On the radar this week:

Conan #27

Conan: Books of Thoth #2

Fury: Peacemaker #3

Justice #5 - Still on schedule, and a good story.

Man-Bat #1 - Gonna give the first issue a look.

Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy #4 - Kubert Goodness!

Wolverine: Origins #1 - I'll give the first issue a try.

X-Statix Presents: Deadgirl #4 - A fun little read, makes me wish X-Statix was still around.

Robert K.  Live from Austin

For me:

BIRDS OF PREY #93
JLA CLASSIFIED #20
JUSTICE #5

CAPTAIN AMERICA #17
DAREDEVIL #84
NEW AVENGERS #18
SPIDER-WOMAN ORIGIN #5
SQUADRON SUPREME #2
WOLVERINE ORIGINS #1

DC

• BATMAN SECOND PTG #651-I think I missed this. Having trouble knowing with all these reprints . I did miss it. Issue was ok
• JUSTICE #5 (OF 12) -book has had a lot of set up, but it looks like things will be rocking now.  Superman, unfortuantely, looks like he did in the Silver Age-50 years old
• SUPERGIRL LEGION OF SUPER HEROES 2ND PTG #16-maybe I may drop now that Supergirl is added. Jump off. (Jumped off)

Marvel

• ANNIHILATION NOVA #1 (OF 4) very good 7 of 10
• CAPTAIN AMERICA #17  interesting new story
• DAREDEVIL #84  (didn;t see it)
• IRON MAN #7-maybe ( didn;t get it)
• NEW AVENGERS #18 -having been disappointed, I ill sya this-best issue of its run. Lots of action, and like Spidey, I know what's up with Michael 8 of 10
• SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #25 -odd little book, not bad 5 of 10
• SENTINEL SQUAD ONE #4 (OF 5) I've enjoyed this. Rhodey fans take note of this mini.  6 of 10
• WOLVERINE ORIGINS #1 Five of them.  Just kidding. It was a decent start but i am not sure how this book will go or how necessary it is

Nextwave 4: very good. And I'm happy that this book works as two parts arcs so far. These days it's something scarce. I've nothing against giant epics (Roy Thomas did great ones in Submariner) but this days it's more 2 or 3 parts arcs told in 6 parts than real 6 parts epics. I hate decompression. Here 2 parts stories are told in 2 parts. That's better. I love Nextwave. And both the story and the art are great on this book. And there's funny dialogues.

Essential Hulk vol.2         

Big week:

• JSA CLASSIFIED 11 - Playing catch up on this title
• JLA CLASSIFIED 20 - Waiting until the Simone/Garcia-Lopez arc is finished, then I'll read it.
• MANHUNTER 21 - The BOTD trade of a year or so ago got me on this title and I've stuck around because it's always an entertaining read.
• BIRDS OF PREY 93 - Interesting OYL story has me curious about what happened with the Black Canary.
• RED SONJA 9 - Good stuff.  I'm usually not a big sword and sorcery fan, but this is well written by Oeming and well drawn by Rubi.
• DD 84 - Big Brubaker fan, but I'm playing catch up on this title.
• WOLVERINE: ORIGINS 1 - Thought I'd give it a try, if only for the Steve Dillon art.
• THE NEW AVENGERS 18 - Curious about this thing that has destroyed the original Alpha Flight.  Although I hate, hate, HATE Spider-Man and Wolverine as members, the last few issues have actually had some ::gasp!:: action in them.  Willing to see where it goes, as well as the guest artists coming along in a few months starting with Howard Cheykin on Captain America.  Speaking of Cap...
• CAPTAIN AMERICA 17 - This is the best Cap run in a long time.  Love Brubaker's take on the character and I'm warming to the fill-in work by Perkins.
• SPIDER-WOMAN: ORIGIN 5 - Surprisingly, it hews very close to the original origin while giving us a little something new in every issue.  I love the character, so a mini-series starring her isn't a tough sell on me.
• SGT. ROCK: THE PROPHECY 4 - Good stuff.  Enjoying this series more than I thought I would because I've never been a huge Sgt. Rock fan.  Picked it up for Joe Kubert art, and am sticking around for the story.
• JUSTICE 5 - Playing catch up on this title.
• ANGEL: OLD FRIENDS 5 - Interesting story, picking up where the series left off.

Finally, I picked up the most recent EX MACHINA trade, FACT V. FICTION.  I liked the first TPB enough to buy the second, which I liked even better so I figured why not see where it's all going.  BKV is a favorite of mine, and he hasn't disappointed me yet with anything he's done.

Plug time: Not sure if anyone here is picking up BATMAN: JOURNEY INTO KNIGHT.  I believe it's a maxi-series (8 issues so far) written by Andrew Helfer with art by Tan Eng Huat.  For those of you who have or are pining for a Batman that's not "crazy" and who doesn't perform ninja tricks every five panels, this is a book for you.  Really well written with a Batman that actually enjoys what he's doing and smiles along the way.  It's the tale of a young Bruce Wayne (hence the title JOURNEY INTO KNIGHT), how he first comes into his Wayne inheritance, and his first love.  Sounds like not a lot of Batman, I know, but that's not the case at all.  Pretty much wall-to-wall action starring a Batman we haven't seen in a very long time.  I write about it now because I just read issues 2 - 8 yesterday and felt I had to plug it here.  Really good stuff.

Robert Kowalewski II wrote: The New Mutants TPB was on the shelves today.

Saw it.  Thought about it.  Put it back.  At $24.99, I thought it was way too expensive.  I enjoyed the issues, have them all in fact, but not enough to shell out that kind of money.  I'll wait for the inevitable ESSENTIAL volume to come out.