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 One awesome thing about reading the Hulk over the years is following the changes and transformations that the character goes through. Green Hulk, grey Hulk, smart Hulk, dumb Hulk, king Hulk, and so on and so forth. There have been to many iterations of The Incredible Hulk to even list them all. So for Marvel Comics to find yet another direction to take the Hulk is really rather amazing. Perhaps I should have used incredible instead of amazing, we are talking Hulk not Spider-man here. So the Hulk and Bruce Banner are now separated and living separate lives. This is not a new concept it has happened before. The difference this time is now Bruce Banner is becoming the monster and the Hulk is becoming the man. An interesting twist and quite well written indeed. To top it off the art is awesome. We are only two issues into the fifth volume of The Incredible Hulk and I am hooked. Of course the Hulk is always an easy sale with me. All we need now is more Hulk-sword
 Norman Osborn is back! And he is assembling a new team of Dark Avengers. This issue doesn’t have a great deal of action. In fact it doesn’t really have any action. What it does have is a good amount of build up. It looks like the team being assembled is capable of giving The New Avengers a run for their money. If Marvel Comics delivers on the promise they are making here then we are in for a ride. Honestly I am more excited about the New Avengers/ New Dark Avengers throw-down than I ever was about that whole Fear Itself thingy. The only thing I don’t buy about this issue is Skaar working with the bad guys. I just don’t see him as the getting involved in events outside of The Savage Land at this point, and if he did I don’t see it with Norman Osborn. That being said I am glad to see the son of Hulk back in circulation.
 After four issues the all new Ultimate Spider-Man has finally piqued my interest. With this fourth issue The Trials of Miles Morales finally seem to catch up with the current Ultimate Universe. Essentially this latest issue runs parallel with the Ultimate Fallout mini-series. This includes some rehash of scenes we have already seen. It is handled well however as we see the events from the perspective of Miles Morales. Finally our newest Spider-Man begins to interact with characters from the original Ultimate Spider-Man series. Including a cliff-hanger ending that involves a certain female clone of one Peter Parker. Now I don’t always agree with where Marvel Comics takes its characters, and it is no secret that I was against the killing of Peter Parker. I haven’t changed my mind on this. I really enjoyed that series more than any other Spider-Man series and I would have liked to have seen it go on for ever. But that is no longer an option. If the Bring Ultimate Peter Parker back it will be lame. So this is what we have. This is the reality of the Ultimate Universe. After issue four I am feeling just a little bit better about it. In fact this is the first issue that I find myself anticipating the next issue.
 I don’t know what to say. This comic book is awesome. I wish there was some way for Marvel Comics to produce a graphic novel of The Ultimates every week. There would be no reason for me to buy any other comic books. Of course that is not an option, however it sure would be awesome. I love the art, the action and the intrigue. I a m dieing for next month’s installment. The only flaw I see
 Well the conclusion to Fear itself is finally upon us. Marvel Comics has been hyping Fear Itself issue 7 as having one of the biggest baddest super hero brawls in comic book history. That is quite a bold claim and it is very difficult to back up. We have seen some pretty awesome battles over the years and unfortunately I do not think this issue is one of the best. But hey don’t feel to bad Marvel, you got my five bucks. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the hell out of it, and there is an epic nerd-gasm moment that will be talked about throughout the entirety of comic book history. At least that is my opinion. I am not going to reveal the particulars of that moment as that would be a spoiler and I dont want to take away from anyone’s enjoyment.
It is definitely worth the read, but it does not deliver on the promises we were made. How many issues did they tease us with Tony Stark and the dwarves making magic uru weapons? Well we finally get to see them in action, for a few pages and then back into the pits of Svartalfheim. I mean you barely even get to see Iron Man in his Destroyer armor. What a waste. They should have let loose with the magic weapons a couple of issues back or let the heroes keep them or something. I just don’t feel fulfilled. Actually to be perfectly honest I don’t think the weapons were as cool as the could have been. Iron Fist had a cool kusari-hammer that was super cool, Dr. Strange had a cool new staff, and of course Iron Man’s Destroyer armor was sic. The finale just didn’t live up to the hype
 Let’s fire up the way-back machine. It was at some point in the eighties and I saw a cool looking four issue mini-series called The Demon all neatly bundled and at a discount. So I decided to pick it up. It featured a yellow Demon Named Etrigan that I had never heard of. Well I never finished the first comic in the series. I found it to be so boring and wordy that I just couldn’t be bothered to finish it. Well first impressions are lasting impressions. So over the years I have seen Etrigan in titles and I have always had that bad taste in my mouth from that first impression.
So here we are 2011 and I am looking at a list of the new 52 that is about to come out. On the list of course is Demon Knights which appears to be an ensemble title featuring Etrigan and a bunch of DC Comics other fantasy themed characters. None of which I know a single thing about. Well needless to say it doesnt make it onto the list of titles that I intend to give a shot. However I saw it in the store the week it came out and briefly thought about picking it up. I didnt however in the back of that weeks DC Comics it got one of the two spotlight pages and I gotta say it was slightly intruiging. So the next week when I went to the local comic book shop they still had copies and I went ahead and picked it up. I was not disappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It pretty much plays out like a high level D&D adventure. You get all these diverse archetypes meeting in a tavern. There is some good-natured jocularity and ribbing and then all hell breaks loose and the heroes team up to defeat the evilness. I have to say that this title is definitely one of my favorite of the new 52. Etrigan is not the boring old stuffy talking high folluting demon I remember from the series in the eighties that I could never finish. Issue 2 has some dragons and a lot of action. I am absolutly looking forward to issue 3.
