This Week In Comics: 03/08/2006

[Clayface]

Welcome to This Week in Comics for March 8th, 2006 - March 15th, 2006!

This is the place to discuss the comics you've bought this week, whether it be a brand new title or old back-issues. We also welcome and encourage talk about comics in general - news you've read on comic news sites, the state of the industry in general, upcoming issues you're excited about, etc. All we ask is that you please use spoiler brackets in the event that your comments get too detailed concerning a particular storyline. This way the book won't be ruined for anyone who hasn't read it yet.

For a list of the new items shipping this week, please consult Diamond Comics' Shipping List (http://www.diamondcomics.com/shipping/shipping_030806.txt).

To find a comic book store near you, check out the Comic Shop Locator Service (http://csls.diamondcomics.com/).


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Highlights of the Week!



Ace the Bathound's Pick:

http://www.hnabooks.com/book_images/0810958406_m.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810958406/qid=1141743158/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-4542296-6394529?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)....http://www.forbidden-planet.co.uk/acatalog/RRKT1.jpg (http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=004629)
........Mom's Cancer................Retro Rocket #1 (of 4)


Clayface's Picks:

http://www.forbidden-planet.co.uk/acatalog/FELL4.jpg (http://www.forbidden-planet.co.uk/acatalog/Fell__4.html)..........http://www.idwpublishing.com/solicit/mar06/tf3_susm.jpg (http://www.idwpublishing.com/solicit/mar06.shtml)
..................Fell #4.....................Transformers: Infiltration #3



randomguy's Pick:
http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/5009_180x270.jpg

American Virgin #1





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[ManicWebb]

New X-Men #24 - A real tear-jerker. I think this new creative team has finally earned my respect.

Exiles: World Tour TPB - No! Not my 3rd favorite character!

I was going to pick up the new Birds of Prey trade, but my local shop only ordered one copy, and someone else picked it up before I got there... which is amazing, since I got there an hour after the place opened.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

Did someone declare this "Stuart Immonen week" and forget to tell me? The first of a two-part interview with Stuart just went up at Newsarama.com (http://www.newsarama.com/general/Immonen/Immonen01.htm), where he talks more about his webcomic and also goes into his infamous 50 Reasons to Stop Sketching at Conventions (maybe better described as, "A Guide for What Not to Do at a Con"). He's self-publishing 50 Reasons soon, but there's a few samples there for those who want to see some.

And speaking of samples, Pop Culture Shock has some advance Marvel previews (http://popcultureshock.com/features.php?id=1326) for comics coming on March 29, including the Captain America Anniversary special. Elsewhere, Newsarama also has 22 pages of Night Tripper (http://www.newsarama.com/ImageComics/Night_Trippers/Nighttripperspreview.htm), which combines 60's British pop culture with vampires. Coming in May from Image.

And speaking of Image, Comic Book Resources has a feature article with M. Zachary Sherman (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=6827), author of SEAL Team Seven, which very nearly was one of my picks of the week. The book was formerly at AiT/PlanetLar and is now at Image for reasons largely unexplained. Lots of the same preview pages as earlier articles, but those were quite a while ago. Look for it on your comic shop stands now!

That may have sounded like an ad, but it wasn't meant to be. Steven Grant has things that sound like ads in his column this week (http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=pd&article=2397), but that's because they ARE ads -- ads in comic book format from the 1940's, that is. Interesting stuff from a historic standpoint, but it's a lot funnier than you'd think watching Sam Spade shill hair creme while catching nuclear criminals.

Seven.

Boy, I have a lot of comics in my stack on my desk here. Let's see if I'm capable of being brief. Wouldn't bet the farm on that, though...

The American Way #1 (http://www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/022206/aw1cvr.html) comes from John Ridley and Georges Jeanty. Those who say things like, "Politics shouldn't be in comic books" should steer well clear of this one. Ridley combines two themes I'm not terribly fond of ("The Golden Days of Yesteryear weren't" and conspiracy theories), and almost manages to spin gold out of them. However, any failure to achieve liftoff so far really comes from feeling cheated by the 22-page story format; just as the issue finishes its setup, it's over. It's a good start that's ultimately frustrated by the limitations of the monthly comic.

