What I Read This Week

Strange Adventures #1 -- In the wake of the Rann-Thanagar Holy War, the face of the cosmos has be altered: with the population of Throneworld decimated by Lady Styx, and Rann now unihabitable, the two are now united as "New Rann."  But things are still unstable: Hardcore Station is as dangerous as ever, and the ruins of Old Rann hold vast technological wonders which many would kill to get their hands on.  Plus, now it seems that the stars themselves are starting to vanish!  All this and Deacon Dark and Bizarro!  Starlin's next DC cosmic adventure kicks off here, and it is a lot of setup, but the setup is excellent.  Manuel Garcia's pencils in the feature are a nice fit as well.  The backup, focusing on Bizarro, has art done by Starlin, which is a nice touch.  The backup's story, though, has some weird ramifications for Hawkfans, and I really want to see where Starlin is going with this.

War of Kings #1 -- War has begun!  When the expanionist Emperor of the Shi'ar Empire puts his eyes upon the newly crowned Kree King Black Bolt's space, the universe will shake with the fury of their combat.  DnA and Pelletier deliver the goods in this opening salvo of the next Marvel space opera, with a full-on battle between the Imperial Guard and the Kree.  About my only complaint here is that this issue spoils the conclusion of X-Men: Kingbreaker #4, but that is a relatively minor quibble in the scheme of things.  Great stuff from that "other part" of Marvel, which is far superior to the mainline stuff.

House of Mystery #11 -- Welcome to "The Space Between!"  With the mystery of the basement solved, now it is time to look into why the heck Fig's father is at the House, and why he seems to know more than he is telling.  Plus, we get to learn a little bit about those courageous Pathfinders who blazed the trails of magic throughout the known worlds.  Really, I don't know what else I can say about this series at this point -- it's a great book month in and month out.

Black Lightning: Year One #1 -- After throwing The 100 off his scent, Jefferson Pierce has to keep an eye on Garfield High's Regional Track & Field Expo -- no easy task when weird forces are twisted the minds of all in attendance, making them see everyone else as beasts and monsters!  An uptick from the previous installment, as the weirdness is a little more palatable.  This has been a fun series and I am eager to see how it all wraps up in the finale.

The Pick Of the Pile is a close one this week, as I really liked both Strange Adventures and War of Kings.  As I can't decide based on quality, I will do it based on value: for $3.99, Strange Adventures has more pages, including a backup, so that one gets the nod.  Although, I must admit that all four titles were really good this week.