Fear Itself #1 & Fear Itself: The Home Front #1

Here we go!!! What more is there to say except Fear Itself #1 came out today? Needless to say that comic was the FIRST thing I read after getting home today, so let's stop wasting time and get to it!

Fear Itself #1(of 7):

Summary: We get started with Steve Rogers and Sharon Carter getting stuck in the middle of a riot in Manhattan. Eventually order is restored and later on Steve is disappointed to learn that there were no super-villains behind the riot, it was just people on opposite sides of an issue. From there Iron Man tells Steve that the best way to allay the fears of the people of the US was to build, so he pitches a rebuilding project in Broxton, Oklahoma, to repair Asgard, which was destroyed after the Siege event. The scene shifts to Sin, who has managed to find the location of the magic hammer that Red Skull called down from the heavens during WWII, but was unable to lift. Sin is confident that she can lift the hammer, because she saw it happen in her dreams, and sure enough, she does lift it and is transformed into a being called Skadi, who is intent on finding her father. The Avengers head to Broxton and hold a press conference laying out their intentions with regard to Asgard, while Odin angrily watches from high above(with the Watcher), disgusted that his son Thor would stand with the mortals. Thor senses Odin's presence and heads into the ruins of Asgard to see him, which leads to Odin attacking Thor for allowing the Asgardians to become dependent on humans. Odin demands Thor to choose between his fellow gods and humanity, and Thor choses humanity, disgusting Odin further and causing him to sulk away. Skadi swims deep into the oceans of the Pacific and finds a sealed tomb, breaking into it to discover her father, an elderly figure calling himself the true All-Father, referring to Odin as a usurper. Skadi and this All-Father travel to the surface of the water and the All-Father raises his hand, sending several projectiles(hammers?) crashing down to Earth. The Avengers and Asgardians get together and have a feast(Odin is naturally not present), and Odin senses the return of this other All-Father. Odin marches into the banquet hall and tells the Asgardians they would be leaving Earth immediately, giving no reason why. Thor finally has enough of his father's antics and attacks, but Odin simply takes Mjolnir away from Thor and then batters his son, telling the other Asgardians to collect Thor and prepare to evacuate the earthly dimension. With that, the Asgardians take Thor, and the Avengers are left pondering just what was about to happen.

Thoughts: Well, this wasn't exactly as good as I was hoping... The initial few pages didn't really seem to fit into the story... I mean what was the purpose of the riot in NYC? It ultimately led to Iron Man deciding to rebuild Asgard in Oklahoma, which was supposed to appease the people in NYC I guess? Um, how? The mystery of Skadi and this other All-Father looked interesting, as did Odin's kind of crazy antics. I especially enjoyed Odin bitching out the Watcher, who simply turned his back on Odin. I guess the bottom line here is that I was expecting more... Sure, we have our villain(s) of the piece(Skadi/All-Father), and the Asgardian gods have left Earth, leaving the denizens of Earth to have to fend for themselves against this new threat, but that was it. Nothing really memorable happened here, and for a huge event issue, I kind of expected to read something that would have me frothing at the mouth anticipating the next issue. While I'm excited to see where things go next issue, I have to admit, my excitement for this event has diminished slightly after reading this one.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Oh Odin... You so crazy!


Fear Itself: The Home Front #1(of 7):

Summary: 4 stories here, the first two are multi-parters, while the last two are one-shot deals. Story one deals with Speedball going in disguise to help a foundation in Stamford, Connecticut. He does a mess of good deeds, but is eventually found out and the people at the foundation attack him. The second story is about Jimmy Woo and his Atlas Foundation looking into Neo-Nazi groups. Story three has J. Jonah Jameson blaming super-heroes for the riot in NYC seen in Fear Itself #1, and the last story talks about how the people in Broxton, Oklahoma have been getting by.

Thoughts: Gah, what the flaming hell was this?! When the best story was a one page deal about J. Jonah Jameson, there are problems... Big problems... I was hoping after Civil War ended Marvel would stop with the over-politicization of its comics, but alas, that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm tired of the stupid Stamford thing, I'm tired of hearing about the Registration Act, and the sooner Marvel gets the hell away from all of that stupid crap, the better.

Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.Sadly, THIS was the highpoint of this entire issue...

New Comic Day! April 6th Edition.

It's that time again! Time for the newest installment of the craze sweeping not just the nation, but the WORLD, New Comic Day! I'm actually typing this up at school right now, as I'm between classes, so this post may be a bit quicker than my normal NCD post... Or maybe not. We'll see. And FYI, I got some GREAT(hopefully...) books today at ye olde comic shop! But before I start gushing about how excited I am to read what I picked up, I first have to go back to last week to see how my predictions held up... Last week's Pick of the Litter was Ultimate X #4, which was quite good, getting a very strong 9 out of 10 for a score. As for last week's Runt, well, I didn't read it, and I actually never plan to... It was Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8, and I just don't have the patience to read anything masterminded by Chairman Johns anymore... It's safe to say he's now right up there with Chris Yost as my least favorite writer, and somebody whose work I now refuse to read. So yeah...

Enough about last week, let's get into this week! First off, I'm not expecting ANY subscription books, which is just staggering to me... I can't remember the last time that's happened to me. Anyway, here's what I picked up earlier today... Brightest Day #23, Freedom Fighters #8, JSA All-Stars #17, Secret Six #32, Superman/Batman Annual #3, Weird Worlds #4, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #38, Annihilators #2, Avengers: The Children's Crusade #5(!!!), Captain America: Hail Hydra #4, Fear Itself #1(!!!!), Fear Itself: Home Front #1, Uncanny X-Men #534.1, Justice League of America 80-Page Giant 2011 #1, Thunderbolts: Marvel Vault One-Shot & Wolverine: The Best There Is #5, for a grand total of 16 new books... This week is extra special because it heralds the beginning of Marvel's Summer event, Fear Itself! Now, normally the start of an event like that would be the runaway choice for this week's Pick of the Litter, but alas, that's not the case. Yes, I'm DYING to read Fear Itself #1, and it will probably be the first thing I read tonight, but there's one comic I'm even MORE interested in... So this week's Pick of the Litter is Avengers: The Children's Crusade #5. I mean hell, I haven't given any of the first 4 issues(or the tie-in) lower than a 9 1/2 for a score! That's just amazing. So yes, Children's Crusade gets the honor of being this week's top book. As for the Runt of the Litter, need you even ask? Come on, it's easily Brightest Day #23, or as it's better know as, The Worst Thing To EVER Come Out Of DC. Oh, and that Thunderbolts issue is an old inventory story from Fabian Nicieza's T-Bolts run starring none other than Nomad(Jack Monroe)! And that's that. I'll post a Random Scan, and then it's time to sit back and read Fear Itself #1. Until next time, X out.

The Random Scan of the Week!Heh-heh... Deadpool...

X-23 #8 & Wonder Woman #609

We take a break from the one company theme I had going the past couple of reviews, as I take a look at comics from both Marvel and DC, both coincidentally featuring female leads. This review is also notable because it's probably the last Wonder Woman comic I plan on reading in quite some time, as this issue was the last for my subscription, and with how absolutely abysmal J. Michael Straczynski's WW run has been, I just can't reason spending money on this series. Oh, speaking of DC and sucky stories, I was planning on reading/reviewing Green Lantern Corps #58 and Emerald Warriors #8, but I just can't bring myself to read another story from the “brain” of Chairman Johns. So yeah, don't expect to see me review ANY of the War of the Green Lanterns tripe.

