How were they? ver. 2 SPOILERS

[Agent]

Justice Society of America #3 - This is the best comic on the stands right now as far as I'm concerned.  Johns is pulling out all the stops.  We get the anticipated reveal of the mastermind who's been destroying the legacies of past JSAers - Vandal Savage.  I was thinking it was Per Degaton but Savage fits the MO just as well.  The characterization is spot on.  New characters like Cyclone are already being given there own distinctive voice and older characters are getting a great shot in the arm.  For example, with one panel Sandman catapults up the coolness meter.  "Get everyone to the meeting room.  I had a nightmare."  Johns has said several times that he loves the characters and it really shows in these first three issues.
Rating:  :thumbup:

Green Lantern Corps #9 - DC needs to throw more writing work Keith Champagne's way as soon as possible.  This is the second time I've seen him fill in for someone else's title and I've loved what he's done both times.  In fact, this time I think he's out shone the regular writer Dave Gibbons.  Not only does he do a better job writing Guy as the lovable rogue we all know and love, he also introduces an interesting new concept to the GL mythos - the GL Corpse, the Guardians' secret black ops wing of the Green Lantern Corp.  Here Champagne concludes his three issue arc.  R'amey recovers from last issues claw through the gut thanks to the radiation from the meteorite used to create the Super Dominator and receives new powers as a bonus.  Daggle goes toe-to-toe with the Dominator and again proves he's a badbutt in the truest since of the word.  Once the trio reunites the Dominator gets taken out pretty quickly thanks in part to R'amey's new space warping powers.  I'd love to see Champagne revisit the GL Corpse.  Hopefully the "Not the end" line on the last panel means that will actually happen.
Rating:  :thumbup:

Batman #663 - Technically, I don't think you can call this a comic book.  It's really more of an illustrated short story.  While I wasn't crazy about the CG artwork, the story was pretty good.  The Joker's former henchmen are being killed off by genetically engineered black and white roses that emit a toxin when they're placed next to each other.  The fact that the Joker is the one responsible is never really a mystery.  The story is more about why the Joker is doing this and the identity of his final victim.  Morrison brings back the interesting take on the Joker's psyche he first used in Arkham Asylum that reconciles the relatively non-lethal Joker from the Silver Age with the deadly psychotic we know today. 
Rating:  :thumbup:

Martian Manhunter #7 - While reading this comic I find myself thinking, "This could've been so much better."  The Martian Manhunter has more untapped potential than probably any other character in the DCU.  The concept behind the series is interesting enough.  What would happen if J'onn discovered he was no longer the last Martian?  Unfortunately, the execution doesn't live up to the concept.  There are too many areas where the plot seems to require that everyone involved forget that Martians are telepathic.  There's also the problem that the plot seems to be more complex than it needs to be with lots of shadowy figures doing shadowy things in the shadows with little to no explaination about how it relates to J'onn, even this late in the series.  On the bright side, issue #7 is definitely better than issue #6.  It's hightlighted by the revelation that the Martians J'onn discovered are actually the White Martians he first fought as the Hyperclan.  Someone has managed to brainwash them into thinking they were actually green Martians (which actually has interesting ramifications for Miss Martian over in the Teen Titans). 
Rating:  :mellow:

JLA Classified #34 - This is another "It could've been better" title.  The plot, by Dan Slott, is pretty interesting.  An average Joe accidentally gets his hands on Dr. Destiny's Materioptikon.  He uses it to creat different realities were he can try out different plans to take over the world, deleting the ones that don't work out as he goes along.  He's down to just 4 now and this is the second potential world.  The interesting twist is that he accidentally triggers a Kryton-like chain reaction that will destroy the Earth in 98 hours.  The entire issue is the JLA combining they're resources to evacuate Earth and create a new civilization on Mars.  There are a lot of interesting ideas here.  My favorite is Superman using Ray Palmer's white dwarf tech to shrink Earth's greatest cities for transport to Mars were they can be re-enlarged.  The problem with the issue is that the actual script was written by Dan Jurgens.  His dialog just doesn't work for me.  The characters don't seem to have there own voice and his dialog doesn't have any real strength to it, even in what should be a pretty emotional situation.
Rating:  :)


QUICK HITS

52 Week #42 - If that's the real Helmet of Fate I'll eat a chocolate chip cookie (what can I say, I'm not a betting man).  Nice to see Diana make an appearance even if it was pretty brief.
Rating:  :)

