What I Read This Week

X-Men: Die By The Sword #5 -- Considering that the Fury Prime appeared on the last few pages of the previous issue, it's not much of a surprise when everything goes to hell in this one. And go to hell it does. Claremont is game -- this is his kind of story -- and there's a lot of shakeups in the Omniverse scene, setting up some new status quos which may or may not be summarily ignored when the two teams relaunch. Santacruz's pencils are okay but a little rushed. Overall, I enjoyed this series much the same way that I enjoyed the HoM tie-in from Uncanny a few years back, which was much of the same type of stuff from Claremont. Only Excalibur or Exiles fans need bother reading this series, as is par for the course.

Transformers: Beast Wars: The Ascending #3 -- It's #3 of 4, so that means it's time to set up the Big Fight At The End. Of course, this being Transformers, we also get the Big Fight In The Middle as well, as the Angolmois-infected Razorbeast, along with Unicron's heralds Ratorata, Elphaorca, and Drancron do battle with the Maximals and Predacons on prehistoric Earth. A lot of action and a ton of characters, as usual, but the overarcing story is a good backdrop for the proceedings. The artwork is the standard IDW Beast Wars fare. Enjoyable for Beast-fans, but others, including G1 afficianados can safely leave it on the shelf.

Wonder Woman #15 -- More backstory starts things off, as we are introduced to Hypolita's Royal Guards, 4 women who swore blood oaths to protect their queen at all costs. Back in the present, Agent Diana Prince must deal with Captain Nazi -- without her powers -- while her mother faces the threat of a Nazi invasion of her home. The good stuff continues from Simone, who packs a lot of interesting details and developments into the alloted space without feeling like a complete data-dump. The Dodson's artwork is consistant -- about the only consistancy this title has seen -- and handles both the action and talky aspects well. Overall very enjoyable, and readers who want to start reading the Amazon Ace's solo series would be well served with picking up this issue and the previous.

The Pick of the Pile is a tough one for me. I really liked both Wonder Woman and Die By The Sword, for different reasons. WW is the better comic, all told, but DBTS tugs at nostalgic heartstrings for me. Since this is my blog, I get the final say, and so I'm picking Wonder Woman. Gail Simone is working hard on making this a top dog at DC, and her effort is paying off.

So what did YOU read this week?