We dodged Elenin! I never knew what exactly to make of that strange little comet, but I would have believed less if I hadn't stumbled on a very interesting YouTube page.  This woman, 9Nania, was spot on in predicting the massive 9.0 Earthquake in Japan last March - TO THE DAY! she didn't know where the quake would happen, but felt confident that there would be. This prediction was based soley on scientific data.  Now I'm of the camp that believes that ELENIN was somehow destroyed and the footage of the breakup is on NASA's SECCHI video logs. Which you, the public, can view at any time if you HAVE the time to go find it. But it's there. 

      Now, what broke up the comet is hotly debated. And I'm not sure. I'm not a scientist, nor do I have any types of insider contacts. I'm just a rapper and comic book writer in Dallas. But I have an open mind. I've seen NASA footage of the Sun blocking a comet from impacting it with a solar flare.  So from seeing that I personally think that everything in the universe has been created by God and has some level of self awareness and self preservation. But was galactic self presevation or was it shot down by a secret NASA weapon? We do know that there was a space plane lost in August for about two weeks.  Could this have been the machine used to do such bidding?  

   Was Elenin the real harbinger of disaster or is there still something else wreaking havoc from interstellar space hurtling itself toward our little blue marble? some think so and that Elenin was just to get our attention to look further towards the constellation LEO. 

I'll write more about the theories of the Electric Universe, which help explain why this comet was triggering earthquakes here on earth.

Until then, these are ramblings and rantings of a man with his head screwed on very straight.

LxHx

Some flags are red, and some flags are blue

Some books get read while some stay overdue

The chicken’s in the oven bound to get cooked

My foots out the door, bound to stay shook

Feet hit the road, the turnpikes my abode

Wandering for better fare, conditions are so cold

Shamble after hobo simplicity known

Waiting on the sunrise ignite my soul

No phoenix metaphors I’m 28 years old

But waiting on Santa never rolled my bone

If you got something to say

Put those treasures in a sleigh

And drop bombs on city tops

And have a better day

Maxine’s new abilities continue to terrify Ellen and Buddy Baker, and things take a turn for the worse as Buddy begins a startling transformation of his own that will lead him on a journey into the heart of The Red. Meanwhile, The Hunters Three arrive on Earth and set their sights on the Baker family. The Hunt is on as DC’s most surprising new series continues to take ANIMAL MAN in shocking new directions.

Look at how creepy and cool this art is.  And the story matches the depth of the art.

I'm super stoked for this book

This was a hard pick for me this week, because so many of my favorite books came out. (ultimate spider man, Future Foundation, Wolverine, Venom)

Which is why this being my pick is an even bigger surprise, because it focuses so much on Thor. Myself, I'm not a Thor fan at all really. I get it he's a Norse god. There's just never been enough for me to be distracted by the shiny metal of his armor. That being said. THIS story is great! Leave it to Hickman to take something you might not be a fan of and make you do a double take.

This issue still has the world crumbling to pieces around Nick Fury as he tries to wrap his head around what the hell is actually going on.

The Children of Tomorrow is where Hickman goes all "Hickman" on us, and I love the entire ride. Just picture the evil versions of the Future Foundation here. Douglas Fermann and his family are set to conquer the planet and take Asgard head on.

I won't spoil things too much but it gets heavy-quick.

Tony Stark is being attacked by shadowy billionaires

Hawkeye is nowhere to be seen ( Thank you!)

Thor falls from the sky

The World Tree makes an appearance

Balls to the wall sci-fi

The writing is strong. It's only the first issue. The first issue is pretty Nick Fury heavy. This one is pretty much about Thor, but Iron Man is crucial in both, with some Captain Britain  thrown in for good measure.

That being said it might take a few issues for the real story to come together as we're being introduced to the characters and scenarios they'll face.

Writing 4.5

Art 4

If you're in Dallas, support your local indie comic retailer. I like to go to Zeus.

This book is coming out on Image.

This is the story of the last of a race of super human beings that protected the Earth... until humankind turned against them, that is. The first issue of THE LAST OF THE GREATS will have no ads, no former story continuity to sort out, and no filler -- just 32 pages of quality storytelling.

As you may or may not know, or even may or may not care, DC Comics has restarted their entire comic book line over. Every single book starting over from the beginning- all going back to number one

All that to say -Animal Man-

To start I had no idea really what to expect.  I knew nothing about this character going in. I was really drawn into it by the art. There were some panels that just looked like some heavy stuff was going on in them, like the title character bleeding from his eyes.

The story though is where the meat is at. We see this guy, Buddy Baker, who has an incredible ability to take on strengths of animals through a morphogenic field. We see a super hero in a form we don't normally see them- on the outs.  He's dealing with whiny kids, a wife who second guesses his calling, and trying to manage his public persona.  All of these things make this character feel real and relatable.

He hasn't been Animal Man in a while and it's eating at him. One of his children tells him about a situation at the local hospital and he takes it as an opportunity to get his feet wet. His wife is a little reluctant about letting him go, but she knows that he's happiest when he is Animal Man. My favorite stand out line is when he asks his wife if there are any clean costumes.

He's able to resolve the Hospital situation and we get an idea on how his powers work, which is displayed very creatively in the art.

I won't tell you how it ends, but I was left wanting more for sure.

I'd give this a 5 for story and a 5 for art.  The book definitely doesn't LOOK like any other book out there I've seen recently and that's a good thing.

Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by TRAVEL FOREMAN and DAN GREEN
Cover by TRAVEL FOREMAN

EXEGESIS: critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, especially of the Bible.

Writer Philip K Dick had a series of unexplainable visions in 1974, in which his entire reality was changed for the remainder of his life.  His work always dealt with the nature of reality, but when his own reality was altered his work was forced to follow suit. His latter works involving the VALIS Trilogy are among his greatest and most profound philosophical works. He wrote constantly and when not describing his visions in his stories he was working on his own Exegesis, an attempt to explain what had happened to him and what was continuing to happen to him.

This collection is now available to the general public, where as only portions were accessible before.