My monthly comics arrived in the mail this week.  Here’s the rundown:

1. Justice League #2, Batman #2 [The two titles of DC’s The New 52 that I’m planning on getting for the foreseeable future.]
2. Action Comics #2, Detective Comics #2, Batman And Robin #2, Green Lantern #2, All Star Western #2, Aquaman #2, Batman The Dark Knight #2, Flash #2 [The other titles of DC’s The New 52 that I’m still test-driving.]
3. Ultimate Spider-man #3, Ultimate X-men #2, Ultimate Hawkeye #3, Ultimates #3
4. Amazing Spider-man #671 and #672 [Parts 5 and 6 of Spider-Island.]
5. Venom #8, FF #10 and #11
6. Fear Itself #7 [The conclusion of Marvel’s current big event.]
7. Avengers #18, New Avengers #17, Secret Avengers #18
8. Mighty Thor #7, Daredevil #5, Captain America And Bucky #623, Black Panther #524
9. Superior #6 [The finale of Mark Millar and Leinil Yu’s creator owned book.]

Top 5:
1. Ultimate Spider-man (Issues #1 and #2) [It feels good to have Ultimate Spider-man back at the top of my comic book power rankings (there wasn’t an issue released last month).  I never really like when the comic books I read get mainstream media coverage, normally because it means something is going to be spoiled for me (see the death of Captain America, Spider-man unmasking during Civil War, etc.)  In this case, I didn’t like the coverage that came with Peter Parker’s death because of the debate about the new Spider-man, Miles Morales, who is half African-American and half Hispanic.  I may be in the minority, but I’m not disappointed that Peter Parker is dead…he died fighting for the people that he loved and I think that solidifies his place as a hero.  (And so far Miles Morales seems like a very good replacement.)  Rather than going on too long, I’ll just share this review of the first issue that I found while searching for the image at the top of this post.]
2. Amazing Spider-man (Issues #669 and #670) [Parts 3 and 4 of Spider-Island were really good.]
3. Captain America (Issue #3) [My disappointment with Steve Rogers replacing Bucky Barnes as Captain America has quickly dissipated as Ed Brubaker and Steve McNiven have been crushing this opening story arc.]
4. Batman (Issue #1) [Along with Justice League, Batman was one of the two DC titles that I’m definitely planning on sticking with.  I’m going to check out the second issue of Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, All-Star Western, Action Comics, Detective Comics, Batman & Robin, and Batman The Dark Knight.  One issue of Superman and Wonder Woman was enough for me.]
5. Moon Knight (Issues #5 and #6) [The new take on Moon Knight from Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev has been pretty good, but issue #6 was definitely my favorite so far.]

My monthly comics came in the mail this week and it was the biggest shipment of comics I have ever received.  Here’s the rundown:

1.  Action Comics #1, Detective Comics #1, Batman And Robin #1, Green Lantern #1, Batman #1, Wonder Woman #1, All Star Western #1, Aquaman #1, Batman: The Dark Knight #1, The Flash #1, Superman #1 [All the titles from DC’s The New 52 that I decided to check out.]
2.  Ultimate Spider-man #1 and #2, Ultimate X-men #1, Ultimate Hawkeye #2, Ultimates #2 [The Ultimate Comics relaunch continues.]
3.  Fear Itself #6, Avengers #17, New Avengers #16, #16.1, and Annual #1, Secret Avengers #17 [Fear Itself and the related Avengers books.]
4.  Amazing Spider-man #669 and #670, Venom #7 [Spider-Island rolls on.]
5.  FF #9
6.  Captain America #3, Captain America & Bucky #622
7.  Mighty Thor #6
8.  Daredevil #3 and #4, Black Panther #523 and #523.1
9.  Moon Knight #5 and #6
10.  Superior #5, Kick-Ass 2 #4 [Mark Millar’s independent books.]
11.  Brilliant #1 [A new independent book from Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley.]

When it comes to comic books, I’m definitely a Marvel guy.  But with DC’s upcoming relaunch, I thought it was a good time to check out some of their titles.  If you haven’t heard, DC is relaunching their entire line of comics: 52 new #1 issues with some large changes to the entire universe (some characters don’t exist anymore, some characters that died are back, some chunks of character history are being erased, other chunks are being created, etc.).  I knew I was going to check out Justice League, some of the Batman titles, and Aquaman, but I somehow talked myself into checking out Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Wonder Woman as well.  I’m hoping that I end up liking 4 or 5 titles that I can read going forward, but we’ll see how it all works out.

DC Comics,

With Trinity finally wrapping up, I thought I should let you know that I’m going to take off for awhile.  I know, we had a good run, but we both know I’ll always be a Marvel guy at heart.  I was intrigued when you put out Identity Crisis and it was really great.  I hung around for Infinite Crisis (and I’m so glad I did).  I could have gone either way on 52, but I thought I owed you a little loyalty since you had really delighted me lately.  After 52 blew me away, I thought, “Can DC do no wrong with their big events?  I love Marvel comics, but DC’s events have been amazing.”

And then came Countdown To Final Crisis.  6 issues of a pointless comic is annoying, but 52 issues of a pointless comic is excruciating.  But at least it got us to Final Crisis, right?  But then Final Crisis came and went and I seriously have no idea what happened in that comic.  I could reread it, but (A) I really didn’t like it the first time, so why bother? and (B) nothing seems to be affected except for a Martian’s death and a Flash’s rebirth.  Trinity has been understandable and cohesive, but again, there was no reason for this comic to be 52 issues long.

So anyways, I’m going to go hang out with Marvel now.  Maybe I’ll stop in again someday and check up on you.

Here’s to the good times,
-Alan