X-Man's Comic Blog

JT's Top Five: Favorite Ongoing Comicbooks

2012-02-12T20:45:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, JT back once again and would you believe I'm debuting yet ANOTHER new feature? I'm like a frigging machine or something. This is the debut edition of JT's Top Five, where I'll pick five things that I'm currently enjoying, hating, or wanting to see. This first edition will feature my five favorite ongoing comics, future editions will feature my five favorite comic characters, five least favorite, five team-up's I'd love to see, and etc. and of course, I'm taking requests and recommendations. So let's get this first edition underway.

There are a few rules I made for this post, as to narrow things down. Due to the DC Reboot it has to be something with at least five issues, something that's not been canceled, and something I look forward to reading each and every month, not something that sits on my dresser just begging to be read. (I'm looking at YOU, Uncanny X-Men!) But before I get to my top five comics, here are a few honorable mentions.

Honorable Mentions

Morning Glories - Definitely one of my favorite books, the only reasons it didn't make my list is because it doesn't have a definite schedule (I'm not even sure when the next issue come out.) as well as the fact it sometimes gives more questions than answers, and as a fan of the TV show LOST, I'm kind of afraid not all of the questions will be answered.

Invincible - A great series, a few months to a year ago it was probably my favorite. After the Viltrumite War, the book got a little stale and had some slow storylines, things are finally getting interesting, but those same slow storylines are fresh in my mind, so it brings down my enjoyment of the series as a whole.

The Walking Dead - This has been an amazing series that I recently read from the beginning up to the current ongoing issues, if I have any complaints as of now, it's that the story is moving along pretty slow, I can honestly say not much has happened in the last four issues, and between that and the constant flip flopping of Rick, I couldn't justify putting this on my top five favorites.

There are quite a few more, including Ultimate Spider-Man, Severed and Catwoman but those three were the closest to making the list. Now with those comics out of the way, let's get to my top five favorite ongoing comics.

5.) Green Lantern - Now I know X-Man is groaning as he reads this, and I can't say I blame him. Geoff Johns seemed to be phoning it in this time last year while writing Green Lantern, and during Brightest Day before that, but now that he's got Sinestro in charge as the Green Lantern of Hal's former sector, and Hal as a normal guy who had some very bad moments in the first few issues of this series, it's become extremely enjoyable. Hal's character is still around, but he seems more as a secondary character for the most part, whereas Johns is exploring new ground with Sinestro, including his tied to Korguar, his people, his former enemies, and the man who gave his ring to Hal Jordan, Abid Sur. I look forward to seeing how Hal will be humiliated, or redeemed each month, as well as seeing Sinestro in action with a new ring around his finger and dealing with attacks from his enemies and his own teammates. Say what you will about Geoff Johns, I even rated his most recent Justice League issue a 3/10, but he definitely delivers on the Green Lantern series, which shows why he has over fifty issues of the series under his belt over the last few years. I look forward to seeing how long Johns can keep Sinestro in the forefront as the main Green Lantern before Hal takes his place once again.

4.) Batman - Scott Snyder. In the last year, the American Vampire writer has written some of the best Batman stories in recent memory. He's written Dick Grayson and now he's writing for Bruce Wayne, and in a time where story arcs last from 3-6 issues, he's crafted an exciting story that looks to last a year, a Batman story that seems new but doesn't seem drastic and like a sudden change from the Batman we've come to know over the last seventy-plus years. The Court of Owls storyline started off slow, but Snyder has made it exciting and his innovative storytelling and style (especially in issue 5) has given us something we've never seen, Batman out of his element, lost and confused and relying on nothing but his wits when even those have become unreliable. Batman being the one hunted, as well as haunted all at once is an interesting thing to see, and Snyder allows us to get into the head of a man like Bruce, a man of Science, who wants to make sense of everything, but can't seem to due so with this enemy. It's hard to express how great a job that Snyder has done with Batman, and it's clear he's just getting started and enjoying the ride.

3.) Aquaman - If you would have told me a year ago that Aquaman would be one of my favorite comic series, I'd laugh in your face, and probably slap you. Yep, I'm a bit of a jerk. But lo and behold, here we are and I will openly say that Aquaman is probably the best comic coming out of the DC Reboot. It's got everything you need for a comic, and Johns doesn't try to hard, he knows that Aquaman has been a joke for years and he uses that to his advantage. A line here or there about Aquaman and how he shouldn't eat fish because their his friends or mentioning how Aquaman is "No one's favorite superhero" and you not only have some funny lines, but a character that becomes easy to relate to. Add in the fact that the story seems to build more long-term storylines slowly from things touched upon earlier in the series is pretty interesting, especially considering it's only been five issues so far. In the most recent issue we saw something many people, including myself had pondered for years, what would happen if Aquaman was stranded in the desert? We saw what happened, and we saw the human side of a hero, which we don't see too often outside of Spider-Man comics. It's hard to explain what makes Aquaman come off so likable here, but with the same skill Johns uses to make you enjoy seeing Hal Jordan have a miserable life, he uses to make you connect with Aquaman, a character I mocked mercilessly for losing his hand twice last year, so you can see how far I've come thanks to the amazing story that Johns has been crafting for Arthur Curry, the King of Atlantis.

2.) Amazing Spider-Man - Dan Slott is the best Spider-Man writer in the history of the series. That's my opinion anyway, now it may not mean much as I haven't read every Spider-Man comic ever written, but Slott is often taking chances and they pay off. Since American Son, I've read and enjoyed everything that Dan Slott has done with the Amazing Arachnid. He's made me laugh, he's made me cry, he's shocked me and he's left me wanting more the whole time. During Slott's run with Spider-Man, we've had some of his biggest moments, and Pete's went from a poor photographer to a successful scientist, he even managed to fix the One More Day travesty by writing One Moment In Time. He's brought back obscure characters and made them some of the best, all the while keeping Peter Parker as the character we know and love. If you're not enjoying Spider-Man I truly feel sorry for you, because it's one of the best written books today. From American Son to Big Time to Spider-Island and the upcoming End of The Earth storyline, Slott has written Spider-Man impeccably and I can honestly say as long as Slott is writing Spider-Man, I'll keep reading it. Oh, and did I mention how awesome he made the Hobgoblin?

1.) Venom - Venom is THE BEST SERIES OUT RIGHT NOW. Simple as that. Rick Remender, a man whose work I was not familiar with outside of two issues of Booster Gold that I don't remember anything about, took a character I loved, Venom, and a character I was indifferent about, Flash Thompson, and made him without a doubt one of my favorite characters. Over the span of a year of amazing writing, Flash Thompson replaced Eddie Brock as my favorite Venom, and that's one year of the 24 that Venom has been around. Venom is an amazing book that much like Spider-Man, allows you to see past the superpowers and connect with the character. Flash comes off as a man who wants to do right by his woman, his family, his friends, and his country, and things get more and more difficult from the moment he becomes Venom. Add that with the wonderfully written stories by Rick Remender and the amazing cast he's included, Spider-Man, Betty Brant, Eddie Brock, Captain America, and Venom's newest nemesis, Jack O'Lantern (Think a 100% evil, completely insane Deadpool) and you've got a recipe for the best ongoing series since Bryan Q. Miller's Batgirl. If you aren't reading Venom, you should be, if you are reading Venom, get someone else hooked, because this is a comic that makes me proud of being a comic fan.

And there you go, my five favorite ongoing comicbook series. I hope you all enjoyed and I'd love to see your picks, so feel free to let me know what books make your top five and why, as well as any ideas on what you guys would like to see next. Favorite Storylines? Favorite Characters? Five Things I'd do in Comics? Let me know, and I'll take it from there, but until next time, this is JT, signing off.

Captain America #8

2012-02-12T20:30:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to get to that point in the week where I'm running out of things to say in the introductions of the comics I review... Um... Here's hoping this is a good read?

Captain America #8:

Summary: Cap and Sharon Carter manage to take down the Serpent Society(or Serpent Squad I guess...) with Cap not losing his powers, so Cap leaves Sharon to keep the Serpents under wraps while he tried to quell a madbomb instigated riot outside the bank he was in. Unfortunately, Cap's powers give out on him, so the crowd attacks him. Before they can batter poor, little Cap, Falcon swoops in and rescues his partner. Meanwhile, Bravo is broken out of prison by the still currently evil Baron Zemo and some Hydra agents. Falcon takes Cap back to Avengers Tower where Tony Stark is able to do some experiments on Cap while he is still in his non-powered mode. From there, Sharon interrogates King Cobra, who tells her that the mastermind behind Cap's depowering was Machinesmith(!). Sharon grabs the disk Machinesmith's consciousness had been trapped in by Cap and puts it into a computer, hoping to get some answers. Unfortunately, that's exactly what Machinesmith wanted, as it has apparently freed him.

Thoughts: This is another comic that was okay, but not much more... It moved along at a brisk pace and all, it was an okay read, but it didn't really have that little extra to make it stand out. I was glad to see Machinesmith pop up here, as I've been a fan of his since the Gruenwald Cap run, but other than that, this was a rather forgettable comic book.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

It's times like these that help me remember why I like Sharon so much.

Wolverine and the X-Men #5

2012-02-12T20:00:00.001-05:00

Huh, we're already 5 issues into this series? It doesn't seem like there's been that many... Oh well, here's the fifth issue of Wolvie and the X-Men.

Wolverine and the X-Men #5:

Summary: This issue gets started with the Board of Directors at Worthington Industries(rightfully!) ruling Angel mentally unfit to run the company. This all gets blamed (unnecessarily in my eyes) on the Hellfire Club bribing the Board-members, but seriously, Angel is whacked out now! With the main source of the school's funding gone, Wolvie grabs Quentin Quire and takes off into space to find himself some way to keep the school open. From there, Beast takes Jason Aaron's favorite students on a tour of the inside of Toad's body where Kid Gladiator gets beat up by a white blood cell, which leaves him pissed off. Afterwards, Shadowcat finally asks for Beast's help, seeing as that she's suddenly uber-pregnant. Beast runs some tests and finds a mess of microscopic Broodlings killing Shadowcat from the inside. Kid Gladiator, still smarting over his beating at the hands of Toad's white blood cells, shrinks himself down, enters Shadowcat(that sounded way dirtier than it should have...) and attacks the Broodlings. This issue ends with some sort of giant, humanoid Brood heading towards Earth.

Thoughts: Meh. The humor here did nothing for me, I don't care for the story, and I don't like any of the kids Aaron seems so insistent on shoving to the forefront of this series... Well, except for Genesis I guess... I'm seriously beginning to second-guess myself with regards to keeping this series and dropping Uncanny X-Men... I'll probably add Uncanny X-Men back to my pull list, and keep this series through the Avengers vs X-Men event and then decide which series to keep, because right now I honestly don't want to read either of the main X-books...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

Oh the hilarity...

Journey Into Mystery #634

2012-02-11T20:30:00.001-05:00

Last review of the night is what could either be a great comic, or a terrible one... This issue has all of the ingredients to be great, now it's just a question of whether everything will come together here...

Journey Into Mystery #634:

Summary: Figuring Loki was responsible for the recent Serpent/Dark Asgard inspired dram deaths, the suddenly NOT evil Daimon Hellstrom attacks Loki, figuring Loki had taken on the guise of a child to mess with his head. Leah comes to Loki's defense and casts some protective spells, at which time Loki and Leah bicker with each other. After listening to this bickering for a bit, Hellstrom realizes that Loki was telling the truth and that he really WAS a child again. Loki tells Hellstrom that he was also having the Dark Asgard nightmares so Hellstrom decides to go into Loki's dreams to see what was going on. With that, Hellstrom and Loki go to sleep, with Leah watching over them. The two are immediately separated, and Loki winds up having to face several of his nightmares, before Leah apparently comes to his rescue. The two travel through the dream dimension and Loki rapidly realizes that the Leah traveling with him wasn't the real deal on account of her being too nice to him... HA! Loki ends up linking with fake Leah's mind and discovering that Nightmare was behind the nightmares(I knew it!), and that he was using the residual fear from Fear Itself to fashion himself a crown of fear energy in an effort to become the most powerful Fear Lord. Upon learning who was behind the plot, Leah and Hellstrom wake Loki up and he tells them what was going on. Loki also reveals that since he was so close to what happened during Fear Itself, he had the largest amount of fear in his head, meaning that if Nightmare could kill him, he'd have all the energy he needed to complete his crown of fear.

Thoughts: I loved this comic! Hellstrom was written perfectly(for a change...), the villain of the piece makes perfect sense, as does his plan, and the story, dialogue and art all came together perfectly. Sure, this comic wasn't perfect, but it was damn good, and that's better than most of the books I read.

Score: 9 out of 10.

See, THIS is the Daimon Hellstrom I'm a fan of!

Grifter #6

2012-02-11T20:00:00.000-05:00

And now it's time to take a look at the first DC comic I'll be reading this week... That comic? Grifter.

Grifter #6:

Summary: Sofia sets out to find and rescue Grifter from those damn Daemonites, and arrives at the secret Daemonite ship just as the Daemonites summon the Black Curate(who I guess is... um, a really important Daemonite?). Sofia drops a few grenades around the Daemonite ship, which allows Grifter to get free of the Daemonites in the confusion. Grifter goes to rescue his captured girlfriend, Gretchen, but she is snatched away from him by a random Daemonite and sucked into the portal the Black Curate was trying to emerge from. With that, the Daemonite ship explodes just as Grifter and Sofia get clear of it. So now, Grifter has lost a girlfriend and a brother to the Daemonites, which, by my standards at least, make them his enemies for life.

Thoughts: Eh. I STILL say we should establish ONE major Daemonite threat(Helspont or Hightower anybody?), as opposed to various competing Daemonite threats and whatever the hell the Black Curate was. At least in the beginning of the series... This series could really use some focusing... Maybe the upcoming crossover with Superman and Stormwatch will provide us with that focus.

Score: 6 out of 10.

The Black Curate must be important. He speaks in the third person!

JT's Take: Scarlet Spider #2

2012-02-11T13:30:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone, JT here with my take on issue numero dos of Scarlet Spider. I enjoyed the first issue a lot and since X would rather pick up Grifter and Superboy over Scarlet Spider, I figured I'd throw up a review for it, so let's see what I thought of it.

Scarlet Spider #2

Summary: We pick things up seeing Kaine leaving Houston via cab when suddenly the Medical Center where he'd dropped off the girl he rescued explodes. After arguing with himself he heads back and see's she's being attacked by a giant mountain of a man who can shoot fire. This man, named Salamander (although it's never mentioned in the actual comic), is eager to fight a hero, especially Spider-Man, but Kaine assures him he is neither. Kaine proves that while fighting the villain, and while he saves a cop from being killed by the villain, he also uses the officer's gun to open fire on this blazing behemoth. When our fiery foe tries to incinerate Kaine alive, he webs himself up to protect himself from the flames before attacking the flame fueled fighter (I rule at alliteration) and incapacitating him. He thinks about killing him but says a little voice inside stops him from doing it, and that voice is soon replaced to by cheers from the citizens of Houston. After checking on the girl he saved, Kaine is pretty much told by an officer, as well as the Doctor that Houston could use a hero like Kaine. They also say they'll have to send the girl back since she's an immigrant, but a Vigilante could continue to defend her, but Kaine turns down the offer and heads for Mexico. We finally see him at the boarder but he changes his mind, as we see he's got the girl living with him now as he tries to make a new home in Houston.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this issue and my review doesn't do the issue justice. You really got a feel for Kaine not being a hero, but still doing the right thing. Doing things like raking the eyes of someone or grabbing a police officer's gun and shooting his foe shows that our titular character is not a full-fledged hero, but rather an Anti-Hero. I also like that he has the city behind him, the police, and possibly even the Mayor, that's an interesting position for Kaine, especially since you know it has to backfire on him soon enough. I'm loving this comic and surprisingly I'm loving what Chris Yost is doing with Kaine, I really hope he keeps it up and we inevitably get a Scarlet Spider/Venom crossover. But that's for later, as for this issue, there's nothing I didn't enjoy about it. Simple as that, I had no qualms with this issue and that's reflected in my score below.

Score: 10 out of 10.
Kaine: I'm not Spider-Man. I'm not a hero. But maybe I don't have to be a monster.

Venom #13.1

2012-02-10T20:30:00.001-05:00

Um, this comic isn't even written by Rick Remender! It's instead written by Rob Williams, who has most recently been butchering the Daken series... Hell, if I would have known Remender wasn't writing this story on his own, I'd have skipped all of the point issues and only read Venom #13 and #14!

Venom #13.1:

Summary: While Dr. Strange and the suddenly not evil Daimon Hellstrom are investigating the sealed off, hell infested Las Vegas, Blackheart sends his evil mirror images of Venom, Red Hulk, X-23 and Bad-Ass Ghost Rider to attack the four heroes. Since this comic was written by Rob Williams and all, Venom, Red Hulk and X-23 are defeated by their evil, Hell-inspired dopplegangers, while Bad-Ass Ghost Rider is able to defeat hers, on account of her being so damn BAD-ASS! Blackheart is annoyed by that turn of events(he's not alone...), and offers Bad-Ass Ghost Rider a deal where she could work with him, but she's too, you guessed it, BAD-ASS to agree to such a deal. This issue ends with Strange and Hellstrom realizing that the seals holding Hell in Las Vegas was slowly eroding.

Thoughts: Meh. This wasn't a horrible comic or anything, it just should have been renamed Ghost Rider, since that's obviously who Williams wanted to push to the forefront here. I haven't liked the new Bad-Ass Ghost Rider from the start, and apparently I wasn't alone, as it was canceled after a piddly amount of issues. So naturally that makes her the main focus of this issue. Makes sense to me! Overall, even my annoyance with Bad-Ass Ghost Rider getting top billing couldn't hurt this story too much, as it's a solid story, with a solid villain, regardless of who's writing it.

Score: 7 out of 10.

That is EXACTLY my problem with X-23!! She's boring! That dialogue right there is brilliant!!

Daken: Dark Wolverine #21

2012-02-10T20:00:00.000-05:00

First review of the night will be the comic I ALMOST chose as my Runt of the Litter, Daken. This series is limping towards it's finale, and I'm STILL hoping for some old Daken awesomeness before this series comes to a close...

Daken: Dark Wolverine #21:

Summary: After stopping by to see Reed Richards, Daken learns that due to his abuse of that Heat drug, his healing factor was attacking his healthy cells and that he was dying. Reed tells Daken that he probably had a few weeks left to live, and that Reed would be willing to offer any assistance he could. Daken laughs at that offer and declares that he'd live or die on his own accord, not being obligated to Reed or anybody else. From there he heads to X-Mansion(I can still call it that, right?) and sneaks in during the night, forcing Wolverine to drink a drop of Heat. Wolvie chases Daken off of the school grounds, at which point Daken hops into a helicopter(that was conveniently located outside the school fence...), and is followed by Wolvie, who hitches a ride. Wolvie begins to hallucinate due to the drugs in his system, and Daken pilots the helicopter to New York City. When Wolvie comes down off of his drugs, Daken sets off several bombs around the city. When asked why he'd do such a thing, Daken tells Wolvie it was because superheroes were stupid.

Thoughts: Um, okay... So now Daken is dying. Sure, why not. That right there is a surefire way to royally piss me off, but I'm not going to throw a hissy fit or anything, because I don't think Marvel would be shortsighted enough to kill Daken off... That seems like a huge waste. Besides the death angle, we had Daken tormenting Wolverine, which is always fun. I still don't like the way Rob Williams writes Daken(what the hell was up with the way he wrote that Human Torch/Daken scene?!), but what can I do? Here's hoping this series concludes with a bang.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

I guess the bromance is over...

Weekly Comic News for Feb. 10th

2012-02-10T13:33:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, time for another edition of weekly comic news, brought to you by your favorite blogger, Jason Todd. We've got a nice amount of news to get to, so let's get things started.

Unavenged Superbowl

Anyone who watched the Superbowl for the commercials, mainly the Avengers trailer had to be slightly disappointed by the lackluster trailer we got for what could be the biggest comic movie of all time. We got a few peeks at the team but nothing like I personally expected for an avenue as big as the Superbowl. A recently extended version has popped up so sit back and enjoy a full minute and five seconds of Captain America, Ironman, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Loki and Nick Fury.

A Scandal with the Savages

So, in everyone's favorite book, DCU Presents, where they do a story arc on a random DC character (It's GOTTA be random, who would pick Deadman for the first arc?) and the upcoming third arc will focus on the daughter of Vandal Savage. But sorry Scandal Savage fans, this is actually a different daughter... by the name of Kass Sage. I'm not sure how that'll work out, it sounds pretty boring in my opinion, Savage's powerless daughter, an FBI Profiler, needs her father's help to solve a case, yawn. If you're interested in reading more about that or seeing a picture of Kass and Vandal, click here.

The Wolverine is Coming

No, that's not a very vague, ambiguous threat. It's a very vague, ambiguous promise! It was announced earlier this week that FOX has finally set a release date for the first movie starring Wolverine that doesn't have "X-Men" somewhere in the title. So be sure to mark your calenders bub, because everyone's favorite Canucklehead will once again appear on the silver screen on July 26th, 2013.

DCnU is Annually Disappointing

DC Comics also announced this week that we'll see three over-sized annuals coming this May. The annuals will are slated to be for Batman, in which we'll see the DCnU debut of Mr. Freeze, written by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV, The Teen Titans Annual, written by Scott Lobdell and Tom DeFalco, which will start a crossover with Legion Lost, Superboy, Teen Titans and The Ravagers. And lastly, an Animal Man Annual written by Jeff Lemire which will act as a prequel for a crossover with Swamp Thing. When reached for comment, X-Man75 was quoted as saying " Ugh, gah, and meh."

Marvel is Trailer Crazy

Not only did the Avengers Trailer debut this week but we've also gotten to see a trailer for the upcoming Spider-Man movie, The Amazing Spider-Man. I HIGHLY recommend you guys take a few minutes and watch this trailer, I was not interested in the new Spidey movie at all before watching it and now I'm looking forward to it, so if you have a few minutes to spare, check this video out and get a peek at this film's villain as well. Plus, freaking Dennis Leary is playing Captain Stacey!

Smallville Returns for Season 11... Kinda

Fans of the hit television show Smallville know that last May, the show ended it's ten year run with Clark Kent finally donning the suit and becoming The Man of Steel that Metropolis so desperately needed. It was announced this week that fan-favorite comic writer, Bryan Q. Miller, of Stephanie Brown's Batgirl run, will pen an upcoming digital series that will continue where Smallville left off, with Clark as Superman, defending Metropolis. I for one am excited to see this, especially with former Smallville writer Bryan Q. Miller attached. (Source)

The Walking Dead have been Served

It was announced yesterday that Tony Moore is suing Robert Kirkman over profits he believes he was cheated out of from their work on The Walking Dead. Kirkman's lawyer claims that Moore isn't owed any money, while Moore claims he was tricked into signing a contract that gave his copyright interests to Kirkman's company. You can read more on the story here.

Earth 2

A variant cover for the upcoming DCnU series, Earth 2, has been released by DC Comics. The series features the Alternate Earth that includes the Justice Society of America and as well as the Justice League, as on the over we see slightly different variations of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, which you can see below. Below that you can see a cover of the upcoming World's Finest comic, featuring Earth 2's Power Girl and Huntress, and sadly Peej has a new costume.

EDIT: After closer speculation it appears the Batman in this picture is Dick Grayson! Don't believe me, check out the use of his Escrima Sticks. Which means it's probably Grayson, and that Superman and Wonder Woman my be Connor Kent and Donna Troy, as you can see from the Huntress/Power Girl backgrounds, it shows that in Earth 2 they were Robin and Supergirl respectively.

Guess the Ravagers

The last news I'm gonna touch upon this week is the recently released cover of The Ravagers #1, where we see a team led by Caitlin Fairchild but lacking Rose Wilson. I'm not really familiar with anyone else, so feel free to help me speculate on the team. The dude on the right does look a bit like a red version of Beast boy though.

That's it for this week's comic news, as always guys and gals, feel free to comment with any news you think I missed or you want to discuss. I'll be back later in the week with a few reviews for you guys, including Scarlet Spider #2. Until next time, this is JT signing off.

Thief of Thieves #1

2012-02-09T20:00:00.000-05:00

And now for something completely different! Here's a comic from Image that I know NOTHING about, save for the fact that it's a story by Robert Kirkman and is written by Nick Spencer... When I saw writers that good working together on the same comic, I could care less WHAT it was about, I just knew I wanted to read it. Now, let's see how my blind faith in those two gentlemen pay off for me.

Thief of Thieves #1:

Summary: In this comic we meet a thief named Redmond. It seems he's a fantastic thief, one of the best. We also meet Celia. Celia and Redmond met while Celia was trying to steal Redmond's car. Redmond takes pity on her and ends up teaching her how to properly steal a car. Redmond eventually takes Celia under his wing as his apprentice/assistant. From there we learn that Redmond had been trying to put together some sort of heist in Venice, a heist that he had other thieves invest in. This issue ends with Redmond telling the other thieves that he was quitting.

Thoughts: Huh, this was actually kind of boring... We met a few characters in rapid fire fashion, we saw a quick job with Redmond and Celia, and Redmond quit. That was pretty much it. I guess Redmond is lying about quitting and doesn't want to cut the other thieves in on his score in Venice(which we have no idea as to what's being stolen/done), but who really knows. As I stated in the open, I expect huge things from the guys responsible for this comic, so I'll definitely be sticking around. Here's hoping we get a bit deeper into things and do less skipping around next issue.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Awesome, tips for stealing a car!

New Mutants #37

2012-02-09T19:30:00.000-05:00

Yay, it's Nate time! First up today is the latest issue of New Mutants, or, as I like to call it, Nate Grey and company! Let's see what DnA have in store for us this time around.

New Mutants #37:

Summary: Remember back during the Fear Itself event when Magma agreed to go out on a date with Mephisto to get the New Mutants out of Hell? Well, Mephisto sure remembered, and now it's time for said date. Mephisto shows up at the New Mutants apartment and picks Magma up, while the rest of the New Mutants fret over what fate was going to befall Magma. In actuality, the two actually go out and have a nice date, at the end of which Mephisto tells Magma that she and the New Mutants were no longer bound to him in any way. He does ask to see her again, and Magma pretty much says yes without actually saying yes, since she had been warned not to say yes to anything Mephisto offered...

Thoughts: Um... Huh... That was... something... I guess it was a nice Valentine's Day story... Man was this comic WEIRD! I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and Mephisto to reveal his hand, yet he never did! It was just a date.... With the Devil. What more can I possibly add to this?

Score: 6 out of 10.

Smooth!

Deadpool #50

2012-02-09T00:41:00.001-05:00

Hmm, with how much I disliked Secret Avengers #22, maybe I SHOULD have made this issue of Deadpool my Pick of the Litter for the week... Well, let's hope this comic is better than the first one I read this week...

Deadpool #50:

Summary: After watching his deformed clone die last issue, Deadpool is on a mission... A mission to DIE!!! Um, seriously though, since Evil Deadpool had been killed by a dart that negates Deadpool's healing factor, Deadpool wants to get his hands on that dart, since it would finally give him what he'd always wanted. Death. To that end, Deadpool ends up setting several powerful characters out to track down the anti-healing factor serum, for him... Pool tells Daken, Hydra Bob(who Pool sends to tell Kingpin), and Uncanny X-Force about the serum and waits for the results of their investigations. Daken is interested in getting a hold of the serum since he wanted to make sure it couldn't negate HIS healing factor, while Kingpin sees it as an opportunity to keep the mutants in line and expand his territory. Wolverine, believing Kingpin already had the serum(thanks to some crafty lying by Deadpool), wants to find the sniper who shot Evil Deadpool before heading after Kingpin himself. Wolvie manages to figure out that the sniper who shot Evil Deadpool was one of two men, and Deadpool teleports away with that information, hoping to get to the right sniper before anybody else. Meanwhile, Kingpin has sent Typhoid Mary and the Hand after one of the snipers, which ultimately brings Mary and the Hand into direct conflict with X-Force. Daken had managed to get to the other sniper and speaks with the man apparently responsible for the hit on Deadpool... Tombstone(!!). Upon hearing from Daken that Pool was still alive(he thought Pool was the dead Evil Deadpool), Tombstone orders some more serum.