The 50-cent Buckaroo Banzai Preview Edition suffers from something of the same problem, in that it really doesn't manage to accomplish much of anything before dropping you off a cliff(hanger). It doesn't help that over half of it is a dream sequence drawn by someone who could use a bit more clarity in his sequential storytelling. It's certainly not a comic that I think truly communicates the brilliance of Dr. Banzai, and I kind of wonder how the Banzai Institute (http://www.banzai-institute.com/) thought this would be an adequate re-introduction of Dr. Banzai to the comic-book reading public. Still, disappointing Banzai is better than no Banzai.

Finally, we come to Season of the Witch #3, which I suspect I'm going to need to re-read from the beginning once I have all 4 issues. My initial response to the series was disappointment that the whimsy seen in the first issue (OK, the "zeroth" issue) cover was nowhere to be found in the actual comics once they showed up. However, it's a serviceable swords-and-sorcery story that still manages to surprise me every now and then. In this issue, we see one plot line come to a sudden and abrupt end, which by itself separates it from most other fantasy stories. This plot twist comes as such a surprise that it's a bit hard to fathom where creators Jai Nitz and Nicola Scott could possibly be going with this in the fourth and final issue. It's been a good time for fantasy comics on the stands, and while this may not be as awesome as Dark Horse's Conan or as solidly entertaining as Dynamite's Red Sonja, it's got some definite appeal of its own.

-- Ed/Ace

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

The leading link for the day is probably this one about novelist Jodi Picoult (http://www.bookpage.com/0603bp/jodi_picoult.html), who's made her lead character a comic book writer/artist. The Tenth Circle apparently centers on a guy who was raised with Eskimos who ends up writing and drawing comic books. The novel will supposedly include "excerpts" from the comic. Looking for a sign of the growing awareness that "comics aren't just for kids?" From the article:


As the novel progresses, so does his comic book in progress, several pages of which appear at intervals throughout the novel, giving us insight into Daniel's Dante-esque descent into hell.

"The primary reason the graphic novel is there is because Daniel is not a man of words, he's a man of art," Picoult explains. "His character is not going to come to you from what he can reveal to you in words; it's going to come from what he can reveal to you in pictures."
Just might be something to keep an eye out for.

And speaking of comics that aren't for the typical audience, Tania del Rio has some interesting things to say about the presence of manga at the New York Comic-Con (http://popcultureshock.com/features.php?id=1316). I figure if it's what gets more women and kids exposed to comics, it's only going to be a good thing in the long run.

Stuart Immonen continues his interview from yesterday (http://www.newsarama.com/general/Immonen/Immonen2.htm), as he talks more about his work for the Big 2 (as opposed to his more creator-owned stuff). I haven't read through the entire interview yet, but it seems to me that if you're going to talk to him about his artwork, you'd want to include more of his artwork rather than just covers.

The latest Comics Urban Legends post (http://goodcomics.blogspot.com/2006/03/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-41.html) tackles the tie between Black Panther the superhero and the Black Panthers the radical black political party of the 1970's. Also digs into whether Jack Kirby ever sued Marvel and what ever happened to the Blue Beetle weekly that was promised but never delivered.

Finally, the Comic Book Science link comes (again) from DefenseTech.org, which goes into exoskeleton research (http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002217.html). The Warwick Mills company, which just got a contract from the Navy to "create a lightweight, flexible, multi-layered system that will effectively mitigate the powerful forces of tension and compression that can cause traumatic limb separation caused by IED blast." In other words, they want to make an Iron Man suit that will keep you from getting blown apart by a roadside bomb. I'm pretty sure there ain't a soldier in the world who'd say no to boot jets, too.

Six.

Today's reviews are for books that aren't quite what they ought to be. Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy #2 ended up being a pretty major letdown. It managed to be both too short and padded for the trade at the same time. Nearly every important fact in the book is repeated at least twice, which makes things drag on for longer than they need to. It might be intended to be a running joke that Easy Company constantly mentions that they could use a prayer from one of the characters in the book, but it's not a very good joke and definitely not one that needs to be repeated 4 or 5 times in one issue. This constant repetition keeps up until you hit the end of the issue and realize you haven't really gotten very far since Easy jumped out of the airplane in issue #1. It stings even more knowing that Joe Kubert has an excellent WWII story in him (http://forums.toonzone.net/showpost.php?p=2076496&postcount=3). It's too bad that this isn't it. I'm pre-ordered through #4, but I'm dropping it as of now.

