Welcome to “Report Card,” our new week-in-review feature. If “Cheat Sheet” is your guide to the week ahead, “Report Card” is a look back at the top news stories of the previous week, as well as a look at the Robot 6 team’s favorite comics that we read.

So read on to find out what we thought of Hawkeye #11, the second issues of Green Team and The Wake, SpongeBob Comics Annual #1: Super-Giant Swimtacular and much more.







We start this week's recap with two health updates. First up, comics writer and editor Joe Pruett, founder of Desperado Publishing, is out of the hospital after suffering a minor stroke earlier this week. Several comic creators took to Twitter to provide updates on his condition; Ron Marz tweeted on Thursday that "he's heading home from the hospital. Good news, it seems, more as I know it."

Pruett served as creative director of Caliber Press and editor of its Negative Burn anthology in the 1990s, then went on to write several issues of Marvel’s Cable and X-Men Unlimited. In 2004, he founded Desperado Publishing and, initially in partnership with Image Comics, revived Negative Burn and released such series as Flaming Carrot, Hatter M, Deadworld, Roundeye and The Revenant. Pruett most recently contributed a story to IDW Publishing’s Rocketeer Adventures, and has been collaborating on a project with artist Michael Gaydos.



Meanwhile, Peter David provided an update on his own post-stroke recovery; the X-Factor, Young Justice and Hulk writer suffered a stroke in December.

Almost six months later, David said on his blog that he'll be done with therapy next week. "I am done with physical therapy and next Tuesday is my last occupational therapy," he said. "My right shoulder still hurts and my endurance is not remotely what it was, but I am working to return to normal. It continues to be a long path, but with the relentless support of my wife and friends, at least I’m able to walk it."





BOOM Studios and Archaia announced on Monday that they plan to merge. The new company will keep the name BOOM! Studios, while Archaia will be an imprint within the company (joining Kaboom! and BoomTown, it seems).

"I think the similarities in our philosophy are what drew us together," said BOOM! founder Ross Richie. "Archaia participates with their creators in new original creations, which is a core tenet shared with BOOM!. The comic book industry has been polarized far too long by publishers who own their properties and don't share their success with creators. We don't believe that a relationship with creators has to be adversarial, and I think that's something we've proven with the massive success Steven Grant has had with 2 Guns."

As Corey Blake noted on Wednesday, BOOM! Studios appears to be keeping Archaia intact as much as possible, even retaining executives and other personnel that could potentially be seen as redundant. "My hope is that Archaia will exist similar to the way Vertigo traditionally has at DC Comics, and will be given the autonomy and freedom to release the kinds of material it does best," Blake said.





Marvel and Gary Friedrich will head to court on Nov. 4 to determine who owns the character Ghost Rider. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest made the order a little more than two weeks after the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals overturned her 2011 decision rejecting Friedrich’s claims that the copyright to the character reverted to him a decade earlier.



Toymakers Mattel and writer Donald Glut, who wrote the Masters of the Universe minicomics that accompanied the toyline of the same name, have taken their battle to court as well. The toymaker says that the writer suddenly came forward this year to claim he created the characters and owns the copyrights, and merely licensed them to the company.

Mattel seeks a declaration that it is the sole owner of the lucrative multimedia franchise, asserting that Glut’s four stories were work for hire. Mattel refers to the writer’s claims of ownership as “both baseless and stale,” insisting the statute of limitations long ago expired.





