We’ve hit the end of August with some intriguing books on the market:

- I gave Avengers another shot with issue #4, but it still didn’t gel with me. Too much funny dialogue detracts from the story and whatever it is, John Romita Jr’s art is lacking in detail in some areas.

- Action Comics #892 continues Luthor’s quest for the Black Lantern energy. A continually good character study of the popular DC villain from Paul Cornell, although Pete Woods’ art took away from some of the action scenes. I expect more when you have Deathstroke as a guest star.

- Superman/Batman #75 gets a super-sized special and while the main story from Levitz is decent enough, it’s the back-up pieces that steal the show. Anybody who’s read the Luthor/Joker 2-page short here knows what I’m talking about.

But when it’s all said and done, Justice League Generation Lost #8 is the clear winner. Judd Winick and company has made a believer out of me with this series of many former Justice League Int’l alumni banding together to pursue and capture Maxwell Lord. Each character gets standout moments and the dialogue between them is laugh out loud hilarious. It says something when this bi-weekly series has enough chops to compete with the main Brightest Day book (and sometimes surpass it).

Brightest Day and Green Lantern Corps came out this week, but I put those aside to highlight a couple of books that were saved by cool fanboy moments in Batman Beyond #3 and Secret Avengers #4, a welcome surprise in Supergirl #55, and then finally a bang-up job by Zeb Wells on New Mutants #16. This one is building up really good and setting itself apart from all the Heroic Age crap that X-Men now is finding itself under. And being able to tie into the Inferno storyline with brand new villains is no small feat, which speaks well to the talent of Wells and company.

DC strikes again with a killer week for books. The mid-tier books give another strong showing in Batgirl, Birds of Prey, and Zatanna. And Peter Tomasi’s new run on Green Lantern Emerald Warriors is going to get interesting as we learn more about the pact between Guy Gardner, Ganthet, and Atrocitus.

On the Marvel side, I’m slowly losing interest in the mutants vs. vampires storyline in X-Men #2. Nothing new is being brought to the table like it is with American Vampire and if it doesn’t pick up next month, there will be shenanigans from me.

Thanos Imperative was VERY close to being the Quick Pick for a 3rd time, but I have to give it to The Unwritten because of what Mike Carey and Peter Gross are doing bringing this literature-heavy tale to life. Many answers are revealed and more questions brought about because of them – the whole conspiracy battle using stories as weapons is incredibly intriguing. If you’re not picking this up in single issue format, go get the two trades right now!

I debut a new monthly segment I’ve been looking forward to doing for a while. Given how much I’ve devoted to new books each week for Quick Picks, I decided to give graphic novels its own series of podcasts. This month, I bring up a spectacular Joe Kelly piece in I Kill Giants – a book I’d recommend to anybody, including those that either are bored with the superhero genre or are completely new to the medium as a whole. The tale Kelly weaves and how he mixes fantasy and reality is astounding. And when you add JM Ken Nimura’s breathtaking manga-inspired art, it brings a whole new level of creative imagination in a medium that has a lot of it. Give I Kill Giants a shot and let me know what you think. Enjoy!

No contest this week – Brightest Day #7 lived up to the promise made by Geoff Johns that we were going to get some answers to help move the story along. Granted, we now have more questions as a result of those answers, but hey – if we got all the answers right away, what would we do for the next 20 issues? Bang up job by Johns, Tomasi, and crew.

Some good honorable mentions are talked about too on the show. I get into Jonah Hex #58 and Gray and Palmiotti’s great take on the Old West bounty hunter, rekindle my love for Captain America in issue #608, and highlight a sleeper in Baltimore : The Plague Ships from Dark Horse. Such a good time for the middle-tier books to shine during a time where the key DC and Marvel books took a break this week.

Enjoy the show!

(Looong music intro, enjoy)
DC’s latest animated DVD, Batman:  Under the Red Hood,  came out this past Tuesday and Comic Book Fury has got your back in reviewing it. Definitely one of the best animated DVD offerings Bruce Timm and team have brought out since they started doing these a couple of years ago (I’m still debating as to if this is better than Wonder Woman). Plotting, pacing, voice acting, animation, action sequences – this one has all of that. Plus you get the Jonah Hex we should have had in the live action movie and a nice peek at the next DVD.

Enjoy the show and give us your feedback on the flick too!

Music : Breaking Benjamins – Blow Me Away