Too much going on for me of late with the Vancouver Giants, BC Lions, Canucks playing this weekend threw me for a loop. Add to that I get a cold when someone slightly coughs, my wife sick and the Canucks naming Roberto Louongo as their new captain, well, the Best Bang took a bit of a back seat. All that said, here we go with a great issue of Avengers: The Initiative, New Avengers: The Continuing Skrull chronicles came out, Nova came along and kicked some butt with Darkhawk and Captain America wrapped up its major storyline all this week to name a few.

This weeks comics came from the great Hourglass Comics & Toys in Port Moody, B.C., Canada. Lets get right to it.

Avengers: The Initiative #17 (Marvel)
As mentioned in the last post, Dan Slott is leaving the series he started in the hands of Christos Gage. That said, this issue was absolutely one of the best books of the week. Here is what I wrote to William S about it after reading it (we talked briefly on the phone on Weds night but I did not read my books by then)

> Ant-Man talking to himself, “… it’s all I can do not to climb those twin peaks and settle in for the winter… focus dude. Remember, she a lizard. A lizard with luscious, firm, ripe… holy crap!! This… this is huge. How’d they get this? And how are we supposed to stop it? Okay. Deep breathes. One stop at a time. Gotta get pictures…”
>
> Now at this point, I don’t know if he was talk some Skrull secret (the Jan/Wasp “thing” I am betting) or shots of SpiderWoman / Skrull Queens boobies! And that… that is what I loved about this book. The mix of the  characters is just right. Just perfect for me!
>
> Oh and the last page, first panel — the truck which one of the Skrull Kill Crew monster guy is atop, if you look, they have Skrull heads chained to the front of the truck. Just AWESOME! Yes this goes against the “heroes” should not kill but if the company is going to do it, do it right, go all in and overboard with your B/Z list heroes but keep the top tier clean, that’s what I think. My only issue w/ the book was the meeting up of the new Skrull Kill Crew w/ the initiative in Las Vegas all happened off-camera and I am never fond of that. Plus the whole Crusader bit was kinda “whatever” or filler for me to the 3-D Man bit and the home base main storyline. Post SI – this book MUST remain. Screw Dark Avengers, I am betting it won’t have a single Avenger in it, especially after Andy Diggle was all excited that one of his Thunderbolts was apart of the new DA team Avengers Init is where I get my Avengers fix now until 6 months from now when the Avengers titles have Avengers back in their main books.

William wrote:
>> Ant-man to Bengal: “You’re lucky that’s all I did.”

William S and I then talked late into the night on Thursday about how the book was and what William described as a great book but no indication that the title will live through SI. For once, I disagreed and enjoyed that fact (which commonly I would support Williams POV on that for any comic) but the indecision that the title, series and/or characters survive from SI makes for an even more appealing read. Although future solits and if you read the Dan Slott on Mighty Avengers shows that Avengers: Init will survive but now the question is how…

Nova #17 – Secret Invasion tie-in (Marvel)
Solid storytelling with Nova being “killed” by the original Super-Skrull then heading down to Earth to make sure his family is okay then off to see his brother now working in the Pegasus Project group. Upon reaching the place he gets into a scrap with Darkhawk, the head of security for the Pegasus Project, and after many fights and explaining that Nova is not a Skrull, he works with the PP to help fix the Xandarian WorldMind and stop a Doomsday weapon of the Skrulls. Then end result is the WorldMind exiting Nova and becoming…. Wendell Vaughn aka Quasar?!

Captain America #42 (Marvel)
No Secret Invasion tie-ins but one final big wrap up of the current storyline with the Red Skull. Now that said, what is next for the title? Does Ed Brubaker have more stories like the one he just finished? Is it really over (nothing is ever over with the Red Skull) or just one part of a larger story that has yet to be revealed? This is where I wonder if the book has the strength to continue to stand alone or if future tie-ins to the rest of Marvel cannon will begin to seep into the title. We will see.

Ambush Bug: Year One #3 (DC Comics)
This book made my top 3 books tied with Captain America for the week. Why, you ask? Well first the cover art is wicked awesome. Ambush Bug getting drunk, laid and then married to Dumb Bunny is funny but it is the rest of the story when Irwin goes off to find a divorce lawyer in the DCU that makes the book. The biggest reason for my love of this book is both Keith Giffen’s fun at taking a piss at the DCU, the artwork and the general madness of the entire series. Not enough of that in DC Comics anymore. Everything needs to be dark, grim, important when often they don’t need to be.