I want to like DC/Vertigo's Testament by Douglas Rushkoff and Liam Sharp. I really do. Unfortunately, the central hook (that the Bible tells the stories which we live out every day) doesn't seem to be integrated with the story as much as it feels bolted on and kept in place by duct tape. It's a shame, because I think there's the roots of 2 good stories in this comic book -- the straight Bible re-telling and the straight dystopian future. Unfortunately, the two go together about as well as sardines and motor oil -- any connection between the two threads feels forced and imposed, detracting from one or the other but often both. After 3 issues, this series is getting dropped, too, although I may give a crack to the trade paperback later.

Dark Horse's Perhapanauts attracted my attention through its insane solicitation text. Unfortunately, it seems that Todd DeZago and Craig Rousseau didn't have so much as a 4-issue mini-series as much as they had a bunch of material, some of which was too long to fit in a 1-issue comic and some of which was way too short. It feels like they tried pasting them all together to see if they worked. Intermittently, it does, but the end result is oddly paced -- the first issue contains one short story and one full story that is continued through issues 2 and 3. Then, issue 3 contains another 3 short stories that aren't really connected. The stuff they have just doesn't seem to fit very well in the standard periodical format at all. This might be better to wait for the trade.

-- Ed/Ace

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

What say we start off with previews today? Like this one for The Last Sin of Mark Grimm #1 (http://www.newsarama.com/SilentDevil/Grimm/Grimmpreview.htm), which looks like a slightly less nasty version of Sin City?

There's also the preview pages at the newest Comicon.com PULSE News feature: Seven Up (http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=004852), which focuses on the up-and-coming talent in the comics field. This one is for Jason Burns and his new comic The Expendable One. Content Warning: Lots of 'sploded brains all over the panels in this one, though it isn't anything you wouldn't have seen in Marvel Zombies, I don't think.

And...um...that's it for previews. Seems that both Pop Culture Shock and Mile High Comics are late in getting up their previews for next week's books from Marvel and DC.

Luckily, Pop Culture Shock redeems itself by giving Eric Shanower a column. His latest one talks about photoreferencing (http://popcultureshock.com/features.php?id=1324) and his experiences with it. The rat story is pretty funny in a sick, sad sort of way.

And speaking of rodentia, how about the success story that is Mouse Guard, huh? Creator David Petersen gets interviewed by Broken Frontier (http://www.brokenfrontier.com/lowdown/details.php?id=349&PHPSESSID=95f009f5f1b9dc8dbe556d524d7ab472) about the series and how it came to be.

Petersen is a relative newbie, as compared to someone like Keith Giffen, just interviewed by Newsarama (http://www.newsarama.com/images/interviews/2006/giffen/GiffenBio.htm) about his long and storied career in the biz. The difference between print and audio is that he may come off as a bit of a jerk in print, but having briefly met Giffen at NYCC, I'm inclined to take all that stuff with tongue firmly in cheek.

Heidi MacDonald's The Beat is often tongue-in-cheek, but she's not when she's talking about Rube Goldberg superhero puppets (http://www.comicon.com/thebeat/2006/03/friends_of_lulu_award_noms_ope.html), or about the new Friends of Lulu award nominations (http://www.comicon.com/thebeat/2006/03/bold_teens_channel_goldberg_su.html). OK, maybe she is about the superhero puppets, but the people doing it seem pretty serious about the whole thing, don't they?

I'm out of segues, but this next link doesn't need one. It does deserve big bold letters, though. Paul Chadwick has a blog (http://concrete.blogs.com/paul_chadwicks_weblog/). Those of you who have read Concrete know why this is exciting. Those of you who have not -- what the screaming blue heck are you waiting for? It's insanely great. Go read it! Though, for those who own them, are all those new and little TPBs in black-and-white, even when the originals were in color (like for Fragile Creature)? Like, really? Yuck!

