Thunderbolts #155:
Summary: After having been informed last issue that he needs to add a magical member to the Thunderbolts, Luke Cage meets with Dr. Strange and Daimon Hellstrom, who decide that Hellstrom's sister Satana(!!!!!) should be made into a Thunderbolt. Luke and Strange take Man-Thing to Satana's hidden base and manage to fight through her minions and magic spells, finally getting to her and collaring her. Having been defeated, Satana decides to quietly go along with Luke and Strange, especially after seeing Man-Thing(weird...). Besides that, Fixer, Songbird and US Agent begin training the Thunderbolts beta team.
Thoughts: First things first, I am a HUGE fan of Daimon Hellstrom, and as a result, I'm quite fond of Satana. So adding her to this series only serves to make this series even stronger(for me at least). So that's the good. The bad is... well, everything else here... For whatever reason, I just wasn't able to get into this comic. The scenes at the T-Bolts base didn't do anything for me, and Luke and Strange's search for Satana also didn't impress me. I honestly don't know what it was, but this comic just sort of fell flat for me, which is unusual for an issue of this series. Oh well, hopefully next issue we go back to the way things were the past couple of months, that being good.
Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.
It's Satana!!! I think...Generation Hope #5:
Summary: We get started with Magneto taking Professor X to meet Hope for the first time. Hope act like a jerk to Xavier before going on her way, much to Magneto's amusement. From there, Hope goes to train her... I don't know WHAT to call them, Generation Hopers? You know, the mutants she found and saved. From there she walks out of Emma Frost's class on Ethics(seriously?!? What's next, Wolverine teaching a class on passive resistance?!?), followed by her Gen Hopers. Hope gets a letter from Beast telling her to be careful for as long as she was on Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia), since it wasn't the utopia some people were making it out to be. Beast's letter even goes so far as to tell Hope her best bet was to leave the island altogether. Hope tries to talk to Wolverine, but he blows her off, so she heads to talk to the resident dictator of Crazy Mutie Island, Lord Summers. She basically tells Lord Summers that the Gen Hopers were going to be sticking with her, and that she didn't want Lord Summers or his Gestapo agents keeping an eye on her or her friends. Realizing he couldn't risk driving Hope from Crazy Mutie Island, Lord Summers agrees to Hope's terms, ending this one.
Thoughts: This is a hard series to get into... You see, I hate Hope. I really do. I don't like her whole, “I'm the mutant messiah” thing, and her attitude sucks. On top of that, I'm STILL waiting for the other kids in this book to develop personalities. I mean the boys are starting to stand out a bit(although not in a good way...), but the other two girls in this book are just completely forgettable. On top of that, I still don't know anyone's names(besides Hope of course). So yeah, there's a lot I don't like here. However, the story in this issue was pretty good. Go figure! I enjoyed the interaction between Prof. X and Magneto, I loved Beast sending Hope a letter imploring her to leave Crazy Mutie Island, and as much as I hate Hope, I hate Emma Frost more, so I enjoyed Hope making a fool of Emma. I'm still waiting on some codenames and some further character development for the kids in this book(a team name wouldn't hurt either...), but I can definitely call this issue a Perfectly Acceptable Comic.
Score: 7 out of 10.
I love that Beast is STILL putting the screws to Lord Summers!Avengers Academy #11:
Summary: We're not fooling around here, as we kick right off with Veil using Dr. Pym's computers to pull the Wasp's body out of... wherever it went after Secret Invasion. Pym rushes into his lab to see what was going on, and is surprised(and probably a bit disappointed) to see a woman who wasn't the Wasp standing there(YAY!!!). Quicksilver rushes in and the two Avengers try to figure out where they know this mystery woman from, when Korvac(!) arrives on the scene, demanding the Avengers get away from his wife. From there we learn that Pym was mistaken and that the discorporated energy he thought was Wasp was actually Carina Walters, wife of Korvac and daughter of the Collector. Korvac tries to reconcile with Carina, but she doesn't want to hear it, telling Korvac she sent her molecules throughout the universe just to get away from him. Korvac still refuses to listen, figuring Carina was just confused, but she reiterates that she wants nothing to do with him. By this point the rest of the Academy students and advisors are on the scene and they tell Korvac to get lost, to which he responds by trying to kill everybody there. Justice manages to deflect the blast with his telekinesis, and the full roster of the Avengers and New Avengers arrive on the scene to deal with Korvac. Jocasta takes Carina and the students to a safe room, which makes Carina laugh since she knows there's no place safe from the near omnipotent Korvac. In time, Korvac manages to down the full roster of the Avengers(including Thor himself!), although he is slightly weakened by Speedball of all people. Having witnessed the battle mentally, Carina tells the surprised students they have the best shot at beating Korvac, provided they allowed her to pull their older selves out of the timeline so they'd have their full range of powers. The kids agree, and this issue ends with the grown-up students charging off to deal with the menace of Korvac.
Thoughts: Now THIS was what I'd call an Avengers comic book! It had everything I grew up loving about the Avengers. An INSANELY powerful super-villain, a kick-ass battle, and a crazy swerve at the end. Seeing the Avengers go up against Korvac, and watching him take them ALL down, even Thor, was all kinds of awesome. I was a bit annoyed that according to Carina the only people who could hope to stop Korvac was the Academy students(um hello, he beat THOR!!!), but this IS the Avengers Academy comic, so I guess it would make sense that they'd be the ones to get to face(and inevitably defeat) Korvac next issue. What more need I say? This series is everything the Teen Titans and Generation Hope SHOULD be.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
Oh man, you KNOW it's on now!!!
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