Really Quick Hits! 3/19/11 edition

Over the course of the past two days I have managed to... instead of review, let's say summarize 14 comic books. After looking back at the books I wrote about, I'm pretty disappointed... The highest score any of these books got from me was a 7 1/2, which is a score I give to a comic that was only SLIGHTLY above average. As a matter of fact, many, if not most, of these books were below a 6, which means they were below average reads. That's really pretty bad... Interestingly, 9 out of the 14 books were DC titles, which I guess explains why the scores were so lackluster... On a positive note, this is my 100th post of the year! That's about the only good thing about this post...

Wonder Woman #608:

What Happened: Cheetah, Artemis and Giganta(who are Amazons now) beat Wonder Woman: The Teenage Amazon down for a while because they want to kill her as revenge for Wonder Woman abandoning them, or maybe they wanted to capture her for the mysterious Morrigan... I really don't know, or quite frankly care. The Morrigan themselves seem like they now suddenly DON'T want WW to join their ranks, and we end this one with Dr. Psycho saving WW from the trio of phony Amazons.

Thoughts: What can I say here that I haven't hit on before? I just can't get into this story at all. I think we're 8 or 9 issues into J. Michael Staczynski's WW story, and I honestly have NO idea what's going on. I mean after nearly TEN issues of this story, shouldn't we have SOME idea of what the hell is going on, why WW is now a Teenage Amazon, and who/what the Morrigan are all about? Every issue it's just more and more confusion... I don't get it.

Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.Look out, Wonder Woman: The Teenage Amazon! It's Cheetah: The Sudden Amazon!!!


Titans #33:

What Happened: Deathstroke, Cinder, Cheshire and That Worthless Junkie, sneak onto an island to kill some guy named Drago. Unfortunately for Deathstroke, Drago knew Deathstroke was coming. How'd he know? Because That Worthless Junkie and Cheshire have finally turned on Deathstroke. After an extended fight scene, Cinder is knocked out and Deathstroke is captured and brought before Drago, who pulls out Deathstroke's eye... With his bare hand... Really.........

Thoughts: I... I don't even know what to say anymore. I mean after that last page, what more is there TO say?! What's the purpose of having some feeb LITERALLY pull Deathstroke's eye out? What's the endgame here? Is Slade gonna go all Daredevil and do his thing blind? Is he going to simply... I don't know, stick his eye back in his head and carry on like nothing happened? I thought this series was on the upswing, I recall enjoying the past few issues, but that sure came to a screeching halt with this issue. Ah DC... You find new ways to depress me every single month...

Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.Yoink!


Superboy #5:

What Happened: This is the second ever, or as DC is calling it, The FIRST EVER Race Between Kid Flash and Superboy!!!!!!! issue. The two agree to race with the proceeds going to benefit Smallville. So the two teenage heroes run around the globe, inexplicably staying neck and neck the entire time, and then Krypto wins the race.........

Thoughts: What the hell did I do to deserve this?!?!?! Is it because I said Dan Didio sucks?! Is it the way I've been insulting Chairman Johns lately?!? I mean seriously, why is this happening to me?!?! *sigh* Okay X, take a deep breath and calm down... This is one of the few times I finished a comic book and literally cursed aloud after reading it. It was that incredibly bad. Not only that, it was insulting. I literally felt insulted after reading this comic. First off, Bart Allen has already proven that he is light years faster than Superboy. Don't believe me? Then CLICK HERE. But as I was reading this I was thinking, “Maybe Bart doesn't want to embarrass SB too badly in his hometown.” Sure, it SEEMED like Bart was giving the race his all, but like I said, maybe he was holding back. So as the issue rolled along, I figured we'd get a tie or something. And then Krypto, who wasn't even a part of the race won... I don't even want to talk about this anymore. Needless to say, this series just lost a reader.

Score: 0 out of 10.Go to hell, Krypto.


Batman and Robin #21:

What Happened: Some new villain named the White Knight is running around killing off the families of anybody who has ever been incarcerated in Arkham Asylum. By the end of this issue he's managed to kill Victor Zsasz's brother and the Mad Hatter's family, stymie the Gotham Police Department(big shock there!) as well as leave Batman(Dick Grayson) and Robin in his dust.

