This week's comic book expectations

It's a bit of an unspectacular week, which is surprising, since the next two weeks (Christmas eve and New Year's eve) are historically slow weeks as well. You can be the judge yourself by clicking on THIS LINK to the whole list.

The main storyline of the week is "Secret Invasion" cleanup. If you were like me wondering "Earth won the battle in New York so they won the war? Really?" then you should pickup Avengers: The Initiative #19, where the assembled "Kill Krew" takes on the Skrulls across the nation. Personally, I feel like this issue would have been better off two weeks ago alongside "Secret Invasion #8," but whatayagonna do?

Next, Dark Reign: New Nation #1 updates us on the status of storylines following the Invasion, including the Secret Warriors, the Agents of Atlas, Ronin, Mockingbird and the Skrull Kill Krew. Mighty Avengers #20 does the same for the more recognizable Marvel heroes, with a guest appearance by a Thor who was quite peeved last we saw him two weeks ago.

Lastly, Invincible Iron Man #8 covers the change in status quo for Tony Stark. The man has sure dropped a long way in recent weeks, from commander of S.H.I.E.L.D. to... "most wanted" (according to the title of the story arc). Personally, I could give a damn about Stark since all he's been completely out of character for a couple of years now, but if you've been a fan of the Golden Avenger, this is must-read stuff.

It's also a pretty big week for the X-Universe, highlighted by X-Men: Kingbreaker #1, a book I've been eagerly awaiting since Vulcan took Havok and Lorna hostage. Frankly, think over the crap we've read in "Uncanny X-Men" over the past few months. Wouldn't it have been much better to get this space sequel faster than this? Vulcan, and the Shi'ar storyline is just about the most under-used plot thread in comics, especially since we've been mucking through this Madelyn Prior/Helfire Cult junk on the mothership. I'm looking for "Kingbreaker" to be the X-event of the year.

X-Men Legacy #219 should also be pretty strong, featuring Xavier's reunion with his "Dead Old Stepbrother" (quote taken from the 1989 X-Men cartoon "Pryde of the X-Men").

Over at DC, Supergirl #36 should be the issue of the week. Yes, Supergirl #36! Who would have thunk it a couple of months ago? With the Brainiacbots attacking in Kandor and Kara's Mom acting like Momma Petrelli, the Girl of Steel has a whole lot of stuff going down. If she were in a Will Smith movie, Will would have came in about now, taken off his sunglasses and said "This shit just got real." This issue promises to feature a rampaging Kara, something we haven't seen done well in a long time.

I'm also pretty excited for Robin #181. We still don't know what Spoiler has been up to, we still don't know the fate of Red Robin, we still don't know how the Gotham Police Department is going to resolve it's inner problems -- and did I mention Robin might have been blown up? Robin's latest arc has been fantastic, and a fantastic precursor to the "Battle for the Cowl," and it seems like this issue will be required reading for fans of the Bat-Universe.