What I Read This Week

House of Mystery #6 -- Well, Fig is not gone, which is good.  But she, Harry, and Ann are heading into the labyrinthine basement of the house, which is very, very bad.  Does this hold the key to escape from the House?  Sturges and Willingham continue to deliver, this time featuring a tale about Ann's tumultuous love life on the high seas.  This series really does remind me of Sandman in the way it is building it's own mythos slowly but surely.  Also features a preview of the new Unknown Soldier, which looks about the only way a reinvention of that series could look in 2008.

Tor #6 -- Tor and his two companions set out to return to the other side of the mountain, and Tor's homeland, but the road is fraught with peril of all sorts.  Will they survive the treacherous climb?  The best DC miniseries in years concludes in suitable fashion here, with more adventure and danger, and the classic inconclusive ending which I was glad to see, given the material.  Kubert's caveman is truly timeless, as are his gorgeous page layouts and compositions.  If you missed this one, buy the trade, folks.

Marvel Apes #3 -- Marty Blank, AKA The Gibbon, has fallen in with the outcast heroes of the ape world: hope he suvives the experience!  As the twisted history of the alternate world is explained, Gibbon forms a plan which can save everything... if it works.  There's a lot of dislike for this series floating around the internet, and personally I don't understand why: it's a fun and funny comic book, and I think only the most cynical Marvel reader would rail so hotly against it.  Be that as it may, I enjoyed this one a lot, as Kessel weaves a sort of What If? tale for the back history of the Ape World, which is compelling enopugh that you almost forget that the characters are all simians.  Almost -- because Ramon Bachs never lets us forget.  The backup, featuring the Watcher, takes some potshots at Secret Wars II, and is silly but ultimately slight.  Still, eager to see the conclusion of this one.

Venom: Dark Origin #3 -- Eddie Brock is down in the dumps.  He's lost his job (thanks to Spider-Man), been exposed as a fraud (thanks to Spider-Man), and his wife is divorcing him (thanks to Spider-Man).  All that's left is to take his own life -- until the fateful arrival of one who shares Eddie's pain, grief, and rage.  And thus Venom is born.  After stumbling with the first issue, Wells and Medina have hit their stride here, as the marriage of Eddie and the symbiote is finally seen on-page for more than a handful of panels, as well as the origin of the massive, toothy grin.  This is a series for established Venom fans, but between the skewed POV and the crazy, over-the-top art (a throwback to the Venom miniserieseses-es of the 90s), that's a pretty obvious point.

Nova #17 -- After cleverly wrapping up the cliffhanger from last time (in the Mighty Marvel Manner, I might add!) Nova heads to Project PEGASUS to check on his little brother, where he runs smack dab into Darkhawk!  PEGASUS is under siege by the Skrulls, and Darkhawk has been fending them off so far, but even with Nova can the heroes hope to keep the top secret technology contained within from the alien invaders?  More slam-bang sci-fi from DnA and Alves as the Skrulls try to bust their way past security Aliens-style.  Plus, Darkhawk!  Every Marvel fan who is of a certain age likes Darkhawk, whether they admit it or not.

Project Superpowers #6 -- The Green Lama is organizing all of the returned heroes for one big strike in the Middle East, but the Dynamic Family is ready to stop them, with the help of their shadowy benefactors, with a trap that will stop the Superpowers dead in their tracks.  My interest is waning quickly with this series, which has a lot of great ideas but no clear plan on using them.  I'll get the final issue of the opening series to finish it out, but I am not on board for thier universe at this point.  Even Sadowski's art is starting to get sketchy.

The Pick Of The Pile was Tor, slightly edging out House of Mystery.  Just too much quality in Tor for the Vertigo book to overcome.

So what did YOU read this week?