Comics I have been reading

As I said in my last post I have been getting most of my comic books from www.impulsecreations.net and have been very happy with their service. These are the monthly comics I get:
Amazing Spider-Man:
This series has been great since Brand New Day started. The last several issues have been really good. Peter has a new girlfriend (I was rooting for Norah, but Carlie is starting to grow on me), and he has his dream job as an R&D scientist/engineer type. He has pretty much resolved things with MJ. Dan Slott is perfect for writing this book. I do miss the thrice monthly shipment, but twice a month is still pretty cool. Don't get me wrong, some of the other writers who were on the rotation with the onset of BND were awesome as well (loved Joe Kelly's take). The art team is still rotating to keep up with the schedule. I was nervous about Humberto Ramos working on the book, because his style has gotten very exaggerated and cartoony the last several years and I didn't care for it, but I like what he is doing with Spidey.

Artifacts:
I have been away from the Top Cow Universe for years, but occassionally pick something up if it looks good. Artifacts is a 13 issue series which brings together all of the mystical artifacts in the TCU. Ron Marz is crafting pretty interesting story and Stjepen Sejic marks the book hard to not enjoy looking at.

Avengers:
Standard Bendis fare. Sometimes good, sometimes feels repetitive.

Avengers Academy:
Christos Gage and Mike McKone started a great series with this book about the next generation of 'super-heroes' that were under the guidance of Norman Osborn while he was in charge of H.A.M.M.E.R. He saw the potential in these kids to be dangerous. Hank Pym opens the Avengers Academy for these kids, with instructors such as Justice, Tigra, and Taskmaster. It is an interesting cast of characters. The kids soon find out it wasn't their potential to be the 'best' as Pym led them to believe, but they had the most potential to go bad, and they're not happy about the deception. The kids learn several life lessons in the book. Sadly McKone is leaving the book.

Batgirl:
This one is a favorite of mine. Bryan Q. Miller has created a very likable and 'realistic' character in Stephanie Brown, the former Spoiler-turned-Robin, who faked her own death. This book is full of fun interaction between Barbara Gordon and Steph. Steph fights fatigue (she seems to be the only super-hero to do so) between fighting crime at night and going to Gotham University during the day. She has had team ups with Red Robin, Robin (Damian), and Supergirl. Lee Garbett started off as the main artist on the book (and i am buying a few pages from Mr. Garbett as well as a commission). There were a couple other artists that did some fill-in work, and Dustin Nguyen became the regular artist on the book a couple of months ago. While I love Dustin's art, I'll miss Lee on the book.

Batman Inc.
I skipped Grant Morrison's Batman run initially but heard so many great things I have read most of the stories in trade paperback form. I actually liked it. I wasn't sure I would. So, I tried the first couple of issues, not sure how long I'll hang on, just due to the volume of books I am currently reading. Yanick Paquette's art is simply gorgeous though.

Batman: The Dark Knight:
David Finch writing and penciling. Another iffy book for me, although I am impressed with Mr. Finch's writing. It was better than I anticipated.

Deadpool:
For a long time, this was my favorite book. Then Deadpool was everywhere and over-saturated. I liked the Merc with a Mouth series. I really like Bong Dazo's artwork. I'll have to look and see what else he has worked on. the main series is still good and the recent Deadpool Max is...interesting, and enjoyable.

Freedom Fighters:
Justin Grey and Jimmy Palmiotti. Awesome.

Green Lantern:
I really want to keep reading this book, but I am getting burned out on all the epic sagas Johns is creating. I didn't read the original GL book, but came on board when Ron Marz and Darryl Banks introduced Kyle Rayner. I liked Kyle as a character and as GL. I did not like what Judd Winnick brought to the book, but weathered through the storm, so to speak. I really enjoyed the book when Johns brought Hal back with the relaunch of the title, but everything has been so cosmic (yes, I get that the Green Lanterns are space cops) I just feel like there should be some 'down time' between all the madness Johns is creating.

Green Lantern Corps:
I liked this book better than I thought I would, until all the craziness that Geoff Johns brought into the main GL title carried over here. It's good to see Kyle and Guy featured together. Some of the new GLs are pretty cool.

