Phoenix Comic Con Almost Here
02 days ago
by GeekOfAllTrades
in Conventions
It’s only one more week until Phoenix Comic Con. When I first went to the Con 2 years ago, it was a bit of a disappointment. At the time, the only thing I really had to compare it to was San Diego Comic Con. This is actually an unfair comparison to any con. Last year, I was impressed by the growth last year. This year, it’s grown even more. Last year, they had Leonard Nimoy. This year, they have William Shatner as well as a number of the top stars from Star Trek: The Next Generation including Wil Wheaton who is a regular here at Phoenix Comic Con. There will also be the normal mix of comic creators (including George Perez and Garth Ennis) and TV stars (like Gil Gerard, Erin Gray, and Lou Ferrigno). As with most cons, there are enough other extra stuff going on like gaming rooms and costuming events. Geek Prom will make another return and a new event will be included — Geek Speed Dating. (Yes, that one scares even me.) It looks like it will be a fun event.
One thing I’ve been trying to get some details on is any sign of gay themed panels or displays. When I went to San Diego Comic Con, Prism Comics had a booth there and there were panels on gay creators as well as gays in comics and a gay fan get-together. I’ve written to Phoenix Comic Con twice so far and haven’t heard anything back about this. Whether this is a sign of being busy, not caring about questions from attendees, or a sign of homophobia is unclear right now. I definitely plan on looking into this when I get to the con if I haven’t heard anything before then.
[UPDATE: I finally heard back from the people at Phoenix Comic Con and there is currently no gay themed panels at the con. I was invited to have a spot but to try to pull something together in less than a week while working the weekend and to not have it listed in the guide, I don't think that it would turn out well or get any draw. Maybe next year I can try to pull some people together and spur on a panel or two next year. It would be a great opportunity. So, come on out to the con and show support so that we may have the ability to have something better next year.]
Whether or not they address the gay fan base, the con should be fun. I’ll be trying to report on the event as it goes.
Weekly Cmic Review for 5/9/12
03 days ago
by GeekOfAllTrades
in Comic Books
Well, it’s been a busy week for me but I’m getting in my comic review.
Avengers Assemble #3 – The Avengers had difficulty taking down individual or paired members of the Zodiac so half the group is definitely going to cause a problem. Luckily, Tony discovered the secret of how they get their powers and is able to shut them down. Tho this just leads to the source of their powers coming down. This means bad news to the team featured in the Avengers movie because now they’ve pissed off Thanos. I really don’t even want to think about what he would want to do with all those weapons.
Demon Knights #9 – Merlin is dead… or is he? Madame Xanadu says that his body is still (sort of) alive and his soul is probably on Avalon. The group is given a ship and weapons by the pair of lesbian princesses who can’t marry without Merlin there to help them claim their city is the new Camelot. (Gays have been trying to marry since back in those days? WOW!) Off the bickering group sails to try to save Merlin… if they can make it there.
Green Lantern #9 – Hal Jordon learns more of the secret of the Indigo Tribe. It seems Abin Sur had created them from bad guys he was trying to rehabilitate and use against the Guardians of the Universe. Tho when the guard over their main battery hears Abin is dead, he shuts it off and the runs all turn off. This could be some really bad news for Hal and Sinestro!
Legion Lost #9 – “The Culling” (part 3 of 4) This story takes place after the Superboy issue listed below. The battles continue as the group takes on Harvest while Caitlin Fairchild escapes with her group that will lead into the Ravagers title later this month. There’s still the final chapter next month to see what we can learn about all the secrets Harvest seems to have and if it’s true that he brought the Legion there.
Resurrection Man #9 – It’s still Mitch vs. the Suicide Squad. To make matters worse, agencies clash as Waller argues with Hooker over who gets Mitch. Waller lets Mitch go (after stealing his hand to study) and leaving him in charge of his new psychometric detective friend. Too many questions and weird people.
