Hibbs quick hits 9/16

Just a quick in and out to hit a few books from this week... after the jump!

ARCHIE #601: Wow, that's seriously weird for an Archie comic -- there's a shout-out reference to Kurtzman/Elder "Starchie" story (!); there's a titty joke ("Oh, you must be Juggie!") (!!); and there's even a hint of pre-marital sex (!!!). Don't get me wrong, it is all extremely mild, and a 8 year old girl isn't going to read it the same way I did, but still, none of that's what I would have expected in an Archie comic.

Other than that, I enjoyed this just fine -- but I thought the resolution of the Betty story was a bit... mm, shoehorned, maybe? It's extremely sweet that Archie "proposed" "Best Friendship" to Ms. Cooper, but it really should have sent her off crying even harder, IMO. All in all, though: GOOD.

ACTION COMICS #881: Man, that's one busy ass-cover "World against [superman symbol]" anchoring the top. "Second Feature: Captain Action" anchoring the bottom (which is as useful as tits on a bull, I have to say -- the bottom is "dead space" from a display perspective). And "The Hunt For Reactron: part one" also basically on the bottom. PLUS you've got the normal trade dress AND the "triangle numbering" Yeesh!

I'm generally bored with the superman books right now -- this New Krypton storyline isn't especially compelling, I'm missing the lead characters, and turning the super-characters into the X-Men ("Sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them") just doesn't work at all, even a little bit. EH.

BATMAN & ROBIN #4: While I liked the story better than #3, on each and every page I was thinking "Man, I wish Quitely was drawing this!" OK

M.O.D.O.K. DARK REIGN: Is this not the Marvel Age of M.O.D.O.K.? This book had me laughing really really hard. Funny stuff! VERY GOOD

ULTIMATE ARMOR WARS: Marvel has got to work out the color effects behind the "Ultimate" logo -- it's nearly invisible on this one. It's also probably a mistake to publish this at the same time as the kids-oriented "IRON MAN ARMOR WARS", but hey I'm not a publisher, so what do I know? If you want drunken playboy superheroes, this is probably exactly the book for you. I thought it was a pretty high OK.

What did YOU think?

-B