Thoughts: Yup, I definitely should have made this comic my Pick of the Litter... Well, let's all pretend that I did! This was a hell of a good comic. The story was solid, we had a large cast of characters, and all of them were used well, with nobody really getting lost in the shuffle. First, let's look at the story... We have Tombstone out to kill Deadpool. Tombstone has managed to get a scientist to create a serum that negates Pool's healing factor thanks to a private investigator getting a hold of some of Deadpool's hair back from when Pool was a kid. Next we get a mess of characters who have interacted with Pool over the years(even Typhoid Mary!), which makes this issue even sweeter to a longtime Deadpool fan such as myself. The dialogue was good, the art was good, really, my only gripe, and it's a SMALL one, is who the apparent mastermind here is... Tombstone was never the sharpest knife in the drawer, so I'm kind of surprised to find that he's the guy who managed to figure out a way to finally kill Deadpool... I'd have preferred T-Ray or somebody similar, but what can ya do? Besides that very minor quibble, this was a splendid start to what should be a fantastic storyline.

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.

Dan Way + Daken + Deadpool = near perfection.

Secret Avengers #22

2012-02-09T00:09:00.001-05:00

First review of the new week is my Pick of the Litter, Secret Avengers #22. Instead of talking about it, let's get to that review!

Secret Avengers #22:

Summary: In Pakistan, a terrorist attempts to detonate himself in a crowd, but is shocked to see a nearby woman absorb the flames from the blast and amplify said flames, nearly destroying the entire village. Some random robots know about this and decide to investigate. Meanwhile, in the Avengers Earth orbiting base, the Watchtower... Oops, did I say Watchtower? How careless of me... I meant to say Lighthouse, which is where the Secret Avengers were stationed... Why ever would I think “Watchtower”??? Anyway, the Secret Avengers(Hawkeye, Captain Britain, Beast, Ant-Man, Black Widow, Valkyrie) hear about the terrorist attack and decide to investigate as well. The Secret Avengers end up saving the woman from the terrorists, who had captured her hoping to harness her abilities, but the Secret Avengers are soon assaulted by the weird robot guys from earlier. The robots manage to capture the woman and escape, which was a part of Hawkeye's plan, as he had Ant-Man hitch a ride on one of the robots. This issue ends with a cabal of androids and robots plotting evil deeds.

Thoughts: Wow, this was... not at all what I was hoping for... I mean, I've enjoyed the hell out of Rick Remender's Venom work, I've enjoyed most of his Uncanny X-Force work, but I have to say, with the exception of the team(which I like... mainly), this issue did absolutely nothing for me. First off, Captain Britain was just as unlikable as usual. Besides him though, I really like the team here(even though I'd bet GOOD money that Ant-Man will be biting the bullet soon). The story? I really have nothing good to say about it. It varied between boring and annoying. The dialogue was pretty good, as Remender seemed to have Beast and Hawkeye's voice's down rather well. All things considered, especially in light of how much I was looking forward to this one, this issue was a major letdown.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

At least Hawkeye and Beast were in this issue...

New Comic Day! February 8th edition

2012-02-08T13:15:00.003-05:00

Howdy, X-Maniacs! It's Wednesday, meaning it's time for a New Comic Day post! Huzzah and all that jazz! Instead of spending a mess of time on the preamble, let's get right to what books I picked up today... Batman and Robin #6, Grifter #6, Superboy #6, Thief of Thieves #1, Battle Scars #4, Captain America #8, Daken: Dark Wolverine #21, Deadpool #50, Journey Into Mystery #634, New Mutants #37, Secret Avengers #22, Venom #13.1, Wolverine and the X-Men #5, Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha and Omega #2. Hey, check that out, I got exactly 14 books, which is pretty much the perfect number of books for me in a week! Awesome!!

Let's see... This week's Pick of the Litter is basically a toss-up between two books, Secret Avengers and Deadpool... Since Pool is only starting a new storyline, while Secret Avengers is starting a whole new direction, I'll go with Secret Avengers. So later on tonight(much later...), expect reviews for first Secret Avengers and then Deadpool. On the other end of the spectrum, this week's Runt of the Litter is another toss-up... This time between Superboy and Daken. Hmm, I'm really torn here... Both comics star characters I really like(or in SB's case, used to like), but the storytelling in their respective books has just been abysmal for the most part as of late. I guess I'll give the slight nod to Superboy. While I'm hoping Daken picks up a bit seeing as that the series is almost finished(I think there are only like 2 issues left to go), I have no such expectations for SB, thus explaining why SB gets the Runt treatment. With 14 comics to get through this week, expect 2 reviews a night, but as always, that is subject to change depending on my schedule. And that'll do it here. I'll be back later on with a pair of reviews, until then, X out.

Uncanny X-Force #21

2012-02-07T20:30:00.001-05:00

I really hate the storyline going on in this comic book right now... And it's not a good kind of hate, like when you hate a random super-villain because you're supposed to hate that random super-villain. It's that bad kind of hate where you see the cover of a comic and don't even want to open it up because you know it's gonna suck... Well, all I can do is cross my fingers and hope for the best here...

Uncanny X-Force #21:

Summary: Psylocke rescues Fantomex from the machine that was to execute him, but not before he was injected by a chemical that caused him to begin forgetting his entire life. Meanwhile, a villain with a goat's head fights X-Force outside of Capt. Britain's castle. Eventually goat head guy retreats because his orb was destroyed or something... Psylocke takes Fantomex to some magical forest and asks the leader of the forest to help fix Fantomex's mind. The master of the forest doesn't want to assist Psylocke because he hates her father or some such nonsense, but after Psylocke begs for his help, he reconsiders. And then zombiefied members of the Capt. Britain Corps attacks Capt. Britain's castle.

Thoughts: This was absolutely terrible. There's literally not a single nice thing I can say about this comic book... I could care LESS about EVERYTHING happening here. I hate the Capt. Britain Corps concept, I hate Otherworld, I hate Merlin. I hate it all. So if you liked this comic, awesome. But me? I couldn't have hated it more. What a waste of money...

Score: 0 out of 10.

Yes Rick Remender, this is indeed your worst...

Defenders #3

2012-02-07T20:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, we're at the bottom of the comic pile, and as such have the comic books I'm not all that keen on reading... Defenders has been... strange since it started up, what with the odd storyline and many of the characters acting out of character. I'm still REALLY pulling for this title to make it, because it COULD be a nice change from the dozens of Avengers or X-Men team books plaguing the comic market... Let's see if Matt Fraction can get things to make some semblance of sense here...

Defenders #3:

Summary: With Nul rapidly approaching the... um, weird machine at the heart of Wundagore Mountain, it's up to the Defenders to stop Nul from destroying the machine, which could possibly destroy all of reality. Or at least that's what Prester John was hoping would occur. You see, John had built himself a spacecraft and planned on fleeing the Earth with the New Men before Nul attacked the machine and broke reality(presumably). While the Defenders tried(unsuccessfully I might add) to stop Nul, John blasted off, but was followed by the Silver Surfer, who wasn't going to allow John to leave unscathed. The Surfer manages to use his Power Cosmic to force John's ship far into space, where it would never reach any other planet. Back at the machine, Nul has gotten past the Defenders and the only thing standing between Nul and the destruction of the machine(and possibly all of reality) was the machine's mysterious guardian. Before Nul could make any hostile move towards the machine, the mysterious guardian... um, waved his hands at Nul and made him vanish from existence... Huh. With the threat over and done with(apparently...), the Defenders ponder what they should do next, and are shocked when Dr. Strange suggests stealing the machine.

Thoughts: Well that was pretty anti-climatic! Seriously, some weird, random little man made one of the Serpent's most powerful minions simply vanish? From reality?! Just like that?!? I don't know what I was expecting here, but that definitely wasn't it... So far this storyline just hasn't done it for me... I don't get why Prester John was leading the New Men, I don't get the little man with the omega hands, and I was quite annoyed that Nul went away that easily. Seeing as this is one of Marvel's $4 comics, I need to see more out of this series, or it's gonna wind up on the scrapheap...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

Really? It's THAT easy?! I bet Odin feels like a chump!

Amazing Spider-Man #679

2012-02-06T20:00:00.002-05:00

Hmm, here's a comic I get the feeling I'll be blitzing through... Luckily JT gave his take on this one(which you can read about here), so I can be lackadaisical with the review. Huzzah for me! The last issue was okay, but with all of the future/present stuff, it didn't make for a very easy review to type up, nor a coherent review to read...

Amazing Spider-Man #679:

Summary: Spidey realizes that New York would be destroyed at 3 AM not 3 PM, meaning he had a full 12 hours to try to stop the catastrophe that would destroy NYC. From there Spidey swings around the city stopping terrorists, carjackers, muggers and anything else he could figure. Before long, it's 2:30 AM and Spidey is at a loss as to what he needed to do... He winds up getting a call from Mary Jane to hang out, so he switches to his Peter Parker attire and meets with her, plugging her for any information that may be of value. Eventually MJ tells Peter that HE'D figure out the problem, at which time Peter realizes that Peter Parker stepped through the time door, NOT Spider-Man, meaning Peter Parker had fix things. Peter rushes back to Horizon Labs and tells his fellow scientist to shut down the time door, which ends up fixing everything. And that pretty much ends that.

Thoughts: Eh, this was a pretty good story. I've always enjoyed time travel, alternate dimensions and the like, so this was a nice little two-part story taking Spidey away from his normal, “Beating up super-villains” deal. So while I did enjoy this story, I have to admit, it was a bitch to review!

Score: 7 out of 10.

Hey look, Spidey is kissing Silver Sable!

Fear Itself: The Fearless #8

2012-02-06T19:30:00.002-05:00

Happy Monday all! A VERY happy X here, still reveling in the Giants Super Bowl win last night. What an incredible game that was... Seriously, it was one of the better Super Bowl's I've seen, and I'm not just saying that as a Giants fan. Awesome game. But anyway, chances are you're not here to read about football, you're here to read about comic books! So let's get to that. First up today? Another week, another issue of the Fearless. Last issue gave us a shocking twist with Hellstrom apparently turning evil, let's see what that leads to this issue.

Fear Itself: The Fearless #8 (of 12):

Summary: Um, nothing much really happens in this issue... I'll do my best here, but expect this to be a rather brisk review... We learn how the DOA broke Sin out of custody after Fear Itself concluded, before heading to the present where the suddenly evil Daimon Hellstrom is checking out Sin's magical artifacts. He tries to get the point across that Sin needed his supernatural expertise, but soon discovers that several other dark magicians were trying to join up with Sin. Valkyrie sneaks onto Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) and runs afoul Emma Frost. Emma tries to mind control Valkyrie into leaving, but Valkyrie is able to shake Emma's influence, grab the Serpent hammer the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants(the X-Men) had acquired(wait, what?!) and leave. However, before she can get clear of the island, she is confronted by Storm.

Thoughts: Yeah, and that was it. I don't know how what I wrote above managed to fill out an entire comic book, but somehow it did... Nothing really essential to this story happened here, we still don't know why Hellstrom turned for example, and this issue only set up the next issue which should feature Valkyrie against Storm and the Brotherhood... With that said, this wasn't a terrible comic, it was just an uninteresting one...

Score: 6 out of 10.

Damn you, inexplicably evil Daimon!!

JT's Take: Amazing Spider-Man #679

2012-02-05T15:00:00.043-05:00

Hey guys and gals, JT here with a review for you on Superbowl Sunday, and if you're like me, a nerd, you'd much rather read about comicbook characters than watch a football game. So here's a review to saturate that comic craving, a visit with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Amazing Spider-Man #679

Summary: In the last issue we saw Peter step into a doorway to the future, and upon doing so we see the world went to hell without Peter, mainly Spider-Man, around for the day he missed out on. Using the help of a fellow employee, Grady, the man that invented the futuristic doorway, Spidey sets out to stop the destruction of the world before 3:10, which just happens to strike where this issue started. After a suspenseful start we find out that the watch actually stopped at 3:10 A.M., meaning Spidey has a whole twelve hours to go. After doubting his importance to Spidey, we see Grady step into the future doorway and see a dead Spider-Man, meaning he's pivotal to not only helping Spider-Man save the city but also himself. After going on patrol, Spider-Man helps Silver Sable stop Flag Smasher from blowing everything to hell and knocks the villain unconscious. Spidey then disarms Flag Smasher's bomb using his Spider sense and is rewarded with a kiss by Silver Sable, thus proving Spider-Man is a playa. After noticing nothing has changed, Spidey does a ton more superhero activities until he finally gets a call from MJ and takes time out to go for coffee with her. After talking with MJ, he realizes the future messed up because of Peter leaving, not Spidey, since he never checked Grady's math the future doorway explodes, so he had Grady shut it down and saves Manhattan as this issue comes to a close.

Thoughts: Normally pulling the stunt they did with the watch meaning A.M. instead of P.M. would've annoyed me, but I can actually see Spider-Man making that mistake so I wasn't too annoyed by it. The idea that Spidey pretty much ran himself ragged when all he needed to do was close the doorway did annoy me, it seemed like everything was pointless up until that, I don't mind a good story but that seemed like a kick in the head. I do like that they seem to slowly lead back to making Mary Jane a bigger part of the Spider-Man storylines again, she's a fun character when written right and I'd be lying if I said I didn't mark out every time she says "Go get em' Tiger!" As for this issue it just fell flat, the 12 hour reveal and the Peter > Spidey thing kinda took some of the life out of the issue for me, and even the Back to the Future II reference couldn't save it.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

Spider-Man: Have you been to my favorite state? The state of unconsciousness! (Gotta love a good pun)

Irredeemable #34

2012-02-04T20:30:00.000-05:00

Last review of the night is the final non-Marvel book I'll be reviewing this week, and that book? Irredeemable. Let's see what kind of insanity Mark Waid has in store for us this issue.

Irredeemable #34:

Summary: We kick this issue off with Qubit explaining how he returned to Earth, before asking for the Plutonian's assistance in saving the Earth. The Plutonian naturally finds that idea laughable, but Qubit offers the Plutonian a chance to go back in time to live out his life a second time, this time the right way. The Plutonian can't turn down that offer, so he spends the next 4 days trying to help Qubit clear the deadly radiation that had blanketed the Earth. Unfortunately, all of Qubit's best laid plans fail, meaning he had to find the one person who he figured could probably help save the Earth... Modeus(!). Plutonian thought Modeus had been trapped with Qubit, but Qubit reveals that Modeus's body had “died” when Plutonian left, meaning Modeus had jumped into another's body... Plutonian rapidly realizes that Modeus must have jumped into Cutter's body, thus explaining why Cutter had such a thing for Plutonian. Plutonian remembers that he had left Cutter alone with his real love, Bette Noir, and rushes away. Meanwhile, Gil, Kaidan and Scylla's ghost have headed deep into the Earth to find some seeds that weren't touched by the deadly radiation up above. This issue ends with Qubit thinking about the fact that he actually COULDN'T get Plutonian to move back through time because the time traveling alien Qubit had been working with had died.

Thoughts: No complaints here. I'm curious to see what Qubit's plan is concerning Plutonian, since he has no way of making good on the promise he made Plutonian, which would naturally make Plutonian VERY angry. We also have Plutonian closing in on the position of Bette, who is almost definitely possessed by Modeus by now... And really, why wouldn't Modeus possess Bette, since that's who the Plutonian really desires. It makes perfect sense, in a weird, super-villiany sort of way. All in all? Good stuff here, as usual.

Score: 8 out of 10.

You know, Qubit may just be my favorite character in this series...

Invincible #88

2012-02-04T20:00:00.000-05:00

Tonight we'll be checking out a pair of indie comics(Image is still considered an indie company, right?), with the first series being from Image.

Invincible #88:

Summary: Thragg and Invincible confront Allen and Oliver above the Earth and Thragg basically tells Allen that his plan to unleash the Scourge Virus in the Earth's atmosphere was faulty and wouldn't guarantee the death of the Viltrumite's, since Thragg insinuates that all of the Viltrumites weren't on Earth. The only guarantee was that if Allen DID disperse the Scourge Virus on the Earth, the Viltrumites would once again declare war on the Coalition of Planets. Allen, who was wrestling with his own doubts about the plan, realizes that Thragg was right, and decides not to go through with his plans of planetary genocide. By this time the Guardians of the Globe show up in space to take Invincible into custody for his recent actions, which leads to a fight. During the fracas, Oliver swipes a sample of the Scourge Virus from Allen and heads down to Earth to do what Allen wasn't man enough to do himself(!). Invincible sees what his half-brother was up to and chases after him, catching up to Oliver, but causing Oliver to drop the sample. Invincible manages to catch it before it opens, and is attacked by an incensed Oliver who realizes that unleashing the Scourge Virus was the best way to end the Viltrumite threat, even if it costs the life of everyone on the Earth. During the struggle, Oliver accidentally blasts Invincible in the face with the Virus(!!), sending him falling to the Earth. Allen, who saw what was transpiring from space, charges over and tells Oliver to stay away from Invincible, since there was a chance Oliver could become infected by Invincible. Allen manages to catch up to Invincible, who seems fine and uninfected... At first... This issue ends with Invincible bleeding from the eyes and nose, meaning he was indeed infected with the fatal virus.

Thoughts: Alright, good stuff here! I enjoyed just about everything we got in this one, with the glaring exception being Allen deciding not to use the Scourge Virus on the Earth. For somebody who was so gung-ho about unleashing the Virus last issue, Allen sure did a 180 quick in this one. Yeah, Thragg did make a few good points, but even if there WERE a few Viltrumites not on Earth, I STILL say killing everybody on the planet would be worth it if you could eliminate ANY Viltrumites. So yeah, I'm totally on Oliver's side of this argument. As for the ending, I can't wait to see how Robert Kirkman writes his way out of this one! Now THAT was a great cliffhanger!

Score: 8 out of 10.

HA!!!

X-Factor #231

2012-02-03T20:30:00.000-05:00

Last review for the night? X-Factor. Let's get it out of the way!

X-Factor #231:

Summary: Madrox finds himself now on a world where the streets were being patrolled by massive Iron Man Sentinels. One of the IM Sentinels realizes that Madrox was an extra-dimensional anomaly and takes him to it's leader, Tony Stark. Tony tells Madrox why this world was such a mess, basically during the House of M, Wanda cast a “No More Humans” spell that decimated the human population, leaving only a few humans left to stand against the rule of the Earth's mutants. Tired of fighting a losing battle, Tony wants to go with Madrox back to the regular 616 Marvel U. Before Madrox can say anything, Tony's office is attacked by Deathlok(actually Steve Rogers!!!) and Mr. Tryp. Tony Iron Man's up and attacks evil cyborg Cap, leaving Madrox to demand answers from Tryp, who he believes knows more about Madrox's trip through the multi-verse than he was letting on. Tryp speaks cryptically, and before Madrox can glean anything useful, he's knocked out the window by Deathlok-Cap and Iron Man, and falls to his death... Or does he?!? I'll answer that one for you, no, he doesn't. Madrox awakens in ANOTHER dimension where it seems Dr. Strange(or possibly Dormammu) had become an evil Sorcerer Supreme, who wanted to kill his disciple, you guessed it, Madrox!

Thoughts: I've said this many a time around here, but it bears repeating... I LOVE alternate dimensional storylines! Especially good alternate dimensional storylines! And this storyline? It definitely fits that bill. Sure, we could have seen some more from the other X-Factor members, especially after last issue's bombshell with Havok and Polaris showing up, but the Madrox story was so good I have no real complaints.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.

Evil Deathlok-Cap rules all!!!

Venom #13

2012-02-03T20:00:00.002-05:00

And now we'll take a gander at the first(of many...) issues of Venom being released this month. There's really not much more to say, so I'll just get down to business.

Venom #13:

Summary: Flash Thompson(Venom) is still in Las Vegas having stolen the Venom symbiote and broken up with his longtime girlfriend, Betty. While Flash is getting himself good and drunk to dull the pain of his life, the Red Hulk is rapidly approaching Vegas with the express purpose of taking Flash down and recapturing the Venom symbiote on the orders of Captain America himself. Meanwhile, an evil casino owner is collecting souls, X-23's blood, the Toxin symbiote and needs Ghost Rider to come to Vegas to complete his evil plot. Since it was her blood that was stolen, X-23 is also stalking around Vegas searching for the casino owner. The casino owner heads out to a massive demonic-looking instrument and begins to recite a spell. Ghost Rider(that new female one) senses what was going on and takes off, leaving Johnny Blaze behind. Johnny races after her, but unfortunately, Ghost Rider showing up during the reciting of the spell was the final piece needed to open a gateway to Hell itself. Meanwhile, Red Hulk has discovered Flash's location, causing Flash to don the Venom symbiote and fight back. While the two are fighting, they rapidly realize something was very wrong, as the skies have turned red and the ground had set ablaze. After the two are attacked by a massive demon, they decide to put their differences aside for the moment to try to figure out just what the hell was going on. From there we head back to the smug casino owner and discover that he was actually Blackheart(!), and that he intended on bringing Hell to Earth, thus stealing the domain from his father, Mephisto. Unfortunately for Blackheart, Johnny had managed to place a magical pendant on the outskirts of Vegas, preventing Hell from seeping all the way across the globe. Johnny then heads to Ghost Rider and frees her from the trap Blackheart had placed her in, telling her to see what she could do to shut the hell-gate down. From there, Venom and Red Hulk, X-23(who was making her own way through Vegas after the demonic invasion) and Ghost Rider simultaneously arrive at Blackheart's base, and are soon confronted by demons that represented their evil inner reflections.

Thoughts: Okay, here's the thing... This WAS a good comic! It really was. However, it wasn't as good as the past few issues of this series have been. Add the bloated cover price and I have to say, I was a bit letdown here... Anyway, this was a good, but not great, start to the Venom event of February. Here's hoping it picks up some going forward.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Is it wrong to say that Mephisto was awesome here?

Stormwatch #6

2012-02-02T20:30:00.000-05:00

And our final review of the night is the only DC book I picked up this week, Stormwatch. This series has been solid from the get go, so let's hope that trend continues here.

Stormwatch #6:

Summary: With Stormwatch's ship critically damaged by Harry Tanner's betrayal last issue, the team is floating in space, mainly thanks to Jenny putting a forcefield around the team. Jack Hawksmoor uses his powers to actually “talk” to the damaged ship, at which time we learn that the ship was a captured Daemonite ship. The ship isn't keen on assisting the Stormwatchers and would happily let them perish, but Jack manages to strike a bargain with the ship, telling it that he'd allow it a voice, and the ability to try to misdirect Stormwatch if it was to repair itself. The ship takes Jack up on the offer and begins to auto repair itself, pulling the Stormwatchers back into the ship and sealing off the hole. With that all taken care of, Engineer decides to take command of the team, seeing as that their former leader(Projectionist) had been captured by Harry, and is told by Midnighter that he and Apollo would be sticking with the team for the time being, mainly to get revenge on Harry. From there Engineer shows the team a map of the Earth marked in black and gold, with each mark showing either a dangerous or valuable alien artifact. Engineer reasons that Harry would be going after those artifacts, and that Stormwatch would have to try to anticipate which Harry would go after first. This issue ends with Harry forcing Projectionist to use her powers in some sort of alternate dimension, which shows her that Stormwatch was going to be distracted by something powerful enough to threaten the universe itself.

Thoughts: I REALLY enjoyed this issue! There really wasn't a slow part to be found here, and the story is really starting to come together. All of the little reveals(like the ship being a Daemonite), and the character development scenes blended together perfectly. Really, everything here was great, which makes me all the sadder that Paul Cornell is leaving this series, because he really seems to know what he's doing. This issue gave us the full Stormwatch team, gave Midnighter and Apollo a reason for sticking around(considering they were both loners at the start of this series), and gave Stormwatch a longterm enemy, as well as missions to run. All in all, Cornell did a masterful job of putting the team together and putting events into motion... I wish the other team books I read from DC were HALF as together as THIS series is!

Score: 9 out of 10.

That “I'm the damn Midnighter” line HAD to be a tip of the cap to All-Star Batman and Robin! It just had to!!

Avengers: X-Sanction #3

2012-02-02T20:00:00.000-05:00

Oh joy, it's time for THIS mini-series... The past two issues bothered me... Greatly. Cable outfighting and outsmarting Captain America and Iron Man just seems horribly wrong, but maybe that's just me. As for this issue, if things follow along the lines of the first two issues, Cable will manage to overpower the Red Hulk. Let's see if I'm right...

Avengers: X-Sanction #3(of 4):

Summary: Before the Red Hulk can defeat Cable(who has been nearly taken completely over by the Techno-Organic Virus), Blaquesmith arrives on the scene to give Cable some... ugh, hope. After a flashback to Blaquesmith and Cable walking through a future seemingly devastated by the Avengers, we head back to the present where we see Cable shooting Red Hulk with a gun that knocks Red Hulk out of the boat the two were fighting on... Well, it's a good thing Cable's gun didn't run out of ammo like Cap's did in the first issue, now isn't it? Before Cable can regroup, Red Hulk returns with a giant chain and anchor and wraps Cable up in it, demanding to be told how to free Captain America and Iron Man from the traps Cable put them in. Instead of telling Red Hulk, Cable somehow makes his TO Virus infect Red Hulk... Yeah, sure... With Red Hulk infected by the Virus, Cable decides to mercy kill him, but is halted by the arrival of Lord Summers and Our Lord and Savior Hope, who were teleported over by Blaquesmith. Lord Summers is angry that Cable had attacked the Avengers(since starting trouble with other superheroes is Lord Summers' job!), and wants to free Cap and Iron Man, but Cable warns Lord Summers not to try to help the two heroes, lest he sets off the bombs that were attached to the two Avengers. Our Lord and Savior Hope gets tired of Lord Summers and Cable talking, since SHE'S the most important character in the history of all of literature, and demands that they pay attention to her. Before Our Lord and Savior Hope and force Lord Summers and Cable to come to an agreement, Wolverine and Spider-Man arrive on the scene, where Wolvie threatens to kill Cable if he didn't free Cap and Iron Man.

Thoughts: Yeah, this issue was pretty much what I expected. It was more of Cable being perfect and better than everybody else, and more of the Avengers losing. Seriously, after reading this mini-series, why the hell should I care about the Avengers vs X-Men event, since this mini has shown us that the Avengers characters are nowhere NEAR the X-Men's league. Cable has singlehandedly taken down the strongest Avenger(without Thor around), the smartest and most tech-savvy Avenger AND the Avengers most experienced fighter and best strategist! By himself!! If CABLE can do all of that alone, imagine what Lord Summers and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants can do to the Avengers! But enough bitching(for now...), let's steer this post back to this issue and the events therein. Once again, there wasn't anything truly terrible in this comic, same as the first two issues, I just didn't particularly enjoy it. I'd guess your enjoyment of this comic will depend on how great you think Cable is and/or how much you hate the Avengers.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

I'm half surprised that wasn't the end of the Red Hulk right there...

Weekly Comic News for Feb. 2nd

2012-02-02T16:25:00.001-05:00

Hey Todd Squad that are posing as X-Maniacs as not to hurt X's feelings, JT here. I wanted to debut a new weekly post, since X has his weekly list of books he's picking up, I figured why not try something weekly myself. And with all the comic news always bursting forth, I figured this would be a good way to keep everyone updated on any stories they may have missed. Also, I'll throw in random funny or cool pictures I find over the course of the week, so let's get this started.

Note - Some of this news may spoil future story lines, if you don't want to risk that I'd advise you to skip this post.

The Watchmen 2?

