Bought/Thought 03-12-08

[Red]

Congrats on the new job Dread.

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

Fantastic Four 555 The first thing I read in this book was its first mistake: The university of vienna is certainly NOT in eyesight of St. Stephens cathedral. Geographical errors aside, this book was really good!

 

[K4tzm4n]

Have yet to pick up this weeks issues...Excited for FF as well as X-Factor...I'll also pick up Last Defenders #1, despite not knowing a thing about it.

 

[GNR]

Anyone else getting tired of Kirkman. I'm getting pretty bored of the walking dead, and wolf-man.

Was never a fan to be honest.I read the first 3 or 4 trades of both series at the central library here and they were decent,but far from the second coming people are making it out to be.

Zombies I can't stand,so I could be biased.

Invincible had your average teenager with powers dealing with things like family,super villains and love interests.

 

[RockSP]

I'll bet if anything that Constrictor will get a sweet pair of bionic arms and a nice power upgrade out of this.

yeah it seems pretty obvious.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Shut up, it still sucks. Imagine how much trouble he's gonna have with *********ion now.

 

[RockSP]

Trouble? Soon he'll be able to set his Starktech 3000 arm on "auto"

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, but you never know what kind of quirks and flaws bionics may have. Suppose he's handling his, er... business... and the hand suddenly clamps shut with 3,500 PSI of pressure?

 

[DBM]

Yeah, but you never know what kind of quirks and flaws bionics may have. Suppose he's handling his, er... business... and the hand suddenly clamps shut with 3,500 PSI of pressure?

Maybe it'll have one of the those features like the table saws that stop running when you touch a hot dog to it. Surely anyone with a bionic arm would think to have the anti-junk crushing features put in.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I sure hope so, for li'l Constrictor's sake.

 

[RockSP]

He could get a bionic one of those, too.

 

[DBM]

He could get a bionic one of those, too.

And it could be extendable with electro shock too.

 

[moraldeficiency]

jesus, people, the man's name is the constrictor, you think he hasn't lived with the possiblilty of crushing his @ick every day of his life?

 

[Dread]

Wow, for someone who's apparently spot on with recognizing "leftie ire," you sure do turn a blind eye to your own conservative spinfest.

I am technically a registered Democrat. I usually lean right on international politics and crime & punishment and left on more domestic matters, like abortion, poverty, etc.

What gets me I guess is I know both sides are very alike and have the same B.S., and politicians of both stripes fall victim to the Holy Trinity of Government Problems, which to me are Corruption, Mismanagement & Arrogance. Just most of the media is rather one sided, and that drains on me.

I probably would be as liberal as I was in high school if not for college, when some professors were so jack-hammer on the anti-Bush era venom that it got me to look at more of the other side. SOMEONE has to play Devil's Advocate around here.

Anyone else getting tired of Kirkman. I'm getting pretty bored of the walking dead, and wolf-man.

Not me. I don't read WALKING DEAD though. Not into the zombie genre enough to invest. But aside for that, and Ultimate X-Men, Kirkman's usually solid.

The polar ice caps are melting and disrupting existing climate patterns, quite apart from threatening massive global flooding; certain areas get cooler as a result because of how it affects things like the currents.

People stop mentioning it because either they mistakenly associate global warming with universal heat increases, or because they're just tired of explaining the difference; hence the use of the more effective term "climate change".

I read an article in the NEW YORKER about how "change" is a word that is coming up a lot this year, including "climate change". Y'know, how "shell-shock" became "post traumatic stress syndrome". Whenever we name something, we usually find another name that makes it sound less blunt. Soon guns will be "hand-held termination instruments."

The point is that "climate change" basically started around the Industrial Revolution (and has steadily gotten worse), and even if the entire planet abandoned all advances since that time and went back to living in wooden huts and dying by age 35, it would take centuries for the planet to begin to heal. The dilemma is that changing societies to try to fix the mess would mean basically stifling the economy and many modern advances. Besides, it never helps that most of those selling the story about climate change are jet setting, security-with-SUV-hording, 6-7 figure earners who can afford better instruments types of people. And then there are those who equate it to being worse than say, terrorism or whatnot, and that is too far on the other side.

