Conan O'Brien does Minneapolis.

This Week in Geek is a weekly blog about new comics written post-comic-shop-visit by WorthPoint comic book Worthologist Matt Baum. Every Wednesday Matt takes a look at the week’s new comics from a collector’s point-of-view and discusses which the comics he’ll be purchasing and why. Make sure to click on the hot links for previews and more information on the comics, characters, story-lines and creators discussed here. Make sure and post your comments below.

This week my wife and I made a trip to Minneapolis to visit a friend and see the live Conan O’Brien show, which was nothing short of perfect. Had I been paying attention, I would have noticed the Midwest Comic Convention was happening that same weekend. Of course, I chose to drive up on Sunday and missed the whole show. While there, I tried to visit a couple of shops but found them both closed on Mondays. The Minneapolis-St. Paul area has a population of more than three million. I live in Omaha, Neb. (population 500,000) and all of our comic shops are open on Mondays. Seriously, Twin Cities? We still had a great time, but the combination of missing the con, finding closed comic shops and the Twins being out of town did sting a little. I did, however, convince my wife to drive for half the trip, enabling me to catch up on stacks of new comics.

The Stack:

Here’s a look at my stack of comics for the week of Wednesday, May 12, 2010, followed by some short reviews of stuff I’ve read and some thoughts on why I’m picking these titles up. Make sure and post your own weekly stack of comics below so I can make fun of what you’re reading and vice-versa. For a full list of comics that shipped last week, click here. To find a comic shop near you, click here.

Amazing Spider-Man #631
Birds of Prey #1
Black Widow #2
B.P.R.D. King of Fear #5
Dark Avengers #16
Daytripper #6
Flash #2
Iron Man Legacy #2
Justice League Generation Lost #1
Marvels Project #8
New Avengers Finale One-Shot
New Mutants #13
Prince of Power #1
Siege #4
Superman: War of the Supermen #2
Titans: Villains for Hire Special #1

Thoughts on the Stack:

This week, I’m taking some reader advice and introducing a rating system for my reviews. Here’s how it’s going to work; ratings will work on a four-level scale consisting of “Leave it ” (the lowest rating meaning leave it on the stand), “Read it ” (pick it up and give the issue a read if you have time) “Buy it ” (worth the cover price) and “Archive it ” (the highest rating, meaning add it to your permanent collection). Let me know what you think.

Amazing Spider-Man #631: Marvel, $2.99

I guess this actually a review of the last seven issues of Amazing Spidey, which I read in the car on the way to Minneapolis. I’ve got to give it to Tom Breevort, executive Spidey editor; he’s doing an excellent job of reigning in the different writers of each Spidey-story-arc to create a fairly seamless narrative. As much as fans bitched about the “One More Day” story line, which saw Spidey leaving Mary Jane in a supernatural divorce overseen by Mephisto to save Aunt May from a gunshot wound, sales remained solid and fans seem to be happy. Amazing Spidey #631 is the second part of the “Shed” story line, which sees the return of the Lizard as written by Zeb Wells and drawn by Chris Bachalo. Bachalo is a long time favorite of mine and his pencils are what really shine in this issue. Wells’ writing in good—I love the Dr.-Jekyll-and-Mr.-Hyde way he narrated the two personalities of Kurt Conners and the Lizard—but no one else should be allowed to draw the Lizard again. When I picture the Lizard, from this day forward, I’ll picture Bachalo’s giant iguana with fangs. Great story line with great art.

Rating: Buy it .

Birds of Prey #1

Birds of Prey #1

This is one I’d been waiting for. Writer Gail Simone’s Secret Six is one my favorite reads each month at DC. Simone is at her best when she’s writing the meanest, sleaziest and most evil sum-bitches in the DCU, and Secret Six has been one mean and nasty comic. I see Birds of Prey as Simone’s therapy title, where she gets to write Oracle, Black Canary and friends beating the hell out of DC’s nastiest nasties (good luck topping Rag Doll’s sister) after years of following the villainous stars of Secret Six. Issue one gets straight to the action with Black Canary settling a political hostage crisis in Northeast Europe with the help of Oracle on her super-computer. It’s a pretty simple formula, but it’s one that worked in the first series and should work again here. The cast is larger in this volume, including the Huntress and the recently resurrected Hawk and Dove. Ed Benes is on penciling duty and, as usual, his lines are smooth, his paneling is fast paced and fluid and his ladies are gorgeous. Benes is perfect for Birds and I hope DC can keep him here for a nice, long run, much like Greg Land and Butch Guice were around for the bulk of the first volume. If I had any complaint, it was with Hawk’s dialogue. I know he’s recently returned from the dead and Simone is still feeling the character out, but he seemed snarky to the point of ridiculousness. I get it, the guy is a loose cannon, but let’s not make him down-right cartoonish. All things considered, Birds #1 is a strong first issue and I look forward to more.

Rating: Buy it.