X-23 #8:

Summary: X-23 and her Gal Friday, Gambit finally arrive in Madripoor to find Daken, who they believe knows where Malcolm Colcord(who is trying to restart the Weapon X program for the umpteenth time) is. X-23 is able to locate Daken almost immediately, but spots some goons trying to kidnap a child off the street and has to ditch Daken to save the kid. Gambit manages to find Tyger Tiger, who tells him that she had been forced to work for Daken. Since Tyger hates Daken and all, she agrees to help X-23 and Gambit trick Daken into meeting with them. To that end, Tyger has the two meet her in her office the following day, where they demand to see Daken, and she dutifully protects Daken. After X-23 and Gambit leave, Daken comes out of a hold in the wall(?!) and is intrigued enough by X-23's claims that she was Wolverine's clone to go to meet X-23 and Gambit. Daken locates the duo at a restaurant, and refuses to believe X-23's claim, at least until she pops her claws, which angers Daken, and provokes him to attack. Gambit naturally gets knocked out early on(MAN has he become such a damsel in distress lately!), leading to X-23 and Daken battling across the rooftops of Madripoor as this issue ends.

Thoughts: First things first, when did it become common knowledge that Daken and Colcord were working together? I mean I thought it just suddenly happened in the last issue of Daken, but it seems that it's a well known fact or something now... Weird. As for the story here, I liked it. It's hard to screw up a comic that was leading up to an X-23/Daken fight, and this comic gave me what I expected. I'm not exactly sure where the story goes from here(I guess Colcord betrays Daken? Or maybe vice-versa?), but I was pretty happy with the first part of this x-over, which continues in the next issue of Daken: Dark Wolverine.

Score: 8 out of 10.Gambit's one to talk, what with that trenchcoat he's always wearing!


Wonder Woman #609:

Summary: Dr. Psycho takes Wonder Woman: The Teenage Amazon on a journey through WW's mind and shows her several different versions of WW throughout history, eventually getting to the real WW that we all knew and loved. Psycho tells WW she has to choose which Wonder Woman she wants to be before leaving her alone with her thoughts. WW treks through her mind, walking past several different versions of herself before stopping and choosing one. This issue ends with a nurse with the last name of Prince(who looks quite a bit like WW), calling a doctor to look at the patient who just woke up, a patient who looks like Wonder Woman.

Thoughts: You know, the beginning of this comic actually grabbed my attention. I liked Psycho's little trip through WW's mind, and the various different versions of WW were kind of interesting. Now don't get me wrong, I don't know what the hell any of it meant, but it did manage to hold my attention, so there's that. The end was a straight-up confusing mess, but, and I hate to say it, I am a bit intrigued to see just what this all meant. Which means I'll be picking up issue #610... Dammit!

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Hey, this all looks vaguely familiar...

Avengers #11 & Amazing Spider-Man: You're Hired #1

Two Marvel comics in this post, the latest issue of the Avengers, as well as the Amazing Spider-Man: You're Hired! #1 comic. After reading that Spidey comic I learned a very valuable lesson... If you're not sure what the comic is about, ALWAYS flip through it while at the comic shop before blindly buying it...

Amazing Spider-Man: You're Hired #1:

Summary: This was a weird one... There were actually three stories, a Spider-Man one, a Spider-Girl one and a Power Man tale. I'm only going to talk about the Spidey story because this IS a Spider-Man titled comic! Spidey's story is from back when Spidey had been fired from the Daily Planet by J. Jonah Jameson. While riding the subway with Aunt May, Spidey(as Peter Parker naturally), bumps into NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg. Mayor Bloomberg, Peter and Aunt May all have a conversation about the many ways NYC was helping people get back to work, all while Peter had to keep ducking out to halt various menaces. Eventually Peter, Aunt May and Mayor Bloomberg get to City Hall and Bloomberg kind of/sort of indicates that he knows Peter was Spidey.

Thoughts: Weird... Just weird... I don't even know what else to say about this comic. It was apparently a part of some sort of initiative between Mayor Bloomberg and Marvel to help residents of New York City learn about Workforce1, some free career counseling service. Now that's all fine and good for people living in one of the five boroughs, but I moved out of NYC 4 years ago! So yeah, this comic was, as I believe I mentioned, weird. So if you're an out of work resident of the Big Apple, google Workforce1. If you're like me and you no longer(or never did) live in NYC, well then you're plumb out of luck!