I agree with this. I think that had Ultron invaded Earth with these perfect specimens, it would have been a much better story than the skrull storyline. I don't think any of Marvel's main heroes has had a space story since the Infinity Gauntlet, which is something I hate since Joey Q has taken over. I don't think the skrull invasion will sux but I don't think it will equal the original Annihilation story. Again, I think had they been allowed to invade Earth, this would have been a much better story.

Glad you agree. Yeah, Great Ultron's Annihilation is the perfect mainstream event that Marvel's editorial elite probably missed an oppurtunity on in the name of another Bendis hit, but I guess that is the "safe" business option. Least without that involvement, the quality of the Annihilation-stuff is usually better.

This is hardly the place for this discussion, but because you had to bring it up...



Increased temperatures cause increased water evaporation. In some places where it's below freezing the evaporated water can turn into ice.

Even if more ice necessarily meant colder (which it doesn't), it's called "Global warming" not "Local warming". No one is claiming that every single point of the Earth will be getting warmer at every single point in time. Local cooling trends will occur according to current Global warming models.



Vanishes where? In the media? Media wants to sell mags and whatnot. Joe Schmoe doesn't buy mags with headlines like "Global Warming getting worse!" in the middle of winter. So what?



What hysteria? Seriously, you might want to check up on your sources there. Every time someone actually references something from that time it ends up being from some news mag looking for a dramatic article to publish, or quoted out of context, etc. There was no "global cooling" hysteria. At least not among scientists/climatologists.

Just for ****s and giggles though:

Scan of a National Geographic on Climate from 1976.

And you think some of the "climate change" can't be something similar? I don't doubt that it is happening and I don't swallow the Republican, uh, "bull" that it is all about cows farting, but the options usually entail dragging the U.S. down to the level of other countries or being the cause du jour of rich types who could afford Hybrids and shake their finger at a middle class family that leaves the lights on too long while zipping across the planet on private jets. The preachers don't usually practice it, and that brings about ill will for me.

But enough of the CAPTAIN PLANET schtick. Let's have some more comic reviews & chatter!

 

[Dread]

Bought/Thought for 3/12/08 Part II:

THE LAST DEFENDERS #1: After what has seemed like a half year of promo's, Newsarama interviews with Casey & Muniz as well as spoiler leaks and whatnot, the latest Marvel mini starring a team of B and C List superheroes has hit the stands. We have had a slew of such titles since the end of CIVIL WAR in early '07, both mini's and ongoings, an of course OMEGA FLIGHT, the poor little series that switched from one to the other and was killed in the womb despite very decent sales. THE LAST DEFENDERS is thus entering a crowded stage right now of superhero teams, and frankly quite a few of them have either not done well as mini's or were canceled (or on the verge of cancellation) as ongoings. Some people think this sort of thing has become overdone post-Initiative, but I don't mind it. I mean, isn't that what many of us geeks do for fun? Think of "our versions" of the Avengers/Defenders/Invaders/Fantastic Four/X-Men/Champions etc.? Or mish-mash our favorite heroes together and imagine them as teams? Half the fun of MARVEL: ULTIMATE ALLIANCE is doing that (the Masters of Evil will be no match for the combined forces of Spider-Man, Colossus, Iron Man and Moon Knight!). So I don't blame writers & editors for thinking along these lines sometimes. Especially if they can produce something good. And frankly most of the new team books post-CW have been decent to actually good in terms of quality, if not always sales.

