What I Read This Week

Final Crisis #4 -- Well that was worth the wait!  A month after the Anti-Life Equation was "broadcasted" to the entire planet, Earth lies in shambles, with the remaining heroes scattered across the globe.  But wherever brave men and women are opressed, a resistance will begin to take shape.  Morrison and Jones deliver the goods, even after the extended delay between this one and the the third issue.  There's lots of ideas crammed every which way into this comic, like a Kirby comic, and really, I guess that is the point, right?

Final Crisis: Submit -- I made the mistake of reading Final Crisis before this one, which spoiled it, unfortunately, so definitely read this one first.  Anyhow, with the world as we know it gone after the deployment of the Anti-Life Equation, and with bands of Justifiers roaming the streets, the unlikely pairing of Black Lightning and the Tatooed Man are thrown together in a battle for survival.  Having Morrison write this tie-in helps a lot, since the tone is very close to the main series, giving it a sort of Final Crisis #3.5 feel to it.  Matthew Clark's art is good enough but his storytelling is unclear in several spots.  This would have been better if it had come out a few weeks ago, but it's still good.

Tiny Titans #9 -- Monkeys!  Be a superhero long enough and you will be turned into a simian of some kind; it's the law.  Also, witness the historic first meeting and The Brain and Brian-, err, I mean, Psimon, plus the debut of The Tiny Tiny Titan and his family!

Unknown Soldier #1 -- Doing a complete 180 from the previous title, this Vertigo title is thoroughly violent and unsettling, as we follow Dr. Luanga Moses, a Ugandan who has returned to his home country to tend to the masses of displaced people living in squalor, caught between the Ugandan Army and the Lord's Resistance Army.  What do the terrible nightmares he keeps having mean?  And who is the voice inside his head urging him to act on them?  This clearly is a different take on the Soldier, letting us get to know the man behind the bandages, something the old series never did.  It's also more of a political book, which is unavoidable in this day and age with this character.  Dysart and Ponticelli do a good job of capturing the horror of the state of Ugandan and Dr. Moses' situation, and makes for compelling storytelling.

The Pick Of The Pile is Final Crisis, without a doubt.  This series just brings it.

So what did YOU read this week?