Mid-Winter Bulletin A
Sean Welch, Vault Manager and Lecturer in Residence
Winter has been here in Madison for two months already. Christamas and New Years this last semester did not provide ample time for blogging but rest assured that the faculty of the MCBR&LH has been hard at work further the causes of literacy and action figure studies. Comic acquisitions have been low, limited to new comics, about ten monthly, with the exception of the find of two issues of EC Comic's MD #'s 2 and 3. The last four months have been busy for the action figure committee, they have put together a string of purchases that have expanded the collection considerably. A job well done all around.
Reading List: Captain America, Daredevil, New Avengers, Secret Invasion (just ended), Kingbreaker/War of Kings, Skarr-Son of Hulk, also some Captain America one-shots as well as Dark Reign one-shot.
Secret Invasion has earned mixed reviews here. The faculty agrees almost unanimously that the story parts in the New Avengers carried the mini-series. I think Yu's artwork was lazy and didn't stand up to his work on New Avengers. If the intention was to have a continuity of illustration from New Avengers into the mini-series then it was successful. This story should have been longer and remained in the Avengers titles. Marvel also did a poor job managing the indiviual character's stories. Spider-Man story "Brand New Day" was an event in itself but somehow Spider-Man had time to sit around, and all the characters in Civil War and Secret Invasion do a lot of sitting around talking, talking about the implications of a Skrull invasion that seems to last for twenty minutes and results in poorly handled death of Wasp. Wasp? Oh no! Her death was a token loss. Many of the faculty were underwhelmed by this development. The Skrulls had no air support, no contingency plan and the super-Skrull army looked stupid and fought without reason. Why blow the infiltration by revealing this undisguised army in mix-and match suits. One of them was as big as Galactus! Really silly. This minseries changed nothing.
The Dark Reign one-shot is much better. Drawn by Alex Maleev, the story is essentially an Illuminati of villainy. Reviews here are positive. A good follow-up to the average Secret Invasion. Dark Reign is the next conspiracy in the Marvel world and reminds me of Acts of Vengence.
Captain America remains strong Bucky-Cap has gone on to reform the Avengers and face Batroc while The Red Skull is trapped inside a robot body.
Daredevil is in the middle of the "Lady Bullseye" storyline and sees Matt facing off against The Hand and new foes.
Skarr #6 is by far the best issue I've read this month and together with The Savage World of Sakarr issue fills in the story of how the portal that brought Hulk, Silver Surfer, and the Death's Head army to Sakarr as well as recapping the back stories of all our cast members. Also-the unlikely return of the Red King!
Kingbreaker is the next chapter in the story of the long-lost Summers brother Vulcan and his tenure as Emperor of the Shi-ar Empire.

The biggest news here at the MCBR&LH is our move to the basement of the house. While this might look like a banishment to some, to myself and the faculty it means more space and no competition with the guest room function of the Office. We found more clear plastic shelves for the Museum and have an ongoing exhibit of our Captain America collection. Two long folding tables provide space to make the entire comic collection easily accessible at all times- no more closet storage. Further expansion will bring the green magazine shelves and a wall-sized shelving unit installed by spring. Carpeting, comfortable chairs and library supplies like labels and archive materials have made the Repository run more smoothly than ever. The faculty have full classes for the upcoming semester and topics include "Charlton Comics and Relativity", "Introdution to Project Pegasus" and "Nitro- Life Before Little Haven".

More on the Action Figure Museum tonight.