Thursday's comic expectations

You know, I was bitching earlier today about how Amazon sent me the incorrect Billy Joel: The Stranger 30th Anniversary Collection, and that they sent it to me a day late. My Mom, who just happened to be the person I was bitching to, told me I'm just impatient.

And, well, since in the back of my mind all day all I've really wanted to do is read Final Crisis: Requiem, which is a day late coming out Thursday, I had to agree.

My Dad has been an enormous J'onn J'onzz fan his entire life, and a good deal of that was passed down to me. I think love of Martians is genetic or something. Either way, you can count me in the group who was PISSED at the treatment of the Manhunter's death in "Final Crisis #1." The brief funeral scene in the second issue cushioned the blow a bit, but I still want MUCH MORE JUSTICE done for J'onn.

Which is why I will be reading "Requiem" first this week, and I am really hoping it is good. And I'm optimistic, for a change, too. I have a lot of faith in Peter Tomasi's writing, and the story, which centers around a group of heroes executing J'onn's final wishes, sounds pretty interesting to me. I even just read an interview with Tomasi, in which he said J'onn communicated those last wishes via telepathy right before his death, which I think is not only a great concept, but also a concept which reflects Tomasi's knowledge of the character. I'm pumped, I'm stoked, my hopes are way too high and I'm impatient.

Of course, there's a lot to be impatient about this week. It looks like DC is emulating Marvel's tactics from a few weeks ago and FLOODING the market full of top-notch titles on the week Marvel is releasing the next issue of "Secret Invasion."

There is so much DC goodness this week that we're going to have to use the LIGHTNING ROUND format:

Action Comics #867: Geoff Johns' reboot of Brainiac began last month with a chilling look at what the actual Brainy looks like inside that ship of his. This second issue of the arc should only improve on that mind-blowing first part with more action — the only question now is, how many Brainiac robots is Clark going to have to blow up before he knows something is up? My guess is seven.

Booster Gold #1,000,000: Johns and Katz's last issue on the title promises to bring one major DC character back to life for good — which, of course, points toward Ted Kord coming back to life, but I wouldn't say that's 100% sure just yet. I can take or leave this whole "DC 1,000,000" tie-in aspect, I just want a satisfying end to the "Blue and Gold" arc.

Detective Comics #846: The tie-in parade surrounding "Batman R.I.P." begins here, as well as the first part of a five-part storyline featuring the return of Hush. While I would never discourage anyone from giving Paul Dini's "Detective" a try, this doesn't look altogether necessary in the "R.I.P." scheme of things.

Justice Society of America #17: For as monotonous as the last arc "Thy Kingdom Come" became toward the end, last issue's first part of "In the Name of Gog," was equally impressive. The last remaining God of the Third World is now walking the Earth, granting wishes and doing good — and the best part of last issue was the JSA was just as clueless as us readers in the "Is he a good guy or bad guy?" department. While some of you I am sure are scared off by the amount of "Kingdom Come" material that's still to come (including the three one-shots later in the year), I could not be more hopeful for this storyline.

Now, DC does own the market this week, but there is plenty to like in the Marvel camp as well, beginning with Secret Invasion #4. Nick Fury and his Secret Commandos are officially in the fray, and you know old eyepatch has a few tricks up his sleeve. The third issue did a fantastic job of providing a grand scope of the Marvel Universe (which I was really hoping Bendis would do at SOME POINT), so I wouldn't be surprised to see Bendis return to his old tricks and spend a good portion of this issue splitting time with Fury and the Savage Land.

Other Marvel issues to look out for include Invincible Iron Man #3, Captain American and MI 13 #3 and Nova #15.

Lastly, I just wanted to mention that last week the Freshmen: Summer Special was released by Top Cow, and I completely missed it. Personally, I love the "Freshmen" series and wish it were published more normally, but I guess you take what you get. Anyway, if any of you were interested, there you go, there may be some left on shelves for you somewhere.