Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk #6

With a year and change delays on the comic, the relaunch of the title has been extraordinarily prompt each month. What sold this issue for me was the dialogue. The story, as with previous issues, shifts from different time frames. The art as usually was gorgeous.

Highlights (Spoilers)

• Logan meets Betty in Hong Kong. She "Hulks Out" and gouges his eye out. He takes her down.
• On a plane, Logan finds Bruce. He pops a collar on Banner stating that if he transforms, the collar will choke him to death.
• Logan says he doesn't want to kill Bruce, he wants to kill the Hulk.
• Bruce jumps out and Logan goes after him. Logan removes the collar saving them both.
• Nick Fury shows up and says that the whole point of Logan going after Bruce is so that SHIELD can go after Betty without Bruce finding out.
  

The banter between Logan and Bruce on last page was absolutely hilarious. Check it out.

Green Lantern #41

I'm really not a fan of this story arc. Initially I was really excited at the prospect of Agent Orange. But now it just feels like the story's been the same the last five issues. Lanterns fighting with one another, with the addition of the color Orange. We now have: Green, Yellow, Red, Blue, Violet, and Orange. With Ivan Reis absent, the art team of Philip Tan and Eddy Barrows isn't really doing it for me. Maybe that's why I haven't really enjoyed it. I might have just gotten too used to Reis.

Highlights (Spoilers)

• Hal is now both a member of the Green Lantern Corps and the Blue Lantern Corps. The result is his costume being exactly the same but spit in half by two colors.
  
• Larfleeze (aka Agent Orange) takes on the Guardians of the Universe and the GL Corps with his avatars. He's actually kinda winning.
• There's a flashback of how Larfleeze came about the orange ring and battery.
  
• In the present, he wants Hal's blue ring. So he cuts off Hal's hand and gets it.
  

Amazing Spider-Man #595

Artist Phil Jimenez returns to the title for the storyline entitled: American Son

Highlights (Spoilers)

• Peter and Wolverine talk about taking down Norman Osborn who has become the most powerful man in America. Logan tells Peter to wait.
• Last issue Jay Jameson, father of J. Jonah Jameson, proposed to Peter's Aunt May. She accepted. Peter and Jonah are at odds during the engagement party.
• The two conspire to break up the engagement.
• Norman Osborn crashes the party to get to his son Harry who has not responded to his father's job offer.
  
• Jay tells Norman off, gaining Peter's respect. Harry does the same and leaves. Norman is pissed.
• Harry is then confronted by his ex Lily Hollister (aka Menace). The two share a conversation.
• Peter finally decides to take Osborn down and kidnaps him from his personal limo. Peter proceeds to beat Norman.
• As Peter tells Norman to stay away from Harry, but as he does so, Normans phone rings. Harry is on the other line and says that he wishes to accept Norman's job offer. Peter is shocked.
  
• On the other side of the conversation, we find out that Lily is pregnant with Harry's child and he vows to do anything to keep his family safe. Even work for his father.
  

Wolverine #72

The penultimate chapter of Old Man Logan. Last issue ended with Clint Barton being betrayed and killed by S.H.E.I.L.D. The agents of the President Red Skull then gun down Logan.

Highlights (Spoilers)

• The Red Skull is the President of the United States. He has an entire room dedicated to trophies he's taken off dead superheroes. His most cherished is the costume of Captain America which he constantly wears.
  
• Logan survives his injuries as his healing factor kicks back in.
  
• The Red Skull and Logan fight. Logan uses Captain America's shield to decapitate the villain.
  
• Logan then takes the money stolen from Barton and escapes the White House using parts of the Iron Man armor.
  
• Making back home with the money to pay the rent on his land, Logan finds that his landlords (The Hulk Gang) decided to cut the deadline early by two weeks and killed his family.
• Logan finally pops his claws after 50 years.
  