Astonishing X-Men #20 - Nice issue.  I especially liked how Emma created the pleasant tea time fantasy for the X-Men in the escape pod with her.  I don't buy that Kitty could survive that fall just because Colossus was holding her but I can let that go.
Rating:  :thumbup:

Stormwatch PHD #4 -  Christos Gage has jumped onto my "Always give this writer a try" list.  Not only did he write the miniseries that made me care about Deadshot, he also wrote the only comic other than Iron Man to actually write Tony Stark like an actual human being (actually now I'd need to add Adam Warren to the list thanks to Iron Man: Hypervelocity).  Lots of solid characterization here and the bit about the Doomsday Clock was pretty cool.
Rating:  :thumbup:

Manhunter #28 - I've read posts from people on other boards who believe this is the real Ted Kord.  They're going to be really disappointed next issue.  The Mark Shaw subplot is becoming really interesting though. 
Rating:  :)

Green Arrow #71 - This whole issue was Batman vs. Brick and Green Arrow vs Red Hood.  Even so, it still seemed kind of meh to me.
Rating: :mellow:

Star Wars: Legacy #8 - Isn't it interesting how so many people are putting out quality Star Wars content but George Lucas isn't one of them?
Rating:  :thumbup:

[Talavar]

I thought the same thing about Astonishing X-men at first, that Kitty should have gone splat against Colossus' chest as easily as she would have against the ground, but I looked it over again, and they do glance off a bunch of things first, that would have slowed their descent to some degree. 

Thunderbolts 111 - I thought the first issue of Warren Ellis' run was intriguing, but this just smacked of glorifying a bunch of jerks stomping Jack Flag.  Blah.   :thumbdown:

Exiles 91 - this book is a shadow of one that used to be one of my favourites, and Claremont's stilted inner monologues aren't doing much to help me enjoy it more.  Another mediocre title, but at least it didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth like Thunderbolts.   <_<

Nextwave 12 - Nextwave ended with issue 12, one of the funniest, weirdest and just plain enjoyable comics I've read in awhile.  The ending is suitably weird, and holds out the promise that we might see more of these characters.  I hope so, because my robot brain still needs beer.   :D

Ultimate X-men 79 - I don't know where Robert Kirkman went, but I don't think this is being written by the same person writing Invincible.  This hasn't been good since Brian K Vaughan left.   :(

New X-men 35 - My second favourite X book right now, just after Astonishing, New X-men continues with Hellion and X-23 rushing to the rescue of Mercury.  Not a ton of progress, but a solid build-up issue.   :)

Trials of Shazam 5 - I'm still not entirely sold on this concept, that the Gods of Magic are separate characters from the actual gods of the same names, seems kinda dumb to me, but the actual story here is pretty solid.  Captain Marvel Jr. gets a little closer to his ultimate goal with an interesting application of the shazam lightning.   :)

Wolverine Origins 11 - Did anything actually happen in this issue?  Wolverine snuck out of where he was being held I guess, and his kid was a big jerk.  Meh.   <_<

Y the Last Man 54 - Not a bad issue, checking back in with the performers who'd put on a play about the last man from a number of issues ago, but with only 6 issues left, it hardly felt important to the main story.  Still a great book though.   :)

[thanoson]

Nextwave was weird as hell. I loved it. I want this in a TPB. I saw only 2 issues but laughed hard when I read them both.

[bredon7777]

Justice Society of America #3 - This is the best comic on the stands right now as far as I'm concerned.  Johns is pulling out all the stops.  We get the anticipated reveal of the mastermind who's been destroying the legacies of past JSAers - Vandal Savage.  I was thinking it was Per Degaton but Savage fits the MO just as well.  The characterization is spot on.  New characters like Cyclone are already being given there own distinctive voice and older characters are getting a great shot in the arm.  For example, with one panel Sandman catapults up the coolness meter.  "Get everyone to the meeting room.  I had a nightmare."  Johns has said several times that he loves the characters and it really shows in these first three issues.
Rating:  :thumbup:

I love Cyclone, but that costume is HIDEOUS, and needs to go ASAP.  Agree that this is the best -TEAM- comic on the stands right now (All new Atom is the best solo, and JLA is a very close second for team).

Favorite moment- "I said I wasn't anything like my dad.  Guess I kind of lied."

Also: [spoiler]
Somebody wanna splain how Vandal Savage survived a freakin nuclear warhead dropped on him at the end of DC 1,000,000!?!?  I know he's immortal- but he's not invulnerable.

