Comics Roundup for 5/5/10

Hellboy in Mexico - Hellboy, vampires, and Mexican wrestlers. What more could you possibly want in a comic book? I've been following the adventures of Mike Mignola's creation ever since the first series, and I don't think that I've ever enjoyed them more than I have lately. Richard Corben also does yet another great job on the artistic end, but I'd still like to see Mignola draw some more adventures of Anung un Rama.

Echo #21 - Terry Moore has created one of the most macabre villains with Hong Liu, the physicist with half a face. It looks like he's met his maker here, but this is not the first time where he supposedly "died". I hope he comes back only to be even more grotesque. Also, Annie, the scientist who died in the first issue has now completely taken over the mind of Julie, the main protagonist of the series. As always, a solid installment of a compelling series.

Astro City: The Dark Age - Book Four #4 (of 4) - I haven't read this one yet. I'm going to sit down and read this entire, epic, sprawling series sometime soon. There's a lot of other stuff that I want to reread, so it might take a while until that happens. Still, some of my favorite comics ever were tales of Astro City, so I'm sure that I won't be disappointed.

The Amazing Spider-Man #630 - The Lizard, one of my favorite villains, is back. This almost has the feel of an episode of Batman: The Animated Series where the villain is pushed into his villainy by a heartless corporate boss. (Seems like some kind of communist indoctrination if you ask me!) I also like the relationship stuff - stuff that could not exist if Spidey was still married, of course. It certainly gives more of a reason for The Black Cat to be in this series anyway. Also, Chris Bachalo's art is good, but sometimes it borders on being a bit confusing, and his panel layouts don't always flow together. Still, it's an improvement over some of the stuff that this series has seen lately.

Batman and Robin #12 - The identity of Oberon Sexton is revealed, and it looks like the villain from RIP is making a comeback. When Bruce Wayne finally gets back to the present, we'll have to have a rematch, I suppose. Not much else to say about this one other than it was enjoyable and I look forward to the next installment.

izombie #1 - It was a buck, so I figured why not? The concept is interesting, as the main character is a zombie who's trying to lead a normal life, but she has to eat human brains once a month in order to not turn into your more stereotypical, mindless zombie. She solves this by working at a graveyard. I'll probably pick up the second issue, as there are some interesting possibilities here - especially since she gains the memories of the people whose brains she eats. Also, it's always nice to see Michael Allred on art. Did he ever finish his Book of Mormon adaptation? I'm still curious about that one, and I might wind up buying it one day.

Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine - #1 (of 6) - Normally I'd dismiss a limited series like this as being little more than shelf-filler. Still, I was intrigued enough to check out an online preview. After all, one of my favorite comics of all time is the now-classic Spider-Man Versus Wolverine one-shot from more than twenty years ago. I was impressed enough by the story (Peter and Logan are trapped in prehistoric times) and the art (Adam Kubert) to pick it up. Definitely a fun read, and I'll be getting the next issue as well.

Brightest Day #0 - 1 - I passed on the "zero" issue a couple of weeks ago, but after flipping through issue number one, I became intrigued enough to check this series out. There's a lot of stuff going on here, and there are several protagonists. While some of them I don't really care too much about (Hawk) I'm pretty interested in what's going on with the others (Aquaman in particular). This is a biweekly series that'll last for a year, so I'll have to make sure that I'm really enjoying it if I'm going to continue to get it.