So DC finally dropped the bomb everybody expected once it came out they wouldn't be shipping any titles the end of August(expect for the end of Flashpoint). It's now confirmed that DC is going to revamp their entire company and produce 52 new #1 issues come September... In the words of that jackass, Dan Didio, "This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today's audience." While Didio seemed to go out of his way to say that they weren't starting from scratch, they will be knocking several years off each character, all while fucking up years of character development and continuity. What I take Didio's quote to mean is that the plan is to take every DC character back to their 1970's places and start telling new stories from there... In other words, the 1980's and 1990's will have no longer even happened anymore. Sounds like we'll be back down to one Robin again, as Dick Grayson loses years of character development and will end up being Robin again. Did you like Clark and Lois being married? What about Batman Inc? Wally West as the Flash? Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern? Tough shit, because from the sounds of things, it's ALL being retconned away.
If this is true, I am officially done with DC Comics. Seriously, that's not bluster or me talking out of my ass, I'm dead serious, I'll drop EVERY single DC comic I'm currently collecting, and anybody who follows this blog knows that's quite a lot. If Johns and Didio have such a hard-on for the DC Comics of the 1960's-1970's, then why not do like Marvel did at the turn of the century and do an "Ultimate" type line. Keep your regular continuity and simply reboot the "All-Star" line that DC never fully invested in. That way you have the DCU that we fans have known and loved for years, as well as a DCU that's more easily assessable to newer fans.
Yep, this is a sad day to be a fan of the DC universe... Hopefully this is just Didio trying to build interest in his company, because if not, and we really do get a company-wide reboot, with 52 new #1 issues and loads of continuity thrown out the window, you'll only be seeing Marvel comics on this blog, as well as the occasional classic DC comics, because seriously, I'm not putting up with this, and I'll be more than happy to show my massive disapproval with my wallet. Please don't do this DC...
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Uncanny X-Men #537 & Namor #10
You know I'm starting to scrape the bottom of my new comic pile when I'm stuck reviewing books like the two here... These actually may be the two Marvel comics I look the least forward to every month. If not for the fact that Namor was getting canceled soon(next issue?), I'd have dropped it from my pull list by now. As for Uncanny, it's kind of like Superman or Batman, no matter how bad it gets, I'll keep collecting out of habit. Wow, that was a really negative introduction... To make up for it, I'm going to state ONE positive about each of these comics by the end of each review. See, who says I'm too negative?
Uncanny X-Men #537:
Summary: The one armed Kruun, who Lord Summers allowed on Crazy Mutie Island in what could only be explained as a case of momentary insanity, sneaks into Colossus and Shadowcat's bedroom and hits Colossus with a dart that takes away his powers. He then forces Colossus to battle him outside, coercing Colossus by threatening Shadowcat with a knife that could cut her even in her intangible form. So Shadowcat, Colossus and Kruun head outside and Kruun forces Shadowcat to get out of her spacesuit, which was the only thing allowing her to talk, before proceeding to beat Colossus unconscious within seconds. From there he slashes Colossus's throat, telling Shadowcat that she had to find somebody to help her before Colossus bleeds to death. So Shadowcat(who can't talk remember) rushes to the security room and finds Lord Summers sitting frozen in front of the security cameras. Kruun enters the room and tells Shadowcat that he had drugged Lord Summers with something that paralyzed his body, but was allowing him to watch all of Kruun's carnage. From there Shadowcat runs to Her's bedroom, but can't seem to wake Her up. Kruun enters the room and gloats that he had drugged Her as well, leaving her in an unconscious state. Shadowcat runs outside where she discovers Wolverine meditating, but can't get his attention since his eyes were closed. Kruun, like a MORON, begins to talk to himself(?!?), which alerts Wolvie to his presence. Wolverine tells Shadowcat to go get some help, while he deals with Kruun. While Wolvie and Kruun are battling, Shadowcat heads inside and runs into Kruun's unhappy wife(?). Kruun's wife sympathizes with Shadowcat's plight, but tells Shadowcat that much like Shadowcat herself, she'd also do anything for her man, and proceeds to slash Shadowcat's throat.
Thoughts: Ugh... The only way I could have hated this issue more was if Rachel Summers and Sage were in it and it was written by Chris Claremont... This was pretty much my ultimate nightmare issue of this series. It starred the two characters I like the least out of practically EVERY mutant(Shadowcat and Colossus), it contained villains I hate(the aliens from Breakworld), and the story doesn't really make sense... I'm STILL trying to wrap my mind around the fact that the ultra paranoid Lord Summers invited Kruun and his fellow Breakworlders to live on Crazy Mutie Island... That just makes NO sense at all, consider Lord Summers dogged determination to keep mutantkind alive no matter what. For me, this was one of the worst issues of Uncanny X-Men since before Ed Brubaker's run a few years back. Okay, now as promised, here's something positive about this issue... Wolverine had some great lines and came across looking rather well here.
Score: 3 out of 10.
Now if Shadowcat were to die here, I'd go back and change the score to a 9. But until then, it gets a 3.
Namor #10:
Summary: This issue begins with Namor calming down an angry sea creature by talking gibberish to it... Yeah, we're off to great start... With the royal Logomancer dead, Abira, Namor's girlfriend, receives a recording from the Logomancer, telling her that she was going to be the next in line to serve as Logomancer. Namor, suspecting his longtime enemy Krang's hand in the death of the Logomancer, decides to go after Krang in retribution. It turns out that Krang didn't order the death of the Logomancer, but that some of his angry lieutenants took it upon themselves to kill the Logomancer. The angry lieutenants then tell Krang that they were going to unleash a Burrower to destroy New Atlantis and sink Crazy Mutie Island in order to get Namor overthrown and return the Atlantians to their former warlike state. Namor confronts Krang about the Logomancer, and Krang tells Namor what was really happening, as well as offering to help Namor defeat his angry lieutenants. Namor, Krang and Loa(for some reason) all head to where the crazy lieutenants were holding the Burrower, but arrive just a bit too late to prevent the Burrower from, you guessed it, burrowing. The two rival factions of Atlantians then fight, while a future version of Namor visits Abira, telling her that she and current Namor had to save Crazy Mutie Island or... I don't know, something bad happens in the future. I stopped caring about this series like 8 issues ago, what do you want from me?!
Thoughts: I didn't like anything about this story. Plain and simple. But then I haven't liked anything about this series since pretty much the beginning, so yeah... I don't really know what else to say... With the exception of Namor, I don't like any of the characters, the story bores me to tears, it's just all bad... I mean I'm sure there are probably people out there who are enjoying this series(then again, since it's getting canned, maybe not...), but I am most definitely not one of them. Now for something positive... The artwork has been really good in this series since the start, and this issue was no different.
Score: 2 1/2 out of 10.
And a glip, gloop bloop to you too, Namor.
Uncanny X-Men #537:
Summary: The one armed Kruun, who Lord Summers allowed on Crazy Mutie Island in what could only be explained as a case of momentary insanity, sneaks into Colossus and Shadowcat's bedroom and hits Colossus with a dart that takes away his powers. He then forces Colossus to battle him outside, coercing Colossus by threatening Shadowcat with a knife that could cut her even in her intangible form. So Shadowcat, Colossus and Kruun head outside and Kruun forces Shadowcat to get out of her spacesuit, which was the only thing allowing her to talk, before proceeding to beat Colossus unconscious within seconds. From there he slashes Colossus's throat, telling Shadowcat that she had to find somebody to help her before Colossus bleeds to death. So Shadowcat(who can't talk remember) rushes to the security room and finds Lord Summers sitting frozen in front of the security cameras. Kruun enters the room and tells Shadowcat that he had drugged Lord Summers with something that paralyzed his body, but was allowing him to watch all of Kruun's carnage. From there Shadowcat runs to Her's bedroom, but can't seem to wake Her up. Kruun enters the room and gloats that he had drugged Her as well, leaving her in an unconscious state. Shadowcat runs outside where she discovers Wolverine meditating, but can't get his attention since his eyes were closed. Kruun, like a MORON, begins to talk to himself(?!?), which alerts Wolvie to his presence. Wolverine tells Shadowcat to go get some help, while he deals with Kruun. While Wolvie and Kruun are battling, Shadowcat heads inside and runs into Kruun's unhappy wife(?). Kruun's wife sympathizes with Shadowcat's plight, but tells Shadowcat that much like Shadowcat herself, she'd also do anything for her man, and proceeds to slash Shadowcat's throat.
Thoughts: Ugh... The only way I could have hated this issue more was if Rachel Summers and Sage were in it and it was written by Chris Claremont... This was pretty much my ultimate nightmare issue of this series. It starred the two characters I like the least out of practically EVERY mutant(Shadowcat and Colossus), it contained villains I hate(the aliens from Breakworld), and the story doesn't really make sense... I'm STILL trying to wrap my mind around the fact that the ultra paranoid Lord Summers invited Kruun and his fellow Breakworlders to live on Crazy Mutie Island... That just makes NO sense at all, consider Lord Summers dogged determination to keep mutantkind alive no matter what. For me, this was one of the worst issues of Uncanny X-Men since before Ed Brubaker's run a few years back. Okay, now as promised, here's something positive about this issue... Wolverine had some great lines and came across looking rather well here.
Score: 3 out of 10.
Now if Shadowcat were to die here, I'd go back and change the score to a 9. But until then, it gets a 3.Namor #10:
Summary: This issue begins with Namor calming down an angry sea creature by talking gibberish to it... Yeah, we're off to great start... With the royal Logomancer dead, Abira, Namor's girlfriend, receives a recording from the Logomancer, telling her that she was going to be the next in line to serve as Logomancer. Namor, suspecting his longtime enemy Krang's hand in the death of the Logomancer, decides to go after Krang in retribution. It turns out that Krang didn't order the death of the Logomancer, but that some of his angry lieutenants took it upon themselves to kill the Logomancer. The angry lieutenants then tell Krang that they were going to unleash a Burrower to destroy New Atlantis and sink Crazy Mutie Island in order to get Namor overthrown and return the Atlantians to their former warlike state. Namor confronts Krang about the Logomancer, and Krang tells Namor what was really happening, as well as offering to help Namor defeat his angry lieutenants. Namor, Krang and Loa(for some reason) all head to where the crazy lieutenants were holding the Burrower, but arrive just a bit too late to prevent the Burrower from, you guessed it, burrowing. The two rival factions of Atlantians then fight, while a future version of Namor visits Abira, telling her that she and current Namor had to save Crazy Mutie Island or... I don't know, something bad happens in the future. I stopped caring about this series like 8 issues ago, what do you want from me?!
Thoughts: I didn't like anything about this story. Plain and simple. But then I haven't liked anything about this series since pretty much the beginning, so yeah... I don't really know what else to say... With the exception of Namor, I don't like any of the characters, the story bores me to tears, it's just all bad... I mean I'm sure there are probably people out there who are enjoying this series(then again, since it's getting canned, maybe not...), but I am most definitely not one of them. Now for something positive... The artwork has been really good in this series since the start, and this issue was no different.
Score: 2 1/2 out of 10.
And a glip, gloop bloop to you too, Namor.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Mighty Thor #2 & FF #4
Hmm... I really don't have a clever introduction for these two comics... Um, they're both published by Marvel! There, at least I tried...
Mighty Thor #2:
Summary: We kick things off with Thor and Sif attempting to train the Brigade of Realms by having them face off against a Stone Colossus. Unfortunately, the Brigade kind of sucks, which leads to Thor and Sif stepping in to put the Colossus down. Later on, Sif notices that Thor was still favoring the wound he'd received last issue at the World Tree. Thor decides to deal with the wound(which was seeping with strange energy) by ignoring it, figuring it would go away... Probably not the doctor recommended way to deal with the situation, but what can you do? Odin, still acting a bit crazy, places the seed Thor retrieved from the World Tree inside the Destroyer armor for safekeeping, and then makes Heimdall swear that he'd always be loyal to him. From there the Silver Surfer arrives on Earth and heads to Broxton, warning the citizens of the town that their best move was to vacate their homes immediately... Uh-oh... From there the Surfer heads to the site of Asgard and tells Odin that he sensed great power coming from the city(the World Tree seed), and that he wanted to give it to Galactus, since the power would satisfy Galactus's appetite for a while. Odin says nuts to that, so the Surfer gestures at Odin menacingly, indicating that an attack was imminent. The Surfer's attack is interrupted by a blindside attack by Thor, which ends this one.
Thoughts: Well, I loved pretty much everything about this one. From the mystery of Thor's non-healing wound, to Odin acting weird, to the REAL Silver Surfer(not that horrible Greg Pak version) showing up at Asgard, to the impending Thor/Surfer, Thor/Galactus battles, I didn't have a single complaint. I only picked up the first issue of this series on a whim, and boy am I glad I did! I've NEVER been that interested in Thor, but if Matt Fraction keeps up the awesome work, he'll have converted me into a full-fledged Thor fan!
Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.
Ooooo, it's gonna be ON now!
FF #4:
Summary: While Reed Richards and the Council of Doom(roll call: Dr. Doom! Valeria Richards! Nathaniel Richards! The High Evolutionary! Diablo! The Wizard! The Wizard's AIM lackeys! The Mad Thinker!) debate how to deal with the menace of the alternate dimensional EVIL Reeds, Invisible Woman gets a call from Old Atlantis asking for her assistance since a faction of Old Atlantians were making a power grab against the throne. With Thing gone(he stormed away after one of those annoying Future Foundation kids bothered him), Sue decides to head to Old Atlantis with Spider-Man, who was hanging around the Baxter Building eating sandwiches, and Alex Power. The arrival of the Not-So-Fantastic Three helps the rightful rulers of Old Atlantis gain some ground against the revolting parties. However, the revolting Old Atlantians stand around smirking, which causes Alex to throw a hissy fit... Weird... We soon learn that the revolting Old Atlantians were smirking because their allies, the Mole Man and One Of The EVIL Reeds, had arrived to join the battle on their behalf. Sue, having been kept in the dark about the whole, “EVIL Reeds” thing, is shocked to see her “husband” arrive on the scene. And that's where this one leaves off.
Thoughts: Meh. That's pretty much the first thing I thought when I put this issue down. It wasn't actively bad or anything, it just did nothing for me. The Council of Doom parts were kind of boring, especially since it's obvious that Nathaniel knows what needs to be done, making the entire Council itself unnecessary. The parts with Thing bugged me, because I could care less about the FF kids, while Sue's parts were just okay. In other words, meh.
Score: 6 out of 10.
But... But, WHY WOULD THEY BE SMILING?!?!?!?!?!?
Mighty Thor #2:
Summary: We kick things off with Thor and Sif attempting to train the Brigade of Realms by having them face off against a Stone Colossus. Unfortunately, the Brigade kind of sucks, which leads to Thor and Sif stepping in to put the Colossus down. Later on, Sif notices that Thor was still favoring the wound he'd received last issue at the World Tree. Thor decides to deal with the wound(which was seeping with strange energy) by ignoring it, figuring it would go away... Probably not the doctor recommended way to deal with the situation, but what can you do? Odin, still acting a bit crazy, places the seed Thor retrieved from the World Tree inside the Destroyer armor for safekeeping, and then makes Heimdall swear that he'd always be loyal to him. From there the Silver Surfer arrives on Earth and heads to Broxton, warning the citizens of the town that their best move was to vacate their homes immediately... Uh-oh... From there the Surfer heads to the site of Asgard and tells Odin that he sensed great power coming from the city(the World Tree seed), and that he wanted to give it to Galactus, since the power would satisfy Galactus's appetite for a while. Odin says nuts to that, so the Surfer gestures at Odin menacingly, indicating that an attack was imminent. The Surfer's attack is interrupted by a blindside attack by Thor, which ends this one.
Thoughts: Well, I loved pretty much everything about this one. From the mystery of Thor's non-healing wound, to Odin acting weird, to the REAL Silver Surfer(not that horrible Greg Pak version) showing up at Asgard, to the impending Thor/Surfer, Thor/Galactus battles, I didn't have a single complaint. I only picked up the first issue of this series on a whim, and boy am I glad I did! I've NEVER been that interested in Thor, but if Matt Fraction keeps up the awesome work, he'll have converted me into a full-fledged Thor fan!
Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.
Ooooo, it's gonna be ON now!FF #4:
Summary: While Reed Richards and the Council of Doom(roll call: Dr. Doom! Valeria Richards! Nathaniel Richards! The High Evolutionary! Diablo! The Wizard! The Wizard's AIM lackeys! The Mad Thinker!) debate how to deal with the menace of the alternate dimensional EVIL Reeds, Invisible Woman gets a call from Old Atlantis asking for her assistance since a faction of Old Atlantians were making a power grab against the throne. With Thing gone(he stormed away after one of those annoying Future Foundation kids bothered him), Sue decides to head to Old Atlantis with Spider-Man, who was hanging around the Baxter Building eating sandwiches, and Alex Power. The arrival of the Not-So-Fantastic Three helps the rightful rulers of Old Atlantis gain some ground against the revolting parties. However, the revolting Old Atlantians stand around smirking, which causes Alex to throw a hissy fit... Weird... We soon learn that the revolting Old Atlantians were smirking because their allies, the Mole Man and One Of The EVIL Reeds, had arrived to join the battle on their behalf. Sue, having been kept in the dark about the whole, “EVIL Reeds” thing, is shocked to see her “husband” arrive on the scene. And that's where this one leaves off.
Thoughts: Meh. That's pretty much the first thing I thought when I put this issue down. It wasn't actively bad or anything, it just did nothing for me. The Council of Doom parts were kind of boring, especially since it's obvious that Nathaniel knows what needs to be done, making the entire Council itself unnecessary. The parts with Thing bugged me, because I could care less about the FF kids, while Sue's parts were just okay. In other words, meh.
Score: 6 out of 10.
But... But, WHY WOULD THEY BE SMILING?!?!?!?!?!?
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Daken: Dark Wolverine #9.1 & Deadpool #37
We're still in the midst of my Marvel books, as I take care of two comics from the X-family of books. It's Deadpool and Daken, so you KNOW it's going to be good!
