The Emerald Speedster is back with this week's best books

Coming from a monumental Comic Con weekend, the industry did not fall behind on bringing quality stuff to the table this week. The key word of the week is QUALITY.

Like always there are 6 books and they go in order of least to BEAST.

6th Superman 714

Michael J. straczynski's famous "Grounded" storyline FINALLY comes to an end in this issue, and it could not have been more cliché, anti-climactic and CORNY AS HELL!! the entirety of the storyline looked and felt promising, especially since they decided to keep supes off the main spotlight for TWO YEARS and counting, honestly new krypton was not Geoff Johns' shining moment and ever since Kal's reborn home planet blew to pieces (yet again) he’s been so depressed he makes an emo kid seem like Mr. Rogers in comparison. Yours truly is happy to know that at the very least the reboot a.k.a "The New 52" will make superman and every other kryptonian more alienated and douchey which is a VERY good thing and leaving it in the hands of the great Grant Morrison could not have been a better choice. But enough of the future we need to talk about this issue. This book delivered one final battle between superman and what appears to be the "embodiment" of Clarks depression come to life, answering the 2 year long question "Does the world need a superman?" as tempting as it feels to just give out the answer, in all fairness it would be best if yall just go to your local comic book shop and pick up this issue from the stands, skim through it and put it back in the stand because it is not worth the money if you have the least bit of common sense. Overall this book cannot be judged as a single issue but as the end of a storyline and an era that will be remembered for years to come, in other words for a company that puts out QUALITY they really screwed the pooch on this one.

5th Wolverine 13

This book may not be the cat’s pajamas, it may always be at the bottom of the barrel, but the only thing that keeps it a float is the fact that it keeps shedding some light on the red right hand, where they come from and the reason why they are gunning for Wolverine. The story arc has had its high points and low points but it’s a good book to pass time when you’re riding the porcelain pony. what this book lacks in QUALITY it makes up in over-hyping the cliff hanger and telling you that something is coming that will shake Logan to his very core. Like the sentence before stated it’s a good book to pass the time when you’re meditating on the throne

4th The Punisher 1

This book came in with very high hopes, especially since famous superstar writer and one of the legendary 4 horsemen Greg Rucka was the one in charge of giving good ol' Frank Castles a very well deserved breath of fresh air, and he did so. He brought back the Punisher we've all grown to know and love, and be intimidated by, but in a more noir-ish type of setting. In the book you get a feel of how the Punisher loves to work and the classic situations he loves to stick his nose in. Yours truly was never a big Frank Castles fan, but you gotta give the devil his due this time, the book could've been better, they could have gone a different route instead of giving us the classic Castles but it still delivered. As long as they keep Rucka on top of the project this may be the 2nd book that Marvel puts out with actual QUALITY.

3rd Flashpoint: World of flashpoint 3 (of 3)

It was supposed to be a tie between this book and the Death Stroke tie-in but in order to avoid any and all Pirates of the Caribbean jokes and references, this one will have to do. The only reason why this book actually made the list was because throughout the story you get to see the most unlikely characters do the most unlikely things, this book is actually the first book to shed a little light on how the post-Flahspoint world may or may not look like. It is recommended that you read this book AFTER reading flashpoint 4 it will make more sense that way. Bottom line it was an enjoyable story, it did not disappoint.

2nd Flashpoint 4 (of 5)

Ironically for being the penultimate issue and for the QUALITY its putting out this book has not yet reached its full potential, assuming that if it wasn’t for the stupid reboot deadline, there’s a hunch that this book was meant to be a 7 issue story, lets put it this way the book has been amazing thus far, and things finally get done, but it took Geoff Johns 4 issues to finally have something epic happen when things should of happened on EVERY ISSUE since its a 5 parter, this book should of had everyone at the edge of their seat from the get go, but you can’t blame Johns for the cinematic space opera type of writing he is well known for its an awesome way to do things since every issue has felt as if you were watching a movie but he could have sped up the pacing just a tad bit. This book does in fact set the stage for the final confrontations that should bring about the reboot and who else is better suited for the job than the one who gave his life in order to stop the anti-monitor on the very first event. If you take some time to think about it, Barry Allen was the one who saved reality the first time around and they’re using him to do it one last time, You could say it’s more of a coming in full circle type thing. now here’s the part that’s supposed to grab you attention and make you want to buy this and the next issue. This book had a lot of shocking twists and turns at every page, but you have to ask yourself this. Can Barry Allen learn the secret of the Flashpoint? Because even the fastest man alive will run out of time

1st place goes to Flashpoint: Batman Knight of Vengeance 3 (of 3)

There aren’t many words to describe how epic this was and how incredible it’s been, this book is the greatest tie-in flashpoint has to offer, hands down. All of the twists and turns that were brought upon in 3 issues is nothing less than a masterpiece. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that writer Brian Azzarello does something EPIC for DC once everything settles in. To sum up what happened on this issue, if you for some inexplicable reason were NOT shocked and shaken to the core by the events that happened last issue. this will give you goose bumps on top of the goose bumps that you already had. This book by far is the true embodiment of QUALITY nuff said.

These are the books that portrayed what quality or lack there-of (superman) should or shouldn’t be. This has been the EMERALD SPEEDSTER with this week’s comics, and till next time....DEUCES!!!