A fairly heavy week of books, dominated by “events”.  We’ll do our best to update these as soon as we can.  We’re a little busy with Fan Expo ’09 and PAX ’09.

Monthly Comics

Avengers: The Initiative #27 – The Shadow Initiative assaults 42 in a two part story.  The first half is utterly fantastic and actually somewhat moving.  The second part is pure fighting.  These two parts couldn’t be further apart in tone.

Batman: The Widening Gyre #1 – It was not that long ago that Kevin Smith took on Batman and he has chosen to do so again to the same results.  A not bad, but also not great story (so far).  You can’t help but wonder if his brilliant entry into the comics world with Daredevil was his highest point he’ll never reach again.  And this coming from a Kevin Smith fanboy.

Batman and Robin #3 – I was not a fan of Grant Morrison’s take on Batman with R.I.P., but this new series has been really good so far.  A definite creepy vibe, we’ll see how his next arc shapes up.

Blackest Night: Titans #1 – I figure this issue would have  little more oomph if I knew the history more of the group.  It does explain it, but there’s not much of an emotional connection.  It’s what you can expect from most of the Blackest Night limited series.  The first issue sees someone come back from the dead and beat to crap the person that would miss them.

Dark Avengers #8 – The Utopia crossover starts to come to it’s conclusion as Scott Summers’ final plan goes into action.

Dark Reign: Elektra #5 – The end to the limited series.  I wish I knew of the event it references as the series might have a greater impact to me but it’s nice to see some items tied up.  We’ll see what the long term impact of the series is, if anything.

Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-man #3 – Spider-man plays with the Mayor and takes on the crew that’s trying to kill him.  A pretty entertaining series.

Dark Reign: Skrull Kill Krew #4 – The Krew kills Skrulls.  Really it is that simple.  The series is towards the better end of the Dark Reign limited series.

Dark X-Men: The Beginning #3 – More stories about Osborn’s X-Men.  Emma Frost checks out Namor’s mind, Osborn recruits Mystique, and one member who got away.

Deadpool #14 – Overall I have to say the whole Deadpool as a pirate story was weak.  I definitely didn’t enjoy the tone which was more comical than action.  We’ll see how the next issue fares before deciding if this gets dumped.

Deadpool: Suicide Kings #5 – It’s sad that out of the three Deadpool series this one’s the best of the bunch, and it’s a limited series.  A good mix of action with some comedy.

Fantastic Four #570 – I’ve been pretty vocal on how I was unimpressed by Waid’s stint on the FF.  But that’s over and in comes a new creative team.  A return to some unanswered plots all the way back from the Civil War event.  So far so good and the series gets a stay of execution from being dropped.

Green Lantern #45 – It’s the Star Sapphires vs. the Sinestro Corps. and the Black Lanterns decide to crash the party.  An awesome issue.

Guardians of the Galaxy #17 – Taking place just after the War of Kings the team must deal with the space rift with a shocking ending.  One of the best series out there.

the New Avengers #56 – Dr. Harrow’s villains takes on the de-powered New Avengers and the newly arrived Dark Avengers.

New Mutants #4 – The team continues to take on Legion as the first story arc comes to an end.

Secret Warriors #7 – The team decides it needs to make some bank as the series begins to tie into the recent reveal in Thunderbolts.

Dark Wolverine #77 – Daken continues to toy with both the Dark Avengers and the Fantastic Four in what has turned out to be an excellent series.

X-Force #18 – The team picks up the final pieces of their return as X-23 is taken into custody.

X-Men: Forever #6 – Free from continuity Claremont is free to weave his vision of the 1990’s X-Men which he does well enough to keep me interested.  The problem with the comic is the poor art, up that a bit and you’ve got a solid series.

Graphic Novels

Dark Entries – The other Vertigo Crime book to come out last week.  I enjoyed Brian Azzarello’s entry I had to try this one too.  The story follow John Constantine as he investigates a macabre house from a reality show.  If only Marvel Noir went this route, I’d be more excited by that line.  Beautiful packaging and so far great stories.  Kudos DC!