The Humans Vol. 2: Humans Till Deth - If you have a soft spot that might include ultra violent and gnarly anthropomorphic early 70s biker gang tales, this might be your comic. If you like stuff like old Roger Corman biker movies and maybe have read Hell's Angels by Hunter Thompson and like that type of imagery, this may be your comic. I think for most it might be just very strange and violent.

Trees Vol. 1 - I really hope Warren Ellis finishes this one. Interesting take but really only a setup for the story. It's basically alien objects show up plant themselves into the Earth and pretty much ignore humanity. Over time the trees become as normalized as the changed world can handle, but something else is going on. I liked it, but I'm going to be really disappointed if this ends up another dead end unfinished project.

I'm regularly reading Saga, Ragnarok and The Autumnlands.

On Marvel Unlimited I finally started Daredevil by Mark Waid and Thor by Jason Aaron. Pretty darn good so far. Aaron's idea of "Omnipotence City" which is basically a United Nations for gods in the Marvel Universe is a bit jarring, but kinda cool. It's one of those things that you just have to roll with, because there is really no good reason that something that major hasn't played a part before being introduced.

I just read the first 11 issues of Secret Avengers, the Brubaker/Deodato run from a few years back. I had originally intended to read just the Ellis run but then thought I might as well start from the beginning.

I thought it was pretty good, given the problems inherent in the concept of a "secret" superhero team with crazy powers and eye-catching costumes. There weren't any of the kind of glaring defects that can quickly turn me off a comic - none of the team members are written wildly out of character, for example, though I did think it was a dumb idea to except Valkyrie to go undercover as a high-class hooker. Thankfully, that episode was brief and not repeated.

On the negative side, it left so many dangling plot-lines that it didn't really hold together as a complete story. But maybe some of those are taken up by the next writer - I suppose I'll find out, assuming I continue on instead of skipping straight to the Ellis issues. I have mixed feelings about Deodato's art: I really like his use of light and shadow and some of his panel designs are pleasantly inventive; OTOH, his anatomy sometimes looks a little distorted, with the male characters a little over-muscled and the females just a bit too sexed-up. It isn't too extreme, but it does throw me off at times. All his females characters look much the same - which isn't really a criticism - I kind of expect it in superhero comics - but to my eyes, while it feels more or less appropriate for a character like the Black Widow, it doesn't seem right for Valkyrie, who I always think should be larger than life in the same way Thor is compared to most males superheroes. In fairness though, the character hasn't often been drawn that way throughout her history.

I would buy a full on swords and sorcery style Thor book in a heartbeat. They could call it Thor: Tales of Asgard or something and just tell what ever fantasy stories they wanted.

Gotta admit : I'm floored that they don't.

The chilling adventures of Sabrina (first trade paperback, reprinting the first five issues).

Oooh, this is good stuff.

Just like Afterlife with Archie was, this is a reinvention of the Archie characters in the context of a horror story. As Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa explains, this one is more in the vein of The Omen or Rosemary's baby; more truly horrific, and (I think) more "adult" in the good sense of the word.

It works remarkably well; it's a very good horror story. It's also a good thing that it is not written as if it was establishing a new continuity meant to replace the old one and to go on for decades; it is not stingy on important revelations and deaths. You get the impression that there is a complete story to be told here, and that it will not be extended for as long as the book sells. The plot twist at the end of this volume is creepy as hell, too! Can't wait for the next one (which, alas, might take a while).

The artwork is lovely; Robert Hack's moody pencils and colour work are perfect for this type of tale.