A few final reviews from last week....

I should be back to my normal schedule this coming week, but here are the last few vacation-affected titles from last week....

Steve Rogers: Super Soldier #1 - (Ed Brubaker, Dale Eaglesham) - You didn't really think that we wouldn't have some kind of stand-alone Steve Rogers story now that Bucky is the new Captain America, did you? So we get this. It's pretty good and shows Steve acting more as a spy who is concerned that a rogue pharmaceutical company (a pretty tired cliche) is trying to recreate the super soldier serum that made him Captain America and sell it to the highest bidder. It's pretty good and I think I'll keep getting this title (its a 5-6 issue miniseries, I think). Eaglesham's art is pretty good too. 7.4/10

Dust Wars #2 - (Christopher Morrison, Davide Fabbri) - The first issue of this was not good and this issue stinks too. Actually, let me rephrase....... The art is quite good, but the story is no good at all. As a comic fan who writes, I have comic ideas in my head and if it is this easy to find a comic artist, maybe I'll start working on some of my concepts. :) Seriously, this seems to be based on a line of toys: Dust figurines. I didn't know that going in, so this story is mostly written to promote the toy line and the story stinks. Stay away.... 5.0/10

Batman Odyssey - (Neal Adams) - Mr. Adams is a living legend in the comics biz, so I had to check this out. But, while the art is top notch, I just don't care for the story that much. It is a retelling of sorts of Batman's early years and shows an early Batman carrying guns, discovering the Bat-Cave, etc. The story is confusing and not well connected and I just really don't need a retelling of these old stories. I'm fine with filling in blank spaces in Batman's past (although I don't think there are that many old stories left to tell), but don't tell me another story about how he started fighting crime. Just go read Batman: Year One. 6.5/10

Fantastic Four Annual #32 - (Joe Ahearne, Bryan Hitch) - This was just kinda so, so for me, but it does what I wish Annuals did more often: tell a one-off story that just about anyone can pick up and read. This story doesn't connect at all with what has been going on in FF and I seriously doubt that anything will come of this story long term (although an enterprising writer in a few years COULD dredge up the ending for this). It basically tells the story of Johnny Storm being confronted by an unexpected pregnant one-night-stand. Of course, this being Marvel they make it clear that the characters were drugged AND they didn't really DO anything......the pregnancy happened in a different way. I'm not a huge fan of Hitch's art style, but it works just fine in this issue and I was able to follow the story fine. 7.0/10