What I've Read...

Last two days have been "catch-up" days for me. There's a handful of books that I keep up with every month, but in a lot of cases, I tend to fall behind. Even books I plan to stay on top of start piling up once in a while. So last night I decided to dedicate a few hours to some old fashioned catching up!

What I've read....

Action Comics #886 (8/10)
-History of Firebirg and Nightwing, the Kryptonian Gods.

Amazing Spider-Man 620,621 (8/10, 8.5/10)
-The Gauntlet has been pretty amazing until now, although it peaked with the Rhino story a few issues back. 620 has the amazing Marcos Martin doing the art, which I can always live with, and 621 had a surpise in the form of Michael Lark (Daredevil, Captain America, Gotham Central) on pencils. Dan Slott has been part of the Spidey brain-trust since the beginning (I believe), and is always guaranteed to deliver a perfectly paced plot when he's on board.

Batman & Robin #5,6,7,8 (8.5/10 for 5,6,8 and 8/10 for 7)
-What a twist! Morrison, whom I normally don't care for, is doing a great job with his year long Batman & Robin title. While the story in 7 and 8 isn't quite as strong as what happened in the first two three-part stories, he is setting up for big things to come thing summer! The book is a must read for anyone into Batman!

Daredevil #505 (9/10)
-Andy Diggle is doing a great job taking over for Brubaker, although I was a little sad with not seeing De La Torre's name in the credits for this one.

Dark Avengers #14 (8.5/10)
-Ongoing Sentry storyline is great. Nice to see something happening with that character! Norman controlling The Void is pretty intense!

Deadpool #16,17,18,19 (9.0/10 for 16,17,18 and 8.5/10 for 19)
Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth #4,5,6,7,8 (7/10 for 4 and 7, 7.5/10 for 5,6,8)
-Ok, so Deadpool is everywhere these days. Three ongoing titles, with a fourth coming, variants all over the place, guest spots galore. Marvel is turning him into the new Wolverine, or Spider-Man. While "MwaM" is funny, the main Deadpool title is actually pretty great, as well as funny. His "stint" in the X-Men was great, and the beginnings of the Hit-Monkey storyline was good enough to keep me laughing and enjoying the read!

Green Lantern Corps #45 (9.5/10)
-If you're not reading this, Green Lantern and Blackest Night, you shouldn't bother reading anything.

Guardians of the Galaxy #23 (9.0/10)
-The Magus, Adam Warlock's evil half, is running crazy through the cosmos. He plans to bring never ending life to the universe, and it's up to the Avatar of Death, Phyla-Vell, and the Guardians of the Galaxy to take him down. Nice twist on the regular good vs. evil story. Abnett and Lanning have brought back the cosmic Marvel from the dead, and this book has been the best part of it! Wes Craig is back on pencil duties for this book, and while I didn't much enjoy him the first time around, I'm actually starting to not mind it. Not sure if he's getting better or I'm growing accustomed to his style.

New Mutants #10 (8.0/10)
-Scott is setting up one of the New Mutants to take over future leadership of the X-Men, and it's not who you think it will be.

Punisher #14 (8.0/10)
-I know a lot of people are digging this whole FrankenCastle storyline, but I'm totally loving it. As far as I'm concerned, Punishermax is the real Punisher book, and if someone wants to do something different with the Marvel-616 Punisher, go ahead! He's been a more or less useless character for a while. Rick Remender knows how to pace a great action story, and give me Tony Moore on any book and I'll probably be there for a while! In this issue, the origin of Robert Hellsgaard, with beautifully painted flashback sequences by Dan Brereton (Batman: Thrillkiller and Nocturnals).

Spider-Woman #4,5,6 (8.0/10)
-Bendis and Maleev on a book together again after their Daredevil run ended would make me happy on just about any book. Spider-Woman has been through a lot of shit, so this is the perfect team to run her through the ringer some more! Jessica Drew is shaping up to be a female Wolverine type character, and I hope more and more people are going to jump unboard! Books read a little fast though...

Supergirl #50 (7.5/10)
-Lana Lang has been sick for a while, find out why! Featuring an Elf-like Supergirl cover by Michael Turner, probably one of his last, and also the re-appearance of an "old" villain!

Uncanny X-Men #519,520,521 (8.0/10 for 519,520, 9.0/10 for 521)
-Uncanny has seemed a little lost as far as their recent stories have gone, although since the Utopia storyline, things have been shaping up a bit better. These last three issues have been some of the strongest since Fractions run started on the book. Lots of exploring the future of Utopia, Beast's role in the X-Men, as well as Magneto's, and Scott's leadership. 521 has Magneto trying to gain the X-Men trust is a way I didn't expect at all, but that I'm overjoyed to see happening!

Dark Wolverine #75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82 7.5-8.5/10 for the run)
-Reading these, I realized I wasn't as far behind as I though, but it was great to re-read Marjorie Liu's run from the beginning. As far I know, Liu has only written a handful of what looks to be bad modern action/horror books, but her foray into comics has been pretty brilliant until now. She's really churning Daken into a character you can grow to love/hate, or is it hate/love? Either way, he's scheming, probably downright evil, and thoroughly enjoyable. His screwing around with Norman culminates in issue 82 with quite the cliffhanger, and 81 has him messing around with Moonstone/Ms. Marvel's head which leaves even the reader questioning his motives. I know some Wolverine fans have complained a bit about the name changed while keeping the numbering alive, but this is a highly recommended run on my part!