Ahoy! In what Mother Nature will surely insist is my last post for a little while, here’s this week’s taste of comics read. I have my usual crew in Jody, Gaijin Dan, Space Jawa and Was Taters.

Interesting week in that we reached the end of many great Marvel runs due to the big Marvel NOW! changeover. Considering how fantastic the enders are for Journey Into Mystery, Incredible Hulk, Captain America and FF, I can’t help but notice how Marvel is flat-out making DC look incompetent in regards to the New 52. Everyone’s getting their own true sendoff without seeming rushed and pointless.

Though apparently Daniel Way’s final issue of Deadpool shit the bed, so we’ll ignore that one.

A-Babies vs. X-Babies (Jawa’s pick)
Skottie Young and Gurihiru

A-Babies vs. X-Babies (Jody’s pick)
Skottie Young and Gurihiru

All-Star Western #13
Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Moritat and Phil Winslade

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I’m going to be quick about this one because after four days of New York Comic Conning, my dogs are barking and my leg muscles are painfully trying to rebuild themselves. I’ll talk about my experiences later. For now, I got panels from myself, Gaijin Dan, Jody, Was Taters and Space Jawa.

And they’re ALL BATMAN!

…okay, maybe not. But the first chunk are.

Batman #13 (Gavin’s pick)
Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, James Tynion IV and Jock

Batman #13 (Jody’s pick)
Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, James Tynion IV and Jock

Batman #13 (Taters’ pick)
Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, James Tynion IV and Jock

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Hey hey hey. Now for a break from all the indy wrestling talk for more panels. I’m joined by Jody, Space Jawa, Gaijin Dan and Nawid. Both Jawa and I represent the April spotlight issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but there’s something I need to get off my chest.

At first glance, no matter how many times I see this image, I initially think she’s flipping them the bird. But this isn’t about covers. Let’s get with some panels.

Oh, man! Doing the last-minute proofread, the first two panels are kind of amazing next to each other. I did not plan that.

Aquaman #12
Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis

Avengers vs. X-Men: Versus #5
Matt Fraction, Leinil Francis Yu, Jason Aaron and Tom Raney

Avenging Spider-Man #11
Zeb Wells and Steve Dillon

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Hey peoples. It’s time for another go at sanding down the stuff we’ve read this week into one representative panel. My helpers are Was Taters, Jody, Gaijin Dan, Space Jawa, Luis and Nawid. Remember, if there’s a series you’ve been reading that isn’t being represented, you can always send me some panels. Email’s over there on the right.

This update features Dracula the Unconquered #2 by Chris Sims and Steve Downer. It’s an incredibly fun series so far on both writing and art fronts and is super affordable at $1. You should probably go purchase a copy yourself and enjoy it with a nice bowl of Chocula. Think of it as a Kickstarter. The more of you buy this, the better the chance that Sims will fly over to Pennsylvania and join me for this year’s CHIKARA King of Trios. Do you really want to prevent that man from being able to see the Warlord, Barbarian and Meng team up as the Faces of Pain? If so, you’re a monster and you sicken me. Read the rest of my update and then get out of my face.

But then keep coming back on a regular basis to increase website traffic. And read David’s stuff on Comics Alliance. Just remember to get out of my face when you’re done with all of that.

Avengers Academy #33
Christos Gage and Timothy Green II

Avengers vs. X-Men #8
Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman and Adam Kubert

Barrage #7
Kouhei Horikoshi

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Hey there. Massive week of panels for This Week in Panels, though there’s a lot of overlap from different contributors. I’m joined by Gaijin Dan, Jody, Was Taters and Space Jawa. Jody continues to read Amazing Spider-Man, which gives me an excuse to post a link to Chris Eckert’s take on the latest issue.

While I emptied my wallet quite a bit this week, it looks like I’ll be saving in the long run. Incorruptible gave us its final issue, which is a lot more straightforward than what we got in Irredeemable. Also, DC announced the cancellations of three comics I read: Justice League International, Captain Atom and Resurrection Man. It sucks that Captain Atom is going especially, but the writing’s been on the wall and I’m nowhere near surprised.

What also sucks is that I was tricked into reading a Jeph Loeb comic. Damn it!

Amazing Spider-Man #687
Dan Slott and Stefano Caselli

Avengers vs. X-Men: Versus #3 (Jody’s pick)
Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness, Christopher Yost and Terry Dodson

Avengers vs. X-Men: Versus #3 (Gavin’s pick)
Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness, Christopher Yost and Terry Dodson

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Hey, kids. Hitting Week 141, my Council of Panels this time around is made up of Was Taters, Gaijin Dan, Space Jawa and Jody.

Little on my side this time around. I did read Batman Annual #1, which I’ve seen a lot of gnashing of the teeth about. Personally, I didn’t mind it. While that episode of the Batman cartoon was great and we got a lot of fun Freeze stories out of it (and Batman and Robin, sadly), I think they’ve gone as far as they could with it and it’s time to at least try something different.

