Thursday, March 31, 2011

Quick Hits: 3/31/11

Four more reviews tonight, two from last week, two from this week. Let's get to it!

Supergirl #62:

Summary: Supergirl has managed to discover that a) the fake villains that had been hounding her and the other DC heroes were being powered by Kryptonian sunstones, and b) whoever was behind the fake villains was holed up at Harvard University. SG decides to go the stealth route to deal with this problem and asks the Fake Beetle, Robin and Miss Martin to help her. Miss Martian sneaks onto the Harvard campus and is immediately taken out by the guy behind the fake villains, who I don't think has been named yet... He's some sort of a telepath though. After losing Martian's signal, SG, Robin and Fake Beetle realize the time for subterfuge was over and crash into the mystery villain's base, being met by an angry mind-controlled Miss Martian and several androids. The androids attack Robin and Fake Beetle, while SG manages to put down Martian. After she defeats Martian though, she is attacked and dropped by the mystery villain's telepathy. By this point Robin has managed to figure out how to teleport the androids and their master away and does so, saving SG, but losing the villains in the process. However, SG somehow gets caught up in the teleportation beam and is sent unconscious to parts unknown.

Thoughts: Meh. That was basically the only thing that went through my head upon finishing this comic. I literally thought, “Meh.” I think this story has potential, but with this being the third part, we should probably know more about the main villain besides the fact that he's a telepath, and may or may not be from Project Cadmus. I mean hell, a name would be nice! What more is there to say?

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.Good night, Miss Martian. Thanks for showing up.


Silver Surfer #2(of 4):

Summary: The Silver Surfer is no longer silver(or a surfer anymore I guess), but is regular Norrin Radd, since the High Evolutionary had managed to steal his Power Cosmic. Suzi Endo(I know her from Iron Man 2.0!), who was working with the army of whatever Spanish country captured Radd after his depowering, decides to break Radd free, since he couldn't deal with being trapped in a confined space. The two manage to sneak out of the army base and drive away in search of the High Evolutionary. They finally find him, but by this point the Evolutionary has managed to use the Power Cosmic to bring Galactus's world ship to the Earth, where he was using it to create strange new forms of plant life.

Thoughts: Well, this was definitely not what I was expecting when I decided to buy this mini-series... I was expecting to see Silver Surfer in all his cosmic, space-spanning glory. Instead I'm reading about Norrin Radd talking about how awesome water tastes... I mean all of the pieces are here, I like the Surfer a lot, and the High Evolutionary is a fantastic, under appreciated character, so this mini-series SHOULD be getting scores of at least 7 or higher. Instead it's getting scores like this:

Score: 5 out of 10.If you ever wanted to read about the Silver Surfer drinking water, then THIS is the comic book for you!!!


Captain America and the Secret Avengers #1:

Summary: Black Widow receives a letter from a girl named Tatiana, who she saved a while back, threatening some art center in NYC. Steve Rogers sends Widow and Sharon Carter to investigate, and the two wind up getting locked in a room with a mess of criminals, pirates and terrorists from all over the world. It seems the party was dedicated to these lowlifes by a woman named Lady Alicia who ran a school training girls to be remorseless killers. It turns out Tatiana used to attend this school and was caught by Alicia's cronies and forced to lure Widow to the party so she could be killed in front of the other criminals. Before Lady Alicia has Tatiana kill Widow, she has all of the criminals raise their glasses to a toast to the death of the Black Widow. After the criminals gulp down their champagne, Lady Alicia reveals she poisoned them all, and wanted them to wire money into her bank account for an antidote. From there she tells Tatiana to kill Widow, but instead Tatiana shoots and kills Lady Alicia(with an assist from Sharon). With Lady Alicia out of the way, Sharon and Widow hand out the antidote to the scumbags, and take Tatiana back to her adopted family, which ends this one.