Or should I say The Watchmen 0? This has been pretty big news as DC touted they'd be announcing something fairly soon and it turns out it's a prequel to The Watchmen, called "Before Watchmen". It's going to be a series of books written by such names as Brian Azzarello, Darwin Cooke, J. Michael Straczynski, and Len Wein, writing about mini-series about Rorschach, Silk Spectre, Comedian and your other favorite Watchmen characters. I'm actually in the process of reading The Watchmen currently but I'm sure Watchman fans are happy about this news. If you wanna read more about this, click for official DC links including the announcement and the covers.

Oh, and here's a direct quote from Dan Didio and Jim Lee. “It’s our responsibility as publishers to find new ways to keep all of our characters relevant.” To that line, coming from a company that has yet to find a place for Stephanie Brown, Cass Cain, Wally West and Donna Troy, I simply post this in retort.

That makes 342 Costumes...

It was recently announced that during this Summer's Spider-Man: Ends of the Earth storyline, we will see Spider-Man don yet another new costume to take on the Sinister Six. Taking into account all of the new costumes Spidey's debuted since the Big Time storyline in 2010 (Man, that flew by...), it's become fairly obvious he's just stocking up so he never has to wear the Bombastic Bag-Man costume again.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/02/02/spidermans-costume-gets-colour-scheme/

Spider-Men?

It was recently announced in June we'd see a book/event titled The Spider-Men, but that's all we've heard so far. There's been speculation it will be the return of the Ultimate Universe's Peter Parker to work alongside the new Ultimate Spider-Man, Miles Morales. I wouldn't mind that but I personally feel it's too soon to bring back Peter as Miles has really just gotten started, as well as he has a mentor of sorts with Spider-Woman. Personally I think we may just see Peter and Miles team up since it's an amalgam of the Ultimate and Amazing logos. Alternatively, I'd love if we saw Peter, Kaine, Ultimate Peter and Miles somehow team up, Shattered Dimensions style, and they could even throw in Flash and Eddie. Either way, I'm interested in what the Spider-Men story may bring to the table.

X, X-Baby

It was recently speculated that a certain member of Wolverine's X-Men squad may be pregnant, this was fueled further by artwork from this month's upcoming Wolverine and the X-Men #5, featuring the expectant mother calling the person believed to be the father to tell him either very good news or very bad news. I'm being vague for the sake of spoilers but if you want to know just who I mean, click here.

Comic Book Artist Al Rio's Passing

Comic Book artist Al Rio was recently found dead by ways of suicide. I almost didn't report this because I don't want to bring anyone down but I think it's better to at least pay respects to the former Zenescope and Marvel Artist. If anyone wishes to read more about Al Rio's untimely passing they can do so here.

Batman: The Dark Knight News

It was announced that Gregg Hurwitz, current writer of the Penguin: Pain and Prejudice mini-series will soon take over as writer of the Batman: The Dark Knight comic series beginning at issue ten. Hurwitz is said to be excited about joining the book, which is probably a promotion for making him write a book centered around The Penguin. Personally I'd like to see him take over Detective Comics, because Tony Daniel pretty much sucks at writing, and if you disagree just take a look at this riveting piece of entertainment from Detective Comics #6.

Riiiiiight.

Justice League: Doom

And lastly, this isn't weekly news but this month marks the release of the upcoming DC Universe Animated Film, Justice League: Doom. As a fan of Under The Red Hood, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies and a lot of the other Animated Films DC releases, I'm definitely looking forward to this, which see's the Justice League take on the Legion of Doom, featuring Bane, Cheetah, Star Sapphire, and they're led by Vandal Savage. As much as I'd prefer Joker or Lex to be included, they aren't but this still looks to be an interesting film. Fans of the Justice League cartoon will be happy to hear that Kevin Conroy, Michael Rosenbaum (Smallvile's Lex Luthor) and Susan Eisienberg will reprise their roles as Batman, The Flash and Wonder Woman respectively, as will Superman: The Animated Series' Tim Daly reprise his role as The Man of Steel.

For those interested I've included a link below that shows the League taking on a much more impressive Royal Flush Gang as well as hearing an overview of Savage's plans. It's also been noted that this is the last thing Dwayne McDuffie worked on before his passing, and this is an adaptation of the Tower of Babel storyline, which features Batman's contingency plans against any rogue Justice League member falling into the wrong hands. The film will be released on Feb. 28th for anyone interested.

And that's the comic news for this week, If I missed anything feel free to let me know in the comments, as well as if you guys enjoy this feature and wanna see it make a return. But that's it for me guys and gals, I'll be back this weekend picking up the slack since X is going to be fighting back aneurysm if the Giants lose the Superbowl. Until next time, this is JT signing off.

Avengers Academy #25

2012-02-01T23:17:00.000-05:00

The last review for the night is the comic that would have been my Pick of the Litter had Winter Solider #1 not come out today. Yep, it's time for me to read another issue of my favorite series of 2011, Avengers Academy!

Avengers Academy #25:

Summary: In the present, Hybrid is tearing through the faculty and students at the Avengers Academy. Reptil(who is actually an older, future version of Reptil in his younger body), realizes that the Academy would soon fall to Hybrid's might and heads inside to make two calls, one to a mysterious party(who we'll discover the identity of later on) and one to the future, to tell his teammates that he needed help lest Hybrid kills everybody and destroys his timeline. In the future, Reptil(that would be younger Reptil in his older body) is freed from the stasis tube holding him by his daughter with Finesse. Needless to say, Reptil is shocked to discover he was in the future(and had a kid with Finesse), but upon being brought up to speed, learns that the future Avengers Academy wanted to put his mind back into his younger body, WITH his older self, hoping the two minds would leave Hybrid confused. That gambit actually works... For about a minute, at which time Hybrid nails Reptil with a mind-blast so powerful it leaves him comatose. Since his powers were taken away by Hybrid, Pym ends up looking at the files he had on Hybrid(from the X-Men) and learns that the best way to defeat Hybrid was to disintegrate him at the atomic level, at which time he'd end up in Limbo, and would be trapped there until he could reintegrate himself. Since Pym had no weapon powerful enough to disintegrate Hybrid completely, Pym tells Quicksilver and Lightspeed to concoct a dimensional transporter that would send Hybrid back to Limbo. Unfortunately Hybrid is wise to their strategy and continues to fight, mocking the Avengers transparent plans. Meanwhile, in the future, older Reptil is comatose, while in the present, younger Reptil wakes up, as apparently Hybrid's mind-blast destroyed older Reptil's mind, while younger Reptil's mind was left unharmed due to the sacrifice of his older self. Back to the fight, Hybrid is having his way with the Academy until he is suddenly held immobile and then blasted by the hand of the Sentinel, which sends him to Limbo, ending his threat. Seeing as that the Sentinel was destroyed earlier, everybody is confused as to how it managed to blast Hybrid, at least until Jocasta walks over explaining that she had forced the Sentinel to attack. She also reveals that she had brought Veil back with her, which would explain why Hybrid was held immobile(so there you go, that's who older Reptil called earlier on!). Pym is rightfully pissed that Jocasta faked her own “death” and demands to know why, and Jocasta tells Pym it was because she analyzing the Academy from afar and, after this recent battle, had concluded that the Academy was putting the students there at risk, and as such needed to be shut down.

Thoughts: Well, this was a pretty good issue, but for whatever reason, I didn't enjoy it as much as I did some of the earlier issues of the series. The battle with Hybrid was well done, as he was a force to be reckoned with, and nearly single-handedly defeated the entire Academy, trainers and students both! The stuff with Reptil, both present and future was okay, but never really came together for me. And the Jocasta reveal, while dramatic, didn't really impact me either. Oh well, if nothing else, the return of Jocasta and Veil should liven things up come the next issue, as we get away from the mindless fighting and get back to the inter-character relationships that made this series so great to begin with.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Hybrid is a pretty funny guy! Who knew?

Winter Soldier #1

2012-02-01T22:44:00.001-05:00

There's really no need for a long-winded intro here. This is Bucky's first solo series, and is also my Pick of the Litter. I'm expecting good things here... Let's see what we get!

Winter Soldier #1:

Summary: There are three Soviet sleeper agents on US soil. The sleeper agents, much like Bucky was, are in stasis tubes awaiting their next missions, which they would carry out in an unwavering fashion, regardless of the mission. Bucky and the Black Widow have discovered that somebody was buying the sleepers, probably to use them for some sort of nefarious purpose, and working with SHIELD, are trying to track down the three sleepers and stop their release. Upon reaching the first sleeper facility, they find some ex-KGB agents, but an empty stasis tube. The duo follow a tip from SHIELD up to Minnesota where they discover another ex-KGB agent and after some intimidation, the ex-KGB agent gives up the location of the second sleeper agent. Bucky and the Widow sneak into the facility holding the tube, but end up getting discovered, and are forced to fight their way through an army of angry gunmen. Bucky manages to get eyes on the tube, but is fired upon by... a talking monkey?! What the hell is this, a DC comic?! Widow manages to knock Bucky clear of the monkey's bullets, but the ape winds up escaping with the tube. From there we head to a hotel room where we find the Red Ghost(thus explaining the super-ape) and Lucia Von Bardas, the former leader of Latveria. It turns out Bardas was the one purchasing the sleepers for the express purpose of assassinating the longtime leader of Latveria, Dr. Doom!

Thoughts: Not bad... This comic was pretty good. I mean it wasn't great, but to be honest, I wasn't expecting greatness right off the bat. One thing Ed Brubaker does better than most writers is building up a story, so this was just the first step in what should be a long, winding and ultimately fulfilling story. The premise here is interesting, with Bardas trying to kill Doom, with Bucky stuck in the middle, I'm just a bit confused by why she wants Doom dead... Last I knew, Kristoff was the ruler of Latveria and Doom was a member of the FF... But maybe that's changed since I dropped FF. Besides that, it's Bucky and the Black Widow, written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Bruce Guice, which gives the whole comic a great Captain America feel to it. So while not perfect, this was a good first issue featuring fantastic characters and a stellar creative team, that should continue to gain momentum as we move forward.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Since Bucky's supposed to be dead and all, shouldn't he be wearing something a bit less... I don't know, Bucky-ish?

New Comic Day! February 1st edition

2012-02-01T12:53:00.000-05:00

Hey there X-Maniacs, X here to celebrate yet another new comic day, the first one with my friend/lackey JT as a part of the blog! :P So huzzah and all that jazz! From the looks of things, this should be a rather packed week here at the blog... How packed you ask? Well, let's take a peek into the old comic bag and see what I snagged this week! Irredeemable #34, Stormwatch #6, Fatale #2, Invincible #88, Amazing Spider-Man #679, Avengers Academy #25, Avengers: X-Sanction #3, Defenders #3, Fear Itself: The Fearless #8, Uncanny X-Force #21(AGAIN?!), Venom #13($3.99?!? WTF?!), WINTER SOLDIER #1(!!!!), X-Factor #231. So 13 books, which is the PERFECT number of books in a week for me.

This week's Pick of the Litter is pretty easy to call, and should be pretty obvious to all of you, seeing as that only one comic listed above is in all caps and was followed by four exclamation marks... Still can't figure it out? Huh... Well, it's Winter Soldier #1! Bucky Barnes' very own ongoing series! How frigging sweet is THAT?! So yeah, that's the first book I'll be reading and reviewing later on tonight. As for this week's Runt of the Litter... Hmm, there really aren't a lot of Runt-worthy books listed here... I'm tempted to go with Venom #13, even though I love the series, simply due to Marvel jacking up the cover price... But no, this week's Runt has to be Uncanny X-Force #21. Yes, I love this series and all, but I'm not enjoying the current storyline, and to be totally honest, I'm tired of reading a new issue of this series practically every week. Give my wallet a break, Marvel! Please!! Now, this week is kind of tricky... I have some personal stuff to deal with towards the end of the week, and with my Giants in the Super Bowl on Sunday, there's NO way I'll be posting ANYTHING that day... Hopefully JT can fill in for me or something, because I'll be absent for sure. I'll definitely be posting at least two reviews every night(except Sunday, as previously stated). Bottom line? I have NO idea what I'll be reviewing and when, except for tonight with Winter Soldier and Avengers Academy. Tomorrow will be Avengers: X-Sanction & Stormwatch, and then things start to get a bit foggy. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. And with ALL that out of the way, it's time for me to end this post. Until later, with those two reviews I mentioned, X out.

Uncanny X-Men #334 (July 1996)

2012-01-31T20:30:00.001-05:00

We'll finish off the comic week with a final Retro-Review, this time a review for Uncanny X-Men #334. I can't say the cover of this one is ringing any bells for me, so let's crack it open and see what's inside!

Uncanny X-Men #334:

Summary: Lots of stuff going on here as this was the issue RIGHT before Onslaught was revealed, so needless to say, all of the pieces were being moved around the chessboard. We start with Juggernaut sneaking onto the grounds of X-Mansion in order to see Cyclops and Jean Grey, who were living in the Mansion's lake house at the time. Juggy ducks underwater, but spots a security camera, which he destroys before it can get a good look at him. Meanwhile, Archangel and Psylocke(who were living in Colorado at the time) are disturbed that they couldn't contact X-Mansion and decide to fly out to make sure everything was on the up and up. From there we head to Cannonball and Professor Xavier. Cannonball tells the Prof that he felt like he wasn't pulling his weight with the X-Men and was considering heading back to X-Force. Instead of reassuring Sam, the Prof tears into him, telling him to go whine elsewhere, and that if he didn't think he was X-Men material then he should get lost... Damn! Jean Grey, who had been confronted by Onslaught just prior to this issue, tells Cyclops that very fact. Cyclops recommends Jean see the Prof about Onslaught, but Jean is reluctant to do so... Gambit and Bishop see that one of the cameras under the water had been wrecked, and head off to see if there was any trouble, and are taken by surprise by Juggy, who defeats the two with ease. From there, the Prof continues to act out of character, and berates Cyclops upon bumping into him before vanishing, much to Cyclops's surprise... I have to say, crazy Prof. X was awesome... Juggy heads to the lake house, finds Jean, and asks her for help, since Juggy felt he knew who Onslaught was, but couldn't remember due to mental tampering. Jean doesn't trust Juggy, so he removes his helmet as a way to prove he wasn't there looking for trouble. Jean decides to take Juggy to a psi-shielded room under the school grounds where she could read his mind without anybody interfering, while Cyclops discovers that Prof. X was in his study, and had been for the past 48 hours, leaving him puzzled by the meeting he had just had.

Thoughts: This comic was a fantastic lead-in to the Onslaught event! Besides all of the stuff I listed above? We also had Dark Beast masquerading as regular Beast among the X-Men, and Graydon Creed and Bastion meeting. Seriously, this was a PACKED comic book! Naturally the increasingly insane Professor X stole the show here, as he should have, considering what was coming. The two main X-books around this time period(Uncanny X-Men and X-Men) were slowly setting up the Onslaught-as-Xavier reveal, but this may have been the first issue it became clear that Onslaught was indeed the Prof. Now, I don't know what it was like to read these books when they first came out, since the first time I read these X-books was probably around 8 years ago, and as such I knew who Onslaught was, but I'd think that after reading this issue the Onslaught/Prof link would have been pretty much confirmed. Make no mistake, this was a set-up issue. But as far as set-up issues go, this was one of the better ones I've ever read, and clearly laid the groundwork for what was about to happen to the X-Men, and why.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.

I love crazy, snarky Professor X!

Flash #102 (June 1995)

2012-01-31T20:00:00.001-05:00

Hey there X-Maniacs! With my new comic pile dry until tomorrow, I have no new material to post... So you know what that means... It's time for a pair of Retro-Reviews!!! As usual, I'll do a DC book, followed by a Marvel comic. First up we'll hit DC and take a look at an issue of Flash from the mid-90's.

Flash #102:

Summary: This issue takes place after the big Flash storyline that ended in Flash #100(I'm totally blanking on the name... Terminal Velocity perhaps?), meaning Wally has his Flash powers amped up and is having some marital trouble. We open with Linda asking Wally to stick around for a few minutes to assist her with a case she was researching. Wally agrees, but upon hearing that some alien was wreaking havoc in Keystone, he takes off,leaving Linda behind. While Wally is gone, Linda gets a call and leaves herself. As for Wally, he discovers Mongul running amok and immediately attacks, since Mongul's appearance gives Wally the opportunity to forget about the troubles in his personal life. The two battle, with Wally using his speed to confound and enrage Mongul, at least until Mongul manages to collapse the street under both himself and Wally. Upon landing, Wally discovers a spacecraft(?!) in the sewers, and Mongul explains that was his true reasons for being in Keystone, to get the ship and leave the Earth. Knowing he couldn't let Mongul go free to devastate other planets. Wally attacks Mongul anew, and eventually manages to defeat him by using his speed to send some debris back at Mongul at hyper-speed, before speeding up the molecules in the alien ship, making the metal malleable enough to trap Mongul. With Mongul's threat finished, Wally heads home and is dismayed to find Linda gone... He's more dismayed to discover a picture on Linda's desk showing her and another man in a rather cozy situation.

Thoughts: This issue was heavy on the action, with just a little bit of story advancement taking place. While I enjoyed the battle for the most part, I was a bit... surprised, I guess, by how easily Wally took Mongul down. Wally himself stated that Mongul had recently menaced Superman AND Green Lantern, and took THEM to the limit! In this comic though, Wally basically gets hit once, and then defeats Mongul handily. I mean I'm as big a fan of Wally as you'll find, and I get that Mark Waid was trying to establish that Wally had kicked his powers up to the next level, but I kind of felt that Waid should have used a lower-level baddie to establish Wally's newfound toughness... Not a guy who regularly gave Superman fits! Other than that, this was a good, action-packed comic book that was easy to pick up, read and then put down again.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Come on Mongul, like one punch turned Wally into DUST?! What an idiot...

Flash #5

2012-01-30T20:30:00.000-05:00

Last review of the night is a look at the early years of Wally West as the Flash. Barry Who?

Flash #5:

Summary: We open with the doctor from last issue telling her husband that she wanted a divorce. The husband(Jerry) figures she was dumping him because of Flash, so he beats her for trying to leave him, before storming to his lab where he bombards himself with strange rays and takes some steroids. The doctor(Tina) calls Wally and tells him what had happened to her and the two meet up at a restaurant where Wally implores her to report her husband to the cops(she doesn't want to). From there, Wally takes her back to his mansion to make sure she's safe... And, you know, because she's an interesting, attractive older woman and Wally has the hots for her. Meanwhile, between the rays and the steroids he was injecting himself with, Jerry has gained super-speed as well as enhanced strength. With that, he dons a costume(naturally) and sets out to beat the hell out of Wally(of course). Back at Wally's mansion, Tina shoots down all of Wally's initial moves(citing their age difference), but during the night she heads to his bedroom to stay with him. Before anything spicy can happen, Jerry smashes through the bedroom wall, which leads to a fight with an angry Wally. Jerry manages to get the advantage over Wally by shooting mustard gas in his face(?!), before grabbing Tina and rushing away from Wally. By the time Wally's vision has cleared, he looks out the window just in time to see Jerry and Tina crash into a fuel depot, leading to an explosion.

Thoughts: What can I say? I'm enjoying this series. Yes, the ending was insanely over the top, what with the fuel depot exploding(!), but I'm still enjoying watching Wally act relatively irresponsible for a superhero. Yeah, sure, Tina is obviously in a horrible relationship with an insane husband and all, but (almost) sleeping with a woman who WAS still married(although separated), isn't the sort of thing you'd expect to see Saint Barry Allen, Clark Kent or Steve Rogers do... But it WAS the sort of thing you'd expect a suddenly rich, super-powered 19 year old guy to do. That's probably what I've been enjoying the most about this series thus far. Yeah, Wally is the super-heroic Flash, but he's also a 19 year old guy, one who is trying to make it in the real world, as well as live up to the lofty expectations placed on him due to the Flash name. It's too bad Geoff Johns and the DC braintrust decided to take a piss all over this series, because there was some great character development done here by Mike Baron.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

That Wally West sure is romantic!

Green Lantern: New Guardians #5(Brightest Day Rules)

2012-01-30T20:00:00.002-05:00

Now THIS should be fun! Seeing as that I absolutely detest Larfleeze, and would have dropped this series had my sister not asked me to keep picking it up since she was enjoying it, I'll be using Brightest Day Rules when scoring this one! What are Brightest Day Rules? Check out my prior, "What are Brightest Day Rules?" post to find out... Makes sense, no? With the explanations out of the way, let the bloodbath begin!!!

Green Lantern: New Guardians #5:

Summary: The New Guardians reach the solar system that appeared out of the blue and split up to search it. Somehow Kyle gets stuck with that annoying-ass orange construct thing... Anyway, each world is a replica of another world(Tamaran, Okaara, etc) and they are all watched over by somebody named Invictus. It turns out Invictus is some old foe of Larfleeze(of course... because the DCU revolves around Larfleeze...), and upon seeing that damned orange construct, Invictus is summoned to deal with the New Guardians.

Thoughts: That could have been WAY worse! First things first, the number one rule concerning this series is that anytime Larfleeze appears on a page that's an automatic -10. Since Larfleeze only appeared on one page, that's a -10 right off the bat. -2 for Kyle(the only character in this series worth anything) getting stuck with that childish Glomulus thing. But I'll give a +4 for Arkillo yelling at Saint Walker, who I hate. Yes, I hate A LOT of characters in this comic... Another -3 for Glomulus sticking his(her? it's?) tongue out at Kyle... Seriously, is this comic being written for the 4-6 year old age group? I'll give a +2 for Atrocitus shoving Bleez's head into the ocean of blood because, you guessed it, I hate Bleez and want her to drown! -1 for every time Saint Walker said, “All will be well”. As well as a -2 for every time that annoying Indigo Lantern spoke in Jackass-ese. “Nok” my ass... If I was feeling in a worse mood I'd toss another negative score in for the Larfleeze statue, but I'm a nice guy, so I won't. I'll give a +2 for Invictus hating Larfleeze, thus showing he has good taste. But I'm going to have to give a -4 for this story revolving around Larfleeze in the first place! Now do you see how totally arbitrary these numbers are? With that taken care of, it's time for me to do some fancy mathematics and come up with a final score of......

Score: -14 out of 10. Oddly enough, a -14 ISN'T that bad... Trust me, it could have been WAAAAAY worse!

I wish somebody would rip Saint Walker's tongue out...

What are Brightest Day Rules?

2012-01-30T19:58:00.001-05:00

Okay X-Maniacs, it's story time! Once upon a time, DC published a series called Brightest Day. That series was so incredibly awful that I was basically scoring each issue around a 0. Yep, it was THAT bad! Being a glutton for punishment, I soldiered on and kept reading each horrible issue. Needing a way to amuse myself(and hold on to my sanity...), I started scoring the series using what became known as Brightest Day Rules... What are Brightest Day Rules you ask? Whenever something I hate happens in a comic book, I give that scene negative numbers... For example, the White Lantern ring telling Deadman to eat a cheeseburger would most definitely garner that scene a score of around a -10 because it was so asinine. Good things(and there were SO few...) would get a positive score... So a scene where Saint Barry Allen had been decapitated(although that sadly only took place in the Martian Manhunter's head...) would get a score of around a +50 or so. At the end of the post I add up all of the various numbers and presto, we have ourselves a score... Usually in the negative numbers. I believe one issue of Brightest Day actually scored around a -450, so yeah, the scores could get QUITE negative! So why am I telling you guys about Brightest Day Rules? Because they're about to make a comeback. There are a few comics that I read monthly that are just unbearable to me, but for whatever reason I'm still picking them up. Since I KNOW I'm going to hate them, why not use an arbitrary(and totally biased) scoring system to rate these comics?! I mean hell, if I'm gonna read 'em, I might as well rant about 'em. So there you have it. Now if you see a post with the words “Brightest Day Rules” somewhere within it, you'll know what to expect...

JT's Take: Justice League #5

2012-01-30T01:47:00.005-05:00

Hey everyone, JT here, formerly of Jason Todd's Comic Spot, and currently the new co-writer here at X-Man's Comic Blog. I'm not gonna bore you guys with a long intro, I'm just gonna say how cool it is to be writing at my buddy's blog and I hope any of you who aren't familiar with my reviews or style enjoy my write-ups. I'll try to review books I know Ol' X isn't reviewing as not to clash but I may review the same books time to time and see where X and I agree or disagree. (Probably the latter.) So let's get down to business with my first review here. Oh and for those not familiar with my posts, the dialogue at the end of each review is my pick for line of the issue.

Justice League #5

Summary: For those not in the know, the last four issues of Justice League have centered around Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Faux, I mean Flash, and Green Lantern and the newly turned Cyborg...er.. Cyborg, all joining together just in time to face the invading threat known as Darkseid. In this issue we basically saw the team attack and fail miserably with Darkseid using his Omega Beams to take out Superman, but The Flash escaped them by phasing through a Parademon and letting that take the blast. After seeing Superman get taken away by the Parademons, Batman has a talk with Green Lantern where he tells Lantern to think and stop attacking so headstrong without having a plan, and says the two of them are alike. Hal doesn't agree with him so Bruce unmasks and says he's Bruce Wayne and gives his whole backstory for some odd reason before literally putting his arms up so the Parademons come grab him and take him away so he can save Superman. Green Lantern takes his advice and tries to rally Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Cyborg as they head off to take on Darkseid once again, meanwhile Bruce crosses through the Boom Tube to Apokalips as this issue comes to a close.

Thoughts: First things first, It was cool seeing Hal stand up to Darkseid over and over. It was cooler seeing him get his ass handed to him, I mean between this and Green Lantern, Hal's life has gotta suck because he's getting beat down physically, verbally or mentally all the time, and since he comes off as such an ass you can't help but to enjoy it. As for this issue, I liked some stuff like Flash dodging the Omega beam and Jim Lee's art is always great, but that's where it stops for me. I mean what the hell, there's two things Batman never does and that's kill, and reveal his identity to people he barely knows/trusts. Everyone knows that, but for some reason Geoff Johns seems to not. I mean think about it, he's banging Catwoman with his mask on. His former Boy Wonder, Red Robin, still hasn't told any of the Teen Titans who he is, yet meanwhile Bruce is not only taking off his cowl, but saying his damn name (how did Hal NOT know who Bruce Wayne is?!) as well as running around in the middle of the damn city with no cowl but still wearing the bat-suit! I know the planet is under attack by Darkseid but does that mean you just say to hell with the whole Secret Identity thing?! That irked me a lot, and rightfully so because it was SO out of character for Bruce. That aside this comic wasn't that enjoyable, the team just doesn't seem like a team, it seems like a book revolving around Flash, GL and Batman with three lines a piece for Cyborg, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. I'm trying to give this series a chance but considering Batman's recklessness in this issue I just ended up more annoyed than anything.

Score: 3.5 out of 10.
Batman: My name is Bruce Wayne.
Hal Jordan: Who the hell is Bruce Wayne?
(That's like me not knowing who Donald Trump is... he's a basketball player right?)

Let's Welcome...

2012-01-30T01:34:00.002-05:00

Hey there X-Maniacs, I have an extra special announcement to make tonight. One that will change this blog FOREVER!!! Yep, “FOREVER” in all caps, which proves just how big this announcement is! What is the announcement? I'll be adding a collaborator to this blog! And not just ANY collaborator, but probably the second(yes second...) greatest blogger in the history of the Internet! Who is this near legendary figure you ask? Ol' X is delighted to welcome the one and only Jason Todd of Jason Todd's Comic Spot to the blog. Yes, I have managed to convince(trick) my great friend JT to come and post stuff here at the blog, forsaking his own blog in the process... Yep, I am THAT convincing(and/or devious!)!

