Best of the Rest! April 3rd edition.

Hey X-Maniacs, X here to start another Best of the Rest post.  As always, I'll toss a few reviews out there, and then my erstwhile lackey, JT, will add a few reviews.  JT's reviews will have blue text.  And yeah, enough talk, let's knock these reviews out.

Indestructible Hulk #6: Bruce and his science crew use some uru Thor lent SHIELD(that's weird...) to find some mysterious element in Jotunheim(where the Frost Giants lurk).  Thor from the past shows up(wha?!) as do Frost Giants.  Bruce hulks up, and all of this leads to Hulk lifting Thor's hammer...  Yeah, under no circumstances should Hulk ever lift Thor's hammer.  So I'm guessing either a) the hammer rose because it was heading back to Thor, or b) this is a wacky alternate dimension where anybody can lift the hammer.  Regardless, this issue seemed kind of average-ish to me.  With Mark Waid and Walter Simonson, I was expecting more than this.  Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Stormwatch #19: What the HELL happened to this comic?!  Ugh...  This issue was horrible, and nearly impossible to figure out...  Some aliens kill Adam One at the beginning of time(?), which alters reality(you'd think DC would shy away from doing THAT...), leading to Stormwatch being called Skywatch. with (some) different members.  It was a mess and it ended with a Lobo appearance.  So yeah, I hated it and hope that Jim Starlin rights this ship really fast.  This used to be my favorite DC comic...  Score: 3 out of 10.

Hypernaturals #10: We seem to be inching ever closer to finding out that Sublime was right and that the Quantinuum AI may just be up to no good.  Or maybe it's just trying to protect humanity...  Regardless, Sublime has had more than enough of working with the Hypernaturals and takes off.  As for Evil Sublime, he's attacking Thinkwell's homeworld.  So yeah, I finally managed to read this series, from issue #1-10, and I liked it.  DnA doing a space tale is always a good thing, and this series is no different.  Sublime is rapidly becoming a favorite of mine too.  Score: 7 out of 10.

Venom #33: This issue revolves around Toxin(Eddie Brock) battling against the mysterious(still unnamed!) cannibal from last issue.  The cannibal escapes from Toxin and ends up running into Venom.  This one ends with Venom knocking the cannibal out and coming face-to-face with Toxin.  Which is what I've been waiting for!!  This issue proved something important to me...  If Cullen Bunn stays away from all the demonic and supernatural junk, he CAN write a good Venom series!  He proved it with the U-Foes and he proved it again here.  Eddie vs a cannibal?  Flash vs the cannibal?  Flash vs Eddie?  Yes, please!  Here's hoping Bunn stays away from demons and lets Flash face the types of threats you'd expect a spider-family member to face.  Score: 8 out of 10.

Winter Soldier #17: So yeah, some stuff happens and this issue ended...  *sigh* Fine, I'll try a bit harder than that...  Nick Fury's disembodied head tells Bucky to go after the Electric Ghost, who went all Super-Joker and committed like 57 terrorist acts in one day.  Bucky ends up going to the Ghost's satellite(wait, what?!) and is defeated by her.  Oh yeah, and Bucky's elderly sidekick, Robards, defeats a mini-MODOK off panel because why not.  Yep, I'm done with this series.  This comic was as bad as anything I've read all year, and I'm not gonna waste my money anymore.  Bucky, you deserve so much better than this...  Hopefully this book gets cancelled and a better writer gets a new series down the road.  Score: 0 out of 10.  The first imperfect score in quite some time...

Ultimate X-Men #25: Jean heads to Utopia because Kitty is an arrogant bitch in Jean's mind and shouldn't be leading the mutant people.  Amen, Jean!!!  Besides that, Jimmy is plotting with Warpath from Mach 2's crew and Psylocke is plotting against Mach 2.  So basically, we have a 4 way power struggle brewing between Kitty, Mach 2, Jean and Psylocke...  Um, couldn't there be ONE male character trying to take leadership of Utopia?!  I mean, FOUR women are vying for the throne!?  Very, very weird...  Needless to say, I'm in Jean's corner, because Evil Jean is awesome.  Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.

