What I Read This Week

Blackest Night #4 -- With Flash, Mera, and Atom cornered in the Hall of Justice, things are going from bad to worse out in the world at large.  And when the Black Lantern is full charged, then things get really bad... Johns shines a spotlight on a few characters he obviously likes in this issue, and as is par for the course for him, puts at least some of them through terrible trauma.  The last page reveal may have been spoiled by solicits, but since I have no idea who this character is, I don't mind that.  Anyways, more gruesome fun as we enter the second half of DC's event series.

The Web #2 -- The "world's jerkiest superhero" has to deal with the mess his brother left behind, and makes a business decision which could change the face of superheroics forver.  Then, The Hangman faces off with The Ugly Man!  Both halves of this comic are very well done.  The Web adventure mixes light-heartedness with heavier stuff for a nicely balanced tale.  He seems to be shaping up to be a "hard luck hero" type, albeit one with lots and lots of money.  The Hangman feature is harsher, with a great flashback cameo involving the Golden Age Sandman.  The Ugly Man reminds me of Sledgehammer from Steel, The Indestructible Man.  All in all both this series and The Shield have impressed me quite a bit.

Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Anti-Venom #2 -- Anti-Venom and The Punisher put aside their differences and team up to take out a drug cartel.  Yeah, right... more like Frank keeps trying to kill Eddie as well!  Zeb Wells can write Eddie Brock stories very well, I thought so with Dark Origin and I continue to think so here.  Paulo Siqueira would not be my first choice but he handles the art nicely.  All in all, I ma really digging this series -- mostly because it is aimed straight at me!

Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #2 -- Tony Stark and Justine Hammer head to Europe in Stark's plush "puddle jumper" to track down just where the stolen Iron Man data ended up, and run into the bizarre Dr. Faustus.  Fun adventure where Ellis gets to flex his muscles both for smarmy dialogue and funky technology.  The second badguy who shows up at the end is not one I expected to pop up, but made me happy to see in action.  So far, this series has been a lot better than The Ultimates (of which I managed one issue before I gave up) and Ultimate Iron Man (of which I got the first miniseries and passed on the second).

War Machine #10 -- Rhodey's war against Norman Osborne reaches it's climax, and it seems that the frontal assault was not Rhodey's true agenda after all.  Starts out well but falls apart in the second half, as the scope of War Machine's plans to strike at Osborne and HAMMER are silly-approaching-laughable.  The cliffhanger is a plus, as is the large number of former West Coast Avenger guest stars.

Re-Read Pile: Blackest Night, The Web, Ultimate Comics Armor Wars.

The Pick Of The Pile is a tough call, as Blackest Night was really good, but I am going to give it to The Web.