Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #7:
Summary: Guy Gardner gets pummeled a bit by the mind controlled Sodam Yat until Zardor(who had taken control of Sodam's mind)halts the onslaught. Zardor reveals that Krona had been manipulating Sodam for a while, and that Sodam had been unwittingly absorbing the powers of other Green Lanterns. With that revelation out of the way, Zardor puts Guy inside of a giant snake... Yes really, a giant snake. With Guy out of the way(I guess...), Zardor heads into his rest chambers to absorb some more telepathic powers. Guy manages to escape the giant snake by kissing Bleez(!?!?!?!), and then runs around freeing all of the telepaths Zardor had captured. Needless to say this pisses Zardor off and he decides to finish Guy off. Before he can strike the deathblow, Kilowog and Arisia arrive on the scene, rescue Guy and beat up Zardor. Now defeated, Zardor grabs Bleez and has the still mind-controlled Sodam fly him off-world. Guy follows and aims at Sodam to kill him, but he is stopped by Arisia, which allows the villains to escape.
Thoughts: Gah, this was really pretty bad... Right off the bat, Zardor reveals that Sodam had been manipulated by Krona to Guy, basically for NO reason! Then Guy gets put in a giant snake, which he manages to free himself from by kissing Bleez! First off, if Guy could emerge from the snake to kiss Bleez, why couldn't he simply free himself without the gory kiss? Besides that, what the hell was the point of Kilowog and Arisia leaving Guy last issue only to return THIS issue, with NO explanation as to why they came back? This was yet another depressingly bad comic written by Peter Tomasi... What happened to him? I mean I used to really enjoy his Nightwing and Green Lantern Corps work. But ever since he hooked up with Chairman Johns for Brightest Day it seems his talent has taken a holiday.
Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.
You know, if Guy would have died here I probably would have been happy... How times have changed...Superboy #4:
Summary: Superboy decides to help the futuristic Psionic Lad fend off the attackers that had followed Psionic Lad back in time. Unfortunately, PL's attackers are prepared to deal with a Kryptonian, and manage to knock SB around as well. The villains move in for the kill when SB's annoying friend Simon Valentine: Boy Genius arrives on the scene, which causes the future villains to freak out and teleport back to their time period. From there, Psionic Lad gives SB his origin story(the future sucks, an evil despot killed all of his allies and he needs SB's assistance in training him), and SB decides that PL can move in with him, and that he'd help PL train to be a better hero... Yeah, because if I wanted to be a better hero, I'd definitely head to Superboy... Psionic Lad tries to help SB figure out what the deal with the “broken silo” was, but is unable to, and this issue ends with PL getting in touch with one of his supposedly dead allies from the future, and reporting that he had located the target and when the time was right, PL would kill “him”.
Thoughts: Meh. I was pretty bored by this comic for the most part, as it's yet another character from the future arriving to mess around with a member of the Superman family's lives. I'm also a bit surprised by how predictable Jeff Lemire is being with this story... It's obvious that he wants the reader to believe that Psionic Lad was sent into the past to kill Superboy, but after reading this issue, I have almost NO doubt that the true target of Psionic Lad is Simon. The fact that the leader of the forces that came after Psionic Lad rabbited when they saw Simon, the fact that PL tells SB and Simon that the leader of the future villains was VERY long lived and based in Smallville, as well as PL never saying he was going to kill Superboy, only “him” really points to Simon as PL's target. Maybe I'm wrong, and quite frankly I hope I'm wrong, because if I'm not when PL reveals his plot, I'm going to be REALLY disappointed.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
Thank god, it's Simon Valentine: Boy Genius!Captain America: The Korvac Sage #3(of 4):
Summary: This issue begins with a flashback of Korvac acquiring his cosmic abilities by interfacing with Galactus's massive spacecraft. Moving forward, Captain America, Firelord and Nikki head towards Galactus's ship to gain access to the Ultimate Nullifier, the only thing that could stop the power-crazed Korvac. Unfortunately, Korvac realizes what the heroes are up to and attacks. Firelord remains behind to try to slow Korvac, while Cap and Nikki head onto the ship in search of the Nullifier. After wandering around the world-sized ship and encountering several threats, Firelord is sent careening to the ground in front of Cap and Nikki, and Korvac lands, announcing that he was going to force Cap to help him obliterate humanity.
