This week's comic expectations

So, it should be a solid week, with several strong titles, but nothing really looks like it will blow us away.

From Marvel, I'm looking for two titles in specific:

1) Hulk #2: Listen to this news on Red Hulk, from writer Jeph Loeb in a USA Today story: "The Red Hulk is the kind of Hulk we haven’t seen before — a thinking, calculating, brutal weapon-toting kind of Hulk. Everything the Green Hulk isn’t, the Red Hulk is."

Umm... Jeph... Hulk has been like that before. He's been all sorts of things, smart, dumb, gray, weapons user... I respect you and all, man, but that's really one of the dumbest things any creator has said in a while, unless you plan on backing your talk up with a truly unique issue this week.

2) Ultimate X-Men #91: For as useless as the Ultimate Universe has been lately, you still have to get stoked at the idea of Ultimate Apocolypse. He just made his first appearance last issue, and we also have th Ultimate Phoenix that might rear her head, so this new storyline might be worth reading. Or, it might be crap. It is the Ultimate Universe, after all.

DC actually has a lot more than Marvel to like this week, including the Brave and the Bold #10, which is always solid, and Countdown to Final Crisis #10, which has just been heating up more and more. Still, two books in particular stand out for me with them as well.

1) Death of the New Gods #6: This mini has just built bigger and bigger since that jaw-dropping first issue that killed off Big Barda. In No. 5, Orion was accused of being the murderer, Mr. Miracle went absolutely nuts and is all set to fight Superman — and, oh, did I mention the ACTUAL killer was already found by Metron and he is pretty darned confident?

2) Justice League of America #18: For as horrible as this title has been since Dwayne McDuffie took the reins, this current story arc (not coincidentally not written by McDuffie) about the JLA finding out about the 'Salvation Run' Island and being none-too-happy about it is not only an interesting idea, but also its been pretty well executed so far.