THIS WEEK IN COMICS is short because I have no money and little of interest came out.

 
Planetary #20

I’m sure it’s a product of the wait between issues, but "Planetary" just never seems long enough in serialized from. It didn’t help that this recent two-part story (concluding here) consisted mainly of our heroes standing around a computer monitor and narrating while we get swooping vistas of a vast alien spacecraft. John Cassaday is certainly up to the challenge, whipping together swarms of alien life, the residents of this recently-formed ecosystem. Of course, the real point here is to debut/confront the final unseen member of The Four, one Jacob Greene. There’s some good buildup and then… well, it’s about what you expect, really. The dislocated, overgrown organs were a nice touch. The other focus of the storyline is the continuing evolution of Mr. Snow’s personality, and his means of doing battle with Mr. Greene suggest an increasing determined (desperate?) disposition. I still like the book, and I really can’t hack the long wait for collections, although they’re probably a more satisfying way to experience the series.

And that’s all I got, because I am short of cash. All I really wanted to check out was the new “Metal Hurlant” and maybe the new “DC Comics Presents”, but I’m kinda losing interest in the creative teams.

Huh. I just started poking around Wildstorm’s website looking for “Promethea” info, since we’re all on the topic of seldom-released books I can’t held but read in monthly form, and the solicitation for #31 is only two sentences long, one of which urges us to pick up issue #32 when it comes out. Is that some sort of ‘meta’ thing related to the story? Would any of us be interested in the penultimate issue of a story and not the final issue? Curious.

What else came out today… a “Venom v. Carnage” mini (why don‘t they just start putting random years from the 1990s in the copyrights too while they‘re at it?), a new “Rogue” ongoing (I’ll just have to catch up around the anniversary issue #50 that it will no doubt reach) and some huge “Avengers” thing. They are now Disassembled, which is a bad sign because they will need organization to compete in today’s fast-paced superhero world, and messiness is a killer. Captain America should make a flowchart or something. Maybe they’re saving that for the climax of the story: a lacerating Powerpoint presentation. That would be really cool, and it would beat the pants off of whatever is planned for the end of "Identity Crisis" like putting Ace the Bathound to sleep or Dr. Light reuniting with Dr. Wiley and getting Gutsman to bugger The Flash.