If there were a Like button at the bottom of my bag of books for the week, I would have clicked it.  Or maybe there was and I did—which may explain Matches Malone’s thumbs up on the cover of Batman Incorporated #3.

Or whatever.  I read Batman Incorporated first and sure as heck got the quirky I had wished for.  Oh, that Grant Morrison!  Ask and ye certainly shall receive.  But just because you receive it, it doesn’t always mean you’ll understand it–or that it’s understandable.  So, after the ominous opening–which could totally happen, by the way–Morrison strikes with Matches and had me happily sinking in quirksand through page 10.  My head never quite made it under, but that’s all right; at least I got to see the bad-ass birth of Redbird, who got all LL Cool J on Alfred after knocking the old butler out.  “Bring it,” indeed.

I moved on to The Flash #12.  Read through it quickly.  Boy, does Barry come off as a little red whiner.  Luckily, the Rogues are a fun bunch, and Manapul manages them very well; he avoids the muddiness that multiple villains could have brought to the flow of the book.  His art, too, is solid throughout with a couple of nifty layouts thrown in for good measure.  Overall, I liked it enough to forge ahead with the flashy one: I’ll pick up the annual and #0; and then we’ll see if it’s time to put the book back on the pull list.

Next up: Justice League Dark #12.  Houses of Mystery and Secrets!  Lemire and Janin housin’ it–making a magical book out of a wacky bunch of magical B-listers.  (OK, it’s true: I may be a bit biased here; after all–and I’m not afraid to admit it–I do have a comic crush on Zatanna.)  Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

Revved it up with The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom #1.  I liked it plenty.  Story-wise, I love the vibe; Waid’s got it down, even where it’s so down its up and over the top.  The mystery?  It’s a bit wait-and-see, which pretty well means it is what it’s meant to be; but what I’ve already seen of Samnee?  Pow!  The first five pages are sky high!  And the splash goodbye, leaving me verily vexed?  Like Betty, I’m hangin’ on happily to Cliff, till the next.

Yeah, I read Dr. Manhattan #1.  What I thought while: Why am I still reading this?  After: “What’s inside the box?”  Nothing, you dumb blue bastard!  And then I bagged it and put it in a box.  Ugh.  Straczynski completely misses the mark, which, sadly, was expected.  He was unable to take apart this complex character and put him back together to any positive end even here at the beginning of his story.  There are a couple of moments–including the drawing of partners’ names in the context of the quantum universe–that are OK; but that’s it: OK.  We’re looking at fewer highs here than in JMS’s own inconsistent Nite Owl.  Hughes’s work seems to live down to the story he was given.  Not surprisingly, his best moment–on page 9–is finely built upon a finely-built coed.  Yeah, I read Dr. Manhattan #1.  What I’m thinking now: What won’t be inside my bag in a month’s time?  #2.

Next Wednesday can’t get here soon enough!

Turning pages,

Scott