Comics Roundup for 12/23/09

It's vacation, so I devoured my entire stack of comics yesterday. Here's what I got:

Hellboy: The Bride of Hell - This one's just a one-shot special, and it's a pretty solid read. It doesn't really continue with the bigger themes that were brought up in the last series, and honestly, I think that you could hand this to anybody who's never even read a Hellboy comic before, and they'd be able to understand it just fine. Also, while I don't like Richard Corben's art as much as Duncan Fegredo's (or Mike Mignola's) it's still pretty darned good. I especially like the way he drew the story's antagonist, Asmodeus. The demon in the story is based on Jewish folklore, and I'm eager to do some research to learn a little bit more about it.

Green Lantern #49 - This issue felt a bit like filler, as it didn't deal with the main Blackest Night storyline; instead it focused on another Lantern - John Stewart. I really liked the character in the animated Justice League series, but he's never been that interesting for me in the comics. Basically, the only thing that made him stand out is that he's African American. This issue does a bit to rectify that, and I realize that there might be more to the character than I realize. Keep in mind that I've only been a loyal GL fan since Geoff Johns took it over.

New Avengers #60 - I'm running out of things to say about this series. What can I tell you? It's still one of my favorites, and I usually put it on the top of my stack when I sit down to read the week's offerings. Stuart Immonen's artwork continues to be awesome, and the tension between the good and bad Avengers keeps going up a notch. Fun stuff.

Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield? - This was supposed to be an epilogue to the Reborn series, but since that series has been increased by one issue, we get the epilogue before the conclusion. Oh well, I went ahead and read it anyway. It's nice to see that things aren't going to be so neatly wrapped up with the return of Steve Rogers. Turns out that he wants to keep Bucky-Cap going as the Star Spangled Avenger, but I'm sure he's not just going to sit on the sidelines. As always, I'm looking forward to more.

Thor #605 - I was disappointed to learn that new writer Kieron Gillen was only going to stick around for about six issues, but now I hear that Matt Fraction will be taking over after that. I guess that means that I'll be sticking with this series for a while now. That's fine, as this was another good issue. Sure, it was mostly fighting, but the buildup for the previous issue made it interesting. I still think that I'd prefer a different artist over Billy Tan though. Man, his last issue was actually pretty good, but it's starting to get kind of sloppy with this issue.

The Amazing Spider-Man #616 - I definitely got more into this story with this issue. Once again, Javier Pullido turns in some nice art. As for the story, we get one of those classic Peter Parker situations where by doing the right thing, he winds up feeling even worse than if he had done nothing. Good stuff.

Spider-Woman #4 - This issue looks good, just like the last three issues did. Storywise though, I was underwhelmed. I'm looking for books to drop, and I'm wondering if this one will get the axe next month. Let's just say that I'll give the next issue a perusal before making up my mind.

Criminal: The Sinners - Part Three - I'm going to wait for the entire series to come out before reading this one. I did just recently re-read all of the previous Criminal stories though, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. My favorite storylines would be "Coward" and "Bad Night".