Thursday, June 21, 2007

Buy Pile Report: Everything but Flash

You know, after reading the those three Flash-related issues before starting the workday, I thought to myself "the rest of this pile is likely a big letdown." I couldn't have been more wrong.

Because, while the best issue of the day likely still belongs to Marc Guggenheim's "Flash," I just finished reading plenty of runner-ups... and a couple of last-place finishers.

The best non-Flash story of the day was, hands down, Captain America #27. Ed Brubaker continues to prove that he knew what he was doing, at least in the short term, in killing off Steve Rogers. While we don't get too much story development in the issue -- Winter Soldier recovers Cap's shield and Tony finds out W.S. is coming after him -- what we get plenty of is great character moments.

To watch Bucky have to fight Natasha, a woman who he went through very personal things with, in order to get Steve's shield is almost painful, given what us readers know Bucky has already went through. We also see Sharon again trying to deal with her own guilt, nearly doing something drastic. I miss Cap -- but I miss him less with such good stories still coming.

We also received two World War Hulk tie-ins this week. Well, we actually got three -- but Ghost Rider #12 was too terrible to mention.

Incredible Hulk #107 was stellar, with a tone which perfectly fits in relevantly with World War Hulk #1, even if this issue was more the adventures of Amadeus Cho than the Hulk. We watch as Cho makes all the right moves to recruit help for Hulk's cause (Hercules, Angel and Namora). And though Hercules has to sacrifice his body and accept Hulk's beating to prove the group is on Hulk's side, eventually it seems Hulk officially accepts human allies -- which will only escalates things in the future...

For as good as Incredible Hulk was, Iron Man #19 was equally irrelevant. At the end of World War Hulk #1, Iron Man delivers an eloquent, potent and concise speech explaining why he is accepting the responsibility of fighting off Hulk. In this issue, we see nothing but needless expansion on all of that. We're not given anything new or different -- unless you count seeing things from Tony's very very VERY predictable point of view.

Just a few more quick notes to finish up:

1) X-Men:Endangered Species was touching and powerful, showing why each and every nameless mutant left standing is important to their race. That said, this backup story series still looks VERY boring in the long run.

2) Brave and the Bold #4 continues to be nothing but a big ball of fun superhero teamups, between unlikely characters. Lobo's constant innuendo about underage Supergirl was both hilarious and just plain wrong.

3) Is it just me, or is Forerunner in Countdown #45 just a cheap female knockoff of Lobo?

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