Justice League: Generation Lost #1: DC, $2.99

Justice League: Generation Lost #1

Kieth Giffen has been trying to recapture the magic of his 1989 Justice League Europe for the last seven years through two different JLA mini-series. I liked Formerly Known as the Justice League, but it was far from required reading and Max Lord, the group’s financier, became a villain not long after in the pages of Infinite Crisis, which kind of spoiled the light hearted comedy aspect of Giffen’s stories. I like Giffen’s quippy dialogue, but in the past there was always a very serious aspect of his stories. Batman hated Guy Gardner and they argued incessantly—much to readers’ enjoyment—but at the end of the day, these were JLA stories and the characters were dealing with real threats. In revisiting the Kiffen’s JLE characters in recent years, the cast has been reduced to B-list heroes dealing with laughable villains. It’s a fun concept at first, but when your boss becomes one of the most dangerous villains in the DCU, sending the super hero equivalent of Kathy Griffen and the Real Housewives of New Jersey to deal with him just doesn’t cut it. Thankfully, that’s not where this story is going. Kiffen, along with co-writer Judd Winick, quickly established a much more serious tone for Generation Lost with Captain Atom leading Fire and Ice in a joint military exercise. I love Captain Atom, but it’s been hard to follow him over the last 10 years as DC did everything possible to muddy his powers, origin and identity. It’s good to see him back with the military, wearing his chrome and red costume and drawn by the amazing Aaron Lopresti. Even Booster Gold seems to be taking himself more seriously here. Unlike a lot of JLE nerds, I don’t mind Lord as a bad guy, and issue one of this story throws a great twist into his development. I’m curious to see where Generation Lost goes and will gladly replace the current monthly JLA title with this one for a few months.

Rating: Buy it.

There Can Be Only One!

If I had to pick one comic only to read this week, in which case I might be able to get this blog done in a timely fashion, it would be:

New Avengers: Finale One-shot: Marvel

New Avengers: Finale One-shot

Solicitation: In the wake of Siege, an all new shocking conclusion to the landmark New Avengers series. New Avengers is coming to an end . . . but not without a bang. For the first time ever, series regular Brian Bendis teams up with the superstar artist that reinvented team books for this generation . . . Bryan Hitch. The entirety of the Marvel landscape has changed and many Avengers do not know their place in it. But before they can move on, some very important loose ends need to be tied up: It’s payback time! All this, and a bevy of super star artists stop by to pay tribute to the work they made famous over the course of this top-selling book.

One-Shot/Rated A …$4.99
Written by Brian Michael Bendis; Pencils and cover by Bryan Hitch.

Why this one? Bendis’ New Avengers has consistently delivered quality month in and month out. Is it a little ridiculous to call this one-shot a finale when, in fact, New Avengers will be relaunching with a new #1 issue and a very similar team? Maybe. But like the rest of Bendis New Avengers run, the Finale was very well written and, for the most part, well drawn. Bryan Hitch is one of those artists that visibly suffers when rushed. Give the guy a year to draw a comic and it’ll be the best thing you’ve ever seen. Ask him to do it on a shorter time table and you get some pretty weird looking Wolvie splash pages. Still, Bendis ties up the Siege story line and the Dark Age of the Avengers here very well. Normally I’d be upset with a $4.99 cover price comic having this many splash pages, but the final montage by all the different New Avengers and recent Avengers event artists was excellent. So maybe a finale was in order due to the new Heroic-Age sweeping the Marvel titles. We’ll see come New Avengers #1 vol. 2 (or New New Avengers).

Rating: Archive it!

Nerdy Question of the Week:

The Siege is over and the Heroic-Age begins next week. After more than a year of Dark times Villains running the show, how do you feel? Are you looking forward to the new tone and all the new titles? Any you’re skipping?

Finally…

Feel free to follow me on Twitter, where currently on my twitter blog Read Along with Matt I’m reading the Roots of the Swamp Thing Hard Cover from DC, which collects the first appearance and #1- #13 of the first Swamp Thing series. Search #readwmatt on twitter for updates.

Until next time true believers . . .

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This Week in Geek is a weekly blog about new comics written by WorthPoint comic book Worthologist Matt Baum. Every Wednesday, Matt takes a look at the week’s new comics from a collector’s point-of-view and discusses which books may be hard to find in the near future and why. Make sure to click on the hot links for previews and more information on the comics, characters, story-lines and creators discussed here. Also, feel free to post your comments in the new “comments” section below, or you can follow him on Twitter, where he is always screaming about something nerd-related. Want to know what your comics are worth? Join WorthPoint for free and post your comics in the “Ask A Worthologist” section. Remember to post the title, issue number and cover price. And finally a word to the Federal Trade Commission; all the comics discussed here are purchased solely by the writer, who receives no gifts or free merchandise from any publishers even though he would graciously accept them.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 11:52 am and is filed under Blog Entry, Books, Paper and Magazines, Comic Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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