Comics Briefly: American Vampire #31, Batman Incorporated #0, Captain Marvel #4, Star Trek/Doctor Who #5, Superman Family Adventures #5, Sword of Sorcery #0, Wolverine and the X-Men #17, X-Treme X-Men #4

Big week 9/26, although Sword of Sorcery came out 9/19

American Vampire #31 (The Blacklist, Part Four)
Writer: Scott Snyder, Artist: Rafael Albuquerque, Colors: Dave McCaig

Oh, the beginning of this issue is nice. It follows from the bombshell at the end of last issue in a way that isn’t too pandering, and feels true to the characters. The rest is super strong too. I’m really loving this story arc. The gang’s all here...


Batman Incorporated #0
Story by Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham, Script: Grant Morrison, Art by Frazer Irving

Well, that was underwhelming. The art is bleck, the characters are boring. This was an incredibly dull re-cap/re-vamp of Batman Inc. Really, really dull, and just a reminder that they’ve written many of the characters I found interesting out of the series.


Captain Marvel #4
Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick, Artist: Dexter Soy

I hope we start getting some answers soon, but I enjoyed this issue. Carol is awesome, and the Banshees are awesome. There is one single spoken line by a dude in the whole action-packed issue, and it’s a captured soldier being interrogated. Rock on, ladies.

Star Trek/Doctor Who #5
Written by Scott & David Tipton, Pencils by Gordon Purcell, Art by J. K. Woodward

Urrgh. The art is still nasty. What happened? There’s a few nice panels, and a lot of mediocre panels, and some just horrible ones. Basically nothing happens this issue. Blah.


Superman Family Adventures #5
Art and Writing by Art Baltazar and Franco

Cute as usual. I liked the introduction of cute Parasite, I liked how terrible Clark is at keeping his secret identity a secret. I even liked the very silly plot where Lex Luthor tries to get a job at the Daily Planet. Plus a little Titans cameo! I’ll be over in this DCU most of the time, thank you very much.


Sword of Sorcery #0
Writer: Christy Marx, Aaron Lopresti

Woo! I really enjoyed AMETHYST! This is a relaunch of a series from the 80’s about an Earth girl who discovers she’s heir to magic and power on other world. Amy and her mom have a great vibe, and I just love Amy’s rough edges and her bravery. Add in the pretty art and crazy fantasy world, and I think this just might be a worthy successor to the original. (There’s a Beowulf backup, but it’s boring.)


Wolverine and the X-Men #17
Writer: Jason Aaron, Artist: Michael Allred, Colorist: Laura Allred

What? What was? That...I don’t even know. I think I enjoyed reading it, though. This issue focuses on the character of Doop, and it made no sense, but in kind of a good way.


X-Treme X-Men #4
Script: Greg Pak, Art: Paco Diaz, Colors: Jessica Kholinne with Chris Sotomayor

Steam-punk-ish Wild West world? With crazy mutants and an Evil Xavier? I can get behind that. I thought this was pretty darn fun, if nothing brilliant. It keeps to the light-hearted action that this series has been playing up.