The answer is: 37

The question: How many comic books did I read this weekend?

You'd think that that many comics would run together after awaile, but they don't, at leasat no more than normal. I do think, though, that the sheer bulk of comic books I read monthly coupled with my moderate, at best, writing speed pretty much is going to keep me from commenting as much as I want in the way that I want. I thought that the method I'd been using would help me along, but I still found myself finding something to say about everything I read, and at those kind of numbers, it adds up.

As for what I read this weekend:

I don't know how it happened; I think when it happened was during his writing of 52; but Geoff Johns's writing has become as good as his fans have always said it was. His writing doesn't feel padded anymore, I feel like I am actually getting something of a story in any one issue of a comic he writes as opposed to an event in a larger whole. Actually, I am getting less of a writing-for-the-trade vibe from mainstream DCU comics lately. Maybe a company-wide mandate was enacted at DC, reminding the writers and editors that the trades are subsidized by the people who buy monthly titles. I hope so. Now, if only DC (or Marvel) would bring back thought balloons and get rid of narration captions, and number the pages of its comic books, then I'd know that they were putting the fan of monthlies, or at least me, first.

I love the conceit of Booster Gold, but I have to wonder if it can be sustained for many years. I want this comic to last many years, if for no other reason then that I like time travel and alternate dimension stories. I've long thought the The Powers That Be at DC really shot the creative side of the comapany in the foot when it enjoined the use of time travel and alternate dimensions in mainstream stories. Despite the pathetic whining of middle-thirties-aged fanpeople, the DCU (and Marvel Universe), is as connected to reality as Middle Earth is connected to reality. Strip the DCU down to its earliest moments, and its core grows from science fiction, or at least science fantasy, the landing of a rocket on the Earth that contains a baby from another planet. (Yes, I know, Crimson Avenger, et al., have a basis in pulp fiction/crime fiction, but I'm considering the event that put DC on the map). To prevent the use of time travel and/or alternate dimensions as plot devices, both of which are traditional starting points for many a work of science fiction, hamstrings writers, chaining their imaginations and chaining the characters they write to mundane stories. Anyway, even if Booster becomes the deus ex machina for DCU retroactive continuity, after the Blue Beetle story appears, any other stories could feel anticlimatic and I'd hate for apathy to kill this book.

Dwayne McDuffie didn't disappoint with his two Justice League premieres (JLA Wedding Special and Justice League of America #13). His writing is so much better than Brad Meltzer's, at least in regard to comic books, that I really think both companies need to start reevaluating the worth of name writers from other media. The art, however, is as bad as ever, even with a new artist on the book. Why did scratchiness coupled with bad anatomy ever become a viable art style and what can I do to stop its spread?

Black Canary Wedding Planner was cute, but no where near as funny as Jann Jones had me thinking it was going to be based on her comments at Wizard World Chicago.

Let me get this straight: Giving Green Arrow a beard more suitable for an extra on My Name is Earl somehow makes him more attractive.

Ultimate Fantastic Four is becoming boring, possibly an artifact of the stories continually being written with the trade in mind. It might be cut soon.

I don't know why, but this iteration of Madman just isn't doing it for me; even Mike Allred's artistic tour de force last issue, beyond the fact of how well he aped the works of his artistic influences, wasn't enough to make me glad I can buy new issues of Madman again.