Scarlet Spider #5 – This issue is all about bomb chasing. Kaine is paired up with they gay cop partner of the doctor who doesn’t like him threatening the bad guys. He even calls him the Scarlet Spider, a name that Kaine doesn’t appreciate. But, as I was saying, they are chasing the people who know where the bomb is around time but can’t find it. Well, it ends up that Kaine can talk to spiders and asks them where it is and they tell him and take him to it. Really? I mean, REALLY??? You’ve got to be kidding me. The Spiders all around the area were in telepathic communication with him and the ones near it chimed in and let him know? UGH!
Superboy #9 – “The Culling” (part 2 of 4) The Titans and the Legion take on the Ravagers. On top of everything else, while Superboy is fighting Warblade, Timber Wolf attacks Kid Flash, mentioning something about what he did in the future. Now this confuses me as I expected them know know the “standard” history. Who knows what they have in mind. I guess they want us to stay totally confused.
There’s a number of decent books this week but not a while lot of exceptional ones. Green Lantern is good and would take it to my top 3. Avengers Assemble has a decent story build-up and good art so that will be #2. As for the third one, I’d have to pick Resurrection Man for the bickering between Hooker and Waller if nothing else. The Culling stories and Demon Knights just weren’t strong enough and Kaine’s “Spider Whisperer” act had too much “WTF” factor. While I appreciate the gay characters in Scarlet Spider and Demon Knight, it wasn’t enough to pull them to the top.
Weekly Comic Review for 5/2/12
01 week ago
by GeekOfAllTrades
in Comic Books
I started this on Wednesday but am just getting a chance to finish it.
Avengers Academy #26 – This issue is a tie-in to the Avengers vs X-Men crossover going on right now. Wolverine brings the young mutants to the academy to safeguard them. While a few of them play well with others, Surge and a bunch of the others whine as much as Cyclops with their “You think of us as second class citizens! Oh pity me!” Plus, we get to see some of Sebastian Shaw which I know nothing about recently since I don’t read the X-Titles. Put that stuff in an X-title where you won’t just confuse people.
Defenders #6 – This story is mostly about Iron Fist and Silver Surfer. I’m not sure when the Silver Surfer became a shape shifter but some of the stuff he’s done since the series began is just odd. It seems that someone is killing the Immortal Weapons are getting killed off and it turns out it’s the Prince of Orphans who should have been after the Defenders. Plus, the history of the Immortal Weapons is related to the wish machines/engines too. At least the notes at the bottom of the page are in English again.
Dial H #1 – This is one of the new titles in the second wave of the New 52. This time around, the dial isn’t on a watch or anything. It’s part of a phone booth. You still get the traditional “guy turns into a hero and instinctively knows who he is” bit. I’m not sure if the main character will stick around or if it will be rotating characters like in the old H.E.R.O. series. It’s only the first issue so we’ll have to see where it goes. I’ve always been a fan of the dial so I hope they do good by it.
Earth 2 #1 – I was expecting this to be the traditional Earth 2, but it looks like Flashpoint affected all 52 universes somehow. (WHY???) We start off with the death of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman while fighting Darkseid’s forces. Supergirl and Robin (Helena Wayne) fly off into a portal which leads to Earth 1 (see World’s Finest #1 below). This sort of leaves the world without heroes but we meet Jay Garrick (Flash) who is a teenager, Al Pratt (the Atom) and Alan Scott (Green Lantern) leading to the start of the heroes we knew as the older group. At the very end, Jay finds the god Mercury which I assume is how he’ll get his powers this time. We’ll have to see how things go with them recreating Earth 2 and who else they use.
Green Arrow #9 – It’s the end of the Triple Threat storyline with Ollie turning his back on his new “girlfriend” due to some treachery from her sisters and goes back to a world that thinks him dead. Overall, this wasn’t a great storyline. Not sure how long I’ll keep getting this if it doesn’t pick up soon.
Red Lanterns #9 – It’s more in-fighting while the Red Lanterns continue to fall apart. Bleez shoes up and tries to take control of the falling apart corps. With everything going on around with all the other corps, I wonder if this group will be gone soon. There’s not much growth in the storyline really. More “Oh, no. We’re dying still”. More “This Earth Red Lantern is weird so we’re going to blame him” and “Stop making
Stormwatch #9 – Midnighter and Apollo take on a Red Lantern. Meanwhile, the rest of Stormwatch takes on a former member of the team who’s come back and has a warning about the group being the team. Could be a war between Stormwatch and the Shadow Cabinet.
