Welcome to Thunderdome!

Our Grab Bag from Midtown Comics arrived yesterday. We were concerned with how hard it would be to split things up, but it actually turned out to be pretty easy. Of the 48 comics we got, Kris already owned 14 and I already owned 2. I ceded two issues of Superman/Batman that he’d been looking for, bringing our initial piles to 14 and 4. Splitting the rest was surprisingly not difficult. We actually got to a point trying to decide who was going to take the issues of large series neither of us were planning on collecting, like Countdown and Trinity.

There were actually some really interesting finds in there. I got a sketch cover of Final Crisis #6 which neither of us had seen before. I cannot find a picture of it online, but if you’ve read it, it’s basically a sketch of the last page of the book where Superman is holding Batman’s body. Kris got Superman #50, where Clark finally proposes to Lois. We also got the Reign of Superman issues where Steel and Superboy take over as the main characters.

There were also several things in there that were pretty bad. There were the last three issues of DC vs Marvel, which Kris feels was cheating since it’s not actually DC titles. There was also JLX #1, which is an Amalgam comic that combines characters from the JLA and the X-Men into one bizarre superhero team. I got a copy of Dead Romeo, which tells the epic story of a rock star turned vampire. Kris also is “excited” about his copy of Timber Wolf #1 about the wacky adventures of a werewolf from the Legion of Superheroes of the 31st Century who some how gets stuck in the 20th century.

Overall, we’re really happy with our Grab Bag purchase. Next we’re going to pick up an Indie Grab Bag with 80 comics from Dark Horse, Image, IDW, and other smaller publishers. Should be awesome!!

Travis, what’s on your pull list?

* Red Robin #14 - This book continues to prove why Tim is more awesome than any other member of the Bat Family.
* Secret Six #23 - One-shot from John Ostrander that, while good, really throws off the awesome characterization from the previous story arc.

Kris, what’s on your pull list?

* Batman & Robin #13 - This book is an improvement over the past few issues.
* Brightest Day #5 -
Still too disjointed to be really amazing. I’m hoping it will all come together into one large story soon.
* Brightest Day: The Atom Special #1 - Start of a new story for Atom, and a good primer for those not familiar with his origin.
* Doom Patrol #12 - I was worried about Ambush Bug appearing here, but he adds even more wackiness to a book that thrives in the insane.
* JSA All-Stars #8 - Start of a new arc looks interesting, although I feel like this book continues to be the ugly step-child of the primary JSA book.
* Red Hood: Lost Days #2 - I get more excited about this book as time goes on.
* Red Robin #14 - An odd combination of building Tim’s solo storyline and tying him into the larger Batman universe. But it’s working.
* Secret Six #23 - John Ostrander can’t quite live up to Gail Simone’s precedent, but he writes an great stand alone story.