Incorruptible:
Mark Waid is just awesome. Here Mr. Waid is giving us the story of Max Damage as he is on the path of redemption following the 180 that the Plutonian did in Irredeemable. His sidekick(s) Jailbait and Headcase really cause Max some frustration, and it is fun to watch.

New Avengers:
I think I like this Avengers book more so than the adjective-less Avengers. Again, Bendis with his standard fare, but more of a 'day-to-day' type feel to it.

Power Girl:
I loved this book when Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner were on it. Then they left the book and Judd Winnick took over. I was nervous, but so far he has done an awesome job with the book. He ties it into his maxi-series Justice League: Generation Lost, and it works well.

Red Robin:
I love Tim Drake as a character. Loved him as Robin, and i REALLY hate the Red Robin costume. i think it's the cowl. I picked up the first two trades of the series on sale, and despite my distaste of the costume, I enjoyed the book. A recent issue had a sequence where Tim was in the Undernet, and his costume varied a little, where he had a mask instead of a cowl, and I thought that looked much better. Marcus To does great job penciling the book.

She-Hulks:
This was a fun mini-series. I didn't know anything about the younger She-Hulk, but I am a fan of Jennifer Walters. Lyra is an alternate reality daughter of the Hulk and Thundra. She knows nothing about our Earth, as it differs drastically from her world. Bruce convinces Jennifer to take Lyra under her wing. The result was very entertaining under the helm of Harrison Wilcox and Ryan Stegman.

Stan Lee's BOOM! Studio's super-hero books:
The Traveler, Soldier Zero, and Starborn. These all seem to be good, fun books. I feel Traveler is the weakest so far, while I am enjoying Starborn the most. Khary Randolph's art on Starborn really pulled me in for that series. I hope these last a long time.

Supergirl:
I followed this title faithfully for the first couple of years and then picked up issues off and on. There just so many titles and only so many dollars. Recently I started picking it up again regularly, and I am glad I did. I might need to go back and get some back issues.

Superior:
Mark Millar.....I don't know what it is about him, but I don't like him. I don't know if it's the way he advertises his books or what, but seeing his name generally just pisses me off. I did pick up Superior, mainly for the art, and so far, so good.

Teen Titans:
Again, this is one I followed faithfully for several years but ended up dropping it. I recently started reading it again, and it is much better than when I had dropped it. The creative team was changing quite a bit, and I feel the book faltered by that. With Krul and Scott on the book, I am back and glad to be along for the ride.

Thunder Agents:
I know nothing about volume one of this book, but it sounded like an interesting concept. So far it isn't bad. Nick Spencer is the writer behind it, and he has gotten a very full plate due to his creator owned book Morning Glories (which i hope to buy the first tpb this weekend).

Thunderstrike:
Not terribly familiar with the original character, but this is that guy's son, who has a monster of a chip on his soldier since his father was killed playing super-hero. (Not dissing the previous book or character, just didn't read any of it). Captain America delivers Kevin's father's mace to him, and by holding it, kevin turns into Thunderstrike, and looks just like his dad did when he was Thunderstrike (which is a little weird). Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz are crafting a fun title here. This might cause me to pick up some of their other recent stuff, like Spider-Girl.

X-Factor:
Peter David is awesome. X-Factor is awesome. Except for when Larry Stroman returned to the title after years. I loved his work back when he and Peter David took over on issue 71 of volume 1...but his recent work is very much not to my liking. That's okay though, because the artistic team seems to change up quite a bit.

Now, those are pretty much what i subscribe to, but i do buy a couple books a week at my local comic shop. I have also recently been enjoying the G.I. Joe: Cobra series. I bought the two trades online and bought most of the rest of the series from the back issue bin at my local shop. They don't have issues 10-12, so I'll be buying those elsewhere.

Wow, this seemed to take a lot of time to write. I think my wife is a little mad at me for spending so much time online...but I hear Real Housewives of Somewhere on the television, so I think I am safer here..LOL

Tomorrow is my 34th birthday. I am looking forward to going to a couple different comic shops and Barnes and Noble and picking up some comics and trade paperbacks. Possibly some blu-ray movies. I bought Underworld on blu-ray today and hope it looks awesome. I own it on DVD, but for $10 I couldn't pass it up to see how it looks on blu-ray and the new TV.

I'll post what I get later this weekend.