Teen Titans Annual #1 – This is the start of the Culling, Harvest’s way of finding the best of the teen metahumans to be in his Ravagers. We get introduced to Lightning and Thunder, who are brother and sister now instead of 2 brothers. We also get to meet Artemis (same name as in the Young Justice cartoon but she’s not an archer). We don’t learn much about her past or why she’s there given she’s just a regular human and we probably won’t either as she doesn’t survive the issue. The Titans meet up with the Legionnaires as Harvest tries to pit them against each other and then starts the Culling by throwing more teens against them after. There’s a lot of characters thrown in in this first annual of the New 52. The story is going to continue through Superboy, Legion Lost, and Teen Titans and they will continue into the new series The Ravagers later this month. Who knows where this is all going and who will survive but with old names redone like the previously mentioned Thunder and Lightning as well as Terra and Beast Boy and a couple of the Gen 13 crew who have popped up over in Superboy, who knows what will come out of this. Hopefully something good.
Worlds’ Finest #1 – Believe it or not, DC is creating a spin-off of a title that premieres the same week as the spin off. As mentioned above, Supergirl and Robin leave Earth 2 through a portal and end up on Earth 1. Once there, they take on the names Power Girl and Huntress. This title takes place 5 years after Earth 2′s first issue where Karen Starr (Power Girl) is a wealthy tech mogul who is using her money to try to find a way to get herself and Helena back home. I gave the title a try to see what it’d be like. Honestly, it would be nice to know what happened during those 5 years after they came out on Earth 1. Even a little info. All these jumps DC keeps making to “get to the good stuff” seems kinda sloppy in my opinion. They don’t need to give me any more reasons to hate the new universe. The book isn’t terrible but isn’t great either.
X-O Manowar #1 – Valiant Comics is back with it’s first title since the relaunch. We start out with a retelling of X-O’s origin. He’s a Visigoth fighting the Romans back in the olden days. He doesn’t have the armor yet but it has been introduces as an alien device. I’m not familiar with his origin back in the old series so I can’t speak on if anything has changed but the story seems decent and the characterization is good. This is the first of 4 titles advertized so far with the other 3 being Harbinger (June 2012), Bloodshot (July 2012), and Archer & Armstrong (August 2012). Hopefully the return of Valiant will be interesting. I remember enjoying a number of the titles back the first time around.
There are a number of good titles this week. My top ones are going to a few of the new ones this week: Dial H, Earth 2, and X-O Manowar. This is as much for the hope of something good to come as anything else. I want to see where they titles go. Check them out and let me know what you think. I’m really interested to see how the new Valiant books do. I’ll have to look up what brought the comic line back into production as they’ve been gone for quite a while. I wonder what other ones we might see after these 4. Eternal Warrior? Quantum & Woody? Turok? Magus? Rai? Geomancer? The list goes on and on.
The Avengers Are Indeed Mighty
01 week ago
by GeekOfAllTrades
in Movies
Well, I finally got to make it to see the Avengers movie. After all the hype, I was expecting a lot out of it. I’m glad to say I wasn’t let down. Although I was disappointed that Ed Norton would not be returning as Bruce Banner, Mark Ruffalo did a good job in the role. The effects were good and the story was decent. One thing that stands as a good warning, there are 2 extra scenes. One is just into the credits and the other is at the very end. As for anything else, I’ll put the information past the general warning.
The cast is good overall. Most of the cast pulls together early on though Thor doesn’t show up until half way through the movie. The alien race that Loki brings forth, the Chitauri, are supposedly a version of the Skrulls from the Ultimate universe. (Not surprising they chose one from there since we also have the black Nick Fury from the Ultimate universe.
Loki, while having some humorous moments, could have been more interesting. He’s just a took and a bit of a joke throughout part of the movie. You have to have Loki to pull the Avengers together though.
