Welcome back to PCS’ weekly rundown of the best and worst new releases, courtesy of David Brothers (4thletter), Dylan Garret (Bridge & Causeway), Erin F. (Ninja Consultant) Ernie Estrella, (Jason Michelitch) and Katherine Dacey-Tsuei (Kate no Komento).

PICK: 100 Bullets # 86

There are two types of men in 100 Bullets, men of words, and men of action. Vic is a man of action. Here we find out a little more about Mr. Rhone and a lot about the mysterious Agent, Vic. As usual we get satisfying answers with new questions. Azzarello and Risso have become experts in peeling the layers of characters when they are not on panel, even when they are no longer with us. You can tell these two don’t read reviews or listen to gloss, they just pump out great stories and leave you saying, “Fuck! That’s good.” The most recent issues of the series have been excellent, addictive stand-alone issues as they have been jumping around giving us tasty bit after tasty bit for someone walking in 80 or so issues late. Yet for those that have been on the ride the whole way, have seen just how vulnerable and invulnerable the Minutemen can be. Shock Value: B+ - Ernie

PICK: All Star-Superman #9

Supes returns from the Bizarro world only to see Earth has become smitten with Krypton’s other survivors and Kal-El is severly tested. If only each issue could be stretched out into its own year-long story, because Grant Morrison writes a hell of a Superman. All-Star Superman serves as a gateway into the hundreds of stories that have come before. He and Frank Quitely have done so much with so little but they are encapsulating the entire mythology of Superman in one year, and even though everything is re-imagined, there’s not heavy burden of what’s to know or what’s not. In creating stand-alone issues, abrupt endings ensue, but in this series there’s still satisfaction and contemplation after the final page turn. It’s the ideal that every comic should aspire to. Shock Value: A- - Ernie

PICK: Garden Dreams

Everybody loves Fumi Yoshinaga! Well… almost everyone. It’s hard to convince manga-reading friends that Antique Bakery and Flower of Life ARE NOT yaoi, even if there are gay characters. This one-shot volume, Garden Dreams, also hints at “the gay,” but is a totally heterosexual story. This series of inter-connected short stories starts off like a flighty medieval fantasy but ends in deep themes about coping with loss and mourning the dead. Farhad is a bard who was adopted as a war orphan in the desert during the crusades. Farhad and his brother start working for a morose baron who’s wife was tragically murdered on his wedding night. The baron continues to lose other people dear to him, and shares his story with Farhad, who should also be suffering from separation anxiety. The story almost ends tragically, but Yoshinaga thinks the better of it and provides a happy ending. Shock Value: A- - Erin

PICK: JLA: Ultramarine Corps

This is an odd collection. It reprints JLA Classified #1-3 and JLA/Wildcats. The connection is that Grant Morrison wrote both stories, with Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines doing the art chores on the former and Val Semeiks drawing the crossover. The JLA Classified portion of the book is composed of three of the best superhero comics to ever be published. The Wildcats portion is good, but not as good as the other 3/4s of the book, though. Morrison and McGuinness spin a story that successfully blends an absent JLA, a shockingly sci-fi Batman, and an army of killer jet apes into a delightfully superheroic romp. The heroes are appropriately majestic and the villains very evil. We even get a sneak peek at the villains of Morrison’s 7 Soldiers megaseries. Morrison revels in the genre and really shows his love for these characters. (It is also kind of fun to finally see Zealot go up against her DCU counterpart in battle.) Shock Value: A+ - David

PICK: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Black Dossier

Is it hypocritical of me to bitch about the insular reference-heavy nature of superhero comics but love League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? I’d like to think not – I’d like to think that H.G. Wells and George Orwell are some degree more important than the origin of Doctor Octopus or whatever. But that might just be something I tell myself to make me feel better.

Since its inception, everything in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books – from major characters to background action – has been some kind of reference to imaginative literature throughout the ages. As Moore moves the story out of the 19th century and into the 20th, he also moves slightly away from straight plot and further into post-modern exploration and interweaving of such works as 1984, Ian Fleming’s Bond books, Greene’s The Third Man, and dozens upon dozens of others only some of which I recognize.

