Comics are awesome.

[Shockwave]

You gotta walk the shelves when you go to the comic shop. I usually go in, get my saver and that's it. A few weeks ago, I went in, looked over the wall and picked up like 8 more comics that I would have otherwise missed out on (including the God of War comic).

[Sparky Prime]

Yeah, I've got a pull list at my LCBS, but I always check out the wall anyway myself. Usually I don't see anything else that wasn't already in my box, but every so often I might see a comic I forgot about or whatever the case might be. Like the "Untold Tales of Blackest Night" one shot that came out last week. Totally forgot it was coming out so I was a bit surprised to see it.

[Shockwave]

"Untold Tales of Blackest Night"

Any good?

[Sparky Prime]

"Untold Tales of Blackest Night"

Any good?

I thought it was decent but I was kinda hoping for some different stories... Like, one of them is Scarecrow having to face his fears when the yellow ring selected him, and I just don't see that story was necessary at all since it pretty much got covered in the main Blackest Night title. But it also covered some other point like showing that Lyssa Drak (keeper of the Sinestro Corps Book of Parallax) doesn't stay trapped in the Book of Black and is now working for the creature capturing the Emotional Embodiments. And it has two (small) deleted scenes from Blackest Night, while not necessary, I liked seeing. So yeah, it was alright but the story selections could have been better.

And speaking of Scarecrow... I doubt anyone here reads Superman/Batman so hopefully this wont be a spoiler for anyone, but issue 77 kinda had a followup with Scarecrow attacking Lexcorp interns because he blames Luthor for taking his ring during Blackest Night. Nice to see Crane is sore for loosing his Sinestro Corps status.

[Onslaught Six]

Hell yeah, I'd be down with a new Turok. And seriously, new XO Manowar. Conan the Barbarian in an Iron Man Suit? That'd be like printing money.

I'm pretty sure I saw a Turok comic on the shelf when I was in the comic shop on Wednesday. I don't know who published it. The cover has Turok on the head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Huh. Apparently Jim Shooter's writing this. How'd I not know about this? Damn it, Dark Horse, publicize this shit! What's next, you jerks gonna remake Shadowman without telling me?

[Dominic]

Shooter is also on the new "XO Manowar" and "Doctor Solar" titles. If I was not actively trying to cut back on comics, I would be all over "Doctor Solar". It would be like "Captain Atom", but without the stains and smears of recent years....

Dom

[Onslaught Six]

Solar is also responsible for the creation of the Valiant universe. He created it because he liked old Gold Key comic books.

That's pretty awesome.

[138 Scourge]

Solar is also responsible for the creation of the Valiant universe. He created it because he liked old Gold Key comic books.

That's pretty awesome.

He destroyed his own universe, too, didn't he? Accidentally, of course, so then he had to remake it, right? And then the Valiant universe was changed during the Acclaim era by Auric going back to his own era with the X-O armor...which is kind of awesome in itself. I kind of wish I'd bought the Acclaim era run of "Solar", it looked like it had neat stuff going on in it.

Shooter is also on the new "XO Manowar"

If you mean this, I'm excited for this. But I suspect you mean "Magnus, Robot Fighter". I wonder if Dark Horse can get access to those properties that were created by Valiant, or if it's just the licensed properties.

Like, one of them is Scarecrow having to face his fears when the yellow ring selected him

You know, I'll bet a guy like that would have some pretty impressive fears himself. I mean, his fears are so bad that he decides fear would be the ultimate weapon and goes to town with it. Of course, the same could be said of Batman, since he decides to use fear as a weapon, too. Anyway, back to Crane, I remember a really impressive Scarecrow story from back in the day...the same "Skip week" event that debuted Prometheus in JLA had a Scarecrow story that touched on some of those things, the idea of finding out what the Scarecrow's afraid of. It was pretty damn cool. No relevance to anything here, I just always liked the Scarecrow, especially his appearance in the latter half of the Batman Animated series. That guy's pretty neat.

Anyway! I got some comics fuckin' finally! Whoo-hooo!

Thor and the Warriors Four #4: MAN! I've been looking for this one for awhile. This new writer fella that's on this one? He can stick around on Power Pack books if he wants, I'd totally be okay with that. And the very end of the book is almost literally a deus ex machina, but I don't care, it made me grin and I loved it. But basically, Loki's managed to steal the golden apples of Asgard, and as a result the Asgardians are rapidly aging...which can be misconstrued as a sign that Ragnarok's on it's way. Enter Jormagund, the Midgard Serpent, a snake big enough to wrap around the damn planet. Just because a book's targeted at a younger audience and isn't gonna be "violent" as such, doesn't mean it can't be action-packed. And man, hey, Prowl, how rad was that when

Spoiler

Alex was able to pick up Thor's hammer?

In conclusion, fantastic book.