So, who is JT exactly? JT has gone from being a regular commenter here at the blog since September of 2009, to being a legitimate and valued friend who I speak to on a regular basis. JT is a fellow comic book aficionado, one who is especially knowledgeable on all things Jason Todd... As you probably guessed... Not only that, but he also reads a plethora of books from DC, Marvel, Zenescope, Image and probably other stuff that I didn't care to ask him about. As for what JT will be doing? Pretty much anything he wants. I'll still be doing a post(or three...) everyday, as usual, but now JT will chip in with some reviews, or links, or news stories, or whatever else strikes his fancy. So for example, for much ballyhooed comic books(like the upcoming Winter Soldier #1 let's say), you'll get TWO reviews for the book, meaning anything I miss, JT should pick up on, as well as giving you guys two different takes on things. Plus, he'll be able to throw reviews out there for books that I don't read, adding some extra content around here. Now, being completely serious for a moment, a huge thank you to JT for taking me up on my offer and deciding to add his immense talents to the blog... Oh, and JT? You'd better not suck! :P And that's all for now. I'll have two reviews up tomorrow, and I'm sure JT will post something soon, be it a review or just a random post... Probably... I don't know. As for me, until later, X out.

Justice League Dark #5

2012-01-29T20:00:00.002-05:00

Here's a series that's hanging on to my pull list by a thread. I've already given up on the first storyarc(no matter what happens in this issue I doubt it'll save this storyarc), but I'm planning on sticking around for at least another storyarc, since I still see SO much promise here...

Justice League Dark #5:

Summary: Having been dropped off near the Enchantress last issue, June Moone is rescued by John Constantine(where'd he come from?!). Constantine realizes that the only way to halt the Enchantress's worldwide attack was to reunite June and the Enchantress, even if June doesn't want to. With that, Constantine begins reciting the spell(actually that annoying rhyme from the past few issues) that would forcibly reunite the two. Deadman shows up and demands that Constantine leave the terrorized June alone, but Constantine refuses. Deadman tries to possess Constantine but can't because Constantine is too “filthy”(HA!), and Constantine finishes the spell, reuniting June and the Enchantress. Now combined into one being, Enchantress/June seems to have no recollection of what happened. With the threat over, Madame Xanadu has all of the characters involved in the storyline stop by her house and asks them to stay together for the good of the future. Constantine refuses to work with Xanadu, and storms off, as do the rest of the characters, leaving Xanadu alone amongst her cards.

Thoughts: Meh. This issue, much like the rest of this storyline, did nothing for me. If I had to say something positive, I'd say that it's nice to see that Peter Milligan finally featured Constantine prominently in this issue, since that was one of my main gripes about the prior few issues. But the Enchantress/June Moone storyline? I have no idea what happened, and to be honest, I could care less. The only thing that matters to me is that it's over, and hopefully things will get better moving forward.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Next issue: John Constantine recites Humpty Dumpty!

Voodoo #5

2012-01-29T19:30:00.001-05:00

So this is the first issue of this series without Ron Marz... I have to say, DC dropping Marz from this book greatly disappointed me because I thought he was slowly finding his groove here. But that's the way things seem to work in the new DCU... Writers change books seemingly every other issue. Oh well, let's see how Josh Williamson does. And let's see how long HE lasts on this book...

Voodoo #5:

Summary: Voodoo returns to the ship that brought her to Earth to send out the information about Earth's superhumans(she acquired that info last issue, fyi). Upon entering the ship she finds somebody waiting for her and we learn that Voodoo is a hybrid Daemonite, and that the guy in the ship was a full-blood Daemonite, who apparently hated hybrids... Um, huh... Anyway, the Daemonite goes to kill Voodoo, but she manages to use her... um, hybrid powers to kill the attacker. With that, she prepares to send out the information, but first takes a peek into the file to see what the government knew about her. In the file she learns that she was apparently a clone, and the real Voodoo was in government custody.

Thoughts: The hell?! This issue was......... something... I can't say I like the reveal that Voodoo was a hybrid Daemonite, mainly because we STILL don't know the full story behind the Daemonites yet(it's still unfolding in the pages of Grifter). And the ending? Terrible... It seemed like a really poor swerve simply done for the sake of swerving the readers. “Guess what? Voodoo is actually a CLONE!!!” Dun-dun-dun!!! The ending here just reeked of a forced move to try to raise interest at the expense of the story. And after reading what John Rozum had to say about his experiences writing Static Shock and how DC wanted to keep throwing out crazy ideas out at the expense of the story, I have a bad feeling that this series is going to become VERY light on the story and VERY heavy on the unexpected(and nonsensical) swerves...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

So now Voodoo is a hybrid Daemonite or something... Riiiiiight...

Mighty Thor #10

2012-01-28T20:00:00.001-05:00

And the final review for this Saturday night? Mighty Thor #10. Or Mighty Tanarus #10. Whatever, let's just get to it.

Mighty Thor #10:

Summary: The All-Mother asks Heimdall to peer into the future to see what was in store for Asgardia, and Heimdall warns the All-Mother that he could sense assassins coming for the All-Mother, but that he can't see exactly who the culprits were. From there, Heimdall confronts Tanarus, since Tanarus was a blindspot for Heimdall. Tanarus doesn't like Heimdall asking him questions, and as such attacks. Tanarus puts Heimdall out of action and heads off to stand with the All-Mother while she brought together representatives from all of the nine worlds. With the All-Mother distracted by her Congress of Worlds the plan is for Tanarus to kill the All-Mother, which would allow the trolls to invade Asgardia. Meanwhile, Loki and the Silver Surfer try in vain to lift Thor's hammer. Loki pleads for Thor to hear him, which causes the hammer to fly skyward. The Surfer chases after it and watches in shock as it pierces the universe on it's trip to Thor. Upon regaining his hammer, Thor remembers who he was, and decides to fight against the god-eating Demogorge in order to return home.

Thoughts: Meh. For whatever reason, I just never got into this comic. It's probably due to the fact that we ALL know that Thor will defeat the Demogorge and confront, and defeat, Tanarus/Ulik. Sure, there's some suspense in whether or not Thor returns in time to save the All-Mother from Tanarus's betrayal, but I'm not really invested enough in the All-Mother to really care if the trolls kill her or not. Maybe if she was more established I'd care more, but as it is, I'm just waiting for Thor to come back and beat up Tanarus, and really nothing more.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Yes, I laughed at the Loki/stick line... Sue me.

Daken: Dark Wolverine #20

2012-01-28T19:30:00.000-05:00

Hey look, it's Daken! This is one of the last issues of this series, as we limp towards the finish line. I make no bones about the fact that I love the Daken character, but hate the direction this series has gone in since Dan Way left. Here's hoping Rob Williams was saving some of his best Daken work for last...

Daken: Dark Wolverine #20:

Summary: Daken finally figures out who the crimelord of Los Angeles was, Count Nefaria(!). Unfortunately, he is unable to shoot Nefaria with his sniper gun due to Nefaria being too protected. As such, Daken leaves to find FBI Agent Kiel, who he thinks he's in love with... Yeah. Kiel is still acting rather crazy due to her experiences with Roston(who I thought WAS the kingpin of LA, but whatever). The two make out before Kiel complains about Daken being evil and a cop-killer and all. Daken tells her that's because he's a psychopath, just like she is, only she hasn't come to terms with it yet. As such, Daken takes her to a home where he had tied up three amoral people and told Kiel to... I don't know, give in to her inner psychopath and kill them. Kiel balks and goes to shoot Daken instead, so he lops off her hand. Daken ties off the wound because he's still smitten with Kiel and goes off to kill Nefaria. This issue ends with Nefaria shrugging off Daken's bullets, leading to Daken facing Nefaria personally.

Thoughts: All I'll say is this... Here's hoping this was the last time we see FBI Agent Kiel. Period, the end. Other than that, I really don't have much else to add. This was another issue of this title that just didn't live up to the lofty standards Dan Way and Marjorie Liu set for this series when it began.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

Here's hoping she's ambidextrous...

Avengers: Solo #4

2012-01-27T20:00:00.001-05:00

Okay, this should be interesting. On one hand, I love Hawkeye. On the other hand, this mini-series, the Hawkeye story in particular, has been VERY lackluster. Here's hoping things pick up as we get closer to the conclusion of this one.

Avengers: Solo #4(of 5):

Summary: Ugh. This comic was so bad I don't even know how to go about reviewing it! Here's my best shot... Hawkeye rescues Trace and the doctor who experimented on Trace from some bad guys. The doctor claims he was forced to experiment on Trace and the other women, but nobody really trusts the doctor. The doctor does give Trace and Hawkeye the location of the bad guys, so Hawkeye, Trace, and another random character(I haven't the foggiest who they are) head to the location. Hawkeye plans on sneaking in, but is confronted by Iron Man who demands to know what Hawkeye was up to. The back-up story(which was WAAAAAY better) sees Striker and Finesse(my two favorite Avengers Academy cadets) battling against Alkhema. The two Avengers-in-training manage to remove one of Alkhema's arms, but unfortunately, the angry robot continues it's attack.

Thoughts: You know, I wish they'd just drop the Hawkeye feature and give the next issue fully over to the Avengers Academy back-up story... And I say that as just about the biggest Hawkeye fan you'll ever find! The Hawkeye story was nearly incomprehensible. Plain and simple. The Avengers Academy back-up was good, but since it was only 5 pages(actually four because one page was a splash), it really couldn't save this comic for me. Ah well. Hopefully the next issue will magically make sense or something. I don't know...

Score: 3 out of 10.

See, I hated the main story so much I posted a page from the back-up story!

X-Men Legacy #261

2012-01-27T19:30:00.001-05:00

Next comic up for reviewing? That would be X-Men Legacy #261. This is only the second issue of Legacy that I've read in the past 3 years or so, and that's thanks to Christos Gage taking over the series. Let's see what Gage has in store for us here.

X-Men Legacy #261:

Summary: Blindfold(one of the X-Kids) gets a prognosticative(how's THAT for a ten dollar word!) vision and warns Wolverine and the rest of the faculty that destruction was coming to the school. Wolvie sends the kids to the school's safe room(which actually shunts the kids to a neutral dimension) and spots the trouble outside... Exodus(!!!). Wolvie and the faculty head outside to see what Exodus wanted, and he demands that they head back to Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) since splitting the world's remaining mutants was harmful(or something). Wolvie says nuts to that, so Exodus attacks. Realizing that the best they could hope for was a stalemate, Rogue tells Exodus to look into her mind to see why her and the rest of the non-crazy X-Men left Crazy Mutie Island. Wolvie also agrees to be probed(ugh) so Exodus looks into their minds and apologizes, since he now realizes that Rogue and Wolvie left Crazy Mutie Island because that's what they believed was best for mutantkind. Exodus tells the X-Men that now that he knew who the REAL problem to mutantkind was, he'd eliminate them. With that, Exodus leaves, and Wolvie and Rogue realize that Exodus intended on killing Lord Summers(GOOD!!). Being the good guys, the faculty rush after Exodus to stop him.

Thoughts: This was a very good, very solid comic book. As a huge fan of Exodus, I was happy to see him pop up here, as crazy as ever. And yes, I loved the twist at the end with the X-Men realizing that they accidentally sent Exodus off to murder Lord Summers. So yeah, this was a good comic. It wasn't great or anything, but it was a fine way to pass a few minutes.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Yep, I am indeed a fan of Exodus!

Captain America and Bucky #626

2012-01-26T20:00:00.003-05:00

Next review, (and the last review for the night) is Captain America and Bucky. I've read that the title of this series will be changing to Captain America and *fill in the blank* in a few months, but until then, it's still Cap and Bucky.

Captain America and Bucky #626:

Summary: After getting the remains of Adam II, Captain America is forced to leave the original Human Torch and William Naslund III behind so he could deal with the robotic Bucky clone from last issue. Robo-Bucky has gone on a shooting spree, and needless to say, Cap is enraged to see somebody using that uniform in that manner. Robo-Bucky makes a break for it upon seeing Cap, while Naslund III and Torch dissect Adam II's remains, discovering a strange orb at the base of Adam II's skull. The orb forces Torch to uncontrollably burst into flames, while Naslund III seems transfixed by it. Meanwhile, Fred Davis(the second Bucky) has been researching William Naslund III and has found nothing but dead ends and classified files. Worried that something smelt wrong, Davis phones Torch to warn him, but is being stalked by a crazy nurse with a needle. Cap tracks down Robo-Bucky at a factory, and is confronted with a mess of Captain America robots, and (unsurprisingly) Naslund III turns out to be an android himself, and is reprogrammed by the orb into becoming Adam III.

Thoughts: Eh. This storyline has been really paint-by-numbers for me thus far. The Naslund reveal was no shock because it was pretty much established last issue that he had no real past, which, coupled by Davis's suspicion, made it pretty clear he was more than meets the eye. I will say this, I wouldn't mind Adam III sticking around past this storyline, because he has some potential. Will he though? That's something I am unsure about...

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Get with the program, Cap! It's obviously Robo-Bucky!

Teen Titans #5

2012-01-26T19:30:00.001-05:00

Huh, check it out, I'm already reading a DC comic this week! Usually the DC books I pick up reside at or around the bottom of my new comic pile, so it's nice to see that I'm actually somewhat interested in giving one a read. The past few issues of this series? I have to admit, I've enjoyed them. Greatly. This is on the very short list of DC books that I read that I enjoy, so here's hoping that trend continues.

Teen Titans #5:

Summary: With Superboy prepared to take Wonder Girl back to his masters at NOWHERE(yep, that would be ANOTHER evil government agency...), the other Teen Titans(roll call! Red Robin, Kid Flash, Solstice & Bunker) step in to stop him. The Titans fight like the black ninjas in those old martial arts movies, attacking SB one at a time, and as such, are dismissed with relative ease. Eventually the only Titans left standing is Solstice, and she tells SB that the forces at NOWHERE aren't interested in protecting the world from teenage meta-humans, but want to... I don't know, do something EVIL with the captured kids instead. SB knocks Solstice out, but her words haunt him so he dumps the NOWHERE truck that was monitoring him into a river and heads off in search of Templar and some answers. As for the Titans, they are all left laying.

Thoughts: Sheesh, the Titans sure looked like crap in this issue, didn't they!? Superboy defeating the team CAN be overlooked however, mainly because they AREN'T a team yet. They haven't had a chance to train together, and as such were overwhelmed by their stronger opponent. That makes sense. My problem with this comic comes more from the fact that it spent the entire issue telling us that the Titans needed more training... It was kind of boring. This entire issue consisted of a random Titan attacking and getting a slight advantage on SB, and then SB defeating them, before the next random Titan attacked, meeting with the same results, until the entire team had lost. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I don't know if we needed to spend this entire issue on that.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Wheeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

Deadpool #49.1

2012-01-25T20:00:00.001-05:00

Last review for the night is Deadpool #49.1... Another Point One issue?! Anyway, this promises to be a musical, and if it's true to form, this will either be laugh out loud hilarious, or absolutely terrible... Let's see which way we go.

Deadpool #49.1:

Summary: Deadpool recaps the entire Danial Way run on this series... In song. Seriously. Some of the parts are done to a frigging Britney Spears song! Weird... Seeing as this was a TOTAL recap comic book, there's not really much of a review for me to do here.

Thoughts: See, THIS is what I thought these Point One issues were supposed to do! Fill you in on what's been going on in a series if you happened to be a new reader. And this issue did a good job of that... Well, I personally could have done without the musical aspect of it, but I'm sure some people probably enjoyed this one way more than I did. Plus there was a Dr. Bong and Daken cameo, so that helped bump up my enjoyment of this one. As it was, there were a few parts here that got a chuckle out of, but for somebody like me, who knew all of the storylines Pool sang about, this comic was kind of unnecessary for me to read.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Sweet, it's Dr. Bong!!

Secret Avengers #21.1

2012-01-25T19:30:00.001-05:00

First review of the week? As promised, Secret Avengers #21.1. This issue gives us the beginning of the Rick Remender era(hear that fans of Venom and Uncanny X-Force?? That means you should give this a shot!), and as important, for me at least, the start of Hawkeye(my favorite Avenger) as this team's leader. I am expecting SO much from this comic...

Secret Avengers #21.1:

Summary: Captain America takes Hawkeye on a covert mission to a rogue nation called Bagalia to protect an American senator from an assassination attempt. In case you're curious, Bagalia is one of those countries where anything goes if you are rich enough... Cap and Hawkeye do the stealth thing and Hawkeye pinpoints the senator's location in a private room, and does as Hawkeye always does when tasked with using stealth, kicks the door in and tells the senator they were there to protect him... Ah Hawkeye... But wait! It turns out the senator was actually a life model decoy(LMD) and attacks the two heroes, leading to a hasty retreat before the LMD explodes. The two heroes manage to make it to the ground, and in true Cap fashion, he tears into Hawkeye for not being cautious enough, and for walking the two of them into an obvious trap. With that, Cap tells Hawkeye he wasn't ready to lead the Secret Avengers, which(rightly!) pisses Hawkeye off. The two argue, and Cap throws Hawkeye's family into his face, telling him that much like his dead father, Hawkeye was weak... DAY-UM!! Needless to say, Hawkeye gets uber-pissed and leaves Cap behind. Cap stands there pondering the fact that maybe he went too far in trying to see if Hawkeye could control his temper and not take a swing at Cap for his nasty words. While Cap is pondering, he is attacked by Vengeance(!!), Whiplash, and Princess Python, and is summarily captured. While on the train out of the country, Hawkeye hears that an American assassin had been captured(obviously Cap) and broods. The trio of villains take Cap to Max Fury, who taunts Cap for a bit and tells him that he'll show the world that Captain America himself had invaded a sovereign nation to assassinate a senator. Which while not true, would definitely be picked up as true in certain parts of the world. Before Max can set up a camera filming Cap's inglorious defeat, Hawkeye arrives, having used his stealth device to sneak right into Max's inner lair and takes out Max's three goons. Instead of killing Max(because Avengers DON'T kill! I'm looking at YOU, Wolverine!), Hawkeye grabs Cap and uses a rocket arrow to escape Max's lair, which was now compromised. This issue ends with Hawkeye telling Cap that he didn't need Cap's approval to become a leader for the Avengers, as you have to find that approval in yourself, thus solidifying Cap's decision to name Hawkeye the leader of the Secret Avengers.

Thoughts: What can I say? I loved this comic. Rick Remender PERFECTLY depicted the relationship between Cap and Hawkeye here. There is massive respect between the two, but at the end of the day, they go about their business in completely opposite ways. Cap is the consummate professional who is seemingly always right(as Hawkeye points out here), while Hawkeye is the brash, in-your-face type of guy who'd rather smash down the door and rush in flinging arrows. This comic was ALMOST perfect... The ONLY thing that bugged me(and it only bugged me a little bit because I understood why Cap did it) was Cap harping on Hawkeye's dead parents and calling Hawkeye weak in an effort to get him to lose his temper. That was kind of a low blow. Although, as stated, I did understand Cap's strategy behind his harsh words. That and the fact that Hawkeye, who has led the West Coast Avengers, the Avengers and the Thunderbolts, had to be “tested” by Cap I found a bit vexing, but other than that, this was the best comic book I've read thus far in 2012. I'd say the Rick Remender Secret Avengers era is off to a HUGE success!

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.

Even on the first page of this issue Hawkeye's dialogue got a chuckle out of me!

New Comic Day! January 25th edition

2012-01-25T12:41:00.000-05:00

Hey there X-Maniacs, it's Wednesday, which means it's time for another New Comic Day! Before I get into what I picked up as well as the Pick and Runt of the week, a quick question... Most of the past week saw me do quicker type reviews than I usually do, which worked out quite nicely for me, since I had a few busy days/nights and couldn't really spend all that much time typing up big, long reviews. So here's the question... Does anybody really have any major gripes about me cutting back on the length of the reviews I do? I mean for some books I WANT to type out a huge, long-winded posts because I really enjoyed the comic, but some books either don't really inspire me enough to spend a good 15-20 minutes typing about them, or don't really need super long write-ups. Besides being easier for me to type, I kind of figure the Quick Look reviews are easier to read. But I'm open for suggestions, and if a mess of people ask me to go back to the other type of reviews, then I will. If not, I'll probably alternate between my regular reviews and the Quick Look reviews.

Now that I've taken care of that, let's take a gander into my bag from the comic shop and see what I brought home with me. Justice League Dark #5, Teen Titans #5, Voodoo #5, Avengers Solo #4, Captain America and Bucky #626, Daken: Dark Wolverine #20, Deadpool #49.1, Mighty Thor #10, Secret Avengers #21.1, X-Men Legacy #261... Hey, look at that, a very reasonable 10 books this week! Well, kind of... I also picked up Green Lantern: New Guardians #5, but I mainly picked it up because my sister is enjoying it... I absolutely hate it passionately, and as such, am not sure if I'm going to bother reading it. If I DO read it, I shall be scoring it using Brightest Day Rules, which will at least amuse me. As for this week's Pick of the Litter, I'm going to go with Secret Avengers #21.1, if only because I am extremely curious to see what Rick Remender does with this book. This week's Runt of the Litter is... Um, I want to say New Guardians #5, but since I may not even read that book, I can't really choose it. Instead, I'll go with the thus far terrible Justice League Dark book. If Zatanna and Constantine weren't in this series? I'd have dropped it LOOOONG ago. With 10+ books this week, I should have 2 reviews up each night between now and next Tuesday. As for tonight, expect reviews for Secret Avengers and Deadpool #49.1. And that's it. Remember to check the scan blog as I'll have this week's Random Scan posted there pretty soon. Until later, X out.

A Quick Look At... Avengers #21

2012-01-24T20:30:00.001-05:00

And the final comic to be reviewed this week? None other than Avengers #21! Let's get to it!

Avengers #21:

What Happened: Norman “I'm NOT the Green Goblin!” Osborn's multi-pronged attack on the Avengers seems to meet with success this issue as Osborn's HAMMER forces take out Spider-Woman, Hawkeye, Storm, Red Hulk, Protector and Iron Man(who's systems were apparently hacked by Osborn's forces). This issue concludes with Osborn's forces preparing to finish off Vision, Quake and Captain America.

Thoughts: You know what? I really enjoyed this one! Sure, I COULD have gone more into detail about what happened, but what's the point? My write-up was basically what happened. Osborn's various forces downed the Avengers. Plain and simple. Sure, there were a few things that bugged me, such as Iron Man's armor getting corrupted AGAIN, but overall, I have no major complaints here. Hell, even Protector(Marvel Boy) got to look relatively good against Iron Man before he was finally defeated. Sure, this comic was entirely skippable, since nothing really changed from the prior issue in THIS issue, but hell, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth! After months of terrible Avengers comics, this was almost like a breath of fresh air!

Score: 7 out of 10.

Best page of Bendis dialogue EVER!!!

A Quick Look At... Supergirl #5

2012-01-24T20:00:00.000-05:00

Next up, the final DC review of the week, Supergirl. This series has been SHOCKINGLY good, far better than I'd have EVER expected it to be... Hopefully I didn't just jinx things here...

Supergirl #5:

What Happened: Using her Sunstone as a guide, Supergirl flies through the galaxy, coming across a wormhole. SG goes through and ends up at the floating Kryptonian city of Argo. After a quick look around, SG discovers the city completely abandoned, but does manage to find a working control matrix, which she uses to fire up her Sunstone. The Sunstone has a message from SG's father who confirms that Krypton had indeed blown up, and that he was trying to figure out a way to launch Argo off of Krypton before it exploded. While he is talking, he is suddenly blasted from behind and the message abruptly stops, much to SG's horror. SG freaks out and goes on a rampage until she bumps into somebody called Reign. Reign claims to be a Kryptonian weapon called a Worldkiller, and asks SG to help her discover the truth behind Krypton's destruction. SG is still throwing a temper tantrum, so Reign gets pissed off and beats SG unconscious, leaving her behind while Argo slowly drifted closer and closer to the sun it had been circling.

Thoughts: As usual, this was another strong issue of this series. Not only was the story/art/dialogue strong, we were also introduced to ANOTHER interesting villain here. That's something the writing team of Michael Green and Mike Johnson have done a great job with in this book... Setting up future enemies for SG to face off against. So many other rebooted DC titles just seem so listless, while it's obvious that Green and Johnson know what they want to do here, and are putting several longterm plans into motion. Besides Batman, this is probably the most complete DC comic, post-reboot, that I read.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Dammit, Krypton's done blowed up again!

A Quick Look At... Thunderbolts #169

2012-01-23T20:45:00.000-05:00

It looks like we're back to the evil Thunderbolts here based on the cover.

Thunderbolts #169:

What Happened: FYI, the evil T-Bolts are now trapped in 537 Britain... Troll leaves the evil T-Bolt tower to hunt for some food, but runs afoul the Black Knight. The Knight and Troll battle(since Knight thought Troll was a real troll), at least until Knight realizes he was fighting a female and ceases battling. Boomerang, who was sent out to retrieve Troll before she got into trouble(too late!), knocks Knight out with a boomerang, steals the Ebony Blade from Knight and leaves with Troll. Naturally, this leads to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table approaching T-Bolts tower demanding satisfaction. The T-Bolts, dress in period costumes, try to convince Arthur that they had been shanghaied there due to an evil sorcerer and meant Arthur and his knights no harm. Arthur wants the Ebony Blade returned, Boomerang doesn't want to return it, and after some hostile words are exchanged, the two sides battle. Eventually Satana decides to cast a sleeping spell on the knights to end the battle, but has the spell reversed by Merlin. When the T-Bolts awaken, they find themselves locked in Merlin's personal dungeon along with several other fanciful creatures.

Thoughts: I really don't have much more to add to this post... This comic was perfectly acceptable. Sure, I didn't like the idea of Merlin besting Satana with magic, but it was explained in a way that made it palatable for me. Other than that though, I have nothing really good nor bad to say, so let's move on.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Sure, steal the Ebony Blade... Nothing bad can come of that I'm sure!

A Quick Look At... Invincible Iron Man #512

2012-01-23T20:30:00.001-05:00

Um, what's next... Ah, Iron Man. Or Invincible Iron Man. Whatever. Let's get to it!

Invincible Iron Man #512:

What Happened: After his defeat at the hands of Living Laser last issue, Iron Man gets brought to the hospital, but forcefully refuses treatment since he didn't want the emergency room staff to screw with his damaged repulsor unit. Meanwhile, the Mandarin pushes Ezekiel Stane around, demanding Stane readies the Dreadnoughts for an attack on China. Stane is pissed. Back with Tony, he hangs out with Anthem in a coffee shop until a cop shows up to arrest(?) Tony for his actions in Times Square and the emergency room the prior night. Tony flies the coop. From there, Blizzard and Living Laser complain about the way Mandarin had been treating them, and contemplate attacking him. Damn lackeys... Next, General Babbage complains that as a drunk, Tony shouldn't have possession of the Iron Man armor. Finally, the Dreadnoughts attack China.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this issue. We had a lot of characters show up, and a lot of pieces move around the chess board. I'm still not sure what Mandarin's endgame is(how does attacking China ruin Tony Stark?), but I did like seeing that Mandarin's lackeys were plotting against him. It's little stuff like that that really helps enhance a comic book's story for me.

Score: 8 out of 10.

I have to admit, Matt Fraction has been doing a great job writing the Mandarin.

A Quick Look At... Fear Itself: The Fearless #7

2012-01-23T20:15:00.000-05:00

This issue should give us a huge Wolverine vs Crossbones battle... Needless to say, I expect blood... And LOTS of it!

Fear Itself: The Fearless #7(of 12):

What Happened: While the Avengers and Dr. Strange try to deal with Sin and the demons attacking Project PEGASUS(and wonder where Daimon Hellstrom went), Wolverine and Crossbones have themselves a throwdown for the Serpent hammer the Project had acquired. Crossbones ends up getting stabbed in the gut, but manages to put Wolvie down with a few point-blank shots to the chest... At least until Wolvie hops up and stabs Crossbones through the chest(!!). There's your Avenger right there folks... Anyway, Valkyrie arrives on the scene and assists Strange in shutting down the portal that was freeing the demons at the Project, while Hellstrom is busy betraying the Avengers and blasting Wolvie in the back(!?!?!). Hellstrom heals Crossbones and heads to Sin with the hammer. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Sin agrees to take Hellstrom with her and she teleports away with her DOA crew, Crossbones, Hellstrom and the Serpent hammer.

