So, What comics did you buy this week?

[anarky]

Transformers MTMTE 16. Eulogies for those lost last issue. The final goodbye from [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] choked me up. I never thought one robot telling another robot "I love you" would make me tear up, but there ya go.

Maybe not quite the same, but did the death of the Zarak version of Scorponok hit you way back when? Something about the way he decides he has to be badass because he took the name, then gets melted like five seconds later, and dies while asking Prime if he "did good" (followed up by Prime telling him he did, no less) was a moment I always found really, really powerful.

[Negative Boy]

Really really powerful like when you get PMS? That kind of powerful?

[anarky]

I'm not sure. You're the expert on that one.

[anarky]

G.I.Joe/Transformers Vol. 3 came in the mail yesterday. I had never bothered to cancel it after the second volume was so mediocre. Curiously, this volume (which contains the third and fourth Devil's Due crossover series) is much better.

Part 3, for the most part, is the best-written of all four. Not great, but pretty good. The federal government has created an android called Serpent O.R. (yeah, incredibly clumsy reason to use the old name), and programmed it with the minds of "thousands" of military geniuses. Problem being, they gave it the personality of Megatron. Whoops! Cobra invades the PIT (where, unknown to the Joes, the Serpent O.R. project is also headquartered) right as some Autobots show up to destroy Cybertronian tech, and shit hits the fan. Serpent O.R. goes to Cybertron and unites the fractured Decepticon ranks in his quest to obtain the Matrix. Some plot holes (biggest being how the hell Megatron's memory banks would include Optimus Primal), and a lot of typos ("lead" for "led" is especially common, for some reason), but not awful. The art is done by several people, and is much better on some pages than others. Also, there's what looks like a tease for a never-produced Part 5, featured Sergeant Savage fighting Iron Klaw, with Metroplex and Trypticon duking it out in the background.

Part 4 was a major surprise. Why? The artist is some sort of wild man. Not a wild man trying to make his art look like it did in 1992, but the way he actually drew at that time (similar, but a little looser, and the inks are definitely less intricate than Baskerville's). The plot is kinda a head-scratcher: Unicron came to Earth about 200,000 years ago, was threatened by Cobra-La (because, apparently, in the entire fucking cosmos, only this one race could create metal-eating spores that he feared). They reached an agreement: Unicron would leave, and Cobra-La would go into hiding so humans could take over the Earth and Cobra-La would call Unicron back to eat Earth when humanity had reached a certain point, but Cobra-La would rule the Earth, and, you know what? Don't even try to figure this shit out. At some unspecified point, Bludgeon came to Earth with the (future) Pretender Monsters. It must've been fairly recently, since the Chinese government shot them down. (Oh, and all four of these series apparently take place in about a year, meaning TF's are just hopping back and forth all over the place.) They fell in with Cobra-La, who were cool with mechs so long as they had bioengineered shells so that Cobra-La wouldn't see their metal parts, or something. Don't ask why some humanoid thingies living in a cave in Tibet for 200,000 years decided on a skeletal samurai. But Wildman drawing Bludgeon again! That makes up for it, right? Joe Colton was captured 25 years ago, and has learned all about Cobra-La, but somehow he knows Hawk both by name and codename, meaning Hawk must be an old fucker. (I thought it was going to say Colton was his dad, but it never went there.) Despite the Matrix being a big plot detail here, Cosmos and Flint destroy Unicron by setting the spores loose in his head (never minding that his brain is organic, for some reason). Oh, and, somehow, without any explanation whatsoever, Mindbender is a high-ranking dude in Cobra-La. They hate humans, but he's there. (I looked it up, and, apparently, some fake federal agents sent him to meet Cobra-La in Part 2. I'm not understanding why.) But, again, pretty pictures.

A couple of things were extra-cool: they worked in a cameo by the fucktarded Lunartix aliens who were planned from the old toyline (they were stupid, but including them was a nice nod), and Unicron keeping captured aliens as slaves to maintain his innards (which never came up elsewhere, IIRC, but is probably the best original idea of all these series).

[DeckardSmith]

Another dozen this week, with fully a quarter of them being Iron Man stuff. I'll bet it's related to that new flick coming out in a couple days. Still no first issues, unless you count the Iron Man oneshot.

Age of Ultron 7. Logan and Sue Storm head back to the future after killing Hank Pym and (duh!) find it radically changed. Janet is now Captain Marvel, Scott Summers is now Cable. Everybody is on the Defenders. And Tony Stark runs everything.

