Three Comics That I Read So That You Didn't Have To

Hmmm...I wonder if I should change the title to say which week it is. Any ideas?

ANYhoo, as always, I pick a couple of titles that "fell through the cracks" and tell you about them, and perhaps you can repay the favor with the books that I did not read!

Spoilers away!

Fantastic Four #524 - The way I see it, the biggest problem Mark Waid's Fantastic Four run had was that Waid seemed to be too desperate for the run to be considered "historic." Way too many attempts to recreate "This Man, This Monster." I think that is silly, and Waid should have had more faith in his own storytelling abilities, and just tell the best stories he could, like he did on his Flash run (I guess a lot of that had to do with the fact that there were no "definitive" Wally West runs before Waid).

In any event, this issue was no different. It is Waid and Mike Wieringo's last issue on Fantastic Four, and it really reeks of "this is the last issue, and we KNOW it is the last issue."

Reed tries to take Ben's powers himself (perhaps this is Waid compensating for the rather odd decision to have Reed be able to switch Johnny and Sue's powers, but never trying it with Ben and himself), but Ben does not let him.

A lot of speech-ifying in this issue.

From Sue, from Reed, and most especially from Ben.

Still, there were a lot of good things in the issue as well. There were some funny scenes, and the art was nice (if you like Ringo's style, which I do).

Overall, though, I think this issue, like this run, was too much of trying to be some ideal comic book, and not enough good stories.

I would not recommend this issue.

Casefiles: Sam & Twitch #15 - This issue marked a return to form for this title, in my opinion. This issue had all the sharpness of writing I liked in the last storyline (until that storyline just dragged on way too long), and the art from EJ Su was strong. The plot of the story involves a vampire woman and her gang of vampires. The exchanges between Sam, Twitch and the old woman (who doesn't look old, natch) were quite amusing.

Meanwhile, the vampires are trying to eliminate a gang, and they decimate most of the gang, who end up taking refuge in a church at the same time Sam & Twitch also take refuge there.

The issue ends with the stained glass windows of the church being broken into by the vampires.

That is quite a set up for next issue, eh?

I thought Mark Andreyko did a very good job of giving a forward-moving plot to go along with the snappy dialogue.

I would recommend this issue.

The Goon #11 - Some books you recommend. Other books you IMPLORE people to read. This is the latter of the two. Eric Powell continues to amaze me from issue to issue with the sheer amount of comic book joy he squeezes into every issue of The Goon.

In the issue, Dr. Alloy's face is corroding, so he enlists the aid of The Goon and Frankie to retrieve for him a special alloy from another dimension. Once in the other dimension, well, to quote a cliche "hilarity ensues."

But the main plot is not the best thing about the comic (nor is the interesitng change in Alloy that will effect the book in later issues)....no, it is the little touches, like Frankie's fight with the crippled boy. Hee-larious.

I recommend this book soooo much.

So that's my three books this week.

The only book that I didn't read that I would like to know about is:

Amazing Joy Buzzards #4

So if anyone read it, fill me in!