Deadpool #2 (Marvel)
You either love Deadpool or you don’t and after talking William’s ear off, I realized that no matter how funny this issue was, William hates the character and won’t give it a chance. *le sigh* It is a very solid, stupid fun book and I feel that Daniel Way has done a great job in following the character much in the same vein of many of the writers on the series in the past. Oh the story? Well Deadpool goes to work for the Skrulls and making an army of Skrullpools who he “trains” upon which they wreck havok on the Skrull ship. Deadpool then reports to Nick Fury in the end. Quite funny. Loved / love the Skrull mad scientist character!

Reign in Hell #3 (DC Comics)
I enjoyed Tom Derenick’s arwork on ShadowPact but Bill Sienkiewcz’s inks just ruin his pencils. I do not feel that they work well together which is too bad ’cause I am a huge Bill Sienkiewcz fan. The story gets much more interesting as Blue Devil and his crew of Zatanna and Saragon try and make a deal with Lord Satanus while the rest of ShadowPact flee Creepers and other of hells grunts while near the front lines of the war. I am looking forward to where this series is going for the magic side of the DC Universe. The backup stories artwork sadly looked too rushed for me to enjoy it.

WildCats #3 (Wildstorm)
I really enjoy this series as it explores the rest of the world after the whole Words End storyline in all the Wildstorm books. This week the WildCats go to Nevada and find the garden of edan there but really it is a animal sanctuary run by Paris, formerly of Stormwatch – one of my favorite characters, and I did love the climax of the issue, pacing and characters by Christos Gage and I think this book can go far in this new world dynamic of Wildstorm. I look forward to the next issue. Strong artwork by Neil Googe. Good backup story by Christos Gage and Mike McKone about the original Backlash!

Madame Xanadu #4 (Vertigo)
More Madame Xanadu and Phantom Stranger which is always good. The artwork is flowing and amazing but I am wondering when the title will start to blend into the general Vertigo Universe or if it ever will. Will this book be the continuing past adventures of Madame Xanadu?

X-Force #7 (Marvel)
I know I hate this version of X-Force, Cyclop’s new killer team, but I am / was always a fan of the Arch Angel character and I had to see how that was resolved (if it was) and perhaps this issue could explain the stupidity of the recent issue of SI: X-Men. The book kinda explained and didn’t explain things as it just made things more complicated for everyone involved. I did find that seeing Cyclops in his Grant Morrison era gear was kinda cool but breaks continuity and the editor of the book should have noted that during development. I often feel this book is rushed to press as the stories are weak and the hinges entirely on the artwork. Other than the Arch Angel storyline, I was bored.

Superman #680 (DC Comics)
I am trade waiting most of James Robinson’s work on Superman ’cause I just can’t afford a new title plus Superman often doesn’t do it for me. That all said, I do mark out to Krypto so I had to pickup this issue. Not bad, Krypto vs Atlas. I didn’t mind that Robinson wrote Krypto’s thoughts but then I wondered how much that will be abused in the future by other writers. A decent issue but nothing to write home about./

Secret Invasion: Black Panther #41 (Marvel)
Who thought that Black Panther was going to allow himself to loose let alone be captured? The entire issue was very predictable and that made for a bit of a boring read. I did enjoy the artwork as I found it suited the book but nothing special and I expected more from Jason Aaron and his take on the Black Panther during the SI storyline.

100 Bullets: Dirty Vol. 12 tpb (Vertigo)
I was looking forward to this trade so much I almost wet myself when it didn’t come out last week. Then I went and re-read all the trades until volume 11, got the trade, got a nice stiff drink to go with it and wow… it starts super strong with more attacks on the Trust but then just tappers off with Stumps, Benito and the crew in Vegas. I found it a bit anti-climactic and a touch boring. It really did not carry the flow of the previous trades which just kept building and building up the storyline, characterizations and grit.

Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man #2 (Marvel)
Not bad. Not great. I don’t care for the fake MJ hero so this book is hard for me to enjoy. No Spiderman in the book other than page 1 makes me think someone thinks what Brian Bendis is doing in his Avengers book is okay. It is not. Rename the title or have the character in the book, Simple.

New Avengers #45 aka The New Skrull Chronicles Marvel)
Did not buy. Read online. Sue me. Spider-Skrull Queen is a freaky religious fanatic. Joy. House of M fills the book. Again No Avengers for how many issues now? *yawn*