Thoughts: Wow, what a difference an issue makes!!! I didn't like the last issue of this mini-series all that much, mainly due to the awful way Cap was being dialogued. He was speaking more like Ben Grimm than Steve Rogers. That TOTALLY changed this issue as Cap actually spoke the way you'd expect somebody of Captain America's stature to speak. Cap finished all of his “-ing” words with the letter “g” and he actually spoke like a leader, not some weird piece of street trash. On top of that, I REALLY enjoyed the story of this issue. Firelord, as the most powerful of the remaining Guardians of the Galaxy, took on Korvac himself, even though he knew Korvac seemed to be more powerful, while Cap and Nikki explored the cavernous ship of Galactus. Cap and Nikki faced several bizarre threats, and were slowly making progress on their search for the Ultimate Nullifier when Korvac arrived. Boy was it a HUGE mistake on my part choosing this comic as this week's Runt of the Litter... Whoops!
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
No, this didn't actually happen in this issue, it was a part of the splash page for the next issue, but it was so funny I couldn't help but post it.Uncanny X-Men #532:
Summary: While Emma Frost, Fantomex and Shadowcat try to recapture a very angry Sebastien Shaw in China, several random X-Men led by Archangel manage to defeat the Collective Man, who was trying to gain control of the gangs of San Fransisco's Chinatown. Angel's group also manage to apprehend the fake X-Men who have been running around the past few issues and send them to Crazy Mutie Island. Speaking of Crazy Mutie Island, Lobe of the Sublime Corporation calls Lord Summers and tells him he'd hand the X-Men a cure to the mysterious flu that was plaguing the mutants on Crazy Mutie Island provided Lord Summers signed over the rights of the mutant genome... What the hell?! Lord Summers says no, and sends Wolverine to talk to the fake X-Men, figuring they would know where the Sublime Corporation was located since they were obviously given their powers by Lobe's scientists.
Thoughts: Ugh. This was no better and no worse than any other Uncanny X-Men comic I've read during the past 3+ years now. I mean seriously, isn't it time for the X-Men to head back to their roots, abandon Crazy Mutie Island, go back to following Prof. X and deal with threats like Magneto, Apocalypse and their ilk? Lord Summers battling a corporation over the legal rights to the mutant genome?! Are you serious?! What the hell has happened here?! The only saving grace in this comic was the Sebastian Shaw parts, because even though I hate Emma Frost and Shadowcat, at least we actually got an old school MUTANT enemy of the X-Men battling some of their number, something this series has been missing for WAY too long now...
Score: 6 out of 10.
Yes that's right, they're fighting over the legal rights of the mutant genome. And then people wonder why I hate the X-books nowadays!
X,
ReplyDeleteThis comment is going to push your buttons, but please don't take it personal.
I don't get you. You trash Chairman Johns for reverting the DC Comics back to the Golden/Silver Age (which I side with you on). However, you trash Marvel for taking the X-Men in a new direction with a new leader. I mean, Professor X had his time as the leader. It is time to move on. Reverting the team control back from Cyclops to Prof X would just being going back to the Golden Age. The same with their location. New York City has WAY too many super heroes and super hero teams based there. The power should be spread out more. While, I can understand not liking Crazy Mutant Island, I do not understand wanting to move back to where the X-Man were at in the Golden Age. Let the X-Men be based in Crazy Mutant Island, San Fran, L.A. or even Chicago. Anything is better than NYC.
L8r days!
Cole
As a side note, I feel like I only critize you and I never say thank you. So thank you X, for taking your time to read, review, and post reviews for us to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually glad you brought this up, Cole, because it's something that I actually noticed myself a few days ago during some review(an Avengers one I think), and I should probably mention it. My biggest gripe with DC isn't that the older characters have taken front stage, I have NO problem with Superman or Batman, and they've both been around longer than Hal Jordan or Saint Barry Allen. My major gripe with DC is the fact that Hal, Saint Barry, and even Oliver Queen DIED and then were replaced by characters who were as interesting(or in Saint Barry's case, MORE interesting)than their Silver Age counterparts. Hal, Saint Barry and Ollie died. DC killed them off. Nobody told them to do it, they did it, and then REPLACED those characters, in some cases for more than 20 years! Superman died, and was replaced, but everybody knew he wasn't staying dead, it was just a part of a longer story. Same with Bruce Wayne. He never even died! So we knew for sure he'd be coming back. So my main problem with DC's current direction is killing and then replacing the dead characters, and THEN bringing back the dead characters and screwing the replacements.
ReplyDeleteMarvel and especially the X-books are different. Professor X DIDN'T die. He's still wandering around Utopia aimlessly(so far as I know). Logically, the X-Men SHOULD be following him over Lord Summers. The very relationship of Lord Summers and Prof. X would lead you to believe that once Prof. X arrived on Utopia Cyclops would have handed over the reins of leadership. Cyclops always looked up to Prof X as a father-figure, I even remember he couldn't bring himself to refer to Prof X as Charles because of the respect he had for him(in X-Men Unlimited #1 I believe). That's why Lord Summers' recent attitude towards Prof. X is so vexing to me... On top of that, I just don't get replacing Prof. X as the leader of the team he founded since he's RIGHT THERE! He's not dead, he's not lost in time, he's not hanging out in the Negative Zone, he's just sort of hanging around! How is he NOT leading the X-Men?!