Thoughts: This story never got off the ground for me. I just couldn't get into the storyline here. I can't see how Widow and Sharon, being backed by Steve Rogers, could get themselves trapped in a room full of international crooks, surrounded by girl assassins... I thought Widow and Sharon were better than that. I don't get what Lady Alicia poisoning the party guests added to things, because, quite frankly, I could have cared less if those scumbags lived or died. And then in the end, Sharon and Widow drive Tatiana back to the home of her adopted family, let her out of the car, and then open the trunk of the car to reveal a puppy... I mean what the hell is that?!? Who puts a puppy in the trunk of a car?! Yeah, so far out of all the Cap one-shots I've read, this one has been the worst.

Score: 4 out of 10.Those are some strong kicks...


Cyclops #1:

Summary: This issue is a flashback to back when Cyclops was still bearable, and not the dictatorial prick he's become today. Scott enters the coffee chop near X-Mansion and is bummed out that all of the original X-Men(including his ladylove, Jean Grey) see him as stiff and like an older brother. While he's telling the waitress this, Batroc and Circus of Crime go driving through the shop for some reason. Scott pursues them, and ends up getting smacked in the face by Batroc's walkie-talkie. While on the ground, Scott blasts one of Batroc's tires, which leads to Batroc and his band of losers jumping Scott and leaving him laying. Batroc drives his stricken car a few blocks to a repair shop(in full costume mind you), which gives Scott the chance to catch up to the goons. Scott steals a bike and follows Batroc and his band of losers as they smash through a pet store, see a show and then head to a diner to have dinner, all while in full costume! After eavesdropping, Scott learns that the crooks were planning on stealing some equipment, and he follows them to a Hydra base, arriving just after they've escaped. Scott asks one of the Hydra agents what Batroc and company were after, and the Hydra agent helpfully tells Scott that Batroc stole some antiquated technology that Hydra was planning on scrapping anyway. The Hydra agent gives Scott a device to track the tech before passing out. Scott follows the signal to a quaint little home, and walks into the garage where he finds an old bomb shelter. Upon arriving at the bottom, Scott spies Batroc and his henchmen handing all of the old junk over to Baron Zemo(the one from WWII). This time around, Scott makes quick work of Batroc and his cronies, but is unable to defeat Zemo. Scott threatens to destroy Zemo's junk, which frightens Zemo long enough for Scott to blast him, thus ending his threat and this issue.

Thoughts: This was a decent, funny little story. It was written like an old school Silver Age Marvel book, and the artwork matched the style of storytelling. There was literally nothing wrong with this story, I got a few chuckles out of it, but that was it. Will I remember it in a few hours time? No, probably not, but it was a fun way to spend a few minutes.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Well this makes it official. Batroc is awesome!

5 comments:

  1. Wait a minute, you, who have a well documented hatred of Cyclops, actually BOUGHT a COMIC named AFTER Cyclops and STARRING Cyclops? What...Why...I don't... why do you do these things to yourself?

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  2. HA!!! It was a TOTAL spur of the moment type buy JT, I assure you! I saw it on the stand, started flipping through it, saw that it was old school, non-dickish Cyclops and was like, "What the hell. It's only $3." And it was the best comic out of the four I reviewed in this post. Go figure. Anyway, when has logic ever entered into anything I've ever done?

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  3. That's what had me dumbfounded! I mean, out of all the comics in this post, which seemed lackluster, the CYCLOPS comic got the highest rating. I thought maybe you'd been hit in the head with a coconut or something...

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  4. Well I didn't ALWAYS hate Scott... When I was a kid he was probably my second favorite X-Man, behind Gambit. Yes, Gambit. I just hate the way he's been portrayed these past few years. That's probably why I liked this comic, it was the Cyclops I knew and loved, not Lord Summers The Great.

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  5. Ah gotcha, that makes sense, I didn't know you liked Gambit, man they just made you hate two of your favorites. Now DC is doing the same thing, you should just stop getting attached to characters :P Btw, you vote on my new poll yet? It's pretty much a landslide.

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