Avengers #14 & Avengers Academy #15

We're still in the midst of my Fear Itself books, as I tackle two of the Avengers family of books as they tie into FI. Last month's issue of Avengers was mind numbingly bad, so I'm expecting NOTHING from this month's offering, but Avengers Academy is one of my favorite Avengers titles, so hopefully it keeps up it's momentum here.

Avengers #14:

Summary: For my own sanity, I'm going to skip all of the useless dialogue that Brian Bendis seems obsessed with filling this comic with and simply get right into the meat of the story. The Thing received one of the Serpent's hammers in Fear Itself #3, and is immediately confronted by the Red Hulk, who joined the Avengers not that long ago. Red Hulk tells Possessed Thing to stand down, but Thing isn't having that, and slams Red Hulk across the face with his hammer, drawing first blood. Red Hulk gets up and fights back, but it becomes readily apparent that Thing is now a full power-level above the Red Hulk, and he basically pulverizes Red Hulk, knocking him several blocks away before turning his attention to Avengers Tower. Thing turns all of his power towards the Tower and unleashes wave after wave of magical force at it. Red Hulk sees what Thing was thinking and rushes over, trying to brace the falling building with his own strength, but it's for naught, as the building collapses on top of the Red Hulk. While Thing is surveying the damage he wrought, Red Hulk comes smashing out of the wreckage and attacks Thing anew. However, Thing once again proves to be the superior powerhouse, and uses his hammer to hit the Red Hulk as hard as he possibly could, sending the Red Hulk sailing far, far away, and in the words of Jarvis, never to return.

Thoughts: See, Bendis doesn't NEED to fill page after page of every comic with rambling dialogue! This comic was WAY better than the last issue, mainly because Bendis reined himself in and let the action in the story do the talking. I mean if you have John Romita Jr. doing art for you, let HIM tell the story with his art! This issue actually tied into the main Fear Itself books nicely(unlike last issue...), and basically showed us what happened to the Thing after he got his magical hammer. Now unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of either the Thing or the Red Hulk, but I was still able to enjoy this story. I'd imagine a fan of either of those characters would like this one even more. Here's hoping THIS Bendis sticks around for a while, and not that other gabby Bendis...

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.It's EVIL Clobberin' time!


Avengers Academy #15:

Summary: With the Raft broken apart, and super-powered criminals racing away from it, Steve Rogers calls on Hank Pym and the Avengers Academy instructors to head out to New York to try to apprehend as many of the villains as they could. Steve also tells Pym that if worst comes to worst, he'd ask Pym to let the Academy cadets out to assist with civilian rescue and stuff like that. Pym is hesitant, but tells Steve that if need be, the kids would be ready to do what they had to in the name of the Avengers. With that, Pym calls the staff together and decides to leave Tigra behind with the kids, since her power set was least suited to deal with a mass super-villain break out. Before leaving, Pym tells Tigra that if the kids are deployed, he's entrusting her with keeping them alive, which is a more important task then anything him or the rest of the staff would be doing. A little bit later, Tigra gets word that Washington DC was under attack by Sin's forces(as seen in pretty much EVERY Fear Itself tie-in), and decides that she had no choice but to bring the kids to DC to try to help evacuate civilians. Upon teleporting to DC, Tigra and the kids come face to face with Sin's Nazi death machines, and begin to try to save as many people as they possibly could. While that's going on, Jocasta sends word to Pym that the students had been deployed, which gives Pym a greater urgency to capture the Raft escapees so he could head to DC to be with his students. Back in DC, Tigra does her best to assist the kids in helping as many people as they could, as well as keeping them focused and not shell shocked by the horrible events occurring all around them. In particular, she manages to get Striker's head in the game, since he was still a bit of a basket-case due to being “killed” by Michael Korvac a few issues back, while dealing with Mettle, who accidentally killed one of the men controlling the Nazi death machines. Pym and the Academy staff return to their base after dealing with many of the Raft escapees, and Pym immediately wants to head to DC, but is told by Maria Hill(who took over command of the Avengers when Steve Rogers decided to lead the battle on the ground) that he was needed more in Dubai, where the possessed Absorbing Man and Titania were razing the countryside. Realizing that there were no superheroes in Dubai who could deal with the Absorbing Man, Pym RELUCTANTLY sets off to face the Absorbing Man. Upon arriving, Pym is immediately attacked by the 20 foot tall and monstrously powerful Absorbing Man.

