This week's comic book expectations

For over a year now I've had two seperate posts a week for the same topic, one with the link to the comic book release list, and another with my thoughts on the upcoming releases. Am I the only one who realizes this is inefficient and dumb?

From here on out, ONE post a week!

(The peasants rejoice)

HERE IS YOUR LINK and Here are my thoughts:

(I'm mad with power right now)

This week can be summed up in one little hyphenated word: Tie-in.

NINE count them NINE "Secret Invasion" tie-ins are coming from Marvel (with three pretty big ones), and three "Final Crisis" tie-ins from DC (which is a lot for a series with such few tie-in material so far).

So we'll start with quantity and the "House of Ideas." The cream of the "Secret Invasion" crop this week will doubtlessly be New Avengers #44, which promises to tell a hidden tale of the Illuminati, the ramifications of which helped spark the invasion in the first place. Already in the five months of "Secret Invasion" we've seen "New Avengers" to be just as important a read as the mothership, and this issue should be no exception. Personally, I love reading Bendis bury this group of heroes deeper and deeper. Honestly, with all these tales of dark secrets and behind the scenes deals, how can they rightfully be considered "Heroes" anymore? Superboy Prime would throw a fit!

From there, the "Secret Invasion" tie-ins fall in line based on which characters you are interested in, and none of the other eight seem all THAT important to the story as a whole:

Mighty Avengers #17 tells the tale of Skrull Captain Mar-vell. Thunderbolts #123 sees our villanous heroes take on the Skrulls in D.C. (Washington, not the other comic company). She-Hulk #32 features Jazinda, daughter of Super-Skrull and friend to She-Hulk... or will they be enemies after this issue?!? Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-man #1 will not feature the Webhead at all, but rather the supporting characters in his world (way to milk the franchise, Marvel. Nova #16 is the most ancillary of tie-ins, featuring a conversation with Super-Skrull, who isn't even part of the Invasion! New Warriors #15 shows Night Thrasher fighting everyone (SHIELD and Skrull alike) in order to find the truth about his dead brother (the second most ancillary tie in, I suppose). Black Panther #40 may be a quietly cool issue, as T'Challa continues defending Wakanda from the Skrull Invasion. And finally, what may be the most fun "Secret Invasion" title of the week, Avengers: The Initiative #16, featuring the SKRULL KILL KREW! KA-KOW!

Ugh, is that enough tie-ins for you? Good, because there are a couple of other good Marvel titles to remember this week too, Daredevil #110 (which closes the "Cruel and Unusual" story arc), Runaways #1 (the debut of creative team Terry Moore and Humberto Ramos), X-Men Legacy #215 (finally Professor X and Cyclops meet again, here's hoping they don't write Scott like a dick again), and X-Force #6 (the conclusion of the first story arc, which promises to be a bloodbath, based on Angel's assult on the choir alone).

Now that Marvel's quantity is out of the way, we can focus on DC's best titles of the week, all of which promise a high level of quality.

Of the "Final Crisis" stories this week, I think I'm most eager for DC Universe: Last Will and Testament, a book promoted as showing DC's heroes on the night before the final battle, preparing for the likely end. At first, I was looking forward to the story simply because I trust Brad Meltzer when it comes to this close-up character writing, so I am looking for him to hit this out of the park. However, recently I realzied a new reason why this is so curious an issue... did what transpired in "Final Crisis #3" (Evil "winning") come with any warning? These heroes didn't know there would be some fight, they didn't even know the Gods of Apocolypse were on Earth. So.... how do they know they should be saying goodbye to their loved ones? I am really hoping DC isn't pulling another editorial blunder here.

Final Crisis: Rogue's Revenge #2 will continue the entirely-Rogue story we got in the first issue, with the team in hiding because of what they did to the Flash (see, while they were on the prison planet, nobody could avenge Bart's death. I know, it was a while ago, they are still scared they are in trouble. Anywho...) As the first issue ended, they had found the target of their penance, and since this is only a three issue story, this second issue should see more than it's fair share of Inertia vs. Rogue action.

Finally, we have the first of the two issue story Final Crisis: Superman Beyond. Apparently, in order to save Lois' life, Superman has to round up Supermen from universes everywhere and fight some badguy. Make sense to you? Me neither. Frankly I would be avoiding this book like the plague, except that Grant Morrison himself is writing the story, and he's really the only one who knows what's going on in his head for "Final Crisis" as a whole. Soooo, if Grant says this story is important, it probably is. Oh, and parts of it are in 3-D, and that's just always fun.

Well, I've saved the best for last, I hope. Judging by the cover, there should be a HUGE moment in Justice Society of America #18. That's right, Magog is being born. Unfortunately, DC's advance solicitations already spoiled who is becoming Magog, but if you haven't heard, I'm not going to spoil it for you. Finally, after months and months on build-up (including a couple of stellar issues the last two months with Gog, so don't get me wrong, it hasn't been all bad), you would think that the action is about to hit the fan with Magog hitting the scene. Of course, we also still have Mr. Gog running around making dreams come true, and the JSA still doesn't know how to deal with it. Oh, and if that all isn't enough, I have a feeling that the biggest problem may just be coming from Superman 22 himself... to use a phrase my boy Phil Strum loves to throw around, I can see a heel-turn in his future...

So, enjoy the week, we don't get too many of this quality per year.