Books:
- Used my iPhone to finally read Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
- Nahoko Uehashi’s Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness continues the goodness, and I’d love to see Production I.G. follow up their adaptation of the first book with a 13-episode season covering this, or perhaps a movie.
- Finished the last book in Terry Brooks’s Word and the Void trilogy, which leaves me wanting the Genesis of Shannara trilogy
- Currently working on Steven Erikson’s Toll the Hounds, the Malazan books are always a long project
- Again have a growing stack of unread books, the newest being the first Spice and Wolf light novel.

Comics:
Buying piles of books, usually 10-15 singles per week, plus the occasional trade, its safe to say this is something I’ve been rather focused on…

DC Comics:
- Finished up various minis, most recently the Final Crisis: Aftermath titles and Arkham Reborn
- Reading Batgirl, Batman, Batman and Robin, Batman: Detective Comics, Batman: Streets of Gotham, Doom Patrol, The Great Ten, Gotham City Sirens, Green Arrow-Black Canary, Outsiders, Power Girl, Red Robin, Secret Six, and World’s Finest

Marvel Comics:
- Finished up the newest volume of Exiles, Immortal Weapons, War Machine, most of the Soleil titles, and The Wizard of Oz limited series
- Reading Astonishing X-Men, Fantastic Four, Invincible Iron Man, The Marvelous Land of Oz, S.W.O.R.D., Ultimate Comics Iron Wars, Vengeance of the Moon Knight, and X-Force (and Necrosha tie-ins)

Others:
- Finished up Ignition City, Incognito, The Incredibles, North 40, and others I’m sure I’m forgetting.
- Reading Anna Mercury 2, Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love, DMZ, Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep, Doktor Sleepless, Empowered, Ex Machina, Fall Out Toy Works, Greek Street, Madame Xanadu, Northlanders, Phonogram 2, Soulfire, Soulfire: New World Order, Starstruck, Supergod, Underground, The Unwritten, and Viking

And that’s not even counting the trades, where I’ve picked up Paul Pope’s 100%, Batgirl: Year One, Secret Warriors, Kyle Baker’s Special Forces, Brian Azzarello’s Filthy Rich, both volumes of Justice League Elite, continuing to get the Moon Knight hardcovers as the singles go to a friend, started collecting Fables now that its getting the hardcover treatment, and think I’m about to get into the trades for the current runs of Wonder Woman and the various Green Lantern stuff that’s been happening since they got, well, more colorful. So yes, lots of comics for me.

In something of a stroke of awesome, somewhere around the end of September, start of October, Ryan Kelly had a garage sale and I went over and pilfered huge stacks of Batgirl and Ex Machina from him, along with the aforementioned copy of Pope’s 100%.

Manga:
- ARIA vol 5
- Bamboo Blade vols 1-3
- Battle Angel Alita: Last Order vol 12
- Black Lagoon vol 8
- Detroit Metal City vols 2-3
- DOGS vols 1-2
- Gunsmith Cats: Burst vol 4
- The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi vols 2-4
- Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei vol 2
- Soul Eater vol 1
- Yozakura Quartet vols 4-5

A slower affair, as ever, particularly as I’m not up with the scanlation scene, and we’re now at a frustrating point of Alita and Black Lagoon both being essentially caught up with the Japanese releases, meaning new volumes will be slower than ever, le sigh. I also really wish someone would pick up and translate Birdy: The Mighty, as I’ve quite enjoyed the anime.

Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape #2: Man, it’s been a while since I had a nice bit of head-fuckery like this. Throughout the issue, ‘reality’ continues to change, and the rules along with them, and its not making things any easier for Tresser. Can’t say much more than that though, as the telling doesn’t do the reading justice, and potentially spoils things. I’ve a couple ideas of where it might go from here though, based on some of the dialogue in the issue, but it could just as easily become something other than what I’m thinking, and that’s pretty exciting to me.

Red Robin #1: Okay, I lied, looks like I may end up following this one too. While I’m not thrilled by the art, or the actual execution of Tim deciding that Bruce must be alive, there was still plenty of interesting stuff in there. The biggie for me is that unlike Dick, who became independent on his own, Tim’s essentially being pushed to the side here, which, on top of all the other shit thrown his way the last few years- the death of two fathers, his girlfriend (who got better), and some number of Titans- might prove to be the last straw. The word grimdark gets floated around alot regarding the direction a lot of comics went with their characters, but after all he’s gone through, it actually feels right to take Tim in that direction, at least for a while. The other thing that stood out for me was the acknowledgement of his adoption and that his name’s Tim Wayne now, something that I hadn’t really seen acknowledged anywhere (I’ve rather fallen behind with Teen Titans). Unfortunately the issue doesn’t directly get to the detective side of things that they’re talking about playing up, but it was already a somewhat packed issue, so wait and see on that part for now.

