What I Read This Week

Well, my trip to Missouri was uneventful (other than the nonstop torrential downpours of Monday night straight through to Tuesday night after I went to bed!). I didn't have control of the rental car, so I didn't get to check out any of Springfield's Comic Shop establishments, so instead I return with some comic book reviews, slightly out of date though they may be.

Superman #674 -- As seems typical, at least for the titles I tend to read, right as Kurt Busiek is on his way out, we get some fairly interesting "world building" stuff which may or may not be jetisoned completely in the next quarter. Anyway, with the new digs for Clark, Lois, and Chris established, we're rocketed off into a new adventure, dealing with the metahuman chameleon known as Paragon, as well as a little bit of Mon-El for good measuere. A very enjoyable comic, typical of the work that Busiek has been doing, and new arteest Renato Guedes is very eye-pleasing. It's just too bad that this team will only be together for one more issue.

Tiny Titans #2 -- DENIED! Once again my shop failed to receive either 1) Enough or 2) ANY copies of this super-cute super-deformed title on the 12th, the last time I was in. Hopefully it will be available this week.

Annihilation Conquest #5 -- As I mentioned to Adama the other day, the first Annihilation series was the "Oh &%^#!" series, where the stakes were continually raised with each issue and the situation got more and more grave. At this point I think I can safewly say that A:C is the "WOW..." series, in that each issue brings in some new jaw-droppingly awesome development which just staggers the reader. That's about par for the course here, as the endgame is in sight, but exactly how our heroes can survive what Ultron has in store for them is beyond me. Great stuff.

Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #6 -- The flashback finishes up here with mainly a big throwdown, as one pretty much had to figure it would. I don't know what else I can say about this title without repeating myself, so just know that if you like Joe Casey's retro work, or Canete's art deco-meets-Tales of Suspense pencils, then pick this one up, either as singles or in the inevitable trade, because it's pretty rockin'.

Lone Ranger and Tonto #1 -- In the West, the Lone Ranger and his companion Tonto come across a young boy seemingly left for dead by bandits. But is just a simple case of frontier lawlessness, or does the young man hide an even bigger secret? A nice, meaty one-shot featuring our titular heroes, this effort from Dynamite by Brent Matthews, Jon Abrams, and Mario Guevara is a solid Western romp, with a good mix of action and pathos. I enjoed how Tonto was protrayed -- smart, cautious, not a blabbermouth but not speaking in hokum, either, which is a risk with the character. Guevara's art is especially nice as well, having a windburned sort of sensibility to it which is exceedingly appropriate for the material. I have been wanting to check out the ongoing series but funds prevents me from doing so, but I will say two things: Firstly, that this special is definitely worth the money, and secondly, that if the regular title is around this quality level, I need to find budget space for it.

Iron Man #27 -- Following up on the sheer righteousness of last issue's man-made tactical black hole, it seems that the neither the American government nor the UN is very happy with Tony Stark and SHIELD for dropping a WMD on Nebraska. But while Stark tries to figure out how to keep him and his senior staff out of the international courts, the Mandarin is still enacting his plan to use the weaponized version of Extremis to ravage the world. Got this in the mail when I got back from Missouri, and it was a real treat -- not much action this time out, but the main thrust of the storyline keeps building, like a Clancy novel on steroids. Radical stuff, with a huge helping of super-spy/espionage stuff thrown in for good measure, that gets absolutely no attention from Marvel. Buy this title!

The Pick of the Pile this time out is a very close call between Annihilation Conquest and Lone Ranger and Tonto. The crazy ape-spit insanity of the space opera versus the low key, dust-bitten rawness of the western -- a tough choice. By the slimmest of margins I am giving it to Lone Ranger, just because it was a nice change of pace to read. But AC is intensely good as well.

So what did YOU read this week?