Thoughts: Wow, this was a fantastic comic book. I have no other words to describe it. I mean I know that Christos Gage is a great writer and all, but this comic was, for lack of a better word, perfect. Not only was the story perfectly done, Tom Raney's artwork fit the events here perfectly. You could see the pain etched on Pym's face when he realized that he had to leave his students in Washington and head to Dubai. The artwork made the story that much more powerful, which is always a good thing. And the story... Pretty much every character was written fantastically. From the kids, who originally were chomping at the bit to get to DC, but rapidly realized the hell they were stepping foot in, to Tigra, who had to try to save as many civilians as she could, all while trying to keep her students not only safe, but mentally together, especially after seeing the atrocities happening all around them. And of course there was Pym, who desperately wanted to go to DC to assist his kids, but realized that the entire population of Dubai was more important than his own feelings. The parts with Striker, who nearly went into a shell due to having “died” once before, and Mettle, who was horrified that he actually took a life, were amazingly done. I mean I've NEVER liked Tigra, and this comic had me feeling terrible for the plight she found herself in... This ONE issue actually made me into a Tigra fan! All I can do here is give this issue a WELL deserved perfect score and tip my hat to Christos Gage and company. THIS is what all the other Fear Itself tie-ins SHOULD be like!

Score: 10 out of 10.Absolutely perfect!

Fear Itself: The Home Front #3 & Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #2

Two Fear Itself crossover books to get through today. I'm mildly optimistic that both of them should be pretty good reads. Does my optimism pay off? Let's find out!

Fear Itself: The Home Front #3(of 7):

Summary: We have four stories here, but I'm only going to summarize the first one... Miriam Sharp, who held Speedball somewhat responsible for the death of her son during that Civil War mess, convinces a bunch of idiots to free Speedball from the deadly plastic bag they had placed over his head... That's right, they were gonna suffocate him with a plastic bag! With how messed up everything was thanks to the whole Fear Itself event, Miriam figures Speedball could do more good dead than alive, and since she was toting a shotgun, while the mob only had a plastic bag, they free Speedball. Upon learning how bad things had gotten, Speedball wants to rush to Washington DC to assist his Avengers Academy students, but Miriam tells Speedball that there were enough heroes in DC, and that he should head somewhere with little to no hero protection. Speedball reluctantly agrees with that logic and heads out to a small town in Missouri that was about to be trampled by the Juggernaut(!). Trying to talk sense to the possessed Juggernaut gets him no where, so Speedball uses his... um, Speedball bubble powers to literally launch Juggy out of town. Juggy turns around and slams his hammer down, splitting the town in half, but continues on his way from there, leaving the town in peace. From there, Speedball decides to try to assist other towns that didn't have a super-hero defending it, and as such heads to Newfoundland to take on Attuma.

Thoughts: Eh. As I said, the other three stories didn't really impress me(well, the Cardiac one wasn't that bad), so this was basically a one story comic for me. I liked the Speedball stuff... I didn't love it, but I liked it, it was readable, and left me with no real complaints. What can I say, I'm a sucker for the old New Warriors characters,

Score: 7 out of 10.What kind of hero nearly gets killed by a plastic bag?!


Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #2(of 6):

Summary: This issue starts off with Prodigy convincing Thor Girl to turn herself over to the panicky authorities, who thought that she may have had something to do with the Serpent due to her ties to Asgard. From there we head to New Jersey where Gravity and Firestar are leading a team of super-heroes at a office building that had dissolved into chaos. Gravity is distracted by the news that somebody died during the battle in Washington DC(Grr.....), and enters the office building, getting himself shot in the chest by Crossbones(!!)(who obviously escaped from the Raft). Crossbones treats Gravity's team like a bunch of rank amateurs(HA!) and manages to escape from them after tossing a grenade. Gravity is physically fine from being shot, but is mentally shaken by the Fear Itself events, and quits the team, leaving Firestar behind. From there, Hardball invites Komodo to Las Vegas, where he had managed to convince the police to enforce a round the clock curfew for the citizens. With everything quiet, it Hardball seems intent on hanging around the deserted city with Komodo, until he gets word from Prodigy that the possessed Juggernaut was heading straight for Vegas, and it was up to his team to do the impossible... Stop the Juggernaut! Finally, Thor Girl is being tortured by the officials she was handed over to, but is freed by her old Initiative teammate, Cloud 9, who realizes Thor Girl could be doing WAY more good on the outside of a cell.

