John Hunter

All very true

Agree. That's the power of having your own label and decades of goodwill.

… with the right titles or characters, so there's a synergy that makes sense, like Javier Rodriguez is exactly the right guy for the Martian Manhunter book, Sophie Campbell is perfect for Supergirl, Hayden Sherman is in tune with Wonder Woman, etc.

One gets the sense that today's Marvel decides "OK, let's launch 15 new X-books next month as part of our latest stupid event, and it doesn't really matter who we get to draw all those titles, because the fans love Wolverine," whereas DC currently puts more effort into pairing the right creators …

And I'd agree with your point that, across its line, DC has maybe never enjoyed a higher hit-to-miss ratio than it does today.

And I don't even rate Absolute Batman, or, to some degree, Dark Patterns, as highly as others do, because I find their vibe too grim, but whereas in the past you might have had Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams doing their classic thing, the whole Bat-line wasn't that strong across the board.

The other day I saw someone say that, in the 90 years he's been around, Batman has never been in a better place than he is now, and I sort of agree, insofar as the Waid/Samnee Year One, Taylor/Janin Detective, Fraction/Jiménez Batman, &, finally, the bonkers Immortal Legend Batman are all killing it

Postscript: I endorse Adam's take that Suck It and See recalls Green, both in that it's a mish-mash of styles, and insofar as, like Pop Song '89 and Stand, Don't Sit Down 'Cos I've Moved Your Chair and Brick by Brick find clever lads awkwardly playing at being dumb, which does not appeal.

Somebody like Sophie Campbell is totally killing it at DC, and her Supergirl is far from DC's most hyped book, although it's one of the best.

I left out Pepe Larraz as a contemporary Marvel artist whose work I look forward to, but, again, I find DC's whole stable of the artists at the moment to be clearly stronger.

Even at this low point, Turner comes up with a handful of songs none of his peers could match.

Another great episode. To counterbalance last week's screed, I'll offer the positive take that, however flawed Suck It and See may be, and I find it to be, by some distance, the worst album Alex Turner has ever had a hand in, Hellcat Spangled Shalalala and the title track are bangers.

The only contemporary Marvel artist whom I look forward to each month is Marco Checchetto, and his book is ending soon.

At the moment, DC is cleaning Marvel's clock on many different levels, not least of which is having more star artists, as well as a higher floor for its house style on the books that aren't drawn by Dan Mora, Jorge Jiménez, Javier Rodriguez, Nick Dragotta, Hayden Sherman, etc.

And it's not just that those guys keep cranking out records, it's that from time to time they still hit the bullseye that they hit when they were younger and more full of fire.

I do like the self-titled album a lot, One Wing is the big alt-rock hit that never was, but I do think they dropped off a bit after that, as most bands do in their 2nd or 3rd decades together. But Tweedy has become like later Neil Young: I might not dig every song, but I admire the work ethic.

From the White Album and Tales from Topographic Oceans to Tortured Poets Department, I am drawn to artists who overreach and embrace the too-muchness of double or triple albums. I like a record that creates a world you can get lost in. Kudos to Tweedy for pulling that off here.

Sometime after their self-titled album, I slowly dropped off of following Wilco, but I did check out this new solo album out of curiosity, and it's quite good. I also admire the audacity of putting out a nearly two-hour-long triple album in this day and age, on top of a huge body of work.

The original miniseries really was special, not least because of the amazing art team of Rick Leonardi and Terry Austin.

Batgirl #12, art by Takeshi Miyazawa

After fifty years of reading comics, I'm still a sucker for a cool double-page splash of a forbidden city

My collection stops at Vol. 11. I'd like to find Vol. 12, but, yeah, the issues collected in Vol. 13 aren't hard to track down.

There is, but good luck scoring a copy

I really like the early Cloak and Dagger stories in Spectacular Spider-Man, and their first mini-series was also great, but I think they worked better when their stories were (somewhat) grounded in the ongoing drug pusher backstory than when they became normal Marvel characters fighting Dr. Doom.

The first rule of Marvel is that every hero, no matter how C- or D-List he or she may be, tangles with the Lord of Latveria sooner or later

Volumes 12 and 13 are really hard to find

One has to think that not touring behind Out of Time gave them the breathing room to create this record. If they'd spent all of 1991 retracing their steps on the Green tour, Automatic probably wouldn't have turned out the way it did.

The last three tracks really work together as a closing suite

Got to go with the safe, obvious choice of Man on the Moon

Arch clowning on that kid from Sam Houston State looks even more pathetic now

whatever the outcome of this game, Vandy is for real