Friday, January 22, 2010

Action Comics #885, Guardians of the Galaxy #21 & Siege: Embedded #1

Alright, here's how it's going to go tonight... I'm not so much going to review these comics as I'm going to complain about them. All three really weren't that good... Hell, to be honest, if I had some other comic related topic to opine about tonight, I would just skip these "reviews" all together! Yep, I'm in THAT kind of a mood! Well, let's get the horror show over with...

Action Comics #885: Writers: Greg Rucka & Eric Trautmann. Artist: Pere Pèrez.

This comic actually crosses over with Mon-El's Superman comic book, just so you know. The Science Police, led by Guardian and assisted by Mon-El, peacefully capture Nightwing and Flamebird, who were at STAR Labs getting Nightwing treatment. Oh, and the SP knew the Kryptonians were there because a sleeper Kryptonian criminal had infiltrated the SP. Guardian takes NW and FB to SP headquarters and the two explain why they are on earth(to get those blasted sleeper agents!). Guardian doesn't really buy the story, but before he can dig anymore, Gen. Lane shows up with the army(he was tipped off by the evil Kryptonian sleeper agent)and demands NW and FB. Mon-El convinces Guardian not to hand the two Kryptonians over, and during the confrontation between Lane's forces and NW and FB, the Kryptonian sleeper blows up SP headquarters with some sort of Kryptonian weapon.

Meh, this issue just didn't really do anything for me. We find out there are Kryptonian sleeper agents in STAR Labs and the SP, but I kind of don't care anymore... NW and FB had been ignoring their mission to capture the sleeper agents for so long, that now that they are after them again, I've just lost all interest. This comic probably wasn't as bad as I'm making it out to be(the artwork was nice), but it's just the same old, same old in the Superman family of books. To be honest, I think I finally miss Big Blue. He really needs to come back to earth from New Krypton... It's time.

Score: 6 out of 10.Gen. Lane is the best thing going on in the Superman books BY FAR!

Guardians of the Galaxy #21: Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning. Pencils: Brad Walker.

The Guardains and the Luminals(the other super-group on Knowhere)battle the creature from the Fault which killed one of the Luminals last issue, and Moondragon ultimately subdues it by ingesting it... Yeah... The crazies from the Universal Church of Truth believe the creature is their god(because they're CRAZY!)and want to get at Moondragon, so Starlord locks her away for her own safety. Later on, the Luminals confront Starlord and Moondragon and demand that she is given to them since the creature residing in Moondragon killed one of them, and they want justice. Starlord balks at that, so the leader of the Luminals handcuffs herself to Moondragon and forces Starlord and the Guardians to face a tribunal held by the powers that be on Knowhere. Drax convinces the tribunal that since Moondragon is his daughter he should be the one to deal with her current problems, and the tribunal agrees, pissing off the Luminals. This issue ends with Matriarch and her UCT followers kidnapping Moondragon, since they believe their god is residing within her.

Once again, meh. I'm really not into the Realm of Kings storyline AT ALL... Don't get me wrong, I love my Marvel space titles(Guardians and Nova), but it's just been non-stop x-overs since the War of Kings broke out last year. Enough! Hopefully this Realm of Kings business wraps up post-haste, and this title goes back to being as incredibly awesome as I know it can be.

Score: 6 out of 10.In my experience, THAT is never a good sign!

Siege: Embedded #1(of 4): Writer: Brian Reed. Pencils: Chris Samnee.

Ben Urich goes to Chicago to report on the destruction of Soldier Field as told in Siege #1, but gets arrested by the Chicago PD because he's on Osborn's arrest on sight list. A Chicago cameraman lets Urich out of the police car and the two stroll away?!? Umm, really? Is it that easy to get away from the cops in Chi-town?!? They sneak into the remains of Soldier Field and watch the Dark Avengers help with the rescue effort, somehow avoiding the notice of the police, the National Guard, the Army, HAMMER, Osborn's armor, AND Daken's senses... From there they bump into the guy partially responsible for blowing up Soldier Field, Volstagg, who is just WANDERING DOWN THE STREETS!!! The guy isn't exactly inconspicuous! He weighs like 500 pounds and has a flowing red beard! Are you seriously going to tell me NO law agencies in Chicago were able to find him?!? He's walking right down the goddamn street!!! ARRGH!!! Ugh, that's about all for me folks! Some other idiotic stuff happens and Volstagg, Urich and the cameraman decide to drive a stolen news van from Chicago to Oklahoma where the Asgardian battle is taking place.

