Adventure Comics #8, Deadpool #19 & 20.

Hey X-Maniacs, it's time for another post filled with comic books, complaints and bad grammar!!! Tonight I'll be checking out a DC comic and 2 Marvels. On the DC side of the equation, I'll be reading Adventure Comics, while the two Marvel books are Deadpool comics. For some reason(probably monetary)I stopped collecting Deadpool comics about 12 issues ago, but after doing a Deadpool week over at my other blog, my interest in DP was rekindled. That, along with the fact that Daniel Way is an excellent writer, led me to pick up the two most recent issues of DP... Unfortunately these comics both featured a monkey... *sigh*... I HATE monkeys in comic books!!! I hate the talking monkey's in the DCU, and I hated having to read about a monkey in these two Deadpool books!

Before I get on with the reviews, it's time to talk about my spur of the moment eBay purchase of the day! After my anti-Golden Age Legion of Super-Heroes rant yesterday, I decided to see if I could find a couple of the re-boot Legion books from the mid to late-90's. Unfortunately(or fortunately, depending on your perspective), I didn't find any full runs, BUT I did find a full run of the LEGION series from the early-90's... What was LEGION? I'm not 100% sure, but I do know that the lead character is Vril Dox, who is also the lead character in what has become my favorite DC comic, REBELS. Since Dox/Brainiac 2 has slowly grown into one of my favorite DC characters, I figured I'd give his first series a shot. All right, that's what I did today, now for the reviews!

Adventure Comics #8: Writers: Sterling Gates, James Robinson & Eric Trautmann... Well, I guess that answers the age-old question of how many writers does it take to write a really bad issue of Adventure Comics... Pencils: Travis Moore, Julian Lopez & Pier Gallo.

This comic actually follows three different storylines, so I'll take 'em one at a time. The first story follows the adventures of the Legion of Super-Heroes(or the Old Legion), who have discovered a bunch of temporal rifts opening up in the 31st century, where they are located. After some investigation, the Old Legion learns that Brainiac is responsible for the time rifts thanks to his actions in the present. The second story follows Superboy and Mon-El as they meet with the Old Legion espionage squad. The Old Legionaries explain that they have come back in time to save New Krypton from an attack by Brainiac. The final story deals with General Lane unknowingly taking the Kryptonian terrorist who blew up the Science Police building in Metropolis and putting her in his anti-New Krypton army... And that's pretty much it for this issue...

Needless to say this comic did absolutely NOTHING for me. Don't like the Old Legion, don't care about them or their problems, and I didn't appreciate that every story ended by telling me, “To be continued in Last Stand of New Krypton #1!”... Yeah yeah, I got that the first time! If you're a fan of the Golden Age Legion/the Old Legion, or are Geoff Johns, you'll probably enjoy this comic. If not, then I'd recommending avoiding this one.

Score: 4 out of 10.Nothing says Cosmic "Boy" more then a guy who looks like he's pushing 40...

Deadpool #19: Writer: Daniel Way. Pencils: Carlo Barberi.

This comic begins with Deadpool arriving in NYC in order to find Spider-Man, so he could learn how to be a super-hero. He unwittingly passes Spidey(as Peter Parker)in the subway, which causes Spidey to realize that DP was lurking around NYC. Later on, Spidey goes to his corner grocery store and discovers the bodies of the owner of the store and a few other people gunned down in the storeroom. After calling the cops(and switching to his Peter Parker identity), Peter learns from the cops that the killings looked like they were done by a professional, which automatically causes Peter to figure Deadpool was behind the killings. Spidey finds Deadpool on the rooftop, and proceeds to beat him unconscious. Deadpool wakes up bound in webbing and is asked by Spidey why he killed the people in the store. Pool explains that he wasn't responsible, and after producing an alibi, Spidey cuts Pool loose. Pool then offers to assist Spidey in the investigation since he'd be able to offer Spidey some valuable insight into the killings. Spidey and Pool head to the store and after looking around the crime scene, Pool deduces that a monkey hitman named Hit-Monkey(yes, really...)was responsible for the killings and that he probably wasn't done killing yet. Pool tells Spidey that Hit-Monkey only kills other hitmen/assassins, which leads Spidey to realize that Hit-Monkey was probably gunning for Pool!

Yeah, after reading the intro, what did you think I was going to say about this issue? For what it was, it was an OK story, but my blinding hatred of monkeys in comic books prevented me from being able to enjoy it any more then I did. I'm sure people without a monkey-bias will have enjoyed this comic more then me, because it really wasn't horrible.

Score: 6 out of 10.And that ladies and gentlemen is a beat-down.

Deadpool #20: Writer: Daniel Way. Pencils: Carlo Barberi.

This issue begins with Hit-Monkey gunning down some crooked cops, which proves to Spidey that Deadpool didn't make up the story of Hit-Monkey, as he had suspected. While the two are discussing a way to lure Hit-Monkey out in the open, Hit-Monkey attacks Deadpool and Spidey. Sadly, the two of them are unable to overcome the unmitigated force known as monkey power, and this issue ends with Hit-Monkey riddling Deadpool's body with bullets.

If you really want to know what I thought about this comic, see what I said about issue #19. The exact same stuff applies here. Don't like monkeys, don't like reading about 'em. That pretty much sums up my feelings towards this storyline in a nutshell.

Score: 6 out of 10.Am I the only one who wondered how guys like Spidey and Deadpool could make their masks SO expressive?