Plus, SHH had an entire topic discussion devoted to TLD that has gone on well over 20 pages worth of posts. It'd feel cheap if I didn't overanalyze the hell out of this issue. My initial impressions? The cover has a quality that makes it look a bit "old school" and yet with the colors and trade dress, perhaps not appealing to the "mainstream" comic buyer. Casey's claim that this book was anti-decompression was true, as enough happens here to fill perhaps 2-3 issues of some other writer's stories, even with a cliffhanger. The art is good but not great, and the colorist Antonio Fabela dropped the ball in many places, as some pages and panels actually looked better in B&W inks. And finally, regardless of the quality of the actual issue, I forsee this book struggling to have a solid debut and maintain a healthy enough audience to provide for either a future ongoing or a sequel mini. Because Casey, not unlike Cebulski on THE LONERS, seems to see this mini as a 6 issue pitch for a series. Casey's a writer with a long history of hits and some misses, but in terms of hype he's hardly A-List. Muniz's work is best known on MKFF, and the irony of McNiven doing the cover as some critics judge him as a "McNiven Lite". The biggest creator name is Keith Giffen, who co-plotted and provided panel breakdowns for this issue and presumably the next (according to interviews) before DC offered that Exclusive Contract to him. And as cool as Giffen is, the last time he scored a Top 10 book was collaborating on 52 with Waid, Morrison, and Rucka. He worked on the last DEFENDERS mini, which was strictly comedy, with his JLI co-creators and that hardly blew the charts afire a few years back (and THAT story actually had the founding members in it: Dr. Strange, Namor, Hulk, and cameos by Silver Surfer). Suffice it to say, this is the sort of little team book that provides some chuckles, smashes and antics that will struggle to debut within the Top 50 and will be lucky to still be in the Top 100 by issue #6. I could be wrong and I'd be glad to be once the March Sales charts are in, but mainstream comic buyers and the economy make me skeptical. I mean, with a recession on, shops likely are not as willing to give unproven franchises a chance. THE DEFENDERS as a franchise hasn't sold well since the 70's, and was canceled as an ongoing in the mid 80's.

Taking aside stuff like market reality and all that, TLD is a fun superhero book. It has a sense of humor although that is not the core focus of the book. I guess what I could say is it offers fairly uncynical superhero action. The only real "cynic" on the team is She-Hulk, and she is convinced to join within 2 pages. The story starts with a squad of SHIELD agents investigating a terror-cell in New Jersey and being ambushed and seemingly slaughtered, save their leader, by the Sons of the Serpant. Nighthawk & Gargoyle, both members of the Camp Hammond Initiative (as seen in A:TI #10 this week, with the pair getting tossed by KIA in one panel each, which is more than Stingray got), take down the Brothers Grimm before they could blow something up. Nighthawk is eager to rebuild the Defenders as the Initiative is all about creating 50 superhero teams across the U.S., with some being "new" teams and others relaunches of older ones, such as Force Works. Casey described Kyle as "a poor man's Iron Man" but in some ways the character also comes off as a good POV character for knowledgable fans, as he offers up stuff that came up in MB debates, such as "why isn't [INSERT LONGTIME DEFENDER MEMBER HERE] on the roster?" and all that. Kyle wants to reform the team with Hellcat, Gargoyle and an amazingly-still-alive Devil-Slayer, but Iron Man has already one-upped him, and it seems that that is one of Stark's talents, putting someone "in charge" while making all of the critical decisions for them. We've seen it with Henry in THE ORDER and especially Ms. Marvel in MIGHTY AVENGERS (who is most likely a Skrull), and now we see it with Nighthawk. Considering NJ to be close enough to NY that it needs a "powerhouse" line-up, Blazing Skull and Colossus are on the squad, and the aforementioned She-Hulk is convinced to join later on.

I did much angsting about how Colossus would fare here and so far he is unremarkable; he isn't handled poorly, but is obviously the "token mutant". Neither Muniz, Giffen's breakdowns, or the colorist have tried to make him look awe-inspiring or astonishing (a panel later on where he deflects projectiles with his steel body almost looks like he's slipping on a bar of soap), and THAT is what has kept him from being a bad-ass, because he simply is never shown as one. See AXM #4, or the end of the Proteus Saga, or that bit with Riptide during Morlock Massacre, or Millar's run on Ult. XM, or hell, his cameo in X-MEN 2, to see easy examples of how to do it right, how to make him seem like a "damn, why the hell did he spend a decade as a background character!?" sort of X-Man. His reasoning for being on the team was, basically, "The X-Men are no-more and trusted parties told me this would be a worthy venue for my powers." I suppose that is the bare minimum; he always wanted to use his powers for the good of mankind and spent 97% of his history with the X-Men or Excaliber doing that, with a brief stint as an Acolyte. It just seems a little hollow as the X-Men obviously won't be disbanded for long and have disbanded about 100 times in the past before and always reorganize. It is like saying, "The X-Mansion is no more" every time it gets demolished (or, for that matter, "Magneto/Xavier are really dead"). That said, it IS only the first issue of six, and this IS Colossus' first foray into moving outside the X-Universe, where even Joss Whedon can't help but marginalize him. Casey's entitled to some time to make this work for him. It HAS to. It is too big an oppurtunity not to. Colossus debuted the same time as Storm & Nightcrawler and joined the X-Men the same time as Wolverine yet gets shafted in the comics and multi-media because no one knows how to write and depict him, they always underwhelm. He was chosen to die in 2000 because the editors felt he was a worthy sacrifice to end the Legacy Virus, and he stayed dead for 4 years. And not because he was Thor and Marvel wanted to "do it right", but because no one really gave a damn (or Joe Q's outdated and nonsensical even for the time, "dead is dead" rule of his early tenure). The only reason Joss gave a damn is because Piotr's the Angel to Kitty's Buffy. And he's done little of note since, aside for beat Ord once and get his arms broken by The Hulk. THE LAST DEFENDERS may literally be Colossus' last shot to crawl out of C-List status before the next "genius" decides that he's "worthy of a Hawkeye" again, which is a shock-value death. And who knows if he'd be back. After all, Rockslide is here and everyone seems to LOVE him around the offices...

