After 52 and World War III, when DC announced that there was going to be a 6-issue miniseries featuring Black Adam, I was skeptical.

This is a guy that killed a country. A country. Killed it stone dead. Almost every man, woman and child within the country died because of this man. Regardless of the reasons, it takes some balls to make Teth-Adam the focus of a miniseries.

The miniseries deals with Black Adam’s quest to return the love of his life, Isis, back to the land of the living. Really, that’s touching; but Kandaq is dead. There are some good character moments within — if you can get past the whole mass-murderer thing, this would be a good comic. Ignore 52 and WWIII and it’s rather enjoyable.

The reveal of Black Adam’s new word is priceless. I did like that. Won’t spoil it for you. (And for those that don’t know, Black Adam is one of the Marvel Family group of enemies. DC’s Captain Marvel everyone knows as Shazam, Mary Marvel, etc. They have a magic word that they say to transform into their powered state. The word to this point has been Shazam – but Captain Marvel changed Black Adam’s after the Kandaq thing).

Get the trade — there’s some good bits, and a betrayal at the end that would make you feel sorry for Adam . . . if he wasn’t, y’know, a genocidal freak.

Image Comics’ Proof is one of my favorite books going, so far. This issue is a pretty action-light book, considering it has Proof and el Chupacabra facing off.

Of course, the face-off happens over a kitchen table, with poisoned tea and raw hot dogs. But still.

Proof is looking for others of his kind — the “Bigfoot” kind, while Chupacabra hints at more out there.

There’s other drama, as el Chupacabra is currently inhabiting the skin of the town sheriff’s mother Nadine, and the meat of the issue stops when the sheriff, Elvis (not that Elvis), comes into the kitchen gun drawn.

Alexander Grecian, Riley Rossmo, Tyler Jenkins and Kelly Tindall are keeping me entertained with the sharp wit, the very-suitable art, the Cryptoid facts that crop up throughout the story Nightly News-style, and the sense that there is a larger story to tell.

You can jump on with this issue, but I’d recommend seeking out and finding the first three as well. This is a good book to be reading.

Superman Prime. Apparently was “Superboy Prime” until something to do with a lawsuit from the creators of the character.

I haven’t quite figured out what makes him so much more badass than the other Supes out there. This is the guy that reality-punched his way through the last Crisis; this is the one that received a Sinestro Ring, and kept most of Earth’s heroes tied up — hell, he was winning!

Anyway, Prime and Monarch are going at it in this week’s issue of Countdown to Final Crisis – there’s some good bits in here: Jason Todd getting a costume, Donna Troy becoming a Queen of sorts; Monarch and Prime throwing down — this could very well be my favorite issue of Countdown yet.

The Sinestro Corps War has started me reading the Green Lantern books. And they are quite enjoyable, the Green Lantern book and the Green Lantern Corps book — the “base” book, Green Lantern, has Hal and John as the two Lanterns we follow; and in this issue, John makes a very important choice.

Seems the Lanterns are having a bit too much freedom now that there is a license to kill with one of those Power Rings; so the Guardians figure that creating the Alpha Corps – a cosmic internal affairs division – will set things right.

Somehow, I don’t think it’s going to work as well as they think it will. But I’ll be along for the ride; this is well worth the money spent.

Here’s the issue that I’ll go out on a limb and say: it will outsell all other titles released this week, and be difficult to find as early as tomorrow. Captain America 34 features the debut of Bucky (or Winter Soldier) in the new Captain America duds.

The costume looks better drawn by Steve Epting than it did by Alex Ross (and it’s not often you’ll hear that from me, as I love Ross’ artwork) — and the gun is explained well. It’s really almost an afterthought.

Bucky is taking up the mantle in honor of Steve Rogers – not to replace him. And that’s how it should be. This is a legacy move in the usually-legacy-shy Marvel Universe that could, if they were wishing it so, stick for a long time.

Probably about as long as Ed Brubaker writes the book, anyway. Which is fine with me, as my man-love for Brubaker is well documented on this site.

Also, something that I’ve noticed, and it is subtle. The past few weeks have done a lot to rehabilitate Tony Stark. How he has been represented has subtly changed to where he’s not a total douchebag (note: not total. He’s still Stark and as such has an aura of douchebaggery that can never go away else he lose his Stark-ness).  Rehab for the movie, yes — but it’s nice to see Iron Man start to get a little of the taint of Civil War brushed off.