Daken: Dark Wolverine #9.1:
Summary: This issue gets started with Daken confronting an older mobster in Madripoor. You see, Daken has pretty much taken control of all of the crime in Madripoor, but there were still a few hold outs, such as the older mobster. Daken slices his way through the mobster's security and enters the mobster's office, where the ballsy mobster tells Daken that he only did business with other businessmen, not someone like Daken. The mobster then goes on a bit of a tirade, telling Daken that he was only capable of destroying things, not creating, and that the only reason Daken wanted to conquer Madripoor was because his father had done it before him... Oh tag! Having heard enough of the mobster's insults, Daken shoots the mobster in the head, before leaving to contemplate the mobster's words. Wanting to prove that he was better than his father, and COULD do more than simply destroy, Daken heads to Avengers Tower to tell his father that he wouldn't be seeing him anytime soon since he wanted to live his own life. From there, Daken heads to Los Angeles to carve(literally?) his own path in life.
Thoughts: This was the first issue of Daken that wasn't written by Daken's creator, Daniel Way... Needless to say, I opened this comic with GREAT trepidation... I mean Way(as well as Marjorie Liu these past few years) has guided Daken since the beginning. To me, he's synonymous with Daken! I don't think of one without the other! Stepping into Way's HUGE shadow is Rob Williams, a writer who I know very little about. I think he wrote a Shadowland mini-series(or one-shot) about Ghost Rider that I hated, but other then that, I knew nothing about his work. So like I said, I was pretty worried... However, if Williams can keep up the kind of work he showed here, I see I have nothing to fret about! This issue was really good. As a matter of fact, it was Daniel Way good! And that's about as high a compliment I can possibly give Williams. Now we'll see if he can continue the great start and continue making this one of my favorite monthly books. If this issue is any indication, it looks like he will.
Score: 9 out of 10.
I'll definitely be using this as my new Window's background!
Deadpool #37:
Summary: So Deadpool wants to die... Now for a normal person, there are plenty of ways to off oneself. But for Deadpool, a guy with a super-charged healing factor which can fix him up from practically any injury(including decapitation at one point!), suicide isn't really a possibility... Or is it?! After some thought, and an angry visit with Wolverine, Deadpool figures out that if ANYBODY can kill him, it's the Hulk. To that end, Deadpool decides to torment Bruce Banner, forcing him to transform into his angry, green counterpart. Unfortunately for Deadpool(but fortunately for Marvel's coffers), Hulk isn't interested with putting up with Deadpool and refuses to take the bait. Try as he might, Deadpool simply can't anger the Hulk enough to force the Green Goliath into a deadly assault. Instead, the Hulk simply swats Deadpool away like a bothersome fly and continues on his way. After landing a few miles away, Deadpool sets off a radioactive bomb in Hulk's face, with a note attached to it telling Hulk there was plenty more where that came from... Now good and pissed, Hulk charges towards Deadpool's location, ready to shut Pool up... For good!
Thoughts: What can I say here? This was a good, fast, fun read. In other words, it was everything you'd ask for from a Deadpool comic book. Was it perfect? No, but it was a hell of a fun read that has me looking forward to next month... What more could you want?
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
I'd bet a lot of people would love to do that to Deadpool...
Daken: Dark Wolverine #9.1:
Summary: This issue gets started with Daken confronting an older mobster in Madripoor. You see, Daken has pretty much taken control of all of the crime in Madripoor, but there were still a few hold outs, such as the older mobster. Daken slices his way through the mobster's security and enters the mobster's office, where the ballsy mobster tells Daken that he only did business with other businessmen, not someone like Daken. The mobster then goes on a bit of a tirade, telling Daken that he was only capable of destroying things, not creating, and that the only reason Daken wanted to conquer Madripoor was because his father had done it before him... Oh tag! Having heard enough of the mobster's insults, Daken shoots the mobster in the head, before leaving to contemplate the mobster's words. Wanting to prove that he was better than his father, and COULD do more than simply destroy, Daken heads to Avengers Tower to tell his father that he wouldn't be seeing him anytime soon since he wanted to live his own life. From there, Daken heads to Los Angeles to carve(literally?) his own path in life.
Thoughts: This was the first issue of Daken that wasn't written by Daken's creator, Daniel Way... Needless to say, I opened this comic with GREAT trepidation... I mean Way(as well as Marjorie Liu these past few years) has guided Daken since the beginning. To me, he's synonymous with Daken! I don't think of one without the other! Stepping into Way's HUGE shadow is Rob Williams, a writer who I know very little about. I think he wrote a Shadowland mini-series(or one-shot) about Ghost Rider that I hated, but other then that, I knew nothing about his work. So like I said, I was pretty worried... However, if Williams can keep up the kind of work he showed here, I see I have nothing to fret about! This issue was really good. As a matter of fact, it was Daniel Way good! And that's about as high a compliment I can possibly give Williams. Now we'll see if he can continue the great start and continue making this one of my favorite monthly books. If this issue is any indication, it looks like he will.
Score: 9 out of 10.
I'll definitely be using this as my new Window's background!Deadpool #37:
Summary: So Deadpool wants to die... Now for a normal person, there are plenty of ways to off oneself. But for Deadpool, a guy with a super-charged healing factor which can fix him up from practically any injury(including decapitation at one point!), suicide isn't really a possibility... Or is it?! After some thought, and an angry visit with Wolverine, Deadpool figures out that if ANYBODY can kill him, it's the Hulk. To that end, Deadpool decides to torment Bruce Banner, forcing him to transform into his angry, green counterpart. Unfortunately for Deadpool(but fortunately for Marvel's coffers), Hulk isn't interested with putting up with Deadpool and refuses to take the bait. Try as he might, Deadpool simply can't anger the Hulk enough to force the Green Goliath into a deadly assault. Instead, the Hulk simply swats Deadpool away like a bothersome fly and continues on his way. After landing a few miles away, Deadpool sets off a radioactive bomb in Hulk's face, with a note attached to it telling Hulk there was plenty more where that came from... Now good and pissed, Hulk charges towards Deadpool's location, ready to shut Pool up... For good!
Thoughts: What can I say here? This was a good, fast, fun read. In other words, it was everything you'd ask for from a Deadpool comic book. Was it perfect? No, but it was a hell of a fun read that has me looking forward to next month... What more could you want?
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
I'd bet a lot of people would love to do that to Deadpool...
Secret Avengers #13 & Iron Man 2.0 #5
Two Fear Itself tie-in issues to get through here, both of them written by Nick Spencer. They should be really good, but here's hoping I didn't just jinx myself...
Secret Avengers #13: Fear Itself tie-in
Summary: We're RIGHT smack-dab in the middle of Fear Itself here(unlike in Avengers #13, an alleged Fear Itself tie-in...), with Beast, War Machine and Ant-Man arriving in Washington during Sin's blitzkrieg. Beast pulls a member of the army to safety and she tells Beast that her commanding officer was looking for him. Beast doesn't exactly want to leave the battle, but the soldier is insistent that the commanding officer was desperate to see Beast, so Beast heads off. Beast winds up meeting up with the commanding officer and the guy tells Beast that a member of Congress wouldn't leave the Capitol Building, and was specifically asking to talk to Beast before he'd agree to go. Upon hearing the name of the Representative in question(Lenny Gary from Mississippi), Beast rushes towards the Capitol Building. It seems that Beast and Lenny had been friends for years, and that Lenny had fought against Senator Robert Kelly for years and was a staunch activist for mutant rights. Upon meeting his old friend, Beast wants to know why he wouldn't leave the Capitol. Lenny explains that he had the floor when the fighting began, and that since the session had never been officially ended, he STILL had the floor. From there, Beast and Lenny begin to walk around the abandoned Capitol Building, and Lenny slyly reveals(without really revealing) that he was a ultra-powerful mutant who could apparently bend reality. With that, several statues and monuments come alive around Washington, attacking Sin's invading army. Lenny tells Beast that the best thing he could do in the face of Sin and the Serpent's aggression was to show the American public that he wasn't afraid. With that he tells Beast that he wouldn't leave the Capitol Building, and explains that he wanted to talk to America, showing Beast several cameras. Beast understands what Lenny was trying to do and leaves his friend, heading to Sharon Carter and telling her to send the feed coming from the Capitol Building out to every station in the world. Sharon does as she's told, and Lenny begins making a speech, but instead of going with his own words, decides to recite the Gettysburg Address instead. With Washington being torn apart all around him, Lenny manages to complete the speech before Sin's invaders finally hit the Capitol Building, cutting off the video feed and ending this issue.
Thoughts: Well I for one loved this comic. See, I'm a huge history buff in general, and a huge American history buff in particular. So a comic book where a huge statue of Abraham Lincoln(easily one of the three greatest US Presidents ever) is kicking the hell out of giant Nazi robots, George Washington(another one of the top three) is leading an army of phantom soldiers against the invaders, and the Gettysburg Address, one of my favorite speeches, is presented in it's ENTIRETY, is all right by me! Add Beast as the lead character here and you've got the formula for a successful comic book as far as I'm concerned!
Score: 9 out of 10.
Go get 'em, Abe!
Iron Man 2.0 #5: Fear Itself tie-in
Summary: Still in Washington DC from Secret Avengers #13, War Machine and his Secret Avengers teammates are trying their best to halt Sin's rampage. Unfortunately, they aren't making much of a dent. The Prince of Orphans(he of the worst super-hero name ever) has joined the fight against Sin, but is suddenly hit with a wave of pain. It seems one of the Serpent's seven hammers landed in the secret Eighth City of heaven, a place reminiscent of Hell itself. The hammer falling tears open the seals keeping the the Eighth City hidden away, freeing the various menaces therein. War Machine heads over to the Prince to see what the deal was, and the Prince pretty much describes what I just did... The Prince tells War Machine that he had to go to this Eighth City to see what had happened, and begins to teleport away... With a very confused War Machine along for the ride. The other Immortal Weapons also begin to make their way to the broken Eighth City, where an evil guy has decided he'd take the hammer, even though it was supposed to belong to the Absorbing Man.
Thoughts: Yuck. I hated that Immortal Iron Fist series, and couldn't stand those annoying Immortal Weapons... Not only did the Immortal Weapons storyline cause me to drop Iron Fist(back before it was canceled), I can't STAND the names these Immortal Weapons have... The Bride of Nine Spiders... Dog Brother #1... What the hell ever happened to names like Spider-Man?!? Anyway, I can see the Fear Itself x-over issues for this series are going to be a major chore for me to get through...
Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.
I don't remember why I scanned this page...
Secret Avengers #13: Fear Itself tie-in
Summary: We're RIGHT smack-dab in the middle of Fear Itself here(unlike in Avengers #13, an alleged Fear Itself tie-in...), with Beast, War Machine and Ant-Man arriving in Washington during Sin's blitzkrieg. Beast pulls a member of the army to safety and she tells Beast that her commanding officer was looking for him. Beast doesn't exactly want to leave the battle, but the soldier is insistent that the commanding officer was desperate to see Beast, so Beast heads off. Beast winds up meeting up with the commanding officer and the guy tells Beast that a member of Congress wouldn't leave the Capitol Building, and was specifically asking to talk to Beast before he'd agree to go. Upon hearing the name of the Representative in question(Lenny Gary from Mississippi), Beast rushes towards the Capitol Building. It seems that Beast and Lenny had been friends for years, and that Lenny had fought against Senator Robert Kelly for years and was a staunch activist for mutant rights. Upon meeting his old friend, Beast wants to know why he wouldn't leave the Capitol. Lenny explains that he had the floor when the fighting began, and that since the session had never been officially ended, he STILL had the floor. From there, Beast and Lenny begin to walk around the abandoned Capitol Building, and Lenny slyly reveals(without really revealing) that he was a ultra-powerful mutant who could apparently bend reality. With that, several statues and monuments come alive around Washington, attacking Sin's invading army. Lenny tells Beast that the best thing he could do in the face of Sin and the Serpent's aggression was to show the American public that he wasn't afraid. With that he tells Beast that he wouldn't leave the Capitol Building, and explains that he wanted to talk to America, showing Beast several cameras. Beast understands what Lenny was trying to do and leaves his friend, heading to Sharon Carter and telling her to send the feed coming from the Capitol Building out to every station in the world. Sharon does as she's told, and Lenny begins making a speech, but instead of going with his own words, decides to recite the Gettysburg Address instead. With Washington being torn apart all around him, Lenny manages to complete the speech before Sin's invaders finally hit the Capitol Building, cutting off the video feed and ending this issue.
Thoughts: Well I for one loved this comic. See, I'm a huge history buff in general, and a huge American history buff in particular. So a comic book where a huge statue of Abraham Lincoln(easily one of the three greatest US Presidents ever) is kicking the hell out of giant Nazi robots, George Washington(another one of the top three) is leading an army of phantom soldiers against the invaders, and the Gettysburg Address, one of my favorite speeches, is presented in it's ENTIRETY, is all right by me! Add Beast as the lead character here and you've got the formula for a successful comic book as far as I'm concerned!
Score: 9 out of 10.
Go get 'em, Abe!Iron Man 2.0 #5: Fear Itself tie-in
Summary: Still in Washington DC from Secret Avengers #13, War Machine and his Secret Avengers teammates are trying their best to halt Sin's rampage. Unfortunately, they aren't making much of a dent. The Prince of Orphans(he of the worst super-hero name ever) has joined the fight against Sin, but is suddenly hit with a wave of pain. It seems one of the Serpent's seven hammers landed in the secret Eighth City of heaven, a place reminiscent of Hell itself. The hammer falling tears open the seals keeping the the Eighth City hidden away, freeing the various menaces therein. War Machine heads over to the Prince to see what the deal was, and the Prince pretty much describes what I just did... The Prince tells War Machine that he had to go to this Eighth City to see what had happened, and begins to teleport away... With a very confused War Machine along for the ride. The other Immortal Weapons also begin to make their way to the broken Eighth City, where an evil guy has decided he'd take the hammer, even though it was supposed to belong to the Absorbing Man.
Thoughts: Yuck. I hated that Immortal Iron Fist series, and couldn't stand those annoying Immortal Weapons... Not only did the Immortal Weapons storyline cause me to drop Iron Fist(back before it was canceled), I can't STAND the names these Immortal Weapons have... The Bride of Nine Spiders... Dog Brother #1... What the hell ever happened to names like Spider-Man?!? Anyway, I can see the Fear Itself x-over issues for this series are going to be a major chore for me to get through...
Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.
I don't remember why I scanned this page...
Jason Todd mania is running wild!
Hey there X-Maniacs! Your humble servant and/or Shaman of Mutantkind here with a little bonus post! I should have four new reviews up tomorrow(probably two early-ish in the day, and two later on), as I rapidly deplete my new comic pile for a change. See, that's what happens when I don't buy out the entire comic shop on Wednesday! I can actually keep up with the new books I buy! But that's not what I wanted to talk about. My recent displeasure/dissatisfaction/blinding hatred of the not-so-wonderful world of DC has had me wanting to expand my collection of DC back issues... I mean instead of spending money on and reading something I KNOW I'm going to hate(ie: anything written by Chairman Johns), why not buy and read something I'd probably enjoy WAY more(ie: anything NOT written by Chairman Johns)? Which is what I decided to do... But what to buy... I mean there are A LOT of options... So I figured I'd look into the character chronologies for various favorite characters of mine...
It was then I realized which character I HAD to focus on... None other then THAT Robin, Jason Todd! And thus began my several day old quest to find/own Batman #357, the comic Jason first appears in. I looked through dozens of online comic shops and kept coming up empty... From the big comic shops to the small ones, NOBODY seemed to have that damned issue of Batman! So finally I went to my place of last resort.. eBay. Sure enough, there it was, Batman #357! AND it had free shipping along with a buy it now option! Needless to say, I brought it as fast as I could, before common sense smacked me in the back of the head and caused me to second guess the logic behind spending over 20 bucks on a single comic book. So good, I had the first appearance of one of my favorite DC characters(or at least I would in about a week's time)... But I needed more! From eBay I headed to Mycomicshop.com and went on a spending binge that would make a junkie blush! By the time I came down from my high and realized what I had done, I'd placed an order for 30 Batman comics from the 80's where Jason made an appearance... Which comics you ask? Well, allow me to list them good sir or ma'am! Batman #359, #360, #361, #363-366, #408-414 as well as Detective Comics #524, #525, #527-531, #543, #544, #547, #568-570, #572, #573 & #579... That's a lot of comics, but I'm going to rationalize it all by saying that it was a gift to myself for the successful completion of the school year! A lame excuse to be sure, but an excuse nonetheless!
So now the question becomes, what should I do with all this Jason Todd goodness? I doubt I can review every one of those comics here on the blog as well as take care of my regular weekly books... Contrary to popular belief, I'm not an inhuman blogging machine. I was toying with the idea of starting up a new blog and dedicating it to Jason, but that would require a good amount of work, as well as causing me to neglect my duties on this blog. I could do a post running down the main points of what I read, but where's the fun in that? I could do a Retro-Picto Review for a few of the issues like I did for these comics, but again, that would take time away from my regular reviewing duties... I could always do nothing, a personal favorite of mine... So what to do... I guess I'll leave that up to the few of you who managed to stay with me through this LONG-WINDED post. What do YOU think I should do? Drop me a comment, and give me some idea as to which way I should go with this... Or don't. Either way is fine by me. I guess that's it for now. I'll post my decision some time next week(probably when Bats #357 arrives), and we'll take it from there. As always, thanks for reading, and I'll leave you all with some fun with Jason. Until next time, X out.
So Jason killed a rapist... If you ask me, he should have gotten a medal!
