My Week In Comics 7-14-10

This week Philadelphia encounters a strange visitor from another planet! And "America's Favorite Fanboy" (well, that's what the cover says) stars in his own book!

Superman 701: The "Grounded" storyline begins in earnest, and where else to begin the Superman Across America walk than in the place where America was born? A couple of Philly-centric quibbles: a cheesesteak is referred to as a Philly cheese steak sandwich -- "with all the fixings," the waitress says. Give me a break. And of all the well-known places, or even not-so-famous sandwich shops and the like, Superman is getting his cheesesteak at a diner. (By the way, outside that diner there's a newspaper photographer that bears a resemblance to a guy from New York who once was bitten by a radioactive spider...)
The story begins in an area identified as "the south side" but the street sign says it's the 500 block of S. 48th Street and that's actually more like West Philly. And later in the book it almost seems like Superman's walk is taking him towards center city, which wouldn't take him across the rest of the country -- although I suppose it's possible that he's circling around while in a particular locality. (And he does take flight in a couple of instances, but returns to the ground in the same spot he left from.) Things he deals with, sometimes in interesting ways: the media, confused as to where he's going and why; a brief visit from Lois; how to pay for the aforementioned cheesesteak when he's short on cash; drug dealers; and a suicidal woman. But I'm not quite sure, when this storyline comes to an end on the West Coast, what the point will be. Still, it's kind of cool that Superman stopped by.


Comic Book Guy: The Comic Book 1 (of 5): As if their takeoffs on the comic book genre in the "Simpsons Super Spectacular" weren't enough, we now have a miniseries starring Comic Book Guy. There are so many comic book, sci-fi and other pop culture references it's ridiculous, and loads of fun. It's got three alternate cover pages at the start; the four covers each pay homage to other famous covers, three of which depict deaths of famous characters. That makes sense because the story is titled..."The Death of Comic Book Guy!"