Thoughts: Hey, somebody sound the alarms, this was actually a GOOD comic book! After the past three DC comics I read/posted about, I REALLY needed something like this. The story is really strong, with Dick and Damian managing to figure out what the White Knight's game was(killing off the family members of Arkham's infamous), but not knowing who the Knight was going to strike against next, since it could be almost anyone. The fight scenes were good, the story was good, the art was good, the dialogue was good, and Commissioner Gordon didn't rough Damian up this issue. I have no complaints here.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.My current Windows background!


Captain America: The Korvac Saga #4(of 4):

What Happened: Captain America(Steve Rogers) manages to convince future Galactus to give him the Ultimate Nullifier to put an end to the threat of Korvac. Cap confronts Korvac with the Nullifier but is unable to convince himself that nullifying Korvac was the right thing to do. Korvac takes advantage of Cap's hesitation and snatches the Nullifier, but since his mind wasn't properly focuses, it nullifies Korvac, ending his threat. With that, Galactus sends Cap back to the 21st century and we can call this mini-series a wrap.

Thoughts: Eh, no complaints here. I mean I doubt I'll remember this mini-series a week from now, but as it was, it was an okay way to spend a few minutes. This issue, like most of this mini-series was good. And hey, good is better than bad!

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.That Galactus is such a class act!


Batman Incorporated #3:

What Happened: Batman(Bruce Wayne) heads to Argentina to dance the Tango of Death and try to convince Gaucho to join his Batman Inc. initiative. Gaucho turns Bats down, even after Bats assists Gaucho defeat a few of his Argentinian enemies. In the end, Bats and Gaucho are trapped by the thought-to-be-dead villain, El Sombrero, which literally translates to “The Hat”...

Thoughts: I literally have no earthly idea what I just read here. None. There were blue scorpions, a hot air balloon, Batman pretending to be Bruce Wayne in order to dance, and a villain whose name is literally The Hat. The Hat! If ever you need proof that Grant Morrison is insane, then read this comic book.

Score: 3 out of 10.Yup, Batman returned in order to dance.


Batman: Streets of Gotham #20:

What Happened: Dr. Death thinks back to his origin while he's working on some drugs for his new boss, Hush. However, Hush figures out that Dr. Death was going to double-cross him, so he knocks Death out and steals Death's drugs.

Thoughts: I honestly had no problem with this comic. I can imagine that some people would, since this storyline was supposed to be about Hush, and he only appeared on maybe three or four pages, but I actually enjoyed Dr. Death's origin enough to overlook the lack of Hush. I think there are only two more issues left before this series is being canceled, so I'd have to hope that Hush(finally!) takes center stage next issue and reveals exactly what he's up to here.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Man are they OLD!!!

Really Quick Hits! 3/18/11 edition

So remember yesterday when I promised I'd do a post on 10 new comics today? MAYBE that was a bit too optimistic... You see, I have 14 comics to get through, so I decided to do 7 books today, and then do another 7 books tomorrow. So this is STILL going to be a much bigger post than I usually do, just not quite as big as originally promised. Okay, before I get down to business, a quick word to the wise. Usually I break my reviews down into two parts, a summary of the comic, and then my thoughts on said comic. Since there's simply no way I can possibly do 14 full reviews in two days, I had to tweak things a bit. The first half of each “review”(and I use that term VERY loosely!) will tell you what happened in each comic in VERY broad strokes. The second half will still have my thoughts, just an abbreviated version of them. As always, if you want to know more about any comic I reviews, feel free to drop me a comment, and I'll be happy to go further in depth. With all the legal mumbo-jumbo out of the way, let's get on with the show!

Onslaught Unleashed #2(of 4):

What Happened: Throughout this comic, Onslaught and Nomad battle for possession of Nomad's mind. After getting past Onslaught's army of child soldiers, most of the Secret Avengers and the Young Allies manage to break into Onslaught's inner sanctum. Upon entering the room, Beast warns the heroes that Onslaught has indeed returned, which gets Beast attacked by Onslaught. However, Beast's warning has come too late, as it appears Onslaught has managed to possess Nomad completely, after Onslaught reveals that she was never truly alive, simply a creation of Franklin Richards.

