I'm becoming very much disenfranchised with Midtown Comics. I signed on to their subscription program because there aren't any quality comic book stores in my area of Virginia, but Midtown Comics has been disappointing me with just about every obstacle that pops up.

This time, I ordered the trade paperback for War of Kings: Road to War of Kings, and unlike the last time I ordered separate comics and payed for two shipping costs, this time, I attached the trade paperback to my subscription - meaning that it should have shipped with the next subscription installment.

Unfortunately the comic books showed up at my door around noon without any hint of the trade. The online order status page at Midtown Comics shows that it's still attached to my subscription. It never shipped and I added it over a week ago. One more misstep, and I'm going to have to find another store to order from - or drive down to Charlottesville. This is getting a little ridiculous.

On to the comics...

• Batman and Robin #6: This issue is somewhat redemptive of the strangeness that Grant Morrison injected into the last issue. Jason Todd still has the red hair, but his character shows greater depth. He's trying to prove that he can be a better hero (on his own terms) than what Batman wanted him to be; but at the same time, he's trying to push Dick Grayson along, as if teaching him his own brand of lessons. This is also close to Judd Winick's portray of Todd as an almost devil's advocate to Batman.

  The story itself involved a little too much Flamingo. I really don't care much about this villain, or Morrison portraying him as an unstoppable sociopath. There's just not enough background information on him to make him viable just yet. I do like the idea of him being a villain of the Red Hood, but it's more likely that he'll fit into Batman's rogues gallery.

  The ramifications of this issue are going to be far-felt. Jason Todd plants the seed of the Lazarus Pit in Dick Grayson's head. Resurrect Batman? The next storyline looks to be killer. Grant Morrison is really pushing this series to the next level of quality.

• Action Comics #883: Here's something we haven't had in a while - some character development with Nightwing and Flamebird. Finally, after several issues of everyone running around doing pretty much nothing (just for the sake of a crossover), we return to the story of General Zod's sleeper agents and the abnormal growth of Christopher Kent.

  This issue is much better than many of the recent ones, and even the Captain Atom backup story has a nice payoff.

• Vengeance of the Moon Knight #3: I'm against bringing Bushman back. I think his death (as set up by Charlie Huston) was a huge event in Moon Knight's life, and helped shape the downward spiral that propelled Huston's run into the hall of fame for this character. With Bushman's return, it takes away a bit of the emotional effect on Marc Spector.

  With that said, this was still a very good issue, and Gregg Hurwitz is doing a great job cleaning up Mike Benson's garbage. The use of the Scarecrow and the insane asylum was extra creepy, and the artwork played on that nicely.