It was then I realized which character I HAD to focus on... None other then THAT Robin, Jason Todd! And thus began my several day old quest to find/own Batman #357, the comic Jason first appears in. I looked through dozens of online comic shops and kept coming up empty... From the big comic shops to the small ones, NOBODY seemed to have that damned issue of Batman! So finally I went to my place of last resort.. eBay. Sure enough, there it was, Batman #357! AND it had free shipping along with a buy it now option! Needless to say, I brought it as fast as I could, before common sense smacked me in the back of the head and caused me to second guess the logic behind spending over 20 bucks on a single comic book. So good, I had the first appearance of one of my favorite DC characters(or at least I would in about a week's time)... But I needed more! From eBay I headed to Mycomicshop.com and went on a spending binge that would make a junkie blush! By the time I came down from my high and realized what I had done, I'd placed an order for 30 Batman comics from the 80's where Jason made an appearance... Which comics you ask? Well, allow me to list them good sir or ma'am! Batman #359, #360, #361, #363-366, #408-414 as well as Detective Comics #524, #525, #527-531, #543, #544, #547, #568-570, #572, #573 & #579... That's a lot of comics, but I'm going to rationalize it all by saying that it was a gift to myself for the successful completion of the school year! A lame excuse to be sure, but an excuse nonetheless!
So now the question becomes, what should I do with all this Jason Todd goodness? I doubt I can review every one of those comics here on the blog as well as take care of my regular weekly books... Contrary to popular belief, I'm not an inhuman blogging machine. I was toying with the idea of starting up a new blog and dedicating it to Jason, but that would require a good amount of work, as well as causing me to neglect my duties on this blog. I could do a post running down the main points of what I read, but where's the fun in that? I could do a Retro-Picto Review for a few of the issues like I did for these comics, but again, that would take time away from my regular reviewing duties... I could always do nothing, a personal favorite of mine... So what to do... I guess I'll leave that up to the few of you who managed to stay with me through this LONG-WINDED post. What do YOU think I should do? Drop me a comment, and give me some idea as to which way I should go with this... Or don't. Either way is fine by me. I guess that's it for now. I'll post my decision some time next week(probably when Bats #357 arrives), and we'll take it from there. As always, thanks for reading, and I'll leave you all with some fun with Jason. Until next time, X out.
So Jason killed a rapist... If you ask me, he should have gotten a medal!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Birds of Prey #12 & Gotham City Sirens #23
Two DC books to get out of the way today. One of them was so bad it was cringe-inducing, the other wasn't that bad at all. Which was which? Read on and find out!
Birds of Prey #12:
Summary: This issue starts off about as nonsensically as possible, so I'm just gonna skip it and pretend it didn't happen... Trust me, it's better that way... From there, Oracle sends Lady Blackhawk, Black Canary and Useless #1 & #2(or Hawk and Dove, same thing) to infiltrate some evil rich guy's offices. While Blackhawk keeps the rich guy distracted, Black Canary and Useless #2 sneak off to see what the rich guy was keeping in his basement. Useless #1 winds up getting held at gunpoint by two of the rich guy's bodyguards, and Huntress and the Question are randomly dealing with dirty cops and drug dealers in the sewers... Okay then. Anyway, Canary and Useless #2 make it into the basement and find a box with a phone next to it... Oh god no... Please don't do this to me, Gail... Not in THIS series too! Oh god, she did... *sigh* It turns out Ragdoll's sister Junior was living in the box and after killing the lights in the basement goes to kill Canary and Useless #2.
Thoughts: I'm not sure I could have hated a comic written by Gail Simone any more than I hated this one... I mean I usually enjoy Gail's work and all, but this was just horrible. Okay, let me clarify what I'm saying here... In MY opinion, this comic was horrible. The story was ALLL over the place, AND it made me think about Ragdoll, a character who is reaching Mad Hatter levels of annoyance from me. I have NO idea what the point of the first few pages of this comic few, nor do I know why Huntress and Question were in the sewers halting dirty cops. This was bad... It was really bad...
Score: 2 out of 10.
Please kill Useless #2...
Gotham City Sirens #23:
Summary: We get started with Catwoman breaking into a truck full of diamonds that were headed for the Penguin. Before she can make good her escape, Batman(Dick Grayson this time around) lands near her and tries to guilt CW into heading to Arkham Asylum to deal with her two Sirens teammates, Harley Quinn(who broke Joker out of his cell last issue), and Poison Ivy, who wants to help Harley get away from under Joker's thumb, but is crazy. CW basically tells Dick to go to hell before driving off with her stolen booty. From there we head to Arkham, where the inmates have escaped and the place is rapidly falling apart. Harley is firmly under Mistah J's control again, and is happily doing whatever he asks of her. The two decide to have a game night, which involves Joker brutalizing various Arkham guards. While Joker and Harley are playing their games, Jeremiah Arkham finds the current director of the Asylum, Alice Sinner, who seems to still be loyal to Arkham(!!). Sinner opens a safe in her office and hands Arkham his Black Mask... um, mask and Black Mask walks the hallways of the Asylum, unhappy that Joker's games were undermining his own plans... That's pretty awesome actually. Black Mask heads up to Joker and tells him as much, and asks Joker to stop with his games, which pisses Joker off since he sees all of life as a meaningless game. Before Joker can attack Mask, Poison Ivy arrives on the scene and flings Joker away. With Joker away from Harley, Ivy tells Harley that she had to decide what was more important, her warped relationship with Joker, or her friendship with Ivy. This issue ends with Catwoman reluctantly deciding to head to the Asylum, stopping off at Gotham City Central first to see if Batman wanted to go with her. Much to her surprise(and relief), the Batman waiting for her at police headquarters was Bruce Wayne, and the two head off to see what they could do about the mess at the Asylum.
Thoughts: First things first, thank you Peter Calloway for FINALLY giving us the return of CLASSIC Joker. Grant Morrison has done a lot of good things during his time with the Bat books(Damian, Batman Inc, etc), but his forked-tongued, tank-top wearing, neck-breaking version of Joker REALLY bugged me... With a character like the Joker, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! So seeing Joker back in his trademark purple suit, NOT talking with that weird world bubble anymore made me very happy. Actually, all of this issue made me very happy... Anytime Joker is around I'm glad, the fact that Calloway actually seems like he has plans for the current Black Mask was nice, since Tony Daniel basically made Arkham into Black Mask and then COMPLETELY forgot all about it, and the interactions between Catwoman and Dick, and Catwoman and Bruce were very well written. I've got to say, this was a really good comic that left me with no real complaints.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
Classic Joker is awesome Joker.
Birds of Prey #12:
Summary: This issue starts off about as nonsensically as possible, so I'm just gonna skip it and pretend it didn't happen... Trust me, it's better that way... From there, Oracle sends Lady Blackhawk, Black Canary and Useless #1 & #2(or Hawk and Dove, same thing) to infiltrate some evil rich guy's offices. While Blackhawk keeps the rich guy distracted, Black Canary and Useless #2 sneak off to see what the rich guy was keeping in his basement. Useless #1 winds up getting held at gunpoint by two of the rich guy's bodyguards, and Huntress and the Question are randomly dealing with dirty cops and drug dealers in the sewers... Okay then. Anyway, Canary and Useless #2 make it into the basement and find a box with a phone next to it... Oh god no... Please don't do this to me, Gail... Not in THIS series too! Oh god, she did... *sigh* It turns out Ragdoll's sister Junior was living in the box and after killing the lights in the basement goes to kill Canary and Useless #2.
Thoughts: I'm not sure I could have hated a comic written by Gail Simone any more than I hated this one... I mean I usually enjoy Gail's work and all, but this was just horrible. Okay, let me clarify what I'm saying here... In MY opinion, this comic was horrible. The story was ALLL over the place, AND it made me think about Ragdoll, a character who is reaching Mad Hatter levels of annoyance from me. I have NO idea what the point of the first few pages of this comic few, nor do I know why Huntress and Question were in the sewers halting dirty cops. This was bad... It was really bad...
Score: 2 out of 10.
Please kill Useless #2...Gotham City Sirens #23:
Summary: We get started with Catwoman breaking into a truck full of diamonds that were headed for the Penguin. Before she can make good her escape, Batman(Dick Grayson this time around) lands near her and tries to guilt CW into heading to Arkham Asylum to deal with her two Sirens teammates, Harley Quinn(who broke Joker out of his cell last issue), and Poison Ivy, who wants to help Harley get away from under Joker's thumb, but is crazy. CW basically tells Dick to go to hell before driving off with her stolen booty. From there we head to Arkham, where the inmates have escaped and the place is rapidly falling apart. Harley is firmly under Mistah J's control again, and is happily doing whatever he asks of her. The two decide to have a game night, which involves Joker brutalizing various Arkham guards. While Joker and Harley are playing their games, Jeremiah Arkham finds the current director of the Asylum, Alice Sinner, who seems to still be loyal to Arkham(!!). Sinner opens a safe in her office and hands Arkham his Black Mask... um, mask and Black Mask walks the hallways of the Asylum, unhappy that Joker's games were undermining his own plans... That's pretty awesome actually. Black Mask heads up to Joker and tells him as much, and asks Joker to stop with his games, which pisses Joker off since he sees all of life as a meaningless game. Before Joker can attack Mask, Poison Ivy arrives on the scene and flings Joker away. With Joker away from Harley, Ivy tells Harley that she had to decide what was more important, her warped relationship with Joker, or her friendship with Ivy. This issue ends with Catwoman reluctantly deciding to head to the Asylum, stopping off at Gotham City Central first to see if Batman wanted to go with her. Much to her surprise(and relief), the Batman waiting for her at police headquarters was Bruce Wayne, and the two head off to see what they could do about the mess at the Asylum.
Thoughts: First things first, thank you Peter Calloway for FINALLY giving us the return of CLASSIC Joker. Grant Morrison has done a lot of good things during his time with the Bat books(Damian, Batman Inc, etc), but his forked-tongued, tank-top wearing, neck-breaking version of Joker REALLY bugged me... With a character like the Joker, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! So seeing Joker back in his trademark purple suit, NOT talking with that weird world bubble anymore made me very happy. Actually, all of this issue made me very happy... Anytime Joker is around I'm glad, the fact that Calloway actually seems like he has plans for the current Black Mask was nice, since Tony Daniel basically made Arkham into Black Mask and then COMPLETELY forgot all about it, and the interactions between Catwoman and Dick, and Catwoman and Bruce were very well written. I've got to say, this was a really good comic that left me with no real complaints.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
Classic Joker is awesome Joker.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Action Comics #901 & Detective Comics #877
Two of the very few DC comics I bothered picking up this week, both of them coming off of very strong prior issues... Can they keep up the momentum, or will they fall flat? Since this is DC we're talking about, I'd bet on the latter choice...
Action Comics #901:
Summary: This one picks up where Action #900 ended, with Superman, Cyborg Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, Eradicator and Steel finding the inert body of Doomsday in a mysterious spacecraft, surrounded by 4 or 5 other very angry Doomsdays... In other words, bad times for the Supes clan! Cyborg Supes is overjoyed by this situation, since he's hoping it'll finally lead to his death(HA!), so Supes tears out Cyborg Superman's central node to shut him up, and orders the Supes patrol to take the original Doomsday and try to lose the rest of the Doomsday's in the vast tunnels of the ship they were in. While Supes and company are trying to figure out how the ship works, why there were so many Doomsday's and how to get off, a mystery figure, watching the Supes patrol travel around the ship decides to pilot the ship towards Earth. The US government gets wind of this, and rapidly realize that if a ship that size struck the Earth, the effects would be catastrophic. To that end, the president goes on TV and asks for Superman to save the Earth... Unfortunately, Supes is still wandering around the spacecraft... Eventually Supes and his posse find a room showing an image of the solar system, and Supergirl notices that the Earth was rapidly getting closer and closer. Supes tells his crew to tear the room apart to find some controls, when a massive Doomsday looking creature enters the room. The creature introduces itself as Doomslayer and is immediately confronted by the Eradicator. Doomslayer tears Eradicator in half with absolutely no trouble, shocking the rest of the Supes patrol, and ending this issue.
Thoughts: I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from Paul Cornell with the end of his Lex Luthor story here in Action... I mean I liked most of his Lex work, but there were some parts that didn't do it for me, and with the idiotic direction DC has taken Superman in as of late, I'll admit, I wasn't expecting all that much from this series. Boy was I wrong though! This issue was WAY better than I expected it to be! Supes and company retreating from a multitude of Doomsdays, a huge threat to the planet, a new badass Supes villain, very good stuff here. Hell, maybe I'll drop the main Superman title and just stick with this series, because the quality difference between those two books is staggering!
Score: 9 out of 10.
Look out! It's Robo-Doomsday!!!
Detective Comics #877:
Summary: Batman(Dick Grayson this time around) manages to escape from the deathtrap set up for him by the unfortunately named mobster, the Roadrunner... The Roadrunner... That's ALMOST as bad as “The Hat”... ALMOST. It turns out the Roadrunner doesn't have legs, but has prosthetics made out of titanium, which allow him to move faster than a normal man. The Roadrunner begins to get away from Bats, so Bats simply snares him with his grappling hook, dragging the Roadrunner back to him. Bats demands to know what Roadrunner's connection with Sonia Branch(formerly Sonia Zucco) was, but Roadrunner doesn't say anything worthwhile, so Bats drops him off at Gotham Central, and meets up with Commissioner Gordon. It turns out that Sonia had gone to the Commissioner and asked to meet with Bats, since she had information for his ears alone. Sonia tells Bats that several mobsters had come to her bank wanting to use her to clean their dirty money, but she always refused to help them. However, one criminal by the name of Tiger Shark refused to take no for an answer and was responsible for killing Sonia's assistant and delivering the corpse inside a giant whale. Sonia tells Bats as much as she can about Tiger Shark(he's a pirate who lives out at sea), and Bats decides to head out into the ocean to try to locate Tiger Shark. As Bats is investigating the waters around Gotham, Tiger Shark's massive ship pulls up to him, ending this one.
Thoughts: I've got to say, Detective Comics is the most consistently good main Bat books going. Tony Daniel's Batman is GOD-AWFUL, Batman and Robin keeps switching writers, and Batman Inc is written by Grant Morrison, meaning you'll either love it or hate it. But since Scott Snyder took this title over, it's been solid overall, and at times, really, really good. It reads like you'd want a Batman story to read. It's a bit dark, it shows Bats as a detective, and it isn't overly reliant on Batman's colorful rogues gallery. It relies on Batman, which is all you really need. As usual, good stuff here.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
The interaction between Tim and Dick here was done really, REALLY well.
Action Comics #901:
Summary: This one picks up where Action #900 ended, with Superman, Cyborg Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, Eradicator and Steel finding the inert body of Doomsday in a mysterious spacecraft, surrounded by 4 or 5 other very angry Doomsdays... In other words, bad times for the Supes clan! Cyborg Supes is overjoyed by this situation, since he's hoping it'll finally lead to his death(HA!), so Supes tears out Cyborg Superman's central node to shut him up, and orders the Supes patrol to take the original Doomsday and try to lose the rest of the Doomsday's in the vast tunnels of the ship they were in. While Supes and company are trying to figure out how the ship works, why there were so many Doomsday's and how to get off, a mystery figure, watching the Supes patrol travel around the ship decides to pilot the ship towards Earth. The US government gets wind of this, and rapidly realize that if a ship that size struck the Earth, the effects would be catastrophic. To that end, the president goes on TV and asks for Superman to save the Earth... Unfortunately, Supes is still wandering around the spacecraft... Eventually Supes and his posse find a room showing an image of the solar system, and Supergirl notices that the Earth was rapidly getting closer and closer. Supes tells his crew to tear the room apart to find some controls, when a massive Doomsday looking creature enters the room. The creature introduces itself as Doomslayer and is immediately confronted by the Eradicator. Doomslayer tears Eradicator in half with absolutely no trouble, shocking the rest of the Supes patrol, and ending this issue.
Thoughts: I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from Paul Cornell with the end of his Lex Luthor story here in Action... I mean I liked most of his Lex work, but there were some parts that didn't do it for me, and with the idiotic direction DC has taken Superman in as of late, I'll admit, I wasn't expecting all that much from this series. Boy was I wrong though! This issue was WAY better than I expected it to be! Supes and company retreating from a multitude of Doomsdays, a huge threat to the planet, a new badass Supes villain, very good stuff here. Hell, maybe I'll drop the main Superman title and just stick with this series, because the quality difference between those two books is staggering!
Score: 9 out of 10.
Look out! It's Robo-Doomsday!!!Detective Comics #877:
Summary: Batman(Dick Grayson this time around) manages to escape from the deathtrap set up for him by the unfortunately named mobster, the Roadrunner... The Roadrunner... That's ALMOST as bad as “The Hat”... ALMOST. It turns out the Roadrunner doesn't have legs, but has prosthetics made out of titanium, which allow him to move faster than a normal man. The Roadrunner begins to get away from Bats, so Bats simply snares him with his grappling hook, dragging the Roadrunner back to him. Bats demands to know what Roadrunner's connection with Sonia Branch(formerly Sonia Zucco) was, but Roadrunner doesn't say anything worthwhile, so Bats drops him off at Gotham Central, and meets up with Commissioner Gordon. It turns out that Sonia had gone to the Commissioner and asked to meet with Bats, since she had information for his ears alone. Sonia tells Bats that several mobsters had come to her bank wanting to use her to clean their dirty money, but she always refused to help them. However, one criminal by the name of Tiger Shark refused to take no for an answer and was responsible for killing Sonia's assistant and delivering the corpse inside a giant whale. Sonia tells Bats as much as she can about Tiger Shark(he's a pirate who lives out at sea), and Bats decides to head out into the ocean to try to locate Tiger Shark. As Bats is investigating the waters around Gotham, Tiger Shark's massive ship pulls up to him, ending this one.
Thoughts: I've got to say, Detective Comics is the most consistently good main Bat books going. Tony Daniel's Batman is GOD-AWFUL, Batman and Robin keeps switching writers, and Batman Inc is written by Grant Morrison, meaning you'll either love it or hate it. But since Scott Snyder took this title over, it's been solid overall, and at times, really, really good. It reads like you'd want a Batman story to read. It's a bit dark, it shows Bats as a detective, and it isn't overly reliant on Batman's colorful rogues gallery. It relies on Batman, which is all you really need. As usual, good stuff here.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
The interaction between Tim and Dick here was done really, REALLY well.