Thoughts: Ugh. If you like lackluster artwork, and a story that involves heroes running aimlessly around, while Marvel's biggest mistake from the 90's attempts to possess a powerless girl, then THIS was the comic for you!!! Me, I could have done without reading this one... I mean, I like the Young Allies(for the most part), I like the Secret Avengers, I don't hate Onslaught NEARLY as much as many of my comic reading brethren do, and I usually enjoy Sean McKeever's work, so you'd think I'd really enjoy this comic. But alas, I didn't. I'm just not able to get into the story, I don't get why Onslaught is trying to possess the weakest member of both teams, and the revelation, that Nomad doesn't/shouldn't/can't really exist did nothing for me. Add that to artwork that has me straining my eyes trying to figure out just what was going on in some scenes, and you have a recipe for disaster. Oh well... Maybe next issue will be better.

Score: 3 1/2 out of 10.I have NO idea what happened to Beast in this scene...


Captain America and the Falcon #1:

What Happened: Falcon returns to Harlem to try to find a high school quarterback who had gotten himself tied up with a gang. Basically Falcon has to find the boy before he misses the big game and loses his shot at getting a college scholarship. Falcon tries to locate the kid as Falcon, but quickly realizes that Falcon carried no clout on the streets, so he switches to his civilian identity of Sam Wilson and scares some answers out of some fools. He eventually finds the boy stabbed in the home of a rival gang member, which blows the kid's shot at going to college. In the end though, Falcon offers to help the kid as Sam Wilson: Social Worker.

Thoughts: There's really not much to say here. I've always been a fan of Falcon, so it was nice to read a solo story about him. The story itself was nothing special, it was just a good, solid read. In other words, it was(say it with me, everyone!) a perfectly acceptable comic book.

Score: 7 out of 10.That's right, don't mess with Falcon!


Weird Worlds #3(of 6):

What Happened: Lobo was double crossed by an old foe and with some help from his bounty, killed the foe and went to war against his dead foe's entire planet. Garbageman was still trying to remember who he was, and after remembering a bit of his pre-Garbageman life decides to find his former secretary, and Tanga decides to drunkenly battle a giant.

Thoughts: This is such a weird mini-series! And I'm not talking about the name! Usually I enjoy the Lobo and Garbageman tales and hate the Tanga part. This month it was the Lobo story that didn't do anything for me, while the Garbageman story was solid and the Tanga portions stole the show... Go figure. Three issues in and I have to say that the Garbageman story is my favorite overall. Lobo's story kind of stalled this issue, while it took me three issues to warm up to Tanga. So basically I'm reading this comic to follow the adventures of a big pile of muck named Garbageman... Weird indeed...

Score: 7 out of 10.Hey look, it's Lobo!


Outsiders #37:

What Happened: Doomsday mysteriously appears in Markovia intent on killing/capturing/doing something bad to Eradicator. Doomsday struts through Geo-Force, Looker, Katana, Halo and Achilles before impaling Eradicator and teleporting away with him.

Thoughts: Hey, I actually liked this comic! That tells me three things. Number one, the characters in this comic are good enough that this SHOULD be a solid monthly read. Number two, when Dan Didio doesn't actually have to come up with a story, he can do a good job at writing it. And growing out of number two, number three, Dan Didio sucks. I mean let's face it, he sucks as DC's executive editor/publisher, he tanked the Outsiders series, and he obviously can't write a cohesive story unless he's piggybacking off of a larger storyline(The Reign of Doomsday). Yeah, I obviously don't respect Didio's work. But really, can anybody blame me?

Score: 7 out of 10.I'll say it for Eradicator, OUCH!


Batgirl #19:

What Happened: Steph is still being stalked by her unwanted helper/sidekick, Grey Ghost, while Slipstream(a costumed faux-speedster) is running around Gotham stealing stuff. Steph runs into Slipstream and nearly gets killed by him thanks to Grey Ghost's bungling. Slipstream is prevented from killing Steph thanks to his unseen masters, which leaves Steph eagerly anticipating her next run-in with Slipstream.

