Invincible #80 & Daken: Dark Wolverine #10

We kick this week off with the two comics I'm most looking forward to reading, Invincible and Daken: Dark Wolverine! What more is there to say except let's kick off the awesomeness!

Invincible #80:

Summary: This issue gets started with Invincible and Atom Eve moving into Invincible's parents home since his folks were going to head off into space to see alien planets and visit with Oliver and stuff. From there Invincible goes around meeting with various people after his one year absence in space. He picks up his comics, meets with William(and learns William is gay), stuff like that. Eve gets a call that Las Vegas was under attack by Dinosaurus, so Invincible rushes off to Vegas to take care of it. Dinosaurus tells Invincible that he was trying to evacuate the city since he was planning on blowing it up for the good of nature. Upon learning Dinosaurus planned on “blowing up” the city, Invincible rushes off and returns with a bomb, figuring the problem was solved... Instead, Dinosaurus reveals that he had placed over 50 bombs around Vegas, and before Invincible could try to find them, they all go off. This issue ends with Invincible waking up surrounded by the nothingness that had been Las Vegas.

Thoughts: Um, okay... I guess... So Dinosaurus destroyed Las Vegas... I really don't know what to think of that. I kind of like that Robert Kirkman is trying to give Invincible a new foe, and Dinosaurus does have a pretty cool look, but destroying Las Vegas? It seems a bit far fetched to me... I mean, didn't the people hanging out in Vegas notice a giant, 9 foot tall, red dinosaur walking around hiding bombs? The first half of this issue was a lot of talking, and for once, I didn't thoroughly enjoy it... I don't know, for whatever reason, this issue just didn't click for me...

Score: 8 out of 10.Nudity!!!!


Daken: Dark Wolverine #10:

Summary: This comic starts off hopping back and forth in time, so I'll just start at the beginning of Daken's story here. Figuring the Los Angeles crime scene would be easy pickings with the Pride(yes, the same Pride from the Runaways!) out of the way, Daken tries to move in, but in his time spent on the Left Coast, Daken hasn't been able to figure out WHO took over the Pride's old holdings, meaning he had no idea who he had to kill... With no real clues, Daken gets himself invited to Hollywood parties, and winds up being given “heat pills”, some kind of new drug. Daken swallows three of them and goes to see if he could get into the room with the a-list celebrities. The burly bodyguards tell him to stay with the nobodies, so Daken smashes one of the guards in the face, breaking the guy's nose. Before he could make a move on the second guard, the heat pills kick in and leave Daken with a high his healing factor couldn't overcome. Needless to say, Daken soon passes out babbling about his healing factor. That night, another member of the party who also took the drugs wound up seeing disturbing visions and was torn apart by something with claws of some kind. As for Daken, he wakes up at the movie star's house, since the star had to make sure Daken wouldn't OD(since that would make bad headlines... HA!). Now down from his high, Daken destroys the two bodyguards and uses his pheromones to convince the movie star to sleep with him. With the deed done, and the star well under Daken's thumb(as well as other areas I'd imagine...), Daken orders the star to tell him everything there is to know about the LA crime scene, who controls it, and where he could get more of those drugs from the prior night. This issue ends with an FBI agent investigating the dead body of the guy who died when he was leaving the party. This agent, Donna Kiel, seems obsessed with Daken, and seems to have convinced herself he was the responsible party in the death.

Thoughts: Not bad. Not bad at all! While it is still kind of jarring not to see the name Way or Liu on the cover of a Daken comic, I can see myself getting used to seeing Rob Williams name there. In the first two issues Williams has written, he's shown a great understanding of Daken, and the way Daken uses his powers, ALL of his powers, to get what he wanted. The drug angle is still a bit of a mystery, but I can definitely see Daken getting quickly addicted, since, thanks to his healing factor, he can't become addicted to any other narcotic. There are a LOT of ways this series can go, WAY too many for me to start guessing yet... Instead, I'll simply sit back and enjoy the ride!

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.I guess I should have put this on the picture blog...