This week's comic book expectations

Hey! Long time no see. I know, I know, I have a a habit of falling off the face of the Earth, but this time I have a good excuse! I've been working on reviewing a couple of new games, both of which I hope to have the reviews of for you all to read this week.

I'll give you a hint ... I just chipped out of the rough 24 yards away for a birdie... and boy are my arms tired...

Anyway, before I disappear again, I'll take a look at this week's comic books. And no, I have no ignored Cap's return on Monday, I'll have a LOT to say about that in this week's Buy Pile Report. HERE'S the full list of this week's offerings.

Now, you all know about Captain America #600, right? Good, we'll cover that in a day or two.

Past that, though, there isn't all that much out there worth heading to the shop for, especially in Marvel's case.

As you can see, there are more than enough books under the "Dark Reign" banner (Dark Reign Fantastic Four #4 of 5, Dark Reign Hawkeye #3 of 5, Dark Reign Mister Negative, #1 of 3, Dark Reign Young Avengers #2 of 5), but I am hoping you all realize by now that these ancillary titles are even more irrelevant than those "World War Hulk" ones were.

Personally, I am excited for Cable #15, the penultimate chapter of the "Messiah War" crossover with "X-Force." We haven't seen nearly as many twists in the story so far, but the biggest one is happening in this issue, the emergence of Apocalypse to throw a monkey wrench into everyone's plans. And despite advance solicitations spoiling certain things (though I won't spoil it for you), I'm still pretty clueless as to where this story will end and where Cable's new direction will lead. All in all, add near-zombie Deadpool into the mix and you have strong chances for a good read.

Finally from Marvel, and for those who follow the Ultimate Universe (are there any of you left anymore?), Ultimatum Spider-Man Requiem #1 of 2 will put a cap on the first chapter of Ultimate Spider-man's existence. I would say his life, but then that's in question, isn't it? These "Requiem" titles will supposedly serve dual purposes of recapping the first nearly decade of Ultimate comics and give a glimpse of what's to come. The only real question is, after Marvel went and rebooted the universe like this (similar to the regular Spidey reboot in "One More Day"), will anyone really care about the Ultimate universe ever again?

Also worth noting from Marvel is a "War of Kings" tie-in (War of Kings: Ascension #3 of 4), a new Thor mini (Thor: The Trial of Thor #1), and a new direction for a strong X-Men series in X-Men: Legacy #225.

From DC we have a couple of strong choices from the Super family of books, the first being Action Comics Annual #12 (but first in a while), which promises to tell the secret origin of how Nightwing and Flamebird -ahem- hooked up. It's a story we Super fans have been waiting a while before, as it will hopefully reveal both how the chief security officer for Kandor decided to kidnap General Zod's son, and how Chris Kent is aging faster than Dwayne Wade.

Also, in Supergirl #42, we deal with a little bit of the fallout from the surprisingly strong "Who is Superwoman?" storyline. Kara Zor-El has really matured in the hands of writer Sterling Gates, so I am eager to see how he handles her emotional side here, both in having to break the news of Lois' sister's death and in how she handles things talking with her wacky but lovable mother.

Finally, this week sees the debut of yet another new Batman book, Batman: Streets of Gotham #1. Veteran Bat-writer Paul Dini is handling this book, which will be focused on the Gotham P.D. and more of the ground-level aspects of the Bat-verse. Remember, the last time DC tried this we got a fantastic series from Greg Rucka called "Gotham Central." Will Dini be able to work the same magic here?

That's about it for me, back to the coal mines... er... video games. I know, woe is me.