Sure there was a period of issues where it felt like it was shuffling along but I wondered if that was due to Vaungh not wanting to leave that universe behind. As if he's the one sticking around too long. Still, I like how the end is unfolding.

Thor: "I was dead."

Angry, Dissafected Crowd: "..."
"Well ya still shoulda done sumthin'!" If this is JMS' attempt to make Thor look wise it's not working. Then JMS' mustach-twirling Iron Man shows up: (direct quote) "Things have changed, Thor. You either work for the government or you're against us." Way to uphold the American Way there, Iron Jerk! I don't care if it's the norm, that's some butt-ugly characterization.

I'm also not really a fan of Thor's new costume. He's the frickin' Thunder God, he doesn't *need* to look menacing.

Somebody at Marvel made another good point last week, though: people are being waaay to narrowly focused on this whole thing. "Reed is a Skrull!" is missing the point. There's no reason to think that any one character was *permanently* replaced by a Skrull, as if they were being held captive in a mountain lair somewhere. The point is that now you don't know *which* appearances of a character were really them, and which were a Skrull faking it for a day or two. Hell, you could have one Skrull who's been impersonating multiple characters just to eff with people or play both sides against the middle.

It's a lot more complicated than people are thinking right now, which is a great concept that's bound to be shittily executed.

But...

I've read a lot of Hulk. Hulk is my favorite Marvel character. In many ways, the Hulk is the pure spirit of Marvel because he's the last character you'd think of as a hero. Heroes with problems? I'd say being Hulk is a huge problem.

The rampages? Well ... these all-out, Godzilla levelling Tokyo type attacks have actually been pretty rare throughout the Hulk's history. Toppling skyscrapers and demolishing cities? Well, I haven't read EVERY issue, but you usually don't see it.

If we get into the question of realism, after first laughing at ourselves because: c'mon, guys, we're talkin' radioactive, green superhuman and realism in the same sentence? But if there were a Hulk, wouldn't he be almost an anamoly, an urban legend? There's be Hulk sightings in the southwest and occasionally he'd turn up in weird places, and Hulk websites and conventions and fake films and the late, lamented WEEKLY WORLD NEWS would have headlines like: Anna Nicole Gave Birth To Secret Hulk Love Child ... or The Hulk Diet.

He'd be the Skunk Ape. Springheeled Jack. Champ. Mr. Atomic Green.

It's as easy for me to believe the character never killed as it is to believe he killed thousands.

And if a compromise is in order, well, I'm sure we can agree than if some of Thunderbolt Ross' men didn't make it out of those tanks, Hulk never murdered them. He's more like a force of nature, an act of God.

I guess I can see how a certain segment would feel Stark is still heroic, but I think Millar is being disingenuous when he says that Iron Man was the hero and Cap was the villain. He did do Ultimates, after all, with very different portrayals of those two. In the Ultimate U, IM is heroic, and a case can be made that Cap is villainous. Millar's problem is that he really doesn't respect the USA, so he puts our country down rather a lot, and saying Stark is the hero of CW is a perfect example of that.

Oh, this is just a tiny peeve of mine, but regarding the Black Canary review, "disinterested" means impartial, "uninterested" means ,well, not interested.

Now, my disagreement with grendel doesn't indicate my low reading ability. But then, since I didn't completely read grendels long, single paragraph responses (just skimmed them), he may have a point. I don't think so, though. And grendel, I'm not trying to change your mind, nor have my mind changed.