Jumping in Headfirst

No, not that guy. My boy Phonte from hip-hop lyrical mastermind group Little Brother. For a good while Phonte's major musical output consisted of crooning rather than busting rhymes, but from what I understand his new album Charity Starts At Home will change that, and I couldn't be happier. Nothing against the guy's singing, I've just always been a much bigger fan of rap than R&B/soul, and Phonte is one of the best to ever do it. For those who are unfamiliar, DJ Flash put together probably the biggest (and best) Phonte mixtape ever, DJ Flash Presents the Best of Phonte. Here's your tracklist and download. Don't sleep on the dopeness. Download link: DJ Flash Presents the Best of Phonte

Writer: Kyle Higgins Artist: Eddy Barrows Ah, finally! Dick Grayson had to give up Nightwing several years ago when DC turned Bruce Wayne into Sam Beckett , and this reboot is the first time he's had his own comic since February of 08. I gotta say, as someone who's always been a larger fan of Dick Grayson and Tim Drake, he was definitely missed. We come back to Nightwing with a new writer, Kyle Higgins (whose work I've never read before), and a new story. Reading the interviews, the idea with Nightwing was supposed to be that his time as Batman had made him an even better, stronger hero than before. I'd love for that to be true, but considering his best feat in the issue is beating some throwaway nut and...not doing all that well against the primary villain of the issue, I'm going for that to be Dick's perception rather than reality at the moment. Still, from what I've read so far, we're heading down a new road. It's been a while since Dick h...

Writer: Scott Snyder Artist: Greg Capullo Interesting. That's the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of this first issue. I know the basic premise of the first arc to Batman: Scott Snyder wants to tell us what Gotham is REALLY like. Batman thinks he knows the city, but does he really? What happens when he finds out truths about Gotham that the city had kept hidden from him until now? That's the basic idea. Knowing that going in made things a bit different for me. The art seemed to make the city as important a character as all the humans in it. Greg Capullo makes Gotham come alive in this opening issue. You really get a feel for how big and mysterious Gotham truly is, and that's vital for the story Scott is trying to tell. Overall, for the first "Batman #1" since the 1930's, this is a great way to start. We're introduced to the entire cast, given one HECK of a cliffhanger, and an intriguing new villain with so-far unknown goals. I...

From AndriaSang . Looks sick. A game like this really shows you just how expansive the Naruto universe is. I don't really watch the anime anymore, but I enjoy the manga (in 40+ chapter bursts), so I'm pretty excited to play this game. My friends are addicts though, so I'll have to do a LOT of training to not get destroyed. >_<

Writer: Tony Bedard Artist: Ig Guara Okay, this one is slightly unexpected. Initially I believed that of all the characters being rebooted, Blue Beetle would evade it. He's got the most stereotypical superhero set-up in terms of powers, origin, supporting cast, his history is only like, seven or so years old, and given his Brave and the Bold appearances, the guy is probably more popular than half of the superheroes you know. But they hit the reset button pretty hard, giving us an entirely different origin for Jaime Reyes (and, subsequently, getting rid of one of the last remaining reasons Infinite Crisis existed), one that isn't tied to a gigantic crossover comic book. Here, Jaime plays the role of your average high school teen with a smart mouth and, from what we see at the end, the makings of a hero. It's a very busy comic book, what with re-introducing us to everyone and giving Jaime an entirely new origin story, but it all comes together pretty well. Ig Guara's...

Writer: J.T. Krul Artist: Freddie Williams II To be quite honest, even after reading this book, I'm not certain what to make of it. The art by Freddie Williams II is solid, but that was to be expected. The writing, though... There's no origin story. There's no, "my name is..." bit of narration. And while I don't actually need that to enjoy the issue, it's sort of symbolic of the problem with this issue: I read the entire thing without figuring out exactly WHO Captain Atom was. The opening narration would have you believe he's a bit of a cynic, with one of the most pessimistic views on life I've seen from a superhero in a while making up the first few words you read about the character. ....So why's he using his powers to save someone when it's clearly risking his life? I don't get it. And the issue itself doesn't do all that much to show me why I should. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a BAD comic by any means...it...

Writer: Duane Swiercynski Artist: Jesus Saiz Admittedly, I wasn't all that sure about this book. No Oracle = No reason for BoP, I thought. But, I have to say, it works pretty well with Black Canary as our lead. There are still some questions I have, like what happened to the remainder of the team (Huntress, Manhunter, etc.), but I suppose those will be answered over time. While I wasn't sure about Swiercynski as the writer for this new BoP, a great deal of this worry was taken away when he chose to write about all-new characters (and has a good handle on one of the coolest superheroes in comics, Dinah/Black Canary), and overall we get an interesting opening for a first issue with a sick cliffhanger. The art is beautiful, but I expected that from Jesus Saiz anyway. This one's definitely got my interest for it's opening arc.