Daredevil #505, Guardians of the Galaxy #23 & Uncanny X-Men #521.

Well, I've been reading a lot of back issues lately, which is putting a slight hitch in my new comic reading, but I've got to say, the back issues I'm reading and by and large better then a large majority of the new stuff I read! Hawkman has been good, LEGION has been EXCELLENT, and I've also been reading a few back mini-series as well. I have three more Marvel comics to review tonight, and be warned, by the end of the third review I start to get cranky and even somewhat crass... But, if there's anything that can stoke the flames of rage in me, it's an X-Men comic that annoys me... Hey, look at that, I've already spoiled my thoughts on Uncanny X-Men #521! All right, you've all been forewarned, let's commence the complaining!

Daredevil #505: Writers: Andy Diggle & Antony Johnston. Artist: Marco Checchetto.

This issue revolves around Daredevil taking a trip out to Japan to meet with the four other Daimyos(think generals)of the Hand(DD's ally, White Tiger is the fifth). DD wants to try to get all of the Daimyos on the same page as he is, so he can continue to turn the Hand from assassins for hire into his own vision of it. Three of the Daimyos seem to be pleased that DD is leading the Hand, and as a matter of fact, they insinuate that DD's ascension to the position of leader of the Hand was in part due to their string pulling. The final Daimyo, Bakuto, is young and arrogant, and not well liked by the other three Daimyos. DD arrives and Bakuto tries to push his buttons, but is unable to get a rise out of DD, instead Bakuto nearly comes to blows with White Tiger. Upon seeing this, the other three Daimyos decide that Bakuto stands in the way of their plans for DD and the Hand, so they resign themselves to kill him. After eating dinner, Bakuto begins to have hallucinations of the sensei he murdered in order to obtain his position as Daimyo, and he is brought back to his room to rest up. DD decides to try to reason with the brash Bakuto while he is separated from the rest of the Daimyos, and this issue ends with DD and the still hallucinating Bakuto being forced to team-up against an army of Hand ninjas obviously sent by the other three Daimyos to kill Bakuto.

I kind of liked this comic... It wasn't great or anything, but I enjoyed the fact that all of the Daimyos are far from heroic(as it should be!), and that they all have copious amounts of blood on their hands. So DD is forced to defend Bakuto, who is a scumbag from an assassination attempt from the other three Daimyos, who are also scumbags! Oh what a tangled web DD is weaving... Next issue should have lots of ninja action, while DD tries to unravel who wants Bakuto dead, as well as figuring out what the other three Daimyos are after.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Why Daredevil, what big teeth you have!

Guardians of the Galaxy #23: Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning. Pencils: Wes Craig.

This issue begins with a flashback to when the Magus killed Guardians members Martyr, Mantis, Cosmos, Major Victory and Gamora. After Magus's evil actions, Star-Lord(along with some assistance from a Cosmic Cube)blows the Magus's brains out in order to protect the universe... Or so he thought... It appears that the Magus has actually captured the 5 Guardians and faked his own death by using his massive magical abilities. Why go through all of this trouble? It seems that for the Magus's plans to go forward(plans that include summoning the gods from beyond the Fault), he needs to convert the 5 Guardians into members of his Universal Church of Truth. Martyr insults Magus, so he leaves the room to cool off(or continue his nefarious plans), leaving his Church members to continue to torture the Guardians. Mantis, Cosmos and Victory manage to pool their psionic powers and led them to Martyr with the hope that she would be able to use their telepathic abilities to reach Moondragon of the Guardians to warn her of the Magus's plans. While this is going on, Star-Lord and the other Guardians are pulling security duty at a huge summit of some of the most powerful rulers in the universe. As Moondragon receives the message from Martyr warning her of the Magus's survival, the Guardians are attacked by a swarm of Brood looking creatures, ending this issue.

Eh, this comic was OK, but it is still nowhere on par with how it was back before all of the x-over stuff began to monopolize things... It seems like Marvel's space-based titles have been going through crossover after crossover for a solid year or so now. I think(hope)next month finally concludes the whole ordeal with the Fault and allows this title to go back to the great stories it was telling back towards the beginning of the series.

Score: 7 out of 10.You know, I really got a kick out of the Magus here!

Uncanny X-Men #521: Writer: Matt Fraction. Pencils: Greg Land.

This is going to be a quickie review, because I can't stomach spending all that much time on this comic... Lord Summers The First and Emma Frost discover Magneto sitting atop a mountain in San Francisco in some kind of meditative state. Neither Emma nor the Lord can figure out what Mags is up to, which results in some of the worst dialogue this side of BENDIS... What the hell happened to Matt Fraction? Meanwhile, Wolverine and a group of X-Men battle a bunch of humans who were empowering themselves with mutant powers thanks to super-computers. The faux-mutants nearly defeat Wolvie and company, but are saved by the timely arrival of Fantomex. The faux-mutnats then reveal all of their plans(they were working for or with John Sublime)before setting loose a flu-bug that only affects mutants. Fantomex gets the X-Men out of there and the faux-mutants escape. At the end of this issue we discover that Magneto was dragging the big planet killing bullet from Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men arc from outer space to earth, presumably to rescue Shadowcat from it...

Ugh, I didn't like anything about this comic. Well, I guess I liked the art, but story and dialogue-wise, this one was painful to read... I can't stand the disrespectful tone of Lord Summers The First anymore, and his constant referring of Mags as, “Old man” was very off-putting to me... Is this really the same character who not all that long ago couldn't even bring himself to call Prof. X by his first name? Man is Fraction just BUTCHERING Lord Summers character... Then to top it all off, the fact that Chris Claremont's fantasy girl was on the last page, and is apparently headed back to earth and the X-Men really caused me to blow a gasket... Why? I mean really, why the hell do we need Shadowcat back? I've NEVER liked her, and my dislike has only grown for her the more Chris Claremont used to jam her down the throats of the X-fans... Sure, maybe he had a sick fixation with her, but I sure as hell didn't! But you know, maybe that's the way it has to be now... Since Marvel is just too damn stupid to reverse their asinine “No more mutants” policy, they are forced to continuously recycle the same TIRED characters over and over again... The only saving grace here was the John Sublime reveal, but I'm sure Matt will screw that up, just as him and all of the X-writers have screwed pretty much the last 5 years of X-stories up. God, what a horrible time to be an X-Men fan...

Score: 3 1/2 out of 10.What more could I possibly say?