X-Factor #31

The Middle East Side Is Burning

M recovers Arcade, who turns out to be a robot, but really just has a robot mask. Mutant Town starts blowing up. Fire fighters stand helpless as people inside energy web burn to death. Lots of time saving people - Siryn saving bad comedian, Strong Guy saving burning people, Jaime saves guy on building with pyramid of dupes. Ric smashes computer, "OH, BUGGER. SYSTEMS OVERLOAD !!!" Energy web disappears.

X-Men:First Class #12

Warren tries to track down missing aunt in Brazil, finds city time forgot. They accept him, he decides to stay there even when X-Men show up to bring him home.

All-Star Superman #11

Luthor avoids electrocution with 24 hour super serum. Superman shuts down his fortress of solitude, leaves robots to maintain. Red sun artificial intelligence tries to kill Superman, his now freed sun eater pet tries to save him. Clark manages to make it to the Daily Planet offices to file story on Superman's death, dies.

New Avengers #41

Takes place during Skrull fight in Savage Land. Spidey encounters Ka-Zar and Shanna. They reveal problem of Skrulls disguised as SHIELD agents stealing from Vibranium mine and their attempts to repel.

Ms. Marvel #27

Skrulls trick her into following holo-truck in pursuit of Kree boyfriend. She goes back to mini-carrier pissed, Skrull blows up the whole thing. Leads into Secret Invasion #1

X-Force #4

Turns out Rahne was left overdosed on purpose. After Elixir heals her and she sees Angel, she rips off his wings and flees with them. They're apparently made of Apocalypse Fibers, used to give army of Purifiers metal wings. Angel feels all the pain of the process instead of the Purifiers, ends up in original Archangel look.

Uncanny X-Men #498

In Russia Nightcrawler manages to teleport into Wolverine's restraints so electro-shock collar disables them. They all escape but run into Omega Red. Turns out Russians are pissed and think X-Men engineered M-Day because they lost all of their mutants. In San Francisco earth mother starts pulling in Scott and Emma, have Ice Man, Angel, etc. about to fight them.

Fables #73

War & Pieces part 1 of 3

Attacks on homeland begin. Flying ship with snipers and bombs destroy one third of gateways between worlds. Bigby tasked with protecting last bean stalk - only way to cloud kingdom. Every flying creature sent against flying ship at end of issue. Also, beanstalk discovered.

1985 #1 of 6

Kid living in 'real world' 1985 has divorced parents, goes into comics to cope. Is convinced super villains are coming into this world, discovers Dr. Doom turning on other villains and runs into Hulk while running away.

Blue Beetle #27

Jaime and Traci 13 try having a date, keep getting interrupted by demons. Turns out they're revenge spirits sent by nerds against girl who dumped them, boss who fired them, and teacher who failed them.

Wolverine:First Class #3

Kitty and Wolverine off looking for Magneto, discover land of the furries created by High Evolutionary. Kitty gets turned into a furrie at end of issue.

Giant Size Astonishing X-Men 1

Colossus refuses to fulfill the prophecy of destroying Breakworld. Kitty trapped on the 10 mile missile - nobody on earth can stop it. Kitty sacrifices herself by bonding with the missile, phasing it through earth. Nobody knows how to recover her. Last issue of Joss Whedon's run. I almost cried.

4 years for 24 issues plus this Giant Size.

Pull list for 5/29/08

All Star Superman #11, $2.99
Blue Beetle #27, $2.99
Fables #73, $2.99

New Battlestar Galactica Season Zero #8 (non-photo cover), $2.99

Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1 (Regular John Cassaday Cover), $4.99
Immortal Iron Fist #15, $2.99
Marvel Comics Presents #9, $3.99
Ms Marvel #27 (Secret Invasion Tie-In), $2.99
New Avengers #41 (Secret Invasion Tie-In), $2.99
Thor #9, $2.99
Uncanny X-Men #498 (X-Men Divided We Stand Tie-In), $2.99
Wolverine First Class #3, $2.99
X-Force #4 (Regular Clayton Crain Cover)(X-Men Divided We Stand Tie-In), $2.99
X-Men First Class Vol 2 #12, $2.99
X-Men Legacy #212 (X-Men Divided We Stand Tie-In), $2.99

Fantastic Four #557

World's Greatest Part 4 of 4

Sue recovers Ben from ocean with force bubble.

