Cap A #36 - Rated 7 - Lots of action. And apparently the whole SHIELD killed citizens thing is solved, thoughim not sure how. At the end Sharon finds Steves body? I bet it's a clone.

Thor #7 - Rated 7 - Thor goes to sleep to regain his powers and out pops Blake whos goes to find Jane Foster. Meanhile in his magic sleep Thor finds his dad and Odin tells him the story of his dad which relates to how Odin doesn't expect Thor to try to revive him. I was kind of more intersted in the Blake stuff...

Herc #115 - Rated 8 - Herc and Ares square off and of course Herc wins. He then convinces Cho to stand down because doing things out of revenge/anger is wrong. Lots of good humor in this book as well.

Wolverine: Origin #23 - Rated 6 - I laughed at a few parts but really Way doesn't "get" Deadpool. The humor is off. Like out of now where DP saying "Chimichanga!" And yes I know about how DP likes the food but it just seemed out of place.

Captain America #36 was pretty good. I don't know if for me it's Bru's writing or if I am liking Bucky's version of Captain America or could be both. The ending of the book really let me down though. Sharron finding Steve's body.... either way they go with it.... I am not digging it. I would have rather had Nick Fury be the gunman on the grassy nole and make a body switch with a LMD and keep Steve underground for awhile. Now we either have Skrull...Clone... or Clone Skrull. Not liking the idea either way.

Amazing Spider-Man #554 was actually pretty good. I guess Gale and Jiminez got the memo to stop sucking. The new villain called "Freak" stops fighting Spider-Man so it can go smoke some meth in one of the funniest images ever. The building they fight in burns down and somehow Freak survives in a cocoon. Peter goes to talk with Dr. Conners about the monster and learns that he has to give it some serum soon or it'll evolve into something more dangerous. Also, Peter visits JJJ at the hospital as Spider-Man and gives him another heart attack when he tells him the Bugle was sold. Betty Brant is back working as a reporter (did she quit or something?). Harry's girl may have a thing for Peter now too. Good stuff all around.

Only to find that she's retired...bah dum ching!

Captain Marvel #4 (of 5) - Rated 8 (although I'm probably a little biased) - A SHIELD team excavates Mar-Vell's grave under Stark's orders. Meanwhile, Mar-Vell is dealing with the news he received from an invading Skrull. Mar-Vell himself is actually a Skrull sleeper agent. But he doesn't believe it, despite all evidence to the contrary, and then he goes crazy on the Skrull, and when Iron Man tries to stop him Mar flies away faster than they can track him. And meanwhile, even the people who joined the crazy religion that worships Mar-Vell are starting to buy into it and see the good that the religion is doing, and then Mar shows up to talk to the religion's founder, Julia Starr. Together they decide to give aid to the people of Sudan as a show of their good intentions, but when violence erupts in the region and Starr gets killed, Mar goes crazy on the terrorists and vows he will protect the world, even from itself. And then Tony talks to Ms. Marvel, and gives her the Nega-Bands (taken from Mar-Vell's grave I guess). She flies up to space and meets up with Mar, and clicks her Nega Bands to his, sending him back to the Negative Zone. He's angry at first, but then he sees something, and upon approaching it realizes that it is "home."

Immortal Iron Fist #13 - Rated 7 - We see more of the history of Wendell Rand and the Iron Fist, and then more of how evil Xao is and how he'll kill Jeryn's mother if the train isn't built right, and more of Luke and Colleen and Misty standing around doing nothing because they're "captured." Then we see Danny confront Yu-Ti, leader of K'Un-Lun about how Yu-Ti has been using the Randall gate to visit the outside world, but keeping it secret from the people, and how Yu-Ti is a spoiled brat only serving his own interests, unlike his father. Danny threatens to reveal Yu-Ti's secrets to everyone and have them decide what to do, and Yu-Ti is arrogant and encourages him to, but then sends the Terror Priests to destroy the gate after Danny leaves. But this is all part of Danny's plan, as Lei Kung's secret army of K'Un-Lun's women will be there to fight off the Terror Priests. And the Immortal Weapons of the 7 Capital Cities of Heaven are dining and laughing together when John Aman (The Prince of Orphans) asks them to join him in the war he fights alongside Danny and Lei Kung. They all accept, except for Davos, who leaves angry. He confronts his father, Lei Kung, and they fight. Davos accuses Lei Kung of lying, and not knowing the truth, but Lei informs him that Davos himself is just too arrogant to believe he could be wrong, even though he is. And in the past, Wendell Rand finally finds Orson Randall, strung out on opium. And in the present, Xao's train is finished and he opens the portal to K'Un-Lun so he can destroy it. But this was part of Danny's plan too, because now that Xao can get in, the army of Immortal Weapons can also get out. Still one of the best books Marvel is printing, but the fact that only 3 pages were drawn by David Aja sucked (the other artists were good, but not as good), and it was a lot of buildup, and no real action.

