So I picked up a copy of the Ultimates TPB. Yes, I bought more comics. But I had a rationale. I just don't precisely recall it right now.

It was...okay at first. I can see myself reading much of the Ultimate universe, mostly in TPB. But then I got to the bit where Hank and Janet fight, and I'm something close to hooked. Still, I'll read Ultimate X-Men monthly, pick up the miniseries monthly too, and grab Ultimates and UFF in TPB. Not sure about Spiderman.

What are the Ultimates? And (referring to earlier posts by others) what is Powers?

Did you go to the new comic shop?

I've figured out that if I pick up Teen Titans #13 and go forward from there and then pick up A Kid's Game and the tpb that is coming out this fall (Family Lost) I will be all caught up in Teen Titans. This is alarmingly attractive to me.

(I figured out that if I do this -- it means that this Wednesday I will have 6 new titles to pick up, in addition to other back issues that I've had them hold for me and I've been picking up one or two at a time.)

What are the Ultimates?

The Ultimates are the Ultimate universe's Avengers. They're not younger like Spidey, the FF or the X-Men. They're just different. Playboy Tony Stark with cancer, bitter loser Bruce Banner who's really messed up, Thor who says he's a god, but who knows, Janet Pym who's a closet mutie, her husband who seems to be a major fuckup, and a kinda hot Steve Rogers.

ita, ask shrift about the crack that is Ultimate Spidey. It's good shit.

sumi, Teen Titans is worth being caught up in. Also good shit. Very good shit.

I've read a whole lot of Ultimate Spidey. I quite like it, but I don't think I do enough to spend money on it, sadly. But the 40 or so I read in one shot was fun. B&N has a $50 book of the first 50 or so issues, and it keeps sitting there, winking at me.

I dunno. It's a lot of stuff.

Powers is a great series about two homicide detectives assigned to investigate crimes involving "Powers," i.e., superheroes. It considers both the seamier and taudrier sides of superherodom, and can be wickedly funny. The first case involved the murder of a Supergirl-like hero called Retrogirl. There have also been cases with groups not completely unlike the FF, and the Justice League. I highly recommend it.

anyone who hasn't tried Who Killed Retro Girl? yet really really needs to.

Damn yeah!

And I was also Cyclops. Yuck.

And I was also Cyclops. Yuck.

So was I. I'm always Cyclops on these things.

A silly Sunday topic: Via a conversational route that doesn't bear repeating, a friend and I started coming up with Biblical X-Men. Moses, for instance. He's got energy-based powers, and they seem to be about fire. He's smart, and a leader. So Moses is Cyclops. Solomon's a smart, scientific guy, so he's Beast. Samson is Colossus. I said Jesus is Phoenix, but he wants to go with Esther, from her origins as Astarte.

Of course, the "X" would be the cross, like in Xmas, in this case.

Moses, Solomon, Samson, and Esther, and "of course" they would be brought together under the sign of the *cross*?

Oy.