It was a pretty good week for me. I enjoyed everything I read. I bought four new comics - Astro City #44, Kong of Skull Island #11, Cerebus in Hell #4 and Cave Carson has an Electric Eye #9 - and when I read them, I really had time to focus and read every word and take the time to get into them and enjoy them.

My ritual when I read the new comics is to save what I think most likely to be best for last. (This week, that was Astro City #44.) Then I try to pick something else that looks really good for the first comic because I don't want to start off with a dud. (It's been a while since I read the latest Detective Comics first or last.)

In between, I then go to what looks likely to be the worst comics and read them in increasing level of quality.

After I decided to read Astro City last, I looked at the remaining three comics and decided to go with Cerebus in Hell. I haven't read this title before, though I have heard of it. Kong and Cave Carson are both titles I'm disappointed with a lot of the time, making Cerebus in Hell the obvious choice.



Cerebus in Hell #4

Using Gustave Dore art for Dante's Inferno as a backdrop, Cerebus has been inserted into the adventure. Virgil and Dante are regular character. Every page is an independent gag.

It's not for everyone. Some of the humor is childish, but there's an unmistakable charm to all of it. Some of it is pretty damn funny. And you have to have more than a passing interest in Western literature and mythology to get all the jokes.

The Tetragrammaton gag - it made me laugh out loud. It's been YEARS since I thought of the Tetragrammaton.

Any comic book gets a lot of points for a Tetragrammaton joke.

Yeah, I love the symmetry of using Manchester Black here when Mahnke did the art for  "What's so funny about truth, justice and the American way?". I almost thought Batman was going to be the villain at the end but Black's involvement is fun.

Teen Titans #8 - Part 2 of the Lazarus Contract.

NuWally is still upset over learning that Barry knew his father's true identity and didn't reveal it to him till after his father's death. Through flashbacks up till the present, we see how Slade manipulates NuWally's grief and wanting to reunite with his father (in a similar way that he wants his son Grant back) into getting NuWally to help him, which NuWally reluctantly agrees to.

Meanwhile, the Teen Titans, realizing that something is up with NuWally, met up with the Titans who still can't find their Wally. Friction between the teams rise more when Nightwing finally admits to striking some bargain or contract with Slade years ago in connection somehow to protecting the team. Putting that aside, using a nifty bit of logic, the teams track down Slade's hideout and find Wally, only to see that Slade has already taken advantage of NuWally's help in literally the fastest way possible.

The highlight here is the teams meeting up. The initial friction between them was nicely handled as well the acknowledgement of previous relationships (such as Roy and Starfire). Later on, as the teams split up to search Slade's hideout for the Wallys, we get glimpses of how these two distinct groups could function together and even help each other out. Overall, Benjamin Percy, lead writer of TT, does a good job with their characterizations, prompting me to think about following this title after this crossover. Art by Jonboy Meyers and Khoi Pham was clean and decent.

8/10

Generation X #1 -  Jubliee, with son Shogo in tow, meets with Kitty about helping mentor/teach the next generation of mutant students at the school. Menawhile, new student Nate Carver meets fellow student Morph as they stumble across Quentin Qire picking a fight with Bling over a perceived slight, causing Eye-Boy and Nature Girl to try and separate them. Kitty does so, which causes Nate to rethink joining the school. As he leaves, Jubilee tries to persuade him to stay when the group comes under attack from another classic X-foe group.

Okay, not exactly an A-list group of mutants here, but that's kinda the point. New writer Christina Strain wanted to fill this new title with the downtrodden and rejected members of the X-franchise. While there's not a lot of action here, there is plenty of drama and soap opera elements, qualities that have been missing from the X-books for some time. How are this group of misfits going to fit together? I'm unfamiliar with artist Amilcar Pinna. The art is okay yet shaky in some spots with some distorted angles present, as if you're seeing characters through a warped lens. Still, an interesting start.

7/10 

Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye #8

O don't even know why I started getting the new Cave Carson series from DC. I sort of like all those not-quite-super-hero series from DC from the 1960s, like the Challengers of the Unknown, the Sea Devils, Rip Hunter Time Master and Tommy Tomorrow. I've read one or two (or maybe three) stories for each of these, mostly in 1970s reprints, like those World's Finest Super-Spectaculars.

But I have never read a Cave Carson story before Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye #1 came out.

I generally have mixed feeling about the series, and I sometimes have a little trouble getting into it. But it has really started clicking for me. Cave has gone rogue because he doesn't trust the people works for and he's taken a small crew - including his daughter and Wild Dog, of all people (it's so strange) - and they've gone underground where they encounter all kinds of random underground menaces and things.

I don't even know who to recommend this to. It's so strange. Paging all Cave Carson fans!

Yeah, I agree.. it feels alot like re-doing the Mr. Mxyzptlk arc with a different bad guy.   The character bits are still totally worth it, and it was fun seeing the entire city turn out to be bad guys, but still a bit like spinning ones wheels.  Also, I kinda hate the bad guy, so there's that, too.  

On the plus side, last issue (with Lois kicking butt) was pretty amazing... hope we get more of that.