Stuff I Bought

I was pleasantly surprised this Wednesday.  I wasn't too sure that the books would even BE in, but they were.  Oh UPS...I love you so.  Also, since it was the fifth week of the month, I was expecting the pickings to be slim...but there was bounty.   BOUNTY!

And a lot of Annuals.  That helped.

Action Comics Annual #1

Dagnabit, I liked this.  For one thing I like Sholly Fisch.  For another thing I simply love Cully Hamner, and the two of them paired up to give me a rollicking good tale.  You have your usual mad scientist type, who wants to experiment on some disgruntled fellow, a fellow with a huge grudge against Superman.  Why do you ask?  Well this was the guy that was beating up his wife, and Superman threw him out the window.  I can see where that might not sit particularly well.

He gets exposed to a fragment of Kryptonite, which turns him into K-Man, and he has a fine old time beating up our hapless hero.  Oh, and General Lane shows up, not to mention Lex Luthor.  AND Lois and Jimmy.  Superman is even nice enough to pose for a picture, which I found to be rather hilarious.  Too bad he's having his behind handed to him by K-Man.  Fortunately before things can get too out of hand, Steel shows up and is smart enough to realize what is happening and runs interference for Supes, until he can put on a...radiation suit.

Haw!

It lasts long enough for Superman to defeat his foe, and then he and Steel have a nice sit down together and discuss heroics and saving the world.  Superman stays in Metropolis, while Steel goes around the world, and ends up in Australia showing people how to install solar panels and make their lives better, which I find to be a VERY worth while use of super powers.  Oh, and Lex plots some more.

And finally there is a lovely second story with the origin of the Atomic Skull by Max Lands and Ryan Sook.
Lovely.  Simply lovely.


Aquaman #13

Well, Arthur is still really really cranky, Black Manta has run off with the sceptre which he plans to hand over to a ship full of what appear to be Atlanteans.  More of Arthur's friends die, he's even MORE cranky and goes after Manta, but decides not to kill him after all, thereby showing that he Has Grown.  Black Manta gets handed over to the proper authorities so that he can live to escape and kill again, Arthur and Mera hug, and Salty the Sea Dog frolics on the pier.

Beautifully drawn by Ivan Reis as usual.  It was a bad story, although not a whole lot happened over the last few months or so, except to show that Aquaman is someone to be reckoned with.  But heck, I always thought that anyway.

Batgirl Annual  #1

This was actually...pretty good.  The art by  Admira  Wijaya and Daniel Sampere is very painterly, but pretty.
It goes back to the Talon who has been captured, the one who was the young girl during WWII.  She ends up being sprung by none other than Catwoman, and the two of them against all odds actually end up bonding a bit.  Then Selina delivers her to a Mr. Parsons, who is one of the few remaining members of the Court of Owls, who plans to use her to frame Bruce Wayne for any number of unpleasant things.

Batgirl has figured most of this out and followed them, due to some detective work that involves beating up large numbers of people and getting info from the young lad she saved way back when, which leads to some rather startling results...but anyway, when she realizes what Parsons is going to doing to the young Talon, Catwoman balks, and she and Batgirl go to town.  Then some more Talons show up and they are losing...badly until their very own Talon turns on her Owl buddies and helps them.

Parsons is about to blow them all away, but gets word that the court needs her, and he then blows his OWN brains out.  Man, those guys are strict!

Pretty good really.

Justice League Dark Annual  #1

This continues the story laid out in the 0 issue, with Nick Necro back from Hell, bound and determined to get his nasty little hands on the Books of Magic.  He's enlisted Felix Faust to help him, and has managed to take Zatanna prisoner, so that he can taunt John Constantine.  Xanadu has taken Timothy Hunter under her wing, and the rest of them all crashed the House of Mystery, while chasing the House of Secrets in a really spectacular dog fight.  Fortunately, since there doesn't seem to be a Home Depot nearby, the House is mending itself.

It turns out that the Books can't be held by anyone other than their rightful owners, which turns out to be young Tim.  He had given away all of his magic, but apparently you can't just get out of things like that.  John has his usual cunning plan, and a delightful time is had by all, with a little bit of help from that I, Vampire guy and Frankenstein.  Oh, and Amethyst too.  And the art is gorgeous as usual.

I do love this book.

The Mighty Thor #22

This is the aftermath story to Everything Burns.  Between them, Thor and Loki managed to save everything, and destroy Surtur, but it employed a certain amount of plotting, scheming and hauling Odin out of exile, so Odin is feeling very very pissy.  When is Odin NOT feeling pissy?

So he has Thor bound to this giant Doom Ring, so that everyone can gather around and condemn him, and they hold this trial thing.  Odin, calls for the Enchantress as the prosecutor more or less, and Hreidmar, that nice little elf guy is the defense.  Freyja, and everyone else is busy telling Odin to knock it off, because he's being a giant douche canoe, but what can you do?  That's Odin's schtick apparently.

In spite of the Enchantress's best efforts to make Thor look bad, naturally everybody rallies around him, and he's freed, and Odin slithers off, with a smirk on his face.  Turns out he and Freyja finally did the nasty, and she's pregnant!  Oh Odin, you sly old fox!

Now  I believe that they are going to be ending this book, but starting a new Thor series, which seems a bit weird, but I have to say that I've been enjoying this book and Journey into Mystery enormously.

So...a good week.  A darned good week!