* Food for thought: Neilalien’s complaint about Brian Michael Bendis’s writing is character-specific (Doctor Strange, natch), but gets to the heart of what’s wrong with the current Fan-Fiction Age of Superhero Comics. Most of today’s most popular corporate superhero comic book writers can’t envision a story more complex than a child playing with action figures in the tub. Bendis’s current Avengers with John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson is the perfect example of this type of dumbed-down storytelling, which has little respect for the history of the character(s), for the art of writing, or for the poor suckers who end up buying this intellectually retarded, sub-par shit.

* At Comics Comics, Jog runs down the best and most interesting comics being released this week. I assume new comics day is Thursday this week in Los Estados Unidos, since Monday was a holiday.

* Uncomics: As incidents of bullying lead to a disturbing number of recent teen suicides, research psychologist Jesse Bering considers the possible evolutionary rationalization for taking one’s own life, at Scientific American. 

— Alan David Doane