Marvel: nada

Other:
Anna Mercury 2: Ultraspacial Dreadnaught Vanaheim #1: Man, the awesome starts right there in the title, doesn’t it? Continuing with the excellently pulpy sci-fi found in the first series, we find another of the splinter-Earths sending a probe to our Earth, and the decision to send Anna in to make sure they’re not the types to send a nuke next time. Lots of action, fun dialogue, a smart concept, and a setting that for some reason was bringing to mind the populace of Blade Runner, if not quite the world itself. Great fun as always, and eager to get my hands on the next issue.

DMZ #42: Following up Zee’s one-shot last issue, we start another small arc that looks to be independent of series protagonist Matty Roth, which certainly isn’t a bad thing. NYC’s a huge place, plenty of people with plenty of stories, even in its currently messy state. This one’s about a member of a group of former police officers (and military?) who watched their families destroyed in front of them at the outset of the fighting. Every day they meet AA-style to relive and recount the horror of the event, they live away from the daylight, and are out to, well, destroy the lives of anyone they come across. Only the lead is realizing that maybe, just maybe, they aren’t as close a brotherhood as they’ve been led to believe, and having second thoughts about all of it. An excellent start, Wood’s writing and Kelly’s art are as sharp as ever, and its always great to pick up something they’ve done together.

The Unwritten #2 – After learning that he may in fact be the fictional star of his father’s bestselling Harry Potter-esque novel series, Tom Taylor begins the search for answers about who he really is and what happened to his father. Meanwhile, the fantastic begins to move in the background, giving gentle nudges and setting things in motion for some mysterious, but likely sinister, purpose down the line. While I wasn’t initially sold on the concept, after reading the first two issues, I’m completely onboard. This is a fantastic story, the art’s quite good, and you’d be wise not to miss it. It may end up reading better in trade, but in being a new Vertigo book, it should probably be picked up by the issue to ensure its survival.

DC/Vertigo:
Battle for the Cowl: Gotham Gazette – Batman Alive? – With the Battle for the Cowl mini finishing up this week, this one-shot serves as an endcap to the quasi-event, pairing with the opening Gotham Gazette – Batman Dead? one-shot that kicked it off. We check in with Detective Bullock, Leslie Thompkins, Stephanie Brown (Spoiler), and Vicki Vale while providing a bit of closure and opening some new doors for these secondary characters, and Gotham itself has survived its latest struggle. Reasonably enjoyable, and the art for the Vicki Vale section (each segment had its own art team) was a treat, and served as a nice tease for Guillem March’s upcoming work in Gotham City Sirens.

And with that out of the way, we’re ready to plunge into the new Bruce Wayne-free Bat books, none of which are looking bad by any means. We’ve got the Grant Morrison-Frank Quitely Batman and Robin, Red Robin (okay, this one I’ll probably pass on), Streets of Gotham (my Birds of Prey replacement? the better part of the team’s here anyhow), Gotham City Sirens (Gotham’s bad girls combined with Guillem March’s gorgeous work = eye candy overload), Batgirl (with a mystery about who lingers behind her mask now), and the biggie, Detective Comics with Greg Rucka and JH Williams. Quite a good time to be a fan of the Bat Family.

Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink #1 – The last of the Aftermath miniseries to get started, Ink puts villian-turned-JLA member Tattooed Man in a very street level tale as he discovers life on the right side of the law. Not a bad start to the mini here, but the story itself seems familiar and looks like it will lead to a bad end… at least, it looked like it was going to be pretty straightforward up until the last page, where we get a bit of a surprise. Consider my interest piqued thanks to that, but still, I like all of the other Aftermath titles better so far. Of course, its still early, with just the one issue out for each, so we’ll see how things turn out.

Justice League of America #33 – Continuing the tale of repowering Dr. Light II (with a nice bit of presumed finality to Dr. Light I) and integrating the Milestone Comics characters into the DCU, this one had something resembling a comfortable flow to it, and a nice surprise in the form of Paladin’s return(a fake/alternate cowboy version of Batman from an earlier JLA arc). To be perfectly honest though, as Black Canary’s prominence in the title diminishes, so does my interest in the book, and her prone form on the cover was all she wrote here. Zatanna’s presence helps, but its quickly sliding to a point where I’ll be dropping it (which is probably a good thing, given the incoming mass of Bat books).

Madame Xanadu #11 – After having what was essentially a 10-issue origin arc, our titular character has finally settled into her fortune-teller/mystic services role in 1940s New York City, something that looks like it could make for some interesting pulpy tales if we stick to this time period. As we open, she’s put on the case of a murder most foul as a woman visits her father’s suite, only to discover his charred skeleton in a case the police attribute to Spontaneous Human Combustion, woo, happy times. We also spend a number of pages flashed back to another historical period, this time Spain under Torquemada’s Inquisition, and its very plain to see that this will come to a Bad End.

Northlanders #17: The Viking Art of Single Combat – Another one-shot in Brian Wood’s ongoing series of Viking tales, this time he’s dedicated an entire issue to a single fight between two champions, that of the drunken Eastern clan leader and that of the Western clan leader whose hall the Eastern leader burned down. As the title suggests, Wood goes into great detail as he enlightens us on the weapons and tactics of Viking combat, provides details about the weaponry involved that’s just as intimate as the backgrounds of our combatants, quotes the Sagas, and somehow makes it all flow together seamlessly with the fighting. Truly another reason why Brian Wood is someone you should be reading his stuff, and the format of Northlanders, with it beginning and ending new tales all the time, makes it a great place to start.