Score: ? out of 10. Seriously, how can I give this a score?Mayor Bloomberg?!? What are YOU doing in a Spidey comic?!?


Avengers #11:

Summary: We start this one off with the Watcher watching(what would you expect?) Thor(who had the infinity gem controlling time), the Red Hulk and Namor preparing to assault the Hood, who had managed to acquire 3 infinity gems(power, space and reality). Hood easily swats the heroes away, but is continuously attacked by Red Hulk, who manages to grab the power gem out of Hood's hand. Not wanting to face the heroes now that they had the same amount of gems, Hood teleports away, back to the rest of the Avengers, followed by the other three heroes. Hood realizes that this was also another battle he probably couldn't win, so he teleports away again, this time to the former site of X-Mansion, where he meets the group of Avengers(and Prof. X) who were trying to break through Xavier's defenses to get the mind gem. Hood easily defeats the defenses and grabs the mind gem, but is immediately attacked by Xavier. The two have a mental duel, but all of Xavier's mental powers don't match the mind gem and Xavier(and the Avengers) are knocked out, allowing Hood to make yet another escape. Using the three gems he had, Hood teleports to the astral plane, which is where Dr. Strange had hid his gem, the soul gem. However, Hood finds that the gem was already in the clutches of Thanos(!!!)!

Thoughts: Brian Michael Bendis is a strange one... I mean I don't know if I've seen a writer who can go from writing crappy stories, to writing phenomenal ones, all over the span of one issue. This was one of his phenomenal ones. I loved every part of this story. It was really wordy(as are most of Bendis's comics), but it was wordy in the right way, if that makes any sense. Instead of pages of useless dialogue, where Spider-Man and Wolverine would stand around talking about the positives and negatives of Fruit-Loops, most of the dialogue here was said/thought by the Watcher, which helped steer this issue along. For once the dialogue told a story, instead of simply being there as page filler. As a huge fan of Thanos and the original Infinity Gauntlet I both loved the Thanos reveal, as well as wasn't overly fond of it, since I thought Thanos was still trapped in the Cancerverse. Irregardless, this was a great issue that has me dying to see what happens next. Oh, and if you're a fan of John Romita Jr's artwork, you may want to consider picking this one up, because most of the pages were without panels, and were full page spreads of the action... It was REALLY awesome to behold!

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.A Bendis comic where the art tells the story?! What the HELL is going on here!?!?

Zatanna #11 & Batman: Streets of Gotham #21

We're going the DC route for this post, with the FINAL issue of Batman: Streets of Gotham, as well as the latest issue of Zatanna, both written by Paul Dini... Huh, I JUST realized that Dini wrote both of these... Creepy...

Batman: Streets of Gotham #21:

Summary: We kick this issue off with Hush finishing up his betrayal of Dr. Death before shooting that mobster he'd been working with, Judson Pierce. From there Hush locks the two men in a room and prepares to flood Wayne Tower with a deadly array of gases, at least until he realizes that all of his henchmen were unconscious. Before he can figure out who did the deed, he gets conked over the head by the Wayne Tower employee he kidnapped, an employee who turns out to be Jane Doe in disguise. The near dead Pierce manages to wake Dr. Death up, and Death manages to mix some chemicals that blow the door to their room open. Unfortunately for Pierce, the chemicals begin to eat away at his skin while Death makes his escape. Hush wakes up tied to a chair with Jane Doe cutting his face off in order to masquerade as Bruce Wayne(remember, Hush had given himself plastic surgery to look like Bruce). Jane affixes Hush's face to her head and prepares to kill him when Batman(Bruce Wayne for this issue) drops in and knocks Jane out. From there we learn that Dr. Death's chemicals had somehow enhanced Pierce's strength, while deforming him greatly in the process. Needless to say, Pierce still wants to kill Bruce. Finally, we find Hush with his face covered in bandages, trying to convince doctors at Arkham Asylum that Bruce Wayne and Batman were the same man.