 Two Ultimate Universe comic books this week. How awesome is that? Ultimate X-Men issue two came out and delivered. This comic has the action that a fanboy like myself requires. The art is also well done. Definitely worth picking up. The title is called Ultimate X-Men, however there currently is no team called the X-Men in the Ultimate Universe. This title focuses on the spread out remnants of the Ultimate X-Men. I was kind of hoping we would see more of the team put together by Jean Grey in the Ultimate X mini-series, I am always down for more Hulk. I guess that team however is going to be busy backing up Hawkeye over in his mini-series. At this point the core of the team is a leftover grouping from the Ultimate Spider-Man comic. Kitty Pride, Bobby Drake and Johnny Storm jump in and help Rogue against some Nimrod Sentinels. Who knows what team is going to take over as the Ultimate X-men, I just hope it has the Hulk in it.
 I want this new 52 to work. But DC Comics has to make it work. First off Justice League #2 is late. Now it is 2 weeks late. How is that sending the proper message? If you are DC Comics you have access to all the resources and talent you need to put out 52 comics a month. You had adequate time to line your ducks up and create a buffer. So you can’t launch a second issue of your flagship title in 5 weeks? Am I bitching too much? Am I feeling too entitled? I don’t think so. I think if DC Comics is really interested in making this new 52 work then they need to get serious about keeping its promises. A monthly title is a monthly title.On top of that they launch two miniseries this month. Seriously? What is it now the new 54? Isn’t 52 enough titles to subject your fans to?
Anyways as I mentioned before Green Arrow is one of the titles I was really looking forward to. I liked the first issue and the second one wasn’t bad either. I like the Oliver Queen character. I am not sold on the villains. They all seem kind of second tier to me. I guess they make up in quantity over quality. except of course when it comes to pages. We only get twenty actual pages of comic book content in this issue. A little light I would say. Then we get a preview of some Batman graphic novel coming out, and I just confirmed that the same preview is in more than one of the comics that I have picked up this week. Awesome! I didn’t feel like reading it the first time do I really need it shoved down my throat in every comic this week or possibly even this month?
As a positive I did like the villains using social media and the internet to draw Green Arrow in. Not that it is a brand new concept. We have seen this before. Still I like my comics current, even if “current” means four or five year old technology.
 I can’t get enough Ultimate action, and let’s face it until recently Ultimate releases have been sporadic at best. Marvel Comics seems to be turning a leaf with the most awesome universe they have and publishing regularly. I tell you what, so far so good. I am digging this new ongoing Ultimates title, I am digging it a lot. The thing about The Ultimate Universe is that when they break something or kill someone for the most part it stays that way. This issue has some serious ramifications for the entire Asgardian mythos. Will things ever be the same in the Ultimate universe? I justy don’t know. And that is what makes these comics so awesome.
The Ultimates issue 1 was scattered. Nick Fury was focused on several incidents all across the globe. Issue 2 on the other hand focuses on the shenanigans taking place in Northern Germany. Here we have the disciples of Reed Richards and their super duper mega futuristic awesome dome causing havok with Thor, Captain Britain and all the other super beings of the EUSS. Here we see some light shed on The Children and we see some action. You know I love it when we see some action. No comic is complete without it.
 Captain Atom was not on my original list of the new 52 that I was going to pick up. I always thought he was just some shrinking dude and never paid him much mind. Well I am keeping an extremely open mind in regards to the new 52 and I have heard some positive things about Captain Atom. So I picked it up and I will tell you what. I thought it seemed pretty cool. What did strike me as interesting is that Captain Atom reminded me of a character that I am quite fond of. Perhaps you have heard of Dr Manhattan? It reminded me of a conversation I once had with a fellow fan boy about how Rorschach was based on a DC character named The Question. Well the internet is an awesome thing and ten minutes later I had uncovered all the facts. Captain Atom was in fact the inspiration for Dr Manhattan. We are talking a very similar power set here. Now this guy is definitely not the same character featured so prominently in one of the greatest comic books in all of history. The current version of Captain Atom is now scientist. He is some kind of pilot. All the details of his origin have not been uncovered at this point. I suppose that is all part of the fun. Anyways I am upgrading Captain Atom to one of my favorite of the new 52. I have always wanted to read a post Watchmen story. Of course the chances that they would screw it are a mathematical probability. I think we can all remember The Dark Knight Returns # 2 and how that turned out. I doubt we will ever see a sequel to The Watchmen, and in all probability, that may be a good thing. I loved The Watchman. I doubt that magic will be repeated anytime soon. We got the movie and that was a beautiful thing. In the meantime who knows, maybe we can enjoy a little Watchmen Light in an ongoing series. Or not. We shall see.Â
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One awesome thing about reading the Hulk over the years is following the changes and transformations that the character goes through. Green Hulk, grey Hulk, smart Hulk, dumb Hulk, king Hulk, and so on and so forth. There have been to many iterations of The Incredible Hulk to even list them all. So for Marvel Comics to find yet another direction to take the Hulk is really rather amazing. Perhaps I should have used incredible instead of amazing, we are talking Hulk not Spider-man here. So the Hulk and Bruce Banner are now separated and living separate lives. This is not a new concept it has happened before. The difference this time is now Bruce Banner is becoming the monster and the Hulk is becoming the man. An interesting twist and quite well written indeed. To top it off the art is awesome. We are only two issues into the fifth volume of The Incredible Hulk and I am hooked. Of course the Hulk is always an easy sale with me. All we need now is more Hulk-sword