The Boys

Imagine if you lived in a world where at any moment, you could be caught in the middle of a brawl between superheroes and super villains. Hughie doesn't have to imagine that. He lived it. The night he professed his love to his dream girl, she was brutally killed in a freak accident involving two super powered beings. Hughie is offered a position on a team who's sole purpose is to make sure that superheroes are kept in check. This team is known as The Boys.

Smallville Moved

The CW has announced that Smallville will no longer be on Thursday nights next season, but rather Friday nights at 8.

Batman: Battle for the Cowl #3

And the new Batman isssssssss (drum roll): DICK GRAYSON. Frankly I'm not surprise. The hype for this issue was pretty high up there, but putting all that aside. It wasn't bad. Battle for the Cowl #3 didn't blow me away as I thought it would, but it still was pretty enjoyable.

Highlights (Spoilers)

• Tim Drake plays possum, possibly saving his life after getting stabbed last issue.
  
• Jason Todd and Dick Grayson duke it out for the maority of the issue.
• We find out that Bruce, in his last will and testement, told Jason he failed his former sidekick and that was his biggest regret. This is what set Jason off to become the evil Batman.
• Damien is saved by Alfred and joins Squire (The British Robin) to rescue Tim.
• Climatic battle between the Todd and Grayson. Grayson wins.
• Damien is the new Robin
  
• Dick comes to terms with taking on Bruce's mantle and becomes the Batman.
  
  

X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 30 seconds

Comic Con 2009

If you haven't bought your tickets to this years Comic Con at the San Diego Convention Center you better get on it! Fridays and Saturdays have been sold out for a while now. Tickets for Thursday and Sunday will sell out any minute. You can register here.

Superman & Batman: Public Enemies Trailer

The trailer for the upcoming Superman/Batman movie is finally up. It's only a small preview but shit dude. I'm 100% sold.

Click Here.

Action Comics #877

This wasn't as good as last weeks issue, but there were some nice moments.

Highlights (Spoilers)

• Chris takes the injured Thara to see his adoptive mother Lois Lane. They have a heartfelt reunion.
  
• Lois brings in the female Doctor light to see if she can help with Thara. She creates an artificial sunburst.
• Chris returns to the Fortress of Solitude to face Ursa. He gets his butt whooped by the government.
• Two Kryptonians rob a bank.
  

Smallville Season 8 Finale

The fans are divided with this episode. The months leading to Doomsday, fans have been expecting a all out brawl between Clark and the monster Doomsday. Here's what we got:

SPOILERS

• An opening teaser that leads up to believe Clark is finally flying when it's really Cosmic Boy paying Clark a visit.
  
• A lot of tension between Clark and Oliver.
  
• Guest appearances by Impulse and Black Canary.
• Davis and Doomsday split into two separate beings.
• A fight where Clark takes a few punches from Doomsday and "jumps" him off to defeat him off screen. The Lois and Tess fight earlier on in the episode was much better. Sadly.
• Jimmy discovers Clark's secret.
• Davis kills Jimmy/Jimmy kills Davis.
• Clark loses his faith in humanity (again) and leaves.
  
• We find out that Jimmy's real name was Henry James Olsen and that his little brother is the Jimmy from the comics.
  
• Lois is sent to the future by accident.
• Zod returns.
  

Overall the episode was entertaining. A lot of things disappointed me. I'm gonna have to say that I liked this episode, but only because it was substantially better than the finale they gave us last year. The twist with Jimmy not being Jimmy and clearing up some of the mythos was really what made the episode for me. It's sad to see Aaron Ashmore go, but I guess it was because they took his character as far as he could go.

Green Lantern Corps #36

I'm going to try a new thing where I'll only review comic books in length about once a month. But I'll be doing something new where I'll frequently post highlights and spoilers for issues. First up is Green Lantern Corps #36. Last issue we found out Sinestro is the father of Soranik Natu.

Highlights (Spoilers)

• Sinstro explains that he loved Soranik ever since she was born, but her mother gave her up when he went rogue. She didn't want her daughter to live a life of shame.
• Sinestro has been keeping a watchful eye over his daugther for quite some time.
  
