Thursday Reviews

Well, last week was so tiny, and this week isn't a whole lot bigger.  I will say one thing.  I have dropped so many books over the past months, that my weekly bill has gotten a whole lot smaller.  This makes my beloved Comic Book Store owner Matt cry a lot, but what can you do?

Not a single DC book this week.  I just couldn't face Space Gambit again.

Doctor Strange #4

Man, I am liking this book a whole lot, and I had some serious reservations at first. But it is just so...so completely bonkers, and unashamedly so, that I find myself to be completely entranced.

Things are starting to get serious.  All of the other Sorcerers Supreme in all the other dimensions are dead, or seemingly so, and Steven is starting to get seriously worried.  All the mages on Earth show up at the incredibly cool "Bar with No Doors", which is buried deep under New York City and you have to be able to conjure yourself in, so no problem with tourists apparently.  He warns all the other mages about the problem.

Then he gets an urgent call from Wong and goes home, where cute little Zelma the Librarian is horrified to discover that the books in his library are...dying.  So he has some lunch, which is both hilarious and completely disgusting, and goes out looking for trouble.  Which naturally finds him. 

The dialogue is great, the story is great, and the art is great. This is a pretty great book.

The Totally Awesome Hulk #2

So, Amadeus Cho is now the Hulk, being helped out by his sister, and for some reason, Spider-Man and She-Hulk, as they face off against Lady Hellbender, the Monster Queen of Seknarf Nine!  Amadeus, being the immature young man that he is, wants to flirt instead of fight, because you know...hormones or something.  She's after the same monsters that they are, and naturally, there are some miscues and misunderstandings along the way. She's not actually evil, she is basically trying to retrieve the monsters from around the galaxy, and put them in what amounts to a Wild Animal Park, where they will be safe. 

And then Fin Fang Foom shows up. 

You just can't be wrong when Fin Fang Foom shows up. 

It's silly and fun and awesome, and Frank Cho does the art, so this is high on my list of great books too.


Invincible Iron Man #5

Well, Doctor Doom and Tony manage to finally subdue Madam Masque when an evil demon is actually trying to take her over. It is a bit of a tie-in to Doctor Strange, which actually works quite nicely.  Poor Mary Jane is just cranky, because she was at the grand opening of her new club, which naturally gets trashed by the rampaging Superheroes.

She's sitting on a park bench,when Tony wanders by, and she's a bit cranky at first...naturally.  But he's there to offer her a job, instead of hitting on her. Basically he wants her to be his new Pepper Potts.  I hadn't been reading Iron Man before this, because I hate it when Tony is a complete asshole, so what the heck happened to the REAL Pepper? 

I presume that MJ is going to accept.  Tony does seem to have a thing for redheads telling him what to do.  Also, Doctor Strange does show up to help subdue Masque and tell Tony what is going on, and also because...they are Awesome Facial Hair Bros.  And yes Tony, it was worth it all just for that line.

Pretty damn great too.

I'm on a roll!


And to finish things off...


Archie #5

If you had ever told me even a year ago that I would be reading an Archie comic, and LOVING it, I would have said that you were totally mad.  Mark Waid has something to do with it, and oh God, so does Fiona Staples.

Jughead and Betty are scheming to free Archie from Veronica's talons, and call in none other than my favorite Riverdale resident...Reggie Mantle.  I KNOW that Reggie is a complete jerk.  But still...I've always liked him.

Here, he is a complete jerk of course, agreeing to help the pair rescue poor naive Archie, in return for a new fake I.D.  And believe it or not, he does what he says he will.  It goes awry of course, but not because he didn't live up to his side of the bargain.  And of course he gets his comeuppance in the end, which will probably not end well for anyone, but it is a great story in a great series.

God, this week was seriously great!  So...so great.