BLACK WIDOW & THE MARVEL GIRLS #1: As always, Paul Tobin turns in a solid, tight script, and there’s something very cool about seeing characters together you would never, ever picture in the same place, like Black Widow and Enchantress. Sure, it’s a blatant movie tie-in, but its a good one. I’m looking forward to the rest of this series.

DARK AVENGERS ANNUAL #1: This issue almost functions as an origin story for Noh-Var, formerly (and possibly future-ly) Captain Marvel, and I’m sure, a back-door pilot if you will for a Noh-Varr series. You could do worse that Bendis spending most of the issue on emotional conversation about what it means to be human, which he excels at as a writer, and Chris Bachalo on art (which he always excels at all the time). Also, that’s a hell of a last page, especially as… Well, let’s just say it takes place about a month from now.

DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #898: The backwards numbering for this series is so weird it hurts my head, but if we keep getting fun stories where Deadpool teams up with Mexican wrestlers, I’ll deal with far too many Deadpool stories.

FALL OF THE HULKS: ALPHA: Jeff Parker makes an excellent case in this issue as to why the Fall of the Hulks event is happening, who’s involved, and why you should care about any of this. I’m getting a little tired of the “secret club who has been running everything behind the scenes” meme that’s going on in the MU, but simultaneously enjoy the nods and winks Parker puts into the book. Plus, Paul Pelletier pencils, and I’d read anything he does. He’s becoming more and more like Alan Davis with every passing year, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Fun story, classic art, well worth a pick-up.

IRON MAN VS. WHIPLASH #1: Another blatant “we’ll collect this in the trade so you can pick it up when the movie comes out,” but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Marc Guggenheim sets up an interesting, out of continuity (I think) mystery involving Tony Stark, the Iron Man armor, and the origin of Whiplash. The end of the issue is a little rushed, but the first half is solid villain building. I might wait for the eventual trade on this, but if you’re looking for clues about Iron Man 2, here’s a good place to start.

IRON MAN: REQUIEM: Though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend picking this up (though there are some nice reprints in here), it is a fascinatingly weird attempt by Matt Fraction to reconcile all of Iron Man’s continuity into the current storyline in his book. Probably not worth it for the four pages, but again, if you’re an Iron Man completest, why not?

PSYLOCKE #2: For some reason, this series is just not grabbing me. I like Chris Yost quite a bit, and am a total sucker for Psylocke. The big problem is, given the cheeky “Kill Matsu’o” title of the arc/series, it’s just not that much fun. This issue certainly gets closer to the tone Yost is looking for than the first, but its still dealing with Psylocke’s overly convoluted, and kind of uninteresting history. Ulises Arreola’s colors are quite nice, though.

SIEGE: THE CABAL: Speaking of secret clubs, and clubbing you over the head with metaphors. Yes, we get what Bendis is referring to here, not every real life/Marvel U parallel needs to spell it out for you so plainly. So that doesn’t really work, which unfortunately is the back-bone of the Siege event. But the character work is reliably good, including a very natural feeling meltdown for Normie. Oh, and if you’re wondering who the shadowy figure behind Norman is… Keep wondering. This has to be revealed sometime soon for the mystery to not start to get annoying, but the teases in this issue are agonizing enough to make me get over my genera dislike of the shadowy figure trope. A must-read for Marvel U. devotees, and the explanation for Siege, it might as well be issue #1 of that series.

STRANGE #2: If I was to venture a guess, I would say that the four issues of this series could very well have started as a pitch for an hour-long Dr. Strange TV pilot. Well structured and characterized, the first issue felt off, but in retrospect, could easily have been the cold open/first act of an hour long, with this issue functioning as the second act. I’m excited to see where it’s going, as Waid is making me more interested in Dr. Strange and his new apprentice than… Well, I think I’ve ever been.

THOR #604: Kieron Gillen, as expected, doesn’t really miss a beat falling into the Thor scripting duties, I assume finishing off JMS’ story in the next few issues, before Siege hits. As it is, Gillen turns in a well written comic with at least one money moment, and one exchange that proves if anything happens to Jonathan Hickman, he could probably jump on Fantastic Four, too. As is, though, and I thought I’d never say this… I’m a little tired of Dr. Doom. Hopefully after this next round of stories, we can give him a rest for a while. His plans are becoming repetitive.

ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #5: Okay, so a couple of great things happened when this title moves to its new numbering. First, it got David LaFeunte, who’s perfect art knocks it out of the park every issue. Not only that, but the synthesis between Bendis and LaFuente is perfect, they both make each other better. Second… Did the issues get longer? Because it used to be you’d get an ish Ultimate Spidey that was one fight scene, and a few “Oof!” and “Thwip!” sound effects, and you were done. These issues are packed to the brim. Ultimate Spidey is at least as good as its ever been, if not the best ever.

UNCANNY X-MEN #518: Here’s a great jumping on point for new readers. Actually, you know what? Scratch that. Matt Fraction has, for the first time in probably a decade, made every issue of X-Men a good point to jump on to. X-Men, the most convoluted franchise in comics history. And you can pick up an issue, just like that! Hooray! Anyway, the focus is mostly on Scott trying to get the Void out of Emma, and it mostly works, though the B-plot featuring the science squad is far more interesting, with better character moments. Either way, its way less action movie than the last issue, and in general, Fraction is doing a bang-up job on this title.

WHAT IF? SECRET INVASION: The nice thing about alternate realities is that you have to spend a lot of time explaining what’s different about them. Oh wait, no you don’t.

X-FORCE ANNUAL #1: Boy, I loved this. Robert Kirkman contributes the main story, which is over the top action as it should be from X-Force. But the real gem is the back-up story showing what Deadpool is doing on X-Isle during Necrosha, and it’s laugh out loud funny. I’m sure at some point we’re all going to get tired of DP’s over-exposure, but this is not that point.