• On Oa, there is a huge throw down between the Green Lanterns, Sinestro Corps, and Red Lanterns. Many minor causualties.
  
• On Daxam, Sodam Yat and Arisia are out numbered 400 Sinestro Corps members to two Green Lanterns. Sodam leaves Arisia to watch his people and takes on Mongul alone.
  
• During the fight, Sodam finds out he cannot access his Ion powers and begins losing.
  
• Yat finds out the only way to channel the power is for a massive surge of energy or to take off his ring (which would kill him).
  
• Deciding to do both, he takes off his ring and flies into the sun.
  

Wolverine's Claws Suck!

This is one of the funniest comic book spoofs I've ever seen.

It's Serious

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This week's picture is from Highsnobiety.com. Special thanks to my pal Ricky Hu for the link.

Superpowers

I was reading this old comic called H.E.R.O. which was a reboot of the original Dial H for Hero series. It was about ordinary people getting superpowers through a magical device. The stories centered around what they would do if they had super powers. Some became heroes, some became villains. It led me to think: What would I do if I had super powers?

1) Personal gain (at least enough to pay for school).
2) Here and there I'd save people if the situation presented itself.
3) Show off for women.
4) Punch Haley Joel Osment in the face.

What would you do?

Rant of the Week

Man, such a shitty weekend at work. The loading truck parked right next to the drive thru box. So everyone's orders were drowned out by an insanely loud engine. This meant it was a shouting match between me and the customers, resulting in orders getting messed up and me getting yelled at by my boss for eight hours. I'd quit the second I could if I didn't need the money. Turns out as much as I think my boss hates me (and he really does) there's still at least three other people ahead of me he'd fire first.

The Flash: Rebirth #2

Barry Allen has returned to find that his world has changed. He is confused as to why he was brought back to life and does not waste a moment making up for lost time. With his mind solely on his work as the Scarlett Speedster, Barry investigates his first case back on the job. The death of speed zealot Savitar. The investigation lead Barry looking towards his past as he recalls the first time he gained his powers. Issue #2 begins to pick up the pace of the miniseries as the story begins to unfold and the action begins.

Geoff Johns is taking his time developing Barry towards the new generation of readers. Each issue contains a "flashback", get it?, of Barry before he became a superhero. Although I am a bit apprehensive as to where this story is going, Johns has yet to let me down. His recent work in Legion of 3 Worlds has proven this.

Dom DeLuise

Dom DeLuise passed away in his sleep at age 75 Monday night. Best known for his role in the Cannonball movies, the actor and comedian is the father of Peter DeLuise, David DeLuise, and Michael DeLuise.

RIP
August 1, 1933- May 4, 2009

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This week's photo courtesty of Ross Feighery from TheChive.

Writers' Day Retreat Day 3

The third day of the retreat opened with a panel discussion on publishing helmed by publishers John Brantingham, Jennifer Carey, and Ara Shirinyan. Then the second workshop was headed by Phyllis Gebauer, author of Hot Widow, which revolved around fiction and creative non-fiction.
Finally, after lunch, the retreat was ended by a keynote reading by Tony Barnstone who read some of his poetry and answered questions from participants. Barnstone was also one of the guest speakers leading a poetry workshop during the day.

Writer's Day Retreat Day 1 &2

This weekend, Mt. SAC held (still holding) it's first Writer's Day Retreat. It began Friday and ends Sunday afternoon. Run by John Brantingham and other staff members, the retreat gives the community a chance to stretch their creative writing muscles and be around peers. Famous writer's and keynote speakers were also brought in to teach workshops and help critique manuscripts. For $50, you can even get 2 units of transferable elective credits.
Food and drinks are provided and family is encouraged to attend. Lectures on creative writing, poetry, fiction, and dialogue are all held throughout the hours of the day. There are even open mic readings the last hour. Tomorrow (Sunday) will be the last day.