It's the same thing with X-Mansion(which is actually located in Westchester NY, which is upstate from NYC, and QUITE different, trust me, I've lived in NYC and upstate NY!). It's been destroyed at least 3 times by my recollection. Why not rebuild it again, the land(much like Prof. X)is still right there! Living on an island, secluded from the rest of society, and then whining that everybody hates and fears you makes no sense to me. How do you expect people to react to a mess of militant mutants living on a wrecked space station built by one of the biggest mutant terrorists of all time? That's kind of my biggest complaint with Utopia actually... When Norman Osborn basically declared war on Utopia it made sense to me. What nation would want a bunch of disgruntled mutants living right off their shores? That's GOT to be a bit disconcerting.
I guess the bottom line is that DC killed off many of their Silver Age characters and then created replacement characters for the Modern Age. I read about those Modern Age characters first, and as such became a fan of them. In Marvel's case, they DIDN'T kill off their Silver Age characters. Peter Parker is still Spider-Man(granted there was that slight hiccup back in the 90's, but still), Tony Stark is still Iron Man, Bruce Banner is still the Hulk, Reed Richards is still Mr. Fantastic, etc. It's not like Marvel killed Reed off in the 1980's and replaced him with Ben Richards, Reed's surprisingly smart and coincidentally elastic cousin, and then brought Reed back and discarded Brad. THAT act would have raised my ire the same way DC killing off Saint Barry, replacing him with Wally, and then bringing Saint Barry back and discarding Wally did.
Man, I really went on and on here, didn't I?! One more point before I wrap this up. In the end, it's all a matter of preference. I prefer Kyle Rayner, Wally West and Connor Hawke to Hal Jordan, Saint Barry Allen and Oliver Queen. I prefer Prof. X masterminding the X-Men while Cyclops leads the team on the field. I prefer the X-Men IN America as opposed to sitting menacingly OUT of the country. Obviously there are plenty of people who like the current direction of the DCU and the X-books, and that's fine. I'm just not one of them. I like Wally West as my Flash, Prof. X leading my X-Men, and my X-Men living in Westchester.
ReplyDeleteNo problemo, Cole! I have no problem with some constructive criticism/intelligent questioning. I only get annoyed when somebody says something like, “You're wrong by not liking Utopia!” Which is the type of comment I have gotten before... I've always wondered how somebody could tell somebody else that their opinion was wrong... Anyway, good luck making sense of all this rambling, as I finish typing this it's nearly three in the morning, so my thoughts aren't exactly as ordered as they could be... :P
Lmao! He jumped up and socked Galactus in the face! Oh man, Cap just gets cooler and cooler.
ReplyDelete"It's not like Marvel killed Reed off in the 1980's and replaced him with Ben Richards, Reed's surprisingly smart and coincidentally elastic cousin, and then brought Reed back and discarded Brad." That was hilarious to me, but even MORE hilarious was how quickly you forgot that you named him Ben and not Brad.
The best is the look on Galactus's face! He's like, "Really?!?"
ReplyDeleteJT, it was late! What did you want from me! I'm lucky if half of what I wrote made ANY sense at all! :P The real sad thing is that I proofed that after I typed it and STILL missed that! :D
Lol its like, You KNOW it didn't hurt him, and he's moreso like, how the hell... did you DO that? Oh man, that's classic.
ReplyDeleteSee, one more reason why the non-proofer's, are better than the proof-readers. :P
Hi X,
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice the Galantus picture until JT mentioned it in his comment. LOL! JT's caption is dead on.
Well, I'm particular happy that my comment didn't rub you the wrong way. And I actually totally get your reason for your currently hating the DC Silver Age characters. But, I still disagree with you on whether or not Professor X should be leading the team. Do you remember why Cyclops & Emma are leading the team and why Professor X is not? First, Prof. X handed it over to them when "Xorn/Magento" and Jean both died and he went to Genosha to bury "Xorn/Magento". Next, Danger was revealed to be sentient and Prof. X had been holding her prisoner for all those years. Colossus was especially angry about this because of his own experiences. Finally, Prof. X's longtime lie about what happened with Krakoa and his secret team that he stole from Moira MacTaggert consisting of Vulcan, Darwin, Petra and Sway, that had resulted in the apparent deaths of all. In addition, Prof. X lied/withheld information from Cyclops and Havok in not telling them that they had another brother (Vulcan). Okay, anyways, I know that you remember that, but my point is, so does everyone else. Everyone holds a grudge against Xavier. And the former New Mutant students (Hellion, Surge, etc.) are angry with Xavier for not being there during the Decimation when they lost the majority of their friends to Stryker. Okay, history lesson over. I agree with all of those reasons on why Prof. X should not be the current leader.