Trinity #52 – And so it ends. Rather than the one last fight teased by the end of #51, we spend the bulk of the issue back at the cafe where it all began, as all the heroes hold a party to commemorate the affair before it fades from memory with one of those happy fun plot devices that keeps things mostly status quo (important here, as it all takes place before R.I.P. and Final Crisis). The changes/introductions include letting Enigma to continue on on the Anti-Matter Earth, which makes me happy as he was quite an enjoyable creation from the series. Overall, I’m quite satisfied with the series, a big huge smashup with an enormous scope that was exactly the sort of thing it should have been, and feels like it would make either a great animated movie or a season-long event if JLU was ever ressurected (which it won’t be, sadly). That said, bring on Wednesday Comics!

Marvel:
Immortal Iron Fist #26 – Another arc finishes as the Immortal Weapons succeed in making their escape from the Eighth City (aka Hell). More fighting, more horrific and appropriately hellish imagery, and more of Danny pushing for a better path of acknowledgement and reconciliation with the troubled history of K-un Lun. Then Danny returns home, where its implied that things aren’t as normal as they seem, and the issue ends. This has me intrigued about what happens in the next issue, particularly as the issues after that are a series of one-and-dones focusing on each of the other Immortal Weapons.

Moon Knight #30 – And another arc finishes… repeating myself much? While there was murder-a-plenty, it was actually a fairly anticlimactic issue, with Moon Knight essentially acknowledging this other Mexican death god(or avatar of, like himself) and walking away rather than getting into a huge brawl like the cover teases. Still, it was nicely done, and I continue to like what they’re doing with the character, such damaged goods, wanting to escape from it all, but constantly being dragged back in. Of course, the highlight of the whole arc was easily the Merc Luchadore brothers, I surely hope they become a regularly part of the Marvel U, as they were quite entertaining. Next arc looks to be gunning for Norman Osborn (wonder if we’ll get a Deadpool teamup…)

Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine #6 – Finally, 3 1/2 years after first starting, all six issues are out and it is complete! The dialogue has easily been my favorite part of the miniseries, and this issue was no exception, both with Wolverine’s internal monologue and his little chats with Banner, Hulk, and Ross. Of all the matchups between the two, especially recently with both Hulk Vs and Wolverine and the X-Men, this has probably been my favorite incarnation of the perpetual fighting between the two of them. Despite my usual hesitation about double-dipping, I’m eagerly awaiting the HC collection, as it was just such a blast (and the singles are going to a friend).

War Machine #6 – In an odd break from what has become the norm, War Machine is starting its second arc with issue 6, rather than finishing the first one up. With his crew in tow, War Machine pays a visit to his mom in the Southwest US before beginning his assault on an American military facility. Giving the issue something to do, American Eagle shows up to try and talk him out of it, giving the appearance of having some pretty hax skills in the process, but falling for a fakeout that leaves you wondering if they’re really all that crazy. More damaged goods, but damaged goods with a purpose, and an inability to turn away from the wrongs of this world (the perfect machine memory certainly doesn’t help).

X-Force #15 (Messiah War Part 5) – Hey look, this one’s only almost finished with this issue. Little bits of development with X-23 and (Arch)Angel, the former showing signs of irritation(hey, for her, this counts), the latter taking control of himself and refusing to bow before Apocalypse. Lots of villianous monologuing, and the first half of the final showdown (which concludes over in the next issue of Cable). Admittedly though, while this has been an interesting diversion for the book, I’m eager for them to get back to the present so they can get back to the arc they were quite literally in the middle of.

Other Publishers:
Ignition City #3 – Warren Ellis’s retro-future tale continues, with lots of drinking, Great Cosmonaut Yuri being great, and the introduction of Corrupt Rocketeer Marshal. While the plot, alterna-history, and dialogue have been quite enjoyable, I think all of the junked spacecraft making up the buildings and backgrounds are my favorite part of the book. Its like they’ve pillaged ships from the breadth of classic sci-fi and crashed them all into the ground on one small island, then let them decay for a few decades.

Special Forces TPB – Finally collected, I finally get to the last part, as well as a reread of the whole, in this distinctly different war story from Kyle Baker. Following a squad of true misfits through a post-war mission in Iraq to capture one of the remaining terrorist leaders, we follow along as everything just goes to shit, one way after another, and the squad’s membership keeps on decreasing before we’re left with two- the autistic Zone doing everything in his power to continue and complete the mission, and the felon Felon constantly trying to keep Zone’s ass alive. An action masterpiece in its own right, its also a powerful tribute to the people who’ve been sent to war to die who had no business being there in the first place, and highly recommended.

Whew, quite a week, thank goodness they aren’t all this full though.