The Green Team: Teen Trillionaires #2

Written by Art Baltazar and Franco

Art by Ig Guara and Wil Quintana

Letters by Carlos M. Mangual

Cover by Amanda Connor, Paul Mounts

Published by DC Comics

The first issue of the Green Team revival was decent, laying out the series' premise -- that among the DC Universe's super-rich, there's a subculture of teenagers who try and "buy into" the world of superheroes -- in fairly broad strokes. However, issue #2 (written by Art Baltazar and Franco, pencilled by Ig Guara, and inked by J.P. Mayer) gets more into the details, by focusing on the two newcomers, Cecilia (an actress) and Mo (a would-be Green Teamer). This it does by getting them involved in a chaotic super-fight against the forces of Riot, a masked gang originally seen in '90s Superman comics. Riot's identical costumes and anarchic nature makes them an appropriate set of bad guys, not so much because they evoke a sort of angry-mob presence, but because they personify the wide range of bad outcomes facing idealists with too much disposable income. At the end of issue #1 we learned that Commodore, the head Green Teamer, had bought himself a suspiciously Stark-like suit of battle armor if anything went wrong; and this issue we see him put it (and a spare, and another super-artifact he dredged from the Gotham River) to work, mostly effectively.

That super-fight takes up the first half of this issue, and it's pretty well choreographed, but also fairly efficient at character work. Although this comes from Commodore shouting instructions at his friends to help them survive the experience, it doesn't come across as overly expositional. Instead, it reveals his slightly manipulative nature, Cecilia's capacity for staying cool, and Mo's forgiveness. The second half of the issue expands on these traits, offering insight into the characters' backgrounds. I was impressed with Baltazar and Franco's nimble dialogue, which (particularly in the second half) threatens to infodump, but stays plausible. Guara and Mayer's work is crisp, slightly "cartoony," and just detailed enough to ground the reader in the sort of unrealistic "realism" in which the series is grounded. The art reminds me of Todd Nauck and Lary Stucker's Young Justice, and in a way the book does too. It takes its cues from the idea of the DC Universe as a place where the impossible happens daily, but so far it's avoided looking at those sorts of things cynically. Perhaps that's because its protagonists are each isolated in their own ways from the sufferings of ordinary people; but you have to think that perspective is coming too. Right now, though, The Green Team is apparently content merely to be a fun adventure, and that makes it a welcome addition to the New-52. --Tom Bondurant



The Wake #2

Written by Scott Snyder

Art/cover by Sean Murphy

Colors by Matt Hollingsworth

Letters by Jared K. Fletcher

Published by DC Comics/Vertigo

Scott Snyder's script keeps me on my toes by jumping around through time and space, but he and Sean Murphy reward all the diligence and patience they require. Sandwiched between the opening pages of a prehistoric megalodon hunt and the final depiction of something pretty significant happening on the moon is the continuation of last issue's story about a team of scientists investigating a new, undersea life form. There's plenty of government conspiracy and Murphy draws a hell of an environment for all this to take place in (not to mention a horrifying, otherworldly creature on which to focus the plot), but The Wake isn't just about interesting, diverse characters trying to unravel a coverup. The other stuff hints at much bigger goings on and gives The Wake an epic quality far greater than the little adventure of this one, small group of people. -- Michael May



Indestructible Hulk #9

Written by Mark Waid

Art by Matteo Scalera and Val Staples

Letters by Chris Eliopoulos

Cover by Paolo Rivera

Published by Marvel Comics

I wanted to make sure that I listed letterer Eliopoulos in my credits for a reason. Too often I overlook the work of one of the more critical people in a comic (imagine a comic without dialogue). Without going into details with this issue, Waid explores the dynamics between Daredevil and Hulk--and what makes them such a great team together. Part of those dynamics play out in how Eliopoulos presents the dialogue in one particular scene, which also allows DD to teach Maria Hill how she might better collaborate with Banner/Hulk. Artistically, Scalera tackles a scene (where Hulk and DD enter a bar) that echoed vintage Frank Miller (which may be only in my head), but it made for a great character entrance, if nothing else. Waid's insistence on reminding people of Banner's inventive abilities (the issue opens with the reveal of his new phone that uses untraceable infrabands) is another element that keeps this comic in my must-read pile. --Tim O'Shea



SpongeBob Comics Annual #1: Super-Giant Swimtacular

Edited by Chris Duffy

Written by Derek Drymon, Scott Roberts, James Kochalka and Chuck Dixon

Art by Derek Drymon, Vince DePorter, Ramona Fradon, James Kochalka, Hilary Barta, Jerry Ordway, Jacob Chabot, Monica Kubina, Michael Lapinski, Michael DeVito, Jim Campbell

Published by United Plankton Pictures/Bongo Comics

The cover of this comic would have looked right at home on the newsstands of my childhood, and inside, the stories draw heavily on superhero traditions—invisible enemies, sidekicks, the secret lair—but this is SpongeBob, so there's a layer of absurdity that wouldn't have been there in 1968.

