I hereby apologize for all the times I told Sentry fans to get over Bendis' writing.

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Making this blog because a lot of people who don't actually read anything with Flash in it (generalization? maybe) keep insisting that people like Thor and Gladiator and Hulk should be able to tag and defeat the scarlet speedster, simply because 99% of his rogues' gallery consists of humans who don't have super speed but presumably still manage to cope with him. The comments range from.....

I keep telling people this on every Flash thread, if he was so invincible his books would be boring as hell

.....and go all the way to:

SO Deathstroke can Tag Flash but Thor,Or Gladiator can`t ? Dc Fanboys make me sick !

Since I have a major chunk of the second volume of Flash, I've collected showings from Flash's major villains to illustrate how regular humans are able to cope with the fastest man alive. I don't really like the idea of using a few select showings as a concrete indication of how a fight will play out, but these showings have been picked because they give you the general idea of how certain powers can be used by people slower than the Flash to deal with someone as fast as the Flash.

Firstly though, let's get this out of the way: just because Flash can move at speeds faster than light, that does not mean he's always moving at speeds faster than light. Superman doesn't hit Toyman as hard as he hits Darkseid. Thor doesn't hit Ulik as hard as he hits Mangog. So why would Flash move at the speeds with which he fights Superman-level opponents against people like Captain Cold and Weather Wizard? Flash only really gets tagged while moving at slow to moderate level superhuman speeds. Moving at the peak levels of his speed, he is simply too fast for Thor or Superman or Gladiator or *sigh* Hulk to do anything about it. You'll also notice in several of the scans below that Flash is often fighting several members of the Rogues at once. That's because the Rogues aren't like the Batman or Superman villains. They're going up against an opponent who can have them in cuffs before they blink, so they band together most of the time to stand a better chance.

That said, here are the rogues in action:

Captain Cold

Firstly, Captain Cold is very fast for a human. His reflexes are a major aspect of his character that's been brought up in the comics several times. He's commented on them as well:

Cold's strategy is usually either icing the ground that Flash runs on so that there's not enough traction for him to run (scan 1) or creating a "cold field" that greatly slows down the molecules of anything inside it or anything that passes through, including Flash (scans 2 and 3).

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Weather Wizard

In the past, the Wizard has taken advantage of Flash not being in a position to let civilians get hurt by creating a thick fog that reduces the area's visibility to practically nothing (scan 1). The extreme heat and lightning that he produces quickly causes leg cramps that make running tough (scans 2 and 3).

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Mirror Master

Out of all the Flash rogues, it's easy to see why Mirror Master gives him so much grief. He has one of the most amazing powersets in comics: he can teleport through mirrors, create holograms and vivid illusions, produce a nearly infinite number of mirror copies of himself, and enter and leave dimensions as well as trap people inside them. The following three scans show Flash's biggest problem with Mirror Master: it doesn't matter how fast you can run through a group of opponents if your opponent isn't really there. Flash can't hit McCulloch, but McCulloch can hit Flash.

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The Top

Dillon has a degree of superhuman speed that's enough to impress Wally (scan 1) and can alter someone's perception of reality in an area around himself (scans 2 and 3). Get near him and your world turns upside down.

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Abra Kadabra

Like a typical stage magician, Kadabra is big on misdirection. He uses illusions and holograms to lure Flash into dangerous traps......and that's pretty much his whole schtick.

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Doctor Alchemy

Alchemy's strategy is usually similar to Captain Cold's (making the surface that Flash runs on, hard for him to run on, like in scan 2) but he can also protect himself with transparent, practically invisible walls (scan 1) and create deadly gases that Flash can't safely breath (scan 3).

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Grodd

Grodd's not human, nor is he a Rogue for that matter. But I'm including him here because he's a prominent Flash foe nonetheless. Firstly, Grodd has an astonishing level of strength and durability that lets him take several hits from Flash and still stand, even with a shattered jaw (scan 5). Flash can run or accelerate his thoughts to a level where telepathy doesn't affect him or only affects him a bit (scan 4), but he doesn't usually move at those speeds, and so Grodd can stop him from running by sticking nightmares in his head (scans 1 and 2).