As Captain America, Chris Evans could have been more interesting. Yes, Captain America is pretty militaristic and sometime stoic but he was even more so in the movie. Almost to the point of being boring. Chris did a better job playing the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies. (Maybe if he had been half naked as he was in those…)
Bruce Banner/the Hulk made an interesting showing in the movie. Mark did a good job playing Bruce, just on the edge half the time. The one thing about the hulk was the fact that the first time, Bruce turns into the Hulk, he’s all rage and strikes out against the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. When he changes later during the battle, he’s more in control and only fights the bad guys. (I’m not counting the comedic punch that sends Thor flying.) I’m not sure if the difference is supposed to be that he triggers the change himself the second time or what.
Chris Hemsworth is sexy as ever as Thor. I think he plays the part perfectly as well. It was just disappointing that he doesn’t show up until half way through the movie after Loki is already captured the first time. The battle between Thor and Iron Man was fun though.
Live action Hawkeye. What more needs to be said? OK, so I’m a big fan boy when it comes to the archers. Sadly, since Clint is under Loki’s thrall for half the movie, he doesn’t get too much of a character build-up. It was cool seeing him use all sorts of arrows and, yes, he actually does run out of arrows. The mechanism for him to pick the arrowheads he needs is a nice explanation. I think Jeremy Renner did a good job with the character and I’m hoping to see the character built up more in the sequel. I’d love to see some of famous arguing between Captain America and Hawkeye.
Scarlett Johansson does a decent job as the Black Widow. Like with Cap, the emotional range wasn’t great. There were some good scenes with her where she reverses the interrogation, getting the bad guys to spill the beans while they think they have her on the roll. Overall, there wasn’t too much depth to the character for as much as she was around.
As far as S.H.I.E.L.D. goes, Samuel L. Jackson played his usual forceful self which which suited the Nick Fury character. It was good to see Maria Hill added in as another agent as well. The sad part was seeing Agent Coulson, who has been around since the beginning, get killed. His death is what really pulls the team together though.
Were there faults to the movie? Of course. I listed enough above. I’m sorry but I’m not one of bow down to Joss Wheadon. I enjoyed Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I think another director might have done better. Maybe a little less comedy. The action scenes were good though and it was overall a good movie. It was the teams early growing pains so hopefully a sequel will be better when they can show them working as a team. I still want to see Ant-Man and Wasp. And I really hope they don’t pull Spider-Man and Wolverine in for ratings. It would be better to see classiic characters like Black Panther, the Vision, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, the Black Knight and maybe even Hercules show up. (Yeah, I know, I’m rooting for the half naked buff hairy guy on that one. Who knows when the next one will be. From the first extra scene, we have a hint that it may include Thanos though. I was expecting more from the second scene though other than them just sitting and eating.
It’s Free Comic Book Day
02 weeks ago
by GeekOfAllTrades
in Comic Books
Just a quick reminder that today is Free Comic Book Day. Stop by your local comic shop and see what books they have. Make sure to support them by buying some stuff too. I’ll post about my finds later.
Magic Turns the Tide on the Darkness
02 weeks ago
Today, Wizards of the Coast releases the third expansion in the Innistrad block, Avacyn Restored. Unlike most follow-up expansion, this set has 244 cards, about the size of an initial expansion. The main reason for this is probably since the initial 2 sets were about building up the evil side, they needed to balance things out. During the prerelease tournament, it seemed like most people were playing something based around the humans and angels. Blue and white were a common color pair that day.
Along with the extra cards, new mechanics were added to this set. The first is the idea of miracles. Miracles are cards that can me case when drawn for a reduced mana cost. This means that you have to hope for them to come out at the right time, but some really powerful cards can come out for a lot cheaper cost. The second mechanic is Soulbond. This ability links 2 creature cards and as long as both stay in play, both creatures get an ability that is listed on the card with the Soulbond ability. This could be anything from simple things like lifelink and flying to more complex abilities that get spelled out. When linking 2 creatures both with Soulbond, this becomes increasingly useful.