Thoughts: First off, 7,000,000 awesomeness points to Bryan Q. Miller for the “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right” reference. All that was missing was “B, A, Select, Start”! Unfortunately that was pretty much the high point of this comic for me... This was probably the first issue of Batgirl that I just didn't get in to... I don't get why the Grey Ghost is there, unless it's purely for humor, in which case, he's not needed since this series is funny enough. I don't get what's up with those Reaper dudes, and I have no clue what's up with Slipstream. So yeah, I didn't like this issue. Even still, the humor and characterizations were strong enough here for me to still not hate this issue. That's when you know a writer is great, when you don't like the story, but can still tolerate the comic itself.

Score: 6 out of 10.I laughed at the tombstone line because it's so true!


X-Factor #216:

What Happened: J. Jonah Jameson hires X-Factor to investigate the death of an old army friend of his, and two mysterious women run amok.

Thoughts: Yeah, that was basically all that happened here... I mean nothing of any real note went on here. There were a lot of conversations between the various X-Factor characters, which were naturally well done(hey, if Peter David is writing it, you KNOW the dialogue is gonna be solid!), Jameson told his story to Madrox, Spidey had a quick cameo, and that was basically it. This was another one of those perfectly acceptable comic books.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.See, funny dialogue!


Captain America: Hail Hydra #3(of 5):

What Happened: This comic starts off with Black Panther giving Falcon his first wing harness. From there Cap(Steve Rogers), Falcon and Black Panther wind up battling Hydra created zombies in both Wakanda and Haiti. Dr. Geist, a crazy Hydra scientist, is still trying to create a formula for immortality, and by the end of this comic, Cap is wondering if he had been drugged by Geist back during WWII, which would explain why he seemingly wasn't aging.

Thoughts: The first 1/3 of this comic was actually kind of slow, but the final 2/3 really did a great job of pulling me in. The early stuff with Cap, Falcon and Panther was okay, but not all that exciting. However, once we got back into the Hydra parts of this tale, business most definitely picked up. I was so into this comic by the end that I was actually pretty bummed that it was over! I particularly enjoyed the end, with Cap being shaken by the words of the Hydra agent. All in all, another solid issue from Jonathan Maberry and this mini-series.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Ah, the CLASSIC Avengers.

Quick Hits: 3/17/11

Finally, X has come back to his blog! I've finished up most of the really tough schoolwork that's been hanging over my head like the Sword of Damocles, so all I have left is the little daily junk I have to take care of. But for now, my group projects and formal papers are out of the way. That means I can FINALLY devote some much needed time to my blog and provide some comic book reviews. I only have two reviews to post today, a DC and a Marvel, but they were both quite good. Now if all goes according to plan, I'm hoping to post a good 10 reviews for tomorrow... Yes, that's right, TEN! Now there's no way I'll be able to make those reviews as in depth as my normal reviews, so I'll just be hitting the main thing that occurred in each book, giving some thoughts on the comic, posting the score and a scan. I haven't decided what to name that post, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. Okay, enough from me, let's start things off with the insanely awesome Hawkeye: Blindspot #2!

Hawkeye: Blindspot #2(of 4):

Summary: We get started with Hawkeye still trying to run down any leads he can to figure out who killed his mentor, Trickshot. After mopping up some street trash and learning nothing worthwhile, Hawkeye is confronted by his longtime friend/mentor, Steve Rogers. Steve tells Hawkeye that he wasn't fit for active duty, with Hawkeye's impending blindness and all, but Hawkeye naturally doesn't want to hear it. Knowing the only way to get through to Hawkeye was with violence, Steve attacks, and the two longtime Avengers battle. Steve appears to get the upper-hand, after he damages the cowl Iron Man created to compensate for Hawkeye's blindness, but Hawkeye manages to use a tactic he learned from Steve himself way back in the day to put Steve down with an electric arrow... In a word, everything about that battle was AWESOME. From there Hawkeye takes off on his skycycle and gets in touch with Maria Hill to see if she had learned anything new about Trickshot's death. Hill tells Hawkeye that there were traces of Plexiglas and sand that was found around the NYC area on Trickshot, and Hawkeye thinks back to Trickshot's last words about never wanting to step foot in a carnival again, which leads to Hawkeye realizing that Trickshot had most likely been held at Coney Island. Hawkeye starts towards Coney Island when an explosive arrow attaches itself to Hawkeye's skycycle. Hawkeye sees it and leaps free, landing with a thud on top of a train right before the skycycle explodes. As he begins to get to his feet, the mystery archer from earlier approaches Hawkeye and Hawkeye realizes that the archer appeared to be his dead brother Barney(!!!).

