OK, This Week's Comics:

Picked up four comics this week: two are first issues, one is the middle of an ongoing storyline, and another a side-story in a lengthy serial. Two were hugely disappointing, but which ones? Let's see:

First up, Extraordinary X-Men #1, written by Jeff Lemire, pencils by Humberto Ramos, inks by Victor Olazaba. This features the X-Men, and mutantkind's, new status quo after Secret Wars, after the Inhumans' Terrigen Mists have poisoned earth for mutants...and, it's implied, Cyclops may have done as much himself. And...this issue did just about nothing for me, sorry. Partly, I freely admit, because I'm a Nightcrawler fan more than an X-Men fan, and don't really give a crap about past Jean Grey or future Logan. Or Magik, or Storm, or Iceman, or Colossus...That, and the set-up seems both defeatist and artificial. "No more mutants," again. Dropped, unless an all-Nightcrawler issue comes down the line.

Next, another new #1, another new Deadpool #1. (Written by Gerry Duggan, pencils by Mike Hawthorne, inks by Terry Pallot.) Post-Secret Wars...actually, just typing that, I don't think we're ever gonna really be post-Secret Wars, but moving on: Deadpool is the most popular super-hero on earth. He's so popular, he's been forced to take the Krusty the Clown route of licensing out impersonators, from simple performers for kids' parties, to substitute heroes. (Among the subs I recognized, Solo, Terror, Madcap, Slapstick, Foolkiller, and Stingray; there may even be other faux Pools...) Although acting a clown and funding the Avengers (!) Deadpool's making some enemies, neglecting his possibly estranged wife, and planning to get his revenge on the murderer of his parents...which was actually him while mind-controlled, but who's going to tell him that?

This one's...enh. I didn't read the whole last series of Deadpool, but I thought Duggan usually had slapstick issues, with maybe one or two serious bits, intermingled with almost grimdark issues, with a bit of Deadpool snark. Here it seems like both are going the same time (there's a lot of jokey nonsense for jokey nonsense's sake) and it doesn't sit right for me. And whatever Pool did to gain his unparalleled popularity is unclear: a news report mentions him taking down the terrorist organization ULTIMATUM, but it can't just be that. I'm hoping he punched out Cyclops. I wasn't planning on picking up the next issue right away, but after flipping through it again I may keep my ears open.

The third issue of Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire is more like...shoot, maybe the twenty-some or so issue in the series? And it is more a part of the series than just the third of a miniseries; since it builds off of Robo getting trapped in the past in the Savage Sword of Dr. Dinosaur and mostly destroyed there in Knights of the Golden Circle. The giant biomega monsters attacking earth are also from a previous issue, I think. Or Pacific Rim. (Not really!) It's a good issue, but it's setting up the next chapter, as Robo rebuilds a new body and a plan to save the world and defeat the shadowy Task Force Ultra, which hijacked Robo's company seemingly years ago. (Written by Brian Clevinger, art by Scott Wegener.)

Lastly, we've got Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #46, "Animals." Written by James Roberts, pencils by Alex Milne, inks by Milne, Brian Shearer, John Livesay, and John Wycough. This is the second of two issues catching up with the former Decepticons known as the Scavengers; who run into the new sheriff in town, Fortress Maximus. Those are not household names by any means, we're pretty deep down the roster here. But Roberts does so much great character work that even if you don't know a Spinister from a hole in the ground, by the end of the issue you know these guys. Thickly layered and charming, this is probably my favorite ongoing book right now.

Both the Marvel books were five bucks, IDW's Atomic Robo and MTMTE were four. The Marvel books also feature a "bonus digital edition," but a bonus copy of a crappy book is nothing...