Thoughts: What the HELL was THAT?! As a fan of Daimon, it should go without saying that his decision here annoyed me... A LOT!! But, I'm willing to see how things play out before I blow a gasket or anything like that. While Daimon's actions were vexing, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the fight between Wolvie and Crossbones. I was initially afraid that Crossbones was going to win(seriously, he's not in Wolvie's class fighting-wise), but in the end, the right outcome occurred. And yes, it was a VERY bloody battle, as it should be. With Daimon's apparent defection, I'm quite interested in getting my hands on the next issue.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Boo-yah!!!

A Quick Look At... Batman #5

2012-01-23T20:00:00.000-05:00

Next up, probably the gem of the DC reboot for me, Scott Snyder's Batman.

Batman #5:

What Happened: Basically this issue deals with Batman slowly going insane due to being trapped in the Owl's maze. Plus his water supply is probably being drugged, thus adding ti Batman's ever-growing madness... But yeah, this entire issue deals with Bats simply wandering around the maze, trying to avoid the light and winding up back where he started... Repeatedly!

Thoughts: Yes, I know that wasn't much of a review(thus why it's a “Quick Look At...” review!), but seriously, that's the entirety of this issue! Bats haplessly roaming around that maze and slowly going crazy. Scott Snyder actually added a nice little touch to show us just how crazy Bats was going by having the comic pages go sideways and upside-down at certain points in the story(which led to a very confused me turning the pages the wrong way every now and then...). Greg Capullo's art and Snyder's story REALLY hammered home how disorienting the Owl maze was, and made this an interesting, and quite good read.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Don't you just HATE it when that happens?!

A Quick Look At... Hellblazer #287

2012-01-22T23:01:00.001-05:00

Before I get to the next review, I just wanted to let it be known that this will be the only post I do tonight on account of me celebrating the Giants heading to the Super Bowl! What an awesome game tonight... Anyway, I won't be able to comment on anything today, but I do plan on posting a whopping four reviews tomorrow and two more on Tuesday to FINALLY get myself caught up. Oh, and it should go without saying that come February 5th? Super Bowl Sunday? I most definitely won't be online! With all of that out of the way, it's time to head to Vertigo and see what John Constantine is up to this month... If nothing else it should be insane... And have a lot of profanity!

Hellblazer #287:

What Happened: Having been blackmailed by his scummy niece, Gemma, Constantine heads to Hell in order to talk to his sister(Gemma's mother) to find out... something. I'm not sure, but bottom line, Constantine has to go to Hell in order to stop Gemma from sleeping with his father-in-law by chatting with his sis. While in Hell, Constantine bumps into a duplicitous demon and ends up being transported to a room holding all of the people whose lives he'd ruined. When he turns around, he's confronted by... The devil? Maybe? Another demon? I'm not really sure...

Thoughts: Besides my confusion over WHY Constantine is in Hell, and who that demon on the last page was, this was a good read. I know in the pre-reboot DCU, Blaze was inexplicably made into the devil over the FAR superior Neron, but post-reboot, and especially in the Vertigo books, I have NO idea what “their” devil looks like. So this could have been the devil, or some powerful demon Constantine pissed off during his last foray into Hell. Regardless, I'm definitely looking forward to the next issue.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Ah Constantine...

A Quick Look At... Amazing Spider-Man #678

2012-01-22T12:16:00.002-05:00

And for the second consecutive week, it's time for another issue of Amazing Spider-Man... If you are trying to get me to drop this series, Marvel, you are doing a splendid job!

Amazing Spider-Man #678:

What Happened: A fellow scientist at Horizon Labs shows Peter Parker a doorway that leads into tomorrow... Yes, a doorway to the future. The scientist proves this by bringing Peter a newspaper from the next day. Curious, Peter steps through and the room is replaced by a catastrophic scene of a decimated New York. Peter quickly realizes that by stepping into the future-room, he had messed up reality and the bad future was now set to occur. Peter switches to Spidey and with the scientist telling him what Spider-Man was supposed to do from the newspaper from the (good) future, Spidey goes about tackling every crime he was reported as stopping. Unfortunately, time is almost up and the future room was still showing the bad future, meaning there was something Spidey still had to do.

Thoughts: This was a pretty good comic. I know it's not going to be everybody's cup of tea, what with the alternate dimensions, and time play, but I've always enjoyed stories like that, so I liked this. I didn't get exactly why Spidey going into the future room screwed everything up, but it's not like that's too big of a deal.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

See, that's why you don't get changed up an alley!

A Quick Look At... Daredevil #8

2012-01-21T21:49:00.001-05:00

Next up as I try to blitz through this week's comics? Daredevil. This is the second and final part of the storyline that began in last week's Amazing Spider-Man.

Daredevil #8:

What Happened: Spidey, DD and Black Cat head to the home of the scientist who created the missing holographic device that was stolen and discover him hiding in a safe room. DD smells poison on the scientist, who quickly admits that he had been involved with the frame up of Black Cat with regards to the “stolen” device. While Spidey takes the scientist to the hospital, DD and BC track down the device and while DD is returning it to it's case, BC gets an offer to work for the Black Spectre organization in stealing the Omegadrive from Matt Murdock(Daredevil!). We don't learn what BC says, but after the mission, she ends up back at DD's apartment for some sexual situations. However, they are interrupted by a phone call from Foggy Nelson telling DD that his father's body had vanished from it's grave.

Thoughts: Meh. This was an okay story, as usual. I mean I really haven't read a TERRIBLE DD story yet, but I also haven't read a great one either... I'm not exactly sure where all of the love for this series is coming from. Oh well, maybe things will pick up for me next issue.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Poor Spidey...

A Quick Look At... Uncanny X-Force #20

2012-01-21T21:44:00.002-05:00

And now, Uncanny X-Force. I am SO not looking forward to this story... For the record, I hate the Captain Britain Corps and the entire idea of Otherworld. I just wanted that on the table.

Uncanny X-Force #20:

What Happened: Otherworld is under attack and yet Capt. Britain managed to find the time to kidnap his sister Psylocke and Fantomex. He wants Psylocke to join with him and their usually insane brother Jamie, while he also wanted Fantomex tried for shooting Kid Apocalypse in the head all those issues ago. Upon learning that Psylocke and Fantomex were captured, X-Force heads to Otherworld thanks to Gateway and finds themselves in the middle of a warzone as the Capt. Britain Corps tried to fight off invaders. As for Fantomex, he is found guilty and is sentenced to death.

Thoughts: This was as terrible as I expected it to be. No, I take that back... It was even worse than I feared. How the HELL does Captain Britain have the right to abduct Fantomex and try him for the death of Kid Apocalypse? Yeah, I get that his sister was involved, but so what? Does he abduct ALL child murderers from throughout the multiverse and try them for their crimes? The very idea of this storyline is idiotic, as is the concept of the Captain Britain Corps... But then again I've always hated Capt. Britain, so there's that too...

Score: 2 out of 10.

And here I thought AOA Nightcrawler was going to fit right in here...

A Quick Look At... Nightwing #5

2012-01-20T22:01:00.000-05:00

Here's another rebooted DC series that SHOULD be way better than it is. I mean it's Nightwing... This should be a slam dunk to write! And yet we get Dick Grayson traveling cross-country with a circus...

Nightwing #5:

What Happened: A voodoo priestess summons a demon to force a clown that she loved to marry her... Yes, really... Trust me, I couldn't make something that stupid up to save my life! The demon abducts the clown, but Nightwing spots what was happening and follows the rampaging demon back to the graveyard the priestess was operating out of. Nightwing manages to trick the demon into going back to Hell(or wherever it came from) and cuffs the priestess, thus saving the clown. Meanwhile, Raya is in cahoots with Saiko.

Thoughts: Gah! What the hell was this all about?!? A clown and a voodoo priestess? Plus a rampaging demon?!? I just don't understand... Would it be THAT difficult to take Dick Grayson, put him in Gotham City(or New York, Philadelphia or any other major city) and have him deal with street-level threats?! Why the hell is Nightwing fighting demons?!? Ugh... This series has been such a disappointment...

Score: 5 out of 10.

Yeah sure, Nightwing versus a demon... Why not.

A Quick Look At... Red Hood and the Outlaws #5

2012-01-20T21:11:00.002-05:00

Here's a series that's been surprisingly bad considering the character in it... Let's see if things pick up here.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #5:

What Happened: Arsenal arrives on the scene to assist Starfire against Crux, and the two of them manage to take the mutated freak down. Meanwhile, Red Hood kills the member of the Untitled he'd been battling for the past issue or so, but doing so causes the Untitled to revert back to human form(why?). Naturally the townspeople see the aftermath of the battle and chase after Hood with pitchforks and rifles... Yes, really. Hood rendezvous with Starfire and Arsenal with a mess of angry yokels hot on his heels.

Thoughts: Yep, we hit rock bottom here. This was definitely the worst issue of this series thus far. Five issues in and we still don't know what the deal is between the Untitled and the All-Caste, or who broke the truce between the two groups. Hell, the bad guys here, the Untitled, don't even seem to know who broke the truce! This comic is a confusing mess, plain and simple. Really, since you have two street-level heroes, why are we dealing with monsters, magic swords and immortal old women? On the plus side, as usual, the artwork was very good.

Score: 3 out of 10.

Don't ask me. I have NO clue what's happening here!

MIA.

2012-01-19T23:05:00.000-05:00

Old X is going to be kind of MIA for the next few days... In other words, I probably won't be able to respond to comments in my regular expedient fashion... On top of that, I'm going to forgo my regular reviews for some super-brisk reviews. You'll know I'm busting out one of my quickie reviews by the titles of the posts. So, I will continue to get “reviews”(and I use that in the loosest definition possible) up, but other than that, at least until Sunday, my appearances around here may be sparse. But hey, as I always say, half-assed reviews are better than no reviews at all! X out.

Venom #12

2012-01-19T20:00:00.001-05:00

I'm still running a bit behind with my reviews so far this week, so tonight is another two review night. Hopefully by Friday night I'll have had enough time to do three reviews. But we shall see. First up tonight is one of the better series I read monthly, Venom! By the way, this is Venom's 24 anniversary... I have NO idea why that's important, but Marvel thought it was and put it right on the front cover. I mean I get celebrating a 10th, 20th, 25th, and so on anniversaries, but 24th??? That's an odd number to celebrate... Anyway, I WILL have another review up later tonight, I'm just not sure when...

Venom #12:

Summary: Venom(Flash Thompson) manages to sneak into the casino holding whatever it was that the Crime-Master wanted, but ends up losing control, which puts the symbiote in the driver's seat. The symbiote controlled Venom rampages through the casino and discovers what Crime-Master had sent him to retrieve, the Toxin symbiote. Venom doesn't want another symbiote around and proceeds to try to kill it, which leads to Jack O' Lantern jumping in to rescue the Toxin symbiote. Jack makes a dash for it but ends up getting caught by Venom. Venom is prepared to kill Jack, at least until Jack warns Flash that if he didn't regain control Crime-Master was going to murder Flash's mother and girlfriend(Betty Brant). That allows Flash to rein the symbiote in, at which point Jack takes Toxin and leaves. As for Flash, he calls Betty and callously breaks up with her before buying himself some whiskey and downing the entire bottle. This issue ends with the Red Hulk, as per the orders of Captain America, getting closer and closer to Las Vegas and Venom.

Thoughts: As usual, this was another good, strong issue of this series. The Toxin reveal was unexpected and a nice touch(it makes sense that Crime-Master would want to get his hands on something like that), and this issue flew by. It didn't have that extra little something to make this issue truly memorable, but what can ya do?

Score: 8 out of 10.If you say so, big guy!

New Mutants #36

2012-01-19T00:26:00.001-05:00

Last review of the night is going to be New Mutants #36... My favorite character is in this series, and I love the writers and all, but I have to say, here's hoping this is the last issue of the current storyline...

New Mutants #36:

Summary: This is gonna be a quickie on account of me, you know, not liking this storyline... Cypher wakes up on Diskhord's bus and fills the New Mutants in on where Diskhord had gone(Chicago), what the creature in the box was(a sentient ship full of chaos magic), what the thing in the box was trying to do(create enough chaos to locate the rest of it's... um, ship/self/people/something), and how it was planning on doing it(with a massive, city-destroying earthquake). The New Mutants teleport to Chi-town thanks to Blink, and while Magma attempts to prevent the disastrous earthquake, the rest of the New Mutants either protect Magma or attack the chaos-ship possessed Diskhord members. After a bit of a battle, Blink and Warlock take the box containing the chaos-ship-thing into space and throw it really far away. With the chaos-ship-thing gone, it's chaos effect ceases and Chicago is saved! Huzzah! This issue ends with Moonstar calling Lord Summers to tell him that she had offered Blink a place on Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia), but that Blink had instead decided to go to Wolverine's school. Lord Summers is fine with the way things worked out since a) it was Blink's choice, and b) she was safe now.

Thoughts: Meh. This was a solid(-ish) issue that concluded a storyline I wasn't very keen on to begin with. There really isn't too much more for me to say about this one... The next storyline looks really good though, as it appears that Mephisto is going to collect on the date Magma owed him for his assistance during the Fear Itself event. THAT should be good.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Did I over-score this comic? Probably, but hey, Nate was in it!

Morning Glories #15

2012-01-18T23:51:00.002-05:00

I'm finally here with the first comic review of the week... Yes, it's a few hours later than usual, but better late than never, right? It's only going to be two reviews tonight, with the first being this week's Pick of the Litter... What comic is that? Well, since you've probably seen the title of this post, I'm sure you already know...

Morning Glories #15:

What Happened: Half of this issue takes place in the present(during the bizarre Woodrun event) while the other half looks back at Zoe's pre-Morning Glories years... Let's hit the flashback first. A few issues ago(I think it was a few issues back...) we learned that Zoe had killed her English teacher after she thought the teacher was raping a cheerleader friend of hers. In actuality, the cheerleader was willingly screwing the teacher. Regardless, with the teacher dead, Zoe and the cheerleader tossed the teacher's body into a boiler at the school, getting rid of the evidence. Unfortunately for Zoe, her cheerleader friend's conscience wouldn't allow her to live with herself, and she wanted to come clean about what really happened. Zoe prevents this by(seemingly) tossing her friend over a bridge to her death, making the whole scene look like a suicide. Back to the present... Jun is taken away from Hunter and Zoe's group due to some of the wacky rules of Woodrun. The girl who comes to tell Jun to head back to the school has a huge crush on Hunter, which he is naturally oblivious to, at least at first. The girl leaves with Jun but has made a date with Hunter at some vague point in the future. With Jun gone, it's just Hunter and Zoe, and the two discover an abandoned building out in the woods. The two enter and since this IS Morning Glories Academy, it turns out to be a deathtrap. Surprisingly Zoe saves Hunter from being fricasseed, AND finds a flag(which is what you were supposed to find during Woodrun), as well a some sleeping bags, and oh yeah, a butcher knife... When Hunter comes to Zoe shows him the sleeping bags but keeps the knife to herself... From there the two set up camp for the night and Zoe tells Hunter that he should forget about trying to date Casey since it was painfully obvious Casey was WAY out of Hunter's league. After a surprisingly cordial conversation between the two, the go to sleep... Or do they?! In the next camp over, the girl who was flirting with Hunter earlier goes out to get some firewood for her group, at which time Zoe, knife in hand, quietly gets out of her sleeping bag and walks along, stalking the other girl. Hunter wakes up as well, and not seeing Zoe decides to look around. After some searching Hunter is shocked and horrified to see Zoe stabbing the other girl through the back(!!!) with the butcher knife!

The Good: The flashback scenes and the conversation between Zoe and Hunter were really enjoyable. The cliffhanger was GREAT! After this issue Zoe may just have replaced Ike as my favorite character here... Who knew she was THAT insane! Basically any scene Zoe was in ruled.

The Bad: Usually we get a date for when the next issue of this series comes out(and usually it's WAAAY off)... After this issue they didn't even bother to give us a date, which means who knows HOW long it'll be before we see issue #16 drop... The rules of Woodrun are still so damn vague... What the hell is a skull flag?! Jun being forced away from Hunter and Zoe seemed a bit too convenient for my tastes.

The Verdict: Another depressingly strong issue of this series... Why “depressingly”? Because we have NO idea when the next issue comes out! The fact that we don't have a date to go by(even if it was way off) makes me think that Image has no idea when the next issue will come out either... Which sucks, because after the ending to this one, I can't wait to see what happens next, and with the way this story has been jumping back and forth, we probably won't get back to Hunter and Zoe for a good two issues!

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Oh Zoe... You so crazy!

New Comic Day! January 18th edition

2012-01-18T15:06:00.000-05:00

Hey there X-Maniacs, it's your humble host X, once again welcoming you to the start of a new week with New Comic Day! Huzzah!! Last week saw me pick up 19 comics, which is juuuuust a tad too many. Ideally that number will drop by 5-7 this week. Now the question is, did it?? And what exactly DID I pick up? Wonder no longer, true believer, here's what I picked up a little bit earlier today! Batman #5, Hellblazer #287, Nightwing #5, Red Hood and the Outlaws #5, Supergirl #5, Morning Glories #15, Amazing Spider-Man #678, Avengers #21, Daredevil #8, Fear Itself: The Fearless #7, Invincible Iron Man #512, New Mutants #36, Thunderbolts #169, Uncanny X-Force #20, Venom #12 15 books this week, which isn't a bad number, but seriously, did we need ANOTHER issue of Amazing Spider-Man out THIS SOON?! #677 dropped LAST WEEK! On top of that, I swear, in the past 5 weeks we've gotten FOUR issues of X-Force! Marvel REALLY has to stop with this double(quadruple?!) shipping or I'll have no choice but to drop even MORE Marvel books. And as much as I'm loathe to say it, Spidey would probably be right around the top of that list. I love the job Dan Slott has done on that series, but something has got to give...

But enough doom and gloom, let's now shift gears and see which comic will be getting named my Pick of the Litter... Hmm... Let's go with... What the hell, let's go with Morning Glories! It was either that, Venom or New Mutants, but Morning Glories has been so surprisingly good it gets the nod. On the other side of the equation, this week's Runt of the Litter is easily Avengers #21. I've had enough of Norman Osborn. Please Bendis, it's time to move on. I get that Bendis loves the character and all, but the Avengers have been battling against Osborn since the end of Secret Invasion, over TWO years ago! I like Norman as a Spidey villain, but NOT as THE top villain in the Marvel U. It really is time to move on. Speaking of moving on(nice segue!), it's time for me to wrap this post up. With 15 books this week, I'll have 6 nights of 2 reviews and 1 night with three reviews... I'm not sure which night will get the extra review, but we shall see. And that'll do it. I'll be back later on tonight with a few reviews(probably 2, but possibly 3), so until then, X out!

X's Official Pull List Post! Take Two!

2012-01-17T21:00:00.001-05:00

Since I have some extra time on my hands and felt like doing a second post tonight, I figured I'd fill you guys in on what good ol' X's pull list looks like. You see, back in September when the DC reboot occurred I did a post where I listed every single ongoing series I was picking up at the time. It was a way to let people know what to expect to see here on the blog. However, in the four months since I posted that list, my pull list has REALLY changed up... So for kicks let's go ALLLLL the way back to September of 2011(I know, that was ages ago!!) and see what's still on my list, what's not, and why. As always, feel free to let me know what you guys are getting/enjoying/what you think I should add to my own pull list. First things first, let's see what stayed the same...

Marvel:
Amazing Spider-Man
Avengers
Avengers Academy
Daken: Dark Wolverine(although this one's getting canceled soon)
Deadpool
Invincible Iron Man
Journey Into Mystery
Mighty Thor
New Mutants
Secret Avengers
Thunderbolts
Uncanny X-Force
Venom
X-Factor
Wolverine
Ultimate X-Men
Daredevil
Captain America
Captain America and Bucky

DC:
Batman
Batman and Robin
Nightwing
Red Hood and the Outlaws
Green Lantern: New Guardians
Voodoo
I, Vampire
Justice League Dark
Teen Titans
Grifter
Stormwatch
Superboy
Supergirl
Hellblazer(Vertigo)

Image:
Invincible
Morning Glories

Boom!:
Irredeemable

Next, let's see which comic books I dropped in the past few months, and why...

Marvel:
Iron Man 2.0- Canceled.
Uncanny X-Men- I just couldn't bear reading about Lord Summers and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants anymore!
X-23- This series just didn't do it for me, and I guess I wasn't alone as it's since been canceled.
X-Men- I like Victor Gischler and all, but $4 was just too much for this series.
Heroes for Hire- Canceled.
Ultimates- Just too confusing for me... Plus the $4 price tag didn't help.
Ultimate Spider-Man- I wasn't paying $4 to read ANOTHER Bendis series!
Generation Hope- After one issue I remembered how much I hated Our Lord and Savior Hope and as such re-dropped this series...
Incredible Hulk- This was another one that was dropped due to it's $4 price.

DC:
Detective Comics- Tony Daniel can't write a coherent comic book, in MY opinion, to save his life. That's why I dropped a series I never expected to drop.
Batman: The Dark Knight- Yeah, once I saw One-Face I knew this one was headed towards the scrapheap!
Catwoman- I was never able to get into this series.
Static Shock- This comic did a horrible job introducing Static Shock to a new comic book audience... It's no surprise it's being canceled.
Legion of Superheroes- This series wasn't even rebooted! That's why I dropped it! It just continued on like Flashpoint never happened!!
Legion Lost- I actually enjoyed this series, but it didn't seem like the type of series that was going to have a long shelf-life
Deathstroke- Two words: Rob Liefeld.
Suicide Squad- I was never able to form a connection to any of the characters in this one. Solid story, boring characters.
Superman- The first issue was just terrible... Plus I don't like Bad-Ass Superman.
Action Comics- See above, but add “and confusing” after the word terrible.
Wonder Woman- I hardly knew who most of the characters were....
Fables(Vertigo)- I was only picking this up for my sister. She said to drop it, it got dropped.

So there are the books I dropped and why, now let's take a gander at the comic books I've added...

Marvel:
Wolverine and the X-Men
Defenders
Winter Soldier
X-Men Legacy
Avengers Assemble

DC:
American Vampire(Vertigo)
... And that's it... Ouch...

Image:
Saga
Thief of Thieves
Hell Yeah
Whispers
Fatale

And now for the fun part, adding everything up! Back in September I was picking up 55 ongoing series. Now? That number is down to 47. Back in September I was picking up 26 Marvel books, 26 DC books, 2 Image books and one Boom! book. Now? I'm picking up 24 Marvel books, 15 DC books(OUCH!), 7 Image books and one Boom! book. So obviously the big winner in the battle for my money is Image, while DC is the HUGE loser. Damn, I can't believe I dropped 11 DC comic books! I am legitimately surprised by that. But then again, the reboot made it REALLY easy for somebody like me, who has been collecting DC books for about 4 years or so, to drop that many titles. Sure, it may have been a good jumping on point for new fans, but it was a great jumping off point for older fans! As for Marvel, I stayed basically the same, although I'd probably have more Marvel books on my pull list if they weren't double shipping and pricing so many of their titles at $4.

Now, let's look into the crystal ball and predict what my pull list will look like 6 months from now... I'm not expecting any more changes to my DC list. The titles I'm currently reading are probably safe, and I don't expect to add any DC books going forward. Marvel is funny, because I'll probably start picking up more of their books during the summer due to the Avengers vs X-Men event. The question is whether or not I'll KEEP picking up those extra books AFTER the AvX event is through... With Marvel's annoying sales tactics(the double shipping in particular), I don't see myself adding all that many more Marvel books. If anything, I wouldn't be shocked to see the Marvel number fall just a tad due to cancellations or high prices. And that brings us to Image and the other third party publishers... I can seriously see myself picking up even more books from that group. For the most part the price is right(almost all of the third party publishers price their books at a reasonable $3), which should lead to me trying out more titles. I'd much rather try out a $3 comic and hate it than try out a $4 comic and hate it... Which is something Marvel doesn't seem to get... Well, this was a fun little waste of time! As I stated before, feel free to drop me a comment or e-mail(at xman75@gmail.com) telling me which books you pick up and why. That'll do it for tonight, until tomorrow, and New Comic Day, X out!

Secret Avengers #21

2012-01-17T20:00:00.001-05:00

And we've finally reached the bottom of my new comic pile! Huzzah... I guess... As always, the week's Runt of the Litter resides at the bottom of the pile, so maybe I shouldn't be all that excited... Eh, then again, maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised! More likely, I won't... Anyway, here comes Warren Ellis's finally issue of Secret Avengers.

Secret Avengers #21:

What Happened: The Secret Avengers use a giant hologram device on the Houston branch office of ONE(Office of National Emergency), making it look like the building was on fire. With most of the people having evacuated, the Secret Avengers enter the executive area and discover a few ONE agents who hadn't yet left. It seems one of them is a double agent for the Shadow Council. The Secret Avengers flush out the double agent, but not before the Shadow Council member frees some sort of giant, matter absorbing monster from the building's basement. The Secret Avengers eventually manage to kill the creature by collapsing the entire building onto it... Overkill much? With that, the Shadow Council double agent pulls out a concealed handgun and shoots herself in the head, ending this one.

Thoughts: Okay, first things first, shouldn't one of the Avengers have frisked the Shadow Council member to make sure she had no concealed weapons on her person?! I mean how dumb are they? What if she would have pulled the gun and shot one of the Avengers? That all just seemed uncharacteristically sloppy of the Avengers here. Besides that, I really have nothing good to say about this issue, or Warren Ellis's run on this series as a whole for that matter. For me, he just never clicked here and I'm glad to see Rick Remender taking over as the writer with the next issue. Maybe HE can be the guy to drag this series up towards respectability.

Score: 4 out of 10.Look, a giant monster!

Battle Scars #3

2012-01-16T21:00:00.001-05:00

We'll head back to Marvel for the last comic reviewed tonight... Um, after 18 reviews over the course of the past 6 days, this is about as much of an introductory paragraph as I can muster!

Battle Scars #3(of 6):

What Happened: Johnson and his friend Cheese manage to get a bead on one of Taskmaster's safehouses and Johnson decides to try to find Taskmaster since Taskmaster seemed to have some idea as to why there was a price on Johnson's head. Johnson and Cheese take separate safehouses and Johnson spots movement in the safehouse he was watching. Johnson enters and discovers Deadpool there(!). Pool tells Johnson that he'd been hired to kill him because Johnson had murdered his mother, which was blatantly untrue. Johnson tells Deadpool as much, and since Johnson wasn't even in the country at the time of the murder, Pool tends to believe him. Before Pool can leave with Johnson to get some answers, Pool is impaled from behind by Taskmaster, who renews his attack on Johnson. Johnson manages to lure Taskmaster into a trap on the roof and actually gets the upper-hand on Taskmaster thanks to this chicanery. Johnson demands answers from Taskmaster, and Taskmaster cryptically tells Johnson to ask his father for answers, which annoys Johnson since he thought his dad was dead. Taskmaster tells Johnson that he doubted Johnson's dad COULD die, and that he was hired by an enemy of Johnson's dad to get Johnson. Taskmaster recommends that Johnson should run away from this whole messed up situation before he ends up any deeper in it, but before Johnson can do anything, the Serpent Society(or are they the Serpent Squad now?) show up on the scene to collect the price on Johnson's head.

Thoughts: This was a pretty good, fast, read. We are getting tantalizing tidbits of information regarding Johnson, which is fine since we're at about the halfway point of this mini. I'd expect a few more pieces of the puzzle to drop next issue, with the majority of the mystery of Johnson's life being revealed by issue #5. From what we learn from Taskmaster, Johnson's father, who Johnson had always thought was dead, has an enemy, who has apparently put the massive price on Johnson's head. Who is Johnson's dad? Or for that matter, who's Johnson's father's old enemy? We don't know yet, but my interest is definitely piqued. Here's hoping the eventual payoff is worth the ride.

Score: 7 out of 10.Good to know!