Thoughts: First off, this issue featured Hardball, so it automatically gets a score of a 7 or higher, as per my Hardball rule. Basically, I liked everything about this one. I like pretty much all the characters featured here, since I do love my b and c-list Marvel heroes, and the story was fast and enjoyable. With the next issue featuring Hardball and his Heavy Hitters standing up to the JUGGERNAUT in order to save Las Vegas, you KNOW I'll be looking forward to that! Now if something happens to Hardball after what happened in Fear Itself #3, look out, because I'll be ALL sorts of pissed off!

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Hardball can make any comic better!

Invincible #80 & Daken: Dark Wolverine #10

We kick this week off with the two comics I'm most looking forward to reading, Invincible and Daken: Dark Wolverine! What more is there to say except let's kick off the awesomeness!

Invincible #80:

Summary: This issue gets started with Invincible and Atom Eve moving into Invincible's parents home since his folks were going to head off into space to see alien planets and visit with Oliver and stuff. From there Invincible goes around meeting with various people after his one year absence in space. He picks up his comics, meets with William(and learns William is gay), stuff like that. Eve gets a call that Las Vegas was under attack by Dinosaurus, so Invincible rushes off to Vegas to take care of it. Dinosaurus tells Invincible that he was trying to evacuate the city since he was planning on blowing it up for the good of nature. Upon learning Dinosaurus planned on “blowing up” the city, Invincible rushes off and returns with a bomb, figuring the problem was solved... Instead, Dinosaurus reveals that he had placed over 50 bombs around Vegas, and before Invincible could try to find them, they all go off. This issue ends with Invincible waking up surrounded by the nothingness that had been Las Vegas.

Thoughts: Um, okay... I guess... So Dinosaurus destroyed Las Vegas... I really don't know what to think of that. I kind of like that Robert Kirkman is trying to give Invincible a new foe, and Dinosaurus does have a pretty cool look, but destroying Las Vegas? It seems a bit far fetched to me... I mean, didn't the people hanging out in Vegas notice a giant, 9 foot tall, red dinosaur walking around hiding bombs? The first half of this issue was a lot of talking, and for once, I didn't thoroughly enjoy it... I don't know, for whatever reason, this issue just didn't click for me...

Score: 8 out of 10.Nudity!!!!


Daken: Dark Wolverine #10:

Summary: This comic starts off hopping back and forth in time, so I'll just start at the beginning of Daken's story here. Figuring the Los Angeles crime scene would be easy pickings with the Pride(yes, the same Pride from the Runaways!) out of the way, Daken tries to move in, but in his time spent on the Left Coast, Daken hasn't been able to figure out WHO took over the Pride's old holdings, meaning he had no idea who he had to kill... With no real clues, Daken gets himself invited to Hollywood parties, and winds up being given “heat pills”, some kind of new drug. Daken swallows three of them and goes to see if he could get into the room with the a-list celebrities. The burly bodyguards tell him to stay with the nobodies, so Daken smashes one of the guards in the face, breaking the guy's nose. Before he could make a move on the second guard, the heat pills kick in and leave Daken with a high his healing factor couldn't overcome. Needless to say, Daken soon passes out babbling about his healing factor. That night, another member of the party who also took the drugs wound up seeing disturbing visions and was torn apart by something with claws of some kind. As for Daken, he wakes up at the movie star's house, since the star had to make sure Daken wouldn't OD(since that would make bad headlines... HA!). Now down from his high, Daken destroys the two bodyguards and uses his pheromones to convince the movie star to sleep with him. With the deed done, and the star well under Daken's thumb(as well as other areas I'd imagine...), Daken orders the star to tell him everything there is to know about the LA crime scene, who controls it, and where he could get more of those drugs from the prior night. This issue ends with an FBI agent investigating the dead body of the guy who died when he was leaving the party. This agent, Donna Kiel, seems obsessed with Daken, and seems to have convinced herself he was the responsible party in the death.

Thoughts: Not bad. Not bad at all! While it is still kind of jarring not to see the name Way or Liu on the cover of a Daken comic, I can see myself getting used to seeing Rob Williams name there. In the first two issues Williams has written, he's shown a great understanding of Daken, and the way Daken uses his powers, ALL of his powers, to get what he wanted. The drug angle is still a bit of a mystery, but I can definitely see Daken getting quickly addicted, since, thanks to his healing factor, he can't become addicted to any other narcotic. There are a LOT of ways this series can go, WAY too many for me to start guessing yet... Instead, I'll simply sit back and enjoy the ride!

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.I guess I should have put this on the picture blog...

New Comic Day! June 15th edition.