[/spoiler]

[Monkeyman]

Yay! Someone else enjoys the all new atom too! woopee

[GhostMachine]

They named Maxine "Cyclone"? Meh.

Please tell me she's not wearing the costume from the cover of issue #1!!! (And if she is, at least they didn't name her "Green Cyclone".....)

I haven't picked up #3 yet (won't be picking up my comics for a couple more days, probably), but figured it was likely Savage and was hoping it wasn't. Vandal Savage was too obvious a choice.....

They really need to bring back more of the JSA's Golden Age villains, but the problem is most of them have been killed off! (Of course, Per Degaton would be the perfect way to get around that)

I just hope they don't decide to turn Wildcat's son into a hero, but do keep him around as a supporting character.

[Sword]

I thought the thunderbolts thing was way overdone too.However, Jack Flag was a dang hero here. The most infuriating line "Catching one of Cap's proteges is like catching Osama's son with dynamite." 
Only thing I liked about the issue is that Norm's team has uncovered that both Battlestar and Scarlet Spider are still in action.

Let's see what else:
Spectacular Spider-man: Wow. Even in the midst of a civil war, Reed is still friendly towards to Spider-man. And caring enough to take a boy suffered from mutation under observation. Dr Hyde is once again a psychotic son of a slime mold.
Spider-girl 5: Nicely done. A good mix of action, teenage life, and foreboding. The letters page shows something interesting though. At some future point, there's going to be a Moon Knight in Spider-girl.
eXcalibur: This is kinda heavy hitting. Three times Allison dies, only to revive(I'm thinking Aurosynthesis,where sound gives her life, as a secondary mutation,) But then Nocturne suffers a stroke.
"I know they're my team, but I can't remember their names!"
52 #41:  This was fantastic. Ralph and Renee getting ready to face their demons, while Mogo decides to socialize and save Kory and Adam. I loved it.

[Agent]

Justice Society of America #3 - This is the best comic on the stands right now as far as I'm concerned.  Johns is pulling out all the stops.  We get the anticipated reveal of the mastermind who's been destroying the legacies of past JSAers - Vandal Savage.  I was thinking it was Per Degaton but Savage fits the MO just as well.  The characterization is spot on.  New characters like Cyclone are already being given there own distinctive voice and older characters are getting a great shot in the arm.  For example, with one panel Sandman catapults up the coolness meter.  "Get everyone to the meeting room.  I had a nightmare."  Johns has said several times that he loves the characters and it really shows in these first three issues.
Rating:  :thumbup:

I love Cyclone, but that costume is HIDEOUS, and needs to go ASAP.  Agree that this is the best -TEAM- comic on the stands right now (All new Atom is the best solo, and JLA is a very close second for team).

I've got mixed feelings about it.  I agree it's a definite eyesore (especially those candy cane stockings) but it does sort of fit what you might expect a geeky, socially awkward teenager with questionable taste like Maxine to come up with. 

Also: [spoiler]
Somebody wanna splain how Vandal Savage survived a freakin nuclear warhead dropped on him at the end of DC 1,000,000!?!?  I know he's immortal- but he's not invulnerable.

[/spoiler]

Take another look at the JSA Classified #13.  Savage is clearly still alive at the end.  He even discovers another descendant to get replacement organs from.

[Previsionary]

Let's see what else:
Spectacular Spider-man: Wow. Even in the midst of a civil war, Reed is still friendly towards to Spider-man. And caring enough to take a boy suffered from mutation under observation. Dr Hyde is once again a psychotic son of a slime mold.

Just a little note. Anything with spidey in his black costume is after civil war. Blame civil war being pushed back for the confusion. :P ...Though, i couldve sworn Reed and the recently broken up fan4 were fighting some inhumans because of the Silent War...@_@

[Talavar]

I guess this is the place to talk about Civil War 7...

[spoiler]
I've got to say, I'd been digging the Civil War, even with the delays and too many tie-ins, but I did not particularly like the outcome.  This is a spoiler, so here goes:  having the side that created monstrosities like Bizarro-Thor, employs sadists and serial killers like Bullseye and Venom to win fights, and puts all super-heroes at the mercy and beck and call of the government not only win, but be demonstrated as the morally superior side?  Well, it turned my stomach a little.  There were some awesome moments to be sure, like Spider-man showing Mr. Fantastic why he's both amazing and spectacular, Hercules showing what we do to Goliath-killing evil clones around these parts, and Tony Stark finally giving that mega-jerk Maria Hill some well-deserved comeuppance, but the ending just left a bad taste in my mouth.  I'm not going to go into some kind of rabid rant about the state of Marvel or modern comics, but this, for me, was a downer.
[/spoiler]
What did others think?

