Tuesday, September 4, 2012

X Marks the Spot!

Well, it's been a while since I've said this... Hello X-Maniacs!!! That is if there are any of you left... It's my understanding that you have all been brainwashed and converted to the Todd Squad... Whatever THAT is... Seriously though, before anything, a HUGE kudos to JT for keeping things running smoothly while I was doing the whole Vampire X, sleep all day and work all night thing... Good times that. And by “good times” I mean awful times. However, that has come to an end and I no longer work the dread overnight shift meaning that I can try to dip my toe back into the blog waters. It's been a while, and I'm probably kind of rusty(I haven't done a post since early JUNE!), but I'm sure blogging is much like riding a bike. Just with a bruised ego instead of scraped knees. And anyway, it's not like I can suck much worse now than I did then, right!? Let's see, where to begin... I know, let's start with something positive!

Kissing ass and taking names!
First and foremost, I once again want to give JT a massive thanks for stepping in and doing a fantastic job here at the blog. I never felt like I had to come back because JT was doing as good, if not better, than I could have possibly done. JT, I bow down to you. I also promise to pay you back someday for this... Really, I do!

The world according to Alpha.
By far, the best single issue I've read during my blogging absence(as well as so far this year) was Amazing Spider-Man #692. Yes it cost a horrifying $6(!!!), but you know what? It was actually worth it. The primary story rocked big time(Alpha is already climbing the ranks of my favorite characters... After ONE appearance!), and the back-up story by Joshua Hale Fialkov(he of I, Vampire fame) was also enjoyable. But back to the main story... Dan Slott wrote Alpha amazingly(get it?) and then there was Humberto Ramos' art... It was fantastic!!! I've been a fan of Ramos' since reading the Impulse series, as it was his artwork that basically shaped the Bart Allen character and helped turn me into a huge fan of Bart to this day(well, that and Mark Waid's writing of course). Alpha's look reminds me of Impulse SO damn much... And any time I'm reminded of Impulse I'm happy. So yeah, needless to say, I'm really hoping Alpha sticks around for a good long while after this one.

XvAvX
But enough of that nice stuff. I'm X, and I don't do nice. So hows about we talk about the disappointment that is AvX... There's so much wrong with this event that I don't even know where to begin... You have the X-Men being corrupted by the Phoenix Force, you know, like EVERYBODY said was going to happen. You have the Phoenix powered X-Men doing NOTHING for mutantkind, even though that was supposedly why the X-Men wanted Hope to gain the Phoenix Force, to restart mutantkind. You have Cable, who was the main character in the AvX prelude, X-Sanction, doing nothing. I guess he's still in a coma, which, once again, makes no sense since his father has a portion of the Phoenix Force! Couldn't Cyclops, oh, I don't know, take a few seconds away from planting flowers and burning Avengers to either fix Cable, or at the very least have Emma do it? And who can forget the whole Iron Fist angle... Because I know when I think, “Phoenix Force,” my mind immediately thinks, “Danny Rand!” I mean did Bendis(or whichever writer thought adding the Iron Fist aspect was a good idea) just pull a character's name out of a hat at random? Ugh... So yeah, big surprise, yet again we have a Marvel event that started out with such promise devolving into... Well, this. On the bright side though, this IS better than Secret Invasion...

Marvel Soon!
Next up? How about we talk about Marvel Now!? As of right now I plan on getting EVERY one of the announced Marvel Now! books that are dropping starting in October. Yes, there are some things that frighten me(Bendis on X-Men?!? Hickman on Avengers?!? X-Men Legacy starring Legion?!), but overall I am relatively excited for this. But then I was also excited for DC's reboot and the new comics they ended up putting out... And now I'm picking up less than half the number of DC books I was picking up when they did the reboot... However, I do have more confidence that I won't be dropping the Marvel Now! books nearly as dramatically as I dropped the New 52 books. I mean at least Dan Didio isn't a part of the Marvel Now! launch. That's a huge advantage right there!