Amazing Spider-Man #662 & Venom #3
Next up are two Spider-Man related comics, the second(and final) part of Spidey's first meeting with the Avengers Academy kids, as well as Venom. Both should be really good, the only question is how good???
Amazing Spider-Man #662:
Summary: We continue with Spidey's REALLY bad day as a substitute teacher for the Avengers Academy. Not only did Spidey's lesson plan in class bomb, he took the kids out on patrol and they wound up getting mind-controlled by the Psycho-Man, and were now trying to kill Spidey. After a lengthy battle, Spidey manages to get through to one of the kids(the Avengers Academy class leader, Reptil), who in turn manages to help his teammate, Veil, shake free of the Psycho-Man's mind-whammy. Veil manages to use her powers to help the rest of the Academy kids shake the Psycho-Man's influence, which leads to the kids attacking and demolishing the Psycho-Man's body, causing him to return to the Microverse. Before he goes though, the Psycho-Man does take some solace in the fact that the Academy kids were so full of negative emotions, that they were already irretrievably lost to Spidey and the Avengers, at least in the Psycho-Man's eyes. Naturally Spidey sees things differently, and is proud that the kids managed to break free of the Psycho-Man's influence and defeat the villain. From there, Spidey takes the kids back to the Academy, and this story is a wrap. We also had two little quickie stories, another Infested: The Road to Spider-Island and a pretty good one and done story by Frank Tieri.
Thoughts: Well, I didn't enjoy this issue as much as the prior one, but then again, since I gave the last issue a perfect score, it would have been kind of tough to have enjoyed this issue as much as that one... Still, it was really good, and it was great to see Christos Gage taking his Avengers Academy kids out of their book and having them guest star in one of Marvel's top selling titles. Here's hoping this storyline has managed to get the Avengers Academy series a few new readers, because it really is a hell of a good read.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
Heh heh, he called them delinquents.
Venom #3:
Summary: Venom(Flash Thompson) is still in the Savage Land trying to destroy the Vibranium shipment the Crime-Master wanted to get his hands on. Thanks to Venom's tussle with Kraven last issue(who I STILL say should have remained dead!), Flash has lost several hours, and was having great difficulty keeping the Venom symbiote under his control. While Venom is decimating the Crime-Master's goons in the Savage Land, Crime-Master's top operative, Jack O' Lantern, has managed to kidnap Flash's girlfriend, Betty Brant, since the Crime-Master had discovered Venom's civilian identity last issue. Flash manages to destroy the Vibranium mining plant, and gets out of the Savage Land with a helicopter full of Vibranium. Mission accomplished, right? Not so fast! The Crime-Master contacts Flash via the helicopter's radio and tells him that Jack had kidnapped Betty, and that they'd release Betty... Provided Flash brought the shipment of Vibranium to the Crime-Master in New York. Meanwhile, Peter Parker discovers Betty's ransacked apartment and dons his Spidey clothes to search for her. Flash, rapidly losing control of the symbiote with each passing second, manages to make it to New York, and reluctantly turns the Vibranium over to the Crime-Master, who tells Flash that he had 5 minutes to get to Betty before the warehouse she was in exploded... Ah villains... So damn dramatic... Flash rushes off while the Crime-Master gloats about the fact that he now had the US's newest super-spy running errands for him. While nearing the warehouse, Spidey intercepts Venom, figuring that Venom had somehow recalled Spidey's secret identity and kidnapped Betty to get at him... Awesome. Spidey tears into Venom, while Flash attempts to get away to reach the warehouse and Betty. However, by this point, Flash has been bonded to the symbiote for too long, and the symbiote takes complete charge, with the lone thought in it's mind being to kill Spider-Man. Back at the Project Rebirth facility, Flash's superiors see the Venom/Spider-Man battle on TV, and figuring Flash had completely lost it, push the button to fry Flash's brain(!).
Thoughts: Wow, that was one hell of a comic! There wasn't a dead spot anywhere in this one. The entire thing was action packed, AND told an awesome story. Plus the obligatory Spider-Man appearance(you KNEW he was going to show up eventually!) made perfect sense, and didn't seem forced in the least. I really don't have any major complaints here at all... The story was really good, the art was really good, and the cliffhanger left me salivating for the next issue. What more could I ask for?
Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.
The huge bomb behind Betty labeled "TNT" is pretty damn hilarious...
Amazing Spider-Man #662:
Summary: We continue with Spidey's REALLY bad day as a substitute teacher for the Avengers Academy. Not only did Spidey's lesson plan in class bomb, he took the kids out on patrol and they wound up getting mind-controlled by the Psycho-Man, and were now trying to kill Spidey. After a lengthy battle, Spidey manages to get through to one of the kids(the Avengers Academy class leader, Reptil), who in turn manages to help his teammate, Veil, shake free of the Psycho-Man's mind-whammy. Veil manages to use her powers to help the rest of the Academy kids shake the Psycho-Man's influence, which leads to the kids attacking and demolishing the Psycho-Man's body, causing him to return to the Microverse. Before he goes though, the Psycho-Man does take some solace in the fact that the Academy kids were so full of negative emotions, that they were already irretrievably lost to Spidey and the Avengers, at least in the Psycho-Man's eyes. Naturally Spidey sees things differently, and is proud that the kids managed to break free of the Psycho-Man's influence and defeat the villain. From there, Spidey takes the kids back to the Academy, and this story is a wrap. We also had two little quickie stories, another Infested: The Road to Spider-Island and a pretty good one and done story by Frank Tieri.
Thoughts: Well, I didn't enjoy this issue as much as the prior one, but then again, since I gave the last issue a perfect score, it would have been kind of tough to have enjoyed this issue as much as that one... Still, it was really good, and it was great to see Christos Gage taking his Avengers Academy kids out of their book and having them guest star in one of Marvel's top selling titles. Here's hoping this storyline has managed to get the Avengers Academy series a few new readers, because it really is a hell of a good read.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
Heh heh, he called them delinquents.Venom #3:
Summary: Venom(Flash Thompson) is still in the Savage Land trying to destroy the Vibranium shipment the Crime-Master wanted to get his hands on. Thanks to Venom's tussle with Kraven last issue(who I STILL say should have remained dead!), Flash has lost several hours, and was having great difficulty keeping the Venom symbiote under his control. While Venom is decimating the Crime-Master's goons in the Savage Land, Crime-Master's top operative, Jack O' Lantern, has managed to kidnap Flash's girlfriend, Betty Brant, since the Crime-Master had discovered Venom's civilian identity last issue. Flash manages to destroy the Vibranium mining plant, and gets out of the Savage Land with a helicopter full of Vibranium. Mission accomplished, right? Not so fast! The Crime-Master contacts Flash via the helicopter's radio and tells him that Jack had kidnapped Betty, and that they'd release Betty... Provided Flash brought the shipment of Vibranium to the Crime-Master in New York. Meanwhile, Peter Parker discovers Betty's ransacked apartment and dons his Spidey clothes to search for her. Flash, rapidly losing control of the symbiote with each passing second, manages to make it to New York, and reluctantly turns the Vibranium over to the Crime-Master, who tells Flash that he had 5 minutes to get to Betty before the warehouse she was in exploded... Ah villains... So damn dramatic... Flash rushes off while the Crime-Master gloats about the fact that he now had the US's newest super-spy running errands for him. While nearing the warehouse, Spidey intercepts Venom, figuring that Venom had somehow recalled Spidey's secret identity and kidnapped Betty to get at him... Awesome. Spidey tears into Venom, while Flash attempts to get away to reach the warehouse and Betty. However, by this point, Flash has been bonded to the symbiote for too long, and the symbiote takes complete charge, with the lone thought in it's mind being to kill Spider-Man. Back at the Project Rebirth facility, Flash's superiors see the Venom/Spider-Man battle on TV, and figuring Flash had completely lost it, push the button to fry Flash's brain(!).
Thoughts: Wow, that was one hell of a comic! There wasn't a dead spot anywhere in this one. The entire thing was action packed, AND told an awesome story. Plus the obligatory Spider-Man appearance(you KNEW he was going to show up eventually!) made perfect sense, and didn't seem forced in the least. I really don't have any major complaints here at all... The story was really good, the art was really good, and the cliffhanger left me salivating for the next issue. What more could I ask for?
Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.
The huge bomb behind Betty labeled "TNT" is pretty damn hilarious...
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
New Comic Day! May 25th edition.
Hello fellow comic fans and assorted enemies! It's Wednesday, which means it's time for me to produce my favorite(and only!) weekly post, New Comic Day! Why is it my favorite? Because no thought goes into it, as opposed to my regular reviews, where hardly any though goes into them. Last week I picked up something like 500 comics from the comic shop... What? That's what it seemed like! Okay, fine. I didn't actually pick up 500 comics, just 23, but still, that's a ridiculous number! Before I reveal how many comics I picked up today, it's important to remember the past, even if the past in question was one week ago... Last week I was most looking forward to Hawkeye: Blindspot #4, and while it wasn't as amazing as the prior three issues, I wound up giving it an 8 1/2 out of 10, a very respectable score. To be honest, if not for Avengers: The Children's Crusade, Hawkeye: Blindspot would probably be my favorite mini-series of 2011... And the year isn't even CLOSE to being over yet! The comic I was least looking forward to reading was Supergirl #64, which came away with a lackluster 5 out of 10. In related Supergirl news, I dropped that title today at the comic shop, but added Birds of Prey, as my subscription for Birds finally ended with issue #12. While Birds hasn't blown me away, it's been better than Supergirl...
There. Last week is taken care of. Now for the good stuff! What did your humble servant, and shaman to wildebeests everywhere, X, pick up from the comic shop earlier today?? Well wait no longer, here's what I got: Action Comics #901, Detective Comics #877, Gotham City Sirens #23, Amazing Spider-Man #662, Daken #9.1, Deadpool #37, FF #4, Iron Man 2.0 #5, Mighty Thor #2, Namor #10, Onslaught Unleashed #4, Secret Avengers #13, Uncanny X-Men #537 & Venom #3. Damn, that's 3 DC comics compared to 11 Marvel books, for a grand total of 14 comics for the week... Last year at this time(May 26th to be exact), I picked up 16 comics, 9 DCs and 7 Marvels... DC has really fallen hard in my eyes... That's sad, because there are a lot of DC characters I truly enjoy reading about, but that company has really sucked the big one lately... But hey, DC's loss is Marvel's gain, as the House of Ideas is getting way more of my time, money and blog space. Following along those lines, this week's Pick of the Litter is a Marvel comic, Amazing Spider-Man #662 to be exact. Issue #661 came away with a rare perfect score, so here's hoping this issue keeps up the awesome. This week's Runt of the Litter is Onslaught Unleashed #4... You know, the second issue of this mini-series was so bad, I STILL haven't read issue #3 yet... But in true X style, I'll be picking up issue #4 anyway, even though I'm fairly certain I'm going to hate it passionately. And that just about wraps up today's little piece of awesome. I'll post THE Random Scan of the Week, and then get to reading. Until next time, X out.
The Random Scan of the Week!
Green Arrow callling Tony Stark a fatcat? Awesome. Hawkeye then calling Green Arrow on it? Priceless.
There. Last week is taken care of. Now for the good stuff! What did your humble servant, and shaman to wildebeests everywhere, X, pick up from the comic shop earlier today?? Well wait no longer, here's what I got: Action Comics #901, Detective Comics #877, Gotham City Sirens #23, Amazing Spider-Man #662, Daken #9.1, Deadpool #37, FF #4, Iron Man 2.0 #5, Mighty Thor #2, Namor #10, Onslaught Unleashed #4, Secret Avengers #13, Uncanny X-Men #537 & Venom #3. Damn, that's 3 DC comics compared to 11 Marvel books, for a grand total of 14 comics for the week... Last year at this time(May 26th to be exact), I picked up 16 comics, 9 DCs and 7 Marvels... DC has really fallen hard in my eyes... That's sad, because there are a lot of DC characters I truly enjoy reading about, but that company has really sucked the big one lately... But hey, DC's loss is Marvel's gain, as the House of Ideas is getting way more of my time, money and blog space. Following along those lines, this week's Pick of the Litter is a Marvel comic, Amazing Spider-Man #662 to be exact. Issue #661 came away with a rare perfect score, so here's hoping this issue keeps up the awesome. This week's Runt of the Litter is Onslaught Unleashed #4... You know, the second issue of this mini-series was so bad, I STILL haven't read issue #3 yet... But in true X style, I'll be picking up issue #4 anyway, even though I'm fairly certain I'm going to hate it passionately. And that just about wraps up today's little piece of awesome. I'll post THE Random Scan of the Week, and then get to reading. Until next time, X out.
The Random Scan of the Week!
Green Arrow callling Tony Stark a fatcat? Awesome. Hawkeye then calling Green Arrow on it? Priceless.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Daredevil Reborn #2-4
Hey X-Maniacs, it's the day before New Comic Day, and I don't have any new comics to read... For a change. So instead I'll go and review the three issues of Daredevil Reborn I haven't been able to get to yet. First things first, here's my review for DD Reborn #1 in case you want to get caught up. With that out of the way, let's get this taken care of.
Daredevil Reborn #2-4:
Summary: Having discovered a bunch of corpses wearing police uniforms in the small New Mexican town he was passing through, Matt Murdock, against his better judgment, decides to get involved and tries to figure out just what was going on here. To that end, Matt beats up two cops from the town and asks them about the bodies, getting nowhere. With that tactic failed, Matt calls the police station and tells the sheriff, a guy named Cole, that he didn't want anything to do with the town and was leaving. Cole heads to the quarry where Matt ran afoul the other two cops and frees them from the radiator they were handcuffed to. Cole scolds the two yokels and tells them that they had business to attend to with some guy named Calavera. Matt, who was hiding on a nearby rooftop, overhears this and decides that he couldn't leave this town until he found out what was going on. Matt stops a unmarked truck that was about to pass through the town and warns them that Cole and the police force were corrupt. The truckers reveal that they were taking unmarked guns that had been confiscated by various law enforcement agencies to be melted down into slag. With that, the truckers pistol whip Matt, cuff him, and toss him in the back of the truck, since they were planning on selling the guns to Cole. The truckers bring the truck to Cole, and tell him that they had captured a nosy guy warning them away from the town. Matt breaks out of the back of the truck, throws a smoke grenade down to disorient the crooked cops, gets into the truck, and drives away. Matt drives to a lake and pushes the truck off a cliff into the waters below, getting rid of the weaponry. By this point, a limo pulls up and Calavera gets out, obviously upset that his guns were now swimming with the fishes. Calavera takes off his sunglasses and looks at Matt, forcing Matt to relive his worst moments, which is apparently a talent Calavera has. With Matt devastated by what he saw, Calavera pulls out a gun and shoots Matt in the head, watching him fall into the waters below. Needless to say, Matt doesn't die(because if he did, the title of this mini would be WAY off), as we find out he was able to twist his body at the last minute, only getting grazed in the head by the bullet, but suffering two holes in his hands from the bullet. Matt staggers through the town and heads to the home of the blind boy he came across in the first issue of this issue, collapsing into the kid's bathtub. When Matt comes to, the kid pretty much begs Matt to fix the town, since Cole had killed the kid's father, who happened to be the sheriff before Cole stole that spot. After hearing the kid's impassioned plea, Matt asks the kid where his father's police equipment was, takes it and heads out. Matt finds Cole, the crooked cops and Calavera(along with his own goons) meeting in a warehouse trying to decide what to do about the lost guns. Matt leaps into the midst of them and attacks, beating near everybody down, until Calavera removes his sunglasses forcing Matt to relive his worst fears again. This time though, Matt is able to fight through his fear and knocks Calavera out with a nightstick shot to the face. From there, the DEA comes into the town and arrests the crooked cops, Calavera and Calavera's goons. The DEA agents question the blind kid on who cleaned up the town, but the kid doesn't rat Matt out. This mini ends with Matt returning to NYC and telling Foggy Nelson that they had some work to do.
Thoughts: Meh. I have to say, this mini didn't do it for me. I didn't really like the setting(Andy Diggle must REALLY hate New Mexico!), and the extremely hillbilly cops really got on my nerves... I did like Calavera a lot, as he had a very unique look, and some sweet powers. But the slack-jawed yokel cops, the back story with the blind kid that really didn't lead to anything, and Matt inevitably heading back to NYC to resume being Daredevil, even though he was wanted by the FBI, all left me flat. Will I be picking up Mark Waid's new Daredevil series in July? Absolutely. Here's hoping it's better than this mini was though.
Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.
Calavera? Good. Everything else? Not so much...
Daredevil Reborn #2-4:
Summary: Having discovered a bunch of corpses wearing police uniforms in the small New Mexican town he was passing through, Matt Murdock, against his better judgment, decides to get involved and tries to figure out just what was going on here. To that end, Matt beats up two cops from the town and asks them about the bodies, getting nowhere. With that tactic failed, Matt calls the police station and tells the sheriff, a guy named Cole, that he didn't want anything to do with the town and was leaving. Cole heads to the quarry where Matt ran afoul the other two cops and frees them from the radiator they were handcuffed to. Cole scolds the two yokels and tells them that they had business to attend to with some guy named Calavera. Matt, who was hiding on a nearby rooftop, overhears this and decides that he couldn't leave this town until he found out what was going on. Matt stops a unmarked truck that was about to pass through the town and warns them that Cole and the police force were corrupt. The truckers reveal that they were taking unmarked guns that had been confiscated by various law enforcement agencies to be melted down into slag. With that, the truckers pistol whip Matt, cuff him, and toss him in the back of the truck, since they were planning on selling the guns to Cole. The truckers bring the truck to Cole, and tell him that they had captured a nosy guy warning them away from the town. Matt breaks out of the back of the truck, throws a smoke grenade down to disorient the crooked cops, gets into the truck, and drives away. Matt drives to a lake and pushes the truck off a cliff into the waters below, getting rid of the weaponry. By this point, a limo pulls up and Calavera gets out, obviously upset that his guns were now swimming with the fishes. Calavera takes off his sunglasses and looks at Matt, forcing Matt to relive his worst moments, which is apparently a talent Calavera has. With Matt devastated by what he saw, Calavera pulls out a gun and shoots Matt in the head, watching him fall into the waters below. Needless to say, Matt doesn't die(because if he did, the title of this mini would be WAY off), as we find out he was able to twist his body at the last minute, only getting grazed in the head by the bullet, but suffering two holes in his hands from the bullet. Matt staggers through the town and heads to the home of the blind boy he came across in the first issue of this issue, collapsing into the kid's bathtub. When Matt comes to, the kid pretty much begs Matt to fix the town, since Cole had killed the kid's father, who happened to be the sheriff before Cole stole that spot. After hearing the kid's impassioned plea, Matt asks the kid where his father's police equipment was, takes it and heads out. Matt finds Cole, the crooked cops and Calavera(along with his own goons) meeting in a warehouse trying to decide what to do about the lost guns. Matt leaps into the midst of them and attacks, beating near everybody down, until Calavera removes his sunglasses forcing Matt to relive his worst fears again. This time though, Matt is able to fight through his fear and knocks Calavera out with a nightstick shot to the face. From there, the DEA comes into the town and arrests the crooked cops, Calavera and Calavera's goons. The DEA agents question the blind kid on who cleaned up the town, but the kid doesn't rat Matt out. This mini ends with Matt returning to NYC and telling Foggy Nelson that they had some work to do.