Hey all, it's Wednesday, so you KNOW what THAT means... It's time for another installment of New Comic Day!!! Now this is usually the time when I ramble on for a while and then talk about the last week and such, but I have something ELSE to mention... Something pretty exciting that will hopefully make this blog that much better! As of today, I've opened X-Man's Comic Forum! Uncreative name aside, I'm hopeful that this forum will give those of you who read this blog another place to talk comics. The forum is still in it's VERY early stages, so it kind of sucks right now, but hey, it can't hurt to join up and make the place more lively, right?

Okay, back to the whole New Comic Day thing I'm supposed to be talking about... As always, we'll start with last week's books... Last week I chose Batman and Robin #24 as the Pick of the Litter, and MAN did it disappoint me! I wound up giving it a 7 out of 10, which pretty much means I thought it was average... I was expecting WAY better then a simple “average” from that comic... Last week's Runt of the Litter was Birds of Prey #13, and it was better than I expected, garnering a 6 out of 10 from me... So my Pick underperformed and my Runt over preformed... Welcome to Bizarro World everybody!

With last week out of the way, it's time to tell you guys what I picked up at the shop today! Batgirl #22, Hellblazer #280, Power Girl #25, Superman/Batman #85, Teen Titans #96, Invincible #80, Avengers #14, Avengers Academy #15, Daken: Dark Wolverine #10, Fear Itself: The Home Front #3, Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt #2, Generation Hope #8, Invincible Iron Man #505, Uncanny X-Men #538, X-Factor #221, Alpha Flight #1, Captain America Corps #1 & X-Men: Prelude to Schism #3. That gives me a grand total of 18 books this week, a rather healthy number if I do say so myself! Now, this week's Pick of the Litter basically comes down to two books, Daken and Invincible... I'm going to give the SLIGHT edge to Invincible, simply because Daken might go through some growing pains as new writer Rob Williams tries to put his own spin on the series. This week's Runt was also kind of tough... There were LOTS of titles that could have gotten the Runt label, but I'm going to give it to Generation Hope #8. I normally LOVE teen-centric comics, especially teen-centric mutant titles, but Kieron Gillen just hasn't been able to get this series together, in my eyes at least. I mean this series is SO much worse than Avengers Academy it's not even funny... But then again, I'm not enjoying Gillen's Uncanny X-Men work either, so maybe my problem isn't so much Gen Hope, but the writer... So there we have it, another Wednesday in the books. Before I go, I'll once again ask anybody interested to check out the forum because if nobody goes/joins, it'll probably become a rather boring place! As always, here's THE Random Scan of the Week. Until next time, X out.

The Random Scan of the Week!God did I love the West Coast Avengers!

Random Tuesday Thoughts.

Hey X-Maniacs, it's your humble servant, comic book malefactor and Shaman to Mutantkind, X here with what can only be described as a time-wasting post... You see, I'm kind of in that weird spot where I don't have any new books to review(well, except for one, but I'll get to that soon), I don't feel like doing another Jason Todd review, nor do I feel like doing a trade review... So what's left? How's about a post that talks about a whole MESS of things then? I haven't done one of those in a while, so I'll go with that. There are a few comic related topics I could talk about here(as well as the obligatory video game remark), and that should, at the very least, kill some time and bridge the gap between today and Wednesday, where I'll have my normal New Comic Day post. In order to make things easier for you, the reader, I'll highlight the main topic for each paragraph in blue. Okay, with that out of the way, let's get to it!

-First things first, that lone new comic I haven't done a review for... I figure this is as good a place as any to tackle that, so here it is! The comic is Annihilators #4(of 4), and is written by the usually sterling team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. I hadn't really enjoyed this mini-series the way I expected to, but I'd be willing to give this issue a 7 out of 10. It had it's good points(a lot of action), but it also had it's bad points(the Spaceknights and Dire Wraiths kissing and making up). Now, I'm no expert on the Spaceknights or Dire Wraiths, but I always figured they were like the Krees and Skrulls. In other words, perpetually at war. I could never imagine the Krees and Skrulls shaking hands, so it seemed odd that sworn enemies for years/decades/centuries(?), would be so willing to overlook their longstanding hatred of each other. But what do I know? Oh, and I didn't read that horrid Rocket Raccoon story, because I knew I was gonna hate it anyway.

