It is never a bad time when I visit my local comic store, where they know me by name and ask me not to shriek, “Who’s looking for a good time?” at the paying clientele, at least not while I’m wearing my Namor Speedos.

But some weeks are a little more, shall we say, disappointing than others. This was one of those every-few-weeks weeks where, when the owner of my local comic store, where they kow me by name and ask me to for Christ’s sake stop wearing my Namor Speedos, hands me my week’s pulls, and it’s only about an inch thick. And while it’s nice to come home from my local comic store, where they know me by name and ask me to remember that there are decency laws in greater Boston, without being a full Benjamin lighter in the wallet, it means fewer books to read, sink into, and forget that these Speedos were once my fat shorts.

But still: some new comics is better than no new comics. And any new comics means that it is Wednesday, and further indicates that this…

new_comics_5_15_2013

…means the end of our broadcast day.

But even though it’s looking like a light week, there are still plenty of decent comics this week. We’ve got another issue of Marvel’s Age of Ultron event (which contains neither ages or Ultrons. Huh.), a new Legend of Luther Strode and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, something new from Dynamite Comics called Pathfinder that I bought on a whim, along with something called Dream Thief from Dark Horse Comics that Amanda bought on a whim, and a decent pile of other cool stuff.

But you know how this works: before we can review them, we need a chance to Johnson’s Baby Powder ourselves out of these Godawful shorts. And some extra time to, you know, read the damn comics. So until that time…

See you tomorrow, suckers!

deathstroke_20_cover_2013-153518301Editor’s Note: And one last look at last week’s comics before the comic stores open late today… and it contains spoilers. But they are spoilers on a book that has been cancelled and lives no more. So do you really give a fuck? Thought not.

“So the final issue of Deathstroke was in this week’s take. You gonna review it?” I said.

“Fuck that,” my co-Editor Amanda said, “As far as I’m concerned, that book’s been over since Rob Leifeld took over from Kyle Higgins last year. DC editorial took a perfectly good book about a professional dealing with the perils of entering middle age and turned it into a book about some badly-proportioned, footless steroid head beating on space douchebags.”

“But Justin Jordan’s been writing the book for the past few months. Do you think it’s improved at all since then?”

“I haven’t been reading it.”

“Why not? Jordan writes Luther Strode, and you like that.”

“Yeah, but so what? It’s damaged goods. Taking over Deathstroke after Liefeld had his grubby mitts all over it is like watching a buddy get married to a whore. He might be totally in love and committed to making it work, but here ain’t a force on Earth that can make people look at her and not picture when she had three dicks in her mouth. Let Deathstroke go under and lie fallow for a while. I’ll try it again when it feels a little less… dirty. You review the last issue.”

Okay I will. Despite not having kept up on Deathstroke since Higgins left the book any more than Amanda did. Which means that I have no idea what the hell led into the events of this issue, which includes all the Usual Suspects you’d expect from a big Deathstroke story. We’ve got Terra, Rose (Slade’s daughter who became Ravager before the New 52), Grant (Slade’s son who became Ravager back in the 80s – c’mon, at least try to keep up), Jericho (Slade’s other son, who was a good guy in the 80s before becoming a bad guy in… ah, fuck it) and, well, Majestic (for some reason), locked in a epic battle to the death that requires some ugly choices, brutal methods, and one deus ex machina on Slade’s part.

Which is fine, but what matters is: is it any good? And more importantly: does it work as a final story? You know, with “final” in subtextual quotes, since ain’t no one really gonna kill a character that appears on The CW’s Arrow?