Gravel #1: What a better book for a beer and comics review?! By the end of the first page, William Gravel is already asking for a pint of IPA (thats right Lauren, eat it), not to mention, his gift for his mother is four bottles of stout and a box of chocolates! I should be so lucky to have a mother like that! I really enjoy the artwork from this book a lot, and at times, it reminds me of Crécy. This story of a British occult detective is everything one can expect from Warren Ellis: Vulgarity, Violence, Hilarity, and Amazingness. He is one of those authors I just can’t get sick of. My one real complaint about the book is not the excessive violence or profanity, because I really do find it quite amusing, but that some of the frames just look so busy. I hate having to really search through an illustration to figure out what is going on. It is the same problem I have with new x-men, except that book just really sucks.

Captain America #35: Its pretty incredible to think that Cap died 10 issues ago. I have been thrilled with this series since I started reading it and this issue is really no exception. While this issue was relatively slow in terms of the plot, Brubaker does a fantastic job of timing the story so that it never really feels slow. Everything feels so well thought out and meaningfully placed. Another great story building issue in this fine series. This is one of those books I really look forward to every month and rarely ever lets me down. The only thing I don’t get in this issue is how drinking water incites a riot. Unless people are really really unhappy with the quality of their H2O, this shouldn’t be much of a problem. Did the Kronos corp deionize the water and force it to stop removing removing contaminants and free radicals!? EEK! With a fairly substantial background in biology, chemistry, and pharmaceuticals I will call shenanigans on this one. OR Bucky didn’t realize it and their basketball team lost in the final 4 and a few bad eggs are getting the mob mentality going… that crap happened at MSU too many times. A good issue nonetheless. Thank you Ed Brubaker, you’re great.

Kick Ass #1:  Honestly, I only bought this because I’d heard it would eventually be worth good money.  I do have a number of problems with it which I shall now conveniently list:

1. Nobody who is into Stereophonics and Snow Patrol really likes the Goo Goo Dolls.
2. No babes teach biology.  I’ve had many, many bio-you name it classes, and not a single one was taught by a babe.  Not even TAed.  They don’t exist.  This notion is a fallacy.
3. There are no equations in a high school biology class.  Certainly not enough to cover an entire blackboard.
4. Nobody wants their mother to have died a much more horrific death than they already did.  Thats just plain morbid.
5. Very few people (0), in my experience, are really into Buffy and also read Astonishing X-men.
6. It would be nearly impossible to function in daily life with a wetsuit on beneath your clothes.  It is EXTREMELY uncomfortable to wear one outside the water anyway, unless its really cold.
7. Screwing something into the back of this wetsuit would also be horribly uncomfortable.
8. A club?! are you serious?!  Does batman use a club?!  Does Daredevil use a club?! Not even Tony Stark uses a club.  Learn to fight!
9. Graffiti is usually something limited to the night
10. I don’t think many graffiti artists are carrying knives.
11. Why, if you are tagging a wall, would you risk going to jail for MURDER?!  Why not just run?!

Other than that, it was fine.  The story was actually rather catchy, and the dialogue witty.  The art was really good too.  Its just so far-fetched that its somewhat of an abomination.  Seriously, neoprene?!  Why not just grab some under armor?