What I Read This Week

Batman And The Outsiders #13 -- With the Batman seemingly gone, Gotham City has become even more dangerous than normal, with Intergang staking claim to the city.  Batgirl knows she cannot replace the Dark Knight, but she has a plan which may just be able to... assuming she can survive a run in with the new Vigilante and avoid one with Nightwing!  Not really an Outsiders story per se (The title block identifies this as a "Batman R.I.P. Story featuring Batgirl"), but this is an enjoyable action-tale, a followup or sorts to Tieri's Gotham Underground series.  I don't know much about Batgirl (pretty much just what I have seen in this title) but I like how Tieri handles her, along with Spoiler, Man-bat and the new Vigilante, who's series I am not strongly considering buying.  Not sure where all this is going to go once the Outsiders take over their title again, but it's good stuff I think.

Flash #246 -- Linda West lies on her deathbed, and there's nothing Wally can do about it.  But that doesn't mean the Fastest Man Alive, even with his reduced top speed, isn't going to fight like hell!   This issue is a nice capstone sort for those of us who have been reading the title for a long time, as I was pleasantly reminded of a lot of great Wally-Linda moments from years past, including their bizarre first wedding when Linda just kinda vanished.  Alan Burnett and Carlo Barberi make for a good team with the character, handling both the main cast as well as the guest stars (including Red Arrow, Lian, Dr. Mid-Nite, and Batman) admirably.  It's too bad that the next issue is the final one (again)!

Justice Society of America Kingdom Come Special: Magog -- Two quotes essentially describe this one-shot.  The first, from the comic itself: "Honor and loyalty shine bright in this weary world."  The second, is from Melville: "He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it."  Lance Corporal David Reid, aka Magog, is called away from his Justice Society duties to respond to a distress call from his old special-ops unit, and what he finds will change him pretty irrevocably.  Tomasi has a good handle on Magog and the other younger JSAers, and this one-shot deals more closely with "In The Name Of Gog" than the Superman one did previously.  The Starman backup from Johns and Kollins is pretty neat.  I don't know much about the Legion of Superheroes so I don't know if it is accurate or "right" or whatnot, but I do like Scott Kollins so that's a success right there.  If you are enjying JSoA then definitely buy this one.

Tiny Titans #10 -- Supergirl and Batgirl are the only Tiny Titans around, so they decide to have a tea party!  But will they be able to find a spot that doesn't have nasty crocodile men or a strange backwards weirdos?  And what about the empty, grumbling tummies of Streaky and Ace?!  Adorable as usual, this one will probably go over well with the daughters and nieces out there, given the two stars.  

Iron Man #35 -- War Machine wakes up in a very inenviable position: strapped down to an operating table on a Skrull warship!  But he's Jim Rhodes, he's been through worse.  The prologue to the new War Machine ongoing title finishes up here in typically (and utterly appropriately) explosive fashion here, setting up the status quo very nicely.  Gage writes a nice "tough guy" Rhodey, while Sean Chen is one of the premier Shellhead artists of my lifetime, so the comic looks great, too.  Chen's renderings of both the War Machine and Crimson Dynamo armors are fantastic.  My only complaint is that this is the final issue of volume 4 of Iron Man, and Iron Man isn't in it!  What the heck?!  That is just beyond stupid.  But, taken on it's own merits, this is an a very cool comic and has been an excellent story arc.

Halloween: The First Death of Laurie Strode #2 -- Laurie Strode is still haunted by the memories of her brother, Michael Myers, and his rampage across Haddonfield which left almost all of her friends dead.  Nothing can bury the viscious memories in her head, and things are only going to get worse when it seems that it's starting all over again.  Scribe Stef Hutchinson does a good job of emulating the tone of the first two Halloween films, really selling this series as being a legitimate part of the story.  And Jeff Zornow' art, especially the color palette which I absolutely adore, is a visual treat for fans of the franchise.  The first page nightmare sequence is amazing.  Definitely looking forward to the finale of this one!  One note worth mentioning: although I doubt many would be buying a Halloween comic for their kids, this issue does have some nasty gore as well as quite a lot of sex and drug use.  I only mention this because there is no Mature Readers tag that I could find, so this is just a "heads up."

The Pick Of The Pile is a tough one.  A lot of really good comic books this week.  But I have to give the nod to Halloween, which really hit the spot when I read it.  Everything comes together nicely in it and it really syncs up with what I am looking for as a psuedo-sequel to Halloween II.

So, what did YOU read this week?