What I Read This Week

Doom Patrol #11 -- When Rita is captured by Jost's team of freaks, the Patrol hijacks Ambush Bug to find her!  This issue was a mixed bag for me.  The action portions were fun, with Negative Man and Robot Man throwing down with AVM-Man.  But the talking bits were a bit meandering.  Jost's monologue to end the issue was all over the place, and I am sorry but I have never cared for Ambush Bug.  Hopefully this will make more sense next issue.

Human Target #5 -- Chance and his charges in Hong Kong to retrieve the last set of ledgers, but one member of the group will not leave Asia alive!  More solid action from Len Wein, who I hope gets to write some stuff for the TV series or gets to take on another one of these minis, because the fact that this is ending next month depresses me.  Great high espionage fun.

Outsiders #30 -- While Geo-Force deals with anti-New Krypton unrest in Markovia, Black Lightning and his crew find a safe haven in the weirdest of places... with Simon Stagg!  There's some real goofiness with the timeline here as we get the introduction of the Earth-New Krypton War, but by the time the team reaches Simon Stagg's lab, the war is over.  So the tie-in elements seem a little out of place, especially considering when this was released.  I still like the story which DiDio is telling here and I like Stagg's new enforcer (Freight Train, who looks like he stepped out of a WWE ring and acts like someone Mike W. Barr (that magnificent bastard) would have created), but Tan's art is off-puttingly rough in some areas.  

Warlord #15 -- Everything changes.  Well, everything starts to change, anyway.  Grell is in good form here with his pencils, but the story meanders a bit as we set up the big change in Skartaris -- you know, after the big change which made Joshua the new Warlord.  I would have probably enjoyed this issue more if the next issue didn't end the series, so in the back of my mind I know that whatever it is Grell has in mind will be essentially back-burned.  Still, a good issue.

Phantom: Generations #11 -- The Phantom is in colonial South Carolina tracking down a foe when he runs afoul of the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion!  Beyond the awesomeness that is a Phantom story set in my homestate, this is a very well told and exciting piece of illustrated prose.  If this is the last issue of Generations then the series is going out with a bang.  

Re-read Pile: Outisders, Human Target, Phantom: Generations

The Pick Of The Pile is Phantom, which is a real shame because its most likely the last issue!