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Deathstroke

Not a Rogue or even a Flash villain, but I'm including Slade here because he's the one person whose Flash-tagging feats are brought up most often on the battle forums. But there's not that much to add here since it's the same principle at work: Flash usually moves at low to moderate superhuman speeds, and Slade's reflexes are superhuman enough to tag Flash at those speeds. In the most famous/infamous example quoted, the fight in Identity Crisis, you get some idea of how fast Flash was actually moving since several explosions go off before he reaches Slade:

That's not very fast by Flash's standards. Even Quicksilver's faster than that. I'm not 100% on this, but I think even Krypto's faster than that.

Another factor that goes into this is that Slade is familiar with Wally's movements from his days as Kid Flash, and can thus predict with some accuracy where he'll go:

At the same time though, Slade isn't remotely fast enough to keep up with Flash moving at his best or close to it. This is what would actually happen in a fight between Slade and Flash moving at speeds beyond his ability to react:

You have your Thawnes and Zolomons as well, but they need no explanations. That aside, the majority of Flash foes are people without superhuman reflexes. They can cope with Flash for three reasons:

• Flash rarely ever uses the upper limits of his speed against them, unless he's pissed
• They have abilities/powers/skills/tech that affect his ability to run directly (like Top's perception warping and Cold's cold field) or indirectly (Weather Wizard's extreme heat)
• Failing that, they have abilities/powers/skills/tech that affect his ability to hit them (like Abra Kadabra and Mirror Master's illusions) or that take advantage of his unwillingness to let civilians come to harm (Wizard's fog and Alchemy's poisonous gas)

Thor, Gladiator and the like could only tag Flash if they were moving at their best and he was moving like he normally does. In other words, if the conditions were slanted in their favor. In a setting where they're all moving at their best, they cannot tag Flash. Simple as that. And that's leaving out the more eccentric abilities that the Speed Force grants.

I finally remembered to do this. I combed through a bunch of Killer Croc appearances to find some legit feats for him, because that's just how darn cool I think he is. Maybe now he won't get so much hate/mockery? Wishful thinking?

Post Hush virus, Croc's skin is too thick for bullets to do any harm.

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The virus increased his speed, making him fast enough to pluck Tim Drake out of the air and toss him aside. He was also tough enough that Batman needed explosives to KO him.

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Goes toe-to-toe with Batman until the fight is interrupted.

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A pre-Hush virus Croc fights Batman, and though the fight didn't reach a conclusion he had a clear upper hand! Note that Batman says he doesn't stand a chance against Croc's strength, and that Croc was fighting Batman while a dog was snapping at his heels.

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Croc tells Dick that his hits aren't good enough since he's fought better, and is unaffected by Tim's sneak attack. The second scan is a good strength feat for Croc, he tears a bank vault door clean off its hinges.

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Croc mauls his own hands off to escape from Arkham, which is a demonstration of how much pain he can take. In a week's time he regrows both hands. He also shrugs off a shotgun blast at close range and throws a safe door at his attacker, which slices the guy's head clean off.

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Feel free to add your own.

I'm posting this because I'm getting tired of people on the battle forums thinking the infamous incident from Tales of the Unexpected #4, where Batman seemingly hurts the Spectre with a kick, is somehow a valid point to raise in an argument. If you haven't read the issue in question or if you're one of the seven or eight people on Earth who haven't seen it floating around on the internet, here it is:

This is most often brought up by people who claim Spectre's a jobber (another point that is erroneous and tiresome, but that's a discussion for another day). I raised it because a user on this site was debating on a Darkseid thread a while back, and tried to claim that the incident in Superman/Batman where he hits Darkseid hard enough to make him bleed (for the love of god, Loeb) is somehow not PIS because "Batman sometimes hurts people he shouldn't be able to". He brought up this incident as proof of that point. That was what prompted me to make this thread, though I took some time to get around to it. As you might expect, there's a context to this incident.