Thoughts: Meh. I have to say, this mini didn't do it for me. I didn't really like the setting(Andy Diggle must REALLY hate New Mexico!), and the extremely hillbilly cops really got on my nerves... I did like Calavera a lot, as he had a very unique look, and some sweet powers. But the slack-jawed yokel cops, the back story with the blind kid that really didn't lead to anything, and Matt inevitably heading back to NYC to resume being Daredevil, even though he was wanted by the FBI, all left me flat. Will I be picking up Mark Waid's new Daredevil series in July? Absolutely. Here's hoping it's better than this mini was though.
Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.
Calavera? Good. Everything else? Not so much...
Monday, May 23, 2011
Avengers #13 & Namor Annual #1
Hey, with this post I'm officially caught up with last week's new books! That means I have ONE whole day before I wind up buying up half the comic shop, as usual! Huzzah! In lieu of new comic reviews, I'll probably post some kind of review on Daredevil Reborn #2-4 tomorrow. Hopefully those comics will be better than the ones I've been reading lately... Speaking of which...
Avengers #13: (Fear Itself tie-in)
Summary: How do I even review this...... Hmm... Basically the Avengers(yes, ALL of them...) talk about how things led up to Fear Itself. They. All. Talk... All issue long... Everybody talks and basically gets us to the press conference the Avengers held about Stark Reliant rebuilding Asgard. We also get a few quick glimpses of the Blitzkrieg on Washington, but nobody really mentions that. And Spider-Man vomits into his mask. Twice.
Thoughts: Oh no! It's the return of the Dread Lord BENDIS!!! You know the guy... That's the comic book writer who doesn't actually bother to write a story(or writes a story that makes NO sense: see Secret Invasion), and instead just has characters stand around(or in the case of this comic, SIT around) talking... About nothing in particular... What the hell happened! For the most part, Brian Bendis has been writing pretty good stories since the end of Siege. Hell, after how good Siege was, I swore off calling him the Dread Lord BENDIS!... The first storyline in this series was remarkably good(the Kang/future stuff), making me sure the Dread Lord BENDIS! moniker was dead and buried. Sure, there were some bumps in the road(like most of the Hood/Infinity Gems storyline), but all in all, I had no major complaints. And then THIS issue came along. It was just mind-numbingly bad. I mean, you had the Red Hulk eating raw eggs, Spider-Man vomiting into his mask(twice mind you), Noh-Varr showing up out of the blue with his girlfriend(We get it. He has a girlfriend. Great.), and a panel with Luke Cage's baby crying... Which was being recorded to the Avengers verbal history for some reason... The ONLY thing that saved this comic from being a perfect 0 was the fact that we find out that Hawkeye and Spider-Woman might be/could be/are hooking up. That was the only good thing I took out of this one. If you want to see the Red Hulk eating raw eggs or Spider-Man randomly drinking a bottle of soda with a straw, THIS is the comic book you've been dreaming of! But if you're looking for a cohesive story or action, avoid this comic at ALL costs! You'll thank me later.
Score: 1 out of 10.
Yes, there were at least two panels of Spidey sipping a soda...
Namor Annual #1:
Summary: Quick recap time! Steve Rogers, Namor, Dr. Nemesis, Lord Summers and Our Savior Hope are stuck in the Negative Zone. Our Savior Hope is injured and Namor has gone crazy due to being without water for so long. Oh, and Blastarr wants to kill them all. If you want to know any more then that, check out my reviews for the Steve Rogers Annual or this year's Uncanny X-Men annual. There, recap done, onto this comic. While Namor and Blastarr throw down in Blastarr's Negative Zone headquarters, Lord Summers asks Steve to get Our Savior Hope away from the battle while he tries reason with and/or blast some sense into Namor. While Steve is spiriting Our injured Savior Hope away, Dr. Nemesis is forcing some Negative Zone aliens into creating a dimensional teleporter to get himself and his comrades out of the Negative Zone at gunpoint. Once the aliens create the device, Nemesis grabs it and takes off, soon followed by the aliens, who had realized that Nemesis didn't actually have bullets in his gun. Steve manages to bandage Our Savior Hope up and she wakes up, wanting to get back into the battle... Because she's Our Savior and all. Steve nixes that idea, telling her that his first priority was to get her home in one piece, to which Our Savior Hope reluctantly agrees. Lord Summers tries to reason with Blastarr, figuring the two of them might have a shot at subduing Namor, but Blastarr refuses to listen to Lord Summers, instead continuing to try to take Namor down on his own. Nemesis arrives on the scene being chased by a giant eel-like alien, and steers the eel-like alien into Blastarr, at which point it eats Blastarr... Well that's one way to deal with him! Nemesis, not realizing Namor was temporarily insane, heads over to help him up, getting punched in the gut as a result. Lord Summers blasts Namor away and tells Nemesis to find Steve and Our Savior Hope. Nemesis rushes off to do as he was told, while Lord Summers continues blasting Namor away from him. Nemesis finds Steve and Our Savior Hope, just as Lord Summers really cuts loose with a blast, destroying most of Blastarr's headquarters, as well as bringing Lord Summers and Namor to Nemesis, Steve and Our Savior Hope... That's mighty convenient... Steve heads over to the injured Namor and tries to help him up, but ends up getting his arm broken by Namor for his troubles. By this point, Our Savior Hope has managed to duplicate Namor's powers and latches on to him. Nemesis opens the portal back to Earth, and Our Savior Hope flies Namor into the ocean, restoring his sanity and yes, you guessed it, saving everybody. From there, Nemesis, Steve and Lord Summers head through the portal, get patched up and everybody lives happily ever after... Or do they?!? This storyline ends with Blastarr blasting his way out of the eel-like alien swearing revenge on the Earth.
Thoughts: Even though I was just a BIT sarcastic here, I have to admit, I enjoyed this issue, and this entire three part storyline for that matter. Was it perfect? No, but it was good, clean fun. What can I say, I like seeing Namor go off on a rampage. Nobody does an out of control, crazed rampage like Namor does. Imperius Rex!
Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.
Blast you, arm-breaking Namor!
Avengers #13: (Fear Itself tie-in)
Summary: How do I even review this...... Hmm... Basically the Avengers(yes, ALL of them...) talk about how things led up to Fear Itself. They. All. Talk... All issue long... Everybody talks and basically gets us to the press conference the Avengers held about Stark Reliant rebuilding Asgard. We also get a few quick glimpses of the Blitzkrieg on Washington, but nobody really mentions that. And Spider-Man vomits into his mask. Twice.
Thoughts: Oh no! It's the return of the Dread Lord BENDIS!!! You know the guy... That's the comic book writer who doesn't actually bother to write a story(or writes a story that makes NO sense: see Secret Invasion), and instead just has characters stand around(or in the case of this comic, SIT around) talking... About nothing in particular... What the hell happened! For the most part, Brian Bendis has been writing pretty good stories since the end of Siege. Hell, after how good Siege was, I swore off calling him the Dread Lord BENDIS!... The first storyline in this series was remarkably good(the Kang/future stuff), making me sure the Dread Lord BENDIS! moniker was dead and buried. Sure, there were some bumps in the road(like most of the Hood/Infinity Gems storyline), but all in all, I had no major complaints. And then THIS issue came along. It was just mind-numbingly bad. I mean, you had the Red Hulk eating raw eggs, Spider-Man vomiting into his mask(twice mind you), Noh-Varr showing up out of the blue with his girlfriend(We get it. He has a girlfriend. Great.), and a panel with Luke Cage's baby crying... Which was being recorded to the Avengers verbal history for some reason... The ONLY thing that saved this comic from being a perfect 0 was the fact that we find out that Hawkeye and Spider-Woman might be/could be/are hooking up. That was the only good thing I took out of this one. If you want to see the Red Hulk eating raw eggs or Spider-Man randomly drinking a bottle of soda with a straw, THIS is the comic book you've been dreaming of! But if you're looking for a cohesive story or action, avoid this comic at ALL costs! You'll thank me later.
Score: 1 out of 10.
Yes, there were at least two panels of Spidey sipping a soda...Namor Annual #1:
Summary: Quick recap time! Steve Rogers, Namor, Dr. Nemesis, Lord Summers and Our Savior Hope are stuck in the Negative Zone. Our Savior Hope is injured and Namor has gone crazy due to being without water for so long. Oh, and Blastarr wants to kill them all. If you want to know any more then that, check out my reviews for the Steve Rogers Annual or this year's Uncanny X-Men annual. There, recap done, onto this comic. While Namor and Blastarr throw down in Blastarr's Negative Zone headquarters, Lord Summers asks Steve to get Our Savior Hope away from the battle while he tries reason with and/or blast some sense into Namor. While Steve is spiriting Our injured Savior Hope away, Dr. Nemesis is forcing some Negative Zone aliens into creating a dimensional teleporter to get himself and his comrades out of the Negative Zone at gunpoint. Once the aliens create the device, Nemesis grabs it and takes off, soon followed by the aliens, who had realized that Nemesis didn't actually have bullets in his gun. Steve manages to bandage Our Savior Hope up and she wakes up, wanting to get back into the battle... Because she's Our Savior and all. Steve nixes that idea, telling her that his first priority was to get her home in one piece, to which Our Savior Hope reluctantly agrees. Lord Summers tries to reason with Blastarr, figuring the two of them might have a shot at subduing Namor, but Blastarr refuses to listen to Lord Summers, instead continuing to try to take Namor down on his own. Nemesis arrives on the scene being chased by a giant eel-like alien, and steers the eel-like alien into Blastarr, at which point it eats Blastarr... Well that's one way to deal with him! Nemesis, not realizing Namor was temporarily insane, heads over to help him up, getting punched in the gut as a result. Lord Summers blasts Namor away and tells Nemesis to find Steve and Our Savior Hope. Nemesis rushes off to do as he was told, while Lord Summers continues blasting Namor away from him. Nemesis finds Steve and Our Savior Hope, just as Lord Summers really cuts loose with a blast, destroying most of Blastarr's headquarters, as well as bringing Lord Summers and Namor to Nemesis, Steve and Our Savior Hope... That's mighty convenient... Steve heads over to the injured Namor and tries to help him up, but ends up getting his arm broken by Namor for his troubles. By this point, Our Savior Hope has managed to duplicate Namor's powers and latches on to him. Nemesis opens the portal back to Earth, and Our Savior Hope flies Namor into the ocean, restoring his sanity and yes, you guessed it, saving everybody. From there, Nemesis, Steve and Lord Summers head through the portal, get patched up and everybody lives happily ever after... Or do they?!? This storyline ends with Blastarr blasting his way out of the eel-like alien swearing revenge on the Earth.
Thoughts: Even though I was just a BIT sarcastic here, I have to admit, I enjoyed this issue, and this entire three part storyline for that matter. Was it perfect? No, but it was good, clean fun. What can I say, I like seeing Namor go off on a rampage. Nobody does an out of control, crazed rampage like Namor does. Imperius Rex!
Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.
Blast you, arm-breaking Namor!
Thunderbolts #157 & Silver Surfer #4
I was going to review X-Men: Prelude to Schism #2 here as well, but it was chock full of that, “Magneto is really Max Eisenhardt now! Erik Lehnsherr?? Who's that?? Certainly not Magneto, even though everybody STILL calls him Erik!” stuff... Yeah, I don't like when continuity gets messed around with, be it DC or Marvel, and the Lehnsherr/Eisenhardt switch makes absolutely NO sense, even by comic book standards. So there's an abbreviated Magneto rant for you to go along with the two reviews included here. Am I a swell guy or what?
Thunderbolts #157:
Summary: While Songbird, Fixer and Mach V are preparing to train the next generation Thunderbolts(or Betabolts if you prefer), the real Thunderbolts are being saved by their newest member, Satana. Satana burns a few demons with her hellfire outside of Gothenvald Castle, but winds up spent, so Luke Cage tells her to remain outside Gothenvald Castle, while he heads inside to take care of Gothenvald. Meanwhile, the Betabolts are called to head to Iraq for their first official mission. The T-Bolts gets through a few minor traps, ultimately reaching Gothenvald, who sends a massive spider-like creature after the team. Cage figures he could easily take out the spider, but instead is assaulted with an illusion showing him that his daughter had died. The rest of the team also ends up being attacked by the spider's illusionary powers, but Satana, who was listening on her communicator from outside, alerts Cage as to what was happening, and helps him break the spider's spell. With Luke free of the spider's influence, Gothenvald decides to take off, promising Luke that they'd meet again. Luke is pissed over Gothenvald's escape, and Juggernaut, who was still confused by the spider's spell, harasses Luke one time too many, getting knocked out by the nanites in his body for his trouble. From there, Luke sends Juggy back to prison, sends the rest of the T-Bolts to Iraq to assist the Betabolts, and heads to the Avengers to deal with Avengers business.
Thoughts: Meh. This issue was just kind of lacking for me... It was just sort of anti-climatic. We begin with Satana not betraying the team, as it seemed she was planning on doing at the end of last issue, the team facing some illusions, and the bad guy teleporting away... And that's pretty much that. I'm sure this series will crossover with the Fear Itself event soon, I mean with Juggy being on this team it makes sense, which might explain why nothing really happened in this issue. Hopefully the Fear Itself stuff starts up soon, and this series picks back up again.
Score: 6 out of 10.
Luke was kind of an ass to Juggy here, wasn't he?
Silver Surfer #4(of 5):
Summary: The powerless Silver Surfer tries to convince Suzi Endo(who he “loves” even though he's known her for all of a day or so...) not to become the High Evolutionary's herald, but it's too late, as she's already been imbued with the power cosmic. Suzi leaves the Surfer and flies to the moon with the Evolutionary, who wanted to terraform the moon to show the people of Earth the paradise the Evolutionary was capable of creating. The FF arrive on the scene with the Surfer to deal with the few super-powered animals the Evolutionary left behind. The Surfer whines to the FF about Suzi leaving him and how he's been through stuff none of them could understand. Thing sets the Surfer straight, and Reed tells the Surfer that he had a way to get the whiny Surfer his powers back. From there, the FF fly towards the moon, and put the Surfer outside the ship, where he is met by Suzi, who warns the Surfer and the FF away. The Surfer tells her he wasn't going anywhere and the FF fire some missiles at Suzi, who destroys the missiles and returns fire at the FF's ship... Which is exactly what the FF wanted. The FF's ship redirects the power cosmic fired by Suzi to the Surfer, who regains his powers and starts making out with Suzi... Wha?!
Thoughts: This is definitely one of the worst mini-series I've read this year... By far. Between the Surfer walking around whining about EVERYTHING, to the ending, which was nonsensical to say the least, this issue in particular was terrible. I just don't get it... Why is Greg Pak having such a hard time figuring out how to write a good Silver Surfer story?! It seems so simple to me... He's a cosmic entity. Why the hell is he wandering around the Earth without his powers for the majority of this mini?! To make him more “human”? He's always been “human” for a cosmic-level being! That's his appeal! Ugh. I can't wait for this mini-series to end. Now I remember why I try to avoid comics written by Pak...
Score: 2 1/2 out of 10.
Not only is the Surfer whiny here, he's kind of dumb too!
Thunderbolts #157:
Summary: While Songbird, Fixer and Mach V are preparing to train the next generation Thunderbolts(or Betabolts if you prefer), the real Thunderbolts are being saved by their newest member, Satana. Satana burns a few demons with her hellfire outside of Gothenvald Castle, but winds up spent, so Luke Cage tells her to remain outside Gothenvald Castle, while he heads inside to take care of Gothenvald. Meanwhile, the Betabolts are called to head to Iraq for their first official mission. The T-Bolts gets through a few minor traps, ultimately reaching Gothenvald, who sends a massive spider-like creature after the team. Cage figures he could easily take out the spider, but instead is assaulted with an illusion showing him that his daughter had died. The rest of the team also ends up being attacked by the spider's illusionary powers, but Satana, who was listening on her communicator from outside, alerts Cage as to what was happening, and helps him break the spider's spell. With Luke free of the spider's influence, Gothenvald decides to take off, promising Luke that they'd meet again. Luke is pissed over Gothenvald's escape, and Juggernaut, who was still confused by the spider's spell, harasses Luke one time too many, getting knocked out by the nanites in his body for his trouble. From there, Luke sends Juggy back to prison, sends the rest of the T-Bolts to Iraq to assist the Betabolts, and heads to the Avengers to deal with Avengers business.
Thoughts: Meh. This issue was just kind of lacking for me... It was just sort of anti-climatic. We begin with Satana not betraying the team, as it seemed she was planning on doing at the end of last issue, the team facing some illusions, and the bad guy teleporting away... And that's pretty much that. I'm sure this series will crossover with the Fear Itself event soon, I mean with Juggy being on this team it makes sense, which might explain why nothing really happened in this issue. Hopefully the Fear Itself stuff starts up soon, and this series picks back up again.
