1. Daredevil
2. Thor
3. Battle Royale
4. New Warriors
5. X-Factor
6. Suicide Squad: Raise The Flag
7. Iron Man: Enter The Mandarin
8. Ultimate Spider-Man
9. Soon I Will Be Invincible
10. New Avengers

And Tim, before you jump into Seven Soldiers (which I loved coincidently), if you can find JLA Classified #1-#3, read those first as those issues are a prequel to Seven Soldiers

DancinBrud - after being threatened with excommunication if I didn’t read ‘Suicide Squad’, I picked it up.

(shoots Randy a look)

Hey, I never said you’d be excommunicated.

I said we’d burn you at the stake as a heretic.

I am almost wholly unfamiliar with the characters myself. The only one I could recognize without fail is Deadshot, but all I know about him is that he looks cool.

I wasn’t lost when reading the story and thought it was a fun, well told yarn, but I do think any real praise would be dependent upon having an attachment to the characters.

Since I knew nothing about them, I could take it or leave it.

That’s a fair assessment, I think. I can’t honestly judge completely, as I do love the series so much and know all the characters about as well as any characters in comics, but I can totally see where some of the cool moments are dependent on there being a bit of an “aha! cool to see *that* character again” kind of thing, even if the overall writing/art is very well done, even for the newbies.

So I guess I’d say that if you’re new to Suicide Squad, I can see where the book might read as solid but not great for you.

Heretic.

PS. Is anyone reading Welcome to Tranquility anymore? Gail Simone is obviously talented, but after the first arc it went downhill pretty fast.

I am almost wholly unfamiliar with the characters myself. The only one I could recognize without fail is Deadshot, but all I know about him is that he looks cool.

I wasn’t lost when reading the story and thought it was a fun, well told yarn, but I do think any real praise would be dependent upon having an attachment to the characters. Since I knew nothing about them, I could take it or leave it.

Dan, please tell me about “Kurohime”.

How about I just go through my list?

1. Thor

I’ve been digging Thor so far, but it’s been slow. Not anymore. JMS continues to write Iron Man as a jerk, but he has Thor nailed. Plus, if Asgard is unguarded, who is the first God you find? Hell, yeah.

2. JLA Wedding Special

Can McDuffie write JLA? Yes. Oh, yes.

3. Path of the Assassin V.7

I love this book. Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima team samurai and ninja for some beautiful stories, volume after volume.

4. Kurohime V.1

This was crazy cool. Witch gunslingers who shoot magic spells from their guns, one of whom is a sexy bitch cursed by the gods to be a little girl for her hubris until she finds true love, a badass with four guns who delivers justice with compassion who was once inspired by that bitch… it’s the Old West, funky stylee. This was fun as hell, had excellently cool fights, and some great comedy. I loved it.

5. Potter’s Field

I have to echo what everyone is saying about this book. Cool concept, some of the best work Mark Waid has done in years.

1. Suicide Squad: From The Ashes

2. Casanova

3. Drifting Classroom Vol. 7

4. Batman and Son

5. Zombie Proof

Including Burn Notice. I imagine the show doesn’t have all that much heat because it’s on basic cable, but it’s a really fun show. As I watch it I think, “this should be a comic book!” The voice over, the freeze frames.. and just enjoyable execution. I really like the balance of the A and B stories (where B is ‘who burned me?’). I have seen a few of the new pilots this year and I don’t know that they have this balance.. but they’re only pilots.

Too much tv for comic pants!

I am going to dive into Morrison’s “Seven Soldiers” next week. Wish me luck?

3. Potter’s Field: Great concept and solid delivery by Waid. I just started watching Burn Notice on USA after a friend recommended it and I was able to find a marathon to DVR that will get me caught up. While different tonally, I like the whole “Helping those that the system won’t…” concepts. That and the added The Shadow-meets-Global Frequency angle was cool.

Yeah, I totally get where you’re coming from in referencing Burn Notice. Which is really good, btw, I haven’t watched last night’s episode but I’m looking forward to doing so tonight.

1. Suicide Squad #1- Ostrander doesn’t disappoint. Great flashback tale using all the classic characters, and Javier Pina’s art is fantastic.

2. JLA Wedding Special #1- McDuffie doesn’t disappoint either. OK, so it’s not really a Wedding Special, it’s more like JLA #12 1/2, but it’s a good setup for his new arc.

3. Potter’s Field #1 - Covered this in Wednesday Number Ones, but to reiterate: It’s dark, but it’s good. I don’t know that I mentioned how much I like Paul Azaceta’s art in my review, but I dig his stuff quite a bit.

4. Fear Agent: The Last Goodbye #3 - As good as Walking Dead is at the whole “post-apocalypse” thing, and at the interesting cast of characters. Plus Moore does great alien designs and action.

5. Walking Dead #42 - Speaking of Walking Dead, this is a nice breather issue where the characters get to have some minor bits of happiness… before that awesome three-page cliffhanger blows it all up. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited to see the next issue of Walking Dead.

6. BPRD Killing Ground #2 - Fantastic Guy Davis art as always, plus an interesting turn of events for Johann, visions of the apocalypse for Liz and rampaging monsters in BPRD Headquarters

7. Fables #65 - Loving the story of the Frog Prince turned into a warrior king, and loving the return of some of Fables’ scheming villains, back from the dead

8. DMZ #23 - Not the strongest issue of the series, but it’s an interesting one, and it’s got a solid ending

9. Daredevil #100 - Good use of multiple artists, and I actually like Mr. Fear, so I liked the villain reveal… just hoping Brubaker has something mind to reveal that Milla isn’t really a murderer, because I hated that twist

10. Nova #6 - Bummed out by the ending, but otherwise I’m still really enjoying this series

11. Marvel Adventures Hulk #3 - Hulk vs. Radioactive Man! The best Marvel Adventures book this side of Avengers, and I’d say that even if Paul Benjamin weren’t a friend of mine

12. Thirteen Steps #1 - Kind of uneven, but I laughed out loud several times at this story of a werewolf trying to balance real life and his supernatural life

2. MA: Hulk: Still like its mix of old-school “Banner on the run” with the lighter, snappier delivery. Even the monkey didn’t bother me as much. Good one and done story.

3. Potter’s Field: Great concept and solid delivery by Waid. I just started watching Burn Notice on USA after a friend recommended it and I was able to find a marathon to DVR that will get me caught up. While different tonally, I like the whole “Helping those that the system won’t…” concepts that this comic and that show represents. That and the added The Shadow-meets-Global Frequency angle in Potter’s Field was cool.

4. Nova- Gads, this is good stuff. This IS surprising stuff. I have some ideas where it will go and I can only assume it will turn out well for our hero but I am still wondering how. Very nicely done (as is the whole series).

5. Suicide Squad- It was like stepping back into the older series. I didn’t get into Giffen’s return to the story a few years ago for the opposite reason…it didn’t have enough to connect it to what I enjoyed or expected from the original. The Wall, Deadshot, Boomerbutt (no matter how annoying), Belle Reve, exploding cons, etc. Good stuff. I guess it is sort of a continuation of the original but it takes a story done in the early 20’s of the original run and seems to ignore all that came after it (including the leap forward in years near the end). Hmmm… Good to see Nightshade back with the team and not with the (sorry, Willingham) lame Shadowpact.