First of all, you need to understand how the Spectre functions. He's literally the Presence's wrath made manifest, and so in his primal form he's perpetually pissed off at everything. In his early days his rage was so all-consuming that he would have destroyed everything if Michael Demiurgos hadn't intervened and placed restrictions on his power. Michael made it such that the Spectre needed to bond with a human host to access all his power. However, the presence of the host was also a clever safeguard against the Spectre going on a rampage. The host would exercise discretion over the Spectre's activities. Therefore, the power of the Spectre was linked to the personality of the host. If the host wasn't queasy about violence, the Spectre's power would face very few limits. It's for this reason that Jim Corrigan is commonly considered the most powerful of the Spectre's three main hosts. Corrigan was a tough-as-nails homicide detective from the 1940's. His father was an evangelist preacher, and he'd been raised with the eye-for-an-eye philosophy and the idea of Old Testament-esque severity in justice. He was fine with the violence the Spectre dished out, and most of the time he supported it. And it's for this same reason that Hal Jordan is commonly considered the weakest of the Spectre's hosts. Hal was a hero, and so he stood in opposition to the Spectre's usual MO. His guilt over all the people he killed as Parallax also played a part. He was opposed to murder, and thus denied the Spectre's true nature.

Point being made is that the host can restrain the Spectre, curtailing the amount of power that flows through him. Moving on to the incident itself:

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Spectre's trying to kill a criminal, but his host Crispus Allen is trying to stop him. That's restraining his power right there. Moreover, read Spectre's sentences in the last scan. He says:

a) "I thought it might make you feel better", and

b) "The human already shackles me more than I am willing."

Not only do you have the Spectre's host restraining his power from the inside, but you've got the Spectre himself feeling sorry for Batman and allowing him to vent. If Batman kicking Darkseid is valid (helpful hint: it's not) because Batman "sometimes hurts people he shouldn't be able to", then why is Batman stunned that he was able to hit the Spectre? Because he hurt someone he shouldn't be able to.

There's no Batfactor at work here. It's just the Spectre letting Bruce vent before turning away to get on with his job. Next time someone raises this point I'm just going to direct them to this blog.

I'm sure this has already been analyzed and commented on at length by half the comic book reading internet, but there was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in Deathstroke #6 that suggests Midnighter might have been responsible for the "death" of Slade's son Grant (the first Ravager, pre-Flashpoint). This could be way off the mark, of course, but if it's true it sets the stage for an enmity between two of the biggest badasses in comic books.

How many other characters do you know with a chin-spike? There have been a lot of new ideas coming from the new 52. Some were good and some were terrible. But if this is true and there are plans for a Deathstroke/Midnighter rivalry, I'll read the sh!t out of that.

Just a small note to myself on account of something bizarre about Avengers #21. This was supposed to herald Storm's entry into the Avengers or something alone those lines. I mean, she takes up practically the entirety of the cover.

You'd think that would indicate an issue with some kind of focus on Storm, correct? You'd be wrong. She's in the issue for exactly 2 pages, and on both pages she's unconscious and drooling on the floor. No jokes, literally drooling.

I've never claimed to understand you, Marvel........................but what?

Maybe I'm way off the mark with context or something like that. It's possible. Oh well, at least Gorgon's in the next issue.....

Since the new 52 began DC's been looking for ways to incorporate Wildstorm's characters into their mainstream titles. I think it's great that the WS characters who have appeared so far aren't being confined to their own books and books with other ex-Wildstorm characters. The upcoming encounter between Superman and Helspont, for example, is something that I'm looking forward to. These encounters have had mixed results so far, at least in my opinion: Green Arrow guest starring in Grifter #4 was a lot better done than Kyle Rayner guest starring in Voodoo #3. But I digress. The last few pages of Green Lantern Corps #4 really caught my attention.