-Next order of business is the DCU reboot. And no, I'm NOT going to call it the “DCNU”, because it's NOT new. From the few interviews I've read, it seems like the Bat-books aren't being changed at all... Think about that for a second. In the so-called DCNU, there's nothing new in the Bat-books! They're simply continuing the old storylines! In every interview with one of the Bat-book writers, the writers have gone out of their way to state that every change that happens to the Bat-books would be explained. Then on the other hand, you have a character like Superboy... Yes Superboy, who's been around for about 15 years now(give or take a year), and is being COMPLETELY blown up and started from scratch. In the rebooted DCU, SB is a failed experiment simply known as “The Clone”, created by Project NOWHERE. And the solicitation for the new SB book literally says, “Can a clone develop a conscience?” Seriously! I'm not creative enough to come up with shit like THAT! “The Clone”? “Project NOWHERE”? “develop a conscience”?!? Really?! Now, even after reading that, I'm still going to be picking up that Superboy series, but damn, it sounds BRUTALLY bad! All I can hope is that Grant Morrison winds up writing a story for Superboy. That way he'll simply blend the new, “failed clone” Superboy with the current Superboy, because that's what he does. Don't believe me? Two words: Jason Todd.

-Speaking of brutally bad, and terrible ideas, Marvel announced that they were canceling Uncanny X-Men. Now, I'll admit that Kieron Gillen's work on that series has been awful, but that's no reason to cancel one of Marvel's longest running series! Seriously though, it looks like after the Schism mini-series(which I have surprisingly high hopes for), Marvel is going to debut two new X-Men books, most likely one where Lord Summers and the crazier muties will still be living like insane hermits on an island somewhere, and the other where Wolverine will take the more sane muties and set them up elsewhere, like maybe X-Mansion(hopefully!). Of course this is still all speculation, but since we pretty much know Lord Summers and Wolvie will be the one's having the ideological differences, it makes sense. Knowing the way Marvel operates, I'm sure they'll simply restart Uncanny at #1 and then renumber it once it reaches a milestone number...

-I started reading the first “Supreme Power” hardcover the other night, and I have to say, it's been AMAZING so far! Now granted, I'm only 4 issues in, but damn, when J. Michael Straczynski wants to, he can write an awesome story! You know, unlike his unfortunate Superman and Wonder Woman runs... Then again, I mainly enjoyed his Amazing Spidey run too, so maybe the moral of this story is that writers shouldn't go to DC, because they seemingly deteriorate or something...

-I've been happily playing InFamous 2 this past week, and have been enjoying the hell out of it. So far I've beaten the game as a hero, and I have to say, the ending shocked(pun intended!) me. I definitely didn't see it coming. That's all I'm going to say about the ending though, since I don't want to spoil anything for anybody who may not have picked it up yet. I'm currently playing through a second time as a villain, which is, as expected, a blast... What's more fun then just walking down the street and pummeling anything and anyone that gets in your way?

-Speaking of video games, it seems that Robin will be playable in the upcoming Batman: Arkham City... In a way... It looks like you'll be able to play as Robin the same way you could play as the Joker in Batman: Arkham Asylum. That is to say not during the game itself, but in those mini-game/challenges. That's pretty cool, and I'm fine with that(although I'd rather play as a Robin as opposed to Catwoman in the main game...), I just wonder which Robin we're getting... I doubt it's Damian, and you KNOW it's not Jason or Steph, which leaves Tim or Dick. My money's on Dick, probably wearing an outfit akin to Tim's original Robin design. In a perfect world though, they'd give you different skins for all the Robins, allowing you to basically play as any of them, even if the moves remain the same. Regardless, I'll be getting that game the day it drops.

-Moving back to the blog, I'm once again stymied as to what to do with the picture blog... I can't help but feel kind of guilty that I'm not doing more there... I mean hell, I post to this blog EVERY day! I post to the other blog sporadically at best... I was toying with the idea of just going through my comics in alphabetical order and posting a random page from a random book, but then you might wind up with something totally bland, like a random page from an issue of Hawkman or something... But then on the other hand, trying to post to both blogs nightly might be asking for trouble... An overworked X is a cranky X! I'm open to suggestions, but don't be surprised if I just keep that blog the exact same as it is now.

I think that's enough rambling for now. I'll give you guys a treat for sticking with me until the end of this mess and bust out a bonus random scan. Until next time(which I guess will be tomorrow...), X out.

The BONUS Random Scan of the Week!"Hey Bart, how about we radically change up your character like we did to your friend Superboy! Bart? Hey, come back!"

The Jason Todd Chronicles #3 & #4. Detective Comics #525 & Batman #359.

Yes! It's time for the most reviled feature on this entire blog, The Jason Todd Chronicles! Seriously, the first two of these posts have gotten like NO views! But they're fast to do, and amuse me, so yeah, here's another. Plus I only have one more new comic to review(Annihilators #4) and I REALLY don't want to read it, so here we are. In order to increase the awesome factor of this post, I'm going to post not one, not three, but TWO old Batman issues!! I know, this is crazy!!!

