Comics Briefly: American Vampire #27, Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise Part Two, Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who #1, Superman Family Adventures #1, Wolverine and the X-Men #11

Big Week for me! Bought five books at the store, from five different imprints.

Favorite Book This Week: Not counting Avatar (because that wouldn't be fair, it's better than anything) hmmm... both Superman Family Adventures and Wolverine and the X-Men were pretty good, in very different ways.

All books new in stores on 5/30/12


American Vampire #27 (The Nocturnes, Part Two)
Writer: Scott Snyder, Art: Riccardo Burchielli, Colors: Dave McCaig

A solid issue overall, but nothing amazing. Poole (the youngest American Vamp that we know of) fights werewolves in an Alabama suburb and reflects on his life and the times. I did get a little confused at first on certain points when the action sped up, but I did like it overall. This issue also includes a preview of another upcoming AV mini, called Lord of Nightmares.


Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise Part Two
Script: Gene Luen Yang, Art: Gurihiru

It isn't fair to review this fully here, since it's really a little graphic novel, and so good that it blows everything else out of the water. I didn't love this quite as much as I loved part one, but it was still really really great.


Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who #1
Writers: Scott & David Tipton and Tony Lee, Art: J. K. Woodward

This issue should really have started with the last few pages and gone on from there. There is way too much set-up here, not enough story. The painterly art is not a style I like, but I guess it could be worse. Overall, not bad, but not nearly as much fun as I was hoping.


Superman Family Adventures #1
Writing and Art by Art Baltazar & Franco

Oh, that was super adorable. Not to mention hilarious. I loved this, a short sweet story with cute artwork and actual funny jokes. There were a couple of moments that I didn't quite think were pitch perfect, but this definitely tickled me, and I'll be looking forward to more!


Wolverine and the X-Men #11
Writer: Jason Aaron, Penciler: Nick Bradshaw, Inkers: Walden Wong, Nick Bradshaw and Norman Lee, Colorist: Justin Ponsor

Even while I liked the opening of this issue, I had doubts that it was going to be good. Avengers Vs. X-Men has been getting into the heights of its histrionics, and the cover to this issue looks really uninteresting. And yes, the page and a half dedicated to the Red Hulk/Iceman battle is boring. But a bunch of the other little X-Men character moments were good, and the main plot follows Wolverine and Hope battling Shi'ar Death Commandos, and trying to deal with each other. I don't know whether Hope's powers are supposed to work they way they do here, but I don't care, because it was a great scene. I think this book really gets what's cool and poignant and awesome about current Wolverine, and so it remains true that the best part of the crossover is this book.