Green Lantern #19: We pick things up with Hal Jordan who now inexplicably looks exactly like Geoff Johns for some stupid ass reason still in Black Hand's ring as he contemplates his next move. Sinestro's returned to Korugar to get help from his people to take on the First Lantern, but he shows up and feeds off of their emotions. When Sinestro manages to save his people, the First Lantern changes it so he didn't, cause he can change time or something. Anyway, The First Lantern destroys Korugar, leaving Sinestro floating through space and his planet's debris when he finds himself in front of his Yellow Lantern. Also, Hal decides to kill himself while in the ring so he can wield the Black Hand's Black Lantern powers, so he flings himself off a cliff. Well, I hated this. I don't know much about the lantern because I refuse to follow GL Corps, New Guardians and Red Lanterns to keep up with this storyline. The way he changed it so Sinestro lost after winning was a giant screw you to the readers, and it looks like Sinestro will be wielding fear again. Plus, Geoff Jordan annoys me... how do you just randomly change Hal to a pudgy faced Geoff Johns? Ugh. Score: 2/10 only because Geoff Jordan killed himself.

Green Arrow #19: After the odd cliffhanger of Ollie falling to his death in the last issue, we see Ollie survives (SHOCKING!!!) and engages Komodo in battle. Surprisingly, Oliver manages to get the drop on Komodo, but Oliver is suddenly shot with an arrow by Komodo's daughter. Komodo's unhappy about her showing up and Ollie uses the distraction of her and the police to get away. The issue ends with Oliver being picked up by his newest tech guy and pulling an arrow out of his leg before blacking out in pain. This issue fell flat for me, the first two issues started out promising but Komodo and his daughter and the mystery of Oliver's longtime dead dad is not keeping me interested. I'll probably give this series one more issue and if things don't turn around I'll end up dropping it. Score: 4/10

And that's it for this week's Best of the Rest post! I had a few books I wanted to include but I haven't gotten around to reading them yet, so ah well. Due to my busy schedule, X is going to post a scan or something tomorrow since the only two books I've read and planned on reviewing were better as blurbs than full reviews. Anyway, til next time, this is JT and his erstwhile lackey X, signing off!

Stormwatch #18

Last review of the night is one of the few DC books I picked up this week, but it's also my favorite DC series, so that's a huge plus.  Yes, it's time for Stormwatch.  I really wish more people were picking this series up...

Stormwatch #18:

Summary: Engineer sends OMAC after Apollo, Midnighter and Zealot, since she wanted Apollo and Midnighter brought back to the Eye of the Storm.  We get a lot of fighting(and some funny stuff with Apollo pondering exactly what the relationship between Midnighter and Zealot is), which all culminates with OMAC sending the three heroes into a door to Hyperspace.  Engineer tells Midnighter and Apollo that they could either die or allow her to brainwash them, so Midnighter and Apollo decide to go out fighting.  However, Harry Tanner(who Engineer had brainwashed) reveals that he wasn't as brainwashed as Engineer had hoped and manages to wake Jenny Quantum up, who lets out a scream that destroys Engineer(Huh?!).  With that, Zealot heads off to do her own thing and Midnighter and Apollo finally share a kiss, ending this one.

Thoughts: This was SO anti-climatic!!  I was really enjoying things until the ending...  I mean Engineer goes from nearly ruling the world to suddenly blown up?!  This storyline actually felt like it was supposed to get like three more issues but somebody decided to abruptly end it now.  I don't know how long DC knew this was going to be Peter Milligan's final issue on this series(knowing the way DC is though, they probably told Milligan at issue #17...), but yeah, it seemed like Milligan was trying to wrap up his storyline as quickly as humanly possible.  Which was a bit disappointing, because I was really getting into the story here...  Oh well, I WAS enjoying everything before Engineer's sudden "death", from Midnighter, Apollo and Zealot's banter, to Engineer's crazy antics, but that abrupt ending...

Score: 7 out of 10

It's about time, Midnighter...

Stormwatch #17

First review of the night is going to be my favorite DC comic book, Stormwatch...  Yes, that's right, THIS is my favorite DC series.  Not Batman, but Stormwatch.  This is a series that has flown under the radar, but man is it good!  And after the events of the last issue, I'm only expecting things to get better!