Thoughts: Meh. As a huge fan of Hush, I can't say I liked this storyline at all... What happened to the master villain who could fight both Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson to a standstill all while concocting all sorts of deathtraps? I mean poor Hush... His credibility as a villain has just been going downhill since his first couple of appearances in that awesome Hush storyline by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee... Now he's locked in Arkham, AS Dr. Tomas Elliot, where nobody believes a word he says. At least most of the other times he's lost he managed to evade capture. This time he gets squashed by Jane Freaking Doe, gets his face cut off and gets locked in Arkham... Maybe he and Jason Todd can talk about the good old days when they were both meaningful Batman villains...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.Life really sucks for Hush.


Zatanna #11:

Summary: We get this one started with Oscar Hampel preparing to seal Zatanna(who's a puppet now) in a puppet case in a magic museum. Yeah, that's a pretty sucky fate if I do say so myself. Before he does though, he decides to take a break in his dressing room since he had a TV performance that night. He gets a knock at the door and find a scantily clad make-up woman, who wants to get him ready for his performance. Oscar happily lets her in and she smothers him with some chloroform. It turns out the make-up woman was one of Zatanna's assistants, and had been tracking Oscar since she figured out he had turned Z into a puppet... Ooookay. Z's assistant then TELLS Zatanna EXACTLY how she figured out what had happened, in detail(!), giving Oscar enough time to wake up and attack. Oscar tries to turn the assistant into a puppet too, but unfortunately for him, the assistant came prepared and was under a spell that would reverse any spells sent her way. Needless to say, Oscar turns back into a puppet, Zatanna turns back to normal, and this one ends with Zatanna locking Oscar the puppet in a giant milk can.

Thoughts: Wow, this... really wasn't all that good... On the bright side we learn that Brother Night had woken up and was back up to his old tricks again, but everything else about this issue was pretty bad. I mean why would Z's assistant spend FOUR pages telling her how she found her?! Shouldn't she have been more interested in trying to, oh I don't know, turn Zatanna back to normal before anything else?! It just seemed to odd(and incredibly dumb!) for Z(as a puppet) and her assistant to stand around shooting the breeze while the bad guy slowly recuperated. If I was ever turned into a puppet, my first thought would be turning back to normal, not finding out how my assistant located me, but I guess that's why I'm not Zatanna...

Score: 6 out of 10.Sure, just ignore the bad guy in the corner...

Kick-Ass 2 #2 & Ultimate X #4

Hot DAMN, this past week BOTH Ultimate X #4 AND Kick-Ass 2 #2 came out! Why am I so excited by that? Well, Ultimate X #3 came out last JULY(yes, July!), while Kick-Ass 2 #1 came out back in October... For the record, I'm a HUGE fan of both series, so when I saw they were both coming out this week, I was pleased to say the least. Now the real question is this, after their respective delays, are they both going to be as good as they were? Well, let's find out!

Ultimate X #4:

Summary: This issue is narrated by Liz Allen's mother, who fills the reader in as to what Liz had been up to after Ultimatum. Not only do we learn that, we also learn that Liz's father was... wait for it... THE BLOB! Yup. Needless to say, Liz's mom decided not to tell her Liz that piece of information. After Blob's death at the conclusion of Ultimatum, Liz's mother discovers that Blob had left her a sweet life insurance policy to take care of Liz, as well as another child Blob had sired(Blob: Lady-killer?!?), a kid around Liz's age named Teddy. With the money from the life insurance, Liz finds Teddy, and moves to California with the two kids. Liz quickly fits in with the “cool” girls, while Teddy winds up falling in with the wrong crowd, most notably some dweeb named Evan, who encourages Teddy to break the rules, etc. After a hamburger throwing incident in the High School cafeteria, the principal suspends Teddy and Evan, which is fine by Liz, since she wouldn't have to worry about Teddy embarrassing her at school that week. The week passes uneventfully for Liz until Teddy and Evan are reinstated and they ask Liz for a ride home from school. Before Liz can give an answer, Liz's kinda-of boyfriend tells Teddy and his “girlfriend” to take a hike, at which point Evan pulls a gun and begins wildly pointing it around. The principal enters the cafeteria to try to defuse things but gets shot by Evan, who now feels like a big man. Teddy steps in front of Evan and tells him to stop, so Evan shoots Teddy too, and it's there we learn Teddy had inherited his father's mutant ability as the bullet harmlessly pops out of Teddy's chest. Having witnessed some of this scene on TV, Jean Grey grabs Jimmy Hudson and Derek Morgan and the trio of free mutants make their way to the school before things got any worse. The kids in the school are more panicked over the fact that there are two mutants present(Liz and Teddy), then the kid with a gun who actually shot somebody! Ah that wacky Marvel mutant logic... Anyway, Jean arrives on the scene and offers to take Liz and Teddy away from all this. Before they can agree, Quicksilver(!?!) arrives on the scene and makes a similar offer. Liz makes eye contact with Jimmy, and since he has those irresistible Hudson genes, she wants to go with Jean's group. However, Teddy is tired of all the digs Liz was always giving him behind his back and as such decides to go with Pietro. With that the two groups split up and this issue ends with Liz's mom realizing that she'd never see either of her children again.

Thoughts: Why can't this comic book come out on a regular schedule? Hell, I'd be fine with a semi-regular schedule. That's how much I love this series. This series does indeed prove that Jeph Loeb DOES still have some mad writing skills when he wants to, because this series has been top shelf from the first issue onward. I liked the story, I enjoyed the twists with Liz's mom and Blob, I liked the character development Loeb put into Teddy even though you know he's simply going to go out there and be your basic super-villain. In other words, I liked a LOT of what I read here. If I had a gripe, it would be the fact that Jimmy was pretty much an afterthought here. Other than that, good stuff. Oh, and on the back page they claim issue #5 will be out in May... I know I'll be keeping my fingers crossed!

Score: 9 out of 10.Yeah, she went there...


Kick-Ass 2 #2:

Summary: Kick-Ass gets invited to attend a meeting of like minded individuals, a bunch of costumed characters who have decided to band together to deal with the crimes the cops couldn't or wouldn't deal with. During the meet and greet, Kick-Ass realizes that Battle-Guy was his friend from High School, Marty Eisenberg. After getting the meet and greet out of the way, Colonel Stripes(who seems to have taken the leadership role) begins to set up the team's first “big” mission, busting up a mafia card game. The next day at school, Kick-Ass and Marty are feeling pretty smug about their newfound super-hero team-up thing... Or at least they are until they bump into one of the Goth kids who had signed up to join Red Mist's band of super-villains via Mist's Twitter account. That night, Kick-Ass and Battle-Guy meet up and hang out before they hook up with the rest of the heroes and walk right up to the door of the mafia card game and knock. Some goon answers, so Colonel Stripes smashes the goon in the throat and it's loosely organized chaos time! The heroes are on the mafia feebs before they know what's going on, and within moments, the mafia members are laying around groaning and holding various broken body parts. Colonel Stripes saves the best for the leader of the mafia, as he lets his dog take a bite out of the mafia boss's... Hmm, I can't think of a politically correct way to put this... Ah what the hell. The dog bites the guy square in the balls. There. While the mafia guy is convulsing on the floor, Colonel Stripes pulls out a handgun and tells the agonized man that they needed to have a talk.

Thoughts: Wow, this was a pretty quick read... But a lot actually happened. We learn that several members of Kick-Ass's “super-hero” team are mafia defectors, who found god or some such nonsense. In other words, I'm not buying that story as far as I could throw it. I get the feeling Stripes might just be looking to make a power play on the mafia(with his well-meaning, but oblivious) band of heroes backing him up. Could I be WAY off? Yes, definitely, and I probably am! Besides that, we have the Red Mist stuff quietly percolating under the surface right now... If I was wearing a hat right now, it would be off to both Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.

Score: 9 out of 10.Total carnage! I love it!

