Yes, yes I know, quit your crying, better late than never, right? Actually, I'm so completely not in the mood to write reviews, but, damn it, somehting must be put up, so I'm just going to do like 5-6 books, OK?

ACTION COMICS #826: Seems like there are Crisis references and tie-ins popping up most everywhere. Which, all cynicism about the tone of the crossover aside, is actually nearly exciting stuff. I mean, those of us who are old enough to remember each and every linewide crossover that's been done I think can remember that we used to bitch that these kinds of things would usually come out of nowhere and not actually be connected to the books themselves. So, it is kinda nice to see this much build-up going on, really -- there were at least 3 references just in this week's comics alone, and that's sorta cool. Well, it is, at least, if you own a comic book shop and get to read all of the comics for free, a little less sure if you had to pay to keep up. It really is rational for DC to keep a running tally of the buildup on thier website. Oh, and I had this stray thought the other day, and excuse me for getting a little too fanboy here, but, y'know, owning the comics shop and all that -- the Egyptian Scarab is a symbol for death and rebirth. What if they just bring Ted Kord back as Beetle? Would that make it "OK" to have created interest in him by ganking him? I don't know, clever or stupid? I always thought that Hal As Spectre was clever as hell, but apparantly the consensus there was stupid. Anyway, this issue of Action was just fine, nothing exceptional, nothing stinky. A solid OK.

CONAN & THE JEWELS OF GWAHLUR #1 (OF 3): It's Lester's joke, but it's so good, that I'll happily steal it and make you associate it with me: it's CONAN THE POOLBOY. I really love PCR's art and adapatations, but this is one character that jus' don' look right when he draws him. Yikes. Still, this is PCR we're talking about, so I daren't say anything lower than OK.

MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #13: I didn't hate Millar's run quite as much as Lester did (though, yes, I thought it was pretty bad), but I'd take that anyday over this first issue of Hudlin and Tan's run. There's certainly no chemistry 'twixt words and pictures, so much so I'll guess it was done "Marvel style" because it just jumps from scene to scene with no flow at all. Plus, that had to be just about the worst cliffhanger ending I've ever seen in my life. I also thought the coloring was poor -- especially in the Absorbing Man scenes where it really wasn't clear what was happening at all. Poor enough, through and through, that I have to give this an AWFUL.

MNEMOVORE #1: I was enjoying it until the oozy tentacle monsters were revealed. Then I thought it read like a rejected pilot from the Sci-Fi channel. Like MANSQUITO -- don't even need to see it, the version in my head is much much better! Maybe it will go somewhere more interesting in issue #2, but latex monsters at the end make me go EH.

TOXIN #1: Weird that after the fully painted (if dark) extravaganza of VENOM vs CANAGE (that was the title, wasn't it?), that this looks as Marvel house-style as it could. I don't know, this feels cynical to me, but it's not incompetently crafted. Like the late Don Thompson used to say, "if this is the sort of thing you like, you'll probably like this." For me, that translates to EH.

ULTIMATES 2 #5: I do like the continuing ambiguity of Thor's situation, and the fight scene was good fun (probably the first time a fight has ended with a pantsing, though), so hurray. A light VERY GOOD, and if this was a normal week, easily the PICK OF THE WEEK

However, this week FLIGHT VOL 2 came out. Now, I have the "TP / GN OF THE WEEK" as a category, but I thought this volume was good enough to transcend just that, and become the full fledged PICK OF THE WEEK. What a wonderful volume! Each story is fun, and is infused with a sense of wonder and joy of storytelling. Beautiful reproduction, lush coloring, and 400 pages for twenty-five bones, man this is a deal you can't miss. Honestly, there's not a single thing that I could recommend to you this week more that FLIGHT V2, it's EXCELLENT.

Insofar as the TP/GN OF THE WEEK, these would all be excellent choices, and all deserve your attention: SHE HULK VOL 2 SUPERHUMAN LAWTP (Good "poking fun at comics" comic) STRAY BULLETS VOL 1 INNOCENCEOF NIHILISM 10TH ANN TP (Dude, Lapham's crime comics ROCK) SUPERMAN VERSUS THE FLASH TP (Though, I always thought that if the Flash wasn't faster that kinda defeated the whole point of him...) SUPREME POWER VOL 1 HC (A great deal at the larger trim size on this fine comic)

On the whole, I'd give STRAY BULLETS the nod, even though he completely changed the numbering sequence...

So that's my week of comics: what's yours?

-B