Reed uses anti-Galactus suit as lure for Cap, banks on suspicion he's on Cap's do not hurt list. Beatdown on Cap commences, costs a billion dollars a second to operate.

Governments plan to cover up destruction because they still need Nu World plan.

Moy tries to talk Reed into running away from her. He tells her to screw off, takes Sue back in time to their first meeting as an anniversary dinner.

New nanny might work out - Mrs. Tabitha Deneuve. Doom breaks into Baxter building, demands to see Reed. Apparently this takes place after Doom put into jail in Mighty Avengers #11 but before Secret Invasion #1 destruction of Baxter Building.

Captain America #38

The Man Who Bought America:Part Two

Turns out frozen Steve was the guy who became Cap after Steve froze in 40s - Had Nomad as a Bucky. Sharon ready to shoot him but gets zapped. NotSteve brainwashed to believe he is real Cap and Bucky is pretender/killed Jack Monroe/Nomad.

Bucky/Falcon head to do a hit on suspected Faustus facility, find out Zola is working there. Zola self destructs to take down whole facility.

Third wing devlops major support.

As an aside - finished reading Captain America Omnibus last night - good stuff.

Iron Man #29

With Iron Hands Part 1 of 4

Maria Hill still director of SHIELD. Tony is field op out with armored team looking for nukes in Kirikhstan. One nuke goes off, Tony finds the nanotech nuke. Uses ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPES in his gauntlets to defuse at 10^6x magnification. Turns out nukes were placed by guy crazed over his wife's death, wants to kill those responsible, turns out it's Tony.

In other news, Special Weapons Director Nicolas Weir goes into SHIELD high sec storage unit, starts using nano-tech to reconfigure the SHIELD OVERKILL HORN(wtf?). Was originally designed to set off enemy nuclear weapons from thousands of miles away. Dude has magic nano-tech case that instantly makes whatever he wants. Reconfiguration goes horribly wrong, Weir runs away as weapon keeps growin. Was supposed to be "a dynamic, living defense grid -- constantly changing, continually adapting itself to a volatile, chaotic world."

Justice Society of America #15

Huge beatdown of Gog continues. Sandman decides the fight needs to be taken back to jungle it started in. Gog gets swallowed by rock head statue - turns out the statue was a whole body? Gog now a giant super powered individual who 'comes in peace'.

Ghost Rider #23

Hell-Bent & Heaven Bound Part 4

Coma dude Lucas commits suicide after he is convinced Zadkiel will give him a good deal in the afterlife. Ghost Rider runs into cannibal dude that is last in line of guys responsible for haunted highway. Drags cannibal guy along the highway, lifts curse. Outro shows Danny Ketch on the trail of Ghost Rider.

Criminal 2 #2

A Wolf Among Wolves

Lawless' dad. Covers him coming back from Nam totally messed up. Flashbacks all the time. Starts drinking. Great black frames between random events following his spiral down. He crosses Barber - owed the guy money before Nam - owes more now. Starts crime sprees looking for the 15 grand. Takes a job against 'a bunch of mexicans', turns out to be the Hydes. He tries to return his part of the money, tracks down to kill the other people in the hit. After making things right with Hyde is given years to work off debt to Barber. End

Fantastic Four #556

World's Greatest part 3/4

Cap roaming the planet destroying nukes and military bases. Johnny kinda tries swearing hot supervillainess to secrecy about booty calls. Sue looking for super hero nanny, ponders Wolverine. All heroes on planet try taking down Cap, get knocked out. All but Reed show up, Cap can break through Sue's strongest force fields. Turns out Cap forbidden to destroy creator Alyssa Moy-Castle. Reed on his way!

Nova #13

Nova to rescue denizens of planet already being fed on by Galactus. Planet has no chance, concentrating on saving everybody. Weird spirit starts possessing people to go on killing sprees. Turns out Galactus' machinery is interfering with drives on escape ships, forces Nova to try to talk Galactus into pause. Enter Silver Surfer to kick Nova's ass.

The Atom #23

ATTACK OF THE KILLER CREATURES FROM BEYOND! Atom was absorbed by thing from his blood. He surfaces in compressed time world where other 'victims' have apparently been for years. Panda is skinny now, hooked up with Ryan's sexy neighbor/crush. Ryan sees his dead body with its hands around throat of a dead female Chronos. Asshole councilman still alive, still a dick. Monsters attack when it randomly gets dark. Monsters kill councilman's wife. When Ryan tries to lure monsters away, councilman follows, shoots Ryan with his own zapper.

