Weekly Comics for January 20-27, 2010

Joe the Barbarian #1 (Slow paced opener, but fantastic art, and I'm certainly interested in seeing where it goes)

Irredeemable #10 (I'm completely hooked on this now, can't wait to find out more of the secrets that lead up to this point)

Incredible Hercules #140 (The Assault on New Olympus story has been fantastic thus far, maybe not quite as good as the Thorcules story, but pretty close)

RASL #6 (Jeff Smith writes and draws a primer on the life and history of Nikola Tesla? Yes, please.)

GI Joe Cobra II #1 (Dark as hell, but also the best of the new IDW GI Joe comics. It's not the regular tone I'd like for GI Joe, but I love it as a Cobra book. Only problem is, a lot of the folks who'd enjoy it for it's gritty undercover vibe will never read it because it says GI Joe on the cover)

Robocop #1 (I always lose interest in these licensed comics, but Rob Williams, Fabiano Neves and Dynamite offer up a slick Robocop sequel here that dodges the suckiness of the other two movies, adds the economic meltdown of the '00s to the '80s political parody of the original movie and has plenty of cool action to boot. Surprisingly, one of my favorite reads in a really good week of comics)

Detective Comics #861 (Goddamn but Jock is a fantastic artist)

Guardians of the Galaxy #22 (I've lost interest in Nova until the Sphinx story is over, and I'm kind of bored with the other Realm of Kings tie-ins, but this one, with it's space megachurch of evil zealots and great superteam banter/action, continues to be one of my favorite Marvel comics)

Batman & Robin #7 (After the long wait, this was a little disappointing. Morrison's storytelling is choppy (where the hell did Batwoman come from?), not helped by the balloon placement fuck-up, leading to sort of a good-but-not-great vibe from me. Beautiful Cameron Stewart artwork, though)

Daredevil #504 (I love that Diggle has maintained the dark, Murdock is up against horrible odds and has to make terrible choices vibe while making Daredevil more of an active protagonist than a victim. And I'm digging the art by De La Torre/Hollingsworth. Daredevil continues to be one of Marvel's best books)

Chew #8 (Wondering how much of this story was a result of Layman wanting to put "King of Cocks" on the cover, because that cracked me up. Anyway, fantastic as usual, best new book of 2009 and in the running for best series of 2010 already)

Also bought in the last two weeks: Pluto Vol 7, Afrodisiac HC, Return of King Doug HC

Weekly Comics for January 13, 2009

Daytripper #2 (Slice-of-life tales with a touch of magic from Brazil by Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon. Beautiful to look at, mesmerizing to read, as good as their work on De:Tales and other projects they've done together)

Orc Stain #1 (Spectacularly beautiful to look at, and fun take on fantasy with orcs as protagonists)

S.W.O.R.D. #3 (This is a fantastic book about aliens in the Marvel Universe that far too few people are reading. Love the artwork, love the characters, love the dialogue. Kieron Gillen is going to be a name people are tossing around with Warren Ellis in a year or two, and this may wind up a forgotten gem. Read it now so you'll look smart then.)

The Unwritten #9 (Wow. After last issue, I thought they might, but I'm still surprised they went there. Dark issue, but really interesting and compelling as well)

Weekly Comics for January 6, 2010

BPRD King of Fear #1 (Spectacular artwork as always, fun to see Bruno again and I love the bureaucratic/political interference from the government.)

Mass Effect: Redemption #1 (Interesting enough, but a little hard to follow. Then again, I haven't finished the first game, or indeed played it in a long while, so maybe I'm just not remembering enough about the world. Not real friendly to those who don't already know the world and its characters, though.)

Stumptown #2 (Really liked it, but the outside factors of a two month wait for the issue (with no explanation) and seeing it turned from an ongoing to a four-issue mini have me disappointed more than anything. I thought this was going to be a favorite new series in 2010, something to stand with Criminal, but that's clearly not going to be the case.)

Sweet Tooth #5 (Wow. Brutal ending to the first arc, and Lemire's artwork continues to impress, especially the unconventional staging of the big climactic fight scene with Jefferd and the militia.)

Also bought today: Young Avengers HC, Thor Ages of Thunder HC, Missile Mouse Volume 1, Kazu Kibuishi's Copper, The Unwritten Vol 1 TP