Shipping this week: Failure in decline

found on a message board, no clue who the artist is.

Not an amazing week but it's a significant improvement over last week.

BPRD: Hell on Earth #1 - Some artists were meant to draw certain things: Jack Kirby with his crazy ass space epics, Carl Barks and ducks Moebius and everything that has ever existed. Then there's Guy Davis and monsters. BPRD may not have the best dialogue or the best characters but damn it, there's no where else that will give you a giant bipedal raven with a thousands breasts growing out of its abdomen or a zombified nun with a jaguar's skull that rips the faces off of a platoon's worth of soldiers.

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1 - Am I the only one who thinks "80s action figures" when I hear the name Emerald Warriors? This is the spin-off starring Guy Gardner, so why couldn't they just name it Guy Gardner? If you don't have so little faith in a character's name getting new readers you probably shouldn't make that character the main character of their own book.

Superman #702 - From the DC solicits: "Grounded" continues as Superman enters a small town in Ohio where, like many towns, a number of its residents are from other places. But when The Man of Steel discovers that there are also a number of residents secretly from other worlds, he unravels a mystery that may have grave consequences for Earth."

Aww, I was hoping he was going to go dump a river's worth of symbolic red paint onto the Procter and Gamble building in protest of animal testing. Seriously though I don't blame Straczynski doing a generic plot this like, I mean, what is Ohio famous for again? I bet he'll run into more awkward moments like this once he has to start picking towns from that letter writing campaign.

Pick of the week: Thor The Mighty Avenger #3 - While Kieron Gillen buys time while Matt Fraction prepares for his upcoming run this is the Thor book you should be reading. This the kind of all age book that never feels simplified as Roger Landridge provides scripts filled with personality and excitement making this a great read for any age group. But the real secret weapon is the artwork of Chris Samnee. Samnee is probably the current most under appreciated artist in mainstream comics. His sense of shadow, anatomy, and action show years of hard work that puts him head and shoulders above artists on higher profile books. And most importantly this book is fun, like Nextwave/All-Star Superman fun. The first storyline saw Thor fighting Mr. Hyde and issue #6 will have the God of Thunder fighting Fin-Fang-Foom, where else would you find something like that?