Monday, March 12, 2012

Defenders #4

Two final reviews for the week and ol' X is officially done with his new comic pile! So a hearty huzzah to that news! Now, two things. Today was the first day I've had off from work in 6 days(which included the always fun 11 hour shift...). On top of that, it was the first day I was able to play Mass Effect 3, which arrived on Saturday, but remained sadly unplayed until today. So it should go without saying that my heart really isn't in these two reviews tonight. On the plus side, I read these books a few nights ago, so I already have the scores marked down, but the reviews? Expect some of my shoddiest work... And that's REALLY saying something!

Defenders #4:

Summary: So Dr. Strange and the Defenders have somehow moved that mystery machine AND the weird Prester guarding it to the Sanctum Sanctorum... Don't ask me how, I haven't a clue. After sending the Defenders away, Strange gets a visit from the college-aged woman he slept with a few issues back. The woman, Molly, wanted to see Strange again(he's older and interesting!!), but chickens out and asks to study a magic book instead. Strange lends her the book, and while looking it over at a coffee shop, Molly is confronted by a good-looking, evil mage who slips a magic homing beacon into the book, because New York City is full of those types... Really, I grew up there, so I'd know! Meanwhile, Strange sits in front of the mystery machine and meditates, which somehow leads to him bringing some former love of his named Martha back to life. Strange and Martha spend the day together until Martha finally asks the obvious question, what had happened to her. Strange tells her she had died, at which time Molly returns to the Sanctum with the book, awkwardly meeting Martha in the process. Molly hands the book over and rushes away embarrassed. Later on that night, the evil, good-looking mage emerges from the book as an astral projection and blackmails Strange into allowing him one hour, alone, with Strange's magical possessions. Strange is forced to agree to the deal since saying no would lead to the evil mage telling the authorities that there was more to Strange than meets the eye... Why would somebody who's an Avenger AND Defender, PLUS has magical mind manipulating abilities even care about that!? To deal with this, Strange takes Martha to Molly, and has Molly take Martha away to live out her life away from Strange's... well, strangeness... Yeah, sure, have your booty-call take care of your lover... Stay classy, Strange... From there, Strange uses his own formidable magics to trap the mage when he stopped by at the anointed time, ending his threat. This issue ends with Namor getting in touch with Strange after finding some sort of undersea weirdness.

Thoughts: See, told ya, sucky review. After I finished this issue off a few nights back, a made a notation next to the score I gave it. The notation simply read, “Okay-ish, but worth keeping?” That's a really good question, because this issue WAS okay, but I don't know if simply “okay” is enough for me to continue buying issues of this series at $4 a pop... At $3? Sure, it's worth it. But $4? I don't know... I think we're getting close to me dropping this series in favor of one of Marvel's other $4 books(Incredible Hulk, X-Men, etc), but only time, and my mercurial mood swings, will tell.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
defenders #4
Gotcha, sucka!!

6 comments:

  1. It appears that "deep beneath the ocean" is marvel's new #1 place to stuff all their unspeakably evil stuff and lock it into some vault of some description, and amazing that in years of namor and friends ruling the ocean they never noticed the 50 something vaults of evil just lying around.

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  2. Waaaaiit continuity error!! Only sorcerer supremes Own the sanctum something. But there iwas no sorcerer supreme since Jericho killed agomotto wid the eye of agomotto! I mean isn't that the reason strange lives in avengers mansion? Ugh first continuity error should have made me dropped this book instantly, thou art truly the brave one.

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    1. Actually the Sorcerer Supreme does not own the Sanctum Sanctorum. Strange's old master used to live in some palace on top a mountain when he was The Sorcerer Supreme. Strange bought the place when he first returned to New York after his training because it had magical energies or something. The reason he lives in Avengers mansion is because Bendis wants him to.

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  3. "It appears that "deep beneath the ocean" is marvel's new #1 place to stuff all their unspeakably evil stuff and lock it into some vault of some description, and amazing that in years of namor and friends ruling the ocean they never noticed the 50 something vaults of evil just lying around." I had to quote that entire comment because it was so awesome! That legit made me lol, so nicely done, Anon. Actually, it seems that Matt Fraction has been behind a lot of the "hiding unspeakably evil things under the sea", so maybe he has some sort of hydrophobia/aquaphobia that is playing out in his comics? ;)

    The lack of a Sorcerer Supreme in the Marvel U is def something that's been bugging me a bit, Average One... I never liked the odd twist of making Brother Voodoo the Sorcerer Suprmeme in the first place, and with him dead(or whatever...) I don't get why Strange hasn't simply (officially) gotten that spot back. Especially now with him starring in this series...

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    1. It is because of the same reason they killed his patron gods offscreen(only Agamotto is still around if I remember correctly). They believe the title grants power like becoming the juggernaut and therefore the Good Doctor is too strong and a Deus ex machina. So they're beating around the bush and pretending there is no longer a title.

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  4. Ah gotcha, Anon. With Strange NOT being Sorcerer Supreme, and NOT having access to the few trinkets that he had while Sorcerer Supreme, he was basically downgraded a few levels. I guess that makes him needing a team like the Defenders make more sense, although the Surfer being there kind of says that Strange wouldn't be that out of place with his formerly almost cosmic like powers. I don't get why they don't just give him back the Sorcerer Supreme mantle and be done with it...

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