Stormwatch #17: 

Summary: This issue gets underway with Midnighter waking Apollo up and telling him that he needed to draw on whatever energy he had left to help the two of them escape from Hyperspace.  Apollo does as asked, and the two head back towards the Earth.  Harry Tanner is panicked by that, and tells Engineer she shouldn't have allowed the two to escape.  Engineer isn't worried in the least, since there's really no where on the planet the two can hide from her.  As proof, Engineer fires a massive energy blast at the two, which they are narrowly able to avoid   By this time, Jack Hawksmoor and Projectionist arrive and tell Engineer to a) fix Jenny Quantum, who Engineer put in a nanite induced trance, and b) stop acting crazy!!  Engineer doesn't do either, and instead teleports the two of them to a rain forest in Brazil, which negates Hawksmoor's powers.  Harry and Engineer turn their attention back to Apollo and Midnighter, but find that the two had managed to evade Stormwatch's cameras   Harry freaks out again, while Engineer shrugs off the loss of the two, stating that she had bigger fish to fry...  Such as the eradication of all human life on the planet Earth!  Harry is shocked to hear that, and tells Engineer that while he had done some terrible things in his day, he drew the line at genocide...  Well we all have our limits.  Engineer shows Harry that he has NO power over her by having the ship itself knock him around, before leaving him, stating that he was a reminder of her former human frailty.  As for Apollo and Midnighter, Midnighter has directed Apollo to Moscow, where they come across Zealot(!!).  Zealot attacks, figuring the two to be alien shape-shifters(Daemonites?!), so Midnighter convinces her it was really him by showing off his incomparable skills.  Once that little misunderstanding is out of the way, Zealot agrees to assist Midnighter with his Stormwatch problem.  As for Engineer, she takes control of OMAC and sends him to kill Midnighter and Apollo.

Thoughts: This issue was GREAT!  The pacing was fantastic, as there was never a dull or boring moment.  On top of that, we see that Engineer has seemingly gone fully crazy, and was now trying to eradicate all life on Earth.  Which basically leaves Apollo and Midnighter as the only two people who can do anything about that...  Oh yeah, and they aren't getting along due to Harry Tanner's duplicity.  And then there's Tanner, who tried to stand up to Engineer and was batted aside like he was nothing.  And Zealot!!!  Seriously, not only is this my favorite DC comic book(hands down!), it's one of my favorite comic series from ANY company.  Right now?  This series is THAT good.

Score: 9 out of 10.

Apollo, Midnighter AND Zealot?!  Yes please!!!

Stormwatch #16

Last review of this Sunday night is going to be the lone DC Comic I've picked up this week, Stormwatch.  Stormwatch has actually been one of my favorite New 52 titles, so here's hoping that continues here.

Stormwatch #16

Summary: Projectionist manages to get a message to Stormwatch, telling them she had been kidnapped by the thought to have gone rogue Midnighter.  Midnighter catches up to her, but unfortunately for him, Apollo has responded to Projectionist's message.  And he is PISSED!  Apollo batters Midnighter while Engineer and the Shadow Lord(actually a disguised Harry Tanner) head to the scene.  The Shadow Lord tells Apollo not to kill Midnighter since he wanted to see Midnighter's execution in person.  The group take Midnighter back to Stormwatch's base and Shadow Lord prepares to kill him, but the blast is intercepted by Apollo, who claims if anybody was going to kill Midnighter, it would be him.  From there, Jenny Quantum shows up and accuses the Shadow Lord of actually being Tanner after an investigation of her own.  Shadow Lord denies that, but Engineer tells the group that it was almost mathematically impossible for Shadow Lord to be anybody BUT Tanner.  Now exposed, Tanner reveals himself and tells the team he was only doing what he thought needed to be done to make Stormwatch more proactive.  As for killing Midnighter, he knew Midnighter would see through his deception, thus trying to eliminate him.  Apollo is furious about that and decides to kill Tanner, but is taken down hard by Engineer, who states that according to her calculations, Tanner was right.  Midnighter decides now was the time to exit stage left and drags Apollo towards the exit hatch.  Tanner tries to stop Midnighter, but Midnighter boots Tanner away and leaps into the Bleed with the semi-conscious Apollo, ending this issue.