Superboy #5

2012-01-16T20:30:00.003-05:00

We'll stick with DC and take a look at the post-reboot version of Superboy. Let's see how many evil things he does here.

Superboy #5:

What Happened: Templar reveals to the doctor currently in charge of the Superboy project that he has some weird powers, and that he expects some results from the SB project... Oookay then... As for SB, he acts nasty to Rose Wilson before sneaking out of his room undetected to break Red free from the truck Project NOWHERE was transporting her around in. After freeing Red, SB hands her over to a mystery character who he seems to trust. SB manages to return to his room before Templar and some guards come barging in, which annoys Templar, since he was hoping this would be the reason he needed to finally ask his supervisors(wait, I thought Templar WAS the boss?!) to terminate SB. With that, SB smugly returns to sleep and some other random weird stuff happens.

Thoughts: Ugh. I really don't like this series. And apparently I'm not alone, as I just checked the sales numbers and since the first issue, SB has lost approximately 14,000 readers between issues #1 and #4. I just don't get what Scott Lobdell is going for here... Is he trying to make SB into the moody loner? The arrogant anti-hero? The unlikable scumbag? All of the above? None of the above? I just don't get it. Besides that, the story just totally lost me here(I seriously thought Templar was the guy in charge of NOWHERE!). Yeah, I was a huge fan of the pre-reboot Superboy, which is why I decided to give this series a chance, but I don't know how much longer I can keep reading this... I keep hoping we get the slightest glimmer of the pre-reboot Superboy here, but thus far, we've had nothing but the current, completely unlikable SB. I don't want to become on of those 14,000 people who dropped this title, but my patience is really wearing thin...

Score: 3 out of 10.Yes, Superboy is still vaguely evil.

Batman and Robin #5

2012-01-16T20:00:00.002-05:00

Wow, we are FINALLY getting towards the end of my seemingly bottomless new comic book pile! First up tonight is the latest issue of Batman and Robin... I don't really care about this series one way or the other, so I really don't have anything else to say here...

Batman and Robin #5:

What Happened: Damian Wayne(that would be Robin) has left Batman and apparently joined up with Nobody. Damian is tired of playing by Batman's rules, and is even more tired of being treated as a simple underling when he feels as Batman's son, he should have been more, thus the sudden change in allegiance. Nobody is pleased by this, and takes Damian under his wing, telling Damian that they were going to put an end to a human trafficking ring... Permanently. Meanwhile, Batman is scouring the streets trying to find any trace of Damian, while recalling his own first meeting with Nobody years ago. This issue concludes with Damian and Nobody fighting their way to the head of the human trafficking ring with Nobody handing Damian a gun and telling him to shoot the trafficker in the head.

Thoughts: Even though the Nobody origin tale took up WAY too much of this comic for my tastes(I can't help but feel it could have been condensed some), the parts set in the present between Damian, Bats and Nobody were VERY well done. I liked the interaction between Nobody and Damian, and it was nice to see that Bruce felt that he had been wrong with the way he had been treating Damian... Damian isn't just another Robin for Bruce, he SHOULD be more than that. The cliffhanger was good as well. I don't expect Damian to pull the trigger and kill the trafficker, but it IS a possibility as Damian has killed villains before, just not since becoming Robin. That's the sure sign of a good cliffhanger, when things could legitimately go either way. So yeah, after a few so-so issues, this one was a major improvement. I still think if DC wanted to do an angsty Damian storyline, they should have added 3 or 4 years to his age with the reboot, but what can ya do?

Score: 8 out of 10.Shoot, shoot, shoot!!!

X-Men Legacy #260.1

2012-01-15T21:00:00.001-05:00

Ah, here's an interesting one... I have the entire X-Men → X-Men Legacy run through like issue 230-something, when I just couldn't take Mike Carey's writing anymore. I know people like to rag on Chuck Austen as one of, if not the worst X-writer ever(and for good reason!), but personally? Mike Carey gets the nod as my least favorite X-writer ever. Back when I was buying EVERYTHING Marvel was publishing, X-Men Legacy was so bad I dropped it. It was one of the very first comic books I actually hated so much I just couldn't stomach reading it anymore. So I've actually been waiting years now to put this series back on my pull list, because I knew whoever ended up taking the reins here would be better than Carey by default. As luck would have it, Christos Gage ended up getting this series, which is awesome since he was my favorite writer of 2011. Now, I KNOW Gage will do a good job on this series, the question is, will he be able to do AS good a job here as he does on Avengers Academy?

X-Men Legacy #260.1:

What Happened: This issue opens with the N'Garai portal near X-Mansion cracking open and a mess of N'Garai slipping out, intent on world domination or other evil, demonic plans. Rachel Grey and Rogue(who had borrowed Rachel's powers) telepathically sense the demons as they approach, and send the students inside to have class as normal, since the job of Rogue's team was to allow the students to have the most normal lives possible. Gambit, Rogue, Frenzy and Rachel(Cannonball offers his assistance but Rogue sends him back inside so as to not alarm the students) wind up defeating the N'Garai, and Rachel and Frenzy do their best to block the portal up until Dr. Strange or some other magic type could come by to seal the portal off for good. With that taken care of, Gambit and Frenzy head out to get some drinks, and after some flirting, the two embrace in a passionate kiss.

Thoughts: Ooo, there was A LOT of good in this one!! First off, Cannonball and Husk actually mentioned poor, dead Jay! Jay's death, probably more than any of the Academy X kids bugged me the most for two reasons... The first was because of how asinine his death was explained... His healing factor was in his wings... GTFO!! Secondly, Jay had major connections in the X-books being a Guthrie and all. Sam and Paige have BOTH served on the X-Men, as well as being members of the New Mutants, X-Force, X-Corp, Generation X, and probably others. In other words, fairly or unfairly, Jay's death should have been WAY bigger than it ended up being. Basically everybody, including Sam and Paige, just shrugged their shoulders and continued on with whatever X-business they had on their plates at the time. So it's nice to FINALLY see SOMEBODY show that Jay's death DID hurt the Guthrie clan, as we saw in the scene between Sam and Paige here. Leave it to Christos Gage to, in his first issue on an X-book, bring up something that should have been brought up years ago! Besides my obvious love for the Guthrie clan, this entire issues was well done! I've never been a big fan of Rogue, and never brought her as a leader, but here? Her leadership abilities just seemed right. She had an air of leadership around her that I'd never picked up on before. Another character I've always been down on was Rachel Grey/Summers, mainly due to Chris Claremont and his bizarre fixation on her. But even SHE was written well here! She wasn't at the center of every page(as she often was when Claremont used her), and she wasn't as whiny/annoying as I've seen her written before. It's not all roses and sunshine though, as I don't get why Frenzy is in this book. She's one character I've never liked, from her early days as an X-Factor villain through her time as an Acolyte. She's a villain. If anything she belongs with Lord Summers and the rest of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Her addition here is perplexing. I guess Gage is going to use her as a love interest for Gambit, but I don't know, if he wanted to keep Rogue and Gambit apart, I'd have preferred using any number of other mutants. Whew, I sure had lots to say about this one, but I couldn't help it, I'm excited! I mean THIS comic pretty much gave me everything that I complained Wolverine and the X-Men WASN'T giving me! This was a great first issue for Gage, and if he can keep it up, I'd expect this to become my favorite X-title in a few month's time.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.It's about time SOMEBODY explored the Cannonball/Husk/Guthrie aspect of the X-books since Jay's idiotic death...

Scarlet Spider #1

2012-01-15T20:30:00.001-05:00

Next up is the first issue of the Scarlet Spider series... Unless this scores a 10, this will probably be the first and only issue of this series I pick up until we get a writer change, but I figured why not pick it up and at least give it a shot.

Scarlet Spider #1:

What Happened: While passing through Houston, Kaine gets wind of an illegal transaction occurring at a major port. Kaine attacks the criminals at the port and beats them into unconsciousness, since he wanted the unmarked money they were trading. However, Kaine decides to take a peek into one of the crates the criminals were bringing into Houston and discovers a mess of corpses(illegal immigrants who were being sold into labor or prostitution), and one girl who was still alive, but barely. Kaine takes the girl to the hospital and then rents out a hotel penthouse with his stolen money. From there he finds himself doing heroic-type things, but doesn't want to be like Spider-Man, and wants to move to Mexico with his cash, figuring he could live happily ever after. The cops discover the corpses in the crates and while they are investigating the scene are murdered by some villain with flame-based powers. Kaine learns of the slaughter on the news, but still refuses to follow in Spider-Man's footsteps and become a hero. From there, the villain heads to the hospital to kill the girl Kaine had dropped off the prior night. As for Kaine, this issue ends with him walking away from Houston.

Thoughts: This was a good, but not great comic. The story was easy to get into, and Kaine is a character who is easy to like. He's a character who's always been the bad guy, but now has a second chance and just wants to go away somewhere, never to be seen or heard from again... Which is easier said than done since he IS a clone of Peter Parker and all. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that, as is his MO, Christopher Yost DID kill something like 20+ immigrants in this issue... It's not a Chris Yost written story unless people are dying by the bus load... That's a VERY lazy way to write... Anyway, this will be the first and last issue of this series I pick up, because, while good, it just wasn't great. Oh well, when Yost leaves the book I'll give it another shot, but for now, adiós, Scarlet Spider.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.I'll admit, Kaine cursing out the old woman did bring a smile to my face...

Magneto: Not A Hero #3

2012-01-15T20:00:00.002-05:00

First comic to be reviewed today is the third issue of the thus far shockingly good Magneto mini-series... Dammit, I shouldn't have complimented it... Now I KNOW this issue is gonna suck and it's gonna be all my fault!

Magneto: Not A Hero #3(of 4):

What Happened: Joseph reveals to Magneto that the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants that had attacked Mags to end the last issue were actually clones created by Astra. Mags manages to do away with the clones and injures Astra enough that he's able to capture her and with the help of Pixie teleport himself back to Crazy Mutie Island with Astra in tow. Meanwhile, the head of Random Anti-Mutant Organization #467,836 claims that Mags had murdered an aide of his(he actually had the aide murdered himself) and in response tells the world that he'd be marching through Chicago. On Crazy Mutie Island, the Stepford Cuckoos go through Astra's mind and discover something of interest. This issue ends with a snazzily dressed Joseph chilling out in the office of the head of Random Anti-Mutant Organization #467,836 to talk about a change of plans.

Thoughts: Yup, I gave this comic the kiss of death alright... This issue was nowhere near the level of the prior two. To be honest, I have no clue as to how Mags defeated the faux-Brotherhood, why Joseph let him escape, or what the deal was with Astra. See, when the next issue comes out I'll say the worst things about it in the introductory paragraph. That way I know I'll love that issue!

Score: 5 out of 10.That is one sharp dressed man!

Wolverine #300

2012-01-14T21:00:00.002-05:00

One more review for the night, and it's the 300th issue of Wolverine. Yeah, sure, whatever. I've given up trying to make sense of Marvel's math by this point. So yeah, this is Wolvie #300. Probably. Who knows.

Wolverine #300:

What Happened: Wolverine heads to Japan since an all-out war between the Yakuza and the Hand was impending. Upon getting there he meets up with Yukio, and after the duo kill off a mess of Yakuza goons, Yukio reveals that with the Silver Samurai dead, his duties as the head of the Clan Yashida fell to his illegitimate, and prior to this, unknown son... Who just happens to be dating Wolverine's adopted daughter, Amiko... Sure, why not... Meanwhile, Amiko gets herself kidnapped by Azuma Goda, who was in the process of usurping control of the Hand from Kingpin. We learn that Azuma had hired Sabretooth to kill a leader of the Yakuza because he wanted to instigate a war between Kingpin's version of the Hand and the Yakuza. Wolverine hears that the Hand and Yakuza were going to have themselves a meeting to try to hash out their differences, and smelling a rat, Wolvie races to the meeting site, but is intercepted by Sabretooth. While the two longtime foes battle, Azuma walks into the Hand/Yakuza meeting, tells the Yakuza that HE was now it's leader and sends his ninjas to attack. This leads to a swift response from the Yakuza, which leads to total carnage(“I love it!!”). Azuma has Amiko brought to the meeting place, with the hope being he could draw out Silver Samurai's son, which works when Samurai's son shows up in some high-tech Samurai outfit, intent on freeing his girlfriend. Oh, and Mystique is working with Sabretooth.

Thoughts: Eh, this was a good comic and all, but it was ANOTHER “Wolverine goes to Japan and fights Ninjas/the Hand/the Yakuza” story. I've said it before, but it bears repeating... I've NEVER been a fan of Wolvie's Japanese exploits. I hate Amiko, don't particularly care for Yukio, and could care less that the Silver Samurai is dead. I mean yeah, the Wolverine/Sabretooth throwdown was fun, as were all of Sabretooth's scene's actually, and the story was pretty straightforward, but still, it was a Wolvie in Japan storyline... Eh, so far it's probably the best Wolvie in Japan story I've read, but that's not exactly saying much, now is it?

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.As far as reunion scenes go, this one between Wolvie and Sabretooth was pretty lame...

Ultimate X-Men #6

2012-01-14T20:30:00.001-05:00

ALRIGHT!! It's time to dig into my favorite comic book series, Ultimate William Stryker, starring William Stryker, written AND illustrated by, you guessed it, William Stryker! Yes, that was sarcasm(it doesn't travel well through the Internet...), and yes, saying I am sick and tired of William Stryker is akin to saying I am sick and tired of slamming my head into a brick wall... Both make me irritable, and both leave me with a pounding headache. Here's hoping someone(ANYONE!!) kills Stryker so we are rid of him... At least in the Ultimate Universe.

Ultimate X-Men #6:

What Happened: Sweet, Stryker IS dead! Now I have to become a fan of Ultimate Kitty Pryde! Anyway, Stryker DID manage to take control of all of the Nimrod robots in the United States before he died, and since the Nimrods had been recently uploaded with information from Cerebra(which Quicksilver gave the US as a show of good faith), they could track down and kill mutants anywhere. Kitty manages to use her phasing powers to protect many of the mutants Stryker was planning on publicly executing, so the Nimrods leave since they had way easier targets to get to elsewhere. From there, Kitty, Iceman, Human Torch and Jimmy Hudson bring the mutants to their base in the Morlock tunnels, and are followed by Rogue. Rogue tells the mutants that she wasn't REALLY a traitor, but was trying to gain Stryker's trust so he'd touch her(to “cure” her), at which time she'd swipe his powers from him. Kitty doesn't believe her and demands to know who gave Rogue such a plan, but Rogue can't tell Kitty and company... Why is that? Because the man who gave her the plan to steal Stryker's powers asked Rogue to keep a secret for him. That man? Professor Xavier(!!!)!

Thoughts: Wooo, Stryker is dead! That means this comic will be getting, at the very least, a 7 for a score! Besides Stryker being gone, the rest of this comic was pretty solid. We have several mysteries going on, such as Quicksilver conveniently handing the Cerebra tech to the US government where it falls into Stryker and the Nimrod's hands, as well as Prof. X apparently being alive. Am I angry that the Prof is alive, even though he was killed off during Ultimatum? Nope, not at all, because as far as I'm concerned, EVERYTHING that happened in Ultimatum should be disregarded because it was complete and total garbage. I have to say, things seem to be looking somewhat up for this series going forward.

Score: 8 out of 10.Yay, Sentinels...

Grifter #5

2012-01-14T20:00:00.002-05:00

Well, Grifter survived cancellation during DC's first round of cuts, which is good, because this series really hasn't been that bad. The fact that Voodoo also survived the chopping block makes me think that DC is giving the former Wildstorm characters a slightly longer leash than the mainstream DC ones. If that IS the case, then bravo, DC!

Grifter #5:

What Happened: I'm not exactly sure what happened... I'll give it the old college try though... Grifter and Sofia(the woman who saved Grifter last issue) head to Sofia's hidden base/weapon's arsenal where Sofia gains Grifter's trust by letting him have whatever weapon he wanted as well as telling Grifter to kill her if he didn't trust her. Since Sofia had lots of guns but was short on funds, Grifter heads out to try to grift some marks out of money. Before he can though, a small army of Daemonites led by Tsavo(the Daemonite kind of/sort of responsible for Grifter's brother's death) cause everybody on the street to freeze and attacks Grifter. Grifter is unable to fight off all of the Daemonites, but is saved when ANOTHER Daemonite named Carver(who kidnapped Grifter's girlfriend, Gretchen) steps in to take Grifter to Black Curate... Whatever that is. Sofia tries to assist Grifter, but he is transported aboard Carver's ship, where he spots Gretchen. This one ends with Carver preparing the chant to bring the Black Curate to her.

Thoughts: Yeah, totally lost here. Seriously, I'm just getting my feet under me with regards to Grifter in this series, did we really need to ratchet up the confusion by introducing opposing clans of Daemonites?! Couldn't all of the Daemonites be working under this Black Curate(whatever that is...), thus making this story a bit easier to follow? At least in the early going? I mean I'll be sticking with this series for the long haul, but a less dedicate fan than I would most likely drop this series out of sheer confusion...

Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.Damn Daemonites!!

Captain America #7

2012-01-13T21:00:00.001-05:00

One more comic for the night, the thus far disappointing Captain America series. This series is definitely not anywhere NEAR the awesomeness that the first Ed Brubaker launched Cap book was, but it IS Ed Brubaker we're talking about, so maybe THIS is the issue where things turn the corner.

Captain America #7:

What Happened: While Captain America is stuck running tests at Avengers Mansion to see why he lost his Super-Soldier Serum imbued powers, Hawkeye and Falcon head out to try to track down the Serpent Squad. Since the Squad was obviously working with somebody supplying them Madbombs, it was in the Avengers best interest to squeeze the Squad until they talked. Falcon comes across a Madbomb caused riot in the middle of the day, which causes Cap to think that the Squad was out trying to capitalize on the riot. Sure enough, Cap and Sharon Carter track down the Squad attempting a bank robbery with the riot as their cover.

Thoughts: Ah, now this was WAY more like it! The story focused heavily on Cap's strange power losses, but it also featured Beast, Hawkeye and Falcon. If Bucky would have been here it would have been a who's who of some of my favorite Cap/Avengers characters! It seems more and more likely that Machinesmith may be the one behind Cap's power-losses, because his name is being mentioned a lot these past two issues. I'd like to think it's Machinesmith and the Squad working together, but I'm sure this will all come back as some sort of master plan for that Hydra Queen and Bravo. Speaking of which, the lack of Hydra Queen, Suddenly Evil Baron Zemo, as well as Bravo only appearing on three pages is probably another reason I enjoyed this one.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.It doesn't matter what costume he wears, Hawkeye is still awesome!

Journey Into Mystery #633

2012-01-13T20:30:00.001-05:00

It's a storyline guest-starring Daimon Hellstrom. Seriously, no matter what happens in this one it's almost guaranteed a score of a 7 or higher!

Journey Into Mystery #633:

What Happened: The Fear Lords have a meeting to discuss the events of Fear Itself and try to make themselves feel better in the face of the fact that the Serpent embarrassed them all. Notably, Nightmare isn't at the meeting... In Poland, Daimon Hellstrom(acting strangely like a vampire) arrives at the home of a girl who was asleep for days and was suffering terrible dreams about Dark Asgard. Before Daimon can do anything to help, the girl dies. Daimon angrily leaves to get to the bottom of this, since this wasn't the first case of a child being terrorized by similar dreams. A simple spell reveals to Daimon that Broxton, Oklahoma was at the heart of whatever was causing these bad dreams... Or should I say nightmares... In Broxton, Loki ends up having a terrible dream about Dark Asgard, but is forced awake by Ikol. Loki and Ikol head to the ruins of Dark Asgard to see if they could discover how Dark Asgard was still causing fear and come to the conclusion that it wasn't Dark Asgard itself that was behind Loki's terrible dreams, but Loki's own mind. At the same time, Daimon arrives at Dark Asgard and upon seeing Loki immediately figures the terrible dreams were being caused by him, which leads to Daimon moving in to attack Loki, ending this issue.

Thoughts: This was a very enjoyable comic. The main story here was very strong, although some of the other stuff happening here(the All-Mother in Asgardia, the bully in Broxton, Leah, etc) definitely took this issue down a few notches for me. Yeah, it's rather obvious who's trying to take advantage of the Serpent's handiwork(come on, it HAS to be Nightmare!!), but a comic book with both Daimon Hellstrom and Loki in it is always going to be all right in my eyes!

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Loki vs Hellstrom? I'm there!

Amazing Spider-Man #677

2012-01-13T20:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm going to resort to one of my old, lazy reviewing standbys, the quick thoughts-type reviews. Basically I'll be giving a brief rundown of what happened in the following few comics I read(with the keyword there being BRIEF!), and then some thoughts, before it's time to move on to the next book. For weeks like this one, where I have a good 20 books to get through, these types of reviews are going to have to suffice.

Amazing Spider-Man #677:

What Happened: The police arrest Felicia Hardy(the Black Cat) in connection to her robbing some items from Horizon Labs(Peter Parker's day job). Spidey knows Black Cat was innocent since she was hanging around him when the burglary was being committed, so he heads to resident superhero lawyer, Daredevil, to try to help out. Meanwhile, Black Cat escapes police custody. The two heroes end up finding a lead and follow it into the sewer, but alas, it's a trap, and the sewer collapses on to them. This issue ends with Spidey(who was shocked by some exposed wires) looking up from the sewer to see Black Cat angrily looking down at him.

Thoughts: No real complaints here. Mark Waid gave us a perfectly logical reason to team Spidey and DD up, AND tossed Black Cat into the mix as well. We have no clue who was really behind the robbery(although I'm suspecting the scientist responsible for creating the device), but I figure we'll find that out next week in DD #8. As such, I'll wait until then to say anything else about this one.

Score: 7 out of 10.How the hell does Spidey get the eyes on his mask to change shape like that?!

Wolverine and the X-Men #4

2012-01-12T21:00:00.000-05:00

The last comic for the night will be... you know, I usually say “this month's issue of *series name here*” but with the way Marvel double and triple ships their titles nowadays, I can't use that anymore, since there will probably be ANOTHER issue of this series coming out later on this month... Let's see, how can I alter this... Ah, I've got it! The last comic for the night will be the first issue of Wolverine and the X-Men to come out this month! There we go...

Wolverine and the X-Men #4:

What Happened: This issue gets started with Wolvie and a select few members of his faculty meeting up to discuss how things have been running... There are money troubles, Kid Omega troubles and new students that need introducing. Oh yeah, and Archangel is back, with no memory of who he is due to the events of the Dark Angel Saga. One of the new kids to the school, Genesis(or Kid Apocalypse), realizes that he's getting all sorts of strange looks from his fellow students and some of the faculty, such as guest speaker, Deathlok, who sees a terrible alternate future when he looks at Genesis, a future where Genesis had become Apocalypse. Meanwhile, Archangel, or just Angel again, acts crazy and seems to believe that he was a real angel. To deal with this, Wolvie and Iceman decide to make him attend class... Yeah, sure. We don't get Jay Guthrie, but we get Warren as out resident angelic student... Dumb. Anyway, this issue concludes with Shadowcat vomiting in the hallway and making her way into the bathroom where she discovers she is inexplicably pregnant... VERY pregnant.

The Good: First off, the art was WAAAAY better than the first few issues. I could actually follow things AND know what I was looking at! The cliffhanger was interesting. I definitely didn't see that one coming. Genesis has some potential as a student here.

The Bad: That last line in the above paragraph is probably the thing that bugs me the most about this series actually... Jason Aaron is heavily pushing certain students(Kid Omega, Idie, Kid Gladiator, Broo), and to be 100% honest, I don't like any of them. I'm tired of Idie's constant whining, Kid Omega's anti-establishment thing is so played out, Kid Gladiator is just an asshat, and Broo, while not outright horrible, is still a member of the Brood. Fairly or not, I keep comparing this comic to Academy X and Avengers Academy, and it falls WAAAAAY short in terms of the likability of the students. Really, would it hurt too much to focus more on the kids from New Mutants/Academy X instead of Morrison's New X kids or these new ones? Angel being a student at the school is just bizarre. Nothing of any major importance happened here... It was all kind of boring.

The Verdict: Eh, I've had my say about this series I guess... I mean it's not as if it's terrible, and I don't plan on dropping it, but the student body... Sheesh! I'd really love to see kids like Hellion, Mercury, Anole, Rockslide, or any of the other Hellions/New Mutants get major roles here. Because between Kid Omega's constant whining, and Kid Gladiator's constant asshattery, I'm getting fed up with the kids here... Rapidly. Eh, hopefully Genesis gets some more page time going forward, thus giving Omega and Gladiator's tired acts a rest.

Score: 6 out of 10.Yes, more Genesis, please.

Whispers #1

2012-01-12T20:30:00.000-05:00

Now we'll take a step off the beaten road(I've been using the phrase a lot lately...) and take a look at the first issue of Whispers, which is written and drawn by Joshua Luna and published by Image. With the way Marvel and DC have been pricing their books(Marvel!) and using inferior writers(DC!), expect to see a lot of Image, Dark Horse, Boom!, and other indie comic company's books spotlighted here at the blog. You never know when you'll find that diamond in the rough.

Whispers #1:

What Happened: We meet a guy named Sam Webber, who, besides having Obsessive-compulsive disorder, has been having very strange dreams lately... In these dreams, he can seemingly watch people and events that are taking place while he's asleep. Sam tells his circle of friends this news, but his friends, including his ex-girlfriend, Lily(they have that, “still friends” thing going on), see this as crazy Sam acting, well, crazy. Seeing as that Sam's friends have real problems, they aren't exactly keen on listening to Sam's idiocy, so he ends up leaving. Later that night, Sam goes to sleep and sure enough finds himself able to leave his body. He floats around aimlessly for a bit, before he realizes that he could teleport his ghost form to others. Sam first goes to see his mother(who he's estranged from), and is surprised to learn that he can “hear” her thoughts, and can, to a mild degree, influence them. From there, Sam finds an ex-girlfriend named Vanessa, who is in trouble with a drug dealer after stealing drugs from the dealer. Sam nervously manages to get Vanessa to promise to pay the dealer back for the stolen merchandise, while Sam wonders if he should have interfered at all. This issue ends with Sam heading to Lily's home and standing outside wondering if he should intrude on her.

The Good: The concept here was very interesting. Even after just this one issue, Joshua Luna has presented Sam as a very well-rounded character. I don't believe I've ever read a comic book where the lead has OCD, so that's different. Even though we didn't see too much of them, we did get to learn a bit about Sam's circle of friends, namely Lily and Rico.

The Bad: The cliffhanger was... odd... It doesn't exactly get me pumped for the next issue. I mean didn't Sam spy on Lily the prior night? Unless she's sleeping with Rico, I don't get what would be so exciting in her home that warranted the story ending there.

The Verdict: This was a very good comic. The premise is interesting, and I'm curious to see what Sam does with his strange powers. So while the end of this issue didn't really set my world on fire, I'll definitely be picking up the second issue(which drops in March I believe) to see what happens next.

Score: 8 out of 10.The terrible things I'd do if I had sleep telepathy......

X-Factor #230

2012-01-12T20:19:00.003-05:00

First comic to step in front of X's firing squad tonight? X-Factor, now with added Wolverine!! Yes, he's here too... Well, I have a ton of books to read still, so let's get to it.