This looks like it will be a decent set with the addition of 2 new Planeswalkers as well. Given it will be around for a while with the Phyrexia set rotating out in 6 monthsa after M13, it’s interesting to think what type of decks will be coming up in the future.
Twist and Turns on TV
02 weeks ago
by GeekOfAllTrades
in Television
A few shows recently have had some major changes in them.
I’ll start with RuPaul’s Drag Race. For the most part, the show seemed to be following it’s normal path. There were a couple of worthy contestants. I enjoyed Sharon Needles, Chad Michaels, and Latrice Royale. When it came down to the final three (Sharon, Chad, and Phi Phi O’Hara), instead of the normal elimination of one and the last 2 lip synching for their lives, RuPaul had them all lip sync. Then, as an added twist, the results were delayed until the reunion episode the following week. Over that time, the fans were asked to speak up for their favorites. In the end, after 3 years of black winners (I think Raja was at least partially black) or at least minority winners, the winner this year was Sharon Needles, the pales of the white queens. As a spokesperson for those who don’t fit the normal mold, it was nice to see her win over more traditional queens. I’m not saying I’d have been disappointed if Chad Michaels had won because I thought she was great too. I’m just really glad Phi Phi didn’t make it. So, is this a new direction for the show or a one time thing? I guess we will have to wait for next season to find out. One thing we did learn though is that Latrice will be on Drag U this year. I wonder who else will be there. I’d like to see Pandora and Jujubee back. Sharon would be fun but the current queen is never on the show as she’s busy elsewhere.
Another show I want to mention is Young Justice. More to the point, I’m going to discuss Young Justice: Invasion. Following the end of the last storyline, the series jumps 5 years into the future where they are just finding out what happened to the 6 Justice Leaguers who disappeared for a while. Given the 5 year jump, a few things have changed. Robin is now Nightwing and Tim Drake has taken over and Robin. Zatanna and Rocket (who had only been in YJ 1 or 2 episodes) are now in the Justice League while Superboy, Miss Marrian, and the others stick with the old team. The team has been bolstered by new members Beat Boy (who seems to keep his tail even in a human form this is somewhat simian), Blue Beetle, Batgirl, Wonder Girl (Cassie, not Donna), and Lagoon Boy. To make things better, Miss Martian seems to be dating Lagoon Boy now. I wonder if Connor will start dating Cassie. That’s a lot of changes real fast right after a lot of twists were already revealed at the end of the last story arch. (Miss Martian being a white martian, Roy being a clone and his real body is in stasis missing an arm, and Artemis being the daughter of villains.) It would have been nicer to ease into this change. I guess we’ll see what happens with this current show. Is it a miniseries or a new title? I guess only time will tell. At least they introduces Adam Strange and Rann which is cool.
Finally, we have Glee. We’re moving on to the final episodes of the season. Who’s leaving and who is coming back. I’m pretty sure Sam and Blaine are only juniors. (I wonder if Blaine will stay with Kurt or if they will break up as not to restrict the character next season.) Puck failed a class in the last episode so may be back. Plus, Brittany is the brightest bulb so who knows if she’ll pass. I don’t think she’s been in the pics of seniors even though Puck has. And the big twist on the show, the auditions for NYATA were this week and Whoopi Goldberg was the judge. Kurt kicked ass but Rachel gets nervous and flubs her song which is the one she sang back in the first season. Oops. After a 3 year lead-up, it looks like Rachel’s dreams got crushed. There’s still nationals. If they don’t win, it’s going to be a let down. If they do, where do they go next season? And will Quinn still be in a wheelchair then? I hope not. Artie was cool but having 2 of them is a bit boring. Also, what about the 2 guest characters they introduced this season? I’d love to see Rory back. As for Joe, I’m not a fan of dreadlocks or the heavy handed religion that has been programmed into his character. There’s still a couple more episodes to see where things go from here.
Weekly Comic Review for 4/25/12
02 weeks ago
by GeekOfAllTrades
in Comic Books
Being it’s comic day and I had a short pull list last week, I wanted to get this posted.
