Ultimate Fantastic Four 11: First half of the first FF/Doom battle. Best panel: the close-up reaction shot of Ben Grimm right before Doom bazooka’s him through a wall.

Astonishing X-Men: It’s just twist after twist in this one. (Still annoyed about the new Beast look, though.)

Ultimate Elektra 2: It’s still early days, but I’m not exactly warming to this title. Can’t quite figure out why, either.

Ex Machina 4: This title, on the other hand, I am warming to. Vaughan is once again proving that he can take a gimmicky concept and keep it interesting.

Runaways 18: Concluding issue of this run (apparently it’ll get re-launched next year). I really liked how this book started out, but wasn’t terribly impressed by the wrapup.

Conan 8: Conan meets The Wonder Years.

I’ve got a whole stack of comics on my desk that I’ve been intending to get to, but I don’t think that’s going to happen — so I’m just going to give you what I picked up this week, and see if I can stay on the horse for a bit longer this time.

Ultimate Nightmare 2: Ellis continues scene-setting here, bringing in the Ultimate version of somebody I don’t recognize (john->geek_points–), and getting all his pieces in order for the action, which by all looks will be starting in the next issue.

Wanted 5: Millar has a great story here, and it’s great fun rooting for the bad guys against the badder guys, but damn I wish issues would come out more often than once every six months… Looks like this is the penultimate issue, complete with the ObTwistCliffHangerEnding.

Strange 1: Picked this up on a lark, as the previous two were the total of my pulls this week, and that seemed a bit light. Plus I saw “Straczynski” on the cover, so it seemed like a safe bet. After reading it, there’s potential here; the question is if he’ll be able to hold my interest, as I’ve never been a big Dr. Strange fan.

Go, now. Read this.

New Get Your War On out, and it should please the people who remember what the endoplasmic reticulum are (all 6 of you):

What are stem cells? Two months ago I had never heard of them, but now politicians can’t shut up about them. Stem cells? That’s like, the most scientific thing a candidate has ever mentioned.

Why can’t we have a national debate about something scientific I like? Endoplasmic reticulum in the mother-fuckin’ house!!!

First, read this Boondocks strip. Then, read this Reuters article.

First thought: given the lead time for comic strips, McGruder is clearly dialed right on in on the zeitgeist.

Second thought: the abortion-hating domestic terrorists are starting to branch out. Scary post-November implications there, either way things go.

Thanks to Bryant for the pointer to the news article.

And this entry catches me up — w00t.

30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow 5: Templesmith’s art remains as startling as ever.

Powers 2: Pilgrim seems like she’s going to crack at any moment, and Walker knows more than he’s letting on about the new Retro Girl (Neo Girl?) Nice tension builder of an issue.

Conan 6: Conan escapes from Hyperborea, by the skin of his teeth.

The Losers 14: Most of this issue is one long running firefight — actually, most of this series is one long running firefight — but there’s a bit of plot development at the end. This series seems to have slowed down a bit from its original barn-burning pace, but it’s still a pretty interesting read.

Astonishing X-Men 3: X-Men. Whedon. What else do you want? (Art by Cassaday ain’t hurtin’ nothin’, either.)

Planetary 20: Double Cassaday this week, which is more than enough reason to celebrate — plus you get Ellis tossing in twenty-seven crazy unrelated mindblowing ideas in too.

Ultimate Fantastic Four 9: Double Ellis this month too. He continues to be dead-on in this book — I want that center panel on the seventh page, the one with pissed-off Ben Grimm saying “We’re the scary kids”, on a t-shirt.

Powers 6: The Sellouts TPB: Now that I’ve read this, a lot of stuff in the first two issues of the current “Powers” run make a lot more sense. This is probably the best of the six “Powers” collections.

More comics catchup:

Ex Machina 2: This book is two for two in the “flip the page and just stare at a full-page panel, gobsmacked” category. The gobsmack level is a bit less than last week, but still fairly high; Vaughan continues to earn his rep.

Guardians 1: Picked this up because it was a slow week. This book didn’t do anything to speed it up: predictable pedestrian pablum.

Starjammers 2: I wasn’t sure about this book after the first issue; after two, I can confidently place it in the same “triple P” category as Guardians.

The Goon 2: My Murderous Childhood (And Other Grievous Yarns) TPB: The good news: another Goon TPB more than makes up for the two crappy books. The bad news: this is the last of the TPBs that are currently out. All three of them are excellent, and mostly highly recommended.

100 Bullets 7: Samurai TPB: “100 Bullets” is probably the best ongoing series in “mainstream” comics at the moment — and I’m phrasing it that way only to avoid arguments “Strangers in Paradise” and “Queen and Country”. I don’t think I got as much out of this book as I should have, because the backstory is so incredibly complicated — this collection focuses primarily on a minor character that was last seen a couple dozen issues ago, so there’s a definite “what the hell is going on?” feel as you start reading, and I’m pretty sure I missed some important things. I need to go back and re-read the six previous collections and then read “Samurai” again.

Catching up on the comics review now…

Ultimate X-Men 49: Wraps up the ‘Apocalypse’ storyline. Great final panel.

Bite Club 4: The art continues to be interesting; the pacing continues to be slow.

Starjammers 1: Picked this up on a whim; not sure it’s worth continuing to read.

Ultimate Daredevil & Electra TPB: Entertaining brain candy.

The Goon 1: Nothin’ But Misery TPB: Purchase of the week, hands down. Knife to the eye!

New Get Your War On out.

Last night I came up with a solution to the Israel/Palestine problem: Beating Ariel Sharon to death with the corpse of Yassar Arafat.

Seriously behind on the comics review; trying to catch up before picking up this week’s haul…

Supreme Power 11: Straczynski’s retelling of Squadron Supreme (itself a bit of a rip of Justice League, from what I understand) gets seriously odd this month, as the Wonder Woman-analogue beds the Superman-analogue and then reveals herself to be a bit tetched in the head. I’m curious to see where this one is going to go.

Y: The Last Man 24: This book started off with a bang — good writing, inventive concept — but it’s starting to feel a bit stale to me. I think I’m getting frustrated with the slow dragging out of the “why did all the men die?” plot thread.

B.P.R.D. 5: The ‘Plague of Frogs’ storyline wraps up in a suitable convoluted fashion, tying back into one of the earliest Hellboy tales. Excellently executed.

Powers 1: Same Powers book, different imprint. Walker and Pilgrim, reunited, in a world where Powers are outlawed — so only the outlaws have Powers. (Gun control allegory, anyone?)

WildCATS Version 3.0 23: I hear this book is getting canceled, which is a bit of a relief — because it saves me from having to make the “do I keep reading this?” decision. I really liked the earlier issues of this series, but the last few months, with the “Grifter in a female cyborg body blowing shit up” storyline, have been particularly poor.

Liberty Meadows Sourcebook: 90% stuff that’s been released before, but I’m a big Cho fanboy.

Fables: Storybook Love TPB: Excellent stuff, with a classically played cliffhanger at the end. And it’s got Mouse Police!

Ultimate Spiderman 10 TPB: Given that the primary event tying this book together is a movie about Spiderman, featuring Doc Ock, the whole thing felt a bit too “meta” for my taste — but it’s still an entertaining read.