Thoughts: As usual, this was a good issue with great characters.  I've enjoyed this storyline and am happy to see Tanner exposed.  The fallout from this issue should be interesting with Apollo mistrusting Midnighter, who WAS right the whole time, Projectionist learning Tanner had played her the entire time, and Engineer seemingly joining the dark side.  With Engineer, I'm guessing she has been corrupted somewhere along the line, I recall something happening a few issues back that should explain her antics.  Apollo and Midnighter?  It'll be interesting to see how readily Midnighter forgives Apollo for not believing him and, you know, trying to kill him and all.  All in all, good stuff that has me looking forward to the next issue.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Ouch indeed!

A Quick Look At... June 6th's new releases.

So I just got home from work a few minutes ago and cooked myself a pizza. I have a few minutes before the pizza cools, so now is as good as any time to break out the first “A Quick Look At...” post of the week. Since I have 8 books left to blog about, I'll do four for this post and leave four for the next post(which will probably be up tomorrow). For this week, I figured I'd go up to THREE whole sentences for each comic! I know, crazy!! Okay, enough talk, I have a pizza waiting for me, so let's get to this...

Stormwatch #10: This was the second issue written by Peter Milligan, and much like the prior issue, it was pretty good. I'm not sure where he's going with Apollo and Midnighter(since I thought it was already established they were gay, although maybe Midnighter hasn't come out yet?), but I was glad to see the guy who betrayed the team(whose name escapes me at the moment...) and Projectionist pop up here. This was another one-and-done type of issue, but as long as the stories are good, I'm fine with that format.
Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Morning Glories #19: This was a weird comic... It was all about Hunter being chased through the woods by a knife-wielding Zoe, who knew WAY more about Hunter's life then you'd think she should have. In the end Zoe was shot by some weirdos, which did indeed piss me off since I really like Zoe.
Score: 7 out of 10.

Invincible Iron Man #518: A LOT went on in this issue, including War Machine(who everybody thinks is dead) acting as the new Iron Man, Tony Stark publicly declaring that he was no longer Iron Man(for the ten-thousandth time), Sasha Hammer being attacked by the crazed Detroit Steel, Spymaster still trying to kill the Stark Resilient staff and Ezekiel Stane telling the Mandarin that he was no longer the Mandarin's slave... Whew. The downside of all that stuff going on is that no one thing was really focused on, so this issue was kind of a blur.
Score: 7 out of 10.

X-Factor #237: Polaris and Siryn/Banshee decide to take Wolfsbane on a road trip in order to perk Wolfsbane up. After failing, they take her to Reverend Madrox, who does get through to Wolfsbane, at which point Wolfsbane decides that she wanted to find her abandoned child. That was a great thing to read, because I am SO curious about Wolfsbane's child, and think the kid has HUGE potential. Oh, and this was a fun read, as usual. And yes, I know that took me over my 3 sentences or less decree... But hey, rules(especially mine) are made to be broken!
Score: 8 out of 10.

Okay, I think I've burned enough time for my pizza to cool off, until later, Vampire X out!

Stormwatch #9

One more review for the night and then it'll be one review a day for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday since this was such a bizarrely quiet week for me comic-wise. But that's then, let's tackle the first DC book I read this week first.

Stormwatch #9:

Summary: This one opens with the Martian Manhunter, Jenny Quantum and Jack Hawksmoor dealing with someone named the Vitruvian Man. The trio manage to capture Vitruvian Man, but not before Vitruvian Man claims that he was once a member of Stormwatch way back when... From there we head to Apollo and Midnighter, who were sent to intercept a Red Lantern that had arrived on Earth. The Red Lantern manages to blind Apollo with it's blood-spit, but is defeated by Midnighter's power, which I understand to be the power of awesomeness... Okay, that's not really his power, but still, you could fool me... Midnighter and Apollo take the Red Lantern back to Stormwatch's headquarters so Engineer could try to figure out how the red ring worked. Unfortunately, the Vitruvian Man manages to get free of his bonds and flips out on the ship after telling his tale of woe(basically the secret masters of Stormwatch murdered his girlfriend after he refused to stop seeing her), which draws the Red Lantern ring towards the Vitruvian Man since he was filled with rage. Midnighter leaps into action and snaps the Vitruvian Man's neck(!) before the ring can reach him, at which time the ring turns it's attention to Midnighter(!!). Before the ring can reach Midnighter though, Engineer recaptures it, and Midnighter storms away. This issue ends with Midnighter pondering if he'd end up suffering the same fate as the Vitruvian Man if he started to enjoy his time on Stormwatch too much...

