by Aaron Einhorn
Every week Aaron goes to The Laughing Ogre in Columbus, Ohio and spends far more money than his wife would prefer. He then comes back here and writes about the comics he reads that he thought were noteworthy. This isn’t everything he picks up, just the things that he feels merit discussion – either for being really good, or for having something really wrong with them.

Captain America: Reborn 4
There is a whole lot good going on in this issue, as the Skull and his crew meet up with Doctor Doom, after having Sharon Carter delivered to Latveria, as Bucky and the Black Widow tear the underworld apart looking for Sharon. The action is good, the commitment to this weird “Steve Rogers is bouncing around in time” storyline is complete, and the characterization of everyone from Doom to Victoria Hand to Bucky to Steve and everyone in the middle is absolutely spot-on. The Skull is an arrogant bastard who you just want to punch, Doom is just as arrogant, but in his more noble Doom-like way, Steve is determined and courageous, and Sharon suffers from being the most abused plot-device-driven character in history.

But for some reason, this issue just didn’t grab me in the slightest. Which is kind of odd, since I do like Bucky, and do want to see how this story plays out, and want to see the return of Steve Rogers done well. But after I finished reading the comic, I had to remind myself of what I had read – it left that little of an impression on me.

It’s not bad – it just is missing something to keep me intrigued. And that’s unfortunate.

Doctor Voodoo, Avenger of the Supernatural 2
There are people who are the target audience for this book, I’m certain of that. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them. And that’s a damn shame, because I liked Brother Voodoo. And I like Doctor Strange. The mystical exploits of the Marvel Universe have often been a fond spot for me. But I really dislike how dedicated Remender seems to be to tearing down Strange in order to bring Voodoo up. And I feel like that’s what is going on here. Rather than take the point of view that Voodoo has to struggle to be worthy of Strange’s legacy, it feels like he is so contemptuous of how Strange did things that it’s a wonder that he wasn’t the Sorcerer Supreme before.

I don’t have a problem with the idea that Sorcery and Voodoo are overlapping areas, but not identical, and that when it comes to Voodoo, Strange would be the amateur, but to see Drumm so easily ignoring what Strange did, it just feels weird. Of course, now that he has enabled Nightmare to walk the Earth, he might be wishing that he had listened to Strange more. But I suspect (and fear) that next issue will have Doctor Voodoo easily vanquish the dream lord, and end with him saying “Why did Strange have so many problems with that guy?”

Doom Patrol 4
Like many others did, I’ll confess that I bought this book because of the Blackest Night tie-in, and to get my Sinestro Corps promotional ring. But I’m glad I did. This was a really solid story of the dark secrets of the Doom Patrol coming back to haunt them, thanks to the power of the Black Lantern. The fight between Negative Man and Negative Woman started off well, especially since she doesn’t have to worry about returning to her body, the battle between Tempest and Elasti-Girl is suitably epic, and seeing Cliff Steele’s human body come back after Robotman was just awesome. And I rather enjoyed seeing what emotion drives the Chief. As for the Metal Men back-up, it was suitably whimsical and fun. I don’t know if I’ll stick around for issue five or not, but I don’t regret having this book in my collection. Hopefully the rest of the Blackest Night tie-ins are as good.

Secret Six 15
If you read Secret Six regularly, or follow her blog, it is very obvious that Gail Simone has a crazy amount of respect for John Ostrander, and his run on Suicide Squad. The Deadshot we see each month with the Six is almost perfectly taken from the pages of Ostrander’s books. So, it was surprisingly natural to see this Ostrander-penned issue of the Six as Deadshot tracks down an old friend to discuss his greater-than-normal-homicidal urges.

Secret Six works best when it focuses on the buddy story between Catman and Deadshot, and this slice-of-life issue about Deadshot is just a good, fun story. It won’t change anything about how you react to the character, it doesn’t alter the DC Universe forever, and if you miss it, it probably won’t affect the continuity of the comic. But it was well-written, well-paced, a lot of fun, and my pick of the week. I highly recommend it.

Also this week, in Arkham Reborn 1 we discover the first pieces of Dr. Jeremiah Arkham’s plans to reopen the Asylum, and see the first pieces of how everything will go disastrously wrong, Hercules and Spider-Man first fought over Herc’s wife, then teamed up to fight the Olympian Gods in Assault on New Olympus 1, the Marvel Zombies invaded the Marvel Apes Universe in a fight that was just as dumb as it sounds in Marvel Zombies: Evil Evolution, and the conflict between Spidey and Mysterio continued in Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man 4.

Thoughts? Disagreements? Want to offer up ideas on what books you’re reading this week? Let us know in the comments!