X-Factor #230:

What Happened: With Madrox trapped in yet another bizarre alternate dimension(this one with Iron Man robots the size of Sentinels stamping through the streets), X-Factor is falling to pieces as the topic of the day(Layla bringing Guido back from the dead without a soul) is severely dividing the team. While the majority of the team bickers as only X-Factor can, Wolverine meets with Layla in the morgue keeping Madrox's dead body frozen. Wolvie inquires as to why Layla was taking Jamie's death so personal, and she reveals that she had read the journal of her future self(when she was, you know, in the future) and had learned that Guido was supposed to be dead BEFORE the battle with Bloodbath. In other words, Guido not being dead during the Bloodbath battle was most likely what led to reality shifting and Madrox dying(as it were). So in Layla's mind, resurrecting Guido ended up getting Madrox killed. After that cheerful talk, Wolvie heads into X-Factor's offices and discovers the team still arguing amongst themselves. Wolvie tells the team that since he had moved back to the area he wanted to put X-Factor Investigations on retainer since they a) had contacts in the area and b) could deal with weird, off the beaten road type stuff. The team continues to bicker, so Wolvie tells them that they were obviously lacking leadership, what with Madrox being dead and all, and offers to send in some people to help fill the team's leadership void. Naturally, the team balks at the idea of an outsider running things, at least until Havok and Polaris walk in as the leadership Wolvie was talking about(!).

The Good: There was a lot of good here actually. Peter David showed, once again, why he will go down as one of the best comic book writers EVER. The dialogue here was absolutely inspired. Not only that, but he wrote one of the better Wolverine's in quite some time. Wolvie was the perfect mixture of tough-as-nails ass-kicker and respected leader here. The art was crisp and bright. Havok and Polaris returning, although spoiled by Marvel months ago, was still an awesome moment, especially for those of us who read and loved PAD's initial run on X-Factor. I love how PAD is slowly playing out the “Madrox in the other dimensions” stuff.

The Bad: There really wasn't any... I guess there could have been a bit more action. I also wasn't sure why Layla was refusing to leave the morgue.

The Verdict: This was an excellent comic book. Definitely the best one I've read thus far this year. It wasn't perfect, but it was damn close. I honestly don't know how PAD does it... He has a huge cast of characters(at the very least 10) and yet can manage to give every single one of them a bit of time to shine. Seriously, everybody on the team got themselves a little moment of character development! Compare that to Bendis and the Avengers titles, where the characters will either all talk(but say nothing of any importance) or half the team will stand silently in the background, basically as decorations. It's PAD's ability to tell great stories, dole out oftentimes hilarious dialogue AND develop characters, even for a massive team book like this one, that has him near that vaunted Stan Lee territory as the GOAT in my book.

Score: 9 out of 10.This should be great!

It begins...

2012-01-12T13:56:00.004-05:00

All I'm gonna say is I am very pleased that Grifter and Voodoo survived... For now...

"Men of War, Mister Terrific, O.M.A.C., Hawk and Dove, Blackhawks and Static Shock are all coming to a close, with DC editor-in-chief Bob Harras quoted as saying, "These characters' stories will continue. It's all part of that world building we're very keen on here."

Source: http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dc-new-52-new-titles-120112.html

As for the new series DC is putting out? I won't be picking up any of them.

Daken: Dark Wolverine #19

2012-01-12T00:19:00.002-05:00

One more review for tonight, and it's one of the last issues of the Daken: Dark Wolverine series. You'd think I'd be more upset about the impending cancellation of this one, seeing as that Daken is a favorite character of mine, but oddly enough, I'm not. Maybe it's because of this long, horrible storyline we've been stuck with for so long now, but in a strange way the cancellation of this series almost seems like a mercy killing to me... Huh, how's that for a downer of an intro paragraph! Before I get to this issue, I just wanted to let it be known that tomorrow's reviews(there will be three of them) will be up late again(probably around the same time this review went up).

Daken: Dark Wolverine #19:

What Happened: With the Runaways battling against the insane Marcus Roston, Daken is laying back, waiting for the perfect time to strike(there's the cold and calculating Daken I know and love!). However, Roston is able to hold his own against the Runaway kids, so Daken recklessly runs in to attack Roston himself(there's the impulsive Daken I know and loathe!). Unsurprisingly, Roston has his way with Daken(who is still sans a healing factor) and knocks him to the ground, preparing the deathblow. Before Roston can strike the final shot, Daken's inexplicable love interest, FBI Agent Kiel, crashes a helicopter into Roston, pinning him to the ground under the copter. Finally having Roston where he wanted him, Daken taunts Roston and... tells the Runaways Roston was their's to do whatever they wanted with, before leaving with Kiel...

The Good: This story with Roston is FINALLY over. It's always a good thing when the Runaways pop up somewhere, and this comic was no different. The fight scenes were big and explosive, which seems fitting for a storyline that was taking place in Los Angeles.

The Bad: I don't get Daken's attraction to Kiel. At all. Daken's whole thing has always been about using people(go back and read the awesome issue of Dark Wolverine where he basically tells Moonstone just that), not falling in love with them... Romulus would be ashamed! The Runaways were just drawn wrong... Molly and that annoying plant girl looked way too old, and Victor didn't look anything like Victor. That bugged me. I also would have preferred it had Daken killed Roston after all of the crap he had been put through.

The Verdict: Eh, at least this storyline is finally over. Unfortunately, both Roston AND Kiel are still alive. And you know we'll be getting more of Kiel and Daken next issue. It's weird, I've always had Daken pegged as somebody who uses other people. That's the character I fell for from Wolverine Origins, through Dark Wolverine and Dark Avengers, to Daken: Dark Wolverine. He used people to get his way. Be it his father, the Fantastic Four, Norman Osborn, whoever. Now all of a sudden, he's in love with Kiel because they're both psychopaths or something? Yeah, no. I think it's finally time for me to just come out and say that Rob Williams has nowhere NEAR the understanding of Daken that Dan Way and Marjorie Liu did...

Score: 6 out of 10.Oh good, it's Berserker Daken.........

Deadpool #49

2012-01-12T00:17:00.001-05:00

Awesome, it's the final part of Deadpool vs Evil Deadpool! No matter how this one ends, Evil Deadpool shall now and forever be one of my favorite comic book villains!

Deadpool #49:

What Happened: Captain America lays down the law to Interpol, stating that he would be leading the team to take Deadpool down. Why does Cap feel the need to ruffle Interpol's feathers? Because he's awesome. Evil Deadpool leads New York City's police commissioner into a trap by leaving him a letter stating where the commissioner's children where being held. At the same time, Deadpool has headed to the same location to battle his evil counterpart, and after the two have a quick fight, Evil Deadpool leaves, allowing Deadpool to place some explosives around hoping to... um, reverse trap Evil Deadpool. Instead, the police commissioner enters the warehouse this was all taking place in and upon seeing Deadpool and the explosives figures Pool was planning on blowing him and his kids up(who were locked in a separate room unbeknown to Deadpool... D'oh!). The commissioner knocks Deadpool down with the butt end of his automatic rifle and Evil Deadpool teleports in and swipes the detonator for Deadpool's explosives, pushing the button... But wait! Deadpool was FINALLY one step ahead of his evil doppleganger and we see that the explosives Deadpool placed on the walls of the warehouse were duds and that the real explosives were in Deadpool's bag, which was near Evil Deadpool. With Evil Deadpool temporarily out of commission, Deadpool frees the commissioner's kids from their locked room and tells the commissioner to get the hell out of Dodge. With the commissioner and his kids out of the way, Deadpool prepares to square off against Evil Deadpool, but the two Pools are interrupted by Captain America and his agents. Cap demands the two Deadpools surrender, which leads to Evil Deadpool pulling a gun on Cap. Before he can fire, a dart hits Evil Deadpool in the neck and Cap's men open fire. Cap demands his agents cease fire, and when Cap and Deadpool look down at Evil Deadpool they realize that the mystery dart had seemingly robbed Evil Deadpool of his healing factor, granting him what Deadpool himself always wanted... Death. This issue ends with Deadpool seemingly teleporting away with Evil Deadpool's corpse.

The Good: We got a whole lot of Deadpool on Evil Deadpool fun here. The ending, with Evil Deadpool actually dying, sets up a very interesting next storyline, as it seems that DP is FINALLY closer to his longtime wish. What can I say, as a Cap fan I enjoyed seeing him pull rank and take the investigation away from Interpol... I'm a Cap fan, sue me! I'll be very curious to see who fired the dart that de-powered Evil Deadpool's healing factor.

The Bad: Evil Deadpool? Dead?? Boooo!!!! For whatever reason, this issue just never clicked for me the way I expected it to... I mean the scenes with Deadpool and Evil Deadpool were fun and all, but after seeing Evil Deadpool get the better of Deadpool for the past few issues, the way Deadpool beat Evil Deadpool seemed like a bit of a letdown.

The Verdict: Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this comic book, but I can't help but think I should have enjoyed it more than I did... Something was just a bit off here... Oh well, I enjoyed the hell out of the first few parts of this issue, and am thoroughly looking forward to the next Deadpool storyline, so no real complaints from me.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Yep, Evil Deadpool absolutely REEKS of awesomeness!

Invincible #87

2012-01-11T23:03:00.001-05:00

Okay, we're going to do things a little bit differently this week. Seeing as that I have nearly 20 books to get through, unless otherwise requested, most of this week's reviews are going to be rather short on details. Wherever I can condense things, I will. With that out of the way, here's this week's Pick of the Litter!

Invincible #87:

What Happened: Invincible and Dinosaurus are still doing their whole “Save the world... By ALMOST any means necessary” thing. They do take time out to halt a would be world conquerer when Dinosaurus bites the villain's head off, presumably killing him... And Invincible is okay with this?? Later, Invincible visits Atom Eve for the first time in a while to try to explain why he's working with a notorious murderer. While they're talking, the awesome Cecil Stedman teleports in to try to talk Invincible out of his current idiotic plans. Before Cecil can really get too far along debating Invincible, he receives word that Allen the Alien was heading towards Earth, so Invincible heads up to say hello to his old friend. Allen has brought Oliver along with him, and Oliver and Allen tell Invincible about the Coalition's plan to kill the Viltrumites remaining on Earth. Invincible opposes it and is promptly attacked by Oliver and Allen. However, before Allen or Oliver can beat any sense into Invincible's think skull, the Viltrumite king flies over to stand with Invincible.

The Good: Robert Kirkman sure isn't slow-burning the Coalition/virus storyline, is he? As always, Ryan Ottley's artwork was great... Seriously, I have a hard time envisioning this series without Ottley on it... Cecil Stredman and Oliver were in this issue, and are my two favorite Invincible characters(weird, no?) so that was a good thing.

The Bad: Oddly enough, I find myself liking Invincible less and less every time I see him... So he's working with Dinosaurus and being defended by the Viltrumite king... Am I the only one who sees that as a major problem? When you are siding with and being defended by villains, that's probably a good indicator of what kind of character you are... The cover for the next issue sees Invincible pounding Oliver with a right hand... The very thought of that angers me! Invincible seemed oddly unaffected by Dinosaurus's murderous antics in this one...

The Verdict: This was a good issue of this series(as per usual), but not a great issue... And why wasn't it great? For me anyway? Because the focus went back to Invincible for the first time in at least two issues... I know I said it before, but it bears repeating, I really don't like Invincible as a character right now. I don't know what the deal is, maybe the horrors of the Viltrumite War, coupled with Atom Eve and the (possibly) aborted/miscarried child, have just caused Invincible to get slightly off keel. But seriously, I just don't like HIM. I still thoroughly enjoy the series because of the ultra-strong supporting cast, but the main character? He needs a good ass-whupping.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.You had to know I'd be scanning a page featuring either Oliver or Cecil.

New Comic Day! January 11th edition

2012-01-11T12:25:00.002-05:00

Hey all, it's time for New Comic Day #2 for 2012. Last week saw me take home a very sensible 10 comic books. This week? I'd bet good money that my pull will end up much higher than that... Without further ado, here's what I managed to pick up this week at the comic shop! Batman and Robin #5, ~~Deathstroke #5~~, Whispers #1,Grifter #5, Superboy #5, Invincible #87, Amazing Spider-Man #677, Battle Scars #3, Captain America #7, Daken: Dark Wolverine #19, Deadpool #49, ~~Incredible Hulk #4~~, Scarlet Spider #1, Journey Into Mystery #633, Magneto: Not A Hero #3, Secret Avengers #21, Ultimate X-Men #6, Wolverine #300, Wolverine and the X-Men #4, X-Factor #230, X-Men Legacy #260.1. Well, so much for our nice, reasonable 10 comics from last week... This week I've ended up snagging a ridiculous 19 books. Bah. On the plus side, there are a few good books here, as well as a few series I'll be dropping for certain after their current issue, so there's the silver lining. Now, this week's Pick of the Litter isn't all that cut and dry... I'm going to go with Invincible #87, based solely on how great the last issue was. I gave some consideration to Spidey #677, Deadpool #49 and X-Factor #230, but I have to admit that Invincible is the book I'm most looking forward to reading later on tonight. This week's Runt of the Litter is actually an easy choice. I'll go with Secret Avengers #21. Sure I enjoyed the last issue, but that had to be an aberration as I've detested most of Warren Ellis' run on this series. I'll probably try to post reviews for Invincible, Deadpool and Spidey tonight, probably late tonight, around the midnight hour. I'm not exactly sure how my week is looking, so I'm not going to try to figure out how many books I'll be reviewing each night, but with this many comic books on hand, you can be sure I'll have at the very least 2 comic reviews up nightly... Or at least that's the plan. Remember to check out my comic scan blog for this week's Random Scan(the link is on the right of this page), and until next time, X out.

(Uncanny) X-Men #9 (January 1965)

2012-01-10T20:00:00.001-05:00

One final Retro-Review to close out the week, and it's actually a pretty interesting one. In my biased opinion at least. Tonight's lone Retro-Review brings us the very first meeting between the Avengers and the X-Men... Ever! With the whole X-Men vs the Avengers event on the horizon, it makes a lot of sense to give this comic a reread. Now, let's see how Marvel's two most popular teams(sorry FF, you guys are a distant third now) first got together.

(Uncanny)X-Men #9 (January 1965):

What Happened: The X-Men(that would be the original five) are taking a cruise to Europe due to Professor Xavier and a vague mission Xavier went off on. Prof X contacts the team telepathically and tells them that he had tracked down Lucifer(the guy who first cost Prof. X the use of his legs) and wants to handle the villain on his own. BUT, if Prof. X were to lose/get captured/die at the hands of Lucifer, he wanted the X-Men to go after Lucifer to end his vile threat. Cyclops tries to convince Prof. X not to take on the mysterious Lucifer on his own, but Xavier won't hear of it and stops communicating with the X-Men. Xavier sneaks into Lucifer's hidden mountain base and is promptly captured... Good going there, Chuck... Lucifer has Xavier placed in a strange glass structure so he could taunt Xavier, but Xavier shuts Lucifer up by pulling a handgun and shooting at Lucifer(!!!!!)! Lucifer narrowly avoids the bullet and warns Xavier not to do that again since Lucifer had rigged a massive thermal bomb to his heart. The thermal bomb was set to destroy Antarctica if Lucifer's heart was to stop, which would in turn obliterate the world's coastal cities. So that's what's going on with Xavier. Back on the surface, Thor and the Avengers have tracked down “strange impulses” that they felt were emanating from some great hidden evil. A passing tourist spots the colorful Avengers and freaks out, speeding away and nearly running over the just arrived X-Men. Upon hearing the tourist's wild story, the X-Men wonder if the colorful figures the tourist described could be allies of Lucifer and go to check the situation out... Can you see where this is going yet? Thor's hammer informs him that the evil in the area as so great that there was no other choice but to destroy it completely, and Xavier, upon hearing this while eavesdropping on the Avengers mentally, warns the X-Men that they mustn't allow the Avengers to locate and harm Lucifer. The X-Men confront the Avengers and tell them that this was an X-Men mission and that the Avengers needed to get lost. The Avengers refuse and we get our first official Avengers/X-Men fight! Back in Lucifer's mountain base, Prof. X strikes Lucifer with a mind blast strong enough to knock the villain out, but not so strong as to cause his heart to beat abnormally. With Lucifer out of the way, Prof. X contacts Thor telepathically and tells him why the X-Men had stood in the way of the Avengers. Satisfied that Xavier was on the up and up, Thor tells the rest of the Avengers to stop fighting, and Thor decides that since Lucifer was a foe of the X-Men, the Avengers would cease interfering and would leave... Um, why not join forces to defeat Lucifer together? Anyway, Prof. X leads the X-Men to his location with his telepathy and with some help from Cyclops, manages to destroy the fuse of the thermal bomb, ending it's threat. By this time Lucifer wakes up and is angry that the X-Men had destroyed his thermal bomb, since it had taken him 10 years(!?!) to build. Lucifer storms off, and Xavier tells his X-Men to let Lucifer leave since Lucifer now knew that he couldn't defeat the X-Men and that the X-Men had pledged to never cause injury to human life, no matter what.

The Good: This comic was written by Stan Lee and penciled by Jack Kirby. You can't get any better than that duo. The battle between the X-Men and Avengers was a blast to read, and was drawn magnificently. The banter between the two teams was top-notch. Professor Xavier tried to murder Lucifer with a handgun!!

The Bad: While I had a HUGE laugh at Xavier trying to blow Lucifer away(seriously, where did THAT come from?!), that act caused the ending to make little sense... How does Xavier go from attempted murder to letting Lucifer simply walk away over the course of a few pages? The fact that Lucifer was allowed to leave also bugged me a bit. The same with the Avengers simply leaving. Thor senses an evil so great that he feels it has to be destroyed completely, but since the X-Men called dibs the Avengers just leave?! If the threat was so grave shouldn't the Avengers have stuck around to pitch in?

The Verdict: This wasn't one of the better Lee/Kirby comic books I've ever read, but even a mediocre Lee/Kirby tale is better than like 85% of the comic books that I am currently reading. There were just too many little things that happened here for me to truly enjoy this one. Yeah, the scenes between the X-Men and Avengers were all great, but the rest of the story was kind of meh. And Xavier's weird mood swings really bugged me. But, as I said, it's Lee and Kirby, and it's the first ever meeting between the Avengers and X-Men. For that reason alone this is a must read.

Score: 7 out of 10.Stan Lee's dialogue + Jack Kirby's artwork = Comic book perfection.

Uncanny X-Men #412 (November 2002)

2012-01-09T20:30:00.002-05:00

Let's do one more of these Retro-Reviews tonight since I'm already digging through my back issues. This time we'll head over to Marvel and take a look at an early issue from one of the most polarizing X-scribes ever, Chuck Austen! This should be interesting...

Uncanny X-Men #412:

What Happened: Black Tom has had himself a secondary mutation and had captured and begun to feed off of several X-Men, as well as his perpetual partner in crime, Juggernaut. The only member of the X-Men not captured is Nightcrawler, and try as he might, Crawler is unable to convince Tom to stop leeching the strength of the X-Men(and Juggy). Since words have failed, Nightcrawler frees Stacy X from Tom's vines to attempt a plan. Meanwhile, Nurse Annie hits on Havok, who was catatonic at the time. Cyclops(before he became the Dread Lord Summers) arrives and sees Nurse Annie crying into Havok's lap(yes, really!) and decides to take Havok back to X-Mansion to be cared for. Nurse Annie asks a disturbed Cyclops if she could go along... The best part of this whole situation? Cyclops takes her with him!!! Back with the X-Men, Nightcrawler tells Stacy X to work her phenomenal magic on Black Tom, which she does. Now distracted by Stacy, Tom let's the X-Men(and Juggy!) get free, at which time Iceman freezes all of Tom's vines. That pisses Tom off so he decides to destroy his castle headquarters in an effort to kill the X-Men(and Juggy!). The team gets outside and Juggy confronts Tom, allowing the X-Men the opportunity to board the just-arrived Blackbird(Prof. X and Beast were picking up Squid Boy prior to getting the distress signal from the X-Men). Tom berates Juggy as a failure before tearing the ground apart under Juggy's feet, causing Juggy to fall into the murky waters below. While the X-Men are trying to figure out which one of them had the strength to save Juggy, Squid Boy hops outside and finds Juggy floating towards the bottom of the sea. Squid Boy tells Juggy not to give up, so Juggy takes Squid Boy's hand and the two head back into the Blackbird. With that, Prof. X thanks Juggy for saving the X-Men and offers Juggy a spot at X-Mansion. After temporarily scoffing, Juggy reconsiders and takes Prof. X up on his offer.

The Good: There was good here?! Um, the art was good. I did like the idea of Juggernaut attempting to reform. I've always been a sucker for reformation tales. I forgot how formidable Nightcrawler could be. He was used really well in this issue.

The Bad: Juggernaut was saved, from DROWNING(!!), by Squid Boy!!! Need I say more?! No, but I will. The scene with Nurse Annie begging the catatonic Havok to sweep her off her feet was just horrible in every imaginable way! She's supposed to be his nurse and she's professing her undying love for him! And to make matters worse, Cyclops actually takes her up on her offer to care for Havok! If MY brother was catatonic and I found his nurse crying into his lap because she wanted him to wake up and sweep her off her feet(literally! She literally said that!!), you can bet your ass I wouldn't be taking her with me to care for him!! Prof. X catches Wolverine, who was tossed from the ground to the Blackbird by Juggy, and pulls Wolvie inside... By himself!! Think about that! This is Wolverine, adamantium-laced skeleton and all, being caught in mid-air and pulled into the Blackbird by Prof. X!! Yeah, this was one of THOSE comics!

The Verdict: You know what's interesting? I have lukewarm memories of Austen's Uncanny run. When I first got back into comic collecting after my hiatus, Austen was the writer of Uncanny, and I recall hating some of his run, but thoroughly enjoying other parts... After reading this, I get the feeling that if I read Austen's entire run again, we'd be WAY closer to the “hate” side of things now... This comic was SO much worse than I remember! I mean I was stunned by some of the stuff I read here! The Nurse Annie stuff was particularly terrible. I remember the Squid Boy/Juggernaut scene as being dumb back when I first read this issue, but upon this reread, it wasn't just dumb, it was downright embarrassing... Before I end this post, I just want to point out how fitting it was that this issue ended with some fart jokes... Because it stunk!!

Score: 3 1/2 out of 10.*Angrily shakes fist* Damn you Black Tom Cassidy!!! Goddamn you to hell!!!!!

Green Lantern #74 (June 1996)

2012-01-09T20:00:00.002-05:00

With my new comic pile empty until Wednesday, I am now allowed to delve into my vast back issue collection and bring you guys a Retro-Review! Huzzah! Tonight's Retro-Review will be a random Kyle Rayner Green Lantern issue. Why? Why not!

Green Lantern #74:

What Happened: Donna Troy comes to Gateway City hoping to find Wonder Woman, but finds her ex-boyfriend, Green Lantern(the great Kyle Rayner) instead. Donna explains that several planets had been destroyed and many of her fellow Darkstars(think a lousier version of the Green Lantern Corps) had been murdered by an unknown force. Donna continues, telling Kyle that the Darkstars(somehow...) knew Rann was next in line for the mystery attackers, at which time she prepares to leave since she couldn't delay heading to Rann any longer. Kyle offers to assist Donna, because even though they broke up(over something completely idiotic if memory serves me correctly), he's not about to let her go off to face some malevolent galactic force alone. Meanwhile, John Stewart(yep, he was a Darkstar too!) and about a dozen Darkstars reach Rann and are met by Adam Strange to discuss strategy against the upcoming threat. Kyle and Donna fly through space together and end up admitting that they still had feelings for each other, but are attacked by a hostile alien ship before they can act upon said feelings. At the same time, the majority of the hostile alien ships teleport directly to Rann and launch their attack. It turns out the leader of the aliens is Grayven, who was destroying the planets to show his father(Darkseid) that he was a worthy successor to him. Grayven's forces annihilate the Rann/Darkstar defenses and Grayven himself attacks John. Kyle and Donna on the other hand have managed to destroy the alien ship in space and rush to Rann realizing that the foul aliens must have already attacked the planet. Upon arriving on Rann, Donna and Kyle are met by destruction and John Stewart's lifeless body being held high by Grayven.

The Good: This was a good, fast-paced story. It was nice to see Kyle actually doing something in space, seeing as that he spent practically all of his early GL career on Earth. This issue managed to seamlessly work in the Kyle/Donna relationship troubles without making it feel tacked on. Grayven always seemed like somebody who should have been a big deal.

The Bad: Donna landing in Gateway City and discovering Kyle but not Wonder Woman was a bit too coincidental for my tastes. We never did learn how the Darkstars knew Grayven's forces were heading to Rann... Kyle and Donna destroying one of Grayven's ships while the Darkstars and the defenses of Rann are routed seemed kind of out of whack. The cover of this issue asks “Who will die?” while showing pictures of Donna, Kyle and John. None of them died...

The Verdict: As usual, I enjoyed an issue of this series. Ron Marz did a fantastic job building up Kyle and making him into my favorite Green Lantern. This era in particular was fun, as Kyle had stepped out of Hal Jordan's shadow(at least to everybody not named Geoff Johns or Dan Didio) and was trying to learn what kind of hero he should be. Sure there were some parts of the story that really stretched things for me, but overall it was a good, fast read that advanced the main story(the stuff with Grayven), as well as the back story(Kyle and Donna's relationship troubles.). I'm glad I gave this one a reread.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Spoiler alert from 15 years ago! Grayven's daddy was Darkseid!!

Uncanny X-Men #4

2012-01-08T20:30:00.002-05:00

And now we have reached the bottom of my new comic pile(already?!) and this week's Runt of the Litter, Uncanny X-Men. First things first, the cover of this issue indicates that this team will be facing off against the Phalanx, which means the my most hated X-team ever will be facing off against one of my most hated X-concepts ever... Yeah, this should be horrible... Besides that, this will almost definitely be the final issue of this series I'll be picking up until the X-Men/Avengers event. I just can't rationalize spending $4(oftentimes TWICE a month!) rooting AGAINST the “heroes” in this series anymore. So for the first time since I started collecting comic books, oh so long ago, Uncanny X-Men will NOT be on my monthly pull list. Congrats on that one, Marvel.

Uncanny X-Men #4:

What Happened: Back during a Phalanx incursion attempt on Earth, Mr. Sinister(the awesome, original version) managed to capture an individual Phalanx. Sinister spends years experimenting on the Phalanx (which would actually explain how Sinister gave himself/his annoying clones that hive mind they now share) before he ultimately tires of the Phalanx and locks it in a cage where it remains forgotten. After the battle against Lord Summers and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants last issue, current, annoying Mr. Sinister strolls into the lab containing the Phalanx and blows the lab up since he had no further use for it. A small piece of the Phalanx survives and manages to pull itself together through worms and such, managing to form a head. A little girl finds the Phalanx and takes it home with her to play with, and needless to say, the Phalanx tries to take over/add the girl's mind to it's own, and is shocked and horrified to discover that upon touching the girl, it added her mass, but her mind died. Wanting to contact it's race, the Phalanx goes on an absorbing spree, destroying an entire town in order to give itself enough mass to form a Babel Spire. This act doesn't go unnoticed by SWORD, who in turn contact the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to deal with the situation. Lord Summers and his Brotherhood attack the Phalanx, but it manages to hold them off and forms a Babel Spire. Upon transmitting into space, the Phalanx discovers no signal, meaning that there were no other Phalanx out there. Overcome by grief, and not wanting to be alone, the Phalanx puts down it's defenses, allowing Lord Summers and the Brotherhood to destroy it completely. Lord Summers and Storm are kind of perplexed as to what just happened, and realize that they'll probably never know why the Phalanx simply gave up as it did.

The Good: This was easily the best Phalanx story I've ever read. Hands down. I hated the Phalanx Covenant, I hated that LONG storyline back when the Phalanx attacked the Shi'ar, and I hated every other time I've seen the Phalanx. So a HUGE kudos to Kieron Gillen(whose name was embarrassingly spelled “Keiron Gillen” in this issue...) for actually writing a Phalanx story I was able to get into. The Phalanx itself was an oddly sympathetic figure, which isn't something you'd expect. Getting to see the original Mr. Sinister again was a treat. I liked the artwork here. The Phalanx's decision to commit suicide as opposed to live it's life alone made perfect sense for it.

The Bad: That Phalanx talked A LOT!!! It just kept blabbing and blabbing and blabbing! The Brotherhood won and weren't absorbed away by the Phalanx. Why the hell did that little girl bring that hideous Phalanx head to her home?!? That thing was awful looking! Why did SWORD contact Lord Summers instead of Beast and/or the Avengers?

