens next month!

NOVA #29: Meanwhile, back and the Fault... Nova and his new Corps is learning new things about it. For instance: NASTY things are just beyond the walls of our reality! This one has two things, both bad, in it: 1) World Mind is attacked with some sort of Nanotech that disrupts her defenses, while she tries to repair herself the body she took over, that of the Living Planet Ego, begins to heal very fast and still wants the power of the Nova Corps. 2) We learn that there is a drug that turns some pretty nasty things into Mindless Ones. From the Dark Dimension of Dormammu they blast their way into our reality! This is NOT GOOD!

New Comics for September 16, 2009

This week was a little stronger than I expected.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #605: This one wraps up the "Red Headed Stranger" storyline and shows a little bit of what exactly happened between Peter Parker and Mary Jane. Also we see some of the fall out Peter has to suffer through after the Chameleon made some interesting moves in his life. Overall, it was a decent issue, but what really takes away from it is the $3.99 cover price. Marvel is already getting $12 a month from fans on this series, I don't understand why a random issue needs to be priced at $3.99. The main story was good but, seriously, the other stories here could have easily been back up stories in futures issues.

DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH #3: Continuing the story of the Head from the Dead. Deadpool is still in the Savage Land trying to get his head out of trouble...well, the zombified head of the Zombie Deadpool that is. The series is finally starting to come into its own which is more than what can be said for the main Deadpool series. It's a nice change of page to see him dealing with things not directly related to Dark Reign. And, hey, who doesn't love a Zombie T-Rex?

FABLES #88: 12 issues until FABLES #100! This issue focuses mainly on Frau Totenkinder. She has a plan to fix some things but needs to be alone to do it. After talking to King Cole about the money problems the Farm faces she decides to do what she can for them before heading out to do something, presumably, about Mister Dark. It was really interesting to see why she is always on that rocking chair, it's more than just a chair, we also get some more of her origin as well as finally seeing what she's been knitting nearly from the first issue! Let's just say Beauty and the Beast are going to have another mouth to feed!
Also, we see a long little monkey prepare to take on the vile Babba Yagga and a jinn!

MARVEL ZOMBIES RETURN #3 of 5: This round goes to Zombie Wolverine! Zombie Spider-Man thinks he has found a way to stop the hunger but he needs a sample of Wolverine's blood in order to use the healing factor. So this world's Wolverine (this world, by the way, is now called Earth-Z) is needed. Problem is he's busy fighting Zombie Wolverine and members of the Hand that have been turned. Things seemingly turn out alright in the end although Earth-Z's Wolverine had some pretty nasty looking bite marks on his arm!

THOR ANNUAL #1: More fallout from the Fall of Thor. Really though this story could have been made part of the regular series as it does fit nicely. I remember when Annuals had an impactful story in them. This was just like a regular issue of Thor. Not really much else can be said except we now know the Death Gods are now gunning for Thor and the Thunder God has lost not only his home and stature but he lacks the confidence needed to be Thor.

Also this week...

TRANSFORMERS: ALL HAIL MEGATRON, VOLUME 2!

Comic book tally: 4923

New Comics September 9, 2009

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #604: Red-Headed Stranger concludes here as Peter learns some of the fall out of the actions done in his name by the Chameleon. But the big point made here is he remember Peter for some reason and he is also going to be involved with Kraven's daughter and the upcoming storyline "The Gauntlet"
Also, MJ takes center stage in an exchange between her and Peter where it's made very clear that she does in fact know Peter is Spider-Man.

FREDDY VS. JASON VS. ASH #3 of 6: This series is dying fast. The charm of these characters and their stories is they are pretty self contained. In this series we have the government trying to harness the power of the Necronomicon, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. It's a much larger canvas than these characters generally work on. Then when you add in all the survivors from the A Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday The 13th franchises, well, it's just a jumbled mess of everything doing nothing.
MARVEL ZOMBIES RETURN #2 of 5: Reality hopping zombie heroes. What fun! The thing I like most about these series is how they revisit classic stories and inject the viciousness of the Marvel Zombies. Last issue was 1960's Spider-Man and this time around it's Drunk Tony Stark. The only thing that is confusing here is are the Zombies all in the same reality or is Zombie Giant Man in a separate reality/time than Zombie Spider-Man was? Something else I'm not really clear on is why they suddenly have The Hunger again. In MZR #1 Zombie Spider-Man noticed The Hunger at about the same time as his lack of the Power Cosmic. Perhaps the reality hopping changed them all in some way. No matter what, though, this is classic Marvel Zombies!

VAMPIRELLA: THE SECOND COMING #1 of 4: I have to admit, I know very little about this character. She's a classic though, been around for 40 years and the fact that this book carries a $1.99 cover price was enough to get me to check it out. I read it and was able to enjoy it somewhat. This seems to handle Vampi as a fictional character yet she's also real...doesn't make much sense but this is only the first issue. If the rest carry the $1.99 cover price I plan to follow this one through.

xSad

Well, while I understand the need for Labor Day, to suck up to the unions, I don't like that it prevents me from getting my comics on Wednesday. Ah, well...

Not Comics Related

I had to get a new phone today. I guess when Verizon bought out Alltel we couldn't simply keep our phones we have to get Verizon phones. I'm not completely upset about it, I mean it's always fun to learn a new system but I really hate setting a new voice mail message!

New Comics For September 2, 2009

This was a REALLY small week.

DEADPOOL #15: This was something of a shock...DEADPOOL #14 came out just last week! Alright, so, Wade has decided eh actually kind of likes helping people and sets out to do just that. After being adrift at sea for who knows a how long, he eventually gets saved, has more hallucinations and ends up in San Francisco. Once there he tries to blend in by dressing and somewhat acting gay. Some might find that offensive but those people need to sit down and be quite. It was funny and further display how Wade's mind functions when he's not focused on something, like getting paid to kill. His mind wanders...A LOT. Eventually, he figures out what he needs to do: Join the X-Men!

MARVEL ZOMBIES: RETURN #1 of 5: This weekly event picks up the slack of MARVEL ZOMBIES 2 where the original Zombies were zapped out of their reality into new realities. The story opens with the Watcher looking for them. He locates Zombie Spider-Man who ends up in the past of Peter Parker. He tries to reclaim his role as hero but sadly the Hunger is to strong and he ends up bringing the plague to a new world. It's interesting to see old school characters meeting with this blood thirsty ghoul of Spider-Man. It's Zombie Spider-Man Vs. the Sinister Six...which turns into the Sinister Six Course Meal! Also, Uatu, The Watcher, tries to rally his other reality counterparts to locate the remaining Zombies and destroy them. But Zombie Giant Man has other plans!

Again, this was a VERY small week which is fine because after Monday's announcement from Disney, I think we could use some down time.