In the first story, SpongeBob has to wait tables for a reunion of the Aquatic Adventurers, and as he struggles not to squee, he notices that they seem to be disappearing one at a time. Being SpongeBob, he doesn't notice that they are also reappearing one at a time. The story spirals into craziness the way SpongeBob sometimes does, ending with the flattening of Mr. Krabs. Aside from that crossover story, there's one about SpongeBob and Patrick driving Squidward crazy with their superhero antics and another that focuses solely on Mermaid Man and his sidekick, Barnacle Boy (drawn by classic Aquaman artist Ramona Fradon). James Kochalka kicks in with a story about Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy in the retirement home, and Chuck Dixon scripts the origin story of The Golden Kelp. Sandwiched in between the stories are ads for the fictitious product Blek. While these ads are obvious parodies of real ads from the Silver Age, they are absurd enough that a modern kid can get a laugh out of them without having seen the originals they are based on.

As the editor of Nickelodeon Magazine, Duffy brought talent like Craig Thompson, Justin Green, and Ellen Forney to draw comics for the kids, and he's doing something similar with the SpongeBob comics, relying on Derek Drymon to do much of the writing and art and bringing in a host of other creators for variety. The result is 48 pages of pure summer vacation fun that is goofy enough to be fun for kids and smart enough to entertain adults as well. -- Brigid Alverson



Masterplasty

Written and drawn by James Harvey

Published by Blank Slate Books

The most impressive thing I've read this week was the short story 'Masterplasty' by James Harvey, posted by Blank Slate Books at their website five days ago, almost instantly crashing it, too. It's a droll piece of social commentary, a nasty little tale, well told, with a looping narrative structure, a hipster take on Fay Weldon's The Lives and Loves of a She-Devil in some ways. The reason it spread around the internet like wildfire, though, was probably due to Harvey's art: slick, cool, with great design and color sense.

Blank Slate are my favorite publisher around right now. Every now and again I pop up and say such-and-such a title will be their breakout book. I really believed it of both Nelson and their translation of Hector Umbra, and neither have really done that much business in the states (but really, check them both out, they're amazing). The amazing online response to this short, dubbed a prelude to Harvey's debut solo graphic novel Zygote, due in 2014, has me hopeful that this will be their first big crossover hit. --Mark Kardwell



Hawkeye #11

Written by Matt Fraction

Art by David Aja and Matt Hollingswoth

Letters by Chris Eliopoulos

Published by Marvel Comics

Like my choice last week, this is one of those "only could be done in comics" moments. The latest issue of Hawkeye is getting many (well-deserved) accolades around the 'net already, being called out for its bold designs, its clever use of icons and the attention to detail in what words Lucky, a.k.a. Pizza Dog, does and doesn't understand. It's a pretty wonderful, well-executed issue that managed to nudge out a lot of good competition for me to pick as my best of the week (Young Avengers #6 was a very close second; Kate Brown is pretty awesome). The thing that really pushed it over the edge, for me, was the use of color in this issue ... or the lack of color in certain parts. On the one hand, Hollingsworth is already using a fairly limited, well-chosen color palette on the book that helps give it its distinctive style, even when the artist changes. In this issue, they go a bit further, as anytime we switch over to Lucky's POV, we lose the color (because dogs are color blind) and switch to fairly simple line art. It's a brilliant choice; looking at page 13, as Lucky guards the street in front of his building and takes in all the sights, sounds and smells around him, I'm reminded of every time my own dog (RIP, Utah) would suddenly react to something and we had no idea what it was, only that a) he knew what it was and b) he knew we needed protection from it. This will be one issue to remember when I'm making my "best of" list at the end of the year.