Game of Thrones 14. Tyrion and Bronn meet the savage hillfolk. Ned sends Beric out after Gregor Clegane. And Ned figures out the secret about Cersei's children and confronts her. Oye. One lousy choice leads to seven books worth of shit for his family. Poor bastard.

Hawkguy 10. Kate meets a mysterious handsome stranger at some fundraiser of her father. And we get the origin of the new badguy. We also have to see Grills die again. Poor Grills.

Iron Man 9. Tony hires Deaths Head to find Recorder 451. But 451 had already hired DH to lure Tony to him, so it's a big ol doublecross, yes? Then 451 whips out a old movie reel of Howard Stark...and 451?!? It's the beginning of "The Secret Origin of Tony Stark"!!

Iron Man:Coming of the Melter oneshot. Set in the Movieverse, IM and War Machine team up to beat the Melter. It's got Ron Lim art, but otherwise meh.

Iron Man 258.1 Michelinie and Layton return to do their own follow up to Armor Wars! Cool. It's like reading a back issue you just found. Pretty sweet. And there's more issues coming!

Superior Otto 9. Otto and Peter battle in their shared memory mindscape. Otto wins. Peter's memories disappear forever. Uhmmm...wut? Didn't see THAT coming.

Thanos Rising 2. Clearly this little girl is a Death Avatar and/or a figment of young Thanos's imagination as he continues his course towards total evil. Really hamfisted work by Jason Aaron. Why is Jim Starlin not writing this??

Transformers Spotlight: Hoist. Hoist, Perceptor, Sunstreaker, and Swerve are trapped on a crashed shuttle. It's TF by Roberts. Of course it's good.

Winter Soldier 18. The penultimate issue gives us the origin of the Electric Ghost.

X-Factor 255. Mephisto wins the Hell on Earth War. Monet dies. Very sad. Also found out this series is going bye bye in Sept. That's sadder still.

All New X-Men. Angel leaves with Cyclops' team. Mystique and her team break in and steal all Tony Stark's money. And Havok and his Uncanny Uncle Toms show up. Yay!!

[jjreason]

FCBD Haul:

GI Joe, Special Missions & Cobra Files - whichever issues are current of each (I believe it should be 3-2-1 in that order, but I can't see them from here)
Game of Thrones number something
Free - Infinity
Free - Robo (and fuck am I lucky, this book was almost gone whereas almost all the others had double stacks left)
Free - Star Wars for Thomas with a pretty awesome Fett/Vader cover
Iron Man "Demon in a Bottle" hardcover - marked down to $10. Happy Jimmy as I have wanted this some time but not wanted to pay for it.
Digest sized Franklin Richards collection for Tom at 50 percent off - his favorite & he skimmed it & said it was mostly stuff he hadn't read before. I like the fact that he enjoys comics he finds funny more than the ones he finds awesome - that's interesting to me. But I digress.
Some issues of Captain Canuck that were on clearance for him to take to Norway on his trip this summer as trader items.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Free - Robo (and fuck am I lucky, this book was almost gone whereas almost all the others had double stacks left)

You bastard.

[jjreason]

Uh oh, I'll keep my eyes open for another one.

[anarky]

Wow, IDW is churning out the Regeneration One paperbacks in what might be record time. I got Volume 2 today, which has 86-90. And #91 isn't even out. Hell, I hadn't read #90 since my copy's in Michigan.

I'd shed a tear over that conclusion if it wasn't so... inconclusive. That's the sort of thing that'd be instant confirmed death for anyone else. But in comics, particularly about giant robots, it means they'll be missing for a few issues. Even with this all going toward a huge conclusion in #100, I think one of them will return (and not because it's the one I want to return). We've got the plays on "till all are one," but, in this arc, a lot of bits about redemption have been introduced, particularly involving Hot Rod, Primus, and the Demons. Even Grimlock's arc here is about redeeming himself for what he sees as his failure with Nucleon. The next arc appears to deal with Bludgeon, meaning the Matrix will be involved, and the Matrix was spectacularly corrupted by various evil users and redeemed by Optimus Prime to destroy Unicron. Given that Scorponok and Grimlock are falling into the planet's core, where Hot Rod is currently looking for Primus, I suspect we'll see Grimlock again. Especially given the redemption subtexts and his line about being too far over the edge. Oh, and there's also that little detail that a ricochet off Grimlock's chestplate awoke Primus for the first time in eons, which I doubt Furman has forgotten.

[DeckardSmith]

A ridiculously small week with only 5 books.

Avengers Assemble 15AU. Another Age of Ultron tie in. This time it's showing us how Ultron attacked Great Britain and how Captains Marvel and Britain and other heroes sacrificed themselves to stop him. Is Computer Graham a real character? I feel like that's a nod to some obscure Marvel UK thing.

