[Protoclown]

Yeah, I definitely think that on the whole DC is putting out better books than Marvel right now, but all the guys at my local comic shop are really behind what Marvel is doing right now. Ugh. They're still putting out some good books though...Brubaker's Captain America and Daredevil are great reads, Runaways is always fun, Garth Ennis's version of the Punisher never disappoints me, and Mike Carey's X-Men has been fairly interesting so far. I'm thinking of dropping New Avengers actually...the more Bendis I read, the more I dislike Bendis. It REALLY grates on my nerves when he has people speaking totally out of character with Yiddish words...not so much in New Avengers but in Ultimate Spider-Man. In the latest issue the Kingpin was dropping Yiddish words which I do not believe for one second he would even know. I mean, hey, I'm totally down with Bendis being proud to be Jewish and all, but does he really need to have characters speaking in a way that doesn't fit their character just because he can't keep that stuff off the page? Ironically, when Bendis writes dialog for Kitty Pride, she doesn't drop nearly as much Yiddish into her conversation as Peter Parker.

I'm reading Action Comics as well and have been enjoying the Donner/Johns run (though the delays have been very annoying). I read the first issue of the Green Lantern launch and never picked it up after that, though I hear Johns is doing great things. I was never much into the Flash, but I got the first issue of the relaunch and thought it sucked (and apparently so did everyone else). But because of that, I'm not really interested in picking it back up.

I thought the Lightning Saga was okay, but I was really kind of annoyed that it sort of interrupted the momentum that JSA was building on its own, and I'm glad that book can go back to kicking ass in its own right now. As for JLA, I was almost relieved that it forced an end to Meltzer's overly drawn out and convoluted team building story. I'm also not particularly thrilled with the dynamic of the new JLA team.

How've you been enjoying Countdown? I think it's been okay so far but it hasn't really hooked me yet. The most interesting arc so far has been the Mary Marvel one, I think.