On the surface, it makes perfect sense for the paths of the Corps and Stormwatch to intersect. Their goals are similar, though it appears that Stormwatch's focus is on the defense of Earth first and foremost. This is one of those areas where the opportunities for some interesting stories are rife. However, this same scan calls into question exactly how much of J'onn's history is still canon post-Flashpoint. J'onn and Guy knew who each other were, and now it's apparent that they don't (or at least Guy doesn't). I was under the impression that J'onn's history was more or less unchanged (we know that Brightest Day is still canon), but that he'd joined Stormwatch at some undisclosed point of time. This encounter suggests one of two possible scenarios:

• J'onn's history has been altered so that a select few people, Guy among them, have never met him till now; or
• ....is it possible that Stormwatch is so clandestine that J'onn erased his existence from the memories of all the people who knew him before joining them? It seems like an absolutely crazy theory, and it probably is. But hey, stranger things have happened.

This doesn't seem like a one-off encounter, J'onn's words make it very apparent that Stormwatch and the Corps will cross paths again, mainly because of the shared nature of their work.

Just think of the possibilities. The first one that springs to mind is, of course, the Daemonites. They're likely to be a recurring threat in the DCnU, and so the Lanterns will eventually face off against them.

From Diamond Comics Distributors:

In addition to Justice League, DC Comics had six titles in the top ten best-selling comics sold in November. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman #3 ranked #2; Grant Morrison and Rags Morales' Action Comics #2 ranked #3; Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke, and Christian Alamy's Green Lantern #3 ranked #4; Tony S. Daniel's Detective Comics #3 ranked #8; and Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato's The Flash #3 ranked #9.

Marvel Comics rounded out the top ten with four titles at the top echelons of the sales chart. Point One, the over-sized issue that reveals tidbits about the post-Fear Itself world, was the publisher's top book at #5. Zeb Wells and Joe Madureira's Avenging Spider-Man #1, the first issue of Spider-Man's new team-up title, ranked #6. Kieron Gillen and Carlos Pacheco's Uncanny X-Men #1, which introduced readers to Cyclops' new X-Men team and mission, ranked #7. Finally, Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo's Wolverine and the X-Men #2 ranked #10.

The top selling comics of November 2011 are:

#1: Justice League #3, written by Geoff Johns with art by Jim Lee (DC)

#2: Batman #3, written by Scott Snyder with art by Greg Capullo (DC)

#3: Action Comics #3, written by Grant Morrison with art by Rags Morales (DC)

#4: Green Lantern #3, written by Geoff Johns with art by Doug Mahnke (DC)

#5: Marvel: Point One #1, written by Loeb, Bendis and Fraction with art by Ed McGuinness, Brian Hitch and Salvador Larroca (Marvel)

#6: Avenging Spider-Man #1, written by Zeb Wells with art by Joe Madureira (Marvel)

#7: Uncanny X-Men #1, written by Kieron Gillen with art by Carlos Pacheco (Marvel)

#8: Detective Comics #3, written by Tony S. Daniel with art by Tony S. Daniel (DC)

#9: The Flash #3, written by Francis Manapaul and Brian Buccelato with art by Francis Manapaul (DC)

#10: Wolverine & the X-Men #2, written by Jason Aaron with art by Chris Bachalo (Marvel)

#11: Incredible Hulk #2, written by Jason Aaron with art by Mark Silvestri (Marvel)

#12: Batman: The Dark Knight #3, written by Paul Jenkins with art by David Finch (DC)

#13: Superman #3, written by George Perez with art by Nicola Scott (DC)

#14: Batman & Robin #3, written by Peter J. Tomasi with art by Patrick Gleason (DC)

#15: Fantastic Four #600, written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Steve Epting (Marvel)

#16: Uncanny X-Men #2, written by Kieron Gillen with art by Carlos Pacheco (Marvel)

#17: Wonder Woman #3, written by Brian Azzarello with art by Cliff Chiang (DC)

#18: Batgirl #3, written by Gail Simone with art by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes (DC)

#19: Aquaman #3, written by Geoff Johns with art by Ivan Reis (DC)

#20: Batwoman #3, written by J.H Williams III and W. Haden Blackman with art by J.H Williams III (DC)

I'm putting down my thoughts and personal opinions on the matter because I can recall at least three instances in recent memory when an assortment of Sentry fans on the Battle Forums accused me of bearing an extreme bias against the character. Here's the thing: I don't hate Sentry. I don't really think or care about the character enough to hate him. At best I'm disinterested in anything to do with him, and there are a few times when that disinterest has veered towards actual dislike. But I don't consider myself the kind of person who'll argue against a character simply because of any kind of blind hatred. I'll admit that there are some characters that a few of the folks on the Battle Forum know I openly hate, Hulk and Deadpool being the most prominent examples that I can think of. But even so, I don't charge into every Hulk thread and say "Hulk loses because he's a shitty character who should burn in the fire of a thousand hells!" or anything like that. If I believe Hulk or Deadpool would beat one of my favorite characters in a fight, I'll freely admit it.