Avengers 11. Shang Chi, Black Widow, Carol Danvers, Sunspot and Cannonball are all undercover in Hong Kong trying to figure out what AIM is up to. The best part is when Bobby and Sam convince the AIM guys not to fight, but instead join them in debauchery.

Iron Man 258.2 I'm guessing this is kind of a What If story because both Dr. Erica Sondheim and Rae LaCoste are killed in the first two issues. Either way, fun flashback tale by the guys who brought you the original Armor Wars.

Avenging Otto 20. Otto gets on board the SHIELD Helicarrier with the intent of finding the captured Chameleon, but some super powered KGB contract killers attack and Spidey has to team up with Secret Avengers Hawkguy, Widow and Marcus "I'm Nick Fury Dammit!" Johnson to stop them.

Wolverine 3. Wolverine and Marcus Johnson (again) look for the aliens with the rayguns. I love how every writer across multiple Marvel titles mocks the new Nick Fury, Jr in story. Nick Fury 2.0, Samuel L. Jackson, etc. I chuckle. Keep it up.

[Diabolical]

Last Week:

All-New X-Men #11
A Game of Thrones #14
Hawkeye #10 - All covered by DS

Batman: Detective Comics #20 - Emperor Penguin gives himself powers by using a cocktail of Venom, Man-Bat serum and something from Poison Ivy. Batman defeats him with Penguin's help.

This week:

Batman #20 - Bruce Wayne faces off against Clayface.

Batman and Robin Red Hood #20 - Bats takes Jason back to where Joker killed him to jog his memory and give Bats a better idea how to bring Damian back. Jason gets pissed,

Deadpool #9 - DP and his buddies continue to try to get Agent Preston out of his head.

Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror #4 - Cliff saves the day.

Star Wars #5 - Everyone is in some kind of trouble.

[DeckardSmith]

Nine books this week. Well, ten because I pulled an issue of Tbolts out of the cheap bin.

Age of Ultron 8. Tony Stark from the alt timeline explains to Logan how going back and killing Hank Pym fucked up the future and that Logan is an utter dumbass. Which we all knew.

Avengers: Enemy Within oneshot. Kicks off a crossover between Captain Marvel and one of the ten ongoing Avengers books. But only the one. I was going to pick up the other issues, but this was awful and the art was worse.

FF 7. The Wizard kidnapped his son/clone and took him to the Negative Zone. The FF rescues him. Teamwork!!

Gambit 12. Remy and Rogue help Joelle steal the doomsday macguffin back from Tombstone before he can use it. Then Joelle takes the last tiny bit left in the canister and uses it kill herself. Because she was immortal and sad and lonely.

GIJoe ARAH 190. Chuckles, Jinx, Lowlight, and Lady Jaye start a new mission in some banana republic.

GIJoe Special Missions 3. Everybody is still chasing after that gold on the bottom of the ocean.

Iron Man 10. "The Secret Origin of Tony Stark" begins! Remember the plot from Twins? Where Ahnuld was a special milkshake from multiple donors? Yeah, that's Tony's new origin. Blerg.

Transformers ReGen1 91. As everyone deals with the fallout from last issue, Hot Rod puts forth his plan to reunify the sub dwelling Protos with the rest of the population. It's an unpopular plan.

X-Factor 256. Hell on Earth War concludes! Rahne's son embraces his destiny as Demon Killer and offs all the Demon Lords being held hostage by Mephisto. Thus removing them from the contest. Then just as he's about to kill Mephisto, Strong Guy kills him. Thus Guido becomes to new Lord of all the Underrealms. And he brings Monet back to life and sends he packin'. Let me just say: Whoa. That was an intense finale. Also, Shatterstar might've been disintegrated. I'll have to come back next issue to see where that goes.

And finally Thunderbolts 4. When I got done reading this piece of shit I took a drive in the country until I happened upon a hitchhiker. I got out of the car and stabbed him in the heart with a pencil. As he lay there dying, he had to time to gasp one last feeble "B..but why--?" with confusion in his eyes. "Because" I replied "Daniel Way is a godawful shitty writer and Steve Dillon is horrible fucking artist. That's why."
Then I got in my car and drove home.

[Diabolical]

Batgirl #20 - Babs feels guilty about helping kill her brother and faces off against the new female Ventriloquist.

Fatale #14 - One of these days I will get caught up with this series.

Nightwing #20 - Dick adjusts to Chicago and faces the Prankster.

