Looks like I’m on a one-post-per-three-weeks schedule with these reviews. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, and I don’t want to spend a whole paragraph on figuring it out. So let’s get right on to the reviews.

Secret Six #1: I enjoyed The Six’s guest appearance in Birds of Prey so much back when Gail Simone was still writing that series, I decided to check out their first ever ongoing. It’s now on my pull list. I guess I just got to have a Gail Simone book in there at all times (I dropped Wonder Woman because it just wasn’t working out for me).

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I’ve been defying my limit of comic book purchases per week for the last 3 weeks, and it feels so good. I do expect to cut down on some of the titles after Secret Invasion and Final Crisis. I’m starting to really despise big “events”. Bah. Now, onto the reviews!

X-Factor Special: Layla Miller – This one-shot made me regret not picking up the Quicksilver special, thinking that it was just as awesome as this one. Peter David gives us a depressing but oftentimes funny peek into one possible future where Layla has been trapped since Messiah Complex, and it’s a very good read.

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I’ve been wanting to try out a couple of ongoing series these past few weeks, but looking at my pull list, I think I’ll wait for a few months before I add new titles to it. And with that inconsequential introduction out of the way, it’s time for some reviews!

Guardians of the Galaxy #3 – Continuing the energy and unadulterated awesomeness of the first two issues, this issue is full to the brim with action, suspense, mystery, and fun. I’m getting used to the “debrief log” framing device, and I’m getting used to the idea that this group of characters is an actual team. Sure, most of the awesomeness comes from a talking raccoon with huge ass guns, but the other Guardians contribute to the fun too. Add the mystery of Starhawk and Vance Astrovik, an attack force running on prayer power, and a fascinating cliffhanger to the developing group dynamics, and you have yourself a solid read.

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There are no words that can describe how happy I am about Viva Video bringing in Marvel Entertainment‘s straight-to-DVD animated features like Ultimate Avengers, Ultimate Avengers 2, and this movie here featuring Ol’ Shellhead: The Invincible Iron Man.

The Story: This got some comic book traditionalists up in arms with their panties in a bunch. Uptight pricks. I, on the other hand, don’t mind the film creators doing some modifications and upgrades on the mythos because first, I wasn’t an Iron Man fan until Civil War came along, so I really don’t give a crap about Iron Man continuity. Second, why would you want an animated feature to be 100% faithful to the medium it’s based on? Stories and characters in comics, no matter how iconic, don’t always equal great entertainment when ported brick-by-brick to another medium. And third, the story of ancient magics meeting bleeding edge technologies, with a dash of daddy issues, works for me. The Ultimate Avengers movies gave me a bigger geekgasm, but this one gave me a more satisfying story.

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