Thoughts: So this was Peter Milligan's first issue as the writer of this series. Now, I'll admit, I was a bit disturbed when I saw that he was bringing a Red Lantern into this series seeing as that I hate the concept of the Rainbow Corps... I get that Milligan is writing the Red Lantern book, but that doesn't mean I want Red Lanterns in this series... But you know what? Milligan didn't make this comic about that Red Lantern at all. He actually used it as a plot point to show that Midnighter was beginning to let his guard down around some of his teammates, especially Apollo. Plus, I'll admit, the prospect of Midnighter as a Red Lantern is kind of cool(so long as it doesn't last too long that is). Granted, I'm still not that fond of the whole, “Stormwatch has secret, uber-powerful masters.” deal, and I don't get why they'd care about the Vitruvian Man's love-life... Overall though? This was a solid first issue by Milligan, here's hoping he can keep up the good work.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Midnighter cutting off a Red Lantern's arm? Further proof of his awesomeness.

Stormwatch #8

Today we take a trip away from Marvel and check out my lone DC comic this week, as well as one of my Image books. First up is the DC comic in question, Stormwatch.

Stormwatch #8:

Summary: Engineer decides to send Jenny Quantum and Midnighter into the dimension of the Gravity Miners with the hope being that Jenny could...... um...... Could confuse the Gravity Miners into NOT stealing all of the gravity from Earth... I think... Basically Jenny was going to introduce an impossible math equation in the Gravity Miner's dimension which would make them stay in their own dimension(for some reason...). Anyway, Jenny does this and Midnighter manages to locate and rescue Apollo in the Gravity Miner's dimension. But, before heading back, Midnighter decides to leave Jenny behind since she was too smart and too dangerous to be allowed back on Earth(!). With that, Midnighter takes Apollo and seals the portal behind him(!!). Midnighter returns to Stormwatch's base with Apollo and is about to tell them that Jenny was forced to stay behind, when he sees a very unhappy Jenny standing there... Whoops... Later on, while Midnighter is watching over the injured Apollo, Jenny tells Midnighter that she understood why he did what he did to her, but that she had made a decision about him... That decision? We don't know what it is because that ends this issue.

Thoughts: Wow, this issue was all sorts of confusing... And if you think the review I typed up was bad, I didn't even touch upon the talking city or the Daemonite ship getting tricked into helping Stormwatch... Yeah, this one was all sorts of weird. But you see, that's the thing about this series... It's SUPPOSED to be weird! Sometimes that weirdness works in favor of this series(as it did for the first 7 issues, sometimes it works against it, like in this one. But hey, one subpar issue out of 8 isn't enough to sour me on this series.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

This is one of those cases where all I can say is, “Something happened here...”

Stormwatch #7

First up tonight is the one and only DC book I scored this week... And that's about as much of an introduction I can muster...

Stormwatch #7:

Summary: Something bad happens near Chernobyl, so Midnighter sends Apollo to check it out since they were on monitor duty. However, the team leader, Engineer, told the two to report any findings back to her before doing anything... Apollo ends up facing some sort of creature from a parallel dimension that was mining gravity, since it's dimension was devoid of gravity. The creature dominates Apollo, at which time Engineer sends Hawksmoor, Jenny and the Martian Manhunter to extract Apollo. They also manage to capture the creature, but upon returning to the ship, the ship itself tries to attack the creature, since the creatures were enemies to the Daemonites(and the ship itself was a Daemonite). This allows the creature to get free, at which point it rushes Apollo and vanishes with him. This issue ends with the Manhunter basically telling Engineer that nothing could be done to stop these creatures and that the universe was doomed.

Thoughts: Okay, before I get into the story, two things here caught my attention... The first was the cover of this one. Did you see DC's new logo on it? It's HORRIBLE! You can barely even make it out, especially with that banner across the top. You'd think they'd want to emphasize the DC logo so people would know that yeah, this was a DC book, but I guess not. The other thing was the fact that the creatures in this comic were supposedly from an alternate dimension... I thought the DC “braintrust” and I use THAT term lightly, had decreed there were only 52 other dimensions, or some such nonsense... Since DC has limited their alternate dimensional possibilities, how can these creatures be from another dimension? Eh, I'm probably just over-thinking stuff again... As for this comic, it was okay. It wasn't great, but it also wasn't awful. No real complaints here.