Score: 6 out of 10.
Luke was kind of an ass to Juggy here, wasn't he?Silver Surfer #4(of 5):
Summary: The powerless Silver Surfer tries to convince Suzi Endo(who he “loves” even though he's known her for all of a day or so...) not to become the High Evolutionary's herald, but it's too late, as she's already been imbued with the power cosmic. Suzi leaves the Surfer and flies to the moon with the Evolutionary, who wanted to terraform the moon to show the people of Earth the paradise the Evolutionary was capable of creating. The FF arrive on the scene with the Surfer to deal with the few super-powered animals the Evolutionary left behind. The Surfer whines to the FF about Suzi leaving him and how he's been through stuff none of them could understand. Thing sets the Surfer straight, and Reed tells the Surfer that he had a way to get the whiny Surfer his powers back. From there, the FF fly towards the moon, and put the Surfer outside the ship, where he is met by Suzi, who warns the Surfer and the FF away. The Surfer tells her he wasn't going anywhere and the FF fire some missiles at Suzi, who destroys the missiles and returns fire at the FF's ship... Which is exactly what the FF wanted. The FF's ship redirects the power cosmic fired by Suzi to the Surfer, who regains his powers and starts making out with Suzi... Wha?!
Thoughts: This is definitely one of the worst mini-series I've read this year... By far. Between the Surfer walking around whining about EVERYTHING, to the ending, which was nonsensical to say the least, this issue in particular was terrible. I just don't get it... Why is Greg Pak having such a hard time figuring out how to write a good Silver Surfer story?! It seems so simple to me... He's a cosmic entity. Why the hell is he wandering around the Earth without his powers for the majority of this mini?! To make him more “human”? He's always been “human” for a cosmic-level being! That's his appeal! Ugh. I can't wait for this mini-series to end. Now I remember why I try to avoid comics written by Pak...
Score: 2 1/2 out of 10.
Not only is the Surfer whiny here, he's kind of dumb too!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Supergirl #64 & Weird Worlds #5
Two more DC comics, two more mediocre scores... Jeez, the last few comics I've read have been downright depressingly average/bad...
Supergirl #64:
Summary: With Robin, Fake Beetle and Miss Martian under his thrall, Dubbilex tells Miss Martian to tear all of the information about Krypton out of Supergirl's head while he went off to deal with his father(actually a computer). Dubbilex destroys his “father” because it said he was acting irrationally(that'll learn it!), at which point Supergirl flies into the room and attacks. Dubbilex isn't too worried, since he figures he can just reach into Supergirl's mind and stop her from attacking him, but he is surprised to learn that he couldn't halt SG's attack. Miss Martian walks in the room and explains that when Dubbilex took over her mind, he left her a backdoor into HIS mind, which she used to regain her own senses as Dubbilex went around mind controlling others. A quick punch in the face later, and Dubbilex is finished. Cadmus takes possession of Dubbilex and put him back in the tube he came out of, and that's pretty much a wrap.
Thoughts: Hmm, my DC reviews are getting shorter and shorter as I lose more and more patience with the company... How unfortunate. Was there anything incredibly wrong with this comic? No, not really. SG had a threat to face and wound up beating it with a little help from her friends. Unfortunataly, I just don't find myself caring about this charater or this series anymore... Since Marvel screwed up DC's plans of making Nick Spencer the new ongoing writer of Supergirl, DC is changing writers AGAIN with the next issue, and to be 100% honest, I have NO idea if I'll be picking that issue up. As of right now, I'll probably be dropping this title, but who knows, maybe between now and Wednesday(when I go to the comic shop) I'll have changed my mind. But right now? I honestly don't expect to be posting another Supergirl review on this blog anytime soon.
Score: 5 out of 10.
"Don't worry, Lois, if your husband dies, I'll be there to protect Metropolis." "Thanks... I guess..."
Weird Worlds #5(of 6):
Summary: As always, three stories in this one. First up is Lobo, who is still hunting down his bounty money(from the people he killed a few issues back...). Anyway, Lobo and his former bounty, S'Glayne, manage to get to the treasure room of the planet and discover S'Glayne's father there. S'Glayne's father shoots his son, ending that story. The Garbage Man story involves Garbage Man talking to a bum preacher on a train, while attracting the attention of the Batman(Bruce Wayne). The Tanga story involves Tanga talking incessantly and annoying the hell out of me.
Thoughts: How's that for a quick review? As usual, the Garbage Man story was my favorite, the Lobo story was simply okay, and the Tanga story was nearly unbearable. If you've read any of my other reviews for this mini-series, it's basically the same thing. Next issue is the last for this mini, and to be perfectly honest with you, I'm glad, because while this isn't a horrible mini, I could definitely be using the $4 I'm spending here elsewhere...
Score: 6 out of 10.
Lobo's life is weird...
Supergirl #64:
Summary: With Robin, Fake Beetle and Miss Martian under his thrall, Dubbilex tells Miss Martian to tear all of the information about Krypton out of Supergirl's head while he went off to deal with his father(actually a computer). Dubbilex destroys his “father” because it said he was acting irrationally(that'll learn it!), at which point Supergirl flies into the room and attacks. Dubbilex isn't too worried, since he figures he can just reach into Supergirl's mind and stop her from attacking him, but he is surprised to learn that he couldn't halt SG's attack. Miss Martian walks in the room and explains that when Dubbilex took over her mind, he left her a backdoor into HIS mind, which she used to regain her own senses as Dubbilex went around mind controlling others. A quick punch in the face later, and Dubbilex is finished. Cadmus takes possession of Dubbilex and put him back in the tube he came out of, and that's pretty much a wrap.
Thoughts: Hmm, my DC reviews are getting shorter and shorter as I lose more and more patience with the company... How unfortunate. Was there anything incredibly wrong with this comic? No, not really. SG had a threat to face and wound up beating it with a little help from her friends. Unfortunataly, I just don't find myself caring about this charater or this series anymore... Since Marvel screwed up DC's plans of making Nick Spencer the new ongoing writer of Supergirl, DC is changing writers AGAIN with the next issue, and to be 100% honest, I have NO idea if I'll be picking that issue up. As of right now, I'll probably be dropping this title, but who knows, maybe between now and Wednesday(when I go to the comic shop) I'll have changed my mind. But right now? I honestly don't expect to be posting another Supergirl review on this blog anytime soon.
Score: 5 out of 10.
"Don't worry, Lois, if your husband dies, I'll be there to protect Metropolis." "Thanks... I guess..."Weird Worlds #5(of 6):
Summary: As always, three stories in this one. First up is Lobo, who is still hunting down his bounty money(from the people he killed a few issues back...). Anyway, Lobo and his former bounty, S'Glayne, manage to get to the treasure room of the planet and discover S'Glayne's father there. S'Glayne's father shoots his son, ending that story. The Garbage Man story involves Garbage Man talking to a bum preacher on a train, while attracting the attention of the Batman(Bruce Wayne). The Tanga story involves Tanga talking incessantly and annoying the hell out of me.
Thoughts: How's that for a quick review? As usual, the Garbage Man story was my favorite, the Lobo story was simply okay, and the Tanga story was nearly unbearable. If you've read any of my other reviews for this mini-series, it's basically the same thing. Next issue is the last for this mini, and to be perfectly honest with you, I'm glad, because while this isn't a horrible mini, I could definitely be using the $4 I'm spending here elsewhere...
Score: 6 out of 10.
Lobo's life is weird...
Justice League of America #57 & Superman/Batman #84
Justice League of America #57:
Summary: This issue begins with Obsidian revealing that he WASN'T really in cahoots with Eclipso(as it seemed at the end of the last issue) and instead spirits the JLA to safety... Or at least this incredibly lame version of the JLA. While the JLA plot against Eclipso, Eclipso goes into a LOOOOONG spiel about what his master plan was. Basically, he wants to kill God. Not a god, lower-case “g”, but God, upper-case “g”. It seems Eclipso was a fallen angel or something and has been holding a grudge against God for a long time now. He uses the captured Zauriel to call out to the Spectre, who arrives on the moon and immediately throws down with Eclipso. However, for some reason the Spectre's powers wane when he's away from the Earth(because God loves the Earth more than anything else or some such nonsense), giving Eclipso the opportunity to kill Spectre and steal his powers. Now powered by the Starheart AND the Spectre, Eclipso stabs the moon, breaking it in half.
Thoughts: Um, okay. There was a whole lot of Eclipso talking in this one, about stuff that for the most part, I could care less about. So he was a fallen angel, or he used to have the Spectre's job, or SOMETHING, but he was cast out by God, and has had a mad-on for God ever since... Except for the fact that he's never actually bothered to say any of this until this storyline... I mean I'm not Mr. Eclipso-Knowledge or anything, but you'd think I'd have recalled reading that Eclipso was mad at God SOMEWHERE else... That doesn't really seem like the type of thing you'd keep to yourself. Meh. On the plus side, we finally know what Eclipso's plan is, he wants to destroy the Earth, since God apparently doesn't love all of his creations equally, he only loves his Earthly creations and all of the various alien races can go screw themselves. Sorry Supes, but according to James Robinson, God hates you. As for the JLA, they didn't really do much more then appear on like 5 pages, and since that damned ape is still on the team, I have to say, I was happy that I didn't have to see much more of them...
Score: 6 out of 10.
Did that damned monkey say, "Tally ho!"?! Why am I still reading this series...
Superman/Batman #84:
Summary: Superman and the magical JLA from the future make their final run at the Sorcerer Kings, who turned the Earth into a hellish, demon filled mess. Needless to say, we get a big, old magical battle, which ends when Superman plunges his magical sword into the demon the Kings had summoned several years back to assist them. With the demon injured/dying, Supes flies through the portal the Kings were going to use to send the demon back in time with to assist their past selves(man is this confusing to type!) defeat Batman and the Shadowpact. Supes arrives back in the present, and uses the last of the magic he absorbed in the future to defeat the villains, ending their threat. The end.
Thoughts: This was one of those reviews I was dreading because I had NO idea how to do a summary of this comic... Superman is in the future with the future League, battling against the future versions of the Sorcerer Kings, while Bats is dealing with the soon-to-be, but not quite yet, Sorcerer Kings in the present, until Supes returns from the past to lend a hand... Argh! Confusing! Even though this comic was like taking a two-by-four to the head, I did enjoy this story overall... Go figure...
Score: 5 out of 10.
Superman plus a sword equals overkill!
Summary: This issue begins with Obsidian revealing that he WASN'T really in cahoots with Eclipso(as it seemed at the end of the last issue) and instead spirits the JLA to safety... Or at least this incredibly lame version of the JLA. While the JLA plot against Eclipso, Eclipso goes into a LOOOOONG spiel about what his master plan was. Basically, he wants to kill God. Not a god, lower-case “g”, but God, upper-case “g”. It seems Eclipso was a fallen angel or something and has been holding a grudge against God for a long time now. He uses the captured Zauriel to call out to the Spectre, who arrives on the moon and immediately throws down with Eclipso. However, for some reason the Spectre's powers wane when he's away from the Earth(because God loves the Earth more than anything else or some such nonsense), giving Eclipso the opportunity to kill Spectre and steal his powers. Now powered by the Starheart AND the Spectre, Eclipso stabs the moon, breaking it in half.
Thoughts: Um, okay. There was a whole lot of Eclipso talking in this one, about stuff that for the most part, I could care less about. So he was a fallen angel, or he used to have the Spectre's job, or SOMETHING, but he was cast out by God, and has had a mad-on for God ever since... Except for the fact that he's never actually bothered to say any of this until this storyline... I mean I'm not Mr. Eclipso-Knowledge or anything, but you'd think I'd have recalled reading that Eclipso was mad at God SOMEWHERE else... That doesn't really seem like the type of thing you'd keep to yourself. Meh. On the plus side, we finally know what Eclipso's plan is, he wants to destroy the Earth, since God apparently doesn't love all of his creations equally, he only loves his Earthly creations and all of the various alien races can go screw themselves. Sorry Supes, but according to James Robinson, God hates you. As for the JLA, they didn't really do much more then appear on like 5 pages, and since that damned ape is still on the team, I have to say, I was happy that I didn't have to see much more of them...
Score: 6 out of 10.
Did that damned monkey say, "Tally ho!"?! Why am I still reading this series...Superman/Batman #84:
Summary: Superman and the magical JLA from the future make their final run at the Sorcerer Kings, who turned the Earth into a hellish, demon filled mess. Needless to say, we get a big, old magical battle, which ends when Superman plunges his magical sword into the demon the Kings had summoned several years back to assist them. With the demon injured/dying, Supes flies through the portal the Kings were going to use to send the demon back in time with to assist their past selves(man is this confusing to type!) defeat Batman and the Shadowpact. Supes arrives back in the present, and uses the last of the magic he absorbed in the future to defeat the villains, ending their threat. The end.
Thoughts: This was one of those reviews I was dreading because I had NO idea how to do a summary of this comic... Superman is in the future with the future League, battling against the future versions of the Sorcerer Kings, while Bats is dealing with the soon-to-be, but not quite yet, Sorcerer Kings in the present, until Supes returns from the past to lend a hand... Argh! Confusing! Even though this comic was like taking a two-by-four to the head, I did enjoy this story overall... Go figure...
Score: 5 out of 10.
Superman plus a sword equals overkill!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
X-Factor #219 & Uncanny X-Force #10
Two more Marvel comics to take care of before I can rest for the night... Both of them are from the X-family of books, so you've been warned.
X-Factor #219:
Summary: Hot on the trail of the woman responsible for killing Mayor Jameson's friend(as well as shooting Guido last issue), Black Cat winds up getting shot with a dart and knocked out just as she crosses into New Hampshire. Madrox, Siryn(or is it Banshee now?) and Monet force Mayor Jameson into telling them some more information about the death of his friend, General Ryan. It seems Ryan was mixed up in some government program called SCARS, that was trying to recreate the super-soldier program, and was probably killed due to his involvement in said program. Jameson reveals that a Dr. Pock was the man who headed up the program, and he was living in New Hampshire. Monet, Shatterstar, Wolfsbane, Longshot and Rictor head to Dr. Pock's location and stop the woman who assassinated Ryan(along with her two fellow SCARS program buddies) from killing Dr. Pock. The X-Factor members free Black Cat and manage to capture one of the SCARS women(the one responsible for killing Ryan), while the other two escape with the aid of a helicopter.
Thoughts: Huh, that was one sucky review... Well, that's what happens when you type one of these up at 4 in the morning... Anyway, this was an okay comic, but it didn't really impress me(yet another reason for the sucky review!). I mean technically it was okay, but I just never really got into this storyline. Thankfully this was the end of the whole General Ryan/SCARS storyline, so here's hoping we move on to bigger and better things.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
Poor Longshot...
Uncanny X-Force #10:
Summary: This issue begins with the Shadow King(in his civilian guise) handing a reporter some film of Archangel killing a soldier while Wolverine stood by(which is what happened last issue more or less)... Needless to say, that footage would be a HUGE black eye for not just mutantkind, but the Avengers, since Wolverine is inexplicably a member. The reporter tells his editor about the footage, but wants to hand the footage over to the editor in person, since he didn't want to e-mail it across the Internet, just in case it was altered, stolen or destroyed. It turns out that the newspaper was owned by Warren Worthington(Archangel), so the editor calls him to inform him as to what he had learned. Archangel(who is currently possessed by his evil, Apocalypse side)tells the editor that this was obviously a ploy from a rival corporation, and that he'd meet up with him soon. Archangel goes to leave Cavern-X, and bumps into Psylocke. Psylocke asks why Archangel had stopped his therapy sessions with her, and he blows her off before heading out. Psylocke tells Wolvie that she feared something was wrong with Archangel, so they decide to track him to see what was going on. Archangel meets up with the editor from earlier and kills him, before heading to the home of the reporter, demanding to know where he got his information before telling the reporter that he was next. Before Archangel can do the deed, Wolvie crashes into the apartment and attacks his possessed teammate. Archangel tells Wolvie that what he was doing was for the good of X-Force before ditching Wolvie outside and going back after the reporter, who had run from his apartment to the street. Archangel catches up to the reporter, but Warren is able to reestablish a little control, battling with Archangel over who was going to take over. While Archangel was distracted, Psylocke stabs him in the head with her psychic blade, knocking him out. From there, Psylocke knocks the reporter out and makes him forget what he saw, and the team take Archangel back home. Wolvie decides that they needed to get somebody familiar with Apocalypse's work to help them figure out what to do with Warren, and the team springs Dark Beast(!!!) from the van transporting him to prison. Dark Beast goes on a bit of a spiel about how to cure Warren, with the gist of it being he needed to be cleansed with a “life seed”. Unfortunately, there was no life seed on THIS Earth, but Dark Beast informs the team that there WAS a life seed in his lab... But that the lab in question was in his home dimension, the Age of Apocalypse!!!
Thoughts: This was a REALLY solid story that sets up X-Force trying to reach the AOA, which as I've said NUMEROUS times, is my all-time favorite comic book storyline. I have NO idea how Wolvie and company are going to actually reach the AOA, since, to my knowledge, they don't have the ability to seamlessly hop dimensions. But I guess that's up to Rick Remender to try to figure out. Oh, and I'd be remiss to add that unfortunately, X-Force is going to be visiting the HORRIBLE version of the AOA that Akira Yoshida came up with in the mid-2000's... I WISH Marvel would just ignore of all Yoshida's garbage and give us the REAL AOA from the mid 90's, but alas, Yoshida's terrible AOA stuff is in continuity now, meaning there's no way around it. *sigh* Even still, I'm going to try my damnedest to enjoy the next few AOA oriented issues of this series.
Score: 8 out of 10.
YEEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!