Detective Comics #525(April 1983):

Apparently some stuff happened in Batman #358 involving Batman and Killer Croc. But since Jason Todd(supposedly) wasn't in that issue, I(supposedly) didn't read it. From Batman's explanation, he fought Croc in Batman #358 and the fight ended with Batman thinking Croc exploded or something... Thanks, Batman! After wandering aimlessly around Gotham City as Bruce Wayne(which you'd think would be kind of dangerous since he's a billionaire and all, and Gotham is filled with all kinds of crazies), Bruce realizes that Croc hadn't exploded as he thought, but was chilling in the sewers. After a quick change to his Bats costume, Bats heads into Gotham's wonderful smelling sewers... What? There must be SOME reason people stay in Gotham, why can't it be the pristine sewers?Jeez, that's a really tacky suit for a billionaire to be sauntering around in...


From that macabre scene(okay, so it wasn't really “macabre”, but I wanted to work the word macabre into this post somehow...), we head to Dick Grayson, who was in the twilight of his Robin days. It seems Dick had learned that Killer Croc's goons were shaking down the circus the Flying Todds were working at, and had enlisted Jason's parents to keep an eye on things and report back to him. We also get the first conversation between Jason and Dick here(to my knowledge), as Dick tells Jason he reminded him of somebody he knew a long, long time ago... Foreshadowing much?Huh, so Jason has always had a thing for Donna Troy I see...


And that about wraps up the Jason Todd segment of this comic... Dammit!! Oh well, I might as well blitz through the rest of this issue... Killer Croc jumps Bats in the sewer system and toys with him for a bit. Bats is afraid of Croc for some reason(which I don't get... The Joker is WAY scarier than Croc!), but manages to break free of a Croc choke hold by falling out of the sewers into some murky Gotham waters. And that's a wrap.Bats really talks to himself an awful lot, doesn't he...


Final Thoughts: You know, for a feature titled, “The Jason Todd Chronicles” this post was awfully short on Jason Todd... I guess I could hang my hat on the fact that it featured the first time Jason and Dick talk to each other(to my knowledge...), but it was mainly more of Killer Croc being pushed as a huge menace. Too bad Croc became... you know, whatever it is he became nowadays, because he started off looking awesome! As opposed to Jason, who sat around in pink spandex lusting after Donna Troy... But hey, even the best of us have to start off somewhere, right?

Batman #359(May 1983):

Having killed Batman in Detective #525(or so he thinks), Croc calls a bunch of mobsters and thugs together to pronounce himself the new kingpin of Gotham's crime scene. The criminals tell Croc that they're still loyal to Gotham's imprisoned kingpin, Tony Falco, so Croc decides he'll do something about that... Oh, and he sends his top goon to the circus to collect the protection money he was extorting from them. That'll be pretty important later on... Trust me on that... Seriously! Why would I lie?Those are some nervy criminals in Gotham! I sure as hell wouldn't be talking back to Killer Croc!


Batman is acting all melancholy after his repeated failure to defeat Killer Croc, while Killer Croc breaks INTO jail to kill Falco. That plan goes perfectly, unfortunately for Croc, his escape from prison leave something to be desired and he sets off the alarms. Bats hears the alarms and heads to the jail, discovering Croc sneaking around on the rooftop. Bats attacks Croc and gets his ass handed to him... AGAIN!So much for all that, “Round three will belong to me!!!” stuff from Detective #525. Oh, and I found that, “Are you hurt?” “Only my pride...” line flat out hilarious... “Bats am sad now...”


Over at the circus, Jason Todd's parents spot Croc's goon strolling out of the circus owner's tent counting money and decide to follow the guy... Um, you two are acrobats, NOT cops!! The Todds follow the goon as he gets into his car and decide to tail him, but the goon spots them and continues to his destination. I'm sure hilarity will ensue and the Todds will get off with a stiff talking to...Poor Jason... His pre-Crisis parents were idiots...


While Commissioner Gordon is telling Batman the sad, sad story that is Killer Croc's origin, the Todds are walking into Killer Croc's trap... Idiots...Um, why isn't Croc wearing any pants?!?!?