Now, the only way I could see him possibly being the leader again is if three things happen. The first is that Havok, Polaris, and Marvel Girl get back from space. That should happen soon. The second is Jean Grey returning to life. That should happen in a few years. The last thing that needs to happen is the reversal of the "No More Mutants". I could see Prof. X becoming the leader.
Punching Galactus in the face just multiplies Cap's awesomeness by 100 fold.
ReplyDeleteThe Vulcan thing did put Prof. X in a bad light, probably more then anything else. I'll definitely give you that one, Cole. As much as I love Ed Brubaker, I hated the way Prof. X was portrayed there. I think I could probably live with the X-Men without Xavier, it's just I HATE the way Cyclops has been portrayed since he's become the undisputed leader of the X-Men... He's just changed so radically, a little too much so for my tastes. That's probably the main reason I want Prof. X back, because that would slide Scott back into his more comfortable spot as Xavier's number two. To me, Scott is totally unlikable now. I just can't get into his dictator-like ways...
The Vulcan thing was more than just "bad light". That was really, really bad. He hide that information from them for the majority of their working relationship (15+ years?). The Danger sititation was also bad because it resulted in the death of a student (Wing?).
ReplyDeleteBut, I've already gotten you to state that your reason is that you hate how Cyclops has been acting. To that, I ask you if you have ever been incharge of something, like a business, that isn't yours and have a dissaster happen? I have, and I acted exactly how Scott was and is acting. My one boss had knee replacement surjury on Dec. 21, and the other one left town that night to celebrate X-Mas in Northern California with her family. I was left incharge of the building until the following Tuesday. The VERY NEXT MORNING we had an effing flood. It was effing hell! (Youtube Loma Linda Flood 12/22/10). But people turned to me when and I was having to bark out orders because that's just what had to happen right then. A few times I seemed like a complete jerk to the person I gave the order to, but in retrospect I saved us from having more serious damage. Now, I could get into the details like I almost found myself doing, but I'll save your ears/eyes. My point is, that if I think of any serious sititation I've been in, I relate to how Cyclops is acting. OMG, I need to stop rambling. Point, Cyclops will stop acting like a general once 1) M Day is reversed, or 2) the mutant population is higher than 3 digits.
I just can't hold anything against Prof. X... I don't know what it is, but I can't. To me just being a telepath makes you tend to think you know what's best for everybody else(X-Man anybody???), so I've always given Prof. X more leeway than other people. Idk, I just like the guy. Maybe it's how awesome Patrick Stewart was in the movies... I can't explain it, but yeah, I always look at thing from Prof. X's point of view.
ReplyDeleteI think this is one of those cases where we're going to have to agree to disagree, Cole... There's a difference between being a tough leader and acting like a dictator. Scott used to be a tough leader. He was tough, he rubbed people the wrong way(Wolverine!), but he could still get the job done and was still likable(to me at least). Now he just unilaterally barks orders and expects people to jump, no matter who they are(King of Atlantis, Queen of Wakanda, etc). Just look at the way his relationship with Beast has turned out. He's pushed Prof. X aside, ruined his relationship with one of his best/oldest friends, and has sided with the White Queen and Magneto!!! I'm sorry, but there is something SO wrong with that picture...
X,
ReplyDeleteI agree that we will disagree about it in general and that our conversation here is just that and not an actual argument. I disagree in that I am finding that as we talk, we agree on specific issues. I agree with you in that Scott is acting like a dictator. But I find that the events since M-Day justify this. I state that his additude will revert once M-Day is reversed.
Now, you mentioned Emma and Magento again. Remember, Scott isn't the only one who would turn old enemies into allies. Xavier did this all the time with Mystic, Juggernaut, Toad, Sabertooth, etc., and several times with Magento himself. So, that reason doesn't really hold ground with me.
You mentioned Scott and Beast's ruined friendship. Again, Xavier did this with several likable people as well. The first one that comes to my mind is Moira McTaggert (which I personally do not remember the details off - early days of my comic book reading?). And I would go as so far to compare Scott/Beast to Scott/Xavier or Colossus/Xavier or anyone else who currently holds a grudge against Xavier.