And, finally, today's Comic Book Science link comes from MSNBC today, which talks about hyperdrive in the real world (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11730484/from/RSS/). She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid.

Five.

There may be a longer review this weekend.

-- Ed/Ace

[Spider-Man]

If anyone is interested the sales numbers for the January comics have been posted up inthe DC and Marvel news groups and I'll link them below. I always enjoy checking out the monthly sales numbers. Paul O'Brien and Marc-Oliver Frisch do great work. Here are the links:

DC Comics sales for January 2006 (http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.arts.comics.dc.universe/msg/2570f0854ee3f326?)

Marvel Comics sales for January 2006 (http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe/msg/0441e6ba87a350a3?)

[ManicWebb]

I reserved a copy of the new Birds of Prey trade, and the store got its second shipment today. It's been a long week for me. Also, I wish DC would release these trades a little more quickly. Do you know how long it's been since Sensei & Student?

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

Leading the links today is the retrospective on Walt Simonson's 1980's Thor (http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=62619) run, courtesy of Newsarama. OK, maybe not all of it, but enough of the really cool bits.

And while we're speaking of gods in comics, it's time for one of the BPoL's favorite recurring themes: Hey Kids! Free Comics! You can read Image Comics' Godland #8 on line for free free free (http://www.newsarama.com/ImageComics/Godland/08/Godland08_full.htm) at Newsarama.

Thor and Godland have Jack Kirby in common (the former being a co-creation and the latter being homage/update). He was a man ahead of his time, and now even moreso given this post on Mark Evanier's weblog (http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2006_03_13.html#011139) (it's the one about "Kosmic Kirby," not the tail end of the Wonder Woman pilot show).

While lots of people know about Kirby's action/adventure comics, it's only the hardcore fans that know he was doing romance comics for Marvel before Stan brought the Fantastic Four along. This is a nice segue to the announcement that Tom Beland's super-awesome True Story Swear to God (http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=62701) is moving to Image Comics. While this is great news for Image and for Beland, it's still more circumstantial evidence for the impending collapse of AiT/PlanetLar, which would suck if it were true.

And while we're on the topic of good indie companies, Boom! Studios seems to be doing a lot of the right things. Here's a preview of their Planetary Brigade #2 mini-series (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=6849) -- a definite must-buy if you're into the whole Giffen/DeMatteis bwah-hah-hah combined with solid superheroing that they perfected on their Justice League comics.

And while we're going all retro, here's a Comic Book Resources feature with Tony Bedard and Jason Orfalas (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=6839) after the release of the first issue of Retro Rocket, which is getting a lot of positive buzz around the comics internet.

Benefits for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund generate a lot of positive buzz on the Internet, too. If you're in the Baltimore area in early April, you can win an auction to see a Baltimore Orioles game with writes Kurt Busiek and Lawrence Watt-Evans (http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/cbldf_signing_baseball_in_baltimore/). Or, as the press release puts it, "Watch Baseball with Bearded Fat Guys." Heidi MacDonald has photos (http://www.comicon.com/thebeat/2006/03/get_comics_signed_go_watch_the.html) in case you don't believe it.

And finally, because I have no segue for it otherwise, here's an interesting post at Comics Should Be Good on assorted Batman eras (http://goodcomics.blogspot.com/2006/03/friday-in-various-batcaves.html).

Four.

Two BPoL reviews today, vaguely related to things mentioned above. The first is Boom! Studios' Planetary Brigade #1 by Giffen & DeMatteis with art by a whole raft of people. Fans of their run on Justice League or either of the two recent revivals would do well to get this special-ordered from their local comic shop. It's got the same blend of fast-talking humor with really solid superhero storytelling. Some say that the PB is a thinly veiled analog to the Justice League, but I don't much see that past the Batman and Superman analogs. Since DC and Marvel don't go much for comedic takes on superheroes (or even comics where it's OK to laugh while you're reading them), this is about the only game in town past Dan Slott. Good thing it's so cool.

