One of us! One of us!

Shane Bailey is leaving the world of superheroes behind, and joining the rest of us snooty independent, alternative and small press comic geeks.

Well, not entirely. And, while he's pointing at the indy books he's digging, or considering looking into, I figure it's time I come out of the closet and share the mainstream (or, mainstreamish) comics I'm digging at the moment.

New Frontier - By now, most of the on-line discussion of this gorgeous series has dried up, but most people I know are still digging it, if not discussing it actively. Darwyn Cooke's clean, crisp style is worth drooling over, but the story itself is what keeps bringing me back to it. The characters are fleshed out well, and, as of yet, there hasn't been a need to rape or disfigure any supporting characters to make the audience care about the characters.

Plastic Man - I've got the depressing feeling that this series won't be around much longer, and that saddens me. Baker takes the original spirit of Jack Cole's character and uses it to get around all the continuity nit-picking that plagues comics-related discussion today, and somehow manages to turn everything into a cohesive final product that is simply a delight to read.

Planetary - This is the book that satisfies my need to see old superheroic tropes dissected and analyzed.

Astonising X-Men - Part of me didn't want to like this, as it was part of some big, overblown event with some silly title I don't remember at the moment. However, I bought it for the wife, knowing that she enjoyed the X-Men films and adores Joss Whedon. She still hasn't read a single issue, but now I'm into it. It's not an Earth-shattering, moving-comics-forward book by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a nice, light read, and it's always nice to read a comic that attempts to utilize the trends of contemporary conversation and slang without sounding like a stuttering, repetitive nightmare.

District X - For the first time in my life, I'm buying two X-comics regularly. It's doesn't feel an X-comic, even though one of the main characters is a former X-man (who I'm not really familiar with). It's just cops who deal with mutants, but Hine has a knack for fleshing out the supporting characters without beating the audience over the head with exposition.

MK:4 - I started buying this essentially as a "fuck you" to the people who got upset when I suggested that pulling Mark Waid off of Fantastic Four was the WORST THING TO EVER HAPPEN TO COMICS!!! EVER!!!, or whatever they were saying before the latest anti-fanboy corporate clusterfuck occurred. However, Aguirre-Sacosa's take on comics' "first family" made me give a shit about the characters for the first time.

Punisher - It's just nice to see the character not palling around and teaming up with every brightly-costumed do-gooder for a change. Of course, Millar's on board to write this title in the near future, but I'm willing to give him a chance.

Bite Club - It's not Chaykin's best work, but it's got its own charm. Hahn's artwork has the same benefits and drawbacks of Steve Dillon's work, but with a softer edge. Visually, I'm enjoying the series a great deal.

We3 - Just fucking beautiful, from the concept to the execution. And, sap that I am, the dog's lines made me get a little misty-eyed.

And... that's really about it. I have no interest in Identity Crisis Avengers Done Got Blowed Up Real Good or This Will Change The Bat-Universe Forever, Or Until Next Summer (Whichever Comes First).