But I digress: back to Sentry. For the purposes of this blog, let's assume that I do, in fact, actively dislike Bob Reynolds.

Before anyone says I don't "get" the character: perhaps, perhaps not. I know I've read almost everything Sentry has ever appeared in, so I have no fear in saying that I understand the character to a substantial degree at the least. And what I've observed from reading all those issues is a mountain of ignominy that contrary to the beliefs of many Sentry fans, did not originate with Bendis. The problem goes all the way back to Jenkins and his original Modern Age introduction of the character.

The crux of my distaste for Sentry is the fact that his mere existence is disrespectful to half the Marvel Universe. We've watched these characters for years and years. We've seen their heights and their depths, and when we identified characters that we liked more than the rest, we probed deeper and read all the stories we could find. We watched them grow from the grassroots up.

Not so with Sentry. I've seen Sentry fans on this site comment on what a glorious work Jenkins' Sentry was, and the only response I could come up with was "Are you serious?".

When I first read Marvel Knights: Sentry and the rest of the pre-Mighty Avengers stuff that he appeared in I couldn't believe what was happening. Many of Marvel's events were just being edited to shove Sentry in. Not just that, vital elements of established characters were being morphed in a manner that made some of their greatest achievements now possible only because of the previously unseen hand of the Sentry. We're told that he was always present, he was always there, he was always the greatest hero of all. Everyone just forgot about it. Come on. Is it just me or does that seem like an utterly incompetent way to establish your character? What's wrong with building him up from scratch? What's wrong with making his exploits unique? Why must he leech off the trials and tribulations of others and reduce the things that are so central to their character development?

Here's what Ragnell on blogspot had to say about the same thing. I'm just going to quote it directly here, because he covers absolutely all of my gripes and says it far better than I ever could:

That is the ultimate problem with the Sentry being shoehorned into the Marvel Universe. He becomes the Sun around which the rest of the Marvel Universe revolves. Forget every niche occupied by the characters of Marvel, those aren't their stories. Those are just backstories so that we can read about how wonderful the Sentry is! The Marvel Universe goes from being about the characters we love, the ones we love to read about, and becomes All About Bob.
Did you know Angel was once afraid to fly? Amazing, a mutant with wings being afraid of that. Surely, that's something to have overcome during his training under Professor Xavier? Nope, it's something the Sentry helped him through and is now a memory of how awesome Bob is. Why? Doesn't add anything to Angel, but it has to be there for Bob because he has to have taught the X-men something early on, or he wouldn't have been a notable hero in the Silver Age. Warren overcoming his fears? All About Bob.
Did you know that Reed Richards had a best friend outside the Fantastic Four? Someone close to him that wasn't Ben, Johnny, or Sue--his FAMILY members? Why, it was the Sentry. So perfect that one of the most standoffish men in the world was open to him. All of this bonding, of course, happened off-panel during the most important moments of Reed's life. You know, the moments we read that didn't have the Sentry in them. Don't get me wrong, Reed's not an unfriendly man or an extremely shy person, I actually consider him one of the more compassionate characters I've read--but he is incredibly self-absorbed and work-absorbed. Even Sue and Ben can barely get him to come up for air, so if he has a friendship outside of his small, insular group--a friendship where he would actually consider someone other than Ben his best friend--then it's something that built up over time and is a very big thing in Reed's life. It is something we find out about in Reed's story, not in that other character's story. But nope. It's only in Sentry stories and Sentry flashbacks that it comes up. Why? Because it's nothing to do with Reed. Nothing gets added to Reed because he was friends with the Sentry, and the Sentry was there during those moments. It's to show that the Sentry was smart, so smart he was friends with the smartest man in the world. And to show that the Sentry was a great hero that everyone was comfortable with off-duty too. Reed's friendship? All About Bob.
Did you know that Crystal slept with the Sentry? This, I suppose fits a bit. She likes temperamental, impulsive men with light coloring it seems. Of course, she doesn't remember the affair. He does. Why? Because the Sentry was there in the Silver Age, and he had to have gone to the moon. And what could he have done on the moon? Why, he can sleep with Crystal, because she's just some dumb slut, right? Not because she married too young and let two guys push her into choosing one or the other. Not because of her own insecurities or desires. Nope, doesn't matter why Crystal did it, because that romance had nothing to do with Crystal's situation or storyline. It was because sleeping with a moon princess is just something a Silver Age hero does. Crystal's love life? All About Bob.
And of course, there's Rogue. Poor Rogue, starved for the touch of another person. Rogue who it turns out had her first full sexual encounter with none other than the Sentry. What led to this? How did she react? How did the relationship end? Was there even a relationship? Who cares?! It doesn't matter what Rogue's role in this was, only that there was a void in her life and the Sentry filled it. Why? Because Rogue losing her virginity isn't about Rogue, silly. It's about how wonderful the Sentry was and how much we miss him! It's just one more throwaway moment in a list of moments of how awesome the Sentry is, how he saved everyone's lives and helped everyone do everything, and was the Superman-like inspiration they needed because Captain America somehow just didn't cut it. Not only that, he is so amazing that not only did he have a romance with the X-men's poor chaste belle, but he actually f**ked her which not even Gambit or Magneto can seem to pull off. He got the the prize, folks, and what is possibly the most desired experience in Rogue's life? You guessed it, All About Bob.

I find the Reed Richards incident particularly irritating. I'm a big fan of Reed, and I consider him to be quite possibly the smartest man in either Marvel or DC. In the post Dark Reign story arc "Solve Everything", Reed decides to, well, solve everything. When he's offered the possibility of unraveling the secrets of existence itself with alternate-universe versions of himself he turns his back on it. Why? Because he learns that the price of solving everything, is everything. He'd have to abandon his family and devote himself entirely to that cause. The Reed that I'm a fan of wouldn't do that, because no matter how insular he can be, at some level he needs his family to keep himself together, and he knows it. That was a moment of personal development for Reed, one that proved he wasn't a cold unthinking machine who'd isolate himself from humanity in the pursuit of knowledge. But now it's devalued, because thanks to Jenkins we know that in reality it was the wise and noble Sentry who first managed to bring Reed out of his shell. Apparently Reed was just applying the lessons that he learned from his "friendship" with Bob. Step into my shoes for a minute. Wouldn't you be frustrated?

The last comic that Sentry appeared in was Fallen Sun. It was an opportunity to highlight the character's own development and accomplishments. Instead it just devolved into Jenkins fanwanking his own character. Again.

I am by no means an expert on Iron Man. But isn't the protracted period where he overcame his alcohol addiction a major milestone for the character? As I understand it, he had people to guide him at every step, but for the most part conquering his demons was his own achievement, and a moment of pride for him. But no, it's now been revealed that Tony would never have been able to beat the booze if it wasn't for the wonderful Sentry helping him in his darkest hour.

At Reynolds' funeral, Ben Grimm says "I never forgave Sentry for being a better man than I am". Seriously? This is the same Ben who's lived for years and years as a hideous monster, and still strives to be a hero. This is the same Ben who's fought alongside the Avengers. This is the same Ben who's a source of comfort for the kids in the Future Foundation. This is the same Ben who never forgave himself for being helpless to stop Johnny Storm from being overrun by the Annihilation Wave. In what idiotic world is Sentry "a better man" than Ben Grimm? Jenkins' world, that's what. Except now it's not just his world. It's the entire Marvel Universe. Nothing you've read about those characters matters. Yes, you guys have countless acts of heroism to your name, but step the f**k back now, 'cause here comes Sentry. A character none of us have ever heard about. A character we've never seen grow. A character that we have no reason to care about. But none of that matters, because without this flawless ubermensch in their lives many of our favorite characters would be poorer.