World War Hulk Aftersmash: Warbound #4 - Rated 6 - This series is getting less and less interesting. Hiroim tries to force Korg to kill him, because that's the only way to drop the dome around Gammaworld. And the other members of the Warbound, with Kate Waynesboro, confront the Leader, who tells them they were lied to and Hiroim has to die for them to win. So they go back and try to stop Korg from killing Hiroim, but since Hiroim wants it, Korg does it. The dome starts to drop, and SHIELD drops some stuff in. Then Kate Waynesboro tells the tearful Korg that the only way for all the people affected by Leader's gamma viruses to live is for the dome to stay up and Hiroim to be alive. So Hiroim comes back to life. But before they can kill the Leader, they have to stop SHIELD's giant robot death squad. And in the backup story, Miek tells Waynesboro a story about No-Name of the Brood, and how the messed-up babies she had with Miek tried to kill one of the pinkies children on Planet Hulk, and she killed her own children to save him. To kill No-Name, Waynesboro just as to become her friend, and No-Name will cut her own heart out for her friends.

The Order #9 - Rated 8 - I like this series, but I can also see why it's not selling more. We see Heavy's backup story. Career military man who got caught in an explosion when escorting V.I.P. Tony Stark into a hostile area, and was left unable to move or breathe on his own. Now, as Heavy, the suit and machinery does that for him. So now the Order prepares to attack their enemies, who have Mulholland captured, and Anthem cedes control of the operation to Heavy. Meanwhile, Mulholland's re-awakened telekinetic mutant powers allow her to fight the bad guys from the inside, but Ezekiel Stane shuts her down. So the Order arrives and fights their way in through a bunch of robots, but as soon as they enter the facility, Pepper loses track of them. And with her tech, that shouldn't be possible. They need to call Stark. And Ezekiel's plan is revealed, as he wants to use Holly's power, and how he's tuned into all of L.A., and amplify it so that she kills everyone in the city, and make sure the Order can't stop it, all to say #### you to Tony Stark. And the other members of the team hear Holly scream and go after her, but they enter a room that locks them in, and then they get fired really far down, and hit with an EMP that fries all their powers. But without his powers, Heavy can't breathe, and he's going to die.

Iron Man #27 - Rated 8 - A really good issue, but they're dragging this story on and on. I don't care if it's got a new title, it's still the same story as the last one. In this issue, Iron Man comes to about 3 miles away from ground zero of his "clean nuke", to Maria Hill trying to contact him. This is when they find out that the Government is taking Stark, Hill, and Dugan in to question them about this incident. We then find out that Maya Hansen also survived, and SHIELD recovered her, and they need her help to stop the Mandarin from using Extremis. They think he has unlocked the way around the programmed cell death, so they need her to give them the full, open formula so they can prepare an antidote/innoculation. She refuses to do it without evidence. And SHIELD and Stark are in big trouble because of the nuke they dropped on U.S. soil, but it's not stopping Tony from trying to find the Mandarin. And Dr. Samson tries to defend Stark to the CSA, only to find out that Secretary Kooning has been missing since Samson and Stark last saw him. And we see Kooning is in Myanmar, where he gets captured by a local militia and taken to a nearby farm/labor camp. And meanwhile, Tony is showing Maya a tape of another of Mandarin's scientists, admitting that they cracked the sequence. And Dugan is meeting with the Chinese to try and get help finding Mandarin, but they refuse. And Kooning is meeting with an old war buddy of his there in Myanmar, because he wants to clean up his mess the old way, which means assassinating Mandarin. And Maya gives Tony all the information on Extremis, and how to make it airborne without programmed cell death. Of course, Tony is actually Mandarin, playing mind games with her, and he now has everything he needs to make his evil airborne virus.

I'd give it an 8, even a 9. I've had a hard time making a lot of the connections that this issue finally cleared up. Next issue is a big smackdown. This issue's play on 4 words in the English language and Iron Fist getting in the face of Yu-Ti's son was good stuff, as was the followup on Wendell Rand. Art was fine except the part where Davos' hand is missing/phased into the floor. Plus this issue had a decent helping of FAT COBRA

The Illiad - 9/10

This book is turning out very nice. So far it's staying very very close to the Illiad, and the art work has been lovely. If you like Greek Myth, the classics, or just want a proper Illiad story, check this out.

War Is Hell - 6/10

This looks like it could be a solid WW1 fighter plane epic. The art is okay, and the story over all is fine, I'm just not keen on all the swearing. Dunno why Ennis thinks expletives makes for mature or compelling material.

For the first time in a while I enjoyed an issue of Spider Man today. The art was well above par and I actually like the "Freak" storyline

Maybe it's just me, but ever since BND started, I've had the feeling of déja vu every time I've even looked at the pages of Spider-Man. 1995-97 storylines to be precise, with slightly better graphics. And Spider-Man seems to be getting younger and younger.

I pretty much agree with most of what you say here, but I enjoyed it more than you. Yes, there wasn't much physical action, but there was more than enough tension created with the set-up of everything. You can really feel the build up happening for a major storm. Plus, the ending where Xao sees that Danny is all over his plan was perfect.
However, I highlighted the most important part of this issue: too little of David Aja. I like how they started with the flashbacks to past Iron Fists being drawn by other artists. If I didn't care for their style, it was only a few pages and the majority of the work was done by Aja. The man has an excellent style to his work and can really evoke a lot with his economy of hard lines. He has a lot of blocky dark areas and thicker lines more suggesting things than the hyper-realistic style of every minor detail shown and represented. Whatever they do, they need to make sure his art is represented more in this book.