[Podmark]

[spoiler]It's funny but did anyone really doubt who won the civil war? I've known since before the first issue actually debuted, it just made the most sense from a publishing point of view and the solicitations just made it more obvious each month. I didn't actually read CW but I from the spoilers I've heard the only unexpected things that happened in the final issue were Namor's appearance and Stark becoming director of SHIELD (which is a great idea btw).

[/spoiler]

[Talavar]

I don't really pay much attention to the solicits, and I...
[spoiler]
...wasn't sure of the outcome at all.  I had some doubts that Stark was still going to be Iron Man after Civil War, that it would be someone else in the armor for a time.  My problem with it is that most of the heroes on the 'winning side' have various levels of stink attached to them in my opinion, from months of acting like jerks.  Sure, the anti-reg side had some bad moments too, but really nothing that compares to the use of supervillains and amoral clones in combat.

Also, I just wanted to comment on the 'epilogues,' which showed the formation of the 2 new Avengers teams, the new new Avengers, and the Mighty Avengers, and there's no good reason for Dr. Strange to be on the New New Avengers.  They were described as the die-hard anti-reg side, which Dr. Strange wasn't on.  He wasn't on either side.  It didn't make a lot of sense to me.
[/spoiler]

[Agent]

[spoiler]It's funny but did anyone really doubt who won the civil war? I've known since before the first issue actually debuted, it just made the most sense from a publishing point of view and the solicitations just made it more obvious each month. I didn't actually read CW but I from the spoilers I've heard the only unexpected things that happened in the final issue were Namor's appearance and Stark becoming director of SHIELD (which is a great idea btw).

[/spoiler]

I agree with you on both points.  Especially once:

[spoiler]solicits for Avengers: The Initiative started appearing. 

I'm really looking forward to next week issue of Iron Man.  the Tony Stark as director of SHIELD is a really interesting idea.  I just hope the Knaufs can overcome the retro-active jerkification of Tony that's gone on in Civil War.  Based on some of the CW based hatred of the character I've seen on message boards, I'm starting to wonder if the Iron Man title is going to take a hit in sales.
[/spoiler]

[thanoson]

Umm.... I was very underwhelmed by this. And I want to how The heroes died that they were standing over. The only highlight is waiting for the guy that does the parodies. He's gonna chew this apart. Phah!!!

[crimsonquill]

Okay, I just read my copy of Civil War 7 and want to comment on the whole event as a whole...

It's very apparent that Joey Q. and his whole bullpen are really starting to retroactively "FIX" all of Marvel's problems by making uber-huge storylines which take months if not years to resolve. Now we have to really step FAR back to see the whole story that is being told here before we really can comment on how 'Civil War' has an impact on the 616 Marvel Universe as a whole.

[spoiler]First, Nick Fury noticed that a huge conspiracy was occuring within the world's governments allowing supervillians to have a revolving door policy even if they commit terrorist level crimes or mass killings of innocent people - much less how such hi-tech weapons/armor was being supplied to criminals who could barely afford living from day to day. Marvel's villians needed to have a major upgrade overall and just killing them off in mass (ala Scourge) was NOT going to work this time around. Thunderbolts proved that villians given a second chance to redeem themselves actually made more interesting storylines.. either they proved themselves as A-List or B-List characters or it was time for them to be erased for good. The misunderstood villian needed to be retired because having them getting their butt kicked over and over was just getting overused and a tool for less creative writers. Other C-Level villians needed a major revamp to change their status and it took killing them to achieve this.. see Jack O' Lantern in Ghost Rider.

'Secret War' was the first part of Quesada's "big plan" for what he has planned in the next few years - Fury working on building a underground hero network to attack this phantom menace without the heroes bringing attention to themselves. The Secret Avengers (i.e. The New Avengers) are obviously being set up to handle this part of the storyline when that time arrives. Tony Stark becoming the head of SHIELD was a plot twist that I saw coming down the road a few months ago. Iron Man needed to be shifted into a new direction and once I saw the preview for Mighty Avengers where his role as leader was gone it would be obvious that Tony had other obligations. They wouldn't kill Tony or fully remove him from the armor with the upcoming movie next year. Captain America's status also needed some development since they already used the death/missing in action/quitting plot devices far too much before this. I have no idea where Capt A is going from this point but it should be interesting reading.

