A little behind this week, so I'm going to dispense (mostly) with the intro and get right to the Five. But first, a question for y'all:

What was the first comic you read, evah? What do you remember about it?

I'll share my answer next week. Meanwhile. ...

Daredevil Annual #1 (Marvel): Well, lookee here -- an annual that doesn't taste like filler. Writer Ande Parks, from a story by Ed Brubaker, depowers the Horned One a bit by giving him a lingering flu (and, of course, Murdock can't rest long enough to tamp down the bug). Add to that vulnerability a powerful villian, just released from prison, who wants to go straight. Carlos LaMuerto, aka the Black Tarantula, goes to a certain blind lawyer for help staying on the straight and narrow. They both know about their alter egos, which in this case leads to a trust based on honor. What results is a well-weaved tale about temptation, compulsion and differing visions of justice. The art team is nothing to bark home about, but they don't get in the way of the tale.

Ultimate Power #8 (Marvel): I'm aboard to the bitter end of this dimension-spanning slugfest, just because Greg Land rocks and Jeph Loeb knows his way around smart-arse heroes like Spidey. But things get out of hand in this issue, as the appearance of doppelgangers of the Squadron Supreme pop in and generally slow everything down. Marvel Universe and the Ultiverse co-mingling? Yawn. Bring on Hulk...ah, there he is now, just in time for issue #9. Let the smashing begin. Next month.

Action Comics #858 (DC): The cover alone is worth the double-take: Superman in classic, heroic flight, his right fist thrust toward the reader. But hey, is that a Legion flight ring on that hand? OK, I'm a die-hard Legion fan from way, way back, so I had to grab this. But I was also drawn to the art. I'm familiar with penciller Gary Frank, but he looks incredibly different here under the inks of Jon Sibal. It's a thin, tight, detailed line. Every tooth is drawn in. Eyes are circumscribed to the point that they sometimes look as if they're going to pop out of the character's head. But, somehow, it's still a visual grabber. One panel of Clark scrutinizing his tie for evidence of mustard is worth the $3.50.

Mythos: Fantastic Four #1 (Marvel): I did some Googling before typing this, because I needed to understand what this title is about. What's its purpose? The X-Men and other characters have received the Mythos treatment, which essentially retells the character(s) origin. OK. It hasn't lost me yet. The art by Paolo Rivera is painted, which I think is supposed to mean this is something special. But is it? It seems that writer Paul Jenkins' goal here is to the frame the FF's classic cosmic-ray accident in our nation's current atmosphere of distrust and federal government myopia. The newly born team is summoned to a Capitol hearing to explain what happened in space. Various themes are played -- concerns about public safety, distrust of the four's motivations, questions about the destruction of government research and experiments in space. Does it make the FF origin more now, more accessible? Nah.

Savage Dragon #133 (Image): Bless Erik Larsen's big, shiny forehead. Even now, even as he oversees Image as its publisher, he continues to crank out this baby. I believe this is two issues in two months. Excuse me, I feel a myocardial infarction coming. I've long accepted that Savage Dragon will come out when Larsen can get to it, and I believe him when he says he won't let it die. The problem, to me, is that he's suffered a two-year stretch in which the art seemed so rushed and the stories so bunched up that it was tough to ingest. Happily, #133 seems like a watershed. His inks are more detailed, and the story -- Dragon and his now-super-powered daughter get into a few scraps while Dragon looks for someone to babysit her -- is digestible. Well done, boss. Keep 'em coming.

That's My Five. How about yours?