As for the others, Blazing Skull comes off as more of a wisecracker than a cynical WWII hero, and the art makes him look too comical rather than scary. I am not sure that works. I guess it makes him easy to tell apart from Ghost Rider (which he pre-dates). That said, I often found his one-liners to be hilarious. He's brash and impulsive and that fits, even if it has been done to death for pyromaniac characters. Come to think of it I don't recall one character off the top of my head who had fire based powers who wasn't a cackling maniac or impulsive risk-taker. There's Firestar, but that's heat (microwaves), not fire. She-Hulk naturally seems more well-rounded as she's had solo issues longer than everyone on the team, and while she is wary of anything Stark, she does believe in the greater good. Nighthawk is the lead and he comes off well, and I liked some of the twists on scenes, like superheroes ragging on him for NOT wearing the bright spandex to a meeting or wondered why he is standing silent during 2-4 panels of thought balloons.

The Defenders start off trying to rescue the SHIELD agents and smash the Serpent cell in Atlantic City, although their terrible teamwork results in gamblers in the casinos being endangered and a mystical creature being unleashed. Oh yeah, with some of the teams the Initiative has put out and some of their antics, you can almost see that the New Warriors REALLY got railroaded. There also are cameos of Krang and Defenders arch-enemy Yandroth, as well as a retcon that Hellstorm wanted to train under the Ancient One before he found Dr. Strange, which I suppose could be retconned in during his youth era (back when he trained as a priest, even), and tries to connect some Defenders dots. There is a sense of direction and momentum despite the plot jumping around, and that I DO like. Although why did Scorcher look weird and have no hands? Jen is ROUGH. Despite the concerns and niggles, this is the sort of straight-forward superhero action that I love to see in team comics, or at least some of them, since "grim" and "paranoid" became in vogue. The sum total and potential are greater than some of the ills of the parts. I'd recommend it, but only to those seeking out good superhero action with random heroes and villians, y'know, old school.

MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS #7: Fine in terms of quality, but 8 pages every month per story for $4 simply doesn't work for a year in terms of momentum, and while the book is entitled 12 issues, it sells below the Top 100 and will surely be finished by then, and I won't miss it too much. The VANGUARD storyline skips along with Dolan meeting the aforementioned black ops team, consisting of Blade (against type; I mean, hey, no vampires!), Micromax, the new Dominic Fortune, the supposed-to-be-dead Black Widow II (one was a Skrull or LMD, I bet), and a cute old lady named Retcon whose power is exactly that, which was the best part of the bit. The Savage Land story came to a close and Gage did a fine job with the short tale, albeit the art was stiff. Remember, kids, that Killer Shrike would later be killed off in MOON KNIGHT. There is a one-off Namor story that bored me too much to really talk about, and the Omega Flight Lite sequal with DiVito art that chugs along at a proper clip, with Julia Carpenter and U.S. Agent investigating missing villains, and discover that Agent Brown is using them to fuel Guardian's life-draining power, and while it is the most readable saga in the book next to VANGUARD, seeing the great Oeming & Kolins mini reduced to THIS as a sequal, a run on MCP that no one wil recall in a year, only makes you hate how that series imploded.

