Waiting for the Trade New Thunderbolts (vol 1): One Step Forward written by Kurt Busiek & Fabian Nicieza, art by Tom Grummett collects New Thunderbolts #1-6   Why I Bought This: I generally enjoy the Thunderbolts and this book features a team line-up I particularly enjoyed in another trade I read so I figured I’d grab the start of that era.   The Plot: Mach IV (Beetle) starts up a new team of Thunderbolts and they try to fill the void left by the disbanding of the Avengers (in “Avengers: Disassembled”). (spoilers below)

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller   Avengers/Thunderbolts vol. 2: Best Intentions By Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza and illustrated by Barry Kitson and Tom Grummett. Collects Avengers/Thunderbolts #1-6   Why I Bought This: Having finished Busiek’s legendary Avengers run I discovered this existed and it was like having a bonus Christmas since it meant more Busiek Avengers . (And I enjoy the Thunderbolts too on occasion).   The Plot – The Thunderbolts begin taking a proactive stance on international crime under Zemo’s leadership and announce they have a plan to save the world. However based on his past with Zemo, Captain America does not trust them. (spoilers below)

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller   Avengers Assemble vol. 4 By Kurt Busiek, Gerry Ordway, Steve Epting and Alan Davis collects Avengers #35-40, Avengers 2000, Avengers 2001, Avengers: The Ultron Imperative, Maximum Security #1-3 and Maximum Security: Dangerous Planet.   Why I Bought This: Because I was reading my way through the entire Busiek run in trade the last couple years (I finished this one last year and just finished volume five earlier this year). I would assume this is the least read of the Busiek trades as people curious about him are likely to buy the first trade, while his three most famous stories are the Ultron story in volume 2, the Kang epic in volume 5 and the Avengers Forever miniseries; leaving volumes 3 and 4 a little less well known—and volume 3 still has all time great Avengers artist George Perez on pencils leaving this trade as likely the least read of the six so let's delve into it and see what's there.   The Plot: Again ...

Waiting for the Trade by Bill Miller   Superman: Camelot Falls – The Weight of the World by Kurt Busiek, Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino collects Superman 662-664, 667 and Superman Annual 13   Why I Bought This: This had been in the discount bin of my favorite local comic store for many months and I kept considering picking it up because of the Camelot reference on the cover and Kurt Busiek’s authorship. About two months after Busiek responded to my Aquaman review on this site, I figured why not when the price dropped again to $5.   The Plot: Prior to this trade Superman was informed by an Atlantean sorcerer that the presence of alien heroes on Earth is disrupting the natural cycle of good and evil that guides human destiny. The sorcerer claims that when evil finally breaks through it will be so pent up that it will lead to the extinction of humanity. Thus he asks Superman to consider leaving the planet for the greater good. Now Superman has two w...

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller Avengers Assemble Vol. 2 by Kurt Busiek and George Perez Collects 12-23, 0 and Annual ’99 Why I Bought This – As I mentioned a few times the week of The Avengers movie I purchased several trades. This was first on the list with a bullet as I’d waited literally years to read this since the original hardcover volume has been out of print for some time, and I absolutely loved volume 1. Thankfully the movie caused this to be re-released in soft cover. The Plot – This is a collection of sequential issues so it doesn’t have one plot, although the Ultron story at the end is what this collection is famous for. Spoilers ahead.

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller Avengers Assemble Vol. 1 by Kurt Busiek and George Perez collects 1-11 and Annual ’98 Why I Bought This – The Avengers is my favorite comic. When I first got into buying trades five years ago this was among the first I bought, as I’d heard very good things about this run. I loved it and immediately wanted to buy volume 2 but it was out of print and averaging about $140 at Amazon. Lo and Behold with the release of the movie volume 2 is back in print. I immediately picked it up, and I figured I’d refresh my memory with the first volume.

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller Aquaman Sword of Atlantis: Once and Future by Kurt Busiek and Butch Guice Collects Aquaman Sword of Atlantis 40-45. Why I bought this: I don’t recall whether I was looking up Aquaman or Kurt Busiek when I came across this—either is equally probable as Aquaman is my favorite of DC’s top tier heroes but I own little of his stuff as I own little DC relatively speaking; while Busiek is in my view the finest Avengers writer ever and thus I’d like to read more of his stuff. Regardless when I discovered there was an Aquaman series written by Busiek my interest was piqued. That it has a name straight out pulp serials like “Sword of Atlantis” attached to it only intrigued me more. And once I saw the name of the first volume was an Arthurian reference I knew had to own it as there a few things in the world that fascinate me more than Arthurian literature. A quick trip to Amazon later and it was mine.