Quite The Week Of Comics

It kind of sneaked up on me, but this turned out to be an impressive week of comics... possibly the best we've seen all year. Consider what came out:

Final Crisis # 4 - The first issue of the mini-series after "evil wins," and it's pretty hardcore: only a few of the DCU's heroes are still unaffected by Darkseid's Anti-Life Equation, while the vast majority of the Earth's population is held under its sway. I just finished reading it, and it was perhaps the finest issue yet in a series that's been growing on me more and more.

Final Crisis: Submit - This FC one-shot, written by Grant Morrison himself, showcases Black Lightning and the Tattooed Man in some sort of struggle against Darkseid's forces. It ties into FC # 4, but I haven't checked it out yet.

Superman: New Krypton Special - This one-shot launches the Superman-family event that will run through Action Comics, Superman and Supergirl over the next several months. Each of the regular staff for those three titles contributes to this double-sized special, and that's great news to me! The story, in a nutshell: the bottled city of Kandor has been rescued from Brainiac, and expanded in the frozen reaches of the Earth. So what does the addition of 100,000 Kryptonians, all with the same powers as Kal-El and Kara mean for the rest of the world?

Secret Invasion # 7 - The penultimate issue of Marvel's big summer event is out today, and while I'm sure we'll get mostly padding and water-treading (leading up to next month's finale which supposedly then introduces some big change called "Dark Reign"), it's obviously fairly significant. Too bad the art's so weak and the storytelling's so stretched out.

Captain America # 43 - Marvel's most consistently-excellent series adds another issue to the legacy, as Bucky begins to really grow comfortable in his new role as Cap.

Daredevil # 112 - DD continues his introductory run-in with Lady Bullseye, who apparently learned everything she knows about fighting and killing from watching her male counterpart (that would be Bullseye, the killer of Daredevil's love interests, Elektra and Karen Page, I think).

Criminal 2 # 6 - Completing the Ed Brubaker trifecta (along with Cap and DD), here comes the 3rd part of "Bad Night," which I just had the pleasure of reading the first 2 installments of, last night.

Thor: The Truth of History - A favourite creator of mine, Alan Davis, writes and pencils this one-shot recounting a past tale of the Thunder God back in the time of the Pharaohs. With a long-lived hero like Thor, it's kind of surprising they haven't done more such stories over the years, since you can plunk him down in just about any period of history!

So there's 8 comics, all of which came out today, and most of which are enough to make a pretty good week all on their own. I'd say that constitutes an amazingly strong line-up, wouldn't you?