Thunderbolts #9 - The team goes on the search for Whiplash Crimson Dynamo's nephew. The great news is a new creative team is starting soon!

Transformers: Regeneration One #91 - The Gobots defile Grimlock's corpse.

Ultimate Spider-Man #23 - Picked up on a whim. Picks up a year after Miles' mom gets killed in a Spider-Man-related incident. Miles hasn't been Spidey since, but Spider-Woman tries to get him back in the tights. Cloak and Dagger show up. Not bad.

[Diabolical]

Batman: The Dark Knight #20 - Bats continues to hunt Mad Hatter, who has Bruce's girlfriend. And Jervis drops her from a helicopter into the Bat-signal.

Batman Incorporated #11 - Batman Japan. Weird, and not even written by Grant Morrison.

Daredevil #26 - After getting his ass handed to him last month, DD is paranoid. And rightfully so. I guessed who the (probable) bad guy behind it all before they hinted at it.

Deadpool #10 - Wade teams up with fake Spider-Man and fights Batroc, Lady Stilt Man, Paste Pot Pete and others.

Uncanny Avengers #8 - Age of Ultron tie-in. I was lost. Something to do with the Kang and the Apocalypse twins going to parallel dimension to kill Colonel America, but kill Havok and Rogue instead. Sometimes I still hate Remender.

Uncanny X-Men #6 - The team is trapped in Limbo by Dormammu.

[DeckardSmith]

14 issues this week. No first issues, but there was sort of a final issue; Geoff Johns wrapped up his nine year Green Lantern run.

Fearless Defenders 4AU. Age of Ultron tie in. I've not been reading the regular Defenders book, but apparently Marvel has unapologetically cribbed Wonder Woman as their own character. Hippolyta is now a Defender called Warrior Woman. Well played, Marvel! Anyway, in this issue WW finds out her father Ares was behind the destruction of the Amazons and goes to Latveria and kicks his ass.

Uncanny Avengers 8AU. Another Age of Ultron tie in. Some horribly designed fanfic characters kill Havok and Rogue. Kang is their dad or something. Is this what's happening in regular Uncanny Avengers?? Gawd, that shit is awful.

Avengers 12. Some little aliens in the Savage Land are evolving, and the Avengers are trying to teach them morals and principles. The High Evolutionary kidnaps a few of them.

Young Avengers 5. The team is bound by Wiccan's magics against the Mother infestation. Like it or not, they're now a team. Also evil Loki might actually be good kid Loki after all. It's complicated, but YAY!!

Batman & Robin 19. From the $1 bin. It's the one with Carrie Kelly. Dreadful. Who is this schmuck and what happened to the real Batman?

Daredevil 26. The mastermind behind the last 26 issues is finally revealed. It's Lester in an iron lung.

Fantastic Four 8. Ben turns human for one day out of the year. He chooses to go back and stop Alicia's blinding, but instead stops some mobsters from shaking down a pharmacist in his old neighborhood. Also, Frank and Val "remember" the events of the AU issue(clever!) and Ben's admission he might've fucked with Victor's experiment in college.

GIJoe Cobra Files 2. Everybody is suspicious of everybody else.

Green Lantern 20. For $8 Geoff Johns finishes his epic GL run started with 'Rebirth' back in 2004. I haven't read the last 19 issues since the reboot, so it was mostly Greek to me, but Sinestro kills all the Guardians and Hal becomes a GL...again. Plus lots of well wishes from people to Geoff on his run.

Iron Man 258.3 Michelinie and Layton continue their Armor Wars sequel. Iron Man goes to Justin Hammer for help and gets attacked by Dreadnoughts and SHIELD ManDroids. Rhodey finds the War Machine armor and suits up.

Scarlet Spider 17. The Assassin's Guild calls in the marker from way back in issue 4. They send Kaine to kill Wolverine!!

Superior Otto 10. Free of the pesky Parker conscience, Otto begins cleaning up the streets in earnest, shutting down Tombstone, Owl, and White Dragon in hours. Otto has another date with his midget girlfriend. The Goblin King gathers his forces in the sewers. MJ begins to get suspicious, and then her nightclub burns to the ground.

Transformers RID 17. Prelude to 'Dark Cybertron'. The origin of Shockwave from his apprenticeship with Jhiaxus, to his Senatorship, getting Shadowplayed, meeting Megatron and the Decepticons, and finally killing Dai Atlas on the eve of the War's beginning. Goosebumps.

Uncanny X-Men 6. The X-Men fight Dormammu in Limbo. Maria Hill recruits her own mutant, Dazzler, Agent of SHIELD.