I pick up quite a number of monthly series and I keep telling myself that I need to cut back on the large quantity I bring back home from the local comic shop. But, with all that, Matt Kindt's Mind MGMT has got me for the long haul. If you are a fan of mysteries, if you are a fan of Kindt, if you are a fan of comics: pick this up! But, more importantly, if you have been waiting for the trades and do not see the value in picking up a comic on a monthly basis anymore, do yourself a favor and give Mind MGMT #1 a shot. It very well could be the book that makes you want to go back to the comic shop.

What happens to the world when it loses its hero? This is the question that Marvel set out to answer with Ultimate Fallout. While there were some small differences between Marvel's Mainstream Universe and their Ultimate Universe, there simply were not enough to warrant Earth-1610's existence. Like any entity that fears it has become stale or has reached a plateau, Marvel's Ultimate Universe had to make a change. So, they made a drastic shift: the death of Peter Parker, our Ultimate Spider-Man. But with Spider-Man gone, the Ultimate Universe needed to begin to ask itself questions. How does this dimension move on? How do we deal? How can we once again rise up? How should we cope? Writers Brian Michael Bendis, Jonathan Hickman and Nick Spencer -- currently Marvel's best and brightest -- along with a mixed bag of artists, have been trying to show their readers that the Ultimate Universe is something unique and that the journey to find these answers will be one that we wish to travel.

You win, Diana! You have captured this young man's heart once again. I was skeptical, at first. I thought your first issue was one of the best of the "New 52" #1 lineup. But I still feared getting too close. I just needed to make sure that this was something real. We have had our ups (the recent Gail Simone run, that time in Superman/Batman where you kidnapped Supergirl and trained her as an Amazon on Themyscira) and our downs (when you started wearing pants and a leather jacket and let J. Michael Straczynski put his sullied hands all over you), but I cannot help but give you another chance. You are a quite the character! There have been many a time when a creator is unable to see you for what you really are, but I think your recent time spent with Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang has brought you back from that awful place where you last were. And this very well may be a new high for you.

In a week that gave us the Grant Morrison/Rags Morales Action Comics #1 as well as Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman's wonderfully twisted Animal Man #1, I have to say that the comic that surprised me most was Judd Winick and Ben Oliver's Batwing #1. This is coming from someone who has never really enjoyed the stories that Judd Winick has fostered over at DC Comics, whether it be bringing back Jason Todd or his recent run on Power Girl (though he had quite an act to follow).

What we have here are two creators at their very best, and frankly, you would be a damned fool to miss this one! If this is what we get at the beginning of 2012, then I cannot wait for what the world of comics has to offer for the rest of this year.

The surreal mystery that Brubaker and Phillips are laying out for us is one of the few comics that I am reading that stays with me in the weeks between the next issue. We may want to know what happened to Josephine during the war or what happened to Raines' wife, but it is only issue #3 and he most certainly cannot give it all away in the first act. But, until we know what is cloaked in the darkness, this book will have you champing at the bit for the next issue for as far as I can see.

As an avid comics reader, it is rare to find a series that truly stands out from the rest. Whether it be a wholly original idea or a unique take on a much explored genre, they come so few and far between. But, I can say, without any reservation, that Gladstone's School for World Conquerors is one of those series. In recent years, new superhero books have not been finding their moment in the sun. There are but too many well-established characters with over half a century of backstory and name recognition behind them to allow another book to share the limelight. But Gladstone's School for World Conquerors is not trying to be those books. It is my feeling that Gladstone's School for World Conquerors is to the superhero comic what The Muppet Show was to the late-night variety show. And I mean that -- not only does it change the game, but it makes it a game for kids to enjoy along with their parents -- and without feeling as though they are worse off now for doing so.

I never quite understood how DC planned on getting new readers to pick up Green Lantern books without changing the universe at all. There has been a Green Lantern in comics since 1940 and the Green Lantern Corps since the Silver Age revival in the mid-to-late-1950s. With Alan Scott and the Golden Age interpretation nonexistent, that gives us over 50 years of backstory attached to this world. But, unlike Batman, Green Lantern in any form has never been on par in recognition with the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman and The Flash (all of whom received relaunches). There are fans, of course, and even a few new ones thanks to stories like "Blackest Night", but that does not mean that the Green Lantern Universe could not use a fresh start. The three other books in the Green Lantern line -- Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps and Red Lanterns -- were damn near inaccessible to someone who did not read Green Lantern comics of old. Even if they had seen this past summer's Van Wilder Gets a Power

I like to think of this comic as the pilot for the lost television series that was supposed to take place between Star Wars and Empire. Everything about it screams Star Wars. Even the opening introduction belongs on a yellow-lettered opening crawl. It even ends in an ellipsis! I went in to this thinking that my stomach would be turning as I flip every page and I could not be more ecstatic to be wrong. Not only did this comic not break my little geek heart, but it may have just made it skip a beat.

