Otherwise, despite being a Dan Slott fan I haven't been grabbed by THE INITIATIVE - it lacks a strong overall plotline and interesting characters. It's strange how before the cancellation of THE THING all Slott's Marvel work was pure gold, but since then SHE-HULK has faltered and I've been unimpressed by his new title. Still, after the FCBD issue I'm looking forward to the possibility of him working on Spider-Man.

Bug...don't tease me. Seriously. I mean it. You could really break my heart if you're lying to me about HULK. I would rather you gave me the wettest, sloppiest, most mind-numbing blow job ever and then chopped my garbage off at the nuts than lie to me about this. I NEED this. I NEED for Hulk to come down from on high and proceed to kick the rancid hobo ass shit out of ALL the Illuminati, their sycopahnts, their non-combatant detractors, their combatant detractors (for not winning), midgets, orphans, the elderly, and of course the Dutch. I need him to shout and break the world. I need him to bite into Iron Man like a drunken frat fucker tears into a beer can. I need Black Bolts head shoved so far up his own ass that if he twitches then his little head-fork thing will stroke his prostate. I need him to use Reed as a condom while he and She-Hulk (with another part of Reed used as a strap-on) go double anal on Doc Strange.

(BTW There's another unguessable word for you Jinx...double anal)

I NEED this. Please don't tease me.

I am a sick and fucking twisted chelonian.

I mean, you don't like DORA THE EXPLORER do you? But I'm pretty sure you get it.

or better yet "dinidinidinidinidinidini...ba tman"

yeah, i liked that issue so much it probally melted my brain, so what? :P

And then people wonder why so many of us found CIVIL WAR to be crass, jaded, and completely fucking moronic. It's not just that everybody acts out of character; it's that there are so many opportunities for tension and character and plot development possible by staying IN character. What a completely fuckled shitfest that whole thing turned out to be.

And then people wonder why so many of us found CIVIL WAR to be crass, jaded, and completely fucking moronic. It's not just that everybody acts out of character; it's that there are so many opportunities for tension and character and plot development possible by staying IN character. What a completely fuckled shitfest that whole thing turned out to be.

I dropped Detective with the last issue. Dini wrote some enjoyable comics but too many were sub-standard and the uber-crap fish-head killer issue was one too far. Although it seems every time I make up my mind to stop buying it he comes back with a winner, so I'm tempted to try the latest issue.

either way the riddler didn't enter my mind, but now that you mentioned it he probally should have. also love how all of dinis issues are "stand alone" done in one issues but they all kind of tie together with returning characters.

LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- A projectionist at a Memphis, Tennessee, theater chain has lost his job after writing an unauthorized early review of "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" for the Web site Ain't It Cool News.

Jesse Morrison, the projectionist, claims that the film's distributor, 20th Century Fox, was behind the decision by Malco Theatres Inc. to suspend him for an undetermined period. The studio denied the charge.

While studios and filmmakers have endured early reviews of their movies, both negative and positive, on Web sites since the early days of the Internet, the incident might mark the first time someone working in the entertainment industry has lost a job for voicing an early opinion online.

On Saturday, http://www.AintItCool.com posted a negative review by Morrison (writing under his online moniker Memflix) under the headline "Memflix crushes all hope for 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.' "

A 29-year-old film, video and journalism major at the University of Memphis, Morrison worked for $7 an hour at the Ridgeway Four, next door to Malco's home office. He picked up further compensation by readying movie prints for exhibitor and press screenings, which allowed him during the past year to write reviews of such movies as "Disturbia," "Vacancy" and "Spider-Man 3" for Ain't It Cool. He also wrote reviews for Malco's movie blog and a circular distributed at the theater.

On Monday, two days after his "Silver Surfer" pan appeared, Morrison was called into a meeting with Malco senior VP Jimmy Tashie and, according to Morrison, was "suspended until further notice," with the suggestion that he would not be asked to return.

Morrison said Tashie pointed out that "20th Century Fox called them that morning and threatened to take away the press and trade screenings because of this whole thing. They were upset."

Asked if Fox had any role in the suspension, Tashie said: "Absolutely none." The executive said his company received a call from Fox that said "there's somebody there working for (Malco) who is writing reviews in advance. That's all they said. No one asked us to do anything. We have been in business 95 years, and this is the first time anything like this happened. And this boy knew what he was doing was the wrong thing. ... He was in a position of trust and he violated that trust."

Drew McWeeney, known as "Moriarty" on the Ain't It Cool site, picked up Morrison's cause. Amid two positive reviews for the new movie, he championed Morrison's right to free speech and wrote: "He's written many reviews for us before, but when he wrote one for 'Fantastic Four,' Fox went into hypersensitive overdrive. They tracked him down and had him fired, threatening to pull their business from the entire chain over that review."