Amazing Spider-Man #657 & Uncanny X-Men #534

Two more reviews for today, this time the comics come from the House of Ideas as opposed to the Distinguished Competition. One was exceptionally good, the other one was... well, pretty horrendous. Just by looking at the post title, it should be easy to tell which is which...

Uncanny X-Men #534:

Summary: Two stories going on here, both of which involve characters I can't stand... I guess we'll start off with the character I hate the most. The Whore manages to run away from Sebastian Shaw long enough to get into his mind and make him forget who she was, and more importantly, who he was. With Shaw's threat eliminated, The Whore and Shadowcat leave. The other story deals with Lord Summers The First heading to Lobe's base with his army of diseased mutants. Lobe sics his investors(who are hopped up on drugs that give them mutant powers) on the sickly X-Men(yes, this is actually happening), but the investors are new to their powers and as such can't defeat the sickly X-Men. Lobe has enough(I actually had enough ISSUES ago!) and presses a button which makes the mutant disease even stronger, dropping the X-Men to the ground... But wait, since the investors(and Lobe) were also full of mutant genes, the disease affects them too. Lobe deactivates the flu, and everybody in the room, the investors and the X-Men are all cured. Lord Summers has the Stepford Cuckoos go through Lobe's head to find where he was holding the mutant creating drugs, and Storm destroys them. And then Lord Summers tells Lobe he'd be suing him and my mind nearly explodes from the sheer stupidity of this all...

Thoughts: Good GOD was this awful! First of all, the ending was SO obvious that I was calling it from LAST issue! I mean, we had TWO writers working on this book(Matt Fraction and Kieron Gillen), one of which I KNOW can do better work than this, and this story STILL sucked! Ugh. I just want to throw this comic out the window and pretend it never happened...

Score: 3 out of 10.If only this would really happen...


Amazing Spider-Man #657:

Summary: This issue gets underway with Spidey arriving at the Baxter Building after hearing about the death of FF member, the Human Torch. Spidey tells the FF how devastated he is, and how Johnny was the closest thing to a brother he ever had(I'm sure Ben Reilly would take exception to that!). From there, each member of the FF reminisces about a time they were with Johnny and Spidey. Thing tells a camping story about the Matchstick and Spidey, Sue relates a hilariously awesome story about the time she was arrested for indecent exposure thanks to her brother and Spidey, and Reed talks about the time he took Johnny and Spidey into outer space. In the end, Reed tells Spidey that Johnny had left a message for him in the event he died, and Reed plays the message. A hologram of Johnny comes up and the Matchstick tells Spidey that since he was apparently dead now, he wanted Spidey to take his place in the FF, since the FF was the best family a guy could have, and Spidey would be a perfect fit seeing as that Spidey was considered a part of the family. Johnny puts his holographic hand out and the rest of the FF and Spidey do the FF hand thing, which ends this issue.

Thoughts: I actually enjoyed this comic a lot. The story itself was really, really solid, although the FF here(especially Thing) was WAAAAAY different than the FF that appeared in FF #1. So that right there hurt this comic. I mean in this comic, Thing was sad, but spoke to Spidey about what happened, and was his regular self. In FF #1, Thing was acting like some sort of insane shut-in, who didn't even want to see Spidey, so the lack of cohesion between the two books definitely bugged me. Everything else here was perfect. From the stories each member of the team told(especially Sue's, which was laugh out loud funny at times), to the uber-schmaltzy ending. If only FF #1 was more like this issue was...

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.I rue the day I had to see this...

Detective Comics #874 & Teen Titans #93

Okay, we're gonna do things just a little bit differently here... I was looking back at the posts I did back in March, and all I saw was “Quick Hits”, “Quick Hits”, Quick Hits”! If you're new to the blog, you'd have no idea what comics were reviewed in each post, so if you wanted to read a review for, let's say Detective Comics #873, you'd have to either go through countless Quick Hits posts, or find the “Detective Comics” label, click that and then scan through the Detective Comics posts until you found the issue you wanted to read up on. So I'm going to move away from the Quick Hits posts for a while and do a couple of posts with no more than 2 reviews in them. That way the titles of the comics I'm reviewing will be right in each post's title, making it a bit easier to find whatever review you might be looking for. Okay, got all that? Good. I'll be posting two DC posts now, and two Marvel posts tonight. Let's get on with it then.

