Hartley talks… written by Hartley Holmberg is more than just another comic book blog with a hint of comic love from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Heres what I picked up this week and a quick assessment!

Black Lightning #4 (of 6)

This has just been a great read, and I’m loving each and every issue.
Its wonderful to see an old fav get such a cool spotlight, and I’m really enjoying the greater ties to the DCU they’ve been giving ol Jefferson Pierce!
Great art and fantastic storytelling mixed with a great understanding of the DCU in general.

Stormwatch #19

I’ve been pretty pleased with this book overall. As a fan of Stormwatch since its 1st incarnation this title has been remarkably faithful to its roots and original cast of characters. Although this particular issue re-treads over the concept of Fuji’s body being made of a gaseous energy, I was fine with the lack of history presented as I hardly expect people to remember the old issues where this was dealt with. But if you ever are looking for fun reads from the 90s Ron Marz’s run on Stormwatch was a very entertaining read!

Ghost Rider #32

Jason Arron had been keeping Ghosr Rider as cool as ever and the final chapter of the “Last Stand of the Spirits of Vengeance” was good stuff.
The art by Huat was weaker than normal indicating a bit of fatigue on his bahalf, but even so the mans still a great story teller, and visually appealing to myself.
Er his art that is….
The last chapter seems more like the mid-chapter in a more grand story arc, and its one I’m excited to see!

Superman/Batman #55

The Super/Bat storyline continues on with its awesomeness!
Batman has Supermans powers magically imparted on him and its making him nutso!
Great art, great characterization, fun as hell story and guest stars!

Invincible #59

I have yet to read an ish of Invincible I didn’t like and this ish is no exception to that!
Mark Grayson has a new Arch-Enemy in the form of PowerPlex and this nut job is primed and ready for years of adversity by the time the issue is through.
Great stuff and its hard not to sympathize with the foolishness of Powerplex at least a teeny bit.

X-Men:Kingbreaker #3 (of 4)

I will admit that this series is a bit more bland that I’d hoped for.
I really though his would be more exciting overall, its not bad per-say, but like I stated a bit dry IMO.
Its entertaining, but only just.

The Amazing Spider-Man #587

Great fun developments!
Spidey’s in Jail!
Menace is revealed!
Matt Murdoch is Parker’s lawyer!
And the Spider-Tracer killer has been revealed!
The only complaint I have of this ish is that I apparently have to have a Marvel account to go and read the actual court room happenings and that’s fucking lame as hell.
In fact its the epitome of taking the value out of comics….

Outsiders #15

Fun fun fun!
I’ve been a fan of every version of the Outsiders to date, and Tomasi is the man for this job!
I would never have guessed that Owlman would appeal to me as much as he does, but I was sold right from the Annual!

Thats all I gots to say for now!

I loves my Indy books and have a big geeky hard-on for the Greatest American Hero comic I review!
I also blabber about, Top Ten #3, Black Terror #2, Angel #15, Umbrella Academy #1, and the Invincible/Astounding Wolf-Man cross-over!

I blab about Savage Dragon #143, All Hail Megatron #6, Wildcats # 6, the Authority #6, the Death Defying Devil #1, No Hero #3, and Kick-Ass #5!

The Incredible Hercules #125

Another great issue of this fantastic series, and a great conclusion to the Love and War storyline.

I was really very surprised at how much story Pak and Van Lente were able to jam into this ish, and this newcomer Salva Espin’s pencils blew my mind.

Theres just about nothing I can say about this comic that won’t ruin the great moments contained within, but I will say this:

I think Reid Fleming:world’s toughest Milkman is in this ish!

Jam packed with awesome the Incredible Herc just continues to deliver!

Wildcats #7

Writer Christos Gage has been real hit and miss with me, but he does deliver an okay ish here. There are some original and fun moments with Voodoo, Maul and Warblade, but there’s also an extremely predictable moment with an innocent bystander .

The conclusion of the battle with Defile was just  unfortunately weak, and didn’t make much sense despite its attempt at being portrayed as they only sensible solution. Which was really too bad as I was enjoying the conflict quite a bit. It was a fun and original clash with some great character/action moments.

But the actual ending of the story was interesting enough that I’m still on board for next ish, that and Neil Googes excellent art-work.

The back up tale By Gage and drawn by John Paul Leon was very curious and piqued my interest, but I fear that it will end up concluding in Gen 13 a comic I have no interest in picking up, especially not just for a 4 page back-up.

Ms Marvel #35

Man did this book recover well from the shit story arc that was Secret Invasion!

Carol Danver’s appears to have either lost her powers or has been severely downgraded somehow, and is working plain clothes now that Norman Osborn has stolen her Ms Marvel Identity. Danver’s is working with “the Agent” Rick Mason, and a character by the name of Micheal Rossi in conjunction with the national Security agency.

In this ish she goes to investigate an incident involving the worshipers of the Dead Captain Mar-Vell, and bumps into a certain relevant somebody along the way.  All that and the nasty Machination of Norman Osborn on foreign soil are brought to light.

A fun read, and I hope that Penciller Patrick Oliffe sticks around as he delivers great story telling here!

X-Force #11

This comic truely has just gotten better with each issue as the writing team of Kyle and Yost keep on building on what they’ve started.

This issue brings to us the origin of the main antagonist of the series thus far Eli Bard

, and his story is iconic and fucking awesome.

His plan which is fully revealed at the end is great classic bad-guy stuff, and this book fucking blew my mind with its shear awesome-ness.

I was expecting it to be solid, and I got solid all right.

Solid poopies shooting out my ass as I shit myself over how awesome this book is!

Alina Urusov does a great job working in concert with Clayton Crain, and speaking of Crain: the last page of this comic is fucking great!

X-Force gave me what I wanted when I had no idea that’s what I wanted!

Although I wonder how long it will take fans to compare this idea of the dead rising via the Technovirus and the upcoming Black Lantern Saga?

Avengers: the Initiative #21

Holy sweet mamajamma was this a great fun fucking ish!

Sure I’m not thrilled about the idea of Gargoyle retiring again, but it was more than believable, as was the rest of the veteran Heroes reaction to Norman Osborn being the new man in charge. We have a new status quo and its glorious!

I would never have thought that Clor could be so damned cool, but it is! Christos Gage delivers the best issue I’ve seen him produce thus far, and I really loved everything about it from Baron Von Blitzschlag’s  insane plan to the Shadow Initiative sequence, to the Cadet Barracks, to Ultra Girls legal problem and Clor  going berserk and starting a big fantastic scrap this issue has it all!

This issue exemplifies everything I love about Marvel comics; gritty realism, excellent (and funny) character interaction and wicked awesome action between characters you just want to see challenge each other! Fantastic fun with an extremely exciting ending!

Woot!

That’s it for now I’ll get to the rest of what I read (yup theres WAY more! And even some crap for me to shit on!) later!