Since Mr. Z had to suffer my comebacks last time, I will start off this time. And in his defense, he does read all of Top Ten, he just skims it first, which is still strange but makes me feel better.

Anyways, on with the show...

Avengers/JLA #2

Babar: Ummm, kind of like the first issue for me. I like Batman and Captain America, so it was nice to see them trying to work together but that all turned out to be rather pointless, didn't it? And the Thor/Superman fight seemed absurd to me. I'm supposed to believe it was Superman's toughest opponent because he says so, even though he was defeated so quickly? Sorry, doesn't work for me. The tone of this whole thing just seems too inconsistent for me to care about anything involved. How many more issues are there?

Zibbler: I seem to have enjoyed this a lot more than Babar, but that doesn't surprise me. I thought Batman and Captain America working together was a pretty good way to advance the plot. I also appreciated the short fight scene that avoided having one of them beat the other since that would have been pointless. On the other hand, I got tired of some of Cap's rants like the one on Ben Grimm. On a side note, isn't it strange that the Marvel universe has Reed Richards to go to, and the DC universe has Batman? Aren't there any scientists that Batman could be calling? All in all, I still found the book to be entertaining, but this was mostly a filler issue.

Amazing Spider-Man #500

Babar: OK, I don't like the covers, I don't like Dr. Strange, and using a big anniversary issue as an excuse for lots of pointless cameos and to setup a new miniseries is annoying. But I find it really interesting that they are letting JMS take away what had always been Peter Parker's motivation for becoming Spider-Man. I find the emotional aspects of his run on the series interesting because he is making it a story about becoming a real adult, not in the simple "get a job and become independent" way but in a "deal with the actual emotional issues of adulthood" way. Establishing an adult relationship with a parent, making a commitment to work on a long-term relationship (although this aspect is still weak in my opinion) and now re-examining his motivation for his major life decision are all significant ways that Peter has tackled the major aspects of an adult life. (And we've also been getting to see how he handles his job, which is the other big part of adult life.) I just wish we could get this aspect of the story without the stupid fight scenes with corny villains.

Zibbler: I didn't really enjoy this book all that much either, but for different reasons. I don't mind the occasional storyline that focuses on Peter as a super hero because that is a major portion of his life. At times I feel that he never really stops to reexamine that part of his life, which is kind of surprising given how much of his life he devotes to it. I felt like the stupid fight scenes with corny villains weren't so much about the corny villains as much as about Peter seeing his life again with the different perspective that age gives him. I think what Babar sees as taking away Peter's motivation is showing that there comes a point when Peter has to let go and continue being Spider Man because he wants to rather than due to some feeling of obligation or remorse. I did find the extra scene at the end with Dr. Strange just to get in a plug for the new series to be unnecessary and a little shameless. All in all, I didn't think it was a bad story, but I also just didn't enjoy it that much.

Planetary #17

Babar: This was fantastic. A complete story by itself, explaining some interesting aspects of the ongoing series. The build up of the story was well done, lots of the depth merely being hinted at instead of overly explained. The only flaw may be the slightly rushed pace of the ending, resulting in a little too much exposition, but that is probably only noticable in comparison to the excellent pace of the rest of the issue. Very well done; I can't wait to go back and reread the whole run of this series to see how it all stands together.

Zibbler: Issues like this remind me of why I still read it even with all the delays. My only complaint is that I am more interested in the events of the present, but that is a small complaint when compared to such a good issue.