The Hot List

DC COMICS

52 WEEK #10
EXTERMINATORS #7
FABLES #51
FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN #27
GREEN ARROW #64
GREEN LANTERN #12
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #2
SUPERMAN #654

IMAGE COMICS

WALKING DEAD #29

MARVEL COMICS

CIVIL WAR FRONT LINE #3 (OF 10)
IRON MAN #10
SQUADRON SUPREME #5
THUNDERBOLTS #104 CW
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #31
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #97
X-MEN #188

Fables & Walking Dead are the two best non-superhero comics published today. Both deal with some fairly fantastic situations, but in a mature and believable fashion. Both also juggle fairly large ensemble casts while keeping the characters distinct and believeable. X-Men #188 is the second part of the newest X relaunch, this time written by Mike Carey & drawn by Chris Bachalo. I loved Bachalo's older stuff, but his newer work on Uncanny X-Men has left me kind of cold, while I'm just not that familiar with Carey's work. That said, I'm giving it a try, for now. I constantly worry that this is the month that Stuart Moore & Jamal Igle's terrific Firestorm is going to go the way of such excellent-but-cancelled books as Batgirl, Gotham Central, & The Thing and each month it sells just enough copies to keep it going, but not enough to ensure it's continued health. It's a great, fun, book that is well written and well drawn, and best of all Moore & Igle make you like their protagonist, Jason Rusch.