Green Hornet #24 – This is the second part of the story with the Green Hornet impersonator. This issue, he’s doing the bidding of the man who is now acting major and killing more people. (So far, he’s killed the mayor and left the assistant mayor in critical condition.) Green Hornet and Kato’s one friend on the force is also being coerced into helping take them down. Things aren’t looking good for the duo but next issue, we get the 2 Green Hornets facing off. There’s a lot of intrigue going on here and it should get interesting.
Green Lantern: New Guardians #8 – The New Guardians took the offer to kill Larfleeze to save their lived, but will they? The members split up with most of them going off to charge their rings. Munk teleports off to deal with the Indigo Tribe storyline in the main GL book while our yellow lantern flies off to see what happened to the Sinestro Corps. This leads to him getting a new ring and battery from the Weaponsmith of Qward. (The old yellow core battery is buried on Oa after all. I wonder where this will lead things for the old Sinestro Corps.
Teen Titans #8 – At the end of the prior issue, the Titans were captured by Harvest. This issue, they are in the hands of Omen. Yes, this open is the same one from before but alive now. They call her Lilith, but she is much more powerful in this universe, bending reality to her whim. The story jumps around with gaps making you wonder what’s really going on (and not in a good way) a few times. Eventually, all the team has new costumes and are sent out to be Ravagers. Some secrets are revealed as we find out Wonder Girl is in hidden armor. (Really???) Also, there’s something really going on with Bart’s mind and history. I wonder if he’ll be linked to the old universe still. After all, he comes from the time of the Legion which is outside of this universe it seems anyway. I’m not real happy with the issue, more confused than anything, but there are some interesting things going on.
There’s only 3 comics so no top 3 this week. The first 2 books had their draw to them. Not a bad week but not a great one.
Weekly Comics Review for 4/18/12
02 weeks ago
by GeekOfAllTrades
in Comic Books
I’m working on catching up. I have a few posts to do up in the next few days. But I’ll start off with this one…
Batman Beyond Unlimited #3 – This issue, the book is split into 3 parts. The first half is a Superman story. It seems a descendant of Lex Luthor is coming into the mix. Then we follow up on Batman’s battle with Mad Stan and Dana coming to Terry for help with her brother. Finally, we follow up with the Justice League and their recovered allies, Micron and Amanda Waller. Really nothing exciting.
Defenders #5 – The Defenders investigate the underwater door with the symbol from the wish artifact. Silver Surfer knocks down the door letting out a bunch of ancient underwater women. Plus, they find pictured of Captain Nemo and hint that he may be Namor’s father. Finally, Iron Fist and Misty’s dinner is disrupted by someone claiming some people are getting killed and it’s Danny’s fault. Oh, and all the cool text at the bottom of the pages in is runes instead of English. UGH!
Green Lantern Corps #8 – Guy Gardner gets a promotion, there’s a battle in Warrior’s, and the Alpha Green Lanterns come after John Stuart for killing the Green Lantern while captured. This is supposedly the start of the “Alpha War” whatever that is. I’m sure it’s not going to be pretty but if it gets rid of the Alphas, I’ll be happy.
Justice League #8 – Green Arrow tries to join the Justice League but no one wants him on the team and he comes off like a major fan boy. We find out the thing that really ruined his chance is that sometime in their history, they gave Martian Manhunter a try and it didn’t go well. (No real details on it though.) Steve Trevor gives him an offer for another team in the end though. Not sure if that means the JLI but if it is, it still won’t be enough for me to pick the book up. And then there’s the backup story where Billy Batson moves in with his new family. Among them are Mary (will she still be his sister?) and Freddie Freeman (who is still a cripple but is blonde now). We get mentions of Hoppy the rabbit and see a tiger , hinting at Mr. Tawney. Billy is still a brat.
Legion of Super-Heroes #8 – Some of the members try to stop some robberies from people who seem to be trying to pull together the Fatal Five. Meanwhile, the founding members go out for a night on the town. Maybe it’s just me but the book just seems to have too much going on at once to keep it interesting.