Thoughts: Well, this was all sorts of awesome. It seems like this mini-series is a love letter from Jim McCann to all of us Hawkeye fans out there. The flashbacks were flat out awesome as they were last issue, and they took us from Hawkeye's first tentative steps as a hero, to joining the Avengers, to becoming Goliath, to the(apparent) death of his brother Barney. As for the scenes set in the present, anytime Hawkeye and Steve Rogers are together in the same issue I'm beyond happy. Their fight was awesome, with Steve simply looking out for Hawkeye's safety, while Hawkeye, in true Hawkeye fashion, doesn't want anyone's assistance or pity. Hawkeye beating Steve by using strategy he learned from Steve all those years ago was also a great touch. As for the mystery archer apparently being Barney, that caught me by surprise... I'm still not sold that the archer is Barney, I'd still prefer it if it was some unknown child of Barney. With Baron Zemo as the mastermind behind all of this, it is very possible that he took somebody and had them look and act as if they were Barney to play with Hawkeye's mind. So I'm NOT quite sold that this archer is actually Hawkeye's long thought to be dead brother... But who knows, maybe it is! God do I love this mini-series...

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.Awesome. Just plain awesome.


Booster Gold #42:

Summary: This issue begins with Booster returning to the present after spending 5 years trapped in a jail in the future. From there Booster regales his sister and Rip(as well as us) with a tale of how things went while he was incarcerated. After having the cell to himself for a while, Booster ends up getting a new cellmate, the Perforated Man. Booster tries to make nice with PM, but PM is a certifiable nutjob and just wants to rant, rave and occasionally attack Booster. Booster finally has enough and takes a swipe at PM and is stunned to see that the two of them were no longer in their cell, but were way back in the prehistoric past. Booster spends a few days running from PM and the dinosaurs before he has enough of that and attacks PM, which sends them back to their cell. The guards come in and break up the fight, and Booster wants to know why the guards didn't realize that Booster and PM were gone for so long. The guards tell Booster they had no clue what he was going on about, and Booster realizes that although he had been gone for days, only a second or two passed at the jail. Booster and PM fight on and off and jump back and forth through time until PM has a moment of lucidity and explains to Booster that he was crazy because he a disease known as chronal leprosy, which caused him(or just various parts of his body) to jump back and forth through time uncontrollably. PM tells the shocked Booster that Booster himself also had the early stages of chronal leprosy. Booster wants to know how PM could possibly know this, before he realizes that PM was actually a future version of himself. PM tells Booster that he was doomed to have a hellish final few years, and this issue ends with Booster accompanying PM to the end of time where they could both die in peace.

Thoughts: Well we know Booster didn't take the old dirt nap at the end of this issue since he's narrating the story, no? I also guessed the identity of the Perforated Man pretty early on since Booster was dropping some pretty massive hints about it throughout. Besides those two things, I actually enjoyed this issue a lot. The story was fast paced and interesting. Plus it wasn't dripping with unfunny comedy, which is always a good thing!

Score: 8 out of 10.Pfft, my hand is always vanishing. I don't freak out about it.

New Comic Day! March 16th Edition.