Alright, now for a few quick thumbs up/thumbs down concerning a few comic related things from the past few months...
-Ed Brubaker leaving Marvel? Thumbs down.
-Avengers Academy being canceled(and thus far) not announced for Marvel Now!? Thumbs down.
-DC doing a Team 7 book? Thumbs up.
-Dan Way off Deadpool? Thumbs down.
-Mark Waid on Hulk? Thumbs up.
-Hawkeye having a solo series? Thumbs WAY up.
-Christos Gage not announced on any Marvel Now! books(so far)? Thumbs down.
-The idea of DC's Zero Month? Thumbs down(prove me wrong, DC.).
-The Scarlet Witch apparently back on an Avengers team post AvX? Thumbs up.
-Alpha? Thumbs up.
-Hawkeye #1 getting a second printing? Thumbs up.
-The conclusion to the Court of Owls stuff? Thumbs down.
-'Everything Burns' thus far? Thumbs up.
-The current direction of Ultimate X-Men and the Ultimates? Thumbs up.
-Any time Dan Didio opens his mouth? Thumbs way down.

Now, back to the blog... I still haven't decided just how active a blogger I'm going to be this time around... I mean there were weeks where I was reviewing 20+ books over the course of 7 days. That's a bit crazy. After talking with JT, we're probably going to do some sort of rotating schedule, where we both do three reviews a week, posting them on alternating days. That way there's a post a day, with neither one of us being overwhelmed with blogging... Or at least that's the plan... But then I suck at plans, so who knows how long that'll last! I mean hell, I may feel like doing 7 reviews in one night. Or suddenly want to do a retro-review or something... Who knows! But on the plus side, there WILL be reviews, and they WILL be done by both JT and myself, meaning there will always be something to read here, regardless of the day. So huzzah for that. Now, tomorrow IS New Comic Day, and as such there will be a NCD post up, either by JT or myself. Whoever does it, we'll both list which books we're getting for the week, as well as a tentative idea for who will be reviewing what. Or at least that's the plan, and I've already stated how well I do with plans... With that taken care of, for the first time in about three months I get to say the line... What line? X out.

12 comments:

  1. "Avengers Academy being canceled(and thus far) not announced for Marvel Now!? Thumbs down"

    Say it isn't so...

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  2. Welcome back, X! Glad to see you've survived your vampirism and that you will once again grace the interwebs with your reviews.

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  3. "My God, the dead has arisen."

    Glad to see ya back.


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  4. Welcome back X. JT did do a great job in your absence, I don't want to go back to the days of quick reviews! (just kidding!) Lets talk comics:

    -You are literally the only person I've heard of taking well to the "Alpha" concept. It's a weird idea coming at a weird time - just when Peter badly needs to put his own life in order, now he has to keep tabs on an ex-loser with super powers?

    -I was just thinking about this too - AvX has been just bad. Just as bad as I feared when I first heard it announced. Now we get to fear the fallout. From the sounds of things, I have a feeling Prof X and Magneto are going bye-bye. So stupid.

    -I'm glad to hear you're going all-in on MarvelNao! Saves me the trouble! The more I read, the more I realize I'm going to have to get Remender's Cap and Waid's Hulk, even though I don't care for the characters. Writers that good are just too rare in comics. Good luck with Bendis's X-men series though, ulp...

    -While some of the new books look exciting, I'm pretty peeved about what books I'll have to give up in the coming months. RIP Journey into Mystery, Uncanny X-men, X-men Legacy, Venom, and Winter Soldier. You've long been among my very favorite books, you will be missed (especially the Gillen books and Venom!!).

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  5. ..Hey Welcome back X!!

    Damm Didio should learn how to keep his mouth closed.. haha

    Not sure about the Marvel now stuff I'm still new to the Marvel U and this revamp dont pick mi interest at all it is like I'm just learning who is who here and to have to start all over again with this "let mix all this comics and see what we get".

    Please I want some Jouney into Mystery reviews here before it reach his end the everything burns storiline had been great... all consequences for Loki's actions since Fear Itself are coming togheter here and it helped me to cope with the idea of Loki beign Evil again he can elude hes escence of CHAOS poor poor Kid Loki...

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  6. Well, in light of recent events, I just wanna say... where the hell were all you commenters when I was running things?! :P Kidding. I'm glad you're back X, I honestly mean that, and you've clearly still got it because that post was oozing with charisma, haha.