MIGHTY AVENGERS #10: I forgot to list this book in my last set of reviews, and lord knows why. Oh, I know, because I wanted to forget it quickly. Don't get me wrong, it isn't as terrible as at least a handfull of NEW AVENGERS comics I could mention, but it still isn't very good. Bagley gets in some good art and I liked the retro colors, and really felt they looked dynamic. But the rest was almost like a typical Bendis issue; a lot of talking, and a bit that could have been done in 7 pages, but Bendis stretches to 22, and it seemingly has no baring on the larger plot.

Because Dr. Doom was too stupid to turn off his time machine, which he uses to pork Morgan LeFey (Bendis won't be happy until he writes every regal or otherworldly character making booty calls), he, Iron Man, and the Sentry are transported back to the Silver Age during the Mighty Avengers' attack on Latveria. Come to think of it, remember how "reckless" it was for the New Warriors to engage in a fight with Nitro in a city? The Avengers are immediately invading a despot who is second in genius to Mr. Fantastic and in magic to Dr. Strange and could have any number of world-destroying WMD's with a basic plan of, "punch and repeat", and Iron Man's all for it. But that's neither here nor there. Half the issue is focused on Sentry, which doesn't work out because you only get to see what a helpless sissy-Mary he is, and aside for the ramblings about the mentally ill and the costume, could easily have been mistaken for the king of helpless whimpering superheroes, Ultimate Spider-Man. I know Bendis thinks it's great that the greatest powers of nearly any Marvel hero are at the command of a mentally challenged wuss, but he's written that bit so glaringly that it is simply a cliche, and it is now old. Sentry is more of a one-note character than Captain Rectitude at this point. Iron Man & Doom naturally hang out together and plan a strategy of returning home that actually makes use of a classic one-shot story between them, but along the way Dr. Doom has never sounded more pedestrian. Thankfully Doom's not spouting urine jokes or something, but he just sounds so average. Imagine Darth Vader speaking like a normal guy. Still, I was bracing for Bendis to write Doom "terribly" and instead it is simply "poorly", so yay for low expectations. The idea of getting home amounts to asking Sentry to steal the FF's time machine as the world will simply forget about it via the Jenkins retcon anyway, and that works. Doom then makes a hasty exit and blows up his castle over their heads, Ernst Blofeld style. And you have GOT to love how uber-genius Stark's only way of seeing if someone is a Skrull is to ASK them and then grumble when they say no. Y'know, like those idiot reporters who huddle around some arrested perp and flat out ask them, "DID you commit the crime?" like someone would be stupid enough to admit wrongdoing on national television like that (and those that are, should literally be castrated for the good of the gene pool. Moy had a point in FF #555 this week about "the stupid multiplying greatly" and all that). Like any Skrull in deep cover and blocked from any technologcial/magical/Wolverine/God based power is going to go, "Why, YEEEESSSS I am, Mr. Stark! And while we're at it, I'd like to get that Kennedy assassination off my chest!" It is like how all Luke Cage can do is accuse everyone and get them to turn on him.

Finally, I know it was some cute bit to have the pages try to look like they did in the Silver Age. The irony is that nowadays with modern tech and technique, coloring can take almost as long as pencilling and that helps lead to delays, while back in that "bright colored dot" era that smug ones laugh at, coloring didn't take nearly as long and that helped get comics out monthly. And those blurb ads at the bottom of the pages were cute once or twice, but then overdone to oblivion until you hate it, like Bendis seems to do with anything remotely clever, or even not, that he has ever written. He repeats anything he does, even within one issue, shamelessly. Good, bad, it doesn't matter, because anything Bendis has to be gold. He's the sort who'd walk up to an Apostle and truly believe, "I could have written a better Jesus Christ".

A well drawn waste of an issue, although compared to some of Bendis' worst, it is simply below average. MIGHTY AVENGERS is still the best of his books now. Unless you are one of the 10,000 people who reads POWERS. I don't know how that reads.

NOVA #11: Ending my comic reading week on a high note, NOVA continues after the annual with Nova arriving on the Technarch homeworld in search of a cure for the transmode virus that Ultron & The Phalanx are using to enslave the universe, or heck, which is outright KILLING him. This marks the debut of Maleev on covers and Pelletier on art, and both work marvelously. ANNIHILATION CONQUEST not not exactly be two pairs of aces, but NOVA almost always is. DnA get him and his adventures right without grounding him on pedestrian affairs too much, the sort of thing the Bendis' of the world will never understand.