I was happy with Herc stepping forward to handle the whole Clor mess since he needed to prove that he was a major powerhouse after being reduced to a C-Level character in his mini-series. I have a feeling that he will be getting to lead his own team of rookie heroes soon enough. But I was wondering where the whole Thor set-up was going in the Fantastic Four tie-in if he didn't pop up just to smash his unworthy clone and throttle its' creators for dishonoring him with a death of a fellow Avenger. Maybe this will be addressed in the new Thor series this Summer but I wanted to see that moment of shock so bad.

I know that everyone is rolling their eyes with the whole The Initiative spin-off but it fully shows that Quesada is finally going to break the Marvel rule of using New York City as the core of nearly every comic they put on the shelves. Just the one-panel preview of seeing the Texas team of "The Rangers" (Texas Twister, Armadillo, Night Rider, Red Wolf, Firebird, and Shooting Star) was enough to put a grin on my face. Even if they just did 6-issue mini series of these 50 State teams just to see if they would sell enough to warrent a more permanent title in the future.[/spoiler]

- CrimsonQuill

[USAgent]

Since we are talking about civil war 7 here, does anybody know who the group of guys were that Stark had for back up after Namor's team showed up?  The ones with false Thor and Mar-vel?

[crimsonquill]

Since we are talking about civil war 7 here, does anybody know who the group of guys were that Stark had for back up after Namor's team showed up?  The ones with false Thor and Mar-vel?

Those heroes are the first prototypes of Pym/Richards hero creation which are based on Greek mythology.. they appeared briefly in Civil War 6 training in the background of an Initiative Facility. Apparently Stark had them on stand by in case the prison was breached and he needed reinforcements.

EDIT: According to an article in Newsarama those above Greek inspired heroes are called CHAMPIONS.. They are all former olympic stars or athletes of high calibur who volunteered for enhancement. A full announcement of this team should be this weekend at the New York Comic Con.

- CrimsonQuill

[thanoson]

Wait, if Thor was a clone, why did he have robot stuff inside of him? And isn't a clone still a person? So, killing of said clone should be seen as bad?

[crimsonquill]

CIVIL WAR #7: THE MISSING ENDING....

[spoiler]

Originally Posted by Tom Brevoort
But in the Civil War planning sheet that got sent to the other editorial offices and to the writers, dated 12/2/05, this is what it said:

CIVIL WAR #7
-- SPECTACULAR fight. One by one, the guys go down until we're left with just Cap and Tony

-- Cap, exhausted, finally puts Tony down in the cleverest way possible. It's over.

-- He looks around at the crowds assembled on the edge of town and he sees something he's never seen before: Fear. Cap inspires hope and yet here he is terrifying the locals. They start to yell at him, voicing everything we've seen in the background throughout the series about how they WANT a register and need to be protected from lunatics in masks doing whatever they want; completely unaccountable vigilantes.

-- Cap realizes he was wrong. He realizes he's been fighting for masks when he should have been fighting for America

-- Cap concedes that the people do want superheroes to go legit. His big problem is liberties being taken away by people he doesn't know and can't trust and so he says to Tony that he and his guys will ACCEPT the registration on one simple condition: That it isn't the government that holds all the secrets. Sure, the person in charge can be accountable to the government, but he wants a super hero to be in charge of this. The person he wants, the person he trusts most, is Tony.

-- Cut to a series of epilogues where we get the new Marvel Universe being constructed here. Tony Stark now heads up HAMMER as well as supervising the new hero teams.

[/spoiler]

I have no idea where the above script went before it reached the hands of the Civil War art team but the result is extremely obvious that it was horribly rushed. I know the quote "One Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words" by heart but the plot above completely is lost in the translation. Marvel better release a script book of this series because it might make up for a lot of the confusion of why so many characters acted out of character.

- CrimsonQuill

[Talavar]

To comment on Civil War again, I think the end result is largely good, the super-hero teams in lots of states, Tony Stark as head of shield, etc., and that super-powered beings probably should have some kind of control; my problem is how we got there.  The side endorsing registration were jerks.  Maria Hill, head of Shield, is the Queen of Jerks (I'd use stronger language to describe her, actually, but this is a family friendly board.  God I hate that character), Tony Stark, Reed Richards and Hank Pym basically acted like megalomaniacs, I mean, they pulled similar stunts to Lex Luthor, and most of the other pro-reg heroes acted like jerks too.