This comic was just terrible... That's really the best thing I can say about it. I mean come on, how is Volstagg just walking down the road, escaping the notice of EVERYBODY? I can almost forgive the fact that the cameraman simply opens the backdoor of the police car to spring Urich, because with the mess at Soldier Field, let's say the Chicago PD was overextended(although that's still a stretch), but how in the hell do Urich and the cameraman gain access to the disaster site?!? That really blew my mind. Where were the cops? Where was HAMMER, or the National Guard? Why didn't Osborn, Daken, Moonstone or Sentry realize they were being spied on??? The amount of stupidity in this comic was just plain shocking. I can tell you this much, I definitely WILL NOT be buying the other 3 issues in this mini... Just horrible.

Score: 1 out of 10.Can someone explain to me why the army is driving right past the 7 foot tall, 500 pound guy wearing a bright pink outfit?!?

10 comments:

  1. Sounds like a pretty dire haul then :(

    There's a reason I haven't been getting any of this whole World of New Krypton thing, it ain't been sounding too hot and it's just, well, eh...

    And grief with Siege, that sounds like the most lackluster security ever... Jeez

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, I probably won't be reading any of these three books again anytime soon.

    I was enjoying the World of New Krypton stuff in the beginning, but it's just gone on for too long IMO. It's time for Supes to come back to Metropolis.

    Yeah, even a 5 year old would have been wondering about the lack of security measures in Siege: Embedded! I loved the first issue of Siege, but THIS issue was just horrid!

    ReplyDelete
  3. No, they don't sound wonderful. Would avoid them, but wasn't gonna get em anyway ;)

    How long has it been now anyway? Must be about a year, right?

    Wasn't this not written by Bendis though, and by some other guy?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't understand why Marvel keeps publishing these Front Line books (which is what Embedded is, just under a different name). The original idea when they started during Civil War was that they were supposed to look at the Marvel Universe from the average Joe's perspective. But since no one cares about everyday people in the MU (mostly because they've been shown, time and time again, to be completely and utterly stupid), they've tried to make these comics about other things, which means they don't have any real focus or purpose at all.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nagash: Yeah, Supes has been on New Krypton for just about a full year now. That's just TOO long for him to be away from Metropolis IMO. Embedded was written by Brian Reed. I'm only vaguely familiar with his work(I think he wrote the Captain Marvel mini before Secret Invasion as well as Ms. Marvel), but this issue really didn't do him any favors!

    Marc: "to be completely and utterly stupid" Ain't that the truth! And to be honest, it's more or less a current phenomenon. It was during CW when I realized that the common people in the Marvel U were WAY stupid... Before then, they seemed pretty together, although the irrational hatred for mutants while embracing other super-powered beings always struck me as kind of strange, but CW was definitely the tipping point for me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh dear, that is quite a while - it's probably been, like, what, only a couple of months for him, but still...

    I've never even heard of the guy and he doesn't sound at all promising...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yeah, a year for us is like what, a month or two in comic time? I actually had this whole formula worked out one day that explained how Marvel time fit into real time(I think for every 7 years, one year passed in the Marvel U, or something like that). I must have been REALLY bored that day!

    The Cap Marvel mini was OK, but I just could never get into the Ms. Marvel book. She's just such a boring character to me... Besides that, I don't know what else that guy has done.

    ReplyDelete
  8. You must've been REALLY bored that day. And it's never really that defined is it? Save for 52, which gave us an actual year. Good series that one, good series...

    Is this Mary Marverl or a different Ms Marvel?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Bored and crazy obviously! DC time is even harder to figure then Marvel time thanks to 52/the One Year Later event. It's probably close to Marvel time(7 years for every 1 comic year), but I haven't been bored(or crazy!)enough to try to figure it out.

    Oh no, that's the Marvel Comics version of Ms. Marvel and Capt. Marvel. I don't think Brian has written anything for DC. If he did, I don't know about it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Well, that second one is obvious, for, well, obvious reasons ;)

    It's cause there's no real way to determine. Some comics last for days while others last for months...

    Oh... I like Ms Marvel when she's Moonstone ;)

    ReplyDelete