I'd probably be more impressed that Jim Calafiore has managed to be the regular fill-in artist for nearly 90 issues if I liked Jim Calafiore's art at all. As it is, all that means is that my Exiles collection has all these three-to-six issue gaps all over the place.

Even worse? I'm a huge Juggernaut fan, and now that New Excalibur is finally giving him the spotlight? They let Calafiore draw it. SON OF A CRAP!

I like that the Iron Man/Cap one-shot has two different covers, each with a different "victor." Not that that validates the contents of the issue, but I dig stuff like that.

Best part about the godawful Heroes Reborn cover? Judging by the angle, Mjolnir's handle doesn't come out the other side of Thor's fist, but in between his fingers. That's talent, right there...

I immediately thought of It, the Living Colossus too, Brian. You’re not alone!

Yay!

So… I take it I’m the only person who actually liked Coipel’s Warbird costume?

Perhaps not the ONLY one, but one of the few - the proud!

Wow...that was pretty damn scary. It was almost like an affirmation of all of Marvel's worst excesses.

Except, obviously, I think we can all agree on a few of their choices, like the Bachalo X-Men cover they have as #2 IS a pretty damn nice cover.

Still, though, a Michael Turner cover as the fourth best cover!?!?

It was at least very consistent - they really liked Gabrielle Dell'Otto.

-I want to like that Iron Fist image too, but it's a victim of my personal peeve of modern comics: muddy, overly grey-ish color tones. Note to comic companies, this doesn't make and image look "realistic", just ugly.

-I'm a big fan of size changing heroes, but wow these Ant-Man covers have been a let down in their fairly average approach to the concept. The great thing about growing and/or shrinking heroes is the weird, trippy visuals you can get out them. The Oletti Atom covers may not have been great (especially the first two) but at least they were trying. Not that I'm too thrilled about this title to begin with, Kirkman's theme as a writer (intentional or otherwise) seems to be "you're better off being an a-hole cause good guys get the crap beaten out of them and a-holes get away with it" so I'd expect Ant-man to be Irredemable for as long as he was on it or as long as it lasts, and that's just not my thing.

-Gonna go with "I'm pretending to side with Iron Man so I can spy on him and figure out what's really going on" for my guess as to how things would play out in Black Panther. As much fun as the blogverse likes to have at his exspense, at least Hudlin is one of the few people at Marvel who's at least not trying to pretend that Iron Man isn't coming off as a bad-guy.
Part of me thinks it would be hillarious if he took his "anything you can do" approach on Black Panther and just completely undermined Civil War with it. "Hey you know that guy you just buried? We dug him up, made him a cyborg and put him on my royal guard. He can kick The Avengers collective ass by himself now. Oh and clones? I'd did that like 10 years ago, say hello to New Night Thrasher."

1) The Marvel Adventures line is absolutely f'ing great, and needs to be the subject of more entries. (I know you guys have given it love, but it needs more.) Reading it was practically an epiphany--I suddenly realized that this was exactly what comics had been missing, light-hearted, upbeat, escapist, self-contained adventure fare. It's exactly what comics used to be great at, what they abandoned in a quest to become more "adult" like a thirteen-year-old saying the stuff they once liked is for "babies" now, and it's just awesome. It is almost to the point that between this and the Essentials books, I don't need the regular Marvel books anymore.

2) You're just plain wrong (and I mean that in a nice way )--having the face obscured is what _makes_ that cover. The snowstorm, the figure in it totally obscured by the wind and the darkness and the heavy coat...and then you see the claws, and you just know. Oh yeah.

She-Hulk (A non-scary-porno cover! Yay! Plus, just a great, well-drawn image.)

Power Pack (Cute as all heel. Lovely lines, gorgeous colours)

X-Men (Striking. Love it.)

Annihilation. (THAT'S a cover.)

Goddawful:
Heroes for Hire (Wrestling porn photo ref.)

Heroes Reborn (Hands that are holding things look different to clenched fists, goddamnit!)

Wonder Man (Just... wow. Awful. Why is she digging her foot into his shoulder blade? And the faces!!)