Sources inside Fox denied the studio's involvement, saying that the disciplinary action was beyond their reach and was the theater chain's decision. Some entertainment companies, including film productions, do ask workers to sign confidentiality agreements, agreeing not to disclose information. Morrison said he had never been asked to sign such an agreement, though he would have if asked.

"If they had sat me down and told me that this has caused such a stink and that we would like you to sign some waiver, I probably would have signed it," Morrison said. "In my opinion, they used strong-arm tactics. I don't regret going on my Web site or Ain't It Cool at all. I just wish it hadn't come to this, but I don't really believe I did anything wrong."

Tashie said: "In the future, anybody in that position will sign something." A number of Ain't It Cool readers have rallied to Morrison's cause, some even offering him jobs like a cameraman gig in Mexico. Morrison said he is weighing his options. "I'm hoping to get a job as a professional movie reviewer, but I don't know what's going to happen with that. I guess you could say I'm at some kind of crossroads right now."

Of course, I am torn by this info. It will excuse the behavior of the biggest dicks in CW, but not the rest. And it will render everything in Marvel for the last many moons moot. I will be glad not to hate Stark anymore, but this hackneyed out--SKRULLS?--is just so lame, also unimaginative, also the opposite of what Marvel purports to be doing with its "vision."

They'll be the real deal except in certain instances (Happy for one) where a skrull was close to one of them and was able to manipulate them. The eschaton equation that Reed and Tony were working from (and was the impetus for the Civil War) will turn out to have been manipulated by the skrulls to trick earth's heroes into warring with each other. That way those readers that want to blame them for what they did get to and those that want them pardoned get to wage their own amnesty war on message boards across the 'net.

Both Marvel and DC are hype machines that will say damn near anything to cover up their fuck ups. They both like to pull retroactive 'gotchas' whenever they can.

And that's by no means the worst of it. No, the worst of it is Beak. When Grant Morrison introduced Beak, he was the most pathetic X-Man ever, and I mean that in a good way. He was gangly, clumsy, socially inept, and couldn't use his powers for shit. He was a sad sack loser, and I loved him for it. He meant well, and his heart was always in the right place, and he was a great character.

And now? Now Beak is a buff, charming pretty boy who's playing the role of a top secret underground freedom fighter, to which I can only say a hearty FUUUUUCK YOU. What the fuck? Is there a reason he couldn't have, y'know, still been Beak but without his mutant powers? Why couldn't he still be a skinny, gangly, dorky loser with a good heart who looked out for others? He could still serve a purpose, be part of the underground, and prove himself a hero without looking like he just walked off of an episode of fucking "Laguna Beach". What a load of horseshit.

The pace was picked up, everything tightened, no filler. The look, the designs and everything were much better (not Kirby, but clean, 1960s Worlds Fair which was fine). In my opinion, Tim Story completely redeemed himself with the visuals and action. For once, somebody who made a bad film learned something, got a second chance and made a good film.

The Surfer's story was well done, appropriate, Doom's theft of the power cosmic was well adapted from the comic. The humor was there. The fights and the love the characters have for each other. Harry was wrong. The chick playing Alicia played blind very well and her performance, one of the best in the last film, was consistent.

Galactus wasn't a cloud. We just didn't see Galactus. And I don't believe it was because they couldn't depict Galactus or were afraid of stretching credibility...it was simply that the appearance of Galactus would have reconfigured the story too much. Because putting in the Watcher and the ultimate nullifier would have been too much, we couldn't have the FF directly confront Galactus. It was better to have a the Surfer have a simple but effective confrontation with his master, to sort of symbolize that all you have to do to be free is to want to be free.

Lots of great comic book elements. The Torch's girlfriend Frankie, who will one day become the hearld of Galactus herself (Byrne called her Nova, but as a die hard THE MAN CALLED NOVA fan, I always called her Chick Nova) whom the Surfer would also have feelings for. Norrin Rad. Shall Ball. Etc.

One cool thing that I admired...you know how in the X-MEN movies, they cut down everybody's powers. Like, Storm, Rogue, Magneto couldn't fly? Here, they amped up Johnny Human Torch's power. We've got him flying from New York to Washington DC and beyond. I like that because it showed that somebody wasn't afraid to think big and open things up. Just like a comic, they were able to take us all over the world and into space in a single story.

Here's one thing I didn't like: when the Surfer tells Sue his back story, we see it on his stomach...What is he a TeleTubby? No, when the Surfer shows you his story, you look into his eyes.

Stupid lack of edit feature makes for unintentional laughs.

Having said that, it was definitely Brubaker's month. I loved CRIMINAL, Cap and DAREDEVIL. Cap 26 even made me feel something for Tony Stark. No mean feat. And the new issue of Criminal already feels like a giant leap forward from the last arc. Less knowingly cliched and with a cool-as-fuck protagonist. Hey Bug, what you thinking of the current DD arc? I think it's a blast to have something resembling an archetypal Daredevil story. The last issue was one of Brubaker and Lark's best.