The second review ties in to the Tom Beland mention above, for Marvel's I (Heart) Marvel: Web of Romance one-shot. I pretty much bought this for Beland's name. By and large, I was not disappointed. Spider-Man is seeking out a special gift for Mary Jane for Valentine's Day -- a task made harder by the fact that apparently MJ is really hard to shop for. I thought the issue rang very true to everybody concerned right up to the end, which I can't really talk about without spoiler brackets:

In the end, Peter gives MJ a pair of bracelets made out of his old webshooters, activated wirelessly by 2 fake thumbnails. The justification is that it's an emergency defense mechanism in case some super-baddie goes to menace MJ. While this is pretty cool in context, it falls down completely if you think about it a little. Giving MJ webshooters just openly advertises her attachment to Spider-Man, which would end up making her MORE of a target rather than less.

Nice attempt with good humor, but the big surprise twist just doesn't make any sense in the end.

On a related note, I (Heart) Marvel: Marvel Ai is a bit disappointing. The most successful story in the book is a dialogue-less story that centers on jealousy between Elektra and the Black Widow over Daredevil. Second best is an oddly touching story about Medusa of the Inhumans, and how hard it is to be married to Black Bolt. Beyond that, the rest of it is fine, silly teen romance with manga trappings that doesn't really go anywhere or add anything that we haven't seen before, but with smaller eyes. It's not bad, but it's not anything to write home about.

-- Ed/Ace

[Damien]

Picked up....

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #40

Sandman Mystery Theatre #6,7,58

I'm very interested to see where the new Aquaman stuff goes. I may actually have a consistent monthly purchase on my hands.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

The leading links for today's edition are interviews. Pop Culture Shock has just put up the latest OEMED, as Michael Avon Oeming interviews Paul Jenkins (http://popcultureshock.com/features.php?id=1322). Jenkins reveals a more troubled side to his zany, happy-go-lucky attitude he usually exhibits in his Newsarama column, while still tossing in a lot of that happy go lucky stuff as well.

Once you're done with Jenkins, click on over to the audio interview with Joe Sacco (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0603/S00195.htm).

Other than that, it seems to be mostly previews today, but quite a few for the "Hey Kids! Free Comics!" pile. Courtesy of Heidi MacDonald (http://www.comicon.com/thebeat/2006/03/awesome_free_comics.html) are two links, one for Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/johngreen/quicken/series.php?view=archive&chapter=2773) by John Green and Dave Roman, which has a great visual of a dragon flying around New York City, and then for 20 pages worth of Colleen Doran's self-published A Distant Soil (http://www.imagecomics.com/iconline.php?title=a_distant_soil_001&page=cover&resize=now). If you like either, it looks like there's plenty more where they came from.

On a more immediate plane, we get Mile High Comics' previews for comics coming out tomorrow from DC and Marvel (http://www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/firstlook031506.html), followed by the updated list of Marvel Comics coming on March 29 (http://popcultureshock.com/features.php?id=1326) from Pop Culture Shock. Even further out is the preview for Ptolus #1 (http://www.newsarama.com/DBPro/Ptolus/PtolusPtreview.htm) by Monte Cook. I think I can gauge how old you are (or how hardcore of a nerd you are) by your reaction to that name, but anybody who spent (or wasted) any serious time with Dungeons and Dragons ought to recognize it. Being one of those people, I just wish I liked the comic more.

And finally, for today's Comic Book Science link, how about a link to NASA about nanobots (http://www.niac.usra.edu/studies/study.jsp?id=1196&cpnum=05-02&phase=II&last=Dubowsky&first=Steven&middle=&title=Microbots%20for%20Large-Scale%20Planetary%20Surface%20and%20Subsurface%20Exploration&organization=Massachusetts%20Institute%20of%20Technology&begin_date=2005-09-01%2000:00:00.0&end_date=2007-08-31%2000:00:00.0)?

Three.

Grabbing some comics out of the pile for reviewing today, on top of the list is Planetary Brigade #1 by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, with a bunch of artists doing between 2-5 pages each. This makes the artwork slightly disjointed, but not so way off that you can't recognize who's who when the artist changes. Fans of the pair's old Justice League comics will find the same snappy patter over serious superheroics. I think Giffen and DeMatteis are better than they have been in years, and this book may well top their more recent Justice League outings. The appeal of those books lay as much in the nostalgia factor and catching up with old friends as it did in the writing itself, but this one manages to stand up on its own two feet, throwing us 6 new heroes to love and hate with only two clearly recognizable heroic archetypal stand-ins. Nice trick.

