Well, I’m back from a trip to the comic book store. Let’s see what we’ve got this week. It’s a mix of old stuff and new stuff as I got my hands on some of Terry Dodson’s old Harley Quinn work. Thor #3 finally came out and, to say the least, it didn’t disappoint.

This week’s pick-ups:

Thor #3
New Avengers #34
Harley Quinn #1-4

I’ve been waiting for issue three of Thor since the end of issue two where I noticed that he finally confronts or rather is confronted by Tony Stark. I’ve been imagining this fight since we saw the Thor clone back in Civil War and it completely lived up to the personal hype I had created for it. If you’re looking for a review that DOESN’T contain spoilers, look elsewhere cause this one’s full of em’.

Thor heads to New Orleans in search of the lost souls of Asgard. He’s barely begun his search when suddenly Iron Man arrives. After hearing about Thor’s placement of Asgard in the middle of nowhere, Tony has come to chat with him about registration. He says his piece and waits for Thor’s reply. Thor, rather than cooperating with Stark, goes ballistic and nearly kills Stark by causing a complete system failure of his armor. Thor explains that he’s been disgraced by the Thor clone’s creation and sickened that Stark would fight and imprison people he used to call friends. He also says that he hasn’t picked a side and doesn’t plan on registering with S.H.I.E.L.D. either. Stark realizes that there’s really no way to settle the debate so he declares that Asgard and it’s inhabitants will be exceptions to the registration.

It was nice to see Stark get what he deserved for once. After all the crap he’d done in Civil War, Thor was right there to tell him exactly what nobody else could. Coipel’s art seems to be getting better and better. I really enjoyed his work on House of M and Thor is showing me month after month that he’s really one of the best artists Marvel has. As for Straczynski, he’s been phenomenal since the first issue and his mythological storytelling really fits the character of Thor. His down to earth views on the Civil War and registration were a breath of fresh air as well. Overall, Thor #3 is the best issue of, not only the Thor series, but of the comics I’ve gotten in the past couple months.

Next up, is New Avengers. I’ve been swinging back and forth with this title. I have every issue of it and really liked it way back in the beginning but I’m finding that Bendis’ writing is really not what it used to be. It might be because he’s got so much on his plate or it might be that he’s got no more ideas but it seems like the stories are getting worse and worse as time goes on. Not to mention, Leinil Francis Yu’s artwork is abysmal. His style doesn’t fit the characters whatsoever and it just looks messy and unorganized. This month, we saw the New Avengers regroup and look into each other’s pasts as they tried to distinguish human from skrull. It was a little bit more interesting than some of the stories the title has seen lately but nowhere near as good as the old stuff or the newer Mighty Avengers stories. Bendis should, in my opinion, lighten the load and focus more on Ultimate Spider-Man and Mighty Avengers and give a new writer a chance to take on the team. As for Yu, he should just look for a new job.

Finally, I picked up some old DC Harley Quinn comics from back in 2000. I’ve always been a fan of both the character and of Terry Dodson’s art so this was a no-brainer. Well, the first couple issues didn’t disappoint. Great art, fun story. I’ll be looking to pick up a couple more issues soon. Highly recommended for any fans of Quinn, the Joker or even of the old Batman cartoon.

What comics did you pick up this week? Have any recommendations? Leave me a comment and let me know!