Wednesday Pickups 6/16/10

That time of the week again, to discuss my weekly pickups. As usual spoilers might be in here although I try to avoid anything major. You have been warned.

Smaller week than most but still a pretty good one. First off we have Brightest Day #4 from DC. The tales of those resurrected after Blackest Night continue with the Hawks taking a little trip, the hero formerly known as Deadman visiting another set of birds, a strange occurrence in the Bermuda triangle, and Ronnie Raymond experiencing an interesting "nocturnal emission". The art on this is awesome with the highlight being a splash page of Hawkman and Hawkgirl's previous lives. Once again the story just seems to be moving at a snail's pace. I am enjoying most of the stories, but in the end I think it is going to read a lot better collected in a trade paperback. So if you haven't picked up any yet I would really recommend waiting for the TPB.

Next up we have Ultimate X from Marvel. Following Ultimatum the X-Men have disbanded and mutants are required to register but more than a few are still trying to live lives outside the law. After being introduced to Jimmy Hudson and "Karen Grant" in the first two issues, we next meet Derek Morgan their first potential recruit. Arthur Adams art is descent but doesn't keep me craving issues, although he did handle drawing Chicago quite well so it was pretty recognizable. Jeph Loeb's story is just barely keeping me reading, mainly to see where he takes these characters. I am not to optimistic after Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum but maybe he will surprise us. I would pass on this unless your really interested in the Ultimate-verse mutants. Next issue we find out where Liz Allen ended up, so I will be sticking around for that issue at least.

Going back to the Distinguished Competition, we have Joker's Asylum: The Mad Hatter one shot. Didn't exactly plan on picking this up till glancing at the cover (take a look yourself, its awesome) and flipping through it at the store but it is an awesome one shot. The Mad Hatter has always been one of the bat villains I was interested in (going back to the animated series of the 90s) but never saw to much of. In this tale Jervis Tetch, The Mad Hatter who is trying to reform, is writing a story while staying away from the hats and the tea. Little by little we see him breaking down and eventually giving into his demons resulting in a story that is a great combination of sad, interesting, and humorous (this tale is told by the Joker after all). The art compliments the story quite well, being a bit rough and bizarre. I recommend this to everyone even if you never really liked The Mad Hatter, this just might change your mind.

Final pick from the big two is New Mutants #14: Second Coming Chapter 11 from Marvel. Our mutant friends our fighting for their lives against Bastion/Nimrod's never ending waves of future sentinels while X-Force is getting closer to taking down the source. Cyclops pulls one ace of his sleeve resulting in a Legion to help battle the sentinels while another big gun is finally going to join the fight next issue despite being barley able to stand. I have said it before and I will say it again "Second Coming is awesome and the way a crossover should be done." The story has just been compelling and keeping wanting more every week with great art to boot. This is the kind of stuff that makes it worth putting up with "Austen years", well almost. :)

Last and just the opposite of least, we have my pick of the week Crossed: Family Values #2 from the smaller but awesome publishing company Avatar (no relation to the movie). Before I go on be warned Crossed is most definitely only for adults, and further more only adults who can stomach vile depictions of sex acts, murder, and mutilation that are spectacularly drawn. That said I loved every issue of the original Crossed series and am loving Family Values even more, which probably speaks volumes about me but whatever. Most will just pass the book of as a gore and nudity fest but if you take a deeper look you will see the interesting observations and critiques of society it shows, with Family Values going even further and looking at religion and incest. It is somewhat reminiscent of George A. Romero's zombie films that observe society through a zombie apocalypse, these "zombies" just happen to retain all functions and become amoral. So if you feel up to it, I highly recommend the book but completely understand why people would not want to read it.

That is it for comic this week but I did manage to make a few more gaming pick ups.

A 7-11 near me is clearing out their games some of their games and I managed to pick these two up for ten bucks each. Terminator: Salvation has received terrible reviews but I still kind of wanted to try it since I enjoyed the film. Street Fighter 4 is actually the first Street Fighter game I have ever purchased (always been more of a Mortal Kombat guy) but I though for ten I would give it a chance. Might get around to writing more about them eventually but not anytime soon since I have so many games on my plate right now.

That's all for now but I am hoping to have a game review and movie review up this weekend so keep an eye out for those. Thanks for reading, tell your nerdy friends, and comment are always appreciated.