A lot of books out this week and most are part of my monthly “must read”.

Monthly Comics

Avengers: The Initiative #19 – Coming after the end of the main Secret Invasion book, we see the clean up by the Initiative teams and the Skull Kill Krew.

Dark Reign: New Nation – A preview of the new series coming out of Secret Invasion.  All the short stories are pretty good and some are downright excellent.  Looks like a great batch of new comics.

Deadpool #5 – The off beat story telling is fantastic as this issue jumps around like a Tarantino movie.  It’s great this character is getting much more focus and being folded into the greater Marvel Universe.

Ex Machina #40 – Vaughn and Harris break the wall going “meta” and bringing themselves and their friends into the “real” world of Mayor Hundred as he decides who will draw a comic book version of his memoir.  Vaughn takes us into what I hope was a true reflection of 9/11 and his actual recollection of events.  He’s one of the few who brings up that it was primary day and goes on to mention his listening to Stern before climbing to his roof.  Out of all of the historical recounting of the day, it’s possible this issue might be one of the most important.  It’ll be interesting as the final year of this series winds down and it turns out the entire series really was a personal reflection of 9/11 and it’s affect on NYC and politics.

Fables #79 – The new arc is still being set up as something is up with magical spells and the new villain begins to make his move.

The Invincible Iron Man #8 – The roles or flipped, as Stark goes from abuses of due process of civil liberties becomes one protecting them.  The new status quo is set as Stark becomes a wanted man.

The Mighty Avengers #20 – A touching issue honoring the loss of the Wasp and Hank Pym realizes the horrors committed in his name and the world events he missed.

Thor: God-Size – There’s the monthly series and then there’s Matt Fraction’s one shots.  Both are excellent writing and make my monthly “must read” list.

Thunderbolts #127 – Bullseye and Venom are let out to play as they hunt one of their teammates.  This book is best when the characters are let off their leashes and their madness takes over.  It’s looking like this series is going to get good again.

Uncanny X-Men #505 – Matt Fraction’s X-men takes on a much different type of story telling.  Instead of action and adventure, the stories are slower paced and have actual character development.

The Walking Dead #56 – Kirkman’s brilliant writing shows when he focuses on character interaction as opposed to straight up action.  The flows, self-doubt, and psychosis of living in a world brought to it’s knees is shown during the quiet moments.  This issue is a quiet reflection continuing to set up the next arc and introducing us to the new players in this multi-act play.

Watchmen #1 – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ brilliant series is re-printed in the lead up to March 09’s movie.  One of the most important works of literature in the past 100 years.

X-Factor #38 – Peter David does great story telling, but again the art causes the story to suffer.

X-Men: Kingbreaker #1 – A nice start to this mini-series and eventually War of Kings.  Though I have to say it reminds me of the Star Wars prequels a little too much.

X-Men: Legacy #219 – Xavier gets around to finally talking with his brother Cain Marko.  A tale of choices and redemption.

Graphic Novels

Villains United – I’ve enjoyed DC’s Secret Six series so much I felt I needed to go back and check out their earlier appearances.