The world of Kvch is one seemingly without life, but burried under tons of techno-organic debris. It causes Nova's virus to go critical and consume him, despite being near two dueling techno-monsters. One of them turns out to be Warlock, as in the Technarch alien who hung around the New Mutants for ages. Of course, a lot has happened to him since, from merging with Doug Ramsey as "Douglock" during 90's Excaliber and ending that decade in M-TECH with a Pasqual Ferry design and madcap adventures with a lovely lady and a little monkey. His mission at the end of that series was to make sure no Babel Spires ever appeared on Earth, but apparently after some 8 years in real time (maybe two in Marvel time), Warlock went back to the old hood to pick up the pieces. The time on New Mutants and that incarnation is the classic mode for Warlock and it isn't unwise for DnA to return to that, even if it may miff some continuity hounds who liked some of the last stuff (I never read it). Warlock truly comes off as a wild and unique character, and along with Ko-Rel and Kosmo, DnA seem to do well with supporting characters in this book, even if they only stick around for 2 issues. Warlock sadly reports to Nova that the Phalanx have evolved beyond what the Technarch could handle and he lacks enough "lifeglow" to cure the entire Kree galaxy, much less even Nova himself permanently. Warlock spends his time raising his adopted son, Tyro, trying to unbreed the flaws of the Technarch one generation at a time, which is no easy feat. Tyro has all of the stereotypes and hatreds for organics as the Technarch. Drax and Gamora land on the world but immediately merge and becoem a Babel Spire against their will, which summons a mature Technarch and drives Tyro to the melting point.

This issue simply seems to reinforce that DnA can really be masters at sci-fi when they get everything clicking right, with Warlock's lines being spot on and interesting to read. Pelletier's art is great, especially for a complicated design like Warlock, and the colors are great. Another solid issue to a rock solid series. Blue blazes, space heroes don't get better than this.

So, uh, how does everyone like the "paragraph break" era of my long-ass reviews? Do they make 'em easier to read? I'm just curious.

 

[Dread]

Congrats on the new job Dread.

Thanks. Hopefully I can survive it.

 

[SouLeSS]

Man, is no one buying Gotham Underground?

go buy it!

 

[gildea]

So, uh, how does everyone like the "paragraph break" era of my long-ass reviews? Do they make 'em easier to read? I'm just curious.

I'm not sure if i was ever one of the whiners, but yeah they do.

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

Man, is no one buying Gotham Underground?

go buy it!

Yes. Excellent mini series.

 

[iloveclones]

I was pleasantly surprised by this comic when I read it too. I wasn't expecting much but it turned out good.

Speaking of horror/noir blends, I'd highly recommend the graphic novel, The Supernaturalists written by Patrick Neighly with art by Jorge Heufemann. It's published by Mad Yak Press, one of the more obscure comic publishers, but really rocked my socks when I read it. I liked it so much, I bought everything else Mad Yak had published. Sadly Mad Yak Press is not publishing anymore.

Link, with preview, though it only seems to work about half the time. http://www.madyakpress.com/super_gn.php

Can never go wrong with DBM recommend. I've got some amazon money to blow, so maybe I'll give it a whirl.

 

[Blader5489]

Dread, you sure do have masochistic tendencies.

 

[Dread]

I'm not sure if i was ever one of the whiners, but yeah they do.

Cool. They also make it easier to add spoiler tags when I repost 'em elsewhere.

Dread, you sure do have masochistic tendencies.

Oh?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Man, is no one buying Gotham Underground?

go buy it!

I bought a couple issues and they were all right, but the series got ditched in the Culling.

 

[GNR]

FF was happy science family stuff and Thunderbolts was twisted and delusional as usual.

All is well.

 

[J. J. Jameson]

Wolverine and Thunderbolts were my favorite this week.

"Get Mystique" in Wolverine is a very fun story and a pleasure to read.

And Thunderbolts is insanely good. I couldn't believe how quickly I read the issue. Fanstastic

Mighty Avengers is a Bendis book and has Bendis written all over it, naturally. Overall, though, I'm enjoying this story. It's really refreshing to see heroes taking on an actual bad guy for once.

Still have Avengers: The Initiative to read, but I'm sure it'll be great as always.