And speaking of fun superheroics, next is Dan Slott and Andrea DiVito's Thing #1-4. I have to admit that the first 3 issues left me a bit cold. They were fine, solid superhero comics and it's clear that Slott has a real affinity for all the characters involved, but it just felt like there was something missing. As it turns out, #4 reveals that the something missing was a large, drooling, teleporting dog. With this issue, Slott adds Lockjaw, the Inhumans' dog, to the title's regular cast, and manages to nail Lockjaw's more canine traits and the inherent ridiculousness of the concept, while establishing the real and solid connection between Ben Grimm and Lockjaw. I was getting a bit antsy with this title, but #4 proves it: Lockjaw makes everything better.

Flipping well over to the other side of the fence, I'll end with a Brian Wood three-fer. I liked what I've seen in the title so far, but DMZ #4 is the first issue that has the insane greatness that I was hoping to find in it. Having set up the situation in issues 1-3 (and dropping a number of war story cliches on the floor with a loud clatter along the way), this issue hits the ground running, throwing reporter Matt Roth into the wilds of Central Park in wintertime as he searches for a rogue Special Forces team known only as the Ghosts. Matt manages to serve wonderfully as reader-surrogate, exploring this strange-but-familiar environment and reacting largely the way we would. It's a deep and satisfying issue that really requires very little setup to understand and appreciate, and I think it will serve as a great entry point into the DMZ world.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for Local to really knock my socks off. Issue #1 was a fine, if slightly derivative, riff on presenting how the same story ends differently with only minor changes. Issue #2 was an indie short film that was quirky and believable specifically because it was so improbable. Issue #3 is an extended character study, focusing on former members of a band living in Richmond, VA. Unfortunately, the issue suffers from the same problem I have with A Room with a View or The Ice Storm in that I really don't like anybody involved. It also feels like the issue goes through its 24 pages of introductions just to ensure that we begin to "get" these people right as the issue ends. Knowing how the series has worked so far, I don't expect to see many of the characters here in future issues, except perhaps tangentially. Considering the amount of thought and craft that went into this, reading the comic is incredibly frustrating, and I'm beginning to wonder if waiting for the trade (or just hoarding the single issues to read once the story is finished) might be a better idea.

The last Wood comic is Supermarket #1, which is the one I jokingly call the, "Prove how counter-consumerism you are by buying my comic book" comic. However, don't take that to mean that it's bad (or that Wood himself is unaware of this irony), since the reality is quite the opposite. We get a really solid read on lead character Pella Suzuki, who loses both her parents and nearly everything she has in one fell swoop. Despite being a little annoying initially, we still feel for her by the end of the issue, especially as her confusion matches our own. It's a strong start to a series, and I'm eager to see what comes next.

-- Ed/Ace

[Stu]

And speaking of fun superheroics, next is Dan Slott and Andrea DiVito's Thing #1-4. I have to admit that the first 3 issues left me a bit cold. They were fine, solid superhero comics and it's clear that Slott has a real affinity for all the characters involved, but it just felt like there was something missing. As it turns out, #4 reveals that the something missing was a large, drooling, teleporting dog. With this issue, Slott adds Lockjaw, the Inhumans' dog, to the title's regular cast, and manages to nail Lockjaw's more canine traits and the inherent ridiculousness of the concept, while establishing the real and solid connection between Ben Grimm and Lockjaw. I was getting a bit antsy with this title, but #4 proves it: Lockjaw makes everything better.

I thought the same. Whilst I did enjoy #1-3, I felt something was missing. I don't know if it was because of the sudden leap for me (I never saw The Thing becoming a billioniare, I dropped Fantastic Four the moment Waid and Wieringo left the book) but I absoloutly loved #4. I don't think I've ever re-read a comic as many times over as I have with this one in such a short time. I'm not sure if it's because the rest of the FF was featured in the book or not, but I absoloutly loved it.

Plus, Lockjaw man. How do you top a giant, teleporting dog? It can't be done. I think She Hulk is dipping a little too, unfortunatly. Perhaps Lockjaw can save the day there too? Or is this a job for Awesome Andy? :)