Final Thoughts: You know, Detective #526 is the final part of this storyline(I'll review it eventually...), and has Jason donning a costume for the first time... That's kind of surprising to me because Jason was barely in these past few issues! The story revolved around Dick's relationship with Jason's idiot parents and Bats getting his ass kicked by Killer Croc(AGAIN!). You'd think DC would have built Jason up more before killing his parents and sticking him with Batman, but instead they just kind of thrust him into the spotlight all of a sudden. I remember reading the first few comics Tim Drake appeared in, and his eventual path to becoming Robin was more steady than Jason's, “Whoops, your parents are dead! Now you're Robin!” story. If nothing else, I'm glad these first few Jason comics are out of the way, because they hardly featured him doing anything. From this point onward it should be clear sailing as Jason moves from random circus acrobat/Dick Grayson clone to Robin #2... At least until DC decides to retcon Jason's history and I get to chronicle the origin of black-haired Jason Todd... Who is the actual Jason Todd... Well unless your name is Grant Morrison that is, in which case Jason is a bizarre combination of both versions of Jason Todd... Ugh, DC history is SO confusing...

Ghost Rider #0.1 & Iron Age Alpha #1

We have two Marvel books here, both of which I picked up on a whim last Wednesday. I know next to nothing about both series going in, so we'll see if either one impresses me. Both are written by Rob Williams, who Marvel seems really high on nowadays, so this should give me a good feel for his work. Or maybe not...

Ghost Rider #0.1:

Summary: We kick this one off with a retelling of Johnny Blaze's origin, but with all that “Ghost Rider is an angel now!” stuff thankfully omitted. Johnny whines about the Ghost Rider curse, as well as the fact that every woman he meets usually turns out to be some sort of monster(literally). While sitting in a bar moping, some guy named Adam approaches Johnny and offers to take away the Ghost Rider curse. Johnny figures there's a catch and blows the guy off, but after catching a beating from a drunk, Johnny decides to take Adam up on his offer. Adam tells Johnny that the only catch is that the Ghost Rider curse would randomly attach itself to somebody else, and Johnny, class act that he is, says that's fine by him. With that, Johnny follows Adam's words and is stripped of the Ghost Rider curse, ending this issue.

Thoughts: Huh, I really hated Johnny Blaze in this issue... What the hell happened to him?! I mean, I'm not the biggest fan of his, I've always favored the Danny Ketch version of Ghost Rider, but I don't remember Johnny ever being portrayed as an annoying, slack-jawed hick... I mean he literally screamed, “Yee-Haw!” at one point in this comic! The hell?!? After reading this issue, and seeing what's in store for this series, I don't see myself sticking around for very long. I'll pick up the first few issues since they tie into Fear Itself, but that'll probably be it, unless the new female Ghost Rider really wows me, which I don't expect. I don't get why Danny isn't getting to be GR again if they're done with Johnny... Again. While I'm on the subject of things I don't get, why the HELL is Marvel making the new GR female? What is with their obsession with taking established characters(Mr. Sinister, Bullseye, Loki, Wolverine, Ghost Rider) and changing their sex? Why not, oh, I don't know, CREATE a NEW character! I know, crazy...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.It's a random scan of Ghost Rider!


The Iron Age Alpha #1:

Summary: While attending the opening of a library in Harlem, Tony Stark is attacked, knocked out and kidnapped by a bunch of Iron Man looking robots. Upon waking up, Tony finds himself in an underwater laboratory and is soon confronted by an older man named Donald Birch. It seems that Birch used to be a villain named the Phantom, but wound up discarding that nickname and heading underground since he realized he just wanted to be alone. Birch's feelings changed after he learned he had terminal cancer, and he decided that he wanted to end the world... And he wanted Tony Stark to be there, since Tony was his reason for becoming a villain. To this end, Birch leads Tony into a room with one of Dr. Doom's time platforms and has his robots bring Jean Grey, back when she was Dark Phoenix(!), to the present. Birch has his robots blast at Dark Phoenix, which does nothing but anger her. Realizing what was going to happen, Tony runs to the time platform and is shunted back in time just as Dark Phoenix sends out a massive wave of fire which ultimately destroys the Earth. Now trapped in the past, Tony wanders the streets of New York, ultimately heading back to his old apartment, where he finds a passed-out drunk younger Tony Stark.

Thoughts: Now this was more like it! This was a nice set-up issue for the forthcoming Iron Age mini-series. With a name like X-Man, you KNOW I'm a big Jean Grey fan, so it was awesome to see her return and destroy the Earth, even if it was only a past version of Jean, and only for this mini. I can see loads of potential here, with the older, more mature Tony having to contend with his younger, drunken self. Yeah, there are things I see that I don't necessarily like(Captain Britain...), but for the most part, I'm looking forward to this one.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.So long, earthlings!!!

