Okay, two books this week with no back stories to them, one from Marvel comics and one from their Distinguished Competition (remember when Marvel used to call them that? You’re old).

First up is Amazing Spider-man: Origin of the species written by Mark Waid (Captain America, Fantastic Four) and illustrated by Paul Azaceta (Punisher Noir). The story collates Amazing Spider-man issues 642-647, the book it is reprinted in also contains some other little stories that I will talk more about later as there does not seem to be any reference to where they are from.

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Link: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/10/06/dc-announces-batman-europa-six-years-ago/

With the launch of Batman Inc, it has reminded me of one of my all time biggest comic book gripes. One of the things that has always bugged me about ongoing superhero comic books (especially the big two) is their need to shake things up every now and then with some kind of world/european tour. You can look it in two ways:

1) It's an interesting way to take a character out of their usual environment, mix things up and show some lip service to fans around the world.

or the way I usually look at it:

2) When you run out of ideas for a character, send them on holiday so they can meet generic stereotypical foreigners and return after a year having achieved nothing and with the status quo resumed.

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