Wednesday has come and gone. The heroes have fought their battles and villains have hinted at things to come. Now it’s time to review the game tape…

I got a ton of books this week. In addition to the usual stuff, I picked up the TPB of Roger Langridge’s Muppet Show. Besides being a handy sized collection, it includes the short pieces he did for Disney Adventures Magazine. It’s worth the price of admission to get these.

I can’t get myself psyched to talk about everything I read because only two books stick in my head. Everything else paled grossly in comparison.

Since McDuffie left Fantastic Four, I’ve been waiting out Mark Millar. Millar’s gone, and guess who’s still here. ME.

While there were some interesting ideas in Millar’s run (The cover layout, Doom’s Master, and Nu-World most notably), they always fell apart in the execution. That’s the past. This week’s FF #570 made me excited in ways that I’m not comfortable discussing in public. This book hit all of the beats that a new writer on FF needs to hit to show that he or she is competent: Reed’s smart, Sue is smarter in some ways, Johnny and Ben are the original buddy – pic team, and science can make a brain out of plutonium. Then there’s action with the Wizard and some wackiness ensues. I won’t give it away, but I need to consult a doctor. That last page gave me a nerd-erection that’s lasted more than 4 hours.

But the issue isn’t perfect. Given that Reed heads back to his nerdy scribble covered man-cave, it might have made more sense if the villain had been the Mad Thinker. Still that’s a little thing. The big thing is the new character designs…or rather design. When Reed’s not stretching, he looks like the love child of Hal Jordan and Nick Fury. There’s stubble. There’s superhuman muscle tone. There’s bulging biceps. It’s difficult to look at, especially with the new short-sleeved uniforms.

Next issue he kicks sand in the face of 98 lb. Weakling Richards.

The other book this week is Muppet Show: Treasure of Peg Leg Wilson #2. This continues to be a book for both groups of Muppet fans: those who’ve seen and remember the episodes and those who see the episodes everytime they close their eyes. For the first group, there’s Machu Pichu. For the second there’s a nice reference to the only rule of writing for the Muppets: when you can’t end a sketch, blow something up or throw some penguins. If the big-wigs aren’t talking to Roger Langridge about helping write the next Muppet movie,they’re making a mistake. This guy knows the Muppets.

I’ll be rereading those two books until next Wednesday.

Of minor note though is that this week’s issue of X-Men Forever featured some sweet art by Paul Smith. Claremont continues to tell a good X-yarn without the aid of Mr. Ubiquity himself: Wolverine.

But don’t take my word for it. Head down to your local library and check ‘em out.