Hello X-Maniacs!!! It's time for my one and only weekly feature, New Comic Day! I have been absolutely buried under a veritable mountain of schoolwork, so it's nice to emerge out from under that mountain for some good old comic related fun. I am counting the days, hours, minutes and seconds until I go on spring break, because I plan on doing NOTHING but reading comic books and playing video games, while forgetting ALL about school! Irresponsible? Yeah, I guess so... Fun? Hell yeah! But I'm sure you're not here to read about my sadist professors and their evil mind games. No, you're here to find out what I picked up at Ye Olde Comic Shop earlier today! Before I get to the books I picked up this week, I first have to go over last week's books. Last week's Pick of the Litter was Hawkeye: Blindspot #2, which was AWESOME! However, I haven't been able to find the time to review it yet... But trust me, it was great! Last week's runt was Outsiders #37, which wasn't that bad, although once again, I wasn't able to type a review for it up yet... But I will... Someday...

So that takes care of last week, let us now shift our attention to this week. First things first, these are the subscription comics I'll be getting through the mail: Batman #708(UGH!!), REBELS #26, Red Robin #21, Superman #709 and X-Factor #217. Any week both Red Robin and the soon to be canceled REBELS(I hate you, Dan Didio!!!) are both released HAS to be considered a good week! But I've yet to get those books in my hands. Here are the comics I actually DO have in my hands: Brightest Day #22, Amazing Spider-Man #656, Avengers Academy #11, Generation Hope #5, Iron Man #502, Iron Man 2.0 #2, Thunderbolts #155, X-Force #5.1, Avengers: Children's Crusade: Young Avengers #1(!!!!!!), Captain America and Crossbones #1, Fear Itself Prologue #1(!!!!!!), and Uncanny X-Men Annual #3... Good GOD are there some AWESOME comic books sitting in front of me right now! I am literally 3 seconds away from a full-fledged geekgasm! I honestly don't know what comic deserves to be this week's Pick of the Litter... I mean, Children's Crusade has been INCREDIBLE, while I'm dying to read the Fear Itself Prologue... Hmm, how to solve this dilemma... Ah, I know! For the first time EVER, I have two Pick of the Litter books, because there's NO way I can possibly choose between Avengers: The Children's Crusade: Young Avengers #1 and the Fear Itself Prologue #1. They should both be amazing. On the other hand, this week's Runt is a no-brainer! That honor goes to the ONLY DC comic book I bothered to pick up today, Brightest Day #22. I know it's going to be horrible, it's just a matter of how horrible. Wow, so I picked up 11 Marvel books and just ONE DC book, and I already know I'm going to hate the DC comic... Good going, DC. You are rapidly losing a fan. But hey, as I always say, DC's loss is Marvel's gain, as I continue to gladly hand my money over to the House of Ideas. That should just about wrap things up for me, I have a TON of reviewing I have to get to from last week before I can start reading this week's books. Hopefully I'll have a couple of reviews up tomorrow, but no promises. Here's the Random Scan of the Week, and until next time, X out.

The Random Scan of the Week!Once again, the good old days...

Another Random Scan!

Hey all, it's X and I'm still uber busy, which means I'll be posting another random scan from my collection of... well, random scans. I should have my weekly New Comics Day post up for tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be able to get a few reviews from last week's books up and posted by Thursday, although I make no promises! That's it from here, X out.True words of wisdom from Vandal Savage.

Look, a random scan!

Hey all, X here with some 'splaining to do... I am completely SWAMPED with homework this week(up until early next week), which is why I wasn't able to respond to any of the comments left for me yesterday. I WILL respond to those comments as soon as I'm a bit ahead of the game schoolwork-wise. With me being so backed up with my schoolwork, I wasn't able to get any reviews done either... So for today(and probably tomorrow) I'm just going to post a random scan, and leave it at that. I figure by Wednesday or Thursday things should be close to back to normal around here, but for now, we go with the scans. So that's it from me, until tomorrow, X out.CLASSIC Young Justice!!!

10 Thoughts on... Fables vol. 2

Fables vol. 2: Animal Farm. Collecting Fables #6-10

-We begin with Snow White forcing her sister Rose Red to head upstate to check on the farm where the non-human Fables were forced to live.