Moore has made it his stated intention to use League as a sort of narrative map of the entirety of fiction – from Greek Myths to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis to 3-D Movies and Garfield and beyond. So long as he stays smarter than me (he will) and Kevin O’neill keeps drawing stupendous images (he will), I’ll be happily following along wherever they want to take me. Shock Value: A - Jason

PICK: Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 4

Reviewing Scott Pilgrim is almost becoming a moot point. This book is just too damned good. Doing a write-up on a new volume of Scott Pilgrim is basically an act of finding a new way to write the same gushing, amorous words we wrote the year before when the last volume came out. Which brings me to my point — the only possible complaint about the series can be the year-plus wait between volumes.

So what’s Scott up to these days? Oh, you know, the usual – battling lesbians, angry Asian fathers, shitty restaurant jobs, his landlord, stylish leather wristbands on hot summer days, rock bands, and even more lesbians. (Man, it’s like… my life on paper.) The plot of Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, well, it’s more or less about Scott Pilgrim getting it together. In the Pilgrim universe this involves Scott gaining Exp through various anti-slacker means in an effort to “level up” his life. Can he do it? Can Scott hold down a real job, finally stop sharing a bed with a gay man, finish recording Sex Bob-omb’s totally awesome new album, and maybe even tell his girlfriend, Ramona, that he loves her? And will he manage to level up in time to battle yet-another one of Ramona’s, Seven Evil Ex-Boyfriends (excuse me, “Evil Exes”)? You’ll have to pick up Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together to find out. And, at this point, you have absolutely no excuse not to. Shock Value: A+ (the plus is for “Scott Earned The Power of LOVE”) - Dylan

PAN: Venus in Love, Vol. 1

Venus in Love volume one is mind-bogglingly dull, but for some reason two companies are racing to put out books by Yuki Nakaji this week. CMX is printing Zig Zag… I wonder if it’s as dull as Venus in Love.

Here’s a quote from my review: The translation of Venus is a little weird at times. One of the characters asks, “What am I, chopped liver?” I think that phrase went out of style in 1985, but the manga appears to be set in the 1990s. Suzuna says of Eichi, “He really gets my goat.” One of the boys calls another “Buckaroo”. If the slang seems dated to me, and I’m almost 30, it’s going to sound weird to the younger teenage readers.

Shock Value: C - Erin

PAN: World War Hulk #5

I wasn’t expecting to dislike this book as much as I do. I love JRjr, and his work on this book is the only thing I don’t have a problem with. My issue is with Pak’s story. For a book that started off so wonderful and self-contained, we get an ending that boils down to “Hey, read these other books,” a last-page reveal that is nothing but a “Wha-huh?!” until you turn the page and see the ad for another new series, and a showdown between two old friends that boils down to, “Check it out, dog, I’m a bad dude, aren’t I?” JRjr’s art sells the fight scenes wonderfully, but the exposition hour just before the end feels clunky and the ending is just a let down. Shock Value: C - David

PICK: Yakitate!! Japan, Vol. 8

Volume eight of Yakitate!! Japan finds Kazuma Azuma and the Pantasia gang in Monaco for an international baking tournament. As one might expect, the story follows the same basic template as previous volumes: Kazuma draws a seemingly impossible assignment‹i.e. making a bread with only eggs and flour‹then dazzles the judges with baked goods so amazing they send the eaters into carbohydrate-induced orgasms. Great sight gags keep the premise from growing too stale, as do occasional star turns by supporting players like Suwabara and Kinoshita. Hashiguchi also makes good use of the Monaco setting, incorporating roulette wheels and slot machines into the competition. It¹s not my favorite volume of the series (that would be number two, which included a recipe for making bread in a rice cooker), but I got some good chuckles at the sheer absurdity of grown men baking kugelhopf and castella with samurai intensity. Shock Value: B+ - Kate