X-Factor:The Quick and The Dead

Whiny Quicksilver in jail. Hallucinates characters from past. Gets mutant powers back, runs around the world to celebrate. Guess Decimation wasn't so permanent.

Wolverine #64

Highlights Wolverine's past in the 20s with Mystique. Wolverine blows himself up in Iraq to get behind military cordon to take out Mystique disguised as American diplomat. Mystique sics army guards on Wolverine, steals truck as Miss December. Betrayal in the 20s is revealed and Mystique gets nekkid in the desert with a bunch of guns waiting for Wolverine to come to her.

pull list for 5/21/08

Madame Mirage #6, $2.99

Justice Society Of America #15 (Regular Alex Ross Cover), $2.99

Avengers Initiative #13 (Regular Steve Uy Cover), $2.99
Captain America #38, $2.99
Fantastic Four #557, $2.99
Captain Marvel Ms Marvel Infiltration (Secret Invasion Tie-In), $4.99
Ghost Rider #23, $2.99
Incredible Hercules #117 (Secret Invasion Tie-In), $2.99
Iron Man Director Of Shield #29, $2.99
Mighty Avengers #14 (Secret Invasion Tie-In), $2.99
X-Factor #31 (X-Men Divided We Stand Tie-In), $2.99
X-Men Divided We Stand #2 (of 2), $3.99

Pull list for 5/14/08

Serenity Better Days #3 (of 3), $2.99

DMZ #31, $2.99

Project Superpowers #3 (of 7)(Regular Alex Ross Cover), $2.99

Captain Britain And MI 13 #1 (Regular Bryan Hitch Cover)(Secret Invasion Tie-In), $2.99
Guardians Of Galaxy #1, $2.99
New Exiles #6, $2.99
Soleil Sky Doll #1 (of 3)(Regular Alessandro Barbucci Cover), $5.99
Thunderbolts #120, $2.99
Twelve #5 (of 12), $2.99
Wolverine #65, $2.99
X-Men Legacy #211 (Regular David Finch Cover)(X-Men Divided We Stand Tie-In), $2.99

Captain America #37

Parade of (friendly?)dudes stops by Bucky's gym to beat snot from him, don't succeed. Sharon shakes off brainwashing, discovers body thought he was Steve Rogers but isn't anymore. Falcon and Bucky to rescue Sharon.

Iron Man #28

Stark steps down as director of SHIELD. Maria Hill instantly calls martial law, takes over UN. Tony hustled out via escape shaft, gets to where Mandarin has factory. Tony rips out rings form Mandarin's spine, extremis missiles launch anyway. Tony cuts foot to remove power damper, uses Extremis enhancement to force all launched Extremis missiles into the jet stream where it freezes, harmless. Mandarin frozen by Iron Man. When they try to examine corpse, is hollow inside.

Ghost Rider #22

Ghost Rider continues trying to get through haunted highway with afterlife survivor. Cool scene with sickle. Mostly just action.

Wolverine:First Class #2

Kitty needs ride to Dazzler concert, decides Wolverine only one who can drive. She gets on his good side by getting Mariko in for Logan's birthday. Sabertooth shows up every year to school Wolverine, ends up attacking Mariko and Kitty. Kitty wins, gets chauffered with friends to Dazzler concert.

Transformers Spotlight:Grimlock

Grimlock was apparently recovered. Same group that kidnapped Sunstreak try to mind control him. He ends up fighting Scorponok, figure behind kidnapping group.

Transformers:Devastation #6 of 6

I have no idea. Sunstreaker liberated, Prime leaves planet for bigger stuff. Bullshit ending.

Justice League of America #20

Wonder Woman chastises Flash for not being available for enough JLA stuff. They go to take down Queen Bee. Apparently Flash going to spend more time on JLA.

X-Men:First Class #11

Continuiteens fight crime from comics shipped from alternate dimension that actually predict future. They get retconned out, but help X-Men defeat Mysterio supercharged on same energy responsible for their comics.

Justice Society of America #14

Sandman tracks down Gog. Gog takes the fight to the brownstone, interrupts argument about whether members can be told to stay behind. Gog about to take down future Supes, Green Lantern and.. Black shadow guy(?) ready to dish out super beat down.