X-Factor #219:
Summary: Hot on the trail of the woman responsible for killing Mayor Jameson's friend(as well as shooting Guido last issue), Black Cat winds up getting shot with a dart and knocked out just as she crosses into New Hampshire. Madrox, Siryn(or is it Banshee now?) and Monet force Mayor Jameson into telling them some more information about the death of his friend, General Ryan. It seems Ryan was mixed up in some government program called SCARS, that was trying to recreate the super-soldier program, and was probably killed due to his involvement in said program. Jameson reveals that a Dr. Pock was the man who headed up the program, and he was living in New Hampshire. Monet, Shatterstar, Wolfsbane, Longshot and Rictor head to Dr. Pock's location and stop the woman who assassinated Ryan(along with her two fellow SCARS program buddies) from killing Dr. Pock. The X-Factor members free Black Cat and manage to capture one of the SCARS women(the one responsible for killing Ryan), while the other two escape with the aid of a helicopter.
Thoughts: Huh, that was one sucky review... Well, that's what happens when you type one of these up at 4 in the morning... Anyway, this was an okay comic, but it didn't really impress me(yet another reason for the sucky review!). I mean technically it was okay, but I just never really got into this storyline. Thankfully this was the end of the whole General Ryan/SCARS storyline, so here's hoping we move on to bigger and better things.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
Poor Longshot...Uncanny X-Force #10:
Summary: This issue begins with the Shadow King(in his civilian guise) handing a reporter some film of Archangel killing a soldier while Wolverine stood by(which is what happened last issue more or less)... Needless to say, that footage would be a HUGE black eye for not just mutantkind, but the Avengers, since Wolverine is inexplicably a member. The reporter tells his editor about the footage, but wants to hand the footage over to the editor in person, since he didn't want to e-mail it across the Internet, just in case it was altered, stolen or destroyed. It turns out that the newspaper was owned by Warren Worthington(Archangel), so the editor calls him to inform him as to what he had learned. Archangel(who is currently possessed by his evil, Apocalypse side)tells the editor that this was obviously a ploy from a rival corporation, and that he'd meet up with him soon. Archangel goes to leave Cavern-X, and bumps into Psylocke. Psylocke asks why Archangel had stopped his therapy sessions with her, and he blows her off before heading out. Psylocke tells Wolvie that she feared something was wrong with Archangel, so they decide to track him to see what was going on. Archangel meets up with the editor from earlier and kills him, before heading to the home of the reporter, demanding to know where he got his information before telling the reporter that he was next. Before Archangel can do the deed, Wolvie crashes into the apartment and attacks his possessed teammate. Archangel tells Wolvie that what he was doing was for the good of X-Force before ditching Wolvie outside and going back after the reporter, who had run from his apartment to the street. Archangel catches up to the reporter, but Warren is able to reestablish a little control, battling with Archangel over who was going to take over. While Archangel was distracted, Psylocke stabs him in the head with her psychic blade, knocking him out. From there, Psylocke knocks the reporter out and makes him forget what he saw, and the team take Archangel back home. Wolvie decides that they needed to get somebody familiar with Apocalypse's work to help them figure out what to do with Warren, and the team springs Dark Beast(!!!) from the van transporting him to prison. Dark Beast goes on a bit of a spiel about how to cure Warren, with the gist of it being he needed to be cleansed with a “life seed”. Unfortunately, there was no life seed on THIS Earth, but Dark Beast informs the team that there WAS a life seed in his lab... But that the lab in question was in his home dimension, the Age of Apocalypse!!!
Thoughts: This was a REALLY solid story that sets up X-Force trying to reach the AOA, which as I've said NUMEROUS times, is my all-time favorite comic book storyline. I have NO idea how Wolvie and company are going to actually reach the AOA, since, to my knowledge, they don't have the ability to seamlessly hop dimensions. But I guess that's up to Rick Remender to try to figure out. Oh, and I'd be remiss to add that unfortunately, X-Force is going to be visiting the HORRIBLE version of the AOA that Akira Yoshida came up with in the mid-2000's... I WISH Marvel would just ignore of all Yoshida's garbage and give us the REAL AOA from the mid 90's, but alas, Yoshida's terrible AOA stuff is in continuity now, meaning there's no way around it. *sigh* Even still, I'm going to try my damnedest to enjoy the next few AOA oriented issues of this series.
Score: 8 out of 10.
YEEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!
X-23 #10 and Generation Hope #7
Two Marvel, books to get started with today, including one of the worst Marvel books on the market today! Which book am I besmirching? Read on and find out!
X-23 #10:
Summary: This issue gets underway with X-23 trying to kill herself by slitting her wrist in a bathroom... Well THAT'S a pleasant way to begin! Naturally, she heals, so I'm not sure what the point of that is, but whatever. X-23 emerges from that bathroom and sits at a restaurant table with Gambit, who tries to cheer her up by giving her a cupcake... This is getting pretty weird... Gambit notices the blood on X-23's hands and asks her about it, so she runs away. Gambit gets up to chase and overhears two waiters talking about all of the blood in the bathroom and puts two and two together. Eventually Gambit finds X-23 sitting down near a bridge and goes to comfort her, getting slashed in the arm for his trouble. X-23 is mortified by what she did, but Gambit blows it off(like I do whenever I'm stabbed) and they head back to their hotel room, where Gambit makes a phone call. A day passes and Wolverine and Vampire Jubilee arrive, which leads to X-23 trying to kill Vampire Jubes, since she was, you know, a vampire. Wolvie puts a quick stop to that and heads to the roof to talk to X-23 alone. X-23 reveals that she's disturbed by the information she received from Daken about her early years, which is why she's been so melancholy/suicidal as of late. Wolvie tells X-23 that things aren't that bad, and winds up talking about how much worse things have been for Vampire Jubes as of late, before he then sends Vampire Jubes and X-23 away to hang out... Um, okay... With the girls gone, Gambit scolds Wolvie for the fact that he treats X-23 and Vampire Jubes differently, telling Wolvie that X-23 was probably hurt by Wolvie's actions. From there, Vampire Jubes chases off a few drunks who were hitting on X-23 and X-23 responds by cutting herself in the neck, drawing blood, and drawing Vampire Jubes straight towards the wound.
Thoughts: You KNOW Marjorie Liu is a great writer by the fact that even though I didn't particularly like this comic, I never wound up being completely bored/annoyed by it. The story here really didn't do anything for me... X-23 was suicidal, AGAIN. Wolvie was inattentive to X-23's feelings, AGAIN. Gambit was X-23's dutiful sidekick, AGAIN... You get the point. With that said though, I feel I should have hated this comic more, but in the end, even with it's various flaws, I'd still consider it a perfectly acceptable comic.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
Hey, it's Vampire Jubilee!
Generation Hope #7:
Summary: Okay, this is going to be a painful review... An unborn baby is a mutant, and it's powers have activated INSIDE it's mother... The unborn child mind controls everybody in the hospital and the surrounding area(except for Our Savior Hope, and the other... ugh, “Lights”), leaving them as the only people with a chance to end the DIRE THREAT of the unborn baby... Of DOOM!!! Sorry, I have to find ways to amuse myself if I'm gonna get through this review. Kenij the Evil Light manages to link the team to the baby's mind through one of his tendrils, which he attached to the baby's mother. Each light tries to convince the baby to be born, and they all fail... At least until Teon the ANIMAL Light stares vapidly at the baby, somehow convincing it to want to be born... I swear, I just lost 50 IQ points typing that last line... Teon the Animal Light then DELIVERS the baby, hands it to Our Savior Hope, who raises it over her head “Lion King” style(!?!?!), “fixing” it or something. The Lights all parade away happily and this one ends with Shadowcat telling them that Teon the Animal Light's parents were suing Crazy Mutie Island to regain custody of their son or something.
Thoughts: Well... This was easily one of, if not THE worst Marvel comic I've read this year. Sure, DC has churned out comics worse than this one(I'm looking at YOU, Brightest Day!), but on the Marvel side of the fence? Yeah, this was horrible. Anybody wondering why this comic was selling so poorly, look no further then this issue. I mean really, what was Kieron Gillen thinking when he came up with this story?!? Needless to say, this is a title that I can't see myself sticking with for much longer. But you know what? I'm going to stop this post right here, because this is one of those times where I could just KEEP complaining...
Score: 2 out of 10.
I can't believe I wasted $3 on THIS!
X-23 #10:
Summary: This issue gets underway with X-23 trying to kill herself by slitting her wrist in a bathroom... Well THAT'S a pleasant way to begin! Naturally, she heals, so I'm not sure what the point of that is, but whatever. X-23 emerges from that bathroom and sits at a restaurant table with Gambit, who tries to cheer her up by giving her a cupcake... This is getting pretty weird... Gambit notices the blood on X-23's hands and asks her about it, so she runs away. Gambit gets up to chase and overhears two waiters talking about all of the blood in the bathroom and puts two and two together. Eventually Gambit finds X-23 sitting down near a bridge and goes to comfort her, getting slashed in the arm for his trouble. X-23 is mortified by what she did, but Gambit blows it off(like I do whenever I'm stabbed) and they head back to their hotel room, where Gambit makes a phone call. A day passes and Wolverine and Vampire Jubilee arrive, which leads to X-23 trying to kill Vampire Jubes, since she was, you know, a vampire. Wolvie puts a quick stop to that and heads to the roof to talk to X-23 alone. X-23 reveals that she's disturbed by the information she received from Daken about her early years, which is why she's been so melancholy/suicidal as of late. Wolvie tells X-23 that things aren't that bad, and winds up talking about how much worse things have been for Vampire Jubes as of late, before he then sends Vampire Jubes and X-23 away to hang out... Um, okay... With the girls gone, Gambit scolds Wolvie for the fact that he treats X-23 and Vampire Jubes differently, telling Wolvie that X-23 was probably hurt by Wolvie's actions. From there, Vampire Jubes chases off a few drunks who were hitting on X-23 and X-23 responds by cutting herself in the neck, drawing blood, and drawing Vampire Jubes straight towards the wound.
Thoughts: You KNOW Marjorie Liu is a great writer by the fact that even though I didn't particularly like this comic, I never wound up being completely bored/annoyed by it. The story here really didn't do anything for me... X-23 was suicidal, AGAIN. Wolvie was inattentive to X-23's feelings, AGAIN. Gambit was X-23's dutiful sidekick, AGAIN... You get the point. With that said though, I feel I should have hated this comic more, but in the end, even with it's various flaws, I'd still consider it a perfectly acceptable comic.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
Hey, it's Vampire Jubilee!Generation Hope #7:
Summary: Okay, this is going to be a painful review... An unborn baby is a mutant, and it's powers have activated INSIDE it's mother... The unborn child mind controls everybody in the hospital and the surrounding area(except for Our Savior Hope, and the other... ugh, “Lights”), leaving them as the only people with a chance to end the DIRE THREAT of the unborn baby... Of DOOM!!! Sorry, I have to find ways to amuse myself if I'm gonna get through this review. Kenij the Evil Light manages to link the team to the baby's mind through one of his tendrils, which he attached to the baby's mother. Each light tries to convince the baby to be born, and they all fail... At least until Teon the ANIMAL Light stares vapidly at the baby, somehow convincing it to want to be born... I swear, I just lost 50 IQ points typing that last line... Teon the Animal Light then DELIVERS the baby, hands it to Our Savior Hope, who raises it over her head “Lion King” style(!?!?!), “fixing” it or something. The Lights all parade away happily and this one ends with Shadowcat telling them that Teon the Animal Light's parents were suing Crazy Mutie Island to regain custody of their son or something.
Thoughts: Well... This was easily one of, if not THE worst Marvel comic I've read this year. Sure, DC has churned out comics worse than this one(I'm looking at YOU, Brightest Day!), but on the Marvel side of the fence? Yeah, this was horrible. Anybody wondering why this comic was selling so poorly, look no further then this issue. I mean really, what was Kieron Gillen thinking when he came up with this story?!? Needless to say, this is a title that I can't see myself sticking with for much longer. But you know what? I'm going to stop this post right here, because this is one of those times where I could just KEEP complaining...
Score: 2 out of 10.
I can't believe I wasted $3 on THIS!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Amazing Spider-Man #661 & Avengers Academy #14
And now we hit the good stuff back in the Marvel Universe. Let me rephrase that, now we hit the great stuff, as this post gives us the RARE perfect score for one of the comics here! Huzzah!
Amazing Spider-Man #661:
Summary: This issue kicks off with Spidey walking through the Baxter Building and catching a glimpse of Reed teaching a classroom full of attentive students. That scene causes Spidey to think back to his own days as a teacher, and how much he missed it. Before Spidey can wax nostalgic any further though, the FF are called away to deal with a giant monkey rampaging through New York. Spidey and Thing attack the monkey to distract it, while Reed begins scanning it, learning it was from the Microverse, meaning there was no conceivable reason it was that large. Eventually Giant Man(Hank Pym) arrives on the scene and uses his Pym particles to shrink the monkey down, ending it's threat. Pym tells the FF that he was actually looking for them, as he needed a substitute to teach the classes for the Avengers Academy the following day, since all the regular instructors were tied up. Spidey figures for sure he'd get asked, but Pym instead asks Thing... HA! Spidey is pissed, and complains to Pym that unlike Thing, HE had a teacher's license, and therefore was more qualified to teach the kids. Pym concurs, but for different reasons, stating that Spidey had made every mistake imaginable for a teenage super-hero, and thus would have valuable insight to share... HA!! Insults aside, Spidey is happy to go anyway, at least until he realizes that it had been a while since he last taught, and he starts to get cold feet. In the end, he goes through with it anyway, and tries to teach the kids about superhuman ethics... And the kids HILARIOUSLY pick Spidey's example apart... Spidey decides to switch gears and does the “With Great Powers...” speech, but one of the kids cut him off, asking Spidey why he was stealing Pym's line, since Pym was always using that saying... HA!!!! Spidey is aghast that Pym would steal HIS saying, and with the class rapidly falling apart before Spidey's eyes, Spidey decides to take the kids out on patrol, if only to get out of the classroom. While on patrol the kids stop two muggers, but use more force then Spidey is comfortable with seeing. Spidey begins to doubt that he had any right to teach the kids, but then it dawns on him that the kids and himself were being plagued by fear, doubt and hate, and along with the monkey from the Microverse, Spidey figures out that the Psycho-Man must be back on Earth, and sure enough, he appears before Spidey. The kids immediately attack, but the Psycho-Man uses his tablet on them, causing them to turn against each other, while Spidey cowered from the whole scene. Not wanting to see his charges killed on his watch, Spidey fights through his fear and self-doubt and attacks the Psycho-Man, breaking his tablet and ending his threat... Or does he?!? The Psycho-Man reveals that while the tablet augments his powers, he himself was now able to control emotions, and this issue ends with Spidey turning around to see all of the Academy kids staring at him while repeating “hate.”
Thoughts: I can't remember the least time I laughed this much while reading a comic. And I don't mean those times when you think to yourself, “This is funny.” I mean literally laughing out loud at some of the stuff I was reading. The scenes with Spidey trying(quite unsuccessfully I might add) to teach the kids were totally hilarious. And the story itself was extremely solid, with the hints of the Psycho-Man's involvement being dropped early on with the monkey(I missed it), making his reveal surprising, but completely within reason. What more can I say, this is comic easily gets the 12th perfect score for 2011.
Score: 10 out of 10.
What DO YOU Do?!?
Avengers Academy #14:
Summary: This issue gets started with most of the Avengers Academy staff off in Italy trying to prevent any major damage from a volcanic eruption. Tigra is left behind to watch the kids, since, let's face it, her powers can't exactly do much in the face of a volcano. While Tigra and the Academy students are watching how to properly deal with an emergency, a call comes in from the French chief of police telling the Avengers that Electro was stealing some scientific equipment from a lab in France, and that they needed help. The kids want to go, but Tigra nixes it at least until Reptil makes an impassioned plea to Tigra, stating that after their battle with Korvac, the kids needed a victory, and that with her there to watch, that's exactly what they could get. After having Jocasta run some scenarios of the battle in her head, Jocasta tells Tigra that the kids should win with relative ease, so Tigra and the students head off to France. Upon entering the lab, Tigra is immediately taken out by Electro, who reveals that he wasn't alone... At that point, the rest of the Sinister Six(minus Chameleon) show themselves, and the kids realize they were screwed. They manage to hold their own against four of the Six, as Dr. Octopus basically ignores them as he's after some piece of science at the lab. Unfortunately, when Octopus has found what he was looking for, he joins the battle, as does Chameleon(who is disguised as Tigra), and the full compliment of the Six decimate the kids in no time. With the students no longer a threat, Octopus steals one of their teleporting devices, and uses it to take himself, his team and the science equipment he stole away. By this point, Pym, Quicksilver and Jocasta arrive on the scene, but can only collect the injured students, and deal with the fallout from the angry French. The French chief of police scolds Pym for sending children in to such a dangerous situation, and reveals that he never sent a distress call to the Avengers, at which time Pym realizes it had to be Chameleon. With that, the French chief tells Pym to leave France, stating that both he and his associates were no longer welcome... Well boo-hoo! What a big loss THAT is... *rolls eyes* Back home, Pym learns that this whole situation was orchestrated by Octopus simply in order to prove he was smarter than Pym was. As for Pym, he tells the students that from this point forward, they'd be training twice as hard, to make sure something like that never happened again.
Thoughts: As always, I enjoyed this comic. This is one of those series that is solid, month in and month out, so kudos to Christos Gage, who also wrote the above issue of Amazing Spider-Man as well. While this wasn't my favorite story in this series(I'm getting a bit burnt out by seeing Dr. Octopus and the Sinister Six EVERYWHERE!), it was still a good, solid story, that showed us that the students still had a LOT to learn on their journey towards being legitimate super-heroes.
Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.
So nobody likes Mysterio I see...
