Just shy of a week now before the Comic Shop strips the covers off and opens up large with the Phoenix reborn and moving sale at the end of this month.



Back and forth from 207 to 10a/170, the statues, Simpsons, busts and other merchandise take the walk along George Street. Nice smell if you can dig it, and if you can dig, won't you tell the asthmatics how?

Note the black lines in the lower half of the photo. That right thar be the back issue bins, or swimming pool, depending on how you like to look at things like this.

Beats the previous one by more than a triple. Quadruple perhaps?

See for yourself when the doors open up soon enough.

 

Rush from the rest of the crew sticks X-Men 3: The Last Stand with a side sore. A veritable hash of going too fast and throwing everything onto the wall with no regard for continuity and character development. This is true.

X-Men 3 does rush things, moving so fast as to beat some kind of unseen or unknown record. Explosions and fight scenes are thick with action and bodies flying about the place. The Juggernaut delivers one of the worst lines in the movie and Wolvie kicks it up a notch in terms of cool in the heat of battle.

Beast is magnificent and it's no wonder they chose Kelsey Grammer to be underneath the blue fur. Of all the new characters swimming in the sea of mutants, his is the most developed and most valid. The Danger Room finally gets a look in and it's a pretty fantastic sight.

Plot points jump all over the place and there's this burn of emotion. A heart warming film really. That much works and for that, it's a good film. Certainly not for the whole, but the majority is great.

Of course, what the hell the Phoenix is really there for never gets a reason.

 

Day of days will arrive on May 25. The release of X-Men 3: The Last Stand to close it all out and possibly shoot off with some splinters come good turn of money. Or it could be the new end of the first trilogy set. Who knows, the money knows.

Futurama Comics #25 where Bender, Fry and Leela going all Robin Hood on New New York's grass. Or something like that. There appears to be nothing more than a fuzzy cover out there and a not quite clear solicit read for the issue itself. Still, 25 already is impressive given that 22 remains unread.

Missing the first round of the fight, it was high time to reorder and grab Veronica #167. With Archie and Friends #100 featuring the second appearance of The Veronicas, why not go back and catch them in the act the first time around when it wasn't that far into the past? No reason not to.

 

Cropping up all over the atlas are the locations of suspected mutants and the like. Brotherhood or the X-Men, the sides are obvious.

Another marketing tool in the promotion of X-Men 3: The Last Stand, (and where Fox continue to evade requests from the Comic Shop to aid their cause) X-Planet. Where mutants and all the various incarnations of the bipedal rulers of the food chain sign up and throw in their own registration.
Not quite the ease of mind the Mutant Registration Act has ever enjoyed, but still worthy for an inspection.

From the looks of things so far, the planet is lousy with mutants.

 

Weeks now only from the release of X-Men 3: The Last Stand. New characters such as Callisto, Angel and Beast make it in. In with them is Juggernaut played by Vinnie Jones. A smashing breakthrough of walls in the trailers.

So much so that the idea of running through walls and looking like an English bloke all seem so much like pleasuring yourself.

 

What's so good about April 27? A day where nothing really happens in the box, or on the order. A day in which though comics might come into the store, they won't be joining the rest of the pile.

It's scary how big the pile is getting now. Stacks of some getting lost under others and some even turning up a year later. Not quite the ride of decompression.

Having given up on the slow read, Astonishing X-Men #14 is off the list as well as subsequent issues from the title. It might just be time around the corner for another X-Men movie after all.

 

Luck will no doubt cast a black sky over Thursday 23. Not that comics will have anything to do with it. Aside from basking in the sun that is midday, it will most surely be when the next interview happens. Clashing decision makers the lot of them. Only because The Studio at the Opera House makes for a night time distraction. Any other week, no deviation could bother.

So apparently Astonishing X-Men #13 begins the Whedon and Cassaday run again. After the corn hole stretching twelve issue run previous, a little wary sitting back down again to this. Most likely going to see this one through given that it was all too much on the rotational for the first two arcs. Despite their girth.

Ultimate Spider-Man #90 takes a slot in the box. Have not been too rapt with this series since a while back. Been hoping for some light. If that only comes in the form of #100, then that may be too late.

Now, Kabuki #6, that's where this money's at. It's art, story, and a damn mental massage from a naked woman slathered all over in the slipperiest of oils.

 

And here the madness starts for another year. Hopefully this shipment expected for January 5 will hit when it's expected. Not like the last two batches from last year. Crazy times weeding through two week's worth of comics and merchandise without more than a day to breathe.

Forget that though, it's time for some cracking Doc Frankenstein #4. The Wachowskis were a little delayed what with their V For Vendetta adaptation, but hey, a great comic's a great comic, and with the delay, it means the burning of money isn't as frequent.

Then there's The Exterminators #1. From the solicit, following the lives of pest hitmen seems intriguing, and almost interesting enough for a buy.

Astonishing X-Men Saga #1 looks like there wasn't a reason to buy the first twelve issues on Whedon and Cassaday's run. So then, what's the point?

On the edge, Marlene #1. Why in the hell did they all happen to look like number ones outside the freak with the bolts in his neck and stitches in his scalp?

 

On September 1 comes the realisation that the year is pretty much done for, at least in terms of majority stakes. And with that, spring beckons.

Dirtboy #1 from Moronik Comics looks interesting in based solely on the filth of the skin and not of the content. Whether or not it's enough to warrant buying is another matter.

Having just read #520 with those HYDRA boys getting back into the scream of things, it wasn't really all that "hot" in flavour and spice. As such, Amazing Spider-Man #523 will probably be the last issue. For a while at least.

Astonishing X-Men #12 wraps up the first year of the Whedon, Cassaday and Martin title. It's been a fun and open ride with the X-Men and that wait until they start up year two isn't too far away with other comics on hand.

Ex Machina #14, though a great read month in and month out, also falls into the same slot as Amazing Spider-Man. It's time to shore up some new blood. Indie and minor press perhaps. Everybody experiments some time.