"but thats the thing about batman."

criminal 7
secret invasion 8
batman 682
jsa 21
the boys 25
the sword 13
new avengers 47
immortal iron fist 20
marvels eye of the camera 1
cable 9
punisher xmas
x-men manifest destiny 4
sandman the dream hunters 2
trinity 27
haunted tank 1
army @ love 5
superman/supergirl maelstrom
solomon kane 3
fight or run

batman 682: personally, i'm more of a superman guy. i've rarely been excited about batman. there's just something about how he always pulls the solution out of his utility belt, or has already anticipated every possible outcome of an unpredictable situation, that deflates the drama for me. but thats the thing about grant morrison. he wrote an epic about batman facing a foe he could never suspect or plan against, only to reveal that he had suspected as much and had a plan for it all along. the line"but thats the thing about batman" on the first page of 681 is the defining moment in r.i.p. for me and made me smile more than any comic in recent memory. when he took off his cowl, jumped on the helicopter and disappeared in the explosion, i just smiled again. thats the thing about batman. no matter how it looks, he has a plan.
so here we are with batman 682. now we're treading water. it was an enjoyable issue, bringing bat continuity up to speed with the rest of dc, tying into final crisis and rewriting the history of the character at the same time. whats next? i'm not excited about battle for the cowl or the o'neil issues. i'm hoping for great things from neil gaiman's "whatever happened to the caped crusader?", but in light of his marvel comics projects over the last couple of years, i don't consider it a sure thing. what i want is to see the next part of batman, and grants, plan.

punisher xmas: fuck right floronic man.

secret invasion 8: grade b. good wrap up to the story, but with a little to much bullshit. mockingbird is back? what? norman osborne gets a massive promotion for shooting someone wolverine was a split second away from killing? the cabal group is a pretty cool idea, i just hope this isn't a return to evil for emma. and as much as i appreciate a change everything epic, i'd pay anything to read a comic about dr. octopus robbing a bank or something. event fatigue for fucking real.

-the neg man

Biggest Disappointments of the Summer, Part 1: Secret Invasion

The Bendis penned Avengers titles have been hit or miss with me, but I think he's definitely had some really solid moments that have kept me interested in reading further. Secret Invasion is another story entirely. Here we have one of the biggest comics events of the summer and issue 5 has me not caring in the slightest as to what happens in the final three installments.

I've been pretty patient up until now, but a few things happen in the latest chapter that made me cringe:

1. The splash page where the Skrulls use celebrities, politicians and superheroes/villains as their mouthpieces to tell the human race about the current invasion. Stephen Colbert, Paris Hilton, Barack Obama, Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Steve Jobs, John McCain, Oprah, Dr. Doom, Simon Cowell are all included. Ugh.

2. The back and forth between Maria Hill and Skrull Jarvis where it's revealed that the Maria standing in front of the Skrulls on the Helicarrier is in fact a robotic decoy and that when "this is all over I'm going to make myself a T-Shirt...It'll say Nick Fury was right". Hmmmmmm....

3. The over-the-top last page where Ronin screams "THIS DOESN"T END TILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM DIES! YOU HEAR ME?! EVERY @#$%ING LAST ONE OF THEM!" *groan*

The real bummer here is the fact that the overall plot sketch for this story looks really good on paper, but seems to be flailing in it's actual delivery like a third world country on the balance beam during the Olympics.

If you're not reading this, pat yourself on the back and continue to steer clear. However, as mentioned at the beginning of this post, he's been doing some all right things on both New and Mighty Avengers. As far as Secret Invasion stories go, spend your money smartly and buy some of those instead.

- TFM

The New Avengers #43

Everybody wants to be Captain America.

If you have been reading Ed Brubaker's Captain America you know what I'm talking about. The New Avengers #43 introduces us to yet another wannabe Cap. But this one's a muthafuckin' Skrull.

Bendis has been doing a pretty bang up job in both Avengers titles with filling in some Secret Invasion blanks. As time goes on though, each one seems to move the story less further along. Here again, BMB stresses, the Skrulls will go to "any lengths" to conquer the superhero community and takeover the Earth. This means taking a dedicated Skrull volunteer and transforming him so convincingly into Captain America that even he doesn't know any different. The great part of this issue though is seeing a ship full of Skrulls posing as heroes crashing into the Savage Land. They all seem to be pretty oblivious to the fact that they have any kind of evil mission to accomplish. As far as they know they are just a group of honest, hardworking superheroes trying to make it home.

In the end not a bad story. Just a smaller piece to the overall puzzle.

But next month: The Real Secret of the Illuminati!

- TFM