Amazing Spider-Man #661:
Summary: This issue kicks off with Spidey walking through the Baxter Building and catching a glimpse of Reed teaching a classroom full of attentive students. That scene causes Spidey to think back to his own days as a teacher, and how much he missed it. Before Spidey can wax nostalgic any further though, the FF are called away to deal with a giant monkey rampaging through New York. Spidey and Thing attack the monkey to distract it, while Reed begins scanning it, learning it was from the Microverse, meaning there was no conceivable reason it was that large. Eventually Giant Man(Hank Pym) arrives on the scene and uses his Pym particles to shrink the monkey down, ending it's threat. Pym tells the FF that he was actually looking for them, as he needed a substitute to teach the classes for the Avengers Academy the following day, since all the regular instructors were tied up. Spidey figures for sure he'd get asked, but Pym instead asks Thing... HA! Spidey is pissed, and complains to Pym that unlike Thing, HE had a teacher's license, and therefore was more qualified to teach the kids. Pym concurs, but for different reasons, stating that Spidey had made every mistake imaginable for a teenage super-hero, and thus would have valuable insight to share... HA!! Insults aside, Spidey is happy to go anyway, at least until he realizes that it had been a while since he last taught, and he starts to get cold feet. In the end, he goes through with it anyway, and tries to teach the kids about superhuman ethics... And the kids HILARIOUSLY pick Spidey's example apart... Spidey decides to switch gears and does the “With Great Powers...” speech, but one of the kids cut him off, asking Spidey why he was stealing Pym's line, since Pym was always using that saying... HA!!!! Spidey is aghast that Pym would steal HIS saying, and with the class rapidly falling apart before Spidey's eyes, Spidey decides to take the kids out on patrol, if only to get out of the classroom. While on patrol the kids stop two muggers, but use more force then Spidey is comfortable with seeing. Spidey begins to doubt that he had any right to teach the kids, but then it dawns on him that the kids and himself were being plagued by fear, doubt and hate, and along with the monkey from the Microverse, Spidey figures out that the Psycho-Man must be back on Earth, and sure enough, he appears before Spidey. The kids immediately attack, but the Psycho-Man uses his tablet on them, causing them to turn against each other, while Spidey cowered from the whole scene. Not wanting to see his charges killed on his watch, Spidey fights through his fear and self-doubt and attacks the Psycho-Man, breaking his tablet and ending his threat... Or does he?!? The Psycho-Man reveals that while the tablet augments his powers, he himself was now able to control emotions, and this issue ends with Spidey turning around to see all of the Academy kids staring at him while repeating “hate.”
Thoughts: I can't remember the least time I laughed this much while reading a comic. And I don't mean those times when you think to yourself, “This is funny.” I mean literally laughing out loud at some of the stuff I was reading. The scenes with Spidey trying(quite unsuccessfully I might add) to teach the kids were totally hilarious. And the story itself was extremely solid, with the hints of the Psycho-Man's involvement being dropped early on with the monkey(I missed it), making his reveal surprising, but completely within reason. What more can I say, this is comic easily gets the 12th perfect score for 2011.
Score: 10 out of 10.
What DO YOU Do?!?Avengers Academy #14:
Summary: This issue gets started with most of the Avengers Academy staff off in Italy trying to prevent any major damage from a volcanic eruption. Tigra is left behind to watch the kids, since, let's face it, her powers can't exactly do much in the face of a volcano. While Tigra and the Academy students are watching how to properly deal with an emergency, a call comes in from the French chief of police telling the Avengers that Electro was stealing some scientific equipment from a lab in France, and that they needed help. The kids want to go, but Tigra nixes it at least until Reptil makes an impassioned plea to Tigra, stating that after their battle with Korvac, the kids needed a victory, and that with her there to watch, that's exactly what they could get. After having Jocasta run some scenarios of the battle in her head, Jocasta tells Tigra that the kids should win with relative ease, so Tigra and the students head off to France. Upon entering the lab, Tigra is immediately taken out by Electro, who reveals that he wasn't alone... At that point, the rest of the Sinister Six(minus Chameleon) show themselves, and the kids realize they were screwed. They manage to hold their own against four of the Six, as Dr. Octopus basically ignores them as he's after some piece of science at the lab. Unfortunately, when Octopus has found what he was looking for, he joins the battle, as does Chameleon(who is disguised as Tigra), and the full compliment of the Six decimate the kids in no time. With the students no longer a threat, Octopus steals one of their teleporting devices, and uses it to take himself, his team and the science equipment he stole away. By this point, Pym, Quicksilver and Jocasta arrive on the scene, but can only collect the injured students, and deal with the fallout from the angry French. The French chief of police scolds Pym for sending children in to such a dangerous situation, and reveals that he never sent a distress call to the Avengers, at which time Pym realizes it had to be Chameleon. With that, the French chief tells Pym to leave France, stating that both he and his associates were no longer welcome... Well boo-hoo! What a big loss THAT is... *rolls eyes* Back home, Pym learns that this whole situation was orchestrated by Octopus simply in order to prove he was smarter than Pym was. As for Pym, he tells the students that from this point forward, they'd be training twice as hard, to make sure something like that never happened again.
Thoughts: As always, I enjoyed this comic. This is one of those series that is solid, month in and month out, so kudos to Christos Gage, who also wrote the above issue of Amazing Spider-Man as well. While this wasn't my favorite story in this series(I'm getting a bit burnt out by seeing Dr. Octopus and the Sinister Six EVERYWHERE!), it was still a good, solid story, that showed us that the students still had a LOT to learn on their journey towards being legitimate super-heroes.
Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.
So nobody likes Mysterio I see...
Teen Titans #95 & Outsiders #39
Two DC comics that have been under performing big-time lately have been Teen Titans and Outsiders. Luckily the Outsiders is being canceled, while Teen Titans is still safe... For now. This is the penultimate issue of the Outsiders before it's gone, while I'm hoping this is the penultimate issue of the current Teen Titans storyline...
Teen Titans #95:
Summary: Kid Flash manages to find his captured teammates and instead of returning to the rest of the team with the news of their whereabouts, he decides to try to spring them himself. That's a bad move, as Rankor, the bad guy/god of this storyline manages to capture Bart as well. From there, Fake-Ravager turns on Superboy and attacks him along with another demon. Beast Boy, Solstice and Raven try to assist, but are all defeated. The two demons leave with Raven and Superboy, leaving Solstice and Beast Boy free, to ultimately foil Rankor's plans in some future issue... *sigh* The demons take SB and Raven to Rankor, and he puts them in his chair, and then makes his chair into a giant... um, stone chair of DEATH, ending this issue.
Thoughts: Please let this storyline end... Please let this storyline end... Please let this storyline end... Ugh. Hopefully my pleas will be heard and this storyline will END!!! It's now getting alarmingly bad. After reading this one, I want Solstice(and this storyline!) to go far, far away, never to bother me again.
Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.
Bart vs a horde of flying bugs?
Outsiders #39:
Summary: While Geo-Force deals with the invaders who attacked Markovia, his Outsiders battle Black Lighting's Outsiders to a standstill. Some guy named the Herald(who is after Looker for some reason) appears on the scene and starts to blow a horn, but Metamorpho breaks the horn... Okay. From there we see Batman(which one, I have NO idea) flying towards Markovia. Amanda Waller contacts Bats via his radio and tells him NOT to enter Markovia, but Bats disregards her and continues on his way. Some big guy named Veritas appears before Geo-Force and tells him he caused all of the destruction to Markovia, and THEN asks Geo-Force to join his Old World Order... Geo-Force obviously turns this nimrod down, and is attacked by his one time wife, Geode. Geo-Force then proceeds to become a giant rock monster(yes really) and takes care of Geode, after which time he creates an earthquake that causes large crevices to form at Markovia's borders, effectively keeping everybody out... But wait! That's what Veritas wanted! Oh, and this issue ends with Waller deciding to nuke the whole damned country of Markovia to end this crap.
Thoughts: Why couldn't THIS be the last issue of this series... I can now say with confidence that you can add, “Writing a comic book story.” to the list of MANY things Dan Didio can't do. In plain English, this sucked. And no, I'm not looking forward to the next(and final) issue of this series. Here's hoping Waller DOES nuke Markovia and puts everybody in this one out of their misery... The “Old World Order...” Ugh.
Score: 3 out of 10.
So Geo-Force is a giant rock monster now... Okay... I guess...
Teen Titans #95:
Summary: Kid Flash manages to find his captured teammates and instead of returning to the rest of the team with the news of their whereabouts, he decides to try to spring them himself. That's a bad move, as Rankor, the bad guy/god of this storyline manages to capture Bart as well. From there, Fake-Ravager turns on Superboy and attacks him along with another demon. Beast Boy, Solstice and Raven try to assist, but are all defeated. The two demons leave with Raven and Superboy, leaving Solstice and Beast Boy free, to ultimately foil Rankor's plans in some future issue... *sigh* The demons take SB and Raven to Rankor, and he puts them in his chair, and then makes his chair into a giant... um, stone chair of DEATH, ending this issue.
Thoughts: Please let this storyline end... Please let this storyline end... Please let this storyline end... Ugh. Hopefully my pleas will be heard and this storyline will END!!! It's now getting alarmingly bad. After reading this one, I want Solstice(and this storyline!) to go far, far away, never to bother me again.
Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.
Bart vs a horde of flying bugs?Outsiders #39:
Summary: While Geo-Force deals with the invaders who attacked Markovia, his Outsiders battle Black Lighting's Outsiders to a standstill. Some guy named the Herald(who is after Looker for some reason) appears on the scene and starts to blow a horn, but Metamorpho breaks the horn... Okay. From there we see Batman(which one, I have NO idea) flying towards Markovia. Amanda Waller contacts Bats via his radio and tells him NOT to enter Markovia, but Bats disregards her and continues on his way. Some big guy named Veritas appears before Geo-Force and tells him he caused all of the destruction to Markovia, and THEN asks Geo-Force to join his Old World Order... Geo-Force obviously turns this nimrod down, and is attacked by his one time wife, Geode. Geo-Force then proceeds to become a giant rock monster(yes really) and takes care of Geode, after which time he creates an earthquake that causes large crevices to form at Markovia's borders, effectively keeping everybody out... But wait! That's what Veritas wanted! Oh, and this issue ends with Waller deciding to nuke the whole damned country of Markovia to end this crap.
Thoughts: Why couldn't THIS be the last issue of this series... I can now say with confidence that you can add, “Writing a comic book story.” to the list of MANY things Dan Didio can't do. In plain English, this sucked. And no, I'm not looking forward to the next(and final) issue of this series. Here's hoping Waller DOES nuke Markovia and puts everybody in this one out of their misery... The “Old World Order...” Ugh.
Score: 3 out of 10.
So Geo-Force is a giant rock monster now... Okay... I guess...
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Batman: Gates of Gotham #1 & Zatanna #13
Next up, a duo of DC Comics. As opposed to most of the DC books I buy lately, I'm mildly optimistic about these two issues, so hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me in the ass...
Batman: Gates of Gotham #1(of 5):
Summary: We begin back in the 1880's where the ancestors of Bruce Wayne(Batman, duh!), Tomas Elliot(Hush) and Oswald Cobblepot(Penguin) are putting together plans to erect the first bridges in Gotham City. In the present, Batman(Dick Grayson) and Red Robin are trying to track down hundreds of pounds of Semtex(a plastic explosive) that was smuggled into Gotham. Bats leans on a lead he had and the lead reveals that Penguin was responsible for getting the explosive into Gotham, just as three bridges in Gotham explode. Bats and Red Robin do what they can to keep the casualties to a minimum, but over 30 people still die in the blasts. Bats meets with Commissioner Gordon, who reveals that right before the explosions, a Gotham newspaper received a mysterious note stating that, “the families will fall by the gates of Gotham.” Bats decides to go after Penguin for info and discovers that one of the destroyed bridges was named after the Penguin's ancestor(a name that had been changed in time). Upon learning of the newspaper note, and fearing that whoever blew the bridges up may have been after him, Penguin tells Bats that he sold the Semtex to a man in an unusual costume. With nothing more to go on, Bats heads back to the Bat Bunker and meets up with Red Robin and Cassandra Cain(who just arrived in town). Cassandra reveals that she was following the Semtex, which came from Hong Kong, before arriving in Gotham. Red Robin fills in some of the blanks from the newspaper letter, telling Dick that back in the day, people used to call the bridges “gates” and that the other two bridges had connections to the Waynes and the Elliots. This issue ends with a strangely clad man entering Hush's cell in Arkham Asylum asking if he wanted to come out and play.
Thoughts: Meh. This comic wasn't bad, as it set up a pretty interesting mystery, but it also didn't wow me. It seems that the three families from the beginning, the Waynes, the Elliots and the Cobblepots may have wronged somebody back in the day, and their offspring is looking for revenge in the present day. I could be wrong, but that's what I got out of this one so far. Anyway, while I wasn't blown away here, my interest was piqued enough to make me want to read the rest of the mini-series, so hey, that's good, right?
Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.
What the hell is this? 1940's Gotham? Why are there blimps everywhere??
Zatanna #13:
Summary: A magical cat gives Zatanna a vision of her future, showing her Brother Night and an angry Spectre. Now while she expected an eventual showdown with Night, the prospect of facing the Spectre doesn't appeal to Z, so she decides to head to the Spectre to see if she had any reason to worry. From there, Detective Colton is listening to the warden of the prison Brother Night was currently incarcerated in as he complained about having to house Night. The two begin to discuss transferring Night to a prison better suited to hold somebody with his unique talents, at which point Night has the skin magically tear off the bones of some inmates and has the bones form a ladder over the fence... Well THAT'S a novel way to escape prison! Colton rushes after Night and tries to stop him, but is held at bay by a possessed police dog. Night does tell Colton to say hello to a woman named Jenny Myers for him before completing his escape. As for Z, she meets with the Spectre and is relieved to learn that she wasn't on his radar. Finally, Det. Colton heads to an insane asylum and visits with Jenny, who we learn is Colton's biological mother. Jenny, realizing that Colton had met Night, begins ranting about having been touched by Night, and Colton realizes that Brother Night was his biological father(!!).
Thoughts: Hey, Zatanna made it 13 issues! Good for her! Good for me for picking this issue up, because it was awesome! Sure, the stuff with the magical, future-seeing cat was kind of dumb, but everything else about this issue was GREAT! I loved Brother Night from when he first appeared in this series, and I am overjoyed to see him back and raising hell again. And the twist at the end with Detective Colton(Z's potential love interest) realizing he was Night's son? Awesome cliffhanger. Here's hoping this series continues for another 1300 issues!
Score: 9 out of 10.
Spectre's jab about fighting Zatanna was awesome!
Batman: Gates of Gotham #1(of 5):
Summary: We begin back in the 1880's where the ancestors of Bruce Wayne(Batman, duh!), Tomas Elliot(Hush) and Oswald Cobblepot(Penguin) are putting together plans to erect the first bridges in Gotham City. In the present, Batman(Dick Grayson) and Red Robin are trying to track down hundreds of pounds of Semtex(a plastic explosive) that was smuggled into Gotham. Bats leans on a lead he had and the lead reveals that Penguin was responsible for getting the explosive into Gotham, just as three bridges in Gotham explode. Bats and Red Robin do what they can to keep the casualties to a minimum, but over 30 people still die in the blasts. Bats meets with Commissioner Gordon, who reveals that right before the explosions, a Gotham newspaper received a mysterious note stating that, “the families will fall by the gates of Gotham.” Bats decides to go after Penguin for info and discovers that one of the destroyed bridges was named after the Penguin's ancestor(a name that had been changed in time). Upon learning of the newspaper note, and fearing that whoever blew the bridges up may have been after him, Penguin tells Bats that he sold the Semtex to a man in an unusual costume. With nothing more to go on, Bats heads back to the Bat Bunker and meets up with Red Robin and Cassandra Cain(who just arrived in town). Cassandra reveals that she was following the Semtex, which came from Hong Kong, before arriving in Gotham. Red Robin fills in some of the blanks from the newspaper letter, telling Dick that back in the day, people used to call the bridges “gates” and that the other two bridges had connections to the Waynes and the Elliots. This issue ends with a strangely clad man entering Hush's cell in Arkham Asylum asking if he wanted to come out and play.
Thoughts: Meh. This comic wasn't bad, as it set up a pretty interesting mystery, but it also didn't wow me. It seems that the three families from the beginning, the Waynes, the Elliots and the Cobblepots may have wronged somebody back in the day, and their offspring is looking for revenge in the present day. I could be wrong, but that's what I got out of this one so far. Anyway, while I wasn't blown away here, my interest was piqued enough to make me want to read the rest of the mini-series, so hey, that's good, right?
Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.
What the hell is this? 1940's Gotham? Why are there blimps everywhere??Zatanna #13:
Summary: A magical cat gives Zatanna a vision of her future, showing her Brother Night and an angry Spectre. Now while she expected an eventual showdown with Night, the prospect of facing the Spectre doesn't appeal to Z, so she decides to head to the Spectre to see if she had any reason to worry. From there, Detective Colton is listening to the warden of the prison Brother Night was currently incarcerated in as he complained about having to house Night. The two begin to discuss transferring Night to a prison better suited to hold somebody with his unique talents, at which point Night has the skin magically tear off the bones of some inmates and has the bones form a ladder over the fence... Well THAT'S a novel way to escape prison! Colton rushes after Night and tries to stop him, but is held at bay by a possessed police dog. Night does tell Colton to say hello to a woman named Jenny Myers for him before completing his escape. As for Z, she meets with the Spectre and is relieved to learn that she wasn't on his radar. Finally, Det. Colton heads to an insane asylum and visits with Jenny, who we learn is Colton's biological mother. Jenny, realizing that Colton had met Night, begins ranting about having been touched by Night, and Colton realizes that Brother Night was his biological father(!!).
Thoughts: Hey, Zatanna made it 13 issues! Good for her! Good for me for picking this issue up, because it was awesome! Sure, the stuff with the magical, future-seeing cat was kind of dumb, but everything else about this issue was GREAT! I loved Brother Night from when he first appeared in this series, and I am overjoyed to see him back and raising hell again. And the twist at the end with Detective Colton(Z's potential love interest) realizing he was Night's son? Awesome cliffhanger. Here's hoping this series continues for another 1300 issues!
Score: 9 out of 10.
Spectre's jab about fighting Zatanna was awesome!
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