What I Bought 10/11/06

Well, this was supposed to be a three book week, but Ken got short-changed on one book and so we're left with two. Which two? Read on.

Oh, and keep an eye open for spilers.

Annihilation #3 - Didn't show up. I'd wail piteously to the sky, but... I did that already. On the plus side, The Powers That Be seem to like to do a "take and give" thing with me, so I'm feeling good about the Cardinals' chances against the Mets tonight.

I do feel bad for Adorable Baby Panda though. I was really wanted it to be introduced to the sheer awesomeness of Annihilation.

You may be wondering why I kept the cover here, if it didn't arrive. Well, for one thing, I wanted to keep you in suspense. For the another, I uploaded the covers into the post this morning, before I bought my comics, and I didn't feel like deleting it. Thirdly, that's just a damn good cover. Rating Awaiting Arrival.

The Punisher #39 - Let's get the little bits out of the way first. O'Brien gets to live because British guy got a call from Frank at just the right time. For letting O'Brien "escape", British guy will receive ribbing from his soldiers. Poor bloke. Frank reaches Afghanistan, passing the flight time by hearing the story of how Zakharov earned the nickname "Man of Stone". More on that in a minute. Rawlins tries to get hired by Zakharov, but the general wisely recongizes that Rawlins main skill is that he's a back-stabbing piece of human excrement, which tends to hurt employer-employee relations. And Frank and O'Brien load up and head into the mountains to prepare for the killing. And to shag, because Frank's pretty spry for an old guy. How the people they want to kill are going to know to go looking for them there, I'm not entirely sure.

OK, let's talk about that flashback. I mean, jeez, that was, words fail to describe it. What made Zakharov's tactics all the more disturbing is I'm entirely sure that soldiers - all around the world and throughout history - have done things just as bad or worse in the name of "accomplishing their missions". Certainly makes you root for Frank, though I wonder if he isn't in a bit over his head. Oh, and looking at the firepower Zakharov assembled, I'm really sure that O'Brien is gonna be toast by the end of this arc. 3.9 out of 5.

Ultimate X-Men #75 - It survives for another month, on the strength of the "What's all this then?" factor. Nick Fury has Quicksilver deliver a control device to Xavier. This way, if Jean gets too rowdy, Xavier can zap her. To his credit, Chuck A-Luck asked Jean if she'd wear it. Kitty is bothered by something, probably because she hasn't totally forgotten Elliot. Whether that's intentional, or because he's incompetent, or because she's having dreams about kissing pizza face Spidey, who knows.

So then Cable shows up, and proceeds to put the mop the hanger with the team. Doesn't really seem to enjoy it, as he only wanted to kill Xavier, but he does it anyway. And when Logan shows up, well we find out something kind of interesting about this Cable.

The guys at the store seem to think this might be Kirkman making a run at "Ultimate Days of Future Past". And that's why I'm holding off on dropping the book. I'm not terribly interested in whether Cable is who he appears to be, but I do want to know why he wants to off Xavier.

For the record, I liked the back-up story better. Doug feeling excluded because he isn't a mutant, but just really smart, and what his friends were up to, I thought that was pretty well done. On the strength of that, the issue gets a 3.1 out of 5, points deducted for the extra dollar cost.