Comic Panels: I am Person! Of consequence.

Both the two big comic publishers, DC and Marvel, are in the midst of a series of relaunches after their last big stories, Darkest Night and Siege, respectively, wrapped up. DC managed to do a lot better than Marvel in setting up new plot points; in DC, we have the aftermath of an interstellar war, a mystery of twelve resurrected heroes, a fugitive everyone on Earth has forgotten, the return of the Fastest Man Alive, the White Lanterns, and probably more I forgot about. Marvel's story: everything that's happened for the seven last seven years is back to normal. Enjoy!

...So yeah, less than dramatic.

That said, I really enjoyed Romita and Bendis' Avengers 1. I'm not even sure why; the plot as someone at aintitcool.com pointed out is essentially Back to the Future 2, with superheroes (You've got to travel to the future! You're fine--the problem is your KIDS!). And the dialogue is very Bendis-y. But there's a sense of, well, everything's back to normal. And not just normal, but classic, and heroic. It helps that they've brought back a classic villain, the immortal time traveller, Kang, who's proven time and time again that blue face masks are THE must-have fashion item of the 30th century. Here he is, seconds away from a sucker punch ala Thor:



Oh, Avengers. You had me at KANG!

Later days.