The Verdict: You know, every time I write a negative introductory paragraph I end up enjoying the comic book I read... I can't explain that, but apparently if I get myself good and angry prior to reading something I almost always tend to enjoy it. Go figure! This is probably the perfect issue to drop this series, because it was a one-and-done issue, and it wasn't horrible. That way I can look back on this series and remember it as being not that bad. Oh well, at least for now, adiós, Uncanny X-Men. It's been... something...

Score: 7 out of 10.Sweet, it's the real Mr. Sinister!

Uncanny X-Force #19.1

2012-01-08T20:00:00.002-05:00

So this is a special Point One issue of Uncanny X-Force. In other words, if you had never read an issue of Uncanny X-Force before, THIS is the issue that new fans are supposed to be able to jump in to with ease. Right? I mean that IS the point of the Point One comic, right? Let us see what this issue actually gives us...

Uncanny X-Force #19.1:

What Happened: We are back in the Age of Apocalypse where we find the last pieces of humanity trying desperately to stave off extinction at the hands of the new Apocalypse, in this case, the AOA version of Wolverine. A leading figure of the human resistance is William Stryker, because, much like Wolverine, he is contractually obligated to appear in EVERY SINGLE MARVEL COMIC BOOK EVER!!! Anyway, Sabretooth and Jean Grey return from the 616 Marvel Universe and tell Magneto(who has made an alliance with Stryker and his humans) that they had basically gotten everybody else killed... Nice... Then, to make Mags day even worse, he learns that the humans had been cloning his long dead daughter, the Scarlet Witch, with the hope that Jean could combine her telepathy with Wanda's reality altering powers to shut off the mutant gene in the AOA as the 616 version of Wanda did. Mags freaks out and destroys the laboratory, seeing this as an unacceptable act. Before Mags can destroy the last Wanda clone, the city the X-Men and the humans were hiding out in is attacked by Apoca-Wolvie and his Black Legion. Mags disdainfully gives Jean the order to try to use the last remaining Wanda clone to destroy the X-gene across the planet, before heading out to face down Apoca-Wolvie with his wife Rogue by his side. Apoca-Wolvie easy dispatches and slaughters Rogue, and eventually overcomes and kills Mags as well. While that scene plays out, Jean manages to connect her mind with the mind of the Wanda clone and gets Wanda to utter the three words I hate more than any other in the history of the Marvel Universe, “No more mutants.” However, Wanda's spell only effects the mutants across a few dozen feet, meaning that Jean had basically stripped herself and Sabretooth of their powers, but nobody else... HA!! Serves her right! By this point, Apoca-Wolvie strolls into the lab, ready to kill everybody present. Stryker manages to toss a grenade at Apoca-Wolvie, buying Jean, Sabretooth and the other human freedom fighters a chance to escape the city. Unfortunately, Apoca-Wolvie destroys the entire city, killing all of the humans who had taken refuge there.

The Good: Much to my surprise, I liked this story! I know, I'm as shocked as anybody else! Apoca-Wolvie is an awesome looking character. I especially love that Mega Man-esque style blaster he has in the place of his missing hand. Jean and the human freedom fighters plan, as much as I personally detest the idea, was quite smart.

The Bad: I'm tired of seeing my beloved Age of Apocalypse bastardized... Seriously, as far as I'm concerned, the REAL AOA ended after Magneto killed Apocalypse and the bombs fell. This is simply a different, but similar, dimension than the original, awesome AOA. If I see William Stryker in another comic book... Seriously, I don't know what I'll do, but it won't be pretty! Mags could kill Apocalypse in the original AOA, but couldn't stop Apoca-Wolvie, who's skeleton was laced with METAL! See, that just proves my theory that THIS AOA isn't the original AOA! So now Jean and Sabretooth have no powers? Um, why not just kill them then? What the hell kind of jumping on point for X-Force was THIS?!?

The Verdict: This was an incredible bizarre read for me... If I look at this as a continuation of the AOA story, it leaves me feeling pissed off. However, I instead chose to look at it as a What If? type of story, and as a What If? kind of story, this wasn't that bad. Does it make me want to read the upcoming AOA mini-series? HELL NO, mainly because Stryker is involved. But if he wasn't? Believe it or not, I'd have been willing to give that mini a shot. Before I end this post, I have to ask, what exactly is the purpose of these Point One issues? I was originally under the impression the Point One comics were supposed to be good jumping on points for a series. If so, this was a HORRIBLE jumping on point for X-Force, mainly because not a SINGLE member of X-Force showed up! Seriously, shouldn't this have been the first issue of the AOA mini-series, or better yet, an AOA one-shot? THIS story in THIS series just made absolutely zero sense.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Does anybody else hear the Mega Man music when they see Apoca-Wolvie? No? I guess it's just me then...

Fear Itself: The Fearless #6

2012-01-07T20:30:00.001-05:00

Last review for the night is Fear Itself: The Fearless #6. Since this is a 12 issue series, by the time I finish this issue we'll be halfway done here! Huzzah!! I have to admit, I enjoyed the first few issues of this series, but the last one fell totally flat. Here's hoping things pick back up again here.

Fear Itself: The Fearless #6(of 12):

What Happened: Since the next Serpent hammer on Sin's list is at the Project: PEGASUS facility, Sin, Crossbones and the DOA have begun to scout the facility out. Unfortunately for them, the Avengers were also aware of Sin's intentions and have just arrived at the PEGASUS facility to help with safeguarding the hammer. Since the folks at PEGASUS research all types of energy, including magic, Sin uses that to her advantage and causes all of the magic, spirits, ghosts, demons and other fun creatures to get free and attack the facility staff as well as the Avengers. Meanwhile, Valkyrie heads to Asgardia and is told by the All-Mother that the promise Odin made to Valkyrie still stands, and that once she collects and seals the Serpent's hammers away, she would be granted peace and allowed to die and head to Valhalla. Back at Project: PEGASUS, Sin and her DOA forces join the battle between the Avengers and the demonic hordes, creating all the more chaos and confusion. As for why, Crossbones, protected from all of the magical madness going on all around him due to an enchanted necklace, waltzes right to the room holding the Serpent hammer housed at the Project. Before he can collect it however, he hears that familiar “SNIKT!” sound we all know and love and discovers that Wolverine (!!)was the final line of defense between Crossbones and the hammer!

The Good: That cliffhanger was ALL kinds of awesome! Seriously, it was fantastic! Daimon Hellstrom was in this comic, which is always a good thing in my eyes, and also raises the final score by a 1/2 point automatically. Sin's plan was quite ingenious and shows that she's as crafty and manipulative as her father was.

The Bad: I really could care less for the Valkyrie portions of this issue. They did nothing for me. How the hell did Wolverine get into the sealed room holding the hammer? Did he run from the battle to protect the hammer, ignoring the demons as they killed scientists? Besides that, how did he actually ENTER the room in the first place?! Sin leading her forces personally seemed rather risky since if she was to be captured by the Avengers, all of her plans would conceivably be ruined.

The Verdict: This was a middling comic book that was saved by it's fantastic ending. I mean before that last scene, this issue was probably around a 5 1/2 or a 6 for a score. But Daimon and that cliffhanger definitely pulled this comic up to a more respectable score. So could this issue have been better? Yeah, the Valkyrie parts, while giving us insight as to her motivation and why she's so hellbent on collecting the hammers were necessary, but they just bored me... I will say this, Wolverine vs Crossbones, in a small room for one of the Serpent's hammers is worth the price of the next issue right there, anything else will simply be icing on the cake.

Score: 7 out of 10.Daimon Hellstrom is awesome, period, end of story.

Thunderbolts #168

2012-01-07T20:00:00.002-05:00

We head back to Marvel for tonight's reviews, starting off with Thunderbolts, starring Luke Cage! I don't really know why that's important, but I guess Luke Cage = sales in the eyes of somebody at Marvel... Oooookay...

Thunderbolts #168:

What Happened: While Songbird and Mach-V are stuck at the Raft doing clean up and talking to the Federal Advisory Committee to the Thunderbolts(or FACT), Luke Cage is rounding up the villains that escaped the Raft during the events of Fear Itself. Luke manages to take down the two remaining living members of the Enforcers, and gets a tip that Soundwave was hiding out at a condemned church in Washington DC. Luke outfits himself with equipment that would handle Soundwave, but is surprised to find Mr. Fear there instead. Fear blasts Luke with some of his fear gas, and Luke is forced to live through his various fears(he's an incompetent leader, the T-Bolts are a mess, he's still a prisoner, he's failed his wife and daughter, etc) while Fear makes good his escape... But not before leaving behind a dead body, causing Luke to fear that he had killed the woman while in the throes of the fear gas. Luke soon realizes that he wasn't responsible for the woman's death, and swears revenge on Mr. Fear. Meanwhile, while meeting with FACT, Songbird and Mach-V get a message from Ghost from 1888. It seems Ghost had written a letter and then locked it in a box to be opened by either Mach-V, Songbird or Luke in the present. Songbird and Mach-V inform Luke that Ghost and the evil Thunderbolts were still alive, which sooths one of his fears.

The Good: It's been a while since we actually got a Luke Cage heavy issue of the Thunderbolts. I liked that FACT took Songbird and Mach-V to task for Luke hardly ever being with the T-Bolts, because it's true. Since I'm not looking forward to the evil Thunderbolts hanging out in Camelot, this issue was a welcome reprieve. I liked the way Ghost sent the T-Bolts a message from the past.

The Bad: I wasn't really enamored by the Luke Cage/Mr. Fear face-off. Luke has been away from this team for so long, I just don't see him fitting in here anymore... Since he has his responsibilities as the leader of the New Avengers, maybe either Mach-V or Songbird should be named as the leaders here.

The Verdict: Meh. This comic just did nothing for me. Considering the fact that Luke Cage has been little more than an afterthought in this series for a while now, it was odd, and a bit jarring that this issue focused so heavily on him. If nothing else, it made me realize that maybe Luke just doesn't belong here anymore... I mean, in a perfect world, I'd take him off the New Avengers and have him exclusively in this title, since he fits here WAY more than as a leader for the Avengers(I still don't see Luke as Avengers material!), but alas, Marvel seems determined to keep Luke on both teams, thus making him totally ineffective here since we all know that anything major that's going to happen to Luke will be happening in the pages of the (New) Avengers, not here.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.Damn, Mr. Fear looks pretty badass...

Irredeemable #33

2012-01-06T21:42:00.002-05:00

Next up, the third part of the Redemption storyline going on in Irredeemable... Where's the second part you ask? Apparently, it was in last month's issue of Incorruptible... Which I didn't get... Here's hoping the lack of that comic isn't too harmful to my understanding of THIS comic...

Irredeemable #33:

What Happened: The Plutonian and his parents continue their trip through time as we learn that the Plutonian's parents willingly allowed themselves to be trapped by the world's governments, since they knew that if they tried to free themselves they would have killed millions. We also learn more about the formative years of the Plutonian, as he shows his parents memories from the man who raised him, Bill Hartigan. Hartigan is an ultra-ridged man, who wanted the Plutonian to be selfless to a fault. The Plutonian ended up doing just that as he became a superhero, and that selflessness, at the detriment of his own happiness, probably had a great deal to do with why the Plutonian turned out as stark raving mad as he did. We also get some memories of Plutonian's early battles with Max Damage(which IS an awesome name), before the Plutonian reveals to his parents that he was actually happy with them and wanted to follow them to their own world, or wherever else they were planning on going. While the Plutonian's parents are pleased that the Plutonian had realized, and even regretted his many monstrous actions, they stand by their decision from last issue and decide to carry out their punishment, which was to place the Plutonian at the very end of time, where he would cease to exist, along with the universe. With that, the Plutonian's parents leave, and the Plutonian begins to slowly die... At least until Qubit and Max Damage arrive from a portal offering Plutonian one final chance to make right all of his wrongs.

The Good: We finally know the full extent of the Plutonian's origin, from where he really came from, his powers, the family that raised him, the works. I loved the fact that the Plutonian couldn't pull a fast one on his parents and that they sent him to the end of time to die for his many crimes. It seemed like the Plutonian would(once again) manage to weasel his way out of his punishment, but his parents saw right through that and sent him to his demise anyway.

The Bad: Why the HELL would Qubit and Damage offer the Plutonian ANOTHER chance?! He's killed MILLIONS! He's destroyed entire countries! Why would you offer him a chance to kill millions more?! Seriously, like he's going to say, “No, leave me to die at the end of time.” You know he'll say anything he can to return to wreak MORE havoc upon the world! The fact that I now have to see if I can find an issue of Incorruptible #26 is rather annoying. There really wasn't much meat to this issue, as the entire book pretty much dealt with Plutonian's early history(which was fine) as well as his battles with Max Damage, which seemed unnecessary.

The Verdict: If this storyline was solely contained in the Irredeemable series, I'd be quite pleased with it. Instead, I'm mildly annoyed that I have to pick up an issue of Incorruptible to find out what happens... To be honest, a) I doubt my shop will even have an issue of Incorruptible #26 in stock, and b) I don't know if I want to spend another $4 on a series I don't particularly care for... So while I MAY pick up, read and review that issue of Incorruptible, realistically? It's probably not gonna happen.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Well then stop doing it!!

Stormwatch #5

2012-01-06T20:00:00.001-05:00

The first review for this lovely Friday night is going to be the fifth issue of Stormwatch... Five issues... That means the DC reboot is five months in... Huh, it doesn't seem like it... Oh well, let me put my bewilderment aside and get to this comic.

Stormwatch #5:

What Happened: The representative from the Shadow Cabinet kills Adam One(huzzah!) and after looking over all of the other members of Stormwatch, decides that Projectionist was the one who should lead the team. With that, he informs Stormwatch that Midnighter and Apollo had snuck off before leaving. The rest of the Stormwatch members are annoyed by this turn of events(including a surprised Projectionist) and are more annoyed when the alarms go off. Midnighter and Apollo wander around the massive Stormwatch ship and get better acquainted with each other, with Midnighter admitting while he wasn't keen on joining up with Stormwatch, he was interested in working with Apollo. Hearing the alarms, Apollo decides to leave Stormwatch's ship to explore, since him and Midnighter had realized the ship was in Hyperspace. From there Midnighter walks to Stormwatch's data storage room and catches Stormwatch member Harry Tanner stealing files. Midnighter tells Harry that he figured the alarm was a diversion to allow somebody to do something(like steal data files), which leads to Harry attacking Midnighter. The two stalemate each other while Harry tries to convince Midnighter that what he saw on the moon had convinced him that he had to do something to save the Earth from some upcoming threat, even if it meant he had to conquer the planet to properly safeguard it. Projectionist interrupts the fight and is grabbed by Harry, who blows a hole in the ship's wall and sails into Hyperspace with Projectionist. Now away from the ship, Harry sets off a bomb inside which decimates the massive ship.

The Good: Most of this one actually. The story and art came together nicely here. Midnighter distrusting all of Stormwatch while trusting Apollo fits with his prior incarnation, which I like. Midnighter in particular came across as a major player here, and is the obvious choice to lead Stormwatch, whether he wants to or not. The cliffhanger was good. Adam One was out of this book quickly. With Adam One gone, I can't say I dislike any of the characters here. The well joke made me crack up laughing... The Shadow Cabinet member was awesome.

The Bad: This series will be crossing over with Superman in February, meaning I'll have to pick up an issue of Superman... If the Shadow Cabinet representative is strong enough to kill Adam One and hold off the rest of Stormwatch with no trouble, why does the Shadow Cabinet even need Stormwatch?

The Verdict: As you can plainly see, there's WAY more good than bad here. I really did enjoy this comic. As a fan of the Midnighter character prior to the reboot, I was quite pleased to see the way he was portrayed here. So yeah, while I am a bit annoyed that this series is going to be crossing over with Superman(who I have ZERO interest in reading about post-reboot), overall I'm happy with the direction of this series.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.HA!!!!!

Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha & Omega #1

2012-01-05T20:30:00.001-05:00

One more review tonight, and it's by Brian Wood, a writer and illustrator of much acclaim... But one who I know very little about... I have to admit, I am actually quite unfamiliar with his work, so this mini will color my early opinion of Wood... Let's see how this turns out.

Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha & Omega #1(of 5):

Summary: Pissed that he was being treated like any other student at Wolverine's school, Kid Omega(or Quintin Quire if you prefer) manages to trap Wolverine in a weird fantasy world inside the Ol' Canucklehead's... um, head. Unfortunately for Armor, she was too close to Wolvie when Omega trapped Wolvie and is forced to go along for the ride. Omega hides the two bodies and heads to his room, pleased with what he'd accomplished. As for Wolvie and Armor, the two don't seem to know that they had powers, but aren't surprised when their powers manifest during various times of trouble. Wolvie ends up getting shot in the head, and since Omega dialed his healing factor way down in this fantasy world, Wolvie is knocked out for a while. Meanwhile, Wolvie's body gets up and begins to storm along, demanding Omega gets out of his head.

Thoughts: Man, Omega is one of those kids you'd really love to just beat the hell out of... Just sayin'... Anywho, this was a pretty good first issue. We don't know how Omega managed to take such control of Wolvie(you'd think his psi-defenses were better than THIS!), nor how none of the rest of the school realized that a) Wolvie was gone, and b) something fishy was going on telepathically. Right now, everything is still being set up. We don't know much about the fantasy world, we don't know why Armor is there with Wolvie, and we don't know why Wolvie's body is up and about, considering his mind was otherwise occupied. But I'm curious enough to pick up the next issue, so that's something.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.“Just seemed like the thing to do” is as good an excuse for that as any.

Defenders #2

2012-01-05T20:00:00.001-05:00

Two reviews on tap for tonight, the first of which is the second issue of the Defenders. The first issues was, if I'm being perfectly honest, bizarrely bad, to the degree that I actually considered NOT picking up the second issue. Now, I know Matt Fraction is a good writer as evidenced by most of his Iron Man work and most of Fear Itself, but that first issue? Bizarrely bad. Let's hope Fraction worked out the kinks here and we get a good comic book and not a weird farce.

Defenders #2:

Summary: Prester John and his weird animal-man forces manage to defeat the Defenders when John traps the Silver Surfer in a bubble created by his weapon, the Evil Eye... Oh yeah, and Iron Fist manages to expel the bullet that shot him last issue by focusing his chi(or something) in case you were wondering... Prester John locks the Defenders up in a cell, but they manage to escape when Dr. Strange scares Red She-Hulk unto turning human, which allows her to slip through the bars, change back into her hulk-form and destroy the controls keeping the Defenders trapped. Meanwhile, Nul, the Breaker of Worlds, is continuing his march towards John's headquarters. The Defenders run into more of John's forces, but manage to fight them off, at least until John arrives with the Surfer, still trapped in his bubble, and threatens to kill the Surfer with the Evil Eye. Dr. Strange tries to explain to John that the real threat here was Nul, who was rapidly approaching, and John surprises Strange by admitting that he WANTED Nul to arrive. It seems John had discovered a “Concordance Engine”, which John figured would open a portal in time and space allowing himself and his men to leave their current dimension and head to one not as violent and destructive as their current one. Since John's massively powerful Evil Eye couldn't break the Engine, John reasoned that Nul could. With that, Nul arrives at John's base, and the Defenders are really trapped between a rock and a hard place.

Thoughts: Much better. I still don't understand why Fraction decided to use Iron Fist, of all the characters in the Marvel Universe, as the team's comedic relief(hell, Speedball isn't doing anything! Use him!!), but alas, he is. Other then Iron Fist's idiotic actions, I can't say anything really bad about this one. The art was fine, the story flowed nicely, and the cliffhanger was fantastic. So all in all, good stuff. Still, I don't get Iron Fist's inclusion here......

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Iron Fist as the team joke is just odd...

Avengers: X-Sanction #2

2012-01-04T23:31:00.003-05:00

Next up is the second issue of the Avengers: X-Sanction mini-series. Since this mini is only 4 issues long, when I finish this issue off, I'll be at the halfway point and as such should have a really good feeling for the direction headed here. Now, the first issue had Captain America losing to Cable in one of the most ludicrous ways imaginable, I'm going to predict, before I even open this comic book up, that Iron Man is defeated by Cable in an even more idiotic way! Let's see if I'm right or if Jeph Loeb rights the ship here.

Avengers: X-Sanction #2(of 4):

Summary: Iron Man, realizing that Captain America and Falcon had vanished and weren't responding to his calls, follows Falcon's bird, Redwing, to Cable's secret freighter. As for Cable, he tells Captain America that he had only blasted him with a stun ray, and that was to keep Cap from killing himself in the torture chair Cable placed him in... Uh-huh... Cable rambles about how he didn't understand why the Avengers were after Our Lord and Savior Hope(because she's the be all and end all of the Marvel Universe!! The most important character EVER created!! The greatest!! The best!! But I digress...) and arms himself with some Stark tech from the future. Iron Man enters the freighter and discovers Cap and Falcon and is immediately attacked by Cable. The fight rapidly spills outside into the water, where Iron Man manages to analyze and neutralize the armor components Cable was using. Unfortunately, in doing so Cable is able to introduce a virus into Iron Man's armor which temporarily shuts it down, allowing Cable to defeat Iron Man. With Iron Man defeated, Cable puts him in a torture chair too! What the hell, was Magneto having a yard sale one day and Cable brought all of his torture chairs?! Before Cable can gloat at Iron Man, he is blasted in the back by the Red Hulk, who had swiped some of Cable's advanced weaponry upon entering Cable's freighter of fun. This issue ends with Cable hearing(or thinking he hears) Our Lord and Savior Hope imploring him to fight on while the Techno-Organic Virus begins to envelop him.

Thoughts: Okay, first things first... Yes, Cable is from the future. That is a given. As such, he's acquired a bunch of advanced technology, such as the futuristic Iron Man armor. Now, here's my problem. Tony Stark is one of the smartest characters in the entire Marvel Universe. Marvel itself has his intelligence listed at a 6(out of 7), which means Tony isn't just a genius, he's a SUPER-genius. That puts him on par with the Reed Richards', the Victor Von Dooms, the Hank Pyms of the Marvel Universe... In this issue? He was outsmarted by Cable. Cable, whose intelligence according to Marvel's official stats falls at a 3, which means he's slightly above average. So Cable outsmarting one of the smartest men in the Marvel Universe would be akin to me defeating one of the greatest chess grandmasters at a game of chess... In other words? It should NEVER happen. Besides that, I still don't get WHY I should be rooting for Cable here... I mean he's obviously the protagonist in this mini-series, but all he's done has been to act like a villain, all due to some vague, and thus far, completely bogus threat to Our Lord and Savior Hope... Would it be too much to TALK to the Avengers, since, you know, they've never been known to act villainously before? Besides all of those complaints? I actually enjoyed this issue! Go figure!! Seriously, if you overlook all of the stupid stuff that SHOULDN'T have happened, and pretended that Cable was a good guy and the Avengers were a bunch of nameless bad guys, this issue was a good read. The art was good, and the story moved along at a brisk pace. So oddly enough, while I hated the main points here, I liked this issue as a whole. One thing is for certain though, come the next issue I will be rooting HARD for the Red Hulk for the first time in my life!

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Yeah sure, Cable is smarter than Tony Stark. And I'm the pope and the Queen of England all rolled into one.

Avengers Academy #24

2012-01-04T23:00:00.001-05:00

Two reviews up tonight. The first comic book released in 2012 that I'll be reviewing? My favorite comic book series from 2011, Avengers Academy... That actually works out really well. Let's see if Christos Gage and company can continue making this book my favorite current series.

Avengers Academy #24:

Summary: Reptil(who is actually an older version of Reptil in the body of his younger self) goes about assisting Hybrid, who is, you guessed it, a Dire Wraith/human hybrid, in capturing members of the Avengers Academy student body and staff. Older Reptil's reasons for doing this are to make certain that his future occurs, a future where he has a daughter with Finesse. As such, Reptil sends the staff and students that aren't needed to make his future occur into Hybrid's trap. After luring several members of the Academy into Hybrid's room(at times rather humorously), Reptil approaches White Tiger. The two talk for a while and Reptil leads her into Hybrid's room as he did the rest. However, Hybrid isn't able to drain White Tiger's power due to her magic amulet, and as such tells Reptil to kill her himself. Reptil is prepared to do just that, until the glimmer of the hero he used to be shines through and he decides to rebel against Hybrid by setting off the alarms. Unfortunately for Reptil, Hybrid has been gorging himself with energy and easily defeats both Reptil and White Tiger, possessing several of the Academy staff and students and then sending the possessed heroes after the Avengers who were responding to the alarms.
More Summary!There were a few other little things in this issue that I didn't mention in the summary since I couldn't find a place for them, so I'll add them here... Tigra revealed that she sent her son to spend some time with the Cat People, so he'd better control his duel cat/human(/Skrull?) impulses. We also had Pym telling Hawkeye that while he had repaired the physical damage to Jocasta's body, he was unable to find any back-up personalities for her, meaning the person/thing responsible for the attack on Jocasta not only destroyed her body, but also destroyed her memory banks. Hawkeye immediately figures it was Ultron, while Pym ponders that maybe it could have been himself...

Thoughts: Absolutely no complaints here. Well, I guess I had a few MINOR complaints, but they were, as I stated, minor. First, there should have been a bit more Hawkeye in this issue. Second, it was odd after the big revelation with Striker that he wasn't showcased more here. Third, the Hybrid story is moving along at a REALLY brisk pace... Seriously, I figure it'll be over in two issues tops, which is kind of surprising because it seemed like the type of storyline that could have been dragged out for quite some time(6-12 issues). Other than those two minor quibbles though? This issue was all good. It basically dealt with older Reptil tricking people into going to Hybrid's room, and had a horror movie-esque feel to it. You know the kind, where you're yelling at the screen for the character NOT to enter the dark barn where the murderer is hiding, but they do anyway... This issue brought the Hybrid story to a head already, which should bring the future Reptil story to a head next. On top of that, there's still the mystery of who attacked Jocasta, especially since the attack was so thorough. It's nice to see a series where the stories are all laid out so plainly and logically. Um, I don't really know what more to say. I'll be eagerly awaiting the next issue of this series(as usual). 2012 has started off well.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Blasted evil hybrid alien monsters!

New Comic Day! January 4th edition

2012-01-04T15:18:00.000-05:00

Hey, check it out, it's Wednesday, meaning it's time for another edition of New Comic Day! Not only that, but this is the first New Comic Day of 2012! Here's hoping we get a great week of books to start the New Year off right. With that said, what books DID I pick up this week? Well, let's take a look! Irredeemable #33, Stormwatch #5, Avengers Academy #24, Avengers: X-Sanction #2, Defenders #2, Fear Itself: The Fearless #6, Thunderbolts #168, Uncanny X-Force #19.1, Uncanny X-Men #4, Wolverine: Alpha and Omega #1 Only 10 books this week? Huzzah! The New Year IS starting off right! I almost picked up the Avengers Annual, but common sense took over and I decided not to pick it up. This week's Pick of the Litter is an absolute no-brainer... It HAS to be the comic I chose as my favorite series of 2011, Avengers Academy! Best comic on the market, with my favorite writer of '11. Yeah, that will definitely be getting read first. As for the first Runt of 2012, that'll have to be Uncanny X-Men #4. After the last issue I honestly wonder why I'm even bothering with this series... I get the feeling that unless things change drastically after the Avengers/X-Men crossover event, this is a series I can easily see myself dropping. Speaking of series I'm considering dropping, this issue of Defenders is going to go a LONG way in helping me decide whether or not this one stays on my pull list, because the first issue was a train wreck... In my humble opinion of course. Let's see... 10 comics means 5 nights of two reviews, with me flexing my (not-so)creative muscle on Monday and Tuesday. Tonight(probably around midnight) I'll have reviews for Avengers Academy and Avengers: X-Sanction up. And there we have it. Another New Comic Day in the books. Remember to check out my scan blog HERE for this week's Random Scan, and until later, X out.