Kicking off a four-day weekend with a bag!

• The Massive #27 (Dark Horse): #26 ended on a MASSIVE note.  What’s been lost–what’s been an afterthought, really, despite the title!–is finally found.
• Mind MGMT #26 (Dark Horse): Some spectacular moments in #25–none more so than Dusty’s Army rolling through with a promise to Meru.

• Bodies #3 (DC/Vertigo): Loved #1 enough to name it a Top 5 Book of July.  Bar set.  #2 fell short but was still pretty good.  Got a bit chunky in spots, which only served to make #1 look even more effortless, more effective.  Still super interested to see how it all comes together.
• Dead Boy Detectives #9 (DC/Vertigo):  I’ve been enjoying the read without any real investment in the characters.  Some of the enjoyment is coming from–as I’ve mentioned–its reminding me of The Books of Magic ongoing from back in the day.  Some comes from the well affected voices.  Might have to think about any further investment in the book, however–especially if I still find myself unable to warm up to the Dead Boys themselves.  One thing I have no trouble warming up to: the covers from Mark Buckingham.

• A Voice in the Dark: Get Your Gun #1 (Image): My feelings about AVitD have been well documented–save for how I felt about the final issue of the first arc.  As I told Larime Taylor: I thought it pulled everything together well and, in doing so, reminded of #2, the high murder mark of the series.  Going forward, hoping for sharper knives and sharper pacing.  Someone very important to the development of the series promised the latter, so…

• Low #3 (Image): OK, so, how low can I go?  How about one more.   Chalk it up to my digging Greg Tocchini’s art–and my not having been turned off my Remender’s writing.  Not yet, anyway.
• Outcast #4 (Image): Has been slow but not uninteresting.  I’ll give it another whirl; I mean, something’s bound–Skybound, even!–to happen.  Right?
• Roche Limit #1 (Image): I dunno.  I’m not excited about it.  I didn’t like Michael Moreci’s Curse all that much.  I’ll thumb through and make the call from there.
• Saga #27 (Image): Has gotten a bit bloated–as evidenced by the farty first page of #26.  Hmm.
• Loki: Agent of Asgard #6 (Marvel): You wanna talk sin?  How about the eighth deadly sin: Original Sin: Thor & Loki.  Yeah.  Give me a break!  Er, no!  Not another break.  Not another Norse goddamned crossover!  AXIS shmaxis!  Let’s get back to it–back to the metro-immortal Asgardianhole I’ve come to like a lot more than I ever thought I would.  (Blame-thank Al Ewing for that!)

• Magneto #10 (Marvel): Mostly back to form–save for the arrival of the Red Skull (Not-zi what I was hoping for, that’s for sure) and the threat of a Genoshan Death March to AXIS, which promises to suck.  Hard.
• Armor Hunters #4 (Valiant): “The Final Hunt.”  Ain’t complaining.
• Brass Sun #5 (2000 AD): #4 had me thinking Top Book of August as a top book was fetched by a Bookworm at the urging of Whisper–“librarian, second class.”  No, really: so good.  Trailed off a bit after that, knocking it out of contention; but it ended on a strong note with a Nominal Charge.  I mean, come on: who doesn’t love sky pirates?

• Butterfly #1 (BOOM!): More espionage stuff!  Velvet‘s been good; so I’m gonna give this one a try.
• Evil Empire #5 (BOOM!):  Wow!  #4 delivered the goods–er, evils!  Oh, brother: this time, the twist was twisted.  And, as expected, another righteous cover from Jay Shaw:

• Rachel Rising #28 (Abstract Studio): Pains me to say this: the only reason I’m picking this up is because I feel obligated to–not because of any loyalty at this point, but because I forgot to take it off of my pull list.  Yeah, it’s been that bad.  And it was sooooooo good, too.  Seems like forever ago that we named it one of our Top Ten Books of 2013.
• The Sixth Gun #43 (Oni): Still stockpiling ’em.
• X-O Manowar #29 (Valiant): I’ve enjoyed the Armor Hunter diversion.  Usually, crossovers kill momentum; this one, however, has fed it.  Kudos to Venditti & Co.

Avery’s Pick of the Week:

• Bee and Puppycat #4 (BOOM!): Plenty of fun from Anissa Espinosa.  Oh yeah, it’s weird!  But in the wild world of Avery, weird is wonderful!  Nothing’s as wonderful, however, as when my girl says, “Daddy, read it!”

What are you looking forward to this week?

Turning pages,

Scott