Nightwing #8 – We’re leading up to the Night of the Owls storyline as Nightwing takes on a talon. Interspersed through the story is the tale of how one of the Talons came to be. The Talon ends up being Dick’s grandfather who was also connected to Haley’s Circus. It’s an interesting story so far even if you don’t follow the other Batman titles.
OK. This is the point where I usually pick my top 3. This week, that isn’t going to happen. Nightwing was the only title I’d truly recommend. I’m considering dropping Batman Unlimited and Defenders. The team books (Green Lantern Corps, Justice League, and Legion of Super-Heroes) just don’t have anything special from this week. These things really need to start picking up.
Weekly Comic Review for 4/11/12
03 weeks ago
by GeekOfAllTrades
in Comic Books
Well, I’m behind where I wanted to be on this. With Pride this weekend, I was on the go a lot.
Avengers Assemble #2 – More information grows in the mystery of the new Zodiac. It seems someone is out to gather items of power and the Avengers discover this when they stop one of the attempts to get an ultimate nullifier. This actually gets the bar pretty high on the type of devices they are gathering. We get to see Cancer, Aries, and Taurus in battle (and Tony Stark in his skimpy underwear). In the end, we get to see Aquarius, Leo, Libra, Gemini, Pieces, and Virgo ready for the attack next issue. I can’t wait to see who is behind all this and where it’s leading.
Demon Knights #8 – This issue is all about how Jason Blood and Madam Xanadu met and explains the details on the bizarre relationship involving the two of them and Etrigan. The issue also leads into the death of Merlin storyline.
Green Lantern #8 – The Indigo Tribe storyline continues as the tribe works over Sinestro. Meanwhile Black Hand shows up to Hal Jordon who escapes and learns that Abin Sur is linked to the history of the Indigo Tribe. Just as this is discovered, we see that Sinestro may be heading into his third color in the spectrum. Maybe it’s like Pokemon and he’s trying to collect them all. 
Kevin Keller #2 – It’s prom time and Kevin has a secret admirer who wants to take him to the 1970s themed event. It looks like there’s more and more gays in Riverdale all the time.
Legion Lost #8 – Rose Wilson and the Ravagers attack the Legionnaires in a prelude the Culling crossover event. It looks like the Legionnaires aren’t up to the fight either. Given they’ve been at it a lot longer, I’d have thought they’d do better but I guess everyone has bad days.
Resurrection Man #8 – It seems Mitchell is getting more and more popular as he has 2 investigators looking for him. One is a psychic and another is a necromancer. After working his way past those two, the Suicide Squad shows up which can’t be a good thing.
Scarlet Spider #4 – It’s the Scarlet Spider vs the Assassin’s Guild. We learn more about Kaine’s abilities as he proves to be more than a match for the group sent after him. To get them off the trail of himself and the doctor, he ends up having to make a promise for a future deal which can only mean something bad in future issues. Meanwhile Aracley goes shopping somehow suddenly learns English. There’ a lot of questions about her yet to be answered.
Shade #7 of 12 – The battle beside La Sangre finally ends on a technicality. Following that good news is the bad news that the Shade’s blood is no good any more and his descendant has passed away anyway. This means that it’s up to him to find out who the bad guy in the family is.
Superboy #8 – This isn’t a title I normally pick up but there were 2 reasons to get it. First is that it’s another prelude to the Culling crossover story going through the young heroes titles. Second is the appearance of Grunge in the New 52. It appears that Fairchild has already appeared in Superboy so I can only imagine that Freefall, Burnout, and Rainmaker will appear at some point too. Grunge is an ass in this world who is all about being powerful and fighting for N.O.W.H.E.R.E. To make things more interesting, at the end of the issue, we get to see the new incarnations of 2two characters from the old Titans series, Beast Boy (who is no longer green) and Terra. It should be interesting to see what they do with these characters and what else will be going on in the Culling.
There’s some interesting stories for this week and no majorly lame issues. I’m putting Avengers Assemble, Kevin Keller, and Superboy at the top this week. They are all good stories and worth checking out.