Sentry fans despise Brian Michael Bendis, condemning his portrayal of the character as repugnant. Jenkins' portrayal is just as bad. Bob is a pillar of strength for the Earth's greatest heroes. He's this handsome, polite, kind young man who would be oh-so-perfect if it wasn't for the mean ol' Void.

What part of this character doesn't scream "wish fulfillment!"?

There's really no point blaming Bendis alone for what happened to Sentry in Siege. Jenkins's execution was just as shoddy. You can't keep reducing the achievements and character development of established characters and then wonder why people start to resent your shiny new toy. I'm a DC fan at heart, but there are some things that only Marvel can give me. And I don't appreciate watching all these heroes worship some writer's brand new God Mode Mary Sue just because we're instructed to assume that he's the best of the best. If the House of Ideas is smart, they'll keep him dead. He's done enough damage already. The circumstances of his end were just as dreadful as those of his beginning. There's some consistency in that at least.

(These were simply my personal views on the matter. Your response is your prerogative. Perhaps you'll agree with me, perhaps you won't, perhaps you'll build an effigy of me and set it on fire. I don't know, man. But thanks for reading this.)

Since people said they liked the first installment, here's Round 2. This is a series of weekly posts that showcases the best comic book moments of the week. They can be cool, they can be bizarre, they can be touching, they can be thought-provoking. You're free to share your ideas and tell me if this is a process worth continuing.

So without further ado, here are my picks for the 5 best comic book moments of the week. Spoilers may ensue.

#5: The Breaker of Worlds in The Defenders #1

In the aftermath of Fear Itself, the Hulk was separated from the Asgardian entity possessing him: Nul, Breaker of Worlds. The freed monster now wreaks havoc across Marvel Earth, and in an attempt to set things right Hulk assembles a powerful team to stop Nul in his tracks: Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, Iron Fist, Namor and Red She-Hulk. I really liked the first issue of this series, mainly because I felt there was a great dynamic among the members of the team. The earliest scenes make it very clear what's at stake by demonstrating the destruction that Nul's mere presence creates.

#4: Apollo gets supercharged in Stormwatch #4

If, like me, you've been waiting for the new Stormwatch to step up its game, this is where it seems to be getting interesting. To fight the alien antibody, Midnighter (his cowl has tech and everything now!) directs the Projectionist to beam concentrated sunlight upon Apollo, powering him up enough to crash through the antibody and free the rest of his team. It was a sweet piece of action that brought back memories of the Authority for me.

#3: Batman meets the Ghost of Christmas Future in Batman: Noel

DC released this Batman Christmas special as a Gotham City retelling of the classic Charles Dickens tale A Christmas Carol. Accordingly, you've got Batman himself as Scrooge, with Catwoman as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Superman as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Joker as the Ghost of Christmas Future. When Batman comes face to face with his future it's a frightening thing: his old allies have suffered because of him, his legacy is non-existent and his family name has faded away from memory. What makes it most chilling is the idea that this future has a strong likelihood of actually coming to pass.

#2: A diner meets a mad little boy in Swamp Thing #4

Swamp Thing may have made the journey from Vertigo to the new 52, but DC knew well enough to leave that Vertigo feel intact. In the current arc, William Arcane is the chosen representative of the Rot, an ancient force of death sweeping the globe. His mere presence causes people's scabs, rotten teeth and even the most minor of physical imperfections to mutate and rip them apart from the inside. If the objective was to show how deadly this villain could be, mission accomplished.

#1: He's a steel-driving man! in Action Comics #4

There's been a lot of anger directed at the new 52 for the sometimes unwelcome changes that popular characters have been subjected to. Luckily John Henry Irons, the superhero known as Steel, appears to have drawn a pretty long straw. In his first appearance with his cool new armor, he defeats the powerful Metal-Zero through a combination of technology and good old-fashioned intellect. If superheroes had resumes, how much would "Saved Superman's ass once" stand out on Steel's?