-The farm has all sorts of magic spells put on it to prevent curious locals from investigating. However, upon arriving, Snow White discovers a bunch of spent shotgun casings, and finds the animals holding a secret meeting in one of the barns. The meeting is being chaired by one of the Three Little Pigs, who basically refuses to inform Snow what the meeting was about because the meeting was... you know, secret. Oh, and the former leader of the farm has mysteriously vanished.

-That night Snow White and Rose Red look out the window of the farm house they were staying in and discover the head of one of the Three Pigs on a pike.

-It appears that Goldilocks and the Three Bears(she's married to Baby Bear) had killed the Pig in order to send a message to the other animals on the farm that the time to strike back at the Adversary(who stole the Fable character's lands) was nigh.Well Goldilocks was already a criminal, why not become a revolutionary?


-A fox, who wasn't interested in fighting the Adversary, happens across the morbid scene and runs off, with Goldi proclaiming that the Fox had to die. At around this same time, Rose Red secretly meets(there sure are a lot of secret meetings going on here...) with one of the remaining Three Pigs, who admits that they ordered the death of the other pig, and that they wanted Rose on their side to go after the Adversary. Rose agrees to help.

-The fox winds up running to Snow White and basically fills her in on what had been going on at the farm. Snow and the fox try to escape the farm grounds, but are chased after by a few of the pro-Goldilocks/Pigs animals. A tiger nearly gets its claws into Snow, but the fox distracts the tiger, allowing Snow to get away.I can safely say that it's never a good thing to be chased by a tiger.


-Soon thereafter, the tiger catches up to Snow, claiming that it killed the fox. Snow kills the tiger with a gun she had discovered, and is finally caught by her sister, Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

-Back in New York City, Boy Blue discovers that there was trouble up at the farm after a robin he sent up to check on the situation was killed. He reports this news to the Big Bad Wolf, who is not allowed to go to the farm himself. The Wolf gathers Boy Blue, Bluebeard, Prince Charming and a flying monkey together and sends them up north as his kick-ass posse... That is just insane!

-Snow White finds herself locked up with the former head of the farm, Waylen Smith. With some help from the fox(who wasn't killed by that damn lying tiger), Snow and Waylen get free and wake the giants and dragons who were sleeping at the farm and convince them to(literally) squash the glorious animal revolution. However, their victory is short-lived as Goldilocks shoots Snow in the head from a distance with a high-powered sniper rifle!

-Snow manages to survive(I have NO idea how!), and she gets sent back downstate to be tended to, while Boy Blue and his posse arrive on the scene to set up a war crimes tribunal(HA!). The Pigs are put to death(in an awesomely awful way, since the executioner was inept), while the other leaders either escape(Goldilocks) or are forced to preform hard labor(the Three Bears). In the end we learn that Rose Red never actually betrayed Snow and that she only joined the animal revolution to buy Snow time to escape. Upon learning that, Snow installs Rose as the new head of the farm and they all live happily ever after... Or at least until the nest issue... What do you want, I couldn't resist that line!

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10. I actually enjoyed the first trade a bit more than this volume, but my hatred of talking animals is legendary, so yeah. For a trade that was full of talking animals though, an 8 1/2 is REALLY good!

10 Thoughts on... Y: The Last Man: vol 2.

It's the weekend, meaning it's time for me to switch away from my regular, current reviews and bust out a few trade reviews. I'm still happily playing through Dragon Age 2(for the PS3!!) and have lost 17 hours to that game thus far. Can you guess what my weekend plans entail? Anyway, enough jabber, here's the review.

Y: The Last Man, Book 2: Cycles. Collecting Y: The Last Man #6-10.

-Yorick(covered in a cape, hood and gas mask) manages to gain access to a train by trading a motorcycle he swiped from the Amazons towards the end of the last trade. With all of the men gone, the only real way to get cross country is by the trains. Anyway, Yorick, 355 and Dr. Mann(as well as Ampersand the monkey) get on-board and kill some time talking about stuff. As luck would have it, two thieves hop into the car Yorick and company were in, demanding whatever the trio had on them. 355 draws her gun, which freaks out Mann, who tries to stop 355 from shooting anybody. By this point, Yorick, like an idiot, charges the two criminals and gets tossed out of the moving train. 355 beats the hell out of the thieves before tossing Mann out of the train and then following herself, since her whole mission was to keep Yorick safe.