    I'm looking forward to running this blog with you dude, I've been here while you ran things and I barley posted, I've been here while you took a hiatus and I took the reins, and now I'm looking forward to a full 50/50 Two Man Power Trip. Welcome back Mi Amigo.

    Also... Todd Squad is a way of life, you dick. Lol

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  7. Thanks for the welcoming return all. Getting back to the blog hasn't been nearly as difficult as I expected it to be. I'm actually looking forward to it! Go figure!!

    JT is also an Alpha-backer, TRobb. So there are at least two of us out there. It should go without saying that I am EAGERLY anticipating Amazing #693, which drops tomorrow!! As for Marvel Now!, there are some books I wouldn't have taken a chance on due to my apathy towards the characters(HULK!), but due to the writer, I'll give it a shot. I'm actually kind of/sort of looking forward to Bendis on X-Men... No, I haven't gone mad these past few months, I do have a reason! I've made no bones about how much I've disliked the direction the X-books have gone since Decimation, I'm hoping(probably in vain...) that Bendis brings us closer to the pre-Decimation Marvel U for the X-Men. That would include Prof. X back at the helm, and yes, Jean Grey back in the fold. The end of AvX will probably go a long way in showing me just how excited I'll be for Bendis taking over the X-Men.

    "Damn Didio should learn how to keep his mouth closed" Alien? Truer words have never been spoken! As for the Marvel Now! stuff, it shouldn't be that hard to follow. It's not really a reboot(ala DC), it's basically just new creative teams taking over books and Marvel setting those books at #1, because we all know #1 books sell. It SHOULD be way less confusing than the New 52, what with characters origins being totally changed and other characters simply vanishing. And you can bet I'll have some post for Everything Burns before it ends!

    You're just glad I'm back because that means less work for you, JT! So lazy... Sure you weren't being paid or anything, but still, so lazy... :D But seriously, things should be so much easier now that I'm not posting a zillion times a week. Now we can place bets on who misses their designated posting day first. And in closing, I STILL shake my head at "Todd Squad"... :P

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  8. Hey, welcome back.

    JT has been doing a good job while you were away. It slowed down a little bit but I think it is mostly because the last few weeks every time I read a new comic my first thought is "meh". Only a few comics have got me really interested.

    I am curious about your opinion of a few things. I would like to see your thoughts of Hawkeye #1. I thought it took a different pace that I found really interesting. Did you also see the announcement for the new Captain America movie? Isn't New Mutants getting cancelled as well?

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  9. Yeah, I actually agree with that a lot, Jermox... The recent books haven't really blown me away. Basically almost all of the DC books I read haven't been great, the AvX stuff has been lacking, and a mess of other books have indeed been meh. Spidey's been strong, especially the last issue, as I keep telling anybody who will listen. Iron Man has been good. The current Thor x-over shows promise, Cap and... has been fun, and stuff like X-Factor has always been at the very least good.

    I liked Hawkeye #1. I thought it was a great comic to introduce the character to non-fans, you know, people who may have seen the movie(which I STILL haven't seen, but will ONCE the DVD drops), but know squat about the comic book version. It was a good little one and done story. I know some hardcore Hawkeye fans didn't like it(my sister was one), but for what it was, I enjoyed it and thought it did what it needed to do.

    I haven't actually heard about the new Cap movie... If it has ANYTHING to do with Winter Soldier though, consider me sold! And I wouldn't be shocked if New Mutants does get canned. All I hope is that Nate finds a home in one of the other X-books if it does. But with the way Marvel is ending/restarting books, and I read they're gonna keep doing that til next March, there's definitely a chance of yet another New Mutants series. Or maybe even an X-Man series??? I can dream at least...

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  10. Yea, as far as I know there are still many new Marvel Now books that have yet to be announced so it is hard to tell who will make it through or not. Not much of the new Cap movie has been announced, except that it is titled "Captain America: Winter Soldier".

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  11. Yeah I knoe this is not a "reboot" buttt I was just warming in the The Marvel U and this Shake up and chairs dance of creators dont pick up my entusiasm that much

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