Hulk #26: Dammit, Jeff Parker. I bought the last issue of this book because of Parker's bribe I mentioned before, and this issue because I figured "What the hell?" And now I'm hooked. Can't believe I'm saying it, but I really like the Red Hulk in this story. Things move fast in this book, too. This issue: The Red Hulk and Iron Man finish up with the people turned into heavily-armed zombies by a virus from their prosthetic limbs, Thor and the Red Hulk engage in a frank discussion of ideas (kidding, it's punching) and then team up to take out a couple comets dragged off-course to Earth. And that's just the first part of this book! In the second story, Rick Jones beats up a sea monster some more. Not as entertaining as the main story, but okay. The Red Hulk is convincing me as a guy that's trying to "reform", but of course, all the heroes he's supposed to work with have taken a few punches from the guy before, and they're not necessarily buying that he's an ally now. And the...sigh...Rulk's reaction to all this is actually pretty unexpected, especially from a Hulk. Anyway, well-done book, I'm in for at least another issue.

Fantastic Four in Attaque Del M.O.D.O.K.!: A nice one-shot comic in which Reed and Sue's vacation in Puerto Rico is interrupted by M.O.D.O.K. and his new team of heavily-armed A.I.M. monkeys. Look, when M.O.D.O.K. has a team of monkeys with ray-guns, I'm in. When you get neat quiet moments between Reed and Sue, that's a bonus. And I like the new character debuting in this issue, the Puerto Rican hero "El Vejigante", he has a neat costume. So yeah, winning story here.

American Vampire volume one: I caved and bought the hardcover. My main attraction to this series is that Stephen King wrote the half of each of the issues collected herein, which makes this the first comics that dude's written since "Creepshow", maybe. I buy all the King books as soon as they come out. I decided this counted. Case closed. But also, this has become my girlfriend's favorite comic, so I bought this so she could catch up on the series. Basically, the premise is that, at the dawn of the 20th century, European vampires hanging out over here accidentally created a new strain of bloodsuckers by infecting Americans. The new breed is, for one thing, solar-powered, so they're about invincible during the day, but pretty much useless at night. It's engaging enough, though I have no idea why white Americans would be a different enough breed from eastern Europeans to create a crazy new hybrid vampire, but you know, I don't care. Good read, and I might even stick with the series now that King's gone.

[Sparky Prime]

Like, one of them is Scarecrow having to face his fears when the yellow ring selected him

You know, I'll bet a guy like that would have some pretty impressive fears himself. I mean, his fears are so bad that he decides fear would be the ultimate weapon and goes to town with it. Of course, the same could be said of Batman, since he decides to use fear as a weapon, too. Anyway, back to Crane, I remember a really impressive Scarecrow story from back in the day...the same "Skip week" event that debuted Prometheus in JLA had a Scarecrow story that touched on some of those things, the idea of finding out what the Scarecrow's afraid of. It was pretty damn cool. No relevance to anything here, I just always liked the Scarecrow, especially his appearance in the latter half of the Batman Animated series. That guy's pretty neat.

Well the thing is, Scarecrow apparently has been exposed to his fear toxin too many times or something because now he says only one thing actually scares him anymore, and that's Batman. This story had him reflecting on while he was younger getting made fun of for his name, given he shares it with the character in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and his study of that story helped him realize fear is an effective weapon. Later, his fears when the ring chooses him manifests as Batman in place of the Headless Horseman, which is actually pretty cool.

I just didn't see the story as all that necessary in an "Untold Tales of Blackest Night" book because we saw Scarecrow in Blackest Night trying to feel fear because he was frustrated only Batman scares him.

[BWprowl]

Thor and the Warriors Four #4: MAN! I've been looking for this one for awhile. This new writer fella that's on this one? He can stick around on Power Pack books if he wants, I'd totally be okay with that. And the very end of the book is almost literally a deus ex machina, but I don't care, it made me grin and I loved it. But basically, Loki's managed to steal the golden apples of Asgard, and as a result the Asgardians are rapidly aging...which can be misconstrued as a sign that Ragnarok's on it's way. Enter Jormagund, the Midgard Serpent, a snake big enough to wrap around the damn planet. Just because a book's targeted at a younger audience and isn't gonna be "violent" as such, doesn't mean it can't be action-packed. And man, hey, Prowl, how rad was that when

Spoiler

Alex was able to pick up Thor's hammer?

In conclusion, fantastic book.

Oh sweet, you finally finished it. Yeah, I loved the whole thing, including Alex-Thor. If the Marvel Universe line ever gets around to some Power Pack figures, I may have to try to make one myself. Mostly impressive was that it was a plot twist I didn't see coming at all, especially since Alex had spent the whole thing arguing with Julie over whether or not this Magical Viking Wonderland they were prancing around was real or not. Great stuff.

Fantastic Four in Attaque Del M.O.D.O.K.!:[/b] A nice one-shot comic in which Reed and Sue's vacation in Puerto Rico is interrupted by M.O.D.O.K. and his new team of heavily-armed A.I.M. monkeys. Look, when M.O.D.O.K. has a team of monkeys with ray-guns, I'm in. When you get neat quiet moments between Reed and Sue, that's a bonus. And I like the new character debuting in this issue, the Puerto Rican hero "El Vejigante", he has a neat costume. So yeah, winning story here.

You know M.O.D.O.K.'s gonna be playable in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, right?