With DC Comics’ “New 52” dominating comic shop shelves this month with more number one issues than any other time in history, other titles that are launching right now couldn’t have more competition for readers’ attention. This week, we’re going to try to shine a light on some other big titles that are launching this month, beginning with last week’s Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #1 by Brian Bendis and Sara Pichelli. It’s part of an entirely revamped Ultimate line-up from Marvel, and as a jumping on point it’s hard to do better.

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Before we get to tomorrow’s Monday Night Raw emanating live from Cleveland, OH, we’ll have to go through WWE’s next pay-per-view, Night of Champions. The show starts in a few short hours and follows right on the heels of last week’s Raw from Ottawa, Ontario Canada. As usual, that show spent a fair bit of time setting up the matches for tonight’s card, most of which are championship matches as the show’s title suggests, but it also featured an appearance by WWE Hall of Famer, Bret “Hitman” Hart. This certainly seemed to make the hometown crowd (and me particularly) happy and while we won’t be discussing it in any detail, WWE also brought back Edge and Trish Stratus for last week’s Smackdown in Toronto.

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The God Complex was far more effective than Night Terrors at bringing a creep factor (I want make a comment that it also has a Crete factor, but I will refrain) to this season. There was a real sense of dread fueled by the psychological terror characters were experiencing and the revelations were nicely paced throughout the hour. I much prefer the incorporation of mythology than history into Doctor Who and seeing a Minotaur in a labyrinth will always be more appealing to me than meeting Agatha Christie or Charles Dickens.

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With the Summer coming to an end, DC Comics’ Flashpoint concluding and all the new number one issues DC is shipping every week, Marvel is just reaching the penultimate issue of their major event, Fear Itself. This series has had some big moments, but we’ve felt throughout that they weren’t sold with the impact they could have had. Chapter Six continues that trend along with a lot more set up for the final battle with the Serpent. This puts an impossible amount of pressure on Chapter Seven to bring the series to a satisfying conclusion.

Spoilers for Fear Itself in general, Fear Itself #6 specifically and the many possible fates of Bucky Barnes will follow.

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Photo courtesy of Phillies.com.

The Philadelphia Phillies begin their final home stand of the season this afternoon with a double-header against the Florida Marlins. Today’s games come after the Phillies clinched a playoff spot for the fifth straight year last night in Houston. Today’s twin billing will be followed by two four-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals to wrap up the year at home. These will be the ninth and tenth four-game series of the season (eight were originally scheduled and two are the result of rescheduled games) for the Phillies and they have the distinction of having won all of the four-gamers they’ve played to date including three sweeps (Padres, Marlins, Reds). It’s one of many remarkable statistics for the team in 2011.

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