Score: 7 out of 10.

That's probably not a good thing...

Stormwatch #6

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!!

Stormwatch #5

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!!!!!

Stormwatch #4

First review of the night? The only DC comic I bothered to pick up this week(well, except for Hellblazer, but that's technically Vertigo), Stormwatch! This is one of the few DC books that passed the 3 month test and is safely on my comic pull list, which means with my luck it'll be terrible now...

Stormwatch #4:

What Happened: Midnighter, with some help from the recently arrived Apollo, manages to break the members of Stormwatch out of the giant moon monster which had absorbed them. The team manages to defeat the dread moon monster thanks to a combination of Jack Hawksmoor's city talking ability, some alchemy and Midnighter's leadership... Even though he's not even ON the team. Having taken down the moon monster, the team(and Apollo) head back to Stormwatch's secret base where they find a member of Stormwatch's shadow cabinet, who states that since Adam One had failed as Stormwatch's leader, he had to die.

The Good: Hey, I already like this shadow cabinet guy! Anyone who wants to off Adam One is alright by me! Midnighter took center stage in this comic, and as the best character out of this cast, that's how it should be... If only Peter Milligan would take note and do the same in Justice League Dark... Apollo also had a large role in this one. Some of the other members(Hawksmoor, Engineer) actually got to do something. I love character development!

The Bad: The story itself is still uber-vague. The whole, “The moon is attacking the Earth!!!” thing, while unique, is kind of dumb. While a small quibble, it was weird that Midnighter took to working with a team even though he's(presumably) always been a solo hero. Why was Apollo teleported to the team's base at the end but not Midnighter? Neither one is a member of the team, and if anything, Midnighter proved to be more useful than Apollo.

The Verdict: I liked this issue. I like the characters. But the story is still a work in progress for me. I'm not all that excited for the next issue since it seems to be revolving around Adam One, the only character I don't like. But hopefully he gets killed and Midnighter or Engineer get named leader of this squad. Overall though, this was an okay issue.

Score: 7 out of 10.See that? Further proof that Midnighter rules!

Stormwatch #3

Hey, check it out, it's the only DC comic book I picked up this week! Man, there was a time when I used to pick up 3 DC books for every one Marvel book I'd get... Nowadays, that ratio is something like 5 parts Marvel to 1 part DC... Sad.

Stormwatch #3:

What Happened: While Apollo deals with the chunks of rock the moon launched at the Earth, the rest of Stormwatch head to the site where one of the moon rocks landed and a giant monster emerged from said moon rock. The team follows Adam's plans and try to attack the moon monster, while Midnighter tells Adam to call for an immediate retreat since the moon monster was absorbing everything thrown at it. Adam is too indecisive as a leader and this issues ends with the moon monster absorbing all but Midnighter, leaving him alone to face the moon monster which now possessed the powers of the rest of Stormwatch.

The Good: This one was action packed from start to finish, with no slowdown whatsoever. Apollo was shown to be Superman-level strong, which is always a plus. Midnighter was shown to have a keen mind for strategy, which is always a plus. We learned a bit more about Jack Hawksmoor and his power, which is always a... All right, I'll give it a rest... The cliffhanger has me interested in seeing what happens next issue with Midnighter(and possibly Apollo) forced to combat the enormous moon monster.

The Bad: We still haven't REALLY been introduced to these characters in a proper way. I mean I know the basics about some of them(Jack Hawksmoor, Jenny Q, Engineer), while I know others better(Apollo, Midnighter, Martian Manhunter), but there are still some characters(Projectionist, that Adam guy, Mystery Swordsman #1) I know next to nothing about... After three issues I'd have hoped we'd have gotten some better characterization work done here...

The Verdict: I thought this was a really good issue. Sure, I'd like to know more about the individual Stormwatch members, but I'll have to assume that's in the cards sometime soon... Hopefully. So while the story and characterizations are coming along slowly, the action is keeping me invested in this series. Bottom line? This series successfully passed it's three month test, meaning it's permanently on my pull list.

Score: 9 out of 10.Yep, three issues in and it's already painfully obvious who the leader of this squad should be.

Stormwatch #2

Next up this week? Stormwatch #2. I really enjoyed the first issue, but after having had a month to think about things, I wonder if it was the characters in this comic that I enjoyed, or the story itself... This issue should make things a bit clearer for me I'd think.