-Yorick's sister, Hero, is pulled deeper into the ranks of the Amazons thanks to the Amazon's charismatic leader, Victoria.

-Some woman living in a small town in Marrisville, Ohio finds Yorick's unconscious body(as well as Ampersand) laying near the train tracks not that far from her home.

-The woman(whose name is Sonia) takes Yorick into her home and watches over him until he wakes up, quite surprised by his new surroundings and demanding to know what became of 355 and Dr. Mann.

-Mann wakes up a little banged up but no worse for wear after falling from the train, while 355 is laying with her head cracked open against a rock.OUCH!!!


-Yorick tries to impress upon Sonia not to reveal his presence to the other townswomen, but unfortunately she had already told them, leading to a crowd of women waiting outside of Sonia's house to see if there really was a man still alive. The women are relatively friendly, and Yorick is shocked by how well run their town is, a far cry from some of the towns and cities he had passed back east. While talking to the woman, Dr. Mann rushes over and tells Yorick that 355 needed assistance. The townswomen inquire what kind of a name 355 was and when they hear she's a government agent, they give each other one of those, “Uh-oh...” looks. Ultimately the women agree to bring 355 to town to work on her wounds.

-While that is going on, the Amazons are still on Yorick's trail, with Hero locating the two thieves from the train and discovering that the man the Amazons were hunting down sounded exactly like her brother. Hero reports this information back to Victoria, hoping they could spare Yorick, but Victoria manages to convince Hero(with some awesome brainwashing techniques) that Yorick was no different than the other men, and as such had to die.

-With 355 now being looked after by Dr. Mann, and Yorick chopping wood with Sonia away from town, the other townswomen meet up afraid that 355 had come to town for them. Why would that be the case? Well, Yorick and Sonia wind up sharing a kiss, after which she admits to him that all of the women in town were from a nearby women's penitentiary, and were released by the guards since they had no way to seriously keep an eye on them. Upon learning this, Yorick freaks out and rushes back to town, ranting about how the townswomen should still be in jail.That old woman is all kinds of awesome!


-While Yorick is making an ass of himself, Hero enters the door demanding Yorick turn himself over to the Amazons. Yorick immediately goes to embrace his sister and is met with a bow to the head. From outside Victoria appeals with the townswomen to send Yorick outside so she could kill him and finally rid the Earth of all men. The townswomen refuse, much to the shock of Yorick and the rage of Victoria. Victoria demands that the Amazons burn the building to the ground, but Yorick heads outside against the advice of the townswomen, who were willing to fight to the death for him. Yorick tries to talk some sense to Hero, but she's completely brainwashed by this point and pushes him to his knees, at which time Victoria walks over with a handgun, ready to blow Yorick's brains out. Before she can pull the trigger though, Sonia throws an ax from the house, catching Victoria right in the side of the head, killing her.Talk about a splitting headache! Hee-hee-hee...


-In retribution for Victoria's death, Hero shoots an arrow into Sonia, killing her. The other townswomen charge outside, grab the fallen handgun and decide to lock Hero and the Amazons in the prison they themselves once resided in. Besides all of that, a few Israeli soldiers have snuck onto American soil after being told of Yorick's existence by someone from the White House, and we also learn that while Yorick is the last man on Earth, there were two worried male astronauts up in a space station wondering what the hell was going on back home.

Score: 10 out of 10. Ah, so THIS is why this series was so highly spoken of! There's really not anything for me to complain about here. The story was awesome, the artwork was awesome, the dialogue was awesome, in a word, this trade was awesome! And not only was this trade awesome, the future storylines that were set up look great. Hero appears to have become the defacto leader of the Amazons with Victoria gone, meaning she'll be in direct conflict with Yorick when she makes her inevitable escape from the prison. The Israeli storyline has been simmering on the back burner, but you can tell it's going to be HUGE when it finally comes to the forefront. And the last page, which showed us that there were two male astronauts who survived the great die-off was a mind-blower. Truly great stuff here.