There was very very little this week that fired my imagination enough to write about, plus I have to write TILTING AT WINDMILLS so it will run on Friday, but, damn it, I feel like I owe SOME sort of a quick weekly update, so here's at least 7 comics that I have soemthing to say about.... BLOODHOUND #6: Glowing quote from Ellis on the cover, which is cool, but here we are 6 issues in and I don't know where this book is going at all. The first arc was pretty terrific, but now we seem to be "back to jail" with no easy path out -- and DC already has a "powers in jail" book -- HARD TIME -- which does that much better. I'll go with an OK, but if I was paying cash money for this, I don;t think I'd be back for #7.

DOC FRANKENSTEIN #1: Wow, Burlyman's first comic book is a winner. Nice art, strong dialogue -- it may end up just being, y'know, a HEAVY METAL level story (nice to look at, but doesn't add up to much), but I really did dig this first one, and I'll go with both VERY GOOD and PICK OF THE WEEK here.

JLA #109: How long is this arc? We're at part 3 and, still, nothing has really happened. I didn't DISlike it, but I kinda want more plot. OK

JSA #68: Grimm came by on Saturday, and opined that the DCU is like a pendulum, swinging back to grim-n-gritty every once in a while to remind us that, no, that's not what we actually want. I think the difference in this latest swing is too much towards the "realistic" -- like this issue's sequence where Stargirl's family gets slaughtered in front of her eyes. Slaughtered in graphic detail. Man, I so much didn't need to see that, and it really marred an otherwise fine issue (I dug the Rip Hunter shit), dragging it down to an EH.

MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #9: I am just dumbfounded by this. It fails the logic test on so many levels, I can't even bring my self to enunciate all of the ways. Really, nothing about this series has made any sense whatsoever, and not in a good SUPERMAN/BATMAN, I-want-some-of-those-drugs way. No, this is bad drugs. Bad bad bad drugs. Is the right hand even aware of what the left hand is doing up at Marvel? I mean, what idiot accepted the "sewed eyelids and scapels" add running in a lot of Marvel books this month? Is this something you really want to run the risk of some hard-ass parent seeing little Jimmy reading? It's all symptomatic to me, man. I know I've read something worse this year, but at this moment, I can't think of what that might be -- so, AWFUL and PICK OF THE WEAK from this quarter.

SAMURAI HEAVEN & EARTH #1: It may not actually be, but this sure feels like a recycled CrossGen pitch -- absolutely competant in all ways (though there's prolly enough skin and arterial spray here that it shoulda been a Mature Readers book), but not really feeling deep enough to get me to come back for more. a very solid OK in other words.

SHE-HULK #10: Wait, where's the funny? And where's the nice art? *cry* EH.

X-MEN FANTASTIC FOUR #1: Some one needs to explain to me the appeal of Pat Lee. I don't get it. Ugly, blocky art on a pedestrian story (they actually have a multi page fight scene over a dumb misunderstanding), and this is just here to get some more of your money. Feh, I say AWFUL.

There.

On the Book side, I see a few credible candidates:

ADVENTURES IN THE RIFLE BRIGADE TP -- Minor, but funny, Garth Ennis work... not sure, but I think that this makes every single thing he's done for DC is now collected.

ARKHAM ASYLUM ANNIVERSARY EDITION HC: If you haven't read it, nows probably the time. It's mostly gobbledegook, as I remember it, but the McKean art is scrumdidiliumptious!

ASTRO CITY LOCAL HEROES HC: Even at its weakest, never less than good, and at it's best, it's some of the best recent comics. Plus, damn, that's a fine looking package, ain't it?

GLOBAL FREQUENCY DETONATION RADIO TP: Uneven, but with moments of clever brilliance in most every story.

I am, however, going to go with ASTRO CITY LOCAL HEROES HC as my TP/GN OF THE WEEK.

What about you?

-B