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!

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!

In this week’s episode, I touch upon a little bit of The Sixth Gun #2, a book from Oni Press that came out last week but was only able to get recently. This book peeked my interest back on Free Comic Book Day and I looked forward to the day they’d continue the Wild West saga of this mysterious gun.

From there, we get into the slim pickings of a week in books what with Comic Con here in full force. Even so, Brightest Day took the prize by putting focus back on its strong sub-plots (No Hawkman!) and teasing some revelations to come. I even give props to Johns and Tomasi for getting me interested in Firestorm again. This makes it all a great set-up for what’s to come with the big reveal behind the purpose of these characters’ resurrections in issue 7.

Enjoy the show!

We’re days away from San Diego (the comic world in general, not us – we’re glued to our desks playing Pokemon) and I felt it good to review what the 1st half of 2010 brought to us from the lands of Marvel and DC. This site has devoted a lot to DC books as of late, but there are still a few good Marvel showings that came out that weren’t Avenger-related. That being said, we really felt DC gave a lot to the readers from both its superhero and Vertigo imprints.

Enjoy the show and all the best to those attending San Diego this year!

This week, I sing the praises of Invincible Ultimate Collection 5 first and salute the stellar run Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley are having. Then I make haste and talk about a new arc going on in Action Comics led by Paul Cornell – a name I wish I knew well during his Marvel days writing Captain Britain and MI:13 in the midst of Secret Invasion. It’s a good start and makes Luthor the center of attention in the long-running Superman book. We were wondering when we’d get the follow-up to Luthor’s tenure as an Orange Lantern and it pays off well as Luthor obsesses over the power he once had.

Enjoy the show and have a safe 4th!

It takes a couple of reads to really get where Grant Morrison is heading, but in the end, he paints a good picture about not only what happens when Bruce Wayne jumps to different time periods, but what that effect is having on the entire DC universe. Think witch-hunts, Lovecraftian monsters, and the end of time and you got a good Morrison book. Ultimately, I think I just enjoyed Bruce wearing a Puritan hat and everybody calling each other brother.

Enjoy, folks! Here’s a kitty!