Hack/Slash #11

Cassie tracks down serial killer but it turns out he's not a slasher, just a guy with a vendetta. He dies of own wounds and tells Cassie about how he did it for love. She wonders what love is like.

X-Factor #30

Arcade's traps fall apart. Arcade gets away when X-Factor track him down, but Purifier who paid for it has entire mutant town rigged to explode when his heart stops. Also, he drank poison. Cliffhanger!

Brave and the Bold #12

Everybody flies to the sun to defeat Megistus. Odd woman out from Challengers of the Unknown sacrifices her self to get the Sorcerer's Stone into the sun to be destroyed. Turns out she's not dead, though, and Challengers go to find her.

Batman #675

Jump from Crazy Batman Morrisson stuff to Crazy Bruce fighting dude with eyes tattooed on his fingers. Princess girlfriend angry before attack, figures out after that he's Batman.

Jack of Fables #22

Part one of flashback story to the old west - Jack is a desperado robbing stagecoaches. Bigby catches wind, begins tracking him down. Jack doesn't know Bigby too well at this point.

Blue Beetle #26

First issue with Nitz writing - all spanish - one and done. Jaime on family reunion south of the border with Traci 13. He gets pulled away when parasite attacks the Posse. Gives Grandma a flight at the end.

Fables #72

Part 2 of Cinderella recovering Pinnochio story. Hansel leaves her to die after she let him freely know invasion of homelands started 19 hours earlier. She playfully offers sex to be let go but nails thug with shoe, kills. She tracks down Hansel with giant dump truck, recovers Pinnochio. Making it to New York they're intercepted by humanized wooden soldier couple who fill Cindy with bullets. Pinnochio claims they need to help him get her to safety because he's really working in Geppeto's best interest by deposing him from power. They go along.

X-Men:Legacy #210

Exodus and Xavier continue mental battle. Exodus throws all things Xavier feels guilty over. Xavier fires mental nuke automatically. He decides to travel the world relearning himself. "The man who made those mistakes are dead."

DC Universe #0

Who the hell knows? Random snippets of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman. Apparently foreshadowing coming year.

Secret Invasion #2 of 8

Throwdown between crash landing and joint Avengers begins. Crash!Spidey is a Skrull. Crash!Hawkeye is a Skrull. Crash!Vision is a Skrull, convinces Sentry he's Abyss and horrid things are happening because of him. Dinosaur interrupts fight, scatters everybody. Current!Tony's suit compromised by virus, he starts building new one. Crash!Mockingbird vetted as not a Skrull by Current!Hawkeye.

Huge team of hybrid power Skrulls attack Manhattan without any disguise at all.

Iron Man:Viva Las Vegas #1 of 4

Ancient dead dragon used as decoration on new Vegas strip resort - The Golden Dragon. Tony happens to be in town relaxing. Lizards from hundreds of miles around start converging on dragon. Intro has Tony flying on public air, confronts suicide bomber, is criticized for ripping him from plane when he wanted to negotiate.

Young X-Men #2

Cyclops training young ones in Danger Cave to take down classic New Mutants. Gives up, just sends them out to apprehend dream Indian chick and magma chick that lost boyfriend magma surfing on M-Day. Sexy cover.

Mighty Avengers #13

Nick Fury starts assembling team of 'caterpillars' who are off of everybody's radar. Chick who was in Secret War with earth powers does the recruiting, actually. Layla Miller turns down offer. Ares' kid is god of fear - Phobos. Everybody apparently inherited powers from parents or grandparents.

Avengers/Invaders #1 of 12

Invaders from WWII era time travel to Times Square, beat down the Thunderbolts who are trying to apprehend Spider-Man. Marriage status unknown.

pull list for 5/7/08

All New Atom #23, $2.99
Midnighter #19, $2.99
Avengers Invaders #1 (of 12)(Regular Alex Ross Cover), $2.99
Dark Tower Long Road Home #3 (of 5)(Regular Jae Lee Cover), $3.99
Iron Man Viva Las Vegas #1 (of 4)(Regular Adi Granov Cover), $3.99
Logan #3 (of 3), $3.99
Mighty Avengers #13 (Secret Invasion Tie-In), $2.99
Nova #13, $2.99
Secret Invasion #2 (of 8)(Regular Gabriele Dell Otto Cover), $3.99 – Two copies
Young X-Men #2 (X-Men Divided We Stand Tie-In), $2.99