Let's Read Some Comics!

As I said earlier, I managed to snag 60 comics exactly from a quarter bin sale. Let's read 'em!

X-Men #80
I only bought this one because I recognized the cover image from a house ad in an issue of "Thor" I subscribed to when I was 10 or so (good god, why can't I remember useful things?). It's bland to the extreme. It made so little impression on me that it's actually kind of remarkable, but not really because booooooring.

Infinite Crisis #6
Oy. Geoff Johns makes miniscule to moderate changes in the history of the DC Universe. Exclamation point. Okay, okay, that doesn't preclude there being a good plot, but this is about as "meh" as any other crossover you might have read. Alexander Luthor brings back the DC Multiverse and starts slamming earths into each other to create an idealized, perfect earth, kind of like in Persona 3. The heroes smash his tower and Superboy dies (BOO). The issue has multiple pencillers (probably a deadline thing), but each is of high quality and transitions between them aren't jarring. The panel design is also good. Geoff Johns' dialogue is very Geoff Johnsy, but not terrible by a long shot. One thing I like is that, unlike most crossovers which generally throw out JLA/JSA/Outsiders/Titans, this one really throws obscure, z-list characters all over the place to give the impression of a reaaaaal big problem they're dealing with. It also has that Black Adam "funny faces" scene. For a quarter, you could do worse.

Captain America #50
Bucky Cap fights some rocket robot terrorists on his birthday and reflects back to his crappy past birthdays. When he gets back to his house, his friends throw him a surprise party. Inoffensive. The backup, "Sentinel of Liberty" by Marcos Martin, is a simple history of Cap beautifully illustrated. I'm the type that won't buy a comic based on art alone, but this one makes me wish I owned a scanner to share some of the pages, so if you're an art guy, go nuts.

Guardians of the Galaxy #17, 21-23
Abnett and Lanning's post "Annihilation 2" series about a team made up of quirky and fun characters like space Kratos and a lovable, sarcastic space raccoon. They're tying into crossovers like "War of Kings" and "Realm of Kings," so I'm not sure what's going on, but the dialogue, fights, and art are all of high quality and worth reading. #21-23 involves Moondragon being impregnated by a little elder god from a "cancerverse," and a space church being lead by The Magus kidnapping her and trying to birth it. Perhaps not reading everything hurts here, but I have no idea who The Magus is besides the fact that he's an evil version of Adam Warlock and he's, like, the champion of life or something. If you're not into Marvel's cosmic side, you might be a bit lost. Fun, space.

Amazing Spider-Man
#613, 614: Electro gets an upgrade and fights Spider-Man. Mark Waid's the writer, so it's pretty solid stuff with nice art. My main point of contention comes from the fact that Electro becomes an internet celebrity protesting Wall Street bailouts, to the point that his crowd of supporters tries to kill Spider-Man! C'mon, if Glenn Beck can't drive people to murder, I doubt Electro can.
#618, 619: Mysterio is back! Or maybe he isn't? The whole plot is about comic book heroes, villains, and supporting casts faking their deaths taken to an entertaining extreme. Mysterio, who may or may not have actually died, reveals the he either faked the deaths or the resurrections of several mafia crime members and a few Spidey supporting cast members in a gambit to control the underworld while driving Spidey nuts. I only get the middle two issues, so there's a lot of "what the hell is going on?" but in a deliberate way. It's a neat use of Mysterio and commentary on comic book death, so I'll see about tracking down the rest.