What I Read This Week

Outsiders #21 -- The Outsiders return to Gotham City to find Arkham Asylum destroyed, the city ashambles, the Batcave closed and Alfred in a secure location.  Their new mission: split up and track down the most dangerous escapees, starting with Black Lightning and Owlman heading to Alaska to capture Mr. Freeze!  Oh man oh man, this comic is a total throwback -- in a really good way!  We get a complete story with Black Lightning and Owlman, but we also get teases of the next adventure, a tie-in to the overall craziness going on in the Bat Titles, reflections on what happened in the previous arc, and some snappy banter. This is much more appealing to me than just getting the obvious first 22 pages of a 140 page story.  It hit pretty much everything I was looking for in a superhero team book.  I really hope Tomasi keeps this trend up and goes for smaller stories building to a larger overall storyarc, as it is a storytelling style extremely well-suited to superhero comics.  Plus, Pasarin plays to his strengths with a lot of action, although some of his panel layouts are a little odd, it is never too distracting.  Awesome little comic all around.

Tiny Titans #19 -- It's the All-Like, All-The-Time issue!  Plasmus and Bumblebee find each other one rainy day, and suddenly it's all sunshine and rainbows!  But what about M. Mallah and the Brain?  And why are the ranks of the Ape Club dwindling?  Easily the most adorable comic book I will read this month, with Plasmus and Bumblebee's "deep in like" antics being very heartwarming.  It's fun to note that Baltazar and Franco have worked in a little continuity here, because if you remember, Bumblebee was one of the girls who shared ice cream with Plasmus many months back.  And no, I cannot believe I just typed that sentence.

Wednesday Comics #7 -- Things continue to boil as various stories build up, including Hawkman discovering that he may have landed on the worst possible island he could have chose.  Also, hey DC Direct, make us a "clamshell" style phone like the one Aquaman uses in the Supergirl strip!

The Pick Of The Pile this week is a tough call, but I have to hand it to Outsiders.  The mix of Bronze Age sensibility with modern storylines makes a tough nut to crack for this reader.  Although the super-mushy Tiny Titans and the consistantly excellent Wednesday Comics made this a very good week, especially for such a light one.

So, what did YOU read this week?