Detective Comics #875:

Summary: This is an all Commissioner Gordon issue, so if you're like me and you like Gordon, then you're in luck! We get stated with Gordon thinking back to an unsolved case from 15 years ago involving the deaths and mutilation of 8 children. Basically, Gordon has managed to figure out who the killer was and apprehends him. While talking to the killer, the killer reveals that he nearly killed Gordon's own son 15 years back, but stopped after looking at the creepy kid. The revelation that the killer had visited his son right around the time a friend of Barbara Gordon's vanished, causes Gordon to wonder just what happened to the girl, since he was always haunted by the fact that his own son might have had a hand in the girl's disappearance.

Thoughts: Okay, this comic was awesome seven ways to next Sunday. That summary I did for it up above? It doesn't even BEGIN to do this issue justice. This comic was a tough one to actually review because a) the story kept jumping back and forth from the present to the past. b) I'm REALLY tired right now, and c) I suck! But yeah, that crappy “review” notwithstanding, this comic was really, REALLY good. So my hat is off to Scott Snyder, who has written the best Commissioner Gordon since... well, since Ed Brubaker. And a comparison to Brubaker is just about the highest praise I can possibly give a writer.

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.Commissioner Gordon(and his mustache) is awesome!


Teen Titans #93:

Summary: We get started with Red Robin arriving at Titans Tower to officially retake control of the Teen Titans... I have mixed feelings about that, but I'll save that for my thoughts on this issue. The Titans head to India to help that Solstice chick Wonder Girl met in that terrible Wonder Girl one-shot from a few months back. It turns out Solstice's parents have mysteriously vanished, and WG's mother, who was working with them, has called in the Titans to look around. The team splits up(and naturally Red Robin places himself and Superboy together), and eventually Red Robin and SB run into a demon. The demon knocks SB around, and is about to trounce Red Robin when Ravager and Kid Flash arrive on the scene. The demon takes both of them out, at which point Beast Boy and Raven arrive on the scene and naturally get defeated... Are they the Teen Titans or a group of black ninjas from a kung-fu movie?!? By this point the demon has located WG's mother and grabbed a hold of her. WG rushes over and grabs her mother and the demon teleports all three of them away. WG is blinded momentarily by the teleportation effect and when her eyesight returns, she is laid out by an even bigger demon.

Thoughts: Okay, first things first, this issue automatically gets a 1/2 point bump in the score because Nicola Scott did the pencils, and I am an unrepentant Nicola Scott fan. Now on to the story. While I understand, and a part of me is really happy that Red Robin has returned to the Teen Titans, there's another part of me that would much rather see Robin in his spot... I mean, Robin could REALLY use the time away from the Batman books to develop a more well-rounded personality, sort of like how Dick Grayson did in the original Teen Titans and Tim Drake did in Young Justice. But I guess it's not gonna happen, because there's NO way in hell Damian and Tim would be able to coexist on the same team. As for the story, there were a few things that bugged me. First off would be the unfortunate return of horny Bart Allen... It just weirds me out so bad when Bart shows interest in a girl... I mean I was fine when he was the grown-up Flash and hooking up with women, but whenever I see Bart as Kid Flash I think back to Bart as Impulse and the thought of Impulse being romantic with anyone bugs me. Solstice does absolutely nothing for me. I wasn't impressed with her in the Wonder Girl one-shot, and I'm still not impressed with her. She's just too goody-goody for my tastes. You know JT Krul is going to put her on the team after this storyline, and that's a shame, because the team as is is just fine. Besides those little gripes, the story itself was solid. It made sense, moved along quickly and ended with a good cliffhanger. Teen Titans has become one of DC's better books... Who would have guessed it!

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Bart's hair color this month? Brown.