Birds of Prey #13 & Wolverine #9.

Two posts today that have pretty much nothing to do with each other... Seriously, I can't think of a single correlation here... Oh well, here they are anyway.

Birds of Prey #13:

Summary: Huntress and the Question are rushing towards Black Canary and Useless #2's last known location since Huntress was told how dangerous Junior was by Catman... That's a bit of a stretch... Anyway, Babs can't raise a signal at BC and Useless #2's location, so she's stuck sitting around helplessly. As for BC and Useless #2, they are being trounced by the apparently invincible Junior, who was able to outfight Black Canary AND survive a close range sonic scream. Junior winds up stabbing Useless #2 with a large pair of scissors, at which point BC realizes that retreat was probably the best option here. Huntress and Question manage to catch a ride on a helicopter and get to the building Junior was holed up in, while Babs calls Catman asking for any weaknesses Junior might have. Catman tells her that Junior hated to be seen(?!) so Babs manages to tap into the lights in the building Junior was living in and turn the lights on in Junior's den. This sends Junior into a panic, at which point Huntress, who just arrived, kicks Junior down the stairs before leaving with BC and Useless #2. This one ends with Babs declaring Huntress the new leader of the Birds, and swearing revenge on Junior for injuring Useless #2.

Thoughts: Meh. It's not that this comic was bad per se, I just hate Useless #2(that would be Dove) and Junior. I mean if you'd have replaced Useless #2 and Junior with any number of characters, I'd have enjoyed this one WAY more, because it was a good, fast moving story. But alas, instead we get Useless #2 and Junior... If you don't have a problem with those characters, you'd probably enjoy this one more than I did.

Score: 6 out of 10.HA!!


Wolverine #9:

Summary: Wanting to shut Mystique up permanently, the Red Right Hand hires Lord Deathstrike to hunt down and assassinate Mystique. While Mystique is being hunted by the surprisingly awesome Lord Deathstrike, Wolverine is also hunting her down, since she had information on the Red Right Hand. Oh yeah, plus he wants to kill her for her hand in the whole, “Sending Wolvie to Hell” thing. Wolvie manages to track Mystique down while she was battling Deathstrike and tries to kill her himself. Mystique hurls a grenade at Wolvie to get him off her back(literally!) and tells Wolvie that she WANTED to tell him what the Red Right Hand was up to since they were trying to kill her now. Mystique manages to tell Wolvie that the leader of the Red Right Hand was living in a beach house in Mexico, but is shot again by Deathstrike before she could reveal what the Red Right Hand was planning on doing to Wolvie when he arrived. Tired of Deathstrike, Wolvie goes after him, but Deathstrike phases through the street to escape. With the distraction of Deathstrike gone, Wolvie turns his attention back to the bloodied Mystique. Mystique tells Wolvie that she wasn't sorry she helped send him to Hell, but that she didn't want to be a part of what the Red Right Hand had planned next for Wolvie, because regardless of all the animosity between herself and Wolvie, Wolvie was there for Nightcrawler up until Crawler's end. Mystique seems willing to offer up more info on the Red Right Hands plans for Wolvie, but having tired of hearing from her, Wolvie fatally stabs Mystique, leaving her corpse lying on the street. This issue ends some time later at an underground auction house, where we discover that Lord Deathstrike had managed to acquire Mystique's corpse and was selling it. After some bidding, the corpse is sold to the Hand for a cool five million dollars...

Thoughts: What's there to say? I enjoyed this one. It was basically Mystique trying to fend off attackers from two different sides, as both the surprisingly cool Lord Deathstrike and Wolvie were out for her blood. The only real gripe I had with this one was the way in which Wolvie killed her... He stabbed her through the chest. I've seen Mystique walk away from gunshots, stabbings, explosions, you name it, but being stabbed by Wolverine's claws in the chest was her kryptonite? I mean she's such a talented shapeshifter she's been known to shift her vital organs to different spots in her body to avoid fatal harm. Why didn't she simply shift her heart to her leg or something? I guess she died from the accumulation of injuries she suffered this issue, but I'd have preferred it had Wolvie decapitated her, because that seems like the one sure injury she wouldn't be coming back from. Besides my issues with Mystique's death, I liked everything else here. From Wolvie learning where the Red Right Hand was holed up(which is exactly what they wanted), to the Hand taking possession of Mystique's corpse, undoubtedly to turn her into one of them, this was a good, quick, action-packed ride that definitely has me looking forward to Wolvie's inevitable confrontation with the mysterious Red Right Hand.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.So long, Mystique!