Stormwatch #2:

What Happened: Midnighter tries to convince Apollo to join up with him, at which time the Martian Manhunter wakes up and offers them both a slot on Stormwatch. Stormwatch's leader, some goof named Adam, also arrives on the scene trying to convince the duo to join their ranks. Meanwhile, Jenny and the Engineer teleport to the moon to try to rescue their missing teammate Harry Tanner. The entity in the moon(a big eye) takes offense at the perceived invasion and attacks the two Stormwatch members while launching a volley of debris at the Earth to try to “toughen up” the planet in preparation for some unnamed future threat. Upon hitting the Earth, the debris turns into a big, ugly monster.

The Good: Um... Apollo and Midnighter were in this comic? I also liked the Manhunter and the Engineer here. The art was good. I liked the way Stormwatch manipulated events so the heroes of the world wouldn't understand what was really happening concerning the moon's attack.

The Bad: Yeah, I definitely don't like the story. Stormwatch's leader? That Adam guy? I hated him. He was REALLY annoying. I couldn't help but think we should have had WAY more scenes featuring the trio on the cover of this issue(Manhunter, Midnighter & Apollo), since they are clearly the stars here. And the moon does not a good villain make...

The Verdict: So the moon is attacking the Earth to toughen it up? The moon is not exactly the type of villain you can either get behind or against... Therein lies a major problem... Most REALLY good teams/characters? They have a really good villain/villains to match them. And the frigging moon(or more specifically, the entity in the moon) isn't going to be that villain. Add the lack of attention paid to the aforementioned trio of stars in this comic, plus the uber-annoying leader of the Watch, and it all adds up to a comic I didn't particularly care for.

Score: 6 out of 10.At least Midnighter is still awesome.

Stormwatch #1

Well, here we go! This is the FIRST rebooted DC comic I'll be reading. This is one of the few books I actually have high hopes for, here's hoping those hopes aren't dashed...

Stormwatch #1:

Summary: There's a lot going on here, so in the interest of making this review as palatable as possible, I'm going to stick with some background information, as well as the main storyline. Stormwatch is a clandestine “super-hero” team that operates from an outer-dimensional ship in Hyperspace. Stormwatch deals with the more dirty stuff that's happening in the world. Okay, with that out of the way, let's get into the main story. Three Stormwatch agents, Jack Hawksmoor, Projectionist and the Martian Manhunter(who is secretly a part of Stormwatch unbeknown to his JL teammates) head to Moscow to try to recruit a young man by the name of Apollo, who seems to rival Superman himself in power(Apollo basically is the Wildstorm version of Superman, fyi). Apollo came to Stormwatch's attention when he killed a child molester. However, Apollo isn't interested in doing the super-hero thing(even though the Manhunter keeps trying to impress upon Apollo that they weren't REALLY super-heroes). In the end, Apollo flies away from the group after giving them a resounding no. The trio of Stormwatchers pursue Apollo, so he goes to attack the Manhunter, who is able to deflect most of Apollo's blow before turning into a more monstrous form to deal with Apollo. After subduing Apollo, the Manhunter tells Apollo that since he was possibly the strongest person on earth, he had a responsibility to help Stormwatch save the world. Apollo doesn't feel the world's worth fighting for, and before the Stormwatchers can argue with Apollo anymore, Midnighter(!!!) strikes with stunning speed and skill, knocking out all three of the Stormwatch members before they could even react(!). This issue ends with Midnighter(who is basically Wildstorm's Batman) introducing himself to Apollo and telling him that between the two of them they could kill every evil bastard on the planet.

Thoughts: Well I'll be damned, I REALLY liked this comic! If Paul Cornell can manage to keep Apollo and Midnighter true to themselves(you KNOW what I mean), I think this could be an AWESOME comic book. Besides the main story which I described above, there were also a few other stories beginning to build up in the background, involving mysterious artifacts, and a giant eye inside the moon. So yeah, this comic packed a lot of awesome. I'm afraid to get my hopes up TOO high for this series, but if this issue is any indication, this series may just be THE sleeper hit of the DC reboot. Huh, I've managed to read a rebooted DC comic and the world hasn't come to an end... Maybe things aren't going to turn out as bad as I feared!

Score: 9 out of 10.Oh HELL yeah!!!