Now, there have been a few minor changes to Supergirl and her mythos. When Supergirl was introduced back into the DC Universe -- with Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner's story, ″Supergirl″, in Superman/Batman -- in 2004, she was a naked teenage girl whose ship landed in Gotham Bay and was found by Batman. After training with Wonder Woman and the Amazons, and being kidnapped briefly by Darkseid, she dons a Super-skirt and a bare-midriff and becomes Supergirl. That is a brash over-generalization for such a great six-issue arc, but I'm here to talk about the new Supergirl. In this new origin tale, after a meteor shower lands in (or near) Smallville, Kansas, the largest meteor pierces through the earth and ends up in Siberia. From the crash site emerges our new Supergirl, already fully in costume! [That's how you do it, Ultimate Spider-Man!] She has no idea where she is, how she got there nor the fate of her home planet, Krypton. And when she is met by a group of BattleMechs (?!), w

Sweet Tooth's last arc -- "Book Four: Endangered Species" -- had Gus, Jeppard and the rest of their recent crew of hybrids and militia defectors heading to Alaska to find out the origin of both the plague and Gus. After stopping in a self-sustaining community hidden within a dam, Jeppard and Singh are taking the now injured Gus to Alaska where they hope to find the answers to the whole story.

With The Ultimates #1, Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic kick off the new Ultimate Comics line and mark the dawn of a new era in the Ultimate Universe. After the events that transpired prior to and in Ultimate Fallout, Earth-1610 is in a state of disarray. We lost Spider-Man, Captain America gave up, all of the mutants are in hiding to avoid being put in government-run concentration camps, the EUSS has re-initiated its super-soldiers program and many parts of the world were left on the brink of war. With all of this happening -- and with a recent drastically reduced budget -- how can both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Ultimates continue saving the world?

Up from the ashes, a new hero rises, but unfortunately he rises in terrible taste. The first story opens in New York City on everyone's favorite forgotten villain, the Kangaroo. Now out of prison, he throws a man who owes him his cut of their last job only to be foiled by... some kid in a Spider-Man costume.

This issue wasn't bad, in any regard. It just was not on par with the previous three issues that Lemire and Ponticelli have given us.

To be completely honest, I have never been much of an X-Men reader. That is not to say that I did not like the characters or their universe, because I did. I, too, watched the '90s cartoon on Saturday mornings as a kid. My problem was one that many readers have going into a well-established universe: continuity. Continuity is always a rough obstacle to overcome in any book, but I have always found it a lot harder to do so on a team book. And, with X-Men being the pinnacle of pretty much all team books in the world of comics, I always shied away. I was also at a point where I had stopped reading comics around the time that the Ultimate Universe made its debut, so I was not able to get in at the ground floor of a new X-Men series, not tied to any history. But, when Marvel announced their Ultimate Comics Universe Reborn initiative back in May, with a new X-Men title, I figured it was now time to jump into the water and hope I don't sink. Granted, the Ultimate Universe was not entirely sta

Nick Spencer tells a story of the Ultimate Universe's favorite forgotten son, Pietro Lensherr, known by many as Quicksilver. After the events of Ultimatum, Quicksilver has been AWOL from the Ultimate Universe. In this story, Quicksilver begins what he promised to do, carry on what his father -- Magneto had begun. At the end of a business meeting -- which was not going all that well -- with Philip Hanstead, CEO of Worldwide Solutions (because every other generic business name that sounds like it could produce anything but means nothing was already taken) and his, let's go with "publicist," Devon, Quicksilver announces his business plan to unite all of his mutant brethren under a cause, then sell them to Mr. Hanstead's corporation.

The world is in peril. People do not trust their governments or law enforcement agencies and the people's governments are both without a means or capability to handle most crises that arise. How can said governments win over the dwindling support of their citizens? One should ask themselves who the people do trust and admire. Of course! The Justice League! So, what should the civilized world do to win their citizens over? Create their own Justice League, sanctioned and controlled by the United Nations. This is the setup to the new Justice League International series in the new DC Universe. But the better question to ask: Does this new series work?

Oh, Scott Lobdell, you're so wildly inconsistent, we just don't know what to do with you in this new DC Universe. You started with the good (Superboy #1), then came the bad (Red Hood and the Outlaws #1) and now we have the frighteningly mediocre. With this being a tie-in to his uncharacteristically good book, I do worry that this series might bring Superboy down. (Fuck, I hope I'm wrong!) That said, this is not a bad book, by any means. But, like a lot of the #1 titles that DC has put out, it is just... there.

I am a heterosexual male. And, as a heterosexual male, I have always enjoyed the art of Frank Cho. His vision of a world filled with well-endowed, attractive women has been the "happy place" that I escape to when angry, depressed or after another young woman has broke my heart. So what if the women he draws are offensive to anyone with a XX-chromosome? I think it shows charac-- wait. Frank Cho didn't draw this book? He just wrote it? You mean someone else draws like this?! Oh, well, that will make this review so much easier. Forgive my excuses for Frank Cho. 50 Girls 50 is not really worth your time or your $2.99.