Animal Man Annual #1
Jeff Lemire and Timothy Green II

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise Part 2
Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru

Batman Annual #1 (Taters’ pick)
Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV and Jason Fabok

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Hey, paisanos! It’s the This Week in Panels Super Show!

This week, I have Jody, Gaijin Dan, Space Jawa and Was Taters helping me out. Gaijin Dan threw me some manga panels last week, but it got eaten due to an email mishap, so here they are this week.

In one panel, Hulk sets himself up as an enemy to both Daniel Bryan AND CM Punk.

Amazing Spider-Man: Ends of the Earth
Rob Williams, Brian Clevinger and Thony Silas

Avengers Academy #30
Christos Gage and Tom Grummett

Avengers vs. X-Men #4
Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman and John Romita Jr.

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Hey there, my Letterites. It was a pretty good week, giving us a fantastic Flash issue (I’m really loving the designs of these new rogues), Eric Powell alternating between funny and whiny as well as FF giving us the best final page in a long time.

The last page of Goon really had me scratching my head. The whole thing, like the issue, was Powell being annoyed at the hold of Marvel/DC superhero comics have over the industry. Nothing wrong with that. It’s just that his main point was how the comic industry needs its own Harry Potter.

If Harry Potter were a Dark Horse comic instead of a novel, it would be struggling to sell ten thousand, just because it’s not in a Marvel or DC superhero universe. Where’s our Harry Potter? Where’s our megahit that comes out of nowhere and draws people into comic shops? Why are we denying ourselves the possibility of that?

When reading this, I felt like meekly holding my hand up while saying, “…Walking Dead?”

Speaking of superhero tripe, I’m not going to be reading Avengers vs. X-Men, but I am reading Avengers vs. X-Men Versus. Why? Because I’m weird and I want to experience the Polly-O String Cheese of comic event tie-ins without any context for the sake of seeing how it comes off.

This week, Jody and Space Jawa have my back. Remember, you can help out too. If there’s a series you’re reading that you want represented, you can always toss me a couple panels. Email link’s on the right.

All-Star Western #8
Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Moritat and Patrick Scherberger

Aquaman #8
Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis

Avengers vs. X-Men Versus #1 (Gavin’s pick)
Jason Aaron, Adam Kubert, Kathryn Immonen and Stuart Immonen

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Late update and I’m honestly kind of slumping over as I write this up. Today I took a trip to NYC and watched the Upright Citizens Brigade show ASSSSCAT, which had special appearances by Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers and Bobby Moynihan. Awesome time.

This week I’m helped out by Space Jawa, Jody and my old friend Gaijin Dan Mastriani. Nothing from David, but on the subject of my boss who hates it when I call him boss, he has a really fantastic Comics Alliance post that should be up any day now. I got to read it ahead of time and I suggest you check it out once it’s published. It takes his JMS post from the other day and turns it into the tip of the iceberg.

Avenging Spider-Man #6
Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Marco Checchetto

Batman and Robin #8
Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason

Carnage USA #5
Zeb Wells and Clayton Crain

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Currently, Sean McKeever and Filipe Andrade are releasing Onslaught Unleashed, the latest chapter in the saga of Marvel’s sinister hybrid of Charles Xavier, Magneto, Juggernaut and Apocalypse. With the recent surge of popularity of this once-toxic property, it made me reflect on the recent comic miniseries Onslaught Reborn by Jeph Loeb and Rob Liefeld. I’ve always felt the need to talk about it, but never got around to it.

I rag on Jeph Loeb a lot. A LOT. A WHOLE. FREAKING. LOT. It was my bread and butter for a couple years, but with Onslaught Reborn, I can’t continue that hate. It’s no Long Halloween, but this comic is Jeph Loeb’s best work in the past decade. There’s no murder mystery, so that helps a lot. There’s also a reason for there to be a big ensemble cast instead of adding in extra guys from all over for no reason.

Then again, the whole Earth/Counter-Earth thing boggles my mind. Didn’t the Heroes Reborn characters stop existing or something when things returned to the status quo? I mean, I guess not, but in that one Thunderbolts storyline… No, I’m not falling down this rabbit hole. I have a review to write.

To catch you guys up on what’s going on for this story: Onslaught was this big bad from the 90’s created from Xavier mind-raping Magneto and gaining his powers and corruption. Once defeated by the team of Mega Man and Venom (with Arthur as their helper character), Onslaught turned into some kind of evil black hole fog thing and a bunch of superheroes sacrificed themselves like lemmings. Franklin Richards used his childhood omnipotence powers to create a second Earth on the other side of the sun where these dead heroes would live on in EXTREME recreations.

That brings us to our story, which takes place a day after House of M. As Scarlet Witch has removed the powers of most mutants, the mutant magic of Xavier and Magneto has merged together to recreate Onslaught as his own being. Now he’s out to track down and I guess take over Franklin Richards. Franklin sneaks away to the Counter-Earth he created, where he meets the teenage girl version of Captain America’s sidekick Bucky. He and all the heroes of Counter-Earth, as well as a couple villains, have to team up to take down Onslaught.

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