Havok has always been one of the X-Men you don’t usually think about. One of the three Summers brothers (Scott, Alex, Gabriel), he’s been an afterthought to most of the writers as well.

Almost a shame, really.

Although I did not like the Emperor Vulcan miniseries, I did like the characterization of Havok. He’s finally come out of his shell and the shadow of his brother — Cyclops (Scott) is viewed for some reason as one of the best leaders in the Marvel U — and lead his team to victory.

Or almost. Yeah, he didn’t win this time around, despite it being really close. But it wasn’t any fault of Havok’s that there was a last minute betrayal by one of the Shi’ar, that Gladiator is an unbeatable tool that really needs to be taken down a peg or two, and that the Starjammers are pirates and not superheroes.

Don’t bother with Emperor Vulcan — but keep an eye out for Havok. He may yet carve a space in the Marvel U.

What happens when Doctor Doom goes back in time to the current-day Marvel 616 universe to convince Reed Richards that he’s making a mistake with his current plans (saying that they lead to world disaster)? What happens when the future Fantastic Four follow Doom to attempt to return the Latverian dictator to his cell?

If you guessed Four on Four action, with good Doc Doom moments, you guessed right.

This wraps up the current arc of The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine, and as such isn’t a good point to step aboard — but it’s very well written with all of the canards of what has made the Four great over the years. There’s the angst of The Thing, the scientific wizardry of Richards, the love for her family of The Invisible Woman and the hotheadedness of The Human Torch. All in one issue. Add in a very good rendition of Doom, and you have the distillation of Fantastic Four, ready to ingest.

A very good issue.

People have said in the past that one of the things about Peter Parker that turn them off on the character is the fact that nothing ever goes right for the poor schlub.

Until Joey Q got ahold of him, I say “He married a supermodel.”

What does this have to do with Daredevil? Well, compared to Daredevil and his alter ego Matt Murdock, ol’ Spidey rolls sevens. Nothing has ever gone right for Daredevil since gaining his powers at the age of nine or so. His dad is killed, Karen Page dies, Elektra goes all psycho, he gets outed and spends a year in jail, his house gets blown up, his office gets blown up . . . life isn’t good.

And it hasn’t changed yet. Ed Brubaker seems to take a perverse glee in making Murdock’s life horrible and mind-shattering. And doing it with the most goofy of horn-head’s rogues gallery. Mr. Fear is up this time around — Fear has gained control of Mudock’s wife, Milla, and has manipulated her into committing two murders. Which, as you might guess, hits Matt hard.

This isn’t a good issue to jump in on, if you haven’t been reading Daredevil for the past few months. But it’s Bru, so it’s good.

Be damned if that doesn’t sound like an off-colour joke involving a fist and various nether regions. But it isn’t. Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death is a one-shot special that is going to be released in February from Marvel featuring Danny Rand’s predecessor as Iron Fist – Orson Randall.

We saw Randall in the first Immortal Iron Fist arc, “The Last Iron Fist Story,” which brought the legacy aspects of the Iron Fist to the fore, and we saw him in Iron Fist Annual #1, which gave us some entertaining background on Randall and what was basically a Steampunk-style adventuring team, the Confederates of the Curious.

Co-writer Matt Fraction has said this about the special:

Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death finds the title character at a peak point in his heroic career. “He’s living high on the hog in the company of the Confederates of the Curious. And by the end he’s broken, bitter, paranoid, and on the run from 10,000 sinister forces, some real, some imagined. (source)

In my quest to see Iron Fist reach the top of the sales chart, you can expect to see my review of this as soon as I get it.

Here’s some titles I think you should try out. These books aren’t getting the love in the sales column, and they really should. Some of the books have been written about here on The Bleed, some haven’t (but are on The List).  The following are in no particular order:  Note: This will only mention series that are still releasing issues. Some of the books from the past few months that I’ve gushed over will not be included because of that caveat, like Potter’s Field.

1. Atomic Robo - Red 5
2. Fall of Cthulhu - BOOM!
3. Criminal - Icon
4. She-Hulk - Marvel
5. Clockwork Girl - Arcana Studio
6. Hybrid Bastards! - Archaia Studios Press
7. Dan Dare - Virgin Comics
8. G.I. Joe - Devil’s Due Publishing
9. Blue Beetle - DC
10. Immortal Iron Fist - Marvel (Yes, I know. But this is a title that needs to be #1).