[thanoson]

What, cloning a god, locking up and beating their friends and having psychopathic villains on the team was a bad thing? Wait, I guess that is a bad thing. This is all Maria's fault. She came at the Captain in a bad way. He responded in kind.

[Agent]

To comment on Civil War again, I think the end result is largely good, the super-hero teams in lots of states, Tony Stark as head of shield, etc., and that super-powered beings probably should have some kind of control; my problem is how we got there.  The side endorsing registration were jerks.  Maria Hill, head of Shield, is the Queen of Jerks (I'd use stronger language to describe her, actually, but this is a family friendly board.  God I hate that character), Tony Stark, Reed Richards and Hank Pym basically acted like megalomaniacs, I mean, they pulled similar stunts to Lex Luthor, and most of the other pro-reg heroes acted like jerks too.

That's because Millar consistently wrote the pro-reg side out of character.  Just compare the Tony Stark in Civil War to the one in the Iron Man title or Christos Gage's Casualties of War one shot.

[Talavar]

That's what I'm saying.  The pro-reg side was badly written and plotted to be the side that wins, and we're apparently supposed to feel good about their victory.  If it had been an ominous, bad things to come win, I could have understood that, but instead it was crazily upbeat.

Some quick-hits of a couple of the week's other releases:

She-hulk 16 - sees She-hulk and Wolverine taking on the Wendigo, and was pretty damn funny.  The funniest line in a comic in a while has got to be "first rule of the fastball special: no one talks about the fastball special."   :thumbup:

Superman 659 - was good and interesting, a flashback story with Superman encountering a religious woman who believes him to be an angelic visitor.  A great look at how Superman can inspire people.   :D

[bredon7777]

Civil War 7-

Anticlimactic much? Dissapointing in every possible way(Well, cept maybe art wise).  Which is frustrating, because I know Mark Millar is capable of better than this.
[spoiler]
Cap just freakin gives up?  Uh-uh. Don't buy it for a millisecond; not even with the script excerpt provided.  Especially not after reading the next comic I'll review below.  Now, I've always believed that the pro-registration side was written as a political parallel to the anti-terrorist stuff thats currently happening in the U.S.(Which is why some folks were written so badly out of character)  - and now- after nearly a year of preaching to the choir about how WRONG it is, we're supposed to just give up and accept it?  Never gonna happen. [/spoiler]

Failure as a comic, failure as a political allegory- quite possibly the worst conclusion to any miniseries ever.  :thumbdown:

Amazing spider-man 537-

Now THIS on the other hand is EXACTLY how Cap should and would act, and is impossible to reconcile with his actions in Civil War 7.
[spoiler]
Cap quotes Mark Twain to Spidey before leading him back to the hideout. I'm paraphrasing, but "If you're right and the rest of the nation is wrong then when they tell you to move, it's your job to plant yourself like a tree and say No. YOU move." Cap is right and knows he's right and would NEVER give up.

Oh there's some tiresome b-plot about Kingpin hiring a hit man to kill Spidey and/or MH and Aunt May- given the adoption of the black costume, I assume one of them gets hit somewhere along the way, but its really almost irrrelevant to the central theme of this issue. [/spoiler]  :D

52 Week 42-

While well written and plotted, there are two main problems that pretty much ruin the issue.

[spoiler]
Felix Faust is a 4th rate sorceror and never would have been able to gain entrance to the Tower of Fate.

Ralph has never been shown to give a tinker's darn about Neron.

So, while Ralph figuring out that it wasn't actually Fate's Helmet was clever, and I can even buy the idea that he set up "suicide by bad guy" to be with Sue- the idea that he did all this to trap Neron is so far out of left field as to snap my suspension of dibelief clean in half.

Also, there's some sloppy writing- took me a while and some re-reading, but I realized Faust had Sue's wedding ring, not Ralph's. Ralph gave up his wedding ring to get the enchanted link from Atlantis.  Which also leads to the question - what ring did Fire(?) place on his grave? [/spoiler]  ;)

Brave and the Bold #1-

Well it's Perez, so the art is stellar.  And I actually quite liked the dialogue.  The problem is that "continuity cop" Waid appears to have made a glaring continuity error, and unless and until that's addressed- I can't really enjoy this book.  I'll give it a probationary rating of  :)- and if he deals properely with the continuity mess, I'll upgrade.

Oh, and for the curious:
[spoiler]
The book has no exsistence seprate from Destiny himself. The endless are not immune to being trapped, granted, but unless and until some mention is made of trapping and binding Destiny it comes across as a huge continuity mistake.
[/spoiler]

[Agent]

Aquaman #49 - Kurt Busiek concludes his run on Aquaman (fantasy novelist, Tad Williams comes onboard with issue #50) by attempting to revitalize Orin's very old foe, the Fisherman.  Unfortunately, I think that task is even too much for Busiek.  He gives the Fisherman a magical making what we previously thought was just a helmet a extradimensional parasite that takes people over.  The creature was on a mission for its masters but the flood of memories from it's various victims cause it to loose sight of it's mission.  Despite the new and admittedly creepy take on the character, he still just doesn't seem very threatening.  Part of the problem there is that the art doesnt' do much to make him look dangerous.  It's pretty lackluster throughout the issue.  On the bright side we do get to see Arthur, Jr. take on an enemy on his own for the first time and try out his new sword skills.
Rating:  :(

Superman #659 - Kurt redeems himself for Aquaman #49 with this issue.  I can't remember who said it but someone described Batman as being a character that deals with villains and Superman as a character that deals with situations.  Busiek seems to have taken that to heart.  In his Camelot Falls storyline, which concluded last issue, Arion tells Superman that his actions as a hero are unintentionally hindering humanity's advancement.  So much so that it will eventually lead to our extinction.  In this issue, while pondering what Arion has said he thinks back to early in his career when he saved a woman named Barbara Johnson.  Johnson is an extrememly devout woman and she becomes convinced that Superman is an angel sent by God to help here clean up Suicide Slum.  She's also convinced that she's been given the ability to call the angel Superman at will.  She's passionately dedicated to getting rid of the crime and corruption that infest Suicide Slum and unfortunately begins putting her self in dangerous situations, confident that Superman will arrive in time.  Her new fame as the "Angel of Suicide Slum" means more people begin to show up to join her attempts to start a neighborhood watch.  When she leads the people to the hideout of one of the Slum's gangs she's shot because Superman is busy tangling with an energy monster in Antartica and can't get to her in time.  She survives her injuries but she's still convinced that Superman is an angel and that her being shot had a higher purpose.  Sure enough the outrage over her shooting has galvanized the people of Suicide Slum.  At the end, Superman calls up newsfeeds about Barbara Johnson and sees all the good work she's continued to do since their first meeting.  This was just a great, straight forward, tug at the heartstrings type of story and Kurt Busiek does a great job.  Guest penciller, Peter Vale does a great job.  I hope to see more of his work soon.
Rating:  :thumbup:

Brave and the Bold #1 - If this is the tone Mark Waid is setting for the series I'm onboard for the long haul.  It's just good old-fashioned superhero fun.  The murder mystery that brings Batman and Hal Jordan together is very cool.  64 identical corpses with identical wounds are found all over the world and in orbit, were Hal finds one of the bodies.  The dialog between Hal and Bruce is great.  Their scenes in the casino are especially fun to read.  I'm glad to see that they're are portrayed as respecting each other as heroes.  While Waid doesn't make them seem like super-chums, he doesn't make them seem like they're about to be at each others throats either.  They seem to like each other despite they're differences.  Next issue, Hal and Supergirl team up. 
Rating:  :thumbup:

The Immortal Iron Fist #3 - Ed Brubaker continues to be IMHO Marvel's best writer right now.  I love the glimpses of past Iron Fists he's included at the beginning of each issue.  I could definitely see a Chronicles of the Iron Fists type mini or ongoing coming out of it.  The present day story continues with Danny Rand trying to track down the person who has somehow been sharing his powers.  Meanwhile Hydra continues to try and capture Orson Randall, the other Iron Fist, after mistakenly attacking Danny Rand in issue #1.  The idea of exploring the history of past Iron Fists seems like someone should've thought of it before now.  Brubaker is doing a great job with it and it creates a lot of potential stories.  One thing that I wonder about is how will Civil War affect Danny Rand.  His established as being anti-registration so I assume he won't register but I'm sure someone on the pro-reg side knows Danny Rand is really Iron Fist.  If Rand refuses to register could they go after the Rand corporation?  That could really screw things up considering he's got a Hydra front company trying to buy him out.
Rating:  :thumbup:

QUICK HITS

52 Week #42 - I knew that wasn't really the Helmet of Fate.  Now I don't have to eat a chocolate chip cookie.  Um . . . yay?
Rating:  :)

Checkmate #11 - Great super spy action as usual from Checkmate.  Amanda Waller is wonderfully sneaky in this title.  I'm anxious to see what she's holding over Fire's head.
Rating:  :thumbup:

Birds of Prey #103 - Really didn't expect that.  Surely Barbara's got something else up her sleeve.  Spy-Smasher definitely doesn't hold back, though.
Rating:  :thumbup:

Wonder Woman #4 - I think this is the best issue of the series so far.  Storywise it's not perfect.  For example, I don't think Diana would use the JSA as a distraction with out actually telling them they're a distraction.  However her own attack on Circe's home sans powers was cool and definitely screamed "I am Wonder Woman no matter what."  The story alone would get a  :) but throw in the Dodson's art and . . .
Rating:  :thumbup:

Trials of Shazam #5 - For some reason my shop keeps getting shorted on this title.  This is the second time in a row I've had to wait an extra week to get it.  Still it was worth the wait.  Especially for that last panel with Billy.
Rating:  :thumbup:

Ion: Guardian of the Universe #11 - I didn't realize this series was going to foreshadow so much of DC's upcoming content.  Last issue we saw that the Bleed exists in the DCU and Capt. Atom has been exploring it since the events of Battle for Bludhaven.
Rating:  :)

Spirit #3 - This was the story I was interested in seeing since I'm not familiar with the Spirit's origin.  The monologues for each of the main characters was a great way to explore there motivations, etc.
Rating:  :thumbup:

Red Menace #4 - Great premise for this series.  Set during the McCarthy era, hero the Eagle has been unmasked and branded a Communist sympathizer by the HUAC.  This issue he breaks the terms of his probation to help novice hero, Grey Falcon, raid a big meeting between several mob big wigs.  His reward?  A free trip to Alcatraz.
Rating:  :thumbup:

[Talavar]

bredon, a couple of points: Civil War, while ending crappily in my opinion, still wasn't the worst event ending ever.  I mean, there have been some real stinkers.  I still think House of M was worse, for instance.  Also, in regards to Brave and the Bold, are we sure that the book of destiny seen there is Destiny of the Endless' book?  And what was the continuity problem?  I didn't catch it.

[bredon7777]

bredon, a couple of points: Civil War, while ending crappily in my opinion, still wasn't the worst event ending ever.  I mean, there have been some real stinkers.  I still think House of M was worse, for instance.  Also, in regards to Brave and the Bold, are we sure that the book of destiny seen there is Destiny of the Endless' book?  And what was the continuity problem?  I didn't catch it.

Well I did say that Civil war was "quite possibly" the worst ending ever; I myself haven't read anything worse since um..Milenium from DC.

as for the Brave and the Bold:

[spoiler]
Destiny of the Endless has a book in which everything that ever has happened or will happen is written down.  Bats/GL find out about a book that has everything that ever has happened or will happen written down it it which is referred to as "Destiny's book".  If its not the same book, that's really sloppy writing.

As for the seeming continuity error: The book does not/cannot exsist away from Destiny himself.  While the Endless can be trapped; Waid needs to explain how Destiny was trapped and how the book was able to exsit apart from him (perhaps he was bound into the book?) or its a glaring continuity error.

If he does explain it, I'll upgrade my rating to  :thumbup:; the possiblity of such an error really was the only flaw in an otherwise excellent book.

[/spoiler]

[Talavar]

Yeah, I know who Destiny of the Endless is.  The reason I don't think it's his book is that DC has been stricter about keeping its Vertigo and mainstream titles more distinct of late.  The Hell seen in recent DC comics doesn't match up with the Hell from Sandman & Lucifer, for example.  It could still be his book, but that's the reason I think it might not be.

[bredon7777]

Technically, Hell no longer exists in Vertigo, but I see your point.

Still, It's sloppy writing if its not the same book, which would bring down the grade anyway, but eliminate the continuity error.

[Green Hornet]

I think we are dealing with different realitys in the DC Universe.  Action comics annual we have Clark Kent with artifacts from Krypton.  Fortress has statues of the LSH which are not the current LSH.  Justice Society has Starboy from the LSH but is